Karen E. Park at Religious Dispatches offers this take of Trump’s shameless exploitation of Carryn Owens at last night’s shit show:
HOW TRUMP GOT ABSOLVED BY A WIDOW’S SUFFERING: CARRYN OWENS AS “VICTIM SOUL”
“On Tuesday afternoon, President Trump refused to take responsibility for the Yemen raid which resulted in the death of Navy Seal Ryan Owens. By Tuesday evening, he had been fully absolved of both Owen’s death and the botched mission. The vehicle for this absolution and transformation was the body of Ryan’s widow Carryn Owens, who, during Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night, stood looking heavenward for a full two minutes of applause, tears streaming down her face as she spoke to her dead husband.
In those moments, Donald Trump and the entire nation were absolved by the redemptive suffering of a female saint.”
“Trump’s speech used familiar Christian rhetoric, referring to Carryn Owens’ presence in the crowd as a “blessing” and declaring that “Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity.”
“But when Carryn Owens stood for her applause, the story changed in a way neither Trump nor anyone else could have predicted. Trump indeed gained absolution, but it was granted not by Ryan Owens the Christ-figure, but by his wife. Surrounded by the crowd, and her handmaid Ivanka who patted her shoulder and knee several times, Carryn Owens became a transformative figure of redemption. Her face, damp with tears, looked directly upwards as her entire body took on the pose of a suffering saint. She cried, repeatedly mouthing the words “I love you” as the applause roared for a full two minutes. Her profound pain and grief, written on her face and in her body, functioned to take on Trump’s sin and cleanse him of it.”
Alexandrina Maria da Costa, pictured above with Carryn, is considered a “victim soul” by the Catholic Church and was Canonized by John Paul II in 2004. Alexandria was also victimized by a soulless predator who sought to use her for his own ends…