"I Will NOT Pose for your camera/s, My/our faith is not for show": So - apparently - once said a poor Appalachian (or thereabouts) pastor at the conclusion of a funeral service out in the wilds of Pennsylvania to America's popular, one-time TV Show Host Phil Donahue...in remarks now forever after 'immortalized' in and by the well-respected radio evangelist Charles ('Chuck') Swindoll...and they are of no less relevance and vital import and bearing today, whether in the U S of A or here in lil ole God's Own/Godzone...

Though 'it ain't necessarily so', as in so many things reported by today's self-anointed purveyors of truth and reality - who despite seemingly never-ending claims to 'the facts' whilst all other comers (and goers) are supposedly peddling fake news, and generous helpings thereof, themselves so often leave much to be desired insofar as really, truly giving viewers, readers and listeners 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth' is concerned, the 'real doss' so to speak - it is a tad concerning (and, what's more, 'worrying') when(ever) any people in the public eye, let alone 'leaders' in the community (and other assorted 'movers and shakers' in society) use their (supposed) 'faith' and/or religious pedigree as a kind of prop for public consumption...  

And thus and so we had the spectacle of President Trump awhile ago, following the spontaneous eruption of protests and riots throughout the States in the wake of the killing/murdering of the unarmed and non-aggressive black American George Floyd by over-zealous police officers in the city of my mother's own childhood and youth, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 'sporting' and/or wielding - like a good luck charm - a Bible outside a church in Washington D.C. near the White House...

...and only over the past week here in New Zealand the Opposition leader, National's Judith Collins, apparently doing much the same, firstly by daring to bring up the fact she is a Christian and that this might have some sort of pertinent bearing upon the issues under discussion in her second live TV debate with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and latterly (over the recent weekend) by evidently attending a church and even being seen (and photographed, I presume) praying therein...

But even were such things actually done (that is, in the last of these instances) - and the reports seem eminently credible, and certainly haven't as yet been denied...

again, one can only in all fairness and reasonableness say, 'it ain't necessarily so'...because purporting to establish a person's motives and/or motivations in any such act seemingly 'for public consumption' is what's so very hard, even well-nigh impossible - except for the Divine! - to ultimately establish...

But in view of the fact that Ms Collins' faith has apparently been a well-kept secret up to this particularly opportune moment in her fairly long-running but newly up-and-running political career does tend to raise suspicions, even eyebrows - pun in Ms Collins' case entirely intended - but then one surely has to factor in the general reality these days that a quite small percentage and number of journalists are even acquainted with the inside of a church let alone a Bible and/or what it means to pray - except the purely superficial aspects so evident to a merely external gaze - that this, alongside the deeply disturbing propensity of an increasing number of such to bait politicians into some sort of pre-determined trap for their own purposes means that one ofttimes comes away from such scenarios simply shaking one's head, in disbelief alongside a natural scepticism as to what such 'revelations' really, truly amount to anyway...

And as to mentioning or citing her faith in qualifying or explaining her answer to that question in the TV debate, I'm inclined to think - unless, that is, prior to the debate (something we will of course doubtless never know) Ms Collins considered that citing her Christian identity might well serve to her political advantage vis-a-vis in that way helping to draw back to the National Party fold straying minor party 'actors' (and actresses) - that doing such was a perfectly harmless and completely natural, understandable way to react and respond authentically to the specific question then being posited (in her particular direction)...

But as for Donald Trump's use of the Bible as an out-and-out, clear as daylight political prop in a rather shameless and shameful photo op subsequently condemned and in the strongest possible terms by the pastor of said church and other leaders in and members of that faith community (if my memory serves me aright) is and was another matter altogether... 

but is hardly unexpected coming as it did from someone to whom truth has hardly ever apparently been a very close friend, much less intimate acquaintance...