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Former President Donald Trump is officially selling a patriotic copy of the Christian Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s well-known music, “God Bless the USA.”
“Completely happy Holy Week!” Trump announced on social media Tuesday, throughout probably the most solemn interval of the Christian calendar, the final week of the Lenten season marking the struggling and demise of Jesus. “As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a duplicate of the God Bless The USA Bible.”
The idea of a Bible lined within the American flag, in addition to a former president’s endorsement of a textual content Christians contemplate to be sacred, has raised concern amongst non secular circles. It’s additionally raised questions on Trump’s motivations, as the previous president finds himself in the midst of a number of costly authorized battles.
‘Sacrilege,’ theology, and the shadow of Christian nationalism
The $59.99 Bible, which was first revealed in 2021, options an American flag and the phrases “God Bless the USA” printed on the duvet. Inside, it has the phrases to “God Bless the USA” and the textual content of The Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and different historic American paperwork. Promotional materials for the Bible reveals the previous president alongside nation singer Lee Greenwood.
Responses to Trump’s social media announcement referred to as the endorsement “sacrilege,” “heresy” and “borderline offensive” and cite lessons immediately from the Bible that recommend making the most of folks’s religion for cash ought to be condemned.
“It’s a bankrupt Christianity that sees a demagogue co-opting our religion and even our holy scriptures for the sake of his personal pursuit of energy and reward him for it fairly than insist that we refuse to permit our sacred religion and scriptures to change into a mouthpiece for an empire,” stated Rev. Benjamin Cremer on X.
Jason Cornwall, a pastor from South Carolina, stated on X that Trump’s Bible endorsement was a violation of one of many Ten Commandments of the Hebrew Testomony that forbids taking God’s identify in useless.
Nonetheless, the criticism doesn’t finish with whether or not or not Trump’s endorsement is un-Christian or not. In truth, it’s just the start.
Historian and writer Jemar Tisby says the entire mission echoes the values of Christian nationalism — the concept that America was based as a Christian nation and the federal government ought to work to sanction Christianity on a nationwide scale. The tenets of Christian nationalism are traditionally tied to prejudice, nativism and white supremacy.
“There’s a really lengthy custom of what’s included and what’s not included within the Bible,” Tisby instructed CNN.
“What has induced outrage with this Bible is that it consists of the Declaration of Independence, US Structure, and even the lyrics to a Lee Greenwood music. So it’s including to the Bible, and it’s including particular political paperwork to the Bible that utterly erase the separation of church and state.”
Tisby, who holds a Grasp of Divinity Diploma from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, has written in regards to the risks of Christian nationalism — each for the nation and the Christian religion.
“What’s so pernicious about that is it performs on folks’s devotion to God and their love of nation, both of which by themselves might be innocuous and even good,” he stated.
“However on this effort, it’s mixing the 2. And with Trump because the spokesperson, is conveying a really clear message about what sort of Christianity and what sort of love of nation (he’s) selling.”
When Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, communications director for the BJC Middle for Religion, Justice and Reconciliation, noticed Trump’s Bible endorsement, he stated he noticed a politician utilizing fears rooted in racism and prejudice to advertise a particular Christian ideology.
“Once I hear ‘Make America Pray Once more,’ I hear Christian nationalist guarantees that we’re going to someway ‘restore’ Christianity on this nation. And if authoritarianism does come to america, it’s all however assured it will likely be finished within the identify of Christianity, which is a really scary thought.”
Graves-Fitzsimmons holds a Grasp of Divinity diploma from Union Theological Seminary in New York Metropolis and in addition works with the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism. He says issues just like the “God Bless America” Bible overlook the many, many Christians who don’t agree with Trump’s politics or the mixing of patriotism with religion.
“There’s a variety inside American Christianity that will get missed every time politics and faith intersect,” he instructed CNN. “There’s this false notion that almost all American Christians are pushing for anti-abortion restrictions, and are anti-LGBTQ, and the opposite is actually true. Christians, I might argue, are those who’re most involved in regards to the results of Christian nationalism on this nation.”
This model of the Bible has drawn controversy earlier than
The “God Bless the USA” Bible drew controversy from community members and publishers when it was revealed in 2021. It was initially presupposed to be revealed by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, however the firm handed on the deal.
HarperCollins said in 2021 that pushback to the idea was not an element of their resolution. (Eagle-eyed Bible buffs will word for this reason the Trump-backed tome makes use of the King James Model of the textual content, which is within the public area. (HarperCollins holds US publishing rights to the bestselling New International Version translation of the Bible.)
Tisby has revealed three books underneath Zondervan, the HarperCollins imprint specializing in non secular publications. He was among the many imprint’s writers who tried to discourage them from publishing the “God Bless the USA” Bible when the concept was first launched.
“We didn’t wish to be related to a writer who’s going to publish a Bible like this,” he stated. “And I believe it took on an elevated sense of urgency as a result of we’re not simply speaking about somebody’s ebook. We’re speaking in regards to the sacred textual content of the Bible.”
Whereas there are innumerable variations of the Bible — ranging broadly in worth, theme, and additions like indices, references, maps and graphs — this specific mixture of the Bible and a beloved patriotic music is very potent.
Such a notion doesn’t come as a shock to David W. Peters, an Anglican vicar in Pflugerville, Texas. Peters served as an enlisted Marine Corps and Military Chaplain and was deployed to Iraq in 2005.
“I’m reminded of how we closed each Marine Corps boot camp chapel service with Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA’,” he instructed CNN. “We’d all sing and cry. The one emotional launch within the week.”
He says the vary of reactions to one thing like a patriotic Bible reveals simply how totally different American Christianity may be, relying on the denomination or group.
“I believe the essence of liberal progressive religion is compassion, so it’s thoughts boggling (to such folks) how somebody might say they had been a Christian and comply with a man who could be very a lot not compassionate.”
For individuals who view Christianity in a different way, or who’re already unshakeable supporters of Trump, Peters says he doubts this newest incident will do something to shake their religion.
“I believe it’ll affirm (to them) that their critics are out of contact,” he stated. “Why would anybody object to a Bible?”
It’s not clear the place proceeds from the Bible’s gross sales will go
Along with the multitude of theological questions it raises, Trump’s endorsement of the “God Bless the USA” Bible coincides with several legal battles that would put the presumptive Republican nominee for president on the road for tons of of tens of millions of {dollars}.
The FAQ part of the “God Bless America” Bible website clarifies that no proceeds from the gross sales of the Bible will go in the direction of Trump’s presidential marketing campaign. Nonetheless, there isn’t a point out of whether or not any proceeds might be put towards his private authorized troubles.
“No, GodBlessTheUSABible.com just isn’t political and has nothing to do with any political marketing campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible.com just isn’t owned, managed or managed by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Group, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or associates,” the location reads.
Nonetheless, it goes on to say Trump’s identify, likeness and picture are underneath “paid license from CIC Ventures LLC.” CIC Ventures is directly linked to Trump in his 2023 public monetary disclosures.
CNN has reached out to EliteSource Professional, the advertising and marketing firm behind the “God Bless the USA” Bible, for extra data.
Trump has been criticized earlier than for his use of the Bible in public settings. In 2020, non secular leaders from a number of Christian denominations condemned his display of the Bible in a “photo-op” in entrance of an Episcopal church close to the White Home as racial justice protests raged across the nation.
“You simply don’t do this, Mr. President,” televangelist and vocal Trump supporter Pat Robertson stated of the incident. “It isn’t cool!”
In 2015, Trump additionally referred to as the Bible his favourite ebook, however famously declined to share a favourite verse.
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