During these holy days, Trump has found another way to spit on Christianity | Opinion
I didn’t think it was possible. But Donald Trump, the standard bearer for the “family values” party, has found yet another way to spit on Christianity. And he did it just in time for Easter weekend (or Resurrection Sunday), the holiest period on the Christian calendar.
The holiday celebrates the sacrifice a carpenter named Jesus made to save the masses. Trump is using the occasion to fatten his billionaire-dollar pockets, duping the masses with his celebrity endorsement of the “God Bless the USA Bible,” which he will get royalties from. According to the book’s website, this “is the only Bible endorsed by President Trump,” but it “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.”
He’s pitching a version of the Christian Bible for $59.99 a pop. Trump has bastardized the Bible the way white nationalists have bastardized a faith that has done so much good, and could do so much more if its adherents followed Jesus instead of Trump.
The Bible Trump is pitching comes complete with a “gold ribbon marker,” maybe in the style of the bathroom fixtures in his plane that have been brushed with 24-karate gold. Or, maybe he wants Christians to think of the golden escalator in his hotel rather than the golden calf those of faith were warned thousands of years ago to resist.
Go to the website and you’ll quickly learn that this Bible is “unique and special” because it features a handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood, and a copy of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance. Unfortunately, it only comes in the “trusted King James (KJV) translation.” But it is “printed in an easy-to-read, two-column format.”
The website assures us that it’s the “perfect gift for family members, friends, special occasions, and much more!”
My fellow Christians. No need to worry if your copy has “sticky pages.” That’s “very common with new Bibles that have gold gilding around the edges of the paper.”
“Saturday Night Live” writers couldn’t do a better job parodying or demeaning Christianity. Trump is pitching this Bible during a time when Christians are focusing on what it means that Jesus laid down his life for us but was so powerful that not even death could keep him down.
He’s pitching it during a time in which Christians are supposed to be thinking of ways we could help the less fortunate, to sacrifice when it is required to make the world better where we are, to be selfless and grateful for God’s grace. Instead, Trump has turned the most sacred into the salacious, the selfish, as though the Christian Bible is akin to the 2024 Pocket Hose Copper Bullet — “As-Seen-on-TV.”
What’s worse is that his legion of white Christian supporters will likely be more angered that I’m pointing out Trump’s sacrilege than they are by the sacrilege itself. I won’t be surprised if they pretend not to see the obvious — that Trump is simply using their faith for his own ends, not for the glorification of their God.
Trump appointed the U.S. Supreme Court justices who put the final nails in the coffin of Roe v. Wade (though the abortion rate has hardly changed since that ruling), something that segment of Christians wanted for half a century. They won that battle but are losing the war for souls by following a man as corrupt and un-Christlike as Trump.
There is a racial component to Trump’s support. Among people of faith, white Christians support him in droves, including record-high levels of white Evangelical Christians, while Black Christians have voted against him in overwhelming numbers twice, and likely will again this year. Maybe that’s because we, Black voters, know how Christianity has been used time and again by bad actors to advance untoward causes, from the evil of race-based slavery to the Jan. 6, 2021 violent insurrection attempt. Or maybe because we know a wolf in sheep’s clothing when we see one.
This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "During these holy days, Trump has found another way to spit on Christianity | Opinion."