{"id":10001,"date":"2024-04-17T09:33:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T13:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=10001"},"modified":"2024-04-17T09:33:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T13:33:06","slug":"christian-leaders-weigh-in-on-trumps-god-bless-the-usa-bibles-more-trump-than-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/04\/christian-leaders-weigh-in-on-trumps-god-bless-the-usa-bibles-more-trump-than-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Leaders Weigh In on Trump’s ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles: ‘More Trump Than Bible?’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former President Donald Trump recently raised eyebrows after announcing he was selling special edition \u201cGod Bless the USA\u201d Bibles. The holy books, themed after country music artist Lee Greenwood\u2019s patriotic anthem, contain more than just Christian scriptures. The special edition Bibles also contain the text of secular documents, including the U.S. Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the chorus of the titular Greenwood song.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to Christian leaders and apologists of various denominations to get their reactions to the unorthodox Bible sale. The first question raised by critics when the Bibles were announced was whether it was appropriate for a politician to be making such sales during a campaign season. Daniel Darling, the director of\u00a0Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary\u2019s\u00a0Land Center for Cultural Engagement, had mixed feelings about the campaign.<\/p>\n

He told Fox News Digital, \u201cMany Christians, even those like me who are very conservative both politically and theologically,\u00a0thought his approach was a bit crass. While many Christians are deeply patriotic and revere our nation\u2019s documents, they are wary of mixing those things too closely inside the pages of a Bible.\u201d Darling said he didn\u2019t believe Trump was malicious or intentionally irreverent to scripture, but he didn\u2019t understand the optics. \u201cTrump selling this Bible seems a bit commercial, though I doubt he intended to offend Christians. He likely thought he was doing a good thing,\u201d said Darling. \u201cBut a Bible endorsed by any politician smacks of syncretism and an over-the-top civil religion that cheapens the Bible when it\u2019s used as a political prop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr. Brian Graebe, a priest with the Archdiocese of New York who holds a doctorate in theology from the\u00a0Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, similarly told Fox News Digital that while selling Bibles and encouraging scriptural literacy is good, the Trump-centric advertising is off-putting. \u201cMy concern is not so much that there are Bibles being offered and sold and purchased \u2014 that\u2019s fine,\u201d said Graebe. \u201cThe more Bibles that are out there and the more people read it, the better. That\u2019s an objective good. I think the troubling aspect here is [\u2026] the marketing of it, the Americanization of it, the Trump-ification of it.\u201d<\/p>\n