Former President Donald Trump began hawking a “God Bless the USA” bible in March for $59.99. It's a King James version that also includes the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Lauren R. Stanley
“Let’s make America pray again,” he said. “We must defend God in the public square and not allow the media or the left-wing groups to silence, censor or discriminate against us. We have to bring Christianity back into our lives and back into what will be again a great nation.”
It makes you wonder if the former president knows anything about the history of religion in this nation. Does he not understand that the Founding Fathers demanded the freedom of each person to determine their own religious affiliation and that the government should have no role in determining a person’s beliefs?
The Founding Fathers wanted to make sure this nation did not fall into the religious warfare and bloodshed that ravaged Europe for many centuries. This nation was founded on the belief that people could make their own decisions about God. We have not always been perfect in pursuing this principle, but we have been trying to live up to it since the nation’s founding.
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What Trump and his followers are proclaiming is not Christianity — a devotion to following Jesus and his teachings. Instead, they push “Christian nationalism,” something that surely makes God shake God’s head in disbelief.
Demanding that every decision by the government be made according to their interpretation of the Scriptures is not only a violation of those Scriptures. It also violates the Constitution’s First Amendment, which declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The First Amendment was written to protect people from the tyranny of all religions.
Those who proclaim this is a “Christian” nation do not understand either history or the Scriptures. Christian nationalism is nothing less than a willful misreading of the Scriptures.
According to the very Bible that Trump is hawking, God has an overwhelming preference for the poor, the orphaned, the widowed and the stranger in our midst. The Bible declares we are to live together in harmony and peace. The Bible is based on love for all people and for all of creation. The Bible holds we that all are created in the very image of God.
Christian nationalism is based on hatred and white supremacism. It is about “us vs. them" and declares that some are better than others.
Christianity is not a national religion, and Christian nationalism has no business running this country. It is a perversion of God’s love, mercy, justice and everlasting love.
I am an Episcopal priest who strives to align my beliefs and life with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I fall short all too often, but I do my best to follow Jesus. What I do not do is demand that everyone else believe as I do.
Christian nationalism claims the laws of this land are determined by so-called Christian principles. But it fails to recognize that those principles are in direct violation of what the Bible actually says.
If Trump and his followers wanted Christian values to run this country, they would ensure everyone had enough to eat and clean water to drink. They would demand health care for all. They would welcome immigrants and asylum seekers. They would grant women full reproductive rights and control over their own bodies and futures.
They would empty the prisons, proclaim jubilee and forgive debts. They would make this nation the shining light on a hill that President Ronald Reagan proclaimed it was (though he, too, failed to follow through).
If we were to follow God’s laws and desires in this nation, we would all have more than enough. We would celebrate every single person. And we would realize that perverting God’s word to make political decisions and gains is nothing less than sin.
The Rev. Stanley is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of South Dakota. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
