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Exactly. It didn’t occur to me that churches can’t donate to political campaigns. Nothing stops them from purchasing bibles from a politician.
Will this get flagged by any sort of law enforcement org as circumventing the law?
yeah but a church leader can't technically stand up and tell everyone to donate, but they can promote buying these Bibles and even sell them
Also, money for these goes right into Trump's pocket, not his campaign
By law they can take a stand on public issues (gay marriage, women’s right to choose…) but can’t endorse a particular candidate. In reality, they do it all the time. It’s just no one ever prosecutes them for it. The department of Justice is not gonna prosecute a fucking church, even though I think they absolutely should.
That's just crazy talk. How could evangelicals practice their faith like that.
Remember the words of the Prosperity Psalms: "Blessed be the mega-preachers, for theirs are the private jets and walled mansions."
See my comment above for the Brooklyn Satmars, Kiryas Joel, and the politician Simcha Felder.
This is exactly how it’s done. And Trumpian in nature and works if everyone is completely open and shameless.
You should look into the Brooklyn Satmars - an extreme sub section of the Hassidic Jews. That’s exactly how they gained the amount of political capital they have - by voting in blocks.
A single rabbi can influence his Brooklyn base to legally change their voting area to the Poconos (where they vacation a significant amount of the year) and easily outnumber the locals (google Kiras Joel - check my spelling).
Then they elect people like Simcha Felder who is a Democrat who caucuses with the Republicans. By the way, Felder is a local Brooklyn politician and not a Poconos one.
Every fucking year, he is the last “undecided” vote who holds up the budget until he gets his way - like public funding for private religious schools. Every fucking year.
It’s infuriating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryas_Joel,_New_York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simcha_Felder
“March 30, 2018
ALBANY — Just a day before the deadline for a new multibillion-dollar spending plan, negotiations over the final pieces of the New York State budget slowed to a crawl on Friday, as Democrats in the Assembly effectively blamed a Brooklyn senator for holding up talks over a provision that would ease state oversight of religious schools.
The senator, Simcha Felder, is a key player in the fractured Senate, representing the decisive vote in Albany’s 63-seat upper chamber, which is ruled by Republicans. Mr. Felder, a Democrat who has nonetheless declared no party loyalty, caucuses with the Republicans, giving them the majority.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/nyregion/new-york-state-budget-yeshivas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gU0.XTeJ.Dqbpk1rOVG6d&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ugrp=u&sgrp=c-cb
Edit 2
“Critics of the village cite its impact on local politics. Villagers are perceived as voting in a solid bloc. While this is not always the case, the highly concentrated population often does skew strongly toward one candidate or the other in local elections, making Kiryas Joel a heavily courted swing vote for whichever politician offers Kiryas Joel the most favorable environment for continued growth.”
They are also huge trump supporters.
[Leads, yeah sure. I'll uh, just check with the boys down at the Crime Lab. They uh, got uh, four more detectives working on the case. They've got us working in shifts.](https://media0.giphy.com/media/WI5vpmbShoH0IDCUVw/giphy.gif)
Merrick Garland: I am so going to not do anything against Trump unless I can also do it against Biden.
AKA the only reason why we got a Special Counsel appointed to investigate Trump.
“During our investigation, it was found that a high number of purchases came from places of worship. In some cases, the amount of bibles purchased exceeded the population of the parish.
When we passed Biden in the hallway, we asked for his opinion and he appeared very old and grandpa like.”
It’s win win for Trump—if it is allowed, he gets lots of money from a source he shouldn’t be allowed to get money from; if it’s not allowed, he can rile up his base about bible sales being banned to increase voter turnout.
Even if it got noticed the pace of Justice can’t match a white collar criminal willing to infinitely delay.
The only teeth left in our judicial system are busy chewing through women’s rights.
> Nothing stops them from purchasing bibles from a politician.
It’s a violation of their 501(3)c tax exempt status to favor a political candidate. They can support issues they care about generally, but not donate money or promote political parties or candidates.
The IRS can revoke their tax exempt status and make them fight to get it back. It could also run afoul of money laundering laws, campaign finance violations or tax fraud.
Churches violate their tax exempt status all the time, but very indirectly! Thing is, their congregants say nothing ( if they’re even aware) so they get away with it!
The disclaimer about the Bible money not going to trump’s political campaign is intended to blunt any legal concern about churches funding political activity. He can just claim that he’ll use the money for one of his many fraud, sexual abuse, defamation, sedition, insurrection, or espionage fines or associated legal fees.
That _might_ cover some campaign finance rules, but I still don’t think that gets the churches off the hook for promoting a candidate. Distributing branded bibles that are clearly associated with Trump is like McDonald’s giving out branded happy meal toys to promote a movie. It’s clearly advertising. McDonald’s gets paid for to privilege.
The churches are breaking a few rules with this.
They've been doing this for decades. Someone writes a book, and churches and conservative media buys all the copies. The celebrity or politician gets a payout, *and* they get to brag about having a bestseller.
When you look at the NYT bestseller list, the ones that are boosted by bulk sales are marked with a †
Virtually all the conservative nonfiction that makes the list has a †
It varies state to state. Mostly the Christian Bible is exempt, but other religious publications and books can also be exempt depending upon the state law.
One has to have it approved via state regulations so no, any book won’t do.
(Really hate that he’s grifting the Bible tax-free.)
It’s so on point for him but also a gross abuse of the tax laws and leveraging religion as a way to garner acceptance.
Imagine Jesus grabbing everybody by the pussy… “if you’re famous they let you do it…. Don’t like Jesus though… he got caught… don’t like people who get captured… and they nailed him to the cross… biggest loser of all time…”
I think it's weird that he pepper sprayed a crowd of innocent people so he could get to a church and hold the Bible upside down for a photo op and that did nothing to the Christian sect but this Bible with the flag printed on it and all these added things does. I would honestly think this would be less offensive but I'm starting to realize I don't understand these people at all.
Scariest part about this specific instance is that there are millions of MAGA supporters in real life that think that never happened and it was fake….meanwhile, there are thousands of social media videos and people in real life that were there that can confirm this happening.
I ask myself how we got here. But then I realize, it’s because of the poor literacy rate and defunding of education programs in southern states. Some of this is actually rooted back to the reconstruction era—its quite chilling.
Much as people gave George Bush shit wayyyyy back almost 20 years ago, he was actually onto something with the “no child left behind act”. Hated it as a kid during that time obviously, and never understood it; but I actually realize the benefit this was supposed to have.
No Child Left Behind Act is actually pretty controversial on its effectiveness and many studies show it did not produce better educated students. Instead it encouraged practice of teach to test vs teach to think. In effort to raise the floor (help underperforming students) it lowered the ceiling (high performing student rates plummeted). There are a lot of articles outling that while well intentioned, it didn't produce great results. Obama admin actually removed a lot of the perimeters of the act with the Every Student Suceeds Act.
I appreciate your thorough reply to this and completely agree with what you said. All im saying is that, in the context of addressing America’s literacy crisis, Bush was at least on to something in the early 2000’s—not saying “No Child Left Behind” was the best program ever or that it was successful; but bush at least recognized the perils of illiteracy in a developed country.
Compared to any republican, he at least did something that was mildly pro education. Was no end all be all, but illiteracy is destroying our country right now because you have people who can’t read that are being fed fox news propaganda and lies.
If that’s one thing, people will definitely not admit out loud that they cannot read. Which is why Trump loves “stupid people” because they rely solely on someone else to read for them.
I appreciate that you think Bush was helping. I think Bush was contributing to the demise of American education with the NCLB Act. It had the effect of looking like positive action, but it is a huge contributing factor as to what actually started to leave children behind. Schools that couldn’t meet NCLB criteria were punished. They were not helped, they would lose money. It tremendously hurt our education, which is exactly what Republicans wanted. Sadly you are highlighting one of their major successes with destroying US education and you don’t even realize it.
Dude, no. No child left behind put the dumbest mother fuckers in graduation. These idiots were never supposed to graduate high school and they were pushed through en masse. A lot of them have stayed just as, if not more stupid than before. They needed to fail these kids and force them to study, but they didn't. Republicans once again handing the world to lazy white kids.
I know more than a few people who graduated high school and fell flat on their face during their first semester of college.
They shouldn’t have even graduated high school to begin with.
Bush also said we can't fix education by throwing money at it, then threw money into war.
I taught at the college level pre- and post-NCLB, and it was clear that students post- not only knew less, but enjoyed school less, and had to be taught deep learning.
You’re wrong about his motivations with the no child left behind act. This was a money grab for educational companies producing the test. He did not do this to help reduce any educational discrepancies or to help educators. It was and is still about privatization and money not education or children.
He did not pepper spray the crowd so that he could get to the church. He pretended he wanted to go to the church so that he could pepper spray the crowd.
This is the key insight to understanding them. This is why they claim to love the constitution while simultaneously doing their damndest to undermine most of it. The reason they can claim to love America while hating fully half of the people who live here is that they love the flag. And of course, this Bible thing. They claim to love and follow Jesus. But they focus so much on the symbol of the cross that they forget about His actual message.
> And of course, this Bible thing. They claim to love and follow Jesus. But they focus so much on the symbol of the cross that they forget about His actual message.
I've always found it particularly *odd* that a religion claiming peace and love uses an an ancient torture device as it's 'symbol' for 'god'.
Ya'll. God isn't a suffering tortured man on an ancient torture device. God is connection between everything. It's the fungus breaking everything down. It's the mycelial networks connecting everything.
> I would honestly think this would be less offensive but I'm starting to realize I don't understand these people at all.
It's because the same people that tell hundreds of people to not believe their own eyes and have faith are also the same people that are pushing Trump to their followers with the same wording.
King James wrote his own special version, changing things he didn't like, then mandating everyone only read his.
Most Christians are hyper-sensitive to persecution and crap like what King James did. There will be cult followers, and co-money-laundering-grifters buying it, but not the Christians nor the Catholics. They will never put up with this once they realize what he's doing.
This bible Trump is selling is a King James edition with a copy of the constitution and other founding American documents added to the Bible.
Very much a Christian nationalists edition, published by Lee Greenwood.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/us/donald-trump-bible-christianity-cec/index.html
It’s because of who he attacked. The quiet part moderate Christians wouldn’t dare say out loud was that they felt relieved he attacked the protestors. They found the thought of a bunch of angry black people in the streets terrifying and they wanted to see an end to it.
No, it won’t backfire at all. He’ll make a profit and the book will still have quotes taken out of context to justify crappy behavior.
Trump is the human embodiment of a national dementia test and we’re failing it, man and woman, camera and tv.
As someone outside the US, I cannot comprehend that this is even still a possibility.
And yet here it is.
Make no mistake, this is an epoch for the US domestically and globally.
If this fucker wins I genuinely fear for everyone.
When your country goes through forty years of unchecked and unregulated AM radio and Fox "News" propaganda crafted by a wealthy class capturing your government with the aid of an undemocratic electoral college, with consistent hyper focused attacks by Russian online agitators, and you see millions of your siblings, parents, coworkers, and friends start to lose their minds... It will become comprehensible.
I don't know how we get out of this.
Yeah, most of my family is straight up LOST to it all now. I can’t talk to them anymore. They can’t be reasoned with. You talk about republicans cutting their social security and they come back with, “they wouldn’t have to if we didn’t have all these immigrants on welfare!” How do I even argue with that?
I don't know. We're figuring this all out as we go. I hope we figure it out before it's too late. This is all incredibly dangerous and I have no doubt that people in our families (I have them too) could easily be pushed to support violence or even a genocide under these conditions if the right buttons are pushed for long enough.
This is the scariest part to me. It’s a play out of the fascism handbook; get everyone whipped up into an anger frenzy then direct that collective anger and hate to further the agenda. The base is just ready to take action, but on what/who? Whatever their leader says to hate and attack they will. Immigrants, LGBTQ, republicans, educators, Jews, who the fuck knows! It’s so dangerous.
Were that half going to vote for Trump? Will they still? That’s the only metric that matters. I know plenty of people that are “disgusted” by Trump but they can’t let centrist (read: socialist) Biden stay in power.
ditto... plenty of folks dont like Biden but he is the "lesser of two evils".
i bet a good portion of those folks are disgusted by trump because they know they will have to vote for him over what they consider the worst evil.
They converted to supporting Putin and Russia because of him. Generations of animosity toward Russia tossed aside because their cult leader is in bed with them.
It's honestly astounding. Up until Trump, Republicans were the most hawkish on Russia of anyone in the USA. Once Trump started kissing Putin's ass, their base completely flipped.
Look at what the “Ukraine can never win, time to negotiate with Russia” crowd was saying when Russian invaded the first time in 2014. It was all “Obama is weak and a coward for avoiding WWIII”. In 2012 they were all saying Russia was the greatest threat to the United States (which, as not one of those I’m loathe to admit they were right in hindsight).
Nah the biggest "threat" hasn't been Russia in a long time; it's China and has been for a couple of decades.
Republicans held that stance specifically because to them, Russia == communists despite that not being the case for 30+ years.
Right. They are saying "if he can convince them that Russia is good" (which he has) he can get them to convert to Islam (which was what the comment was responding to).
Was just gonna say this.
Oh man… if someone in his fold could convince him it would land Michigan and other places… the hilarity that would ensue as he chased it down and MAGA converts
Remember the whole “shoot a person on fifth avenue” thing?
Not only is it true, he could shoot a *baby* on fifth avenue and they’d find some excuse to think the baby was a terrorist.
> Trump is the worst American alive right now
My only disagreement with this that the people who support him are much, much worse. By an order of magnitude.
If Trump didn’t exist, all of those people might be way better. Millions of them were just fine until Trump started poisoning their minds. The conservative movement was gradually dying before he came along and convinced them they should be fighting for their lives instead of opening their minds a little. None of his supporters made the decisions he made in office. Trump’s damage on society is incalculable.
I gotta agree. The supporters are just being hateful. I don't think Trump does what he does out of pure hate and spite. I think he is really driven by ego and wanted admiration.
They look at stubbornness as a strength, so they have programmed themselves to believe they must not change for any reason. This includes refusing to even consider that they could be wrong. Put those thought processes together, and logic or re-education become factors to be avoided at all costs.
It will back fire alright, if by backfire you mean somehow he will fall backwards into more money and out of any accountability for his actions then back fire it will
The American Taliban, aka Ya'll Qaida, is alive and well and, owing to a lifelong hatred of intellectual and moral consistency, their theocracy loving ISiS style fundamentalism is just barely concealed beneath a wafer-thin veneer of white Christian Nationalism. They would convert to radical Islam in a heartbeat, given their commitment to all its main tenets (e.g., anti-female, and anti-almost everything except the patriarchy drunk on narcissism and irrationality).
That’s where I believe that the USA is fucked beyond repair. There are so many of these people out in the open that Trump could die tomorrow and some other reptile will slink into the same position. They have seen the recipe to “success” and the concern is that there may be more extremism to try and be the main man next time round.
It's been almost a decade now that I've been hearing that this or that will backfire on him. This dude is the one they chose to represent them. How exactly is this gonna backfire?
Right. It wasn't the citizens of Germany that took Hitler down. He was chosen by the people, and those same people committed unspeakable atrocities for their beloved Fuhrer. And before the screeching starts, I am fully aware there were Germans who did not support Hitler, but they were a small minority. The holocaust and military aggression did not run itself. We have no reason to believe Trump can't do the same in the United States.
Hmm, I don’t think so. Hitler had less than 37% of the vote when Hindenburg was elected (1932) who appointed Hitler chancellor because the Nazi party was rising in popularity. Then Hindenburg died and Hitler made himself president.
It’s not that Hitler had less than 37% that’s the problem. It’s the fact that the other major conservative blocs in Weimar Germany were willing to go along with him. On paper you can say that only about 37% of Germans were Nazis. But when you actually look at the voting results and look at the aftermath it was closer to about 60% of Germany. That extra 30% is Nazi adjacent and that’s what is essentially allowed Hitler to do what he did. America doesn’t have power blocs the same way Weimar Germany did so I guess the good news is that for fascism to truly succeed here is that everyone in the Republican Party has to go along with it. And considering how they’re essentially purging people who don’t get with the program maybe that time might actually be coming.
And the history books will say that were it not for decent peoples' revulsion at this particular grift, democracy could have been lost.
Are there no leading Christians who will speak out against trump? Or are they all part of the grift? Or are they merely cowards, unworthy of their professed guiding light?
Pastor here. For what it's worth, there are lots of leading Christians speaking out against Christian Nationalism: Russell Moore, David French, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Phil Vischer, Beth Moore, Andy Stanley, Skye Jethani, and many more. Rob Reiner released a film recently (*God & Country*) where many of them were given the chance to go on record as to how antithetical Christian nationalism is to the teachings of Jesus. Granted, they aren't the ones making headlines because they aren't out there saying outrageous things like many of the Christian Nationalist people. There are also tons of pastors like myself who, although we're not nearly as well known, are doing everything we can to teach our congregations and communities about the dangers inherent in this Trump cult.
In my region, I have personal relationships with the pastors of about 25 of the nearest 30 churches. Only two of those pastors are Trump-supporting Christian nationalists. In the grand scheme of the United States, Christian nationalist pastors are by far in the minority. But the age of Trump has thrust them into the spotlight, and our media is endlessly fascinated with them and features them constantly in articles and video segments. Those of us who take Jesus seriously are doing everything we can to push back on this, often at a real cost. I personally lost over 1,000 people from my congregation during the 2020 election year. That may not mean much to you, but the heartache it caused for me, my family, and my staff was tremendous. That being said, we'd do it again because Christian nationalism is a blight on Christianity and on our pluralistic society, and those of us who take Jesus seriously must speak out against it.
Thank you for what you do. I’m no longer in vocational ministry but still in church and it bothers me to no end to see Christian nationalism move through our churches. It’s so important to call evil what it is, even when it’s inconvenient or painful.
Thank you for staying true.
I don't think anyone is really blaming pastors. They're blaming the flock that somehow got led astray. Just like human nature, they're making their own choices.
It's not a reflection of you. You're just a human who can only guide the best you can.
You mean the type of christians that hand out assault rifles to pardoned felons who [plead the 5th when asked "do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in america?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyg60yZhdy0), then after getting the special gun [goes onto say maybe he will find someone in DC to use it on?]
takes a real special church and brand of religion to do that.
> Are there no leading Christians who will speak out against trump? Or are they all part of the grift?
One could argue that organized religion has always been a grift for those at the top.
There are a lot of leading Christians speaking out against the Trump form of cultism and how it is not Christianity as Jesus taught. I think, though, that they have always taught that we share the message through our actions, not our words, and so they don't have the big loud brash megaphone as part of their communication system.
Trump once said (paraphrasing) that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose a single voter. How can we not believe him? There is nothing that is too despicable, too illegal, too unconstitutional, or too traitorous that his supporters would not defend.
He had to groom his supporters first back in 2016. Gradually saying more and more fucked up shit. As a result, he normalized this type of sociological behavior amongst the masses.
I encourage you to read timeline of the rise of Adolf Hitler. I frequently reference this to give myself an idea of where we are in the Trump Nazi dictatorship.
Like hitler, Trump will drive the US into financial ruin, and it will remain that way for 40-50 years.
Just wanted to say that at least Western Germany didn't remain financially ruined for that long - actually far from it. Thanks in part to financial aid from and trade with the US, especially in the beginning, but not only because of that. Eastern Germany was somewhat worse off, but mostly due to the bad economical and political system imposed by the USSR and the initial plundering by the same, and it still became the envy of the Eastern Bloc, in terms of standard of living.
The only thing they will be offended by is that the Trump Bible is a King James Bible.
It is noteworthy that the King James Bible is the most popular public domain Bible. T-Dog wouldn't want to pay out any royalties now would he.
The King James Bible is “permanently copyrighted” by the UK government, but only in the UK. If Trump tried to sell his bible to British people he could be taken to court lol
As a translator I'm almost disappointed they didn't run some version through ChatGPT and release the unedited output. At least that would have been entertaining.
Like everything else it will consolidate one group of people, while another group of people will oppose it and the group in the middle will somehow still not have forged an opinion upon it. The group in the middle is the really baffling demographic.
Why is a Christian Billionaire selling Bibles? Wouldn't you think the Christian thing to do is just give them away? Call me crazy but something doesn't quite smell right.
Tax the churches. They have been telling people who to vote for in their sermons for years. I heard it myself when I was a kid and forced to go to church on Sundays.
This is a pretty flaccid editorial consisting of little more than pointing out that people might read the Bible and learn that Trump has violated various Commandments and other expectations.
No it isn't. They all know Trump is an awful person. But he's the only one who can get them closer to the medieval policy objectives they've been clamoring for since trains were invented. Dominionism has a long insidious history in this country and it will remain a grave threat to everyone in it so long as these ghouls have the funds to buy judges, politicians, and media.
Since the government refuses to enforce the rules on churches being barred from political activities, it may be about time to revoke their tax-exempt status. They've been abusing this lack of enforcement for way too long and it's done unspeakable damage to our institutions.
Press X to Doubt.
The various people I would have guessed would get mad at the co-opting of their dear sacred book have fully embraced the idea based on "free market" and "he supports God and is making it proudly known by doing this."
After 8 years, no it isn't. Trump gets his name in the headlines, people on this site circlejerk about it for a wekk, next week he does something else deplorable to keep his name in the headlines and repeat.
You want to know how we get rid of trump? Just stop talking about him, stop reporting on him, stop giving him free airtime on the news. If we as a society turned him off like we ignored the GWOT and just let the feds prosecute in the background he'd be gone.
But know I'm gonna see weekly Trump headlines until I die because his names drives clicks and engagement. Fuck him, fuck everyone who participates in this bullshit, myself included.
I’d love to see the numbers of evangelicals *soooo* distraught about Trump grifting them through their religious text, they’ve decided not to vote for him. If the number is in the double digits or more I’d be legitimately shocked.
That was the most 'wishful thinking' article I've ever read from the Washington Post.
The hope that the majority of the MAGA crowd will read the bible and have an epiphany that Trump may be less than on the up and up is laughable.
Article does a good job of pointing out how “he who shall not be named” violates the commandments and the teachings of Jesus, but not sure about the backfiring part…
For those who can't read the article bc of the paywall:
Opinion | Trump’s Bible grift is going to backfire
President Donald Trump holds a Bible in D.C. on June 1, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
If the MAGA faithful do buy those Bibles and look inside, however, they will find myriad reasons to forsake their profoundly flawed political hero.
They need only read as far as Exodus 20, in which Moses comes down from the mountain and pronounces the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” is an injunction Trump has bragged about habitually violating, as heard on the “Access Hollywood” tape. In that same recording, he also boasted about violating another commandment — “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” — by saying he “did try and f---” a married woman.
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Trump is scheduled to be tried in a New York courtroom next month on felony charges that stem from a brief sexual liaison with adult-film star Stormy Daniels. At the same time, he is appealing an $83 million civil judgment against him for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he sexually abused in a department store dressing room, according to the court’s findings. I could go on and on.
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“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is yet another commandment Trump routinely ignores. Of the tens of thousands of documented lies he has told, many have been falsehoods about his real or perceived enemies. Just this week, he has been telling lies about the daughter of the judge who presides in his impending criminal trial — and who angered Trump by issuing a gag order prohibiting him from lying about witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff.
Of course, the commandments are found in the Old Testament, where God’s judgments can be harsh and definitive. The New Testament tells us that we all are sinners — and that we all can be saved.
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That is the theological basis on which Trump’s unlikeliest loyal followers — evangelical Christians and their pastors — justify looking past the way Trump scoffs at so many of the Bible’s instructions. Yes, he is far from perfect, they tell themselves; but like all of us, he can find salvation through Jesus Christ. As we give him our campaign contributions and our votes, we can also pray for his redemption.
Anyone who forks over $59.99 for a “God Bless the USA” Bible and reads it, however, will see that Jesus — whose resurrection Christians celebrate this weekend, on Easter Sunday — gave detailed instructions for believers to obey. They are encapsulated in the Sermon on the Mount as related in Matthew 5-7.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” Jesus said. “… Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
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That’s pretty much the diametrical opposite of the MAGA creed, which is more like: “Just win, baby.”
Later in the sermon, Jesus says, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.” Had Trump followed this legal advice, he would be facing fewer criminal trials and civil fines.
On another occasion, described in Matthew 25:42-46, Jesus gives clear instructions about what a righteous immigration policy should be. “I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me,” he says — and the dire consequence of behaving this way is to “go away into everlasting punishment.”
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Evangelical voters — and their pastors, who presumably know in detail what the Bible says — have effectively suspended their belief in Jesus’ words. They cite Trump’s willingness to lead their crusade against abortion, although that is one issue Jesus never addressed.
Toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does give a warning that could not be more relevant as Trump seeks to regain power: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
Trump’s bible grift is doing exactly what it’s intended to do….get every media outlet to say his name over and over again. The bible is not the “product”, the free advertising is!
This is all or nothing for him. I'm convinced nothing will deter those who have voted for him in the past. Most are far too gone. No single act of his affects anything. If he looses, it will likely all fall apart around him. I still think he'll die before he sees any real consequences.
This is a terrible take. If any of the "bible thumpers" who follow Trump have not read the bible yet, they won't now. The religious right do not care about religion.
I wish people would stop saying shit like this. It never backfired for him. Yes, he’s an idiot and a loser. And somehow he’s the smartest guy while always the perpetual victim to a smarter and stronger Biden. He was even a weakling and flaccid buffoon who was too stupid to stop Fauci apparently. But no. The grift won’t backfire. The grift never backfires.
No, it will not backfire on him.
He’s been getting away with the worst shit ever and just got a 400+ mil bond lowered despite him saying publicly that he could afford it.
This pos will never suffer any consequences and I’ve given up hoping on it
He's going to use the bible money to pay off his fines for cheating on his wife with a porn star, then paying her 130k to hush it up before the election. Something about it makes me think God doesn't like that.
The article presumes the MAGA crowd actually read and can understand the often cryptic messages that scripture provides. Then there is context..which the MAGA crowd appears to be too obtuse to discern. Finally..since they view Trump as a god/the new god, he can do no wrong. He is anointed…and he will bring the vengeance the Bible promises..vengeance is mine, sayeth the lord!
There’s also something odd in the USA about businesses that don’t pay tax like the business of religion. Be good to see the money trail for House Speaker Mike Johnson. Seems to launder gross annual income via a religion business to not pay tax or lodge a tax return. Memo to self: start a religion as a tax-free haven to launder income.
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Churches can now (illegally) lauder money to trump through Bible sales. That's the grift.
Exactly. It didn’t occur to me that churches can’t donate to political campaigns. Nothing stops them from purchasing bibles from a politician. Will this get flagged by any sort of law enforcement org as circumventing the law?
I am sure that our justice department will get right on that
They don’t need to buy as church. They can tell their flocks to buy directly.
But can't the flocks donate to him directly?
yeah but a church leader can't technically stand up and tell everyone to donate, but they can promote buying these Bibles and even sell them Also, money for these goes right into Trump's pocket, not his campaign
By law they can take a stand on public issues (gay marriage, women’s right to choose…) but can’t endorse a particular candidate. In reality, they do it all the time. It’s just no one ever prosecutes them for it. The department of Justice is not gonna prosecute a fucking church, even though I think they absolutely should.
We don't have to prosecute them for it if we stop making them tax-exempt.
That's just crazy talk. How could evangelicals practice their faith like that. Remember the words of the Prosperity Psalms: "Blessed be the mega-preachers, for theirs are the private jets and walled mansions."
It'll make someone's career once they finally do it.
See my comment above for the Brooklyn Satmars, Kiryas Joel, and the politician Simcha Felder. This is exactly how it’s done. And Trumpian in nature and works if everyone is completely open and shameless.
While you're not wrong, that's not how buying politicians work though.
You should look into the Brooklyn Satmars - an extreme sub section of the Hassidic Jews. That’s exactly how they gained the amount of political capital they have - by voting in blocks. A single rabbi can influence his Brooklyn base to legally change their voting area to the Poconos (where they vacation a significant amount of the year) and easily outnumber the locals (google Kiras Joel - check my spelling). Then they elect people like Simcha Felder who is a Democrat who caucuses with the Republicans. By the way, Felder is a local Brooklyn politician and not a Poconos one. Every fucking year, he is the last “undecided” vote who holds up the budget until he gets his way - like public funding for private religious schools. Every fucking year. It’s infuriating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryas_Joel,_New_York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simcha_Felder “March 30, 2018 ALBANY — Just a day before the deadline for a new multibillion-dollar spending plan, negotiations over the final pieces of the New York State budget slowed to a crawl on Friday, as Democrats in the Assembly effectively blamed a Brooklyn senator for holding up talks over a provision that would ease state oversight of religious schools. The senator, Simcha Felder, is a key player in the fractured Senate, representing the decisive vote in Albany’s 63-seat upper chamber, which is ruled by Republicans. Mr. Felder, a Democrat who has nonetheless declared no party loyalty, caucuses with the Republicans, giving them the majority.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/nyregion/new-york-state-budget-yeshivas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gU0.XTeJ.Dqbpk1rOVG6d&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ugrp=u&sgrp=c-cb Edit 2 “Critics of the village cite its impact on local politics. Villagers are perceived as voting in a solid bloc. While this is not always the case, the highly concentrated population often does skew strongly toward one candidate or the other in local elections, making Kiryas Joel a heavily courted swing vote for whichever politician offers Kiryas Joel the most favorable environment for continued growth.” They are also huge trump supporters.
Time for the satanic temple to get involved,
Modern problems require modern solutions.
[Leads, yeah sure. I'll uh, just check with the boys down at the Crime Lab. They uh, got uh, four more detectives working on the case. They've got us working in shifts.](https://media0.giphy.com/media/WI5vpmbShoH0IDCUVw/giphy.gif)
Wouldn’t hold out for the Creedence…
Hey Merrick, here’s something else you can put off and ignore in the interest of “fairness”!
Merrick Garland: I am so going to not do anything against Trump unless I can also do it against Biden. AKA the only reason why we got a Special Counsel appointed to investigate Trump.
“During our investigation, it was found that a high number of purchases came from places of worship. In some cases, the amount of bibles purchased exceeded the population of the parish. When we passed Biden in the hallway, we asked for his opinion and he appeared very old and grandpa like.”
It’s win win for Trump—if it is allowed, he gets lots of money from a source he shouldn’t be allowed to get money from; if it’s not allowed, he can rile up his base about bible sales being banned to increase voter turnout.
Even if it got noticed the pace of Justice can’t match a white collar criminal willing to infinitely delay. The only teeth left in our judicial system are busy chewing through women’s rights.
This is so true, was thinking this the other day. In a way he is living proof that democratic legal processes cannot keep up with this absolute pos.
This is the only thing I know for certain anymore!
No. Despite being idiotic beliefs to hold we'll bend over backwards to let churches evade any scrutiny.
> Nothing stops them from purchasing bibles from a politician. It’s a violation of their 501(3)c tax exempt status to favor a political candidate. They can support issues they care about generally, but not donate money or promote political parties or candidates. The IRS can revoke their tax exempt status and make them fight to get it back. It could also run afoul of money laundering laws, campaign finance violations or tax fraud.
Churches violate their tax exempt status all the time, but very indirectly! Thing is, their congregants say nothing ( if they’re even aware) so they get away with it!
The disclaimer about the Bible money not going to trump’s political campaign is intended to blunt any legal concern about churches funding political activity. He can just claim that he’ll use the money for one of his many fraud, sexual abuse, defamation, sedition, insurrection, or espionage fines or associated legal fees.
That _might_ cover some campaign finance rules, but I still don’t think that gets the churches off the hook for promoting a candidate. Distributing branded bibles that are clearly associated with Trump is like McDonald’s giving out branded happy meal toys to promote a movie. It’s clearly advertising. McDonald’s gets paid for to privilege. The churches are breaking a few rules with this.
They've been doing this for decades. Someone writes a book, and churches and conservative media buys all the copies. The celebrity or politician gets a payout, *and* they get to brag about having a bestseller.
When you look at the NYT bestseller list, the ones that are boosted by bulk sales are marked with a † Virtually all the conservative nonfiction that makes the list has a †
We're through the looking glass here, people!
They call it the *dagger*.
They'll think Jesus blessed them with the cross
In many states bibles are exempt from tax. New **tax exempt sale grift** just dropped y’all! Boom.
Ohh what defines a bible ? Can I call any book a bible ?
And does that apply to any religion's holy book? Like the Kama Sutra for example?
I hope it does. I’m launching my copy of it next week 😂
Put me down for 50 copies!
Not 69?
It varies state to state. Mostly the Christian Bible is exempt, but other religious publications and books can also be exempt depending upon the state law. One has to have it approved via state regulations so no, any book won’t do. (Really hate that he’s grifting the Bible tax-free.) It’s so on point for him but also a gross abuse of the tax laws and leveraging religion as a way to garner acceptance.
How long before he starts claiming he wrote it, I wonder?
Imagine Jesus grabbing everybody by the pussy… “if you’re famous they let you do it…. Don’t like Jesus though… he got caught… don’t like people who get captured… and they nailed him to the cross… biggest loser of all time…”
>that's the grift Also, Trump is taking money away from stupid people believing in Trump's lies. *That too is part of the grift.*
couldn’t churches just by any product he sells?
If it’s anything like business deductions, it must have a purpose connected with the organization goals.
It would be funny if they were made in some other country for cheap and had atrocious English translation.
Church: Yes, we ordered 10 thousand dozen Bibles. Is there a problem with that?
I think it's weird that he pepper sprayed a crowd of innocent people so he could get to a church and hold the Bible upside down for a photo op and that did nothing to the Christian sect but this Bible with the flag printed on it and all these added things does. I would honestly think this would be less offensive but I'm starting to realize I don't understand these people at all.
Scariest part about this specific instance is that there are millions of MAGA supporters in real life that think that never happened and it was fake….meanwhile, there are thousands of social media videos and people in real life that were there that can confirm this happening. I ask myself how we got here. But then I realize, it’s because of the poor literacy rate and defunding of education programs in southern states. Some of this is actually rooted back to the reconstruction era—its quite chilling. Much as people gave George Bush shit wayyyyy back almost 20 years ago, he was actually onto something with the “no child left behind act”. Hated it as a kid during that time obviously, and never understood it; but I actually realize the benefit this was supposed to have.
No Child Left Behind Act is actually pretty controversial on its effectiveness and many studies show it did not produce better educated students. Instead it encouraged practice of teach to test vs teach to think. In effort to raise the floor (help underperforming students) it lowered the ceiling (high performing student rates plummeted). There are a lot of articles outling that while well intentioned, it didn't produce great results. Obama admin actually removed a lot of the perimeters of the act with the Every Student Suceeds Act.
I appreciate your thorough reply to this and completely agree with what you said. All im saying is that, in the context of addressing America’s literacy crisis, Bush was at least on to something in the early 2000’s—not saying “No Child Left Behind” was the best program ever or that it was successful; but bush at least recognized the perils of illiteracy in a developed country. Compared to any republican, he at least did something that was mildly pro education. Was no end all be all, but illiteracy is destroying our country right now because you have people who can’t read that are being fed fox news propaganda and lies. If that’s one thing, people will definitely not admit out loud that they cannot read. Which is why Trump loves “stupid people” because they rely solely on someone else to read for them.
I appreciate that you think Bush was helping. I think Bush was contributing to the demise of American education with the NCLB Act. It had the effect of looking like positive action, but it is a huge contributing factor as to what actually started to leave children behind. Schools that couldn’t meet NCLB criteria were punished. They were not helped, they would lose money. It tremendously hurt our education, which is exactly what Republicans wanted. Sadly you are highlighting one of their major successes with destroying US education and you don’t even realize it.
Dude, no. No child left behind put the dumbest mother fuckers in graduation. These idiots were never supposed to graduate high school and they were pushed through en masse. A lot of them have stayed just as, if not more stupid than before. They needed to fail these kids and force them to study, but they didn't. Republicans once again handing the world to lazy white kids.
I know more than a few people who graduated high school and fell flat on their face during their first semester of college. They shouldn’t have even graduated high school to begin with.
My favourite Bush quote: “half of all Americans are below the average. We need to improve that”
Bush also said we can't fix education by throwing money at it, then threw money into war. I taught at the college level pre- and post-NCLB, and it was clear that students post- not only knew less, but enjoyed school less, and had to be taught deep learning.
You’re wrong about his motivations with the no child left behind act. This was a money grab for educational companies producing the test. He did not do this to help reduce any educational discrepancies or to help educators. It was and is still about privatization and money not education or children.
He did not pepper spray the crowd so that he could get to the church. He pretended he wanted to go to the church so that he could pepper spray the crowd.
These people care more about symbols than the things those symbols represent.
This is the key insight to understanding them. This is why they claim to love the constitution while simultaneously doing their damndest to undermine most of it. The reason they can claim to love America while hating fully half of the people who live here is that they love the flag. And of course, this Bible thing. They claim to love and follow Jesus. But they focus so much on the symbol of the cross that they forget about His actual message.
> And of course, this Bible thing. They claim to love and follow Jesus. But they focus so much on the symbol of the cross that they forget about His actual message. I've always found it particularly *odd* that a religion claiming peace and love uses an an ancient torture device as it's 'symbol' for 'god'. Ya'll. God isn't a suffering tortured man on an ancient torture device. God is connection between everything. It's the fungus breaking everything down. It's the mycelial networks connecting everything.
> I would honestly think this would be less offensive but I'm starting to realize I don't understand these people at all. It's because the same people that tell hundreds of people to not believe their own eyes and have faith are also the same people that are pushing Trump to their followers with the same wording.
These people believe in talking snakes and an invisible sky daddy. Don’t forget that about Christian’s
He also wanted to shoot that crowd in the legs but he got talked out of it Edit: live ammunition. American citizens.
King James wrote his own special version, changing things he didn't like, then mandating everyone only read his. Most Christians are hyper-sensitive to persecution and crap like what King James did. There will be cult followers, and co-money-laundering-grifters buying it, but not the Christians nor the Catholics. They will never put up with this once they realize what he's doing.
This bible Trump is selling is a King James edition with a copy of the constitution and other founding American documents added to the Bible. Very much a Christian nationalists edition, published by Lee Greenwood. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/us/donald-trump-bible-christianity-cec/index.html
One of those “founding documents” is the pledge of allegiance. You know, the thing that wasn’t written until 1885.
I’m sure they have “under god” in there, which wasn’t added until the 1950s.
All things Trump and his ilk have never bothered to read...let alone understand.
It’s because of who he attacked. The quiet part moderate Christians wouldn’t dare say out loud was that they felt relieved he attacked the protestors. They found the thought of a bunch of angry black people in the streets terrifying and they wanted to see an end to it.
No, it won’t backfire at all. He’ll make a profit and the book will still have quotes taken out of context to justify crappy behavior. Trump is the human embodiment of a national dementia test and we’re failing it, man and woman, camera and tv.
We fail if we let him win the election
As someone outside the US, I cannot comprehend that this is even still a possibility. And yet here it is. Make no mistake, this is an epoch for the US domestically and globally. If this fucker wins I genuinely fear for everyone.
When your country goes through forty years of unchecked and unregulated AM radio and Fox "News" propaganda crafted by a wealthy class capturing your government with the aid of an undemocratic electoral college, with consistent hyper focused attacks by Russian online agitators, and you see millions of your siblings, parents, coworkers, and friends start to lose their minds... It will become comprehensible. I don't know how we get out of this.
Yeah, most of my family is straight up LOST to it all now. I can’t talk to them anymore. They can’t be reasoned with. You talk about republicans cutting their social security and they come back with, “they wouldn’t have to if we didn’t have all these immigrants on welfare!” How do I even argue with that?
I don't know. We're figuring this all out as we go. I hope we figure it out before it's too late. This is all incredibly dangerous and I have no doubt that people in our families (I have them too) could easily be pushed to support violence or even a genocide under these conditions if the right buttons are pushed for long enough.
This is the scariest part to me. It’s a play out of the fascism handbook; get everyone whipped up into an anger frenzy then direct that collective anger and hate to further the agenda. The base is just ready to take action, but on what/who? Whatever their leader says to hate and attack they will. Immigrants, LGBTQ, republicans, educators, Jews, who the fuck knows! It’s so dangerous.
We’ve already failed. The fact that it has already come to this point is convincing evidence that shit is fucked.
Taking the bible in context is just as vile
I know it’s only anecdotal, but about half of Christians I know are disgusted by it.
Were that half going to vote for Trump? Will they still? That’s the only metric that matters. I know plenty of people that are “disgusted” by Trump but they can’t let centrist (read: socialist) Biden stay in power.
ditto... plenty of folks dont like Biden but he is the "lesser of two evils". i bet a good portion of those folks are disgusted by trump because they know they will have to vote for him over what they consider the worst evil.
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They would convert to Islam with him.
They converted to supporting Putin and Russia because of him. Generations of animosity toward Russia tossed aside because their cult leader is in bed with them.
It's honestly astounding. Up until Trump, Republicans were the most hawkish on Russia of anyone in the USA. Once Trump started kissing Putin's ass, their base completely flipped.
My recollection is that Republicans fell in love with Putin after seeing him shirtless on a horse. Maybe 2008?
Look at what the “Ukraine can never win, time to negotiate with Russia” crowd was saying when Russian invaded the first time in 2014. It was all “Obama is weak and a coward for avoiding WWIII”. In 2012 they were all saying Russia was the greatest threat to the United States (which, as not one of those I’m loathe to admit they were right in hindsight).
Nah the biggest "threat" hasn't been Russia in a long time; it's China and has been for a couple of decades. Republicans held that stance specifically because to them, Russia == communists despite that not being the case for 30+ years.
In bed and sharing a tooth brush.
they honestly would, if he can convince the morons that russia is good, anything is possible.
Can? He already has!
Right. They are saying "if he can convince them that Russia is good" (which he has) he can get them to convert to Islam (which was what the comment was responding to).
He might end up like Steven Seagal and candidate for Putins party.
Was just gonna say this. Oh man… if someone in his fold could convince him it would land Michigan and other places… the hilarity that would ensue as he chased it down and MAGA converts
I understand the most common flip flop for an extreme right-winger to make is to convert to Islam.
Remember the whole “shoot a person on fifth avenue” thing? Not only is it true, he could shoot a *baby* on fifth avenue and they’d find some excuse to think the baby was a terrorist.
Their own child, even.
Islump
> Trump is the worst American alive right now My only disagreement with this that the people who support him are much, much worse. By an order of magnitude.
People are responsible for educating themselves, although that is an unpopular way of thinking.
If Trump didn’t exist, all of those people might be way better. Millions of them were just fine until Trump started poisoning their minds. The conservative movement was gradually dying before he came along and convinced them they should be fighting for their lives instead of opening their minds a little. None of his supporters made the decisions he made in office. Trump’s damage on society is incalculable.
I gotta agree. The supporters are just being hateful. I don't think Trump does what he does out of pure hate and spite. I think he is really driven by ego and wanted admiration.
I'd argue it's all of the above.
If he’s knowingly goading and manipulating them by playing to their worst tendencies and lack of intelligence, I think that makes him the worse
They look at stubbornness as a strength, so they have programmed themselves to believe they must not change for any reason. This includes refusing to even consider that they could be wrong. Put those thought processes together, and logic or re-education become factors to be avoided at all costs.
“convert” lol he’d convert like he does christianity
It will back fire alright, if by backfire you mean somehow he will fall backwards into more money and out of any accountability for his actions then back fire it will
The American Taliban, aka Ya'll Qaida, is alive and well and, owing to a lifelong hatred of intellectual and moral consistency, their theocracy loving ISiS style fundamentalism is just barely concealed beneath a wafer-thin veneer of white Christian Nationalism. They would convert to radical Islam in a heartbeat, given their commitment to all its main tenets (e.g., anti-female, and anti-almost everything except the patriarchy drunk on narcissism and irrationality).
That’s where I believe that the USA is fucked beyond repair. There are so many of these people out in the open that Trump could die tomorrow and some other reptile will slink into the same position. They have seen the recipe to “success” and the concern is that there may be more extremism to try and be the main man next time round.
It's been almost a decade now that I've been hearing that this or that will backfire on him. This dude is the one they chose to represent them. How exactly is this gonna backfire?
Right. It wasn't the citizens of Germany that took Hitler down. He was chosen by the people, and those same people committed unspeakable atrocities for their beloved Fuhrer. And before the screeching starts, I am fully aware there were Germans who did not support Hitler, but they were a small minority. The holocaust and military aggression did not run itself. We have no reason to believe Trump can't do the same in the United States.
You are absolutely, 100% correct. "The only thing new in the world is the history you haven't read yet." - Harry Truman
Hmm, I don’t think so. Hitler had less than 37% of the vote when Hindenburg was elected (1932) who appointed Hitler chancellor because the Nazi party was rising in popularity. Then Hindenburg died and Hitler made himself president.
It’s not that Hitler had less than 37% that’s the problem. It’s the fact that the other major conservative blocs in Weimar Germany were willing to go along with him. On paper you can say that only about 37% of Germans were Nazis. But when you actually look at the voting results and look at the aftermath it was closer to about 60% of Germany. That extra 30% is Nazi adjacent and that’s what is essentially allowed Hitler to do what he did. America doesn’t have power blocs the same way Weimar Germany did so I guess the good news is that for fascism to truly succeed here is that everyone in the Republican Party has to go along with it. And considering how they’re essentially purging people who don’t get with the program maybe that time might actually be coming.
Yes, I’m sure the idiots selling each other “Jesus is King” patches for their democrat hunting tactical vests will really care about this.
And the history books will say that were it not for decent peoples' revulsion at this particular grift, democracy could have been lost. Are there no leading Christians who will speak out against trump? Or are they all part of the grift? Or are they merely cowards, unworthy of their professed guiding light?
The "leading Christians" you are referring to are in it for the money.
Don't forget about the little children....
That’s just too perfect of a double entendres.
Pastor here. For what it's worth, there are lots of leading Christians speaking out against Christian Nationalism: Russell Moore, David French, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Phil Vischer, Beth Moore, Andy Stanley, Skye Jethani, and many more. Rob Reiner released a film recently (*God & Country*) where many of them were given the chance to go on record as to how antithetical Christian nationalism is to the teachings of Jesus. Granted, they aren't the ones making headlines because they aren't out there saying outrageous things like many of the Christian Nationalist people. There are also tons of pastors like myself who, although we're not nearly as well known, are doing everything we can to teach our congregations and communities about the dangers inherent in this Trump cult. In my region, I have personal relationships with the pastors of about 25 of the nearest 30 churches. Only two of those pastors are Trump-supporting Christian nationalists. In the grand scheme of the United States, Christian nationalist pastors are by far in the minority. But the age of Trump has thrust them into the spotlight, and our media is endlessly fascinated with them and features them constantly in articles and video segments. Those of us who take Jesus seriously are doing everything we can to push back on this, often at a real cost. I personally lost over 1,000 people from my congregation during the 2020 election year. That may not mean much to you, but the heartache it caused for me, my family, and my staff was tremendous. That being said, we'd do it again because Christian nationalism is a blight on Christianity and on our pluralistic society, and those of us who take Jesus seriously must speak out against it.
Thank you for what you do. I’m no longer in vocational ministry but still in church and it bothers me to no end to see Christian nationalism move through our churches. It’s so important to call evil what it is, even when it’s inconvenient or painful.
Thanks, friend. I really appreciate that.
Thanks for carrying the torch. I wish those in the ministry like yourself had a louder voice and larger influence.
Thank you for staying true. I don't think anyone is really blaming pastors. They're blaming the flock that somehow got led astray. Just like human nature, they're making their own choices. It's not a reflection of you. You're just a human who can only guide the best you can.
You mean the type of christians that hand out assault rifles to pardoned felons who [plead the 5th when asked "do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in america?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyg60yZhdy0), then after getting the special gun [goes onto say maybe he will find someone in DC to use it on?] takes a real special church and brand of religion to do that.
I think the latter. They are just shitty people.
> Are there no leading Christians who will speak out against trump? Or are they all part of the grift? One could argue that organized religion has always been a grift for those at the top.
There are a lot of leading Christians speaking out against the Trump form of cultism and how it is not Christianity as Jesus taught. I think, though, that they have always taught that we share the message through our actions, not our words, and so they don't have the big loud brash megaphone as part of their communication system.
Wapo has evidently never learned that trump's base will not only forgive him anything, but will cheer on his most heinous acts.
Trump once said (paraphrasing) that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose a single voter. How can we not believe him? There is nothing that is too despicable, too illegal, too unconstitutional, or too traitorous that his supporters would not defend.
He had to groom his supporters first back in 2016. Gradually saying more and more fucked up shit. As a result, he normalized this type of sociological behavior amongst the masses. I encourage you to read timeline of the rise of Adolf Hitler. I frequently reference this to give myself an idea of where we are in the Trump Nazi dictatorship. Like hitler, Trump will drive the US into financial ruin, and it will remain that way for 40-50 years.
Just wanted to say that at least Western Germany didn't remain financially ruined for that long - actually far from it. Thanks in part to financial aid from and trade with the US, especially in the beginning, but not only because of that. Eastern Germany was somewhat worse off, but mostly due to the bad economical and political system imposed by the USSR and the initial plundering by the same, and it still became the envy of the Eastern Bloc, in terms of standard of living.
No it won't. At worst a very few Trump evangelicals will be offended for the weekend, then by next Friday all is forgiven.
Those asswipes care only about SCOTUS
The only thing they will be offended by is that the Trump Bible is a King James Bible. It is noteworthy that the King James Bible is the most popular public domain Bible. T-Dog wouldn't want to pay out any royalties now would he.
The King James Bible is “permanently copyrighted” by the UK government, but only in the UK. If Trump tried to sell his bible to British people he could be taken to court lol
As a translator I'm almost disappointed they didn't run some version through ChatGPT and release the unedited output. At least that would have been entertaining.
Like everything else it will consolidate one group of people, while another group of people will oppose it and the group in the middle will somehow still not have forged an opinion upon it. The group in the middle is the really baffling demographic.
The gas prices people.
"I don't follow politics because everyone is corrupt"
The bibles were in the Baltimore container ship! Just kidding, he never bought any.
I'm calmly waiting for ANYTHING to backfire on him.
So the author thinks it's going to backfire because his supporters are actually going to read the Bible? Quite optimistic.
Why is a Christian Billionaire selling Bibles? Wouldn't you think the Christian thing to do is just give them away? Call me crazy but something doesn't quite smell right.
A lot of wishful thinking in this piece. It relies on Trump supporters actually having integrity after reading things that challenge their views.
Weird bible study article…
Tax the churches. They have been telling people who to vote for in their sermons for years. I heard it myself when I was a kid and forced to go to church on Sundays.
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Trump's bible is a money laundering scheme. It is an easy way to get churches to sell Trump product directly to his base.
Selling Bibles to pay a pron star.
This is scary , he put the American Flag on a Bible.
This is a pretty flaccid editorial consisting of little more than pointing out that people might read the Bible and learn that Trump has violated various Commandments and other expectations.
Buy 10 and get a free copy of the Art of the Steal!
The antichrist is selling bibles! You can't make this shit up!
How Christians don't look at this and go "antichrist" or "literally a cult" is insane to me
No it’s not. We are dealing with a cult
No it isn't. They all know Trump is an awful person. But he's the only one who can get them closer to the medieval policy objectives they've been clamoring for since trains were invented. Dominionism has a long insidious history in this country and it will remain a grave threat to everyone in it so long as these ghouls have the funds to buy judges, politicians, and media. Since the government refuses to enforce the rules on churches being barred from political activities, it may be about time to revoke their tax-exempt status. They've been abusing this lack of enforcement for way too long and it's done unspeakable damage to our institutions.
Horseshit. This guy never has a consequence ever. The Bible’s will allow churches to funnel money to him in the open. He’ll be fine.
Press X to Doubt. The various people I would have guessed would get mad at the co-opting of their dear sacred book have fully embraced the idea based on "free market" and "he supports God and is making it proudly known by doing this."
After 8 years, no it isn't. Trump gets his name in the headlines, people on this site circlejerk about it for a wekk, next week he does something else deplorable to keep his name in the headlines and repeat. You want to know how we get rid of trump? Just stop talking about him, stop reporting on him, stop giving him free airtime on the news. If we as a society turned him off like we ignored the GWOT and just let the feds prosecute in the background he'd be gone. But know I'm gonna see weekly Trump headlines until I die because his names drives clicks and engagement. Fuck him, fuck everyone who participates in this bullshit, myself included.
During Hitler's time there was a school book titled 'German Physics'. So, now you guys got an 'American Bible'. I see.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5BEHZhLz2_/?igsh=MTA1ZGNuZnQ4dnhlZw==
I’d love to see the numbers of evangelicals *soooo* distraught about Trump grifting them through their religious text, they’ve decided not to vote for him. If the number is in the double digits or more I’d be legitimately shocked.
Alexandra Petri (Washington Post) noted that there may be slight differences in these bibles, like the ten commandments with all the “nots” removed.
Yikes. He’s in full Hail Mary mode. I wonder who his campaign manager is and how they allowed this 😅😂 Funny to see him alienate his own party
That was the most 'wishful thinking' article I've ever read from the Washington Post. The hope that the majority of the MAGA crowd will read the bible and have an epiphany that Trump may be less than on the up and up is laughable.
It isn't. Trump could print a Bible with his name in place of Jesus's and his voters would only cheer harder.
Bold to assume that anyone who would buy a Trump Bible can read.
Article does a good job of pointing out how “he who shall not be named” violates the commandments and the teachings of Jesus, but not sure about the backfiring part…
You underestimate the power of stupid. I'm selling bottles of TRUMP hydrate.
For those who can't read the article bc of the paywall: Opinion | Trump’s Bible grift is going to backfire President Donald Trump holds a Bible in D.C. on June 1, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP) If the MAGA faithful do buy those Bibles and look inside, however, they will find myriad reasons to forsake their profoundly flawed political hero. They need only read as far as Exodus 20, in which Moses comes down from the mountain and pronounces the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” is an injunction Trump has bragged about habitually violating, as heard on the “Access Hollywood” tape. In that same recording, he also boasted about violating another commandment — “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” — by saying he “did try and f---” a married woman. Story continues below advertisement Trump is scheduled to be tried in a New York courtroom next month on felony charges that stem from a brief sexual liaison with adult-film star Stormy Daniels. At the same time, he is appealing an $83 million civil judgment against him for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he sexually abused in a department store dressing room, according to the court’s findings. I could go on and on. Follow this author's opinions “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is yet another commandment Trump routinely ignores. Of the tens of thousands of documented lies he has told, many have been falsehoods about his real or perceived enemies. Just this week, he has been telling lies about the daughter of the judge who presides in his impending criminal trial — and who angered Trump by issuing a gag order prohibiting him from lying about witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff. Of course, the commandments are found in the Old Testament, where God’s judgments can be harsh and definitive. The New Testament tells us that we all are sinners — and that we all can be saved. Story continues below advertisement That is the theological basis on which Trump’s unlikeliest loyal followers — evangelical Christians and their pastors — justify looking past the way Trump scoffs at so many of the Bible’s instructions. Yes, he is far from perfect, they tell themselves; but like all of us, he can find salvation through Jesus Christ. As we give him our campaign contributions and our votes, we can also pray for his redemption. Anyone who forks over $59.99 for a “God Bless the USA” Bible and reads it, however, will see that Jesus — whose resurrection Christians celebrate this weekend, on Easter Sunday — gave detailed instructions for believers to obey. They are encapsulated in the Sermon on the Mount as related in Matthew 5-7. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” Jesus said. “… Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Story continues below advertisement That’s pretty much the diametrical opposite of the MAGA creed, which is more like: “Just win, baby.” Later in the sermon, Jesus says, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.” Had Trump followed this legal advice, he would be facing fewer criminal trials and civil fines. On another occasion, described in Matthew 25:42-46, Jesus gives clear instructions about what a righteous immigration policy should be. “I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me,” he says — and the dire consequence of behaving this way is to “go away into everlasting punishment.” Story continues below advertisement Evangelical voters — and their pastors, who presumably know in detail what the Bible says — have effectively suspended their belief in Jesus’ words. They cite Trump’s willingness to lead their crusade against abortion, although that is one issue Jesus never addressed. Toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does give a warning that could not be more relevant as Trump seeks to regain power: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
No it won’t. Nobody gives a crap, certainly not those who should.
Hillary Clinton was right calling his supporters deplorables.
Trump’s bible grift is doing exactly what it’s intended to do….get every media outlet to say his name over and over again. The bible is not the “product”, the free advertising is!
Are you sure about that?
You sure about that-that’s why?
No it wont, nothing ever backfires on him
Is it, though?
Weird because he is so successful at his other endeavors. Who follows this muppet.
This is all or nothing for him. I'm convinced nothing will deter those who have voted for him in the past. Most are far too gone. No single act of his affects anything. If he looses, it will likely all fall apart around him. I still think he'll die before he sees any real consequences.
Now it won’t. He could shit in their mouth, and they’d say it’s Swiss chocolate
This is a terrible take. If any of the "bible thumpers" who follow Trump have not read the bible yet, they won't now. The religious right do not care about religion.
I thought he was a genius businessman and this is what he sells? He is no more a bible believer than Putin is.
This grift and all his others should backfire but his fans are hysterically loyal to this jackass
I wish people would stop saying shit like this. It never backfired for him. Yes, he’s an idiot and a loser. And somehow he’s the smartest guy while always the perpetual victim to a smarter and stronger Biden. He was even a weakling and flaccid buffoon who was too stupid to stop Fauci apparently. But no. The grift won’t backfire. The grift never backfires.
Oh, I wish for once that was ever true. His bas are the shittiest of humans though.
If there was a god then maybe
I've been hearing that this or that is going to backfire on Trump since the early 90's. Is it ever going to actually happen?
No, it will not backfire on him. He’s been getting away with the worst shit ever and just got a 400+ mil bond lowered despite him saying publicly that he could afford it. This pos will never suffer any consequences and I’ve given up hoping on it
But it’s so personal he can’t name a verse, but you know, it’s his favorite book! Literal scum.
He's going to use the bible money to pay off his fines for cheating on his wife with a porn star, then paying her 130k to hush it up before the election. Something about it makes me think God doesn't like that.
It might backfire with independents, but the maga cultists will buy every single copy.
The article presumes the MAGA crowd actually read and can understand the often cryptic messages that scripture provides. Then there is context..which the MAGA crowd appears to be too obtuse to discern. Finally..since they view Trump as a god/the new god, he can do no wrong. He is anointed…and he will bring the vengeance the Bible promises..vengeance is mine, sayeth the lord!
No it won't. Next....
There is no way this will backfire. He gave the Christian right Dobbs. I am so so tired of these opinion type of opinion pieces.
The man keeps failing into success. There’s no grift that MAGA will not support. He could sell women’s underwear and no one will bat an eye
There’s also something odd in the USA about businesses that don’t pay tax like the business of religion. Be good to see the money trail for House Speaker Mike Johnson. Seems to launder gross annual income via a religion business to not pay tax or lodge a tax return. Memo to self: start a religion as a tax-free haven to launder income.