{"id":627,"date":"2024-11-14T17:13:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T22:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/?p=627"},"modified":"2024-11-14T17:13:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T22:13:31","slug":"of-god-and-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/2024\/11\/14\/of-god-and-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Of God and Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
I received an email a few days ago from a friend who wrote in part:<\/div>\n

\u201cI’ve only spoken to two or three friends who I know voted Republican.\u00a0 I don’t understand them, but I care about them. \u00a0When I say that I am grieving the results of the election, their response has been, \u2018Don’t worry, God is in control.\u2019\u00a0 What is a response to that?\u201d<\/div>\n

They are wrong, my friend! \u00a0Dead wrong!\u00a0 God is not in control.\u00a0 Donald Trump is in control.<\/div>\n

Christianity teaches that God gave people dominion over the Earth, and now We the People have elected to pass that control on to Trump \u2013 control of our government, anyway. \u00a0Your friends are placing their faith in Trump\u2019s version of religion, which is a hypocritical self-serving version of Christianity that is no Christianity at all.<\/div>\n

Trump knows nothing about Christianity.\u00a0 He has often boasted of his religious credentials, but he has none.\u00a0 Remember when he said the Bible is his favorite book, then famously could not name a favorite verse? \u00a0 Or when he referred to Second Corinthians as \u201cTwo Corinthians\u201d?\u00a0 Second Corinthians was published about 50 years after Jesus died, and no church since then has ever referred to it as \u201cTwo Corinthians\u201d.\u00a0 Only ignorant Trump has.<\/div>\n

He once told an Iowa evangelical gathering, and later repeated on CNN, that he had never asked God for forgiveness \u2014 a central tenet of the Christian faith. \u00a0And the Presbyterian church he says he attends in Manhattan has said he never attends or participates in any of its programs.<\/div>\n

A lot of Trump\u2019s followers believe God protected Trump when that bullet nicked his ear and Trump has never denied it, but that is just plain down airheaded bull — feathers.<\/div>\n

For one thing, it implies that God chose to save Trump after allowing Trump\u2019s mentor, Adolf Hitler, to cause the murder of 6 million Jews and half-million gypsies in the 1930s and \u201840s. \u00a0It also implies that God doesn\u2019t care enough to protect those thousands of children who are starving in Gaza today.\u00a0 Knowing MAGA Christians, it would not surprise me to learn they believe God allowed all that because those victims were merely Jews and Muslims, not good Christians like themselves.\u00a0 There are numberless other examples.<\/div>\n

Not one of the world\u2019s major religions \u2013 Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Hinduism \u2013 believes in a God who would protect me but not you.\u00a0 Although they disagree on a lot \u2013 Hinduism believes in a million gods where the others believe in one \u2013 they all are in lockstep when it comes to the heart and soul of religion: Put others above yourself.\u00a0 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.\u00a0 Love your neighbor as yourself.\u00a0 However you want to say it.<\/div>\n

Trump and his brand of \u201cChristians\u201d are the anathema of that. \u00a0Trump, instead of putting others first, is famous for putting himself first, almost to the point that he considers himself the Christ when, if anything, he is the antichrist. \u00a0I am not judging him.\u00a0 I am only observing him.<\/div>\n

Even Trump\u2019s gilded \u201cGod Bless the USA\u201d Bible is unholy. \u00a0The Rev. Loran Livingston, an evangelical pastor in Charlotte, N.C., drew national attention when he gave a sermon denouncing it as “blasphemous” and “disgusting” for tying the Bible to American politics.<\/div>\n

Others have called the Bible pernicious, sacrilegious, heresy, and a violation of the Ten Commandments because it takes God\u2019s name in vain.<\/div>\n

But it\u2019s far worse than that. Trump uses his Bible purely to profiteer, and he does it in full view. He had the Bibles printed in China (can you believe that? \u00a0China\u2019s the country that the he has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices!\u00a0),and he paid less than three dollars apiece for then.\u00a0 Then he sells them for $60 apiece. \u00a0That\u2019s a markup of two thousand percent<\/i>.\u00a0 Compare that with what legitimate publishers\u2019 charge: about fifteen percent for hardcover books, half that for trade paperbacks, and five percent for mass-market paperback sales.<\/div>\n

It gets even worse.\u00a0 Much worse.\u00a0 This \u201cGod Bless the USA Bible\u201d, which was inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood\u2019s popular song of the same name, comes complete with the text of the King James Version of the Bible along with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Pledge of Allegiance.\u00a0 But Trump uses the secular section to lie by omission.\u00a0 He leaves out the Constitution\u2019s 11th through 27th amendments, thus eliminating the provisions that abolished slavery, granted women and Black people the right to vote, and limited presidents to serving only two terms. In other words, Trump cut out all the \u201cequal protection\u201d amendments that his supporters might not like, and the \u201cpresidential term limits\u201d amendments that Trump might not like his supporters to know to\u00a0 know about.<\/div>\n

Yet another problem with the God Bless the USA Bible is its poor physical construction. \u00a0YouTube Bible reviewer Tim Wildsmith’s review of it described it as “a really cheaply made Bible that did not cost them very much money to make.” Wildsmith found sticky pages that ripped when he tried to separate them, and said the letters were packed too tightly to easily read.<\/div>\n

But that\u2019s the version of the Bible and that\u2019s the version of the Constitution that Trump wants his followers to know, and unfortunately they\u2019re gobbling it up.<\/div>\n

This is all about Christian nationalism, which has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with power politics. \u00a0Christian nationalism is the belief that America is a Christian nation so the American government must be a Christian government, and the \u00a0hell with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists and all the rest.\u00a0 Their religions and thoughts do not matter.<\/div>\n

In a way, my friend\u2019s friends are right.\u00a0 God is in control \u2013 but that\u2019s true only if you believe in the god that Donald Trump believes in. Its name is Donald Trump.<\/div>\n

But not to worry.\u00a0 All false Messiahs soon fall.<\/div>\n
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