Over a week after presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump began selling his own Bibles, Christians unleashed mixed reactions.
The special edition Bible retails for $59.99 as a King James version of the holy text with the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Its name is inspired by Lee Greenwood’s 1984 song “God Bless the USA,” which is regularly played at Trump’s rallies. The book hit the market ahead of the Easter holiday this year, and the Rev. Al Sharpton shared his reaction on The Reid Out.
“I’ve never heard him even discuss religion, less be accused of attending religious gatherings, which is why it is so insulting to me, as one who grew up in the church and been a preacher since I was a boy, for him to not only come with selling Bibles during Holy Week,” Sharpton said. “I mean, this is the week that we that believe in Christ, the real Christ, deal with the crucifixion today of Jesus, Good Friday, and Sunday, the resurrection. And for him to use that as a marketing tool, where the money goes to Donald Trump, not to a cause, not to help the poor, not even to his campaign, to him, which means he’s really doing this to pay off lawyers, to get out of the porn star situation, defrauding bank situation.”
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Land Center for Cultural Engagement Director Daniel Darling shared his thoughts with Fox News Digital.
“Trump selling this Bible seems a bit commercial, though I doubt he intended to offend Christians,” Darling said. “He likely thought he was doing a good thing. But a Bible endorsed by any politician smacks of syncretism and an over-the-top civil religion that cheapens the Bible when it’s used as a political prop.”
“The more bibles that are out there and the more people read it, the better,” Friar Brian Graebe of the New York Archdiocese told the outlet. “That’s an objective good. I think the troubling aspect here is … the marketing of it, the Americanization of it, the Trump-ification of it.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) shared his thoughts during an interview with State of the Union on Easter. Warnock is also a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
“The Bible does not need Donald Trump’s endorsement,” Warnock said. “And Jesus, in the very last week of his life, chased the money changers out of the Temple — those who would take sacred things and use them as cheap relics to be sold in the marketplace.”
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This comes as the RNC and Trump have raised $65.6 million. This is a small cry from Trump’s opponent, President Joe Biden, who reported a $90 million fundraising haul last month. The president’s campaign raised $187 million in the first quarter and began the second quarter with $192 million in cash on hand.
Still, Biden’s most successful fundraising day brought in $26 million at a New York City event that featured former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Trump is spending his Saturday at the home of hedge fund portfolio manager John Paulson for a fundraiser anticipated to raise $43 million on Trump’s behalf. The former president predicted the event would “double up the Biden number of last week at Radio City” in a Truth Social post.
