The ‘God Bless America’ Bible is advertised as the only bible endorsed by Donald Trump. Printed in China, signed copies are being sold for $1000.
Despite its website claiming not to be affiliated with a political campaign, it features an image of Trump in the Oval Office.
The latest edition bears an inscription on the front saying: ‘The day God intervened: July 18 2024’ – seemingly in reference to the date of Donald Trump surviving the first assassination attempt on his campaign trail.
Speaking on Premier’s podcast A Mucky Business, former UK Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron says: “Trump makes a mockery of the message of the very Bible he touts. I find it to be a manipulative, greedy, and cynical use of God’s word. Like the money lenders in the Temple courts, it is a use of something sacred for the means of self promotion and making money.”
The Associated Press report that the ‘God Bless America’ Bibles are printed in Hangzhou, China.
Trump has been openly critical of China, and of America’s reliance on China’s manufacturing industry.
China is the manufacturing powerhouse of the world. It is also one of the biggest printers of bibles in the world. Amity Printing, a Chinese company, prints 70 bibles a minute.
Significantly, churches in China must use a state-sanctioned version of the Bible, re-written by the Chinese Communist Party.
Tim Farron describes the translation as having “distorted” Christ “beyond recognition”. In John 8, where the Pharisees catch a woman in adultery, Jesus challenges them: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” As we know, Jesus then forgives her, telling her to “leave your life of sin.” Yet the CCP translation shamelessly alleges that Jesus himself threw the first stone, with the sinister assertion that ‘if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.’
Whilst the ‘Trump Bible’ does not attempt to rewrite scripture, its pages include the US constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Farron argues that this gives them equivalent status to the Word of God.
“It’s the Trump apocrypha!” says Farron, “We should remember God’s warning in Deuteronomy 4:2, which says: ‘Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it.’”