The White House’s support for Christian nationalism has become glaringly obvious.
The Trump administration issued a “Presidential Message Commemorating 250 Years of the Bible in America” on Friday — in tandem with an announcement that the president has recorded a passage beloved by Christian nationalists as part of a week-long bible reading.
The America Reads the Bible week, sponsored by Christians Engaged, a ministry of the Family Policy Alliance Foundation out of Colorado Springs, began yesterday at (where else?) the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. It hypes itself as a “once-in-a-generation event,” with participation not only by Trump but also by House Speaker Mike Johnson and several cabinet members. These private marathon bible readings in D.C. actually have been going on for years, although they often took place on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in the days before the Museum of the Bible.
Observers have noted the convenient timing of Trump’s action, coming after he caught flak from his base last week for his “blasphemous” posting of an image of himself as Jesus, then from Catholics for criticizing the pope. Trump’s recorded reading will take place tomorrow between 6–7 p.m. Eastern with a passage from 2 Chronicles 7, which contains these lines in verse 14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Notes FFRF Co-President Dan Barker: “That particular verse has been quoted repeatedly from thousands of pulpits, podiums and stages — especially during high-profile events like the National Day of Prayer, the National Prayer Breakfast and political rallies led by Christian nationalists.” Barker, a former evangelist who has written many books on his deconversion to atheism, points out that hundreds of people have falsely connected 2 Chronicles 7:14 with America.
“But the bible doesn’t say that,” he adds. “After dedicating the Jewish temple, King Solomon says that his God was confirming his covenant with the Israelites. They were his chosen people. That covenant applied only to them, not to any other nation. The godless U.S. Constitution is certainly not a covenant with the Israelite god.” (Watch an entire episode of “Freethought Matters” devoted to debunking this phenomenon.)
Moving on to the White House statement, it contains a typical cherry-picked laundry list of alleged evidence “of our Nation’s extraordinary biblical foundations.” It gives “thanks for the countless ways in which God has been the sacred source of our unity and national strength.” Among the precedents it cites is President Reagan proclaiming 1983 to be the “Year of the Bible” — an action the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued over to great attention at the time.
Trump concludes the statement by saying, “I applaud every citizen participating in the America Reads the Bible initiative. Together, we will honor Holy Scripture, renew our faith, usher in a historic resurgence of religion on American shores, and rededicate the United States as one Nation under God.”
Commemorating “250 years of the bible in America” makes no sense, of course. While the Declaration of Independence contains four nominal, deistic references, there is none to the bible, much less Jesus or Christianity. And there are certainly no such references to be found in the godless U.S. Constitution, adopted 13 years after the Declaration of Independence.
The ghostwriters of this White House statement seem aware of the weakness of their argument because they dig deep into pre-U.S. history to justify the presidential message, such as the Mayflower Pilgrims, John Winthrop and Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World in 1492. Columbus certainly was a “Christ-bearer” who literally followed Ephesians’ advice to “put on the full armor of God” in his conquest of the New World. Columbus put into action the papal Doctrine of Discovery, proclaiming that any land not inhabited by Christians was open for ruthless conquest. But is this something to boast about in a presidential statement? The statement also references some presidents who placed their hands on the bible when taking the oath of office, but notably the Constitution, which dictates the actual oath or affirmation, makes no reference to swearing to a god or using a bible.
These actions obviously dishonor that presidential oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” first among nations to separate religion from government.
At the Freedom From Religion Foundation, we have one consolation. Imagine being the unfortunate individual who ends up having to stumble aloud while reading the many graphic passages of the bible, such as Ezekiel 23:20 (“She lusted after her lovers with genitals as large as a donkey’s and emissions like those of a horse”) or the horrifying passage in Judges 19:20-28 about the “concubine” sacrificed by her cowardly owner, given to a crowd of rapists who then, after she dies, cuts her up into 12 pieces.
“Who knows?” asks Barker. “Maybe the bible reading will turn some of them into devout atheists!”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 41,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
