These unique editions, inspired by country music artist Lee Greenwood's patriotic anthem, encompass more than just Christian scriptures. They also include secular documents such as the U.S. Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the chorus of Greenwood's song.
Fox News Digital sought the opinions of Christian leaders and apologists from various denominations on this unconventional bible sale. The initial question posed by critics upon the announcement was the appropriateness of a politician selling such items during a campaign season.
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Daniel Darling, the director of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Land Center for Cultural Engagement, expressed ambivalence about the campaign. "Many Christians, even those like me who are very conservative both politically and theologically, thought his approach was a bit crass," he shared with Fox News Digital. He added that while many Christians are deeply patriotic and respect our nation's documents, they are cautious about intertwining these elements too closely within the pages of a Bible.
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Darling does not believe Trump intended to be disrespectful or deliberately irreverent towards scripture, but he questioned the optics. "Trump selling this Bible seems a bit commercial, though I doubt he intended to offend Christians. He likely thought he was doing a good thing," Darling stated. However, he added, "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."
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Fr. Brian Graebe, a priest with the Archdiocese of New York who holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, echoed similar sentiments. He told Fox News Digital that while selling bibles and promoting scriptural literacy is commendable, the Trump-centric advertising is disconcerting.
Graebe stated, "The more bibles that are out there and the more people read it, the better. 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." He further questioned, "Is the Trump Bible more Trump than Bible? I think that's a key question that we need to ask ourselves to see what the ultimate objective here is."
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The decision to include secular documents in the "God Bless the USA" bibles stirred controversy. While texts such as the Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance make fleeting references to a "Creator" and "God," they are not inherently religious documents. The U.S. Constitution, which does not acknowledge God, is also included within the bibles' covers.
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Joe Heschmeyer, an apologist at Catholic Answers, told Fox News Digital that the Catholic Church generally opposes "patriotic appropriations of Christianity that seek to turn the Gospel into fodder for a political campaign or a social movement." He believes that incorporating civic documents into the same pages as the Christian canon lacks sufficient reverence for scripture.
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Heschmeyer explained, "The Hebrew word for ‘holy’ is qadosh, which means ‘separate’ or ‘set apart.’ The idea is that some places, times, and things belong to God, apart from ordinary worldly use." He added, "We wouldn’t put soda in the Chalice from Mass, or use the church as a gymnasium, and it’s why we don’t want to do anything that blends the sacred and the secular in the Holy Bible."
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However, Dr. Peter Kerr, dean and professor at Colorado Christian University's School of Business and Leadership, argued that critics are being obtuse. He sees no issue with including texts significant to U.S. history in the Bible. "Inserting America’s founding documents into a Bible is not wrong. The men who wrote them were followers of God, and even said in the Declaration of Independence that God endowed us with certain rights the government cannot take away," Kerr stated. He added, "As long as people can differentiate God’s words from human words, it doesn’t matter if they were published inside the same cover."
Kerr did add a caveat — bibles of any kind are meaningless tokens without religious belief to give their words significance. "No man has a monopoly on God, but God requires a monopoly on the hearts of every Christian," Kerr said. "Proclamations of faith, by politicians from either party, are worthless without heart change and actions."
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