How Trump exaggerates his Christian faith and his ludicrous claims about the Bible
Nothing illustrates what a flim-flam man Donald Trump is better than his frequent and oily allusions to the Bible.
It is his favorite book, he tells the credulous masses at his rallies. Nobody reads it more than he does.
But a review of the record suggests he may not have read it at all.
During a televised interview with John Heilemann and Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics in August 2015, Halperin noted Trump’s frequent professions of fondness for Judeo-Christian scripture and said, “I’m wondering what one or two of your most favorite Bible verses are and why.”
“I wouldn’t want to get into it,” Trump said, “because to me that’s very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible it’s very personal so I don’t want to get into verses. The Bible means a lot to me but I don’t want to get into specifics.”
“Are you an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy?” Heilemann asked.
“Probably equal,” Trump said. “I think it’s just incredible, the whole Bible is incredible.”
Later that month at a news conference in South Carolina, he said “I am Presbyterian Protestant. I go to Marble Collegiate Church … as often as I can, a lot.”
The bottomless ignorance of Donald Trump
Two problems with that. First, Marble Collegiate, on New York’s 5th Avenue, is a Reformed, not Presbyterian, church. And second, though the Trump family does have a history of attending Marble, officials there quickly sent a statement to CNN saying Trump “is not an active member.”
The following month, David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network asked Trump on camera why it was he expressed such fondness for the Bible.
“So many things, like you know, you take, whatever you want to say, there’s so many things that you can learn from it,” Trump said. “Proverbs. The chapter, ‘never bend to envy.’ I’ve had that thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.”
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the words “never bend to envy” do not appear in any common translations of the Bible.
Trump plunged on in, full essay-exam mode, emulating the wheel-spinning argle-bargle of a middle school student trying to fill up the blank space under a test question with halfway plausible verbiage.
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“And there’s just, actually, it’s an incredible book, so many things you can learn from the Bible,” he told Brody. “And you can lead your life — and I’m not just talking in terms of religion I’m talking in terms of leading a life even beyond a religion. There are so many brilliant things in the Bible. … The Bible is the most special thing.”
In a January speech to the Christian students at Liberty University, Trump further eroded his scriptural bona fides when he said, “2 Corinthians, 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame.”
“Second Corinthians” is the proper reference, and the error prompted Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who advised Trump on the speech, to admit, “It shows that he’s not familiar with the Bible.”
That unfamiliarity showed up again in April when host Bob Lonsberry of WHAM-AM in Rochester, N.Y., broached the subject in a phone interview: “Is there a favorite Bible verse or Bible story that has informed your thinking or your character through life, sir?”
“Well, I think many,” answered the would-be exegete-in-chief. “I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many, so many. And I tell people, look, ‘An eye for an eye,’ you can almost say that.”
You can, sure.
After stating his pride in his Presbyterian beliefs, Donald Trump appeals to evangelical and religious voters by again calling to repeal the Johnson Amendment, stating the tax rule infringes on religious groups’ free speech. Aug. 27, 2016. (Photo: Gerald Herbert, File/AP | Video: C-SPAN)
But not only is “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” an Old Testament verse that condones barbaric vengeance (“… hand for hand, foot for foot,” it goes on, “burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise”) it was also expressly repudiated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:38-39).
Is Trump the first politician to exaggerate his piety in order to win favor with the American public, 70 percent of which identifies as Christian and 6 percent of which identifies as belonging to another faith tradition?
No, but he’s the worst at it — the most transparent — that we’ve ever seen on the national stage.
It’s not just that he’s a brazen Bible huckster, it’s that he’s really bad at it.
Those who put their faith in him should prepare to have it shattered.
Chicago Tribune