CNA Staff, Mar 27, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump this week is advertising United States-themed Bibles ahead of Easter, urging supporters to purchase a copy of the holy book and help “make America pray again.”
Trump announced the commemorative Bible offering on social media this week, saying he partnered with country singer Lee Greenwood on the initiative. Greenwood’s 1984 song “God Bless the USA” is traditionally played before Trump’s campaign rally and event speeches.
“This Bible is the King James Version and also includes our Founding Father documents,” Trump said.
The book contains the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, the former president noted.
Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible. @TheLeeGreenwood https://t.co/1KK5QgVK85 pic.twitter.com/XoCIeGDpAg
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) March 26, 2024
“It’s just very important and very important to me,” Trump said in the announcement. “I want to have a lot of people have it. You have to have it for your heart, for your soul.”
The former president, who is Joe Biden’s presumed challenger in the 2024 election, said the United States is “going haywire” because “we’ve lost religion in our country.”
“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book. It’s a lot of people’s favorite book,” Trump said, urging supporters to “stand up, speak out, and pray that God will bless America again.”
The website offering the Bibles for sale notes that it also comes transcribed with a “handwritten chorus to ‘God Bless the USA’ by Lee Greenwood.” It is touted as “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump.”
The book, which is retailing for $59.99, “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign,” the website says.
The King James Bible has traditionally been used by Anglicans and other Protestant denominations. It is distinct from the version of the Bible approved by the Catholic Church, which in the U.S. includes the New American Bible among other approved translations.
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The King James Bible is hard to beat for poetic language.
A pox on pedestrian language of any Bible translation, Protestant or Catholic.
I’m glad at least it’s the King James version.
🙂
I would buy one if it wasn’t the King James version. I want a Catholic Bible with all of the seven books that were taken out of the Protestant bibles. +JMJ+
I’m not an expert in the history, but until the early 19th century, many Protestant Bibles, including the KJV, contained those books, listed as “Apocrypha,” as an Appendix at the end of the Old Testament.
I heard somewhere that the Scottish Bible Society removed the Apocrypha to save money by printing less pages.
🙂