Dancing on the edge of blasphemy with Trump's Bibles | GARY COSBY JR.

I have no idea how people continue to support Donald Trump. I am especially dismayed that Christians still support the man and I keep asking when will enough be enough? Apparently, never.

The latest in a long series of what should be “the last straw” events has now taken place, but I am willing to be that not only will Christians still support Trump in his latest debacle but also they will fall all over themselves to buy his Bible.

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That’s right, Trump, in partnership with country singer Lee Greenwood, is selling the Holy Bible. If that were not enough, this Bible is a themed version, a “God Bless America” version. According to a USA Today story, this version of the Holy Bible was proposed by Greenwood several years ago but never was published.

Trump is hawking the Holy Bible in a time that he desperately needs cash to pay for his financial penalties related to the fraud he committed in business practices in New York and the huge payout he must give to E. Jean Carroll after being held civilly liable for raping her and defaming her. Aren’t those lovely reasons to buy a copy of the Bible?

To say we are dancing on the edge of blasphemy is probably understating things. Trump's immoral dalliances include at least two extramarital sexual encounters with porn industry stars, which led to his trial in New York over the misuse of campaign funds to pay them hush money starts soon. He is so beyond infamous that it is hard to put words to. Not to mention the numerous accusations against Trump by many women who claim the former president sexually assaulted them over the years, which makes the idea of him selling the Bible even more outrageous.

I can only think of Jesus making a whip and running the money-changers out of the temple when I think of Trump selling Bibles. Anyone buying this version of the Holy Bible is enabling Trump by funding his sins. Interesting concept, don’t you think?

Oh, and the golden sneakers, Lord help me, but every time I think of those golden sneakers he is selling, and what more appropriate metaphor for Trump could there be than golden sneakers, I think of Nebuchadnezzar’s huge statue to which he insisted everyone bow down. Let’s all bow and kiss the golden sneakers while Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” plays on loud speakers.

But, as the famous infomercial for knives says, that’s not all. There is still more. This version of the Bible includes copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and handwritten lyrics to the chorus of “God Bless the USA.”

The cover of this Bible actually has a U.S. flag on it. To say I am horrified is a vast understatement. While Greenwood’s song certainly is stirring and I can’t imagine an American citizen who doesn’t wish for God to bless our nation, to put this into the Holy Bible is too much, way, way, too much. And to include legal documents of the United States in the book is deeply disturbing. One does not equate the laws of any nation with the God-breathed Holy scriptures.

Putting a flag of any nation on the cover of the Bible makes me cringe. We like to think God has favored America, but that is because we are Americans. There is only one nation of man that has a place in scripture and that is Israel. That is the only nation to which land was promised and a national integrity granted. All other nations will rise and fall, as it is written in the Bible. Only God’s kingdom is eternal, that is also according to the Bible.

To demean the word of God by including these documents horrifies me. I don’t care who does such a thing, I would be horrified. As a Christian, one simply does not add things to the Bible. It isn’t done. It should never be done. And to wrap an American flag around the cover is, again, way, way too much. Can you imagine the reaction if Joe Biden were the one doing this? Christians would be damning the man to hell for doing such a blasphemous thing.

Christian nationalism as it is currently being forwarded by Trump and the Republican Party is not a concept to be celebrated but feared. It is a further sundering of the the political unity that has kept the United States united. For all we would like to think so, God does not care about the continuation of the nations and governments of mankind. Jesus was always turning people away from even Jewish nationalism and pointing them toward the eternal kingdom of God. He actively shunned the politics of man.

There is a lesson to be learned there, as is true of the entire life of Jesus. One does not wrap God’s kingdom or his Holy Bible for that matter, in a flag and one certainly has no right to sell God’s word to pay for one’s sins. If that is not blasphemy, it is perilously close to it.

Gary Cosby Jr. can be contacted at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Is it blasphemy for Donald Trump to sell Bibles? | GARY COSBY JR.