The Book of Trump

I'd like to say that this is the political equivalent of Madonna covering Don McLean's "American Pie" - doing something spectacularly outrageous that endears oneself to one's followers even more while offending detractors to the point of tearing their own hair out and realizing that nothing can be done about it.  But it's far worse than that.

Donald Trump, having put his name through licensing to so many unrelated products - steak, spring water, vodka - in a effort to make his name a brand like Henry Ford or Willis Carrier made theirs, is now putting his name on the Holy Bible.  He's also putting his name in the Bible, along with the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and Pledge of Allegiance (originally written by a socialist in 1892, the words "under God" added in 1954), in an undertaking with country and western hack Lee Greenwood, known for his beer-commercial-jingle-influenced song "God Bless the U.S.A." 

And this limited-edition version of the King James Bible can be yours for sixty bucks! 

Trump has done it.  He's done the most disgusting thing anyone can ever possibly done short of committing a mass shooting, though he could stage a mass shooting on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and still not lose any votes.  He's committed the ultimate blasphemy, exploiting the religious faith of his supporters to make a quick infusion of cash to pay his legal bills - including his legal bills to the lawyers defending him over the case of paying hush money to a porn star to cover up an affair with her.  But his supporters are hardly innocents in this deal.  They've committed to Trump so vehemently that they see him as a messiah of sorts, someone who will stand and fight for their Christian nationalist views that regard American civilization as a bulwark of Christian values.  

Christian nationalism has been around for decades, mainly a by-product of the Cold War against the atheistic Soviet Union.  The values of  Christian nationalism involve a rabid self-righteousness and an intolerant attitude toward people of different views and different cultures (the latter extending to people of different races), as well as control of the weak and punishment for opponents with no love or charity.  Even Barry Goldwater, who coined the phrase that a good doer is preferable to a do-gooder, was appalled by Christian nationalists.   

More recently, calls for maintaining America as a "Christian nation" has gone beyond maintaining "In God We Trust" as the national motto.  There was always an exclusionary element in Christian fundamentalism, including a belief that federally mandated racial integration was a Communist plot, but once Communism was defeated, the Christian right focused more on using their influence to  suppress secularist values they didn't like, using public figures like President Bill Clinton as dangerous avatars of immortality, and also pushing Christianity as a foundation of America in the face of one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States - Islam.  I find it interesting that throughout the 1990s, the Christian right never came out and said their emphasis of America's "Christian foundations" was meant to be a talisman against Islam.  Then came 9/11, then the rise of the Tea Party, culminating with the rise of Donald Trump, who gave Christian nationalists carte blanche to demonize Muslims as un-American and a threat to the exclusive influence Christians had once enjoyed in the U.S.

This has led to Trump pushing these "patriotic" Bibles, reinforcing America as a citadel of Christian values and casting himself as the leader of a modern Christian restoration and as a defender of the faith.  The irony of placing the Constitution in this Bible edition to Americanize a holy book written long before Christopher Columbus or even Leif Ericsson were born is most evident in the inclusion of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.  

It makes sense that I'm talking about all this on Holy Saturday, because it feels like the nation has descended into hell.

And we've been taken there by a man who has zero understanding of Judeo-Christian tradition.

Donald Trump has long been a con man, but with this schtick, he's descended into being a false prophet, much like Alexander of Paphlagonia apapred in that Roman province in what is now Turkey and were able to attract followers by getting the people, who were incredibly stupid, to accept the smallest sleight of hand as a miracle.  If Trump has so much money as he claims, he should be giving Bibles away,  much like missionaries do (as well as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who give away copies of Book of Mormon, which ironically was dismissed as a blasphemous money-making venture when it first appeared in 1830).  But even if Trump did give away Bibles, it would still be meaningless, coming as they would from a man who threatened the daughter of the judge in his hush-money case for having worked for the Democratic Party.