Faith without morality or theology, much less that “soyboy” Jesus? Sign MAGA Republicans up!
Earlier this week, Donald Trump unveiled his newest grift to squeeze money out of his cult followers: Trump-branded Bibles. Claiming the book contains the “King James version” and “also includes the Founding Father [sic] documents,” Trump promised “you have to have it for your heart, for your soul.” The screenshots of the video are funny by themselves, but I highly recommend watching the ad Trump cut for these Bibles. Trump radiates total contempt for Christianity.
This is Trump in his angry-bored mode, letting viewers know with his listless tone and posture that he thinks all this Bible stuff is dumb. The not-at-all subtle message of the video is that Trump doesn’t believe any of this faith-in-God crap, but he definitely believes in using Christian identity as a weapon to make money and dominate his foes.
Many Trump opponents on social media replied with video clips underscoring how Trump may be the single most ignorant person in the country about the contents of the Bible.
I’ve never before heard someone say “the American church”
Ahh, sorry, that’s a bit of Christian-ese. So, within Christianity, we actually think of “church” as being a word that means…basically like four related but distinct things.
It can mean “every Christian who has ever lived” (usually you see that form capitalized, as “the Church.”)
It can mean “a particular expression/denomination/subset of that universal Church” (e.g. Presbyterian, Pennsylvanian, Peruvian, etc.)
It can mean “a local congregation that meets and worships as a group” (e.g. Downtown First Baptist of Nowheresville)
It can mean “the building where that congregation meets” (e.g. 123 N Main St, Nowheresville, PA)
There are some other, lesser-used definitions of that word, but in the end you kind of have to figure it all out by context. “The American Church” is a pretty common term in some circles, referring to meaning #2–a particular subset of the global church in America. The reason it’s particularly common in the circles I run in is because we talk about it like a toddler that’s running around smearing poop on everything and knocking glassware off of tall shelves, and laughing at anyone who tries to tell him to stop.