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 get tired of the argument from conservatives that the US was founded on Christian ideals, because it wasn’t. Instead it was designed to resemble Christianity, much like how Christmas co-opted Saturnalia. The US Civic religion was meant to bring together disparate groups of people with a common belief system. At some point I think this religion actually replaced Christianity in the US. If those J6 rioters had looked up they would’ve seen the Apotheosis of Washington and realized that’s who they are actually worshipping.
I don’t even know how much they intended for it to become a replacement religion. These were enlightenment philosophers. It was their grandchildren forming a religion around it. A secular nation building monuments to its models makes a certain sense, but they become deified. And as you say we sit in the shadow of statues of our fellow humans.
And the thing is I’m not even immune to all this. I live in fear of American nationalism but by fuck sometimes I still find myself appealing to the authority of men who I believe to be genuinely monstrous. I still struggle to remove Lincoln from his pedestal.