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.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    1301·
    8 months ago

    It is not for the followers to buy, although they probably will buy some number of them. It is chiefly a money-laundering vehicle for people to channel money to Trump without it being an official contribution. It is an update to the tactic of mass purchases of conservative-politician books which no one is planning on reading.

      • kboy101222English
        9·
        8 months ago

        Aaaahhh that’s why there’s so many of those weird garbage books there! You’d think those wouldn’t even be worth buying as rejects. There’s several at mine that I think have been there since they opened

  • seaQueue@lemmy.world
    534·
    8 months ago

    I think the point that everyone is missing here is that MAGAts aren’t Christians and never have been. Christianity is one of many identity sticks they whip out to beat others with: see, you’re not Christian like us, therefore you’re bad; same with race, class, perceived social status, gender, etc. Their arguments aren’t logical or consistent because they don’t need to be, they use whatever convenient weapon is at hand to justify whatever violence they want to inflict at the moment because the infliction of violence is the point. They don’t give two shits about Christianity and will only hang on to it as long as it’s a useful weapon. Hence the trump bibles, now that Christianity isn’t as useful as mango Mussolini’s cult of personality get ready for the Bible thumping to fall by the wayside - the Trump Bible is just a transitional weapon along the way.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      372·
      8 months ago

      I get what you’re saying, but Christianity has been used for literal millenia to justify atrocities.

      This is Christian behavior. They follow a “different Jesus” than humanist Christians, but as someone who grew up in an Evangelical church, they 100% believe that they are the true heirs of Jesus’ message.

      • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
        45·
        8 months ago

        And this is why Abrahamic religions must be either heavily regulated or abolished outright. No, I dont GAF about your First Amendment from 250 fucking years ago

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      131·
      8 months ago

      It’s easier to criticize policies because they should follow facts and logic.

      So they claim it’s because of their religion, and “faith” becomes more important than either.

      They’re more of the “old school” Christian who couldn’t read the Bible, or speak the language mass was given in. But wouldn’t pause to start a Holy War because they were told someone disagreed with the words they literally couldn’t understand themselves.

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      This doesn’t make sense to me. Christianity has been a theme of these people long before Trump came around. The evangelical vote had been courted since at least the 80s. It’s not some new phenomenon and they’ve latched onto trump, they aren’t a creation of him, and they’ll be around voting along with their religious beliefs long after he is gone.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
      21·
      8 months ago

      Nah don’t do that. They are Christians. If you’re a Christian, it doesn’t help to act like these people aren’t the ugly side of your religion. Christianity led to much of their prejudices and intolerance, and I hate the “they’re not a REAL Christian” argument that simply brushes these people away as not real, so you don’t have to face that many many Christians are this hateful. But they are.

  • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    8 months ago

    Fundamentalist Christianity makes a mockery of Christianity. This is perfectly on brand for them.

  • 4grams@awful.systemsEnglish
    18·
    8 months ago

    I can’t wait to see these decorate the homes of my “religious” turnip loving family.

  • Ludwig van BeethovenEnglish
    14·
    8 months ago

    As someone raised Catholic, and now just generally Christian who goes to mass whenever I feel like it, if any politician ever uses the religion card, I might just commit some act punishable by the TEK (Hungary). /hj obviously, but ffs man! Freedom of religion is being eroded by the Hungarian government as well. Why does anyone’s faith have to control others’?

    So as a technically Catholic: I am not persecuted. I am being privileged way too fucking much.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      3·
      8 months ago

      You’re being privileged but by privileging you they’re taking away something from you in the process: the right to grow and change. Even if you never do the freedom to do so is liberating

      • Ludwig van BeethovenEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        The brainwashing is mental. Just about a month ago some secretary of state came to our town and preached that ‘science without faith is science without morality (and that is bad), so therefore teaching without teaching faith is teaching immorality. West does that, West bad.’ On 15 March, the national holiday, our dictator Vezető prime minister preached the same thing.

  • MilitantVegan@lemmy.world
    41·
    8 months ago

    Came in to ask, “Is it kjv? Is it kjv? I bet it’s kjv.” Didn’t even have to ask, of course it is.

    But it includes the constitution? In a sense that’s almost too on the nose - if you’re familiar with fundamentalist hermenuetics, then the parallels between their exegetical methods, and the constitutional interpretation methods of conservatives is too clearly identical to be accidental.

    There are likely some Christians - even fascist ones, maybe particularly them - who likely find this offensive because they interpret it as an attempt to “add to the Word of God.” The freaky thing is there is a nonzero chance that some Christians might actually see this as an “inspired” event, and embrace these added documents as being canonical parts of the Bible. Just as Trump is doing a fantastic job of cleaving the republican party in two, could we be witnessing what could turn out to be another major schism within the Christian sects?

    Aside, this quote from the article doesn’t seem entirely accurate to me. While it is true that there are likely a lot of conservative Christians that this portrays, it should also be known that some of the most passionate and dedicated fascists view the Bible as the only actually legitimate law, and most definitely study it as dutifully as a trained lawyer:

    “Not that it matters, of course. The pages of Trump’s “Bible” could all be blank, and there’s a good chance no one would ever know it. In the right-wing publishing industry, books are not made to be read. They are to be displayed on your shelves, unopened, so you can glance at them and feel that somewhere, a liberal is “owned.””