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Yesterday afternoon, PBS sort of reluctantly reported that President Trump would participate in the reading of God's Word this week, along with other leaders in our country.
PBS begins: "President Donald Trump and many of his leading Christian supporters and top Republicans are taking part this week in a marathon reading of the Bible in an America 250-themed event billed as encouraging a 'return to the spiritual foundation that has shaped our country'."
You can easily tell PBS doesn't necessarily connect with the believing Bible readers, which reveals why this event is so important and necessary at this time in our nation.
Be informed, not misled.
The Public Broadcasting System set up their reporting with this:
It is slated to feature a video of Trump on Tuesday evening [which happened] reading a passage that called for national repentance in ancient Israel — words that have been used prominently for decades by those promoting the belief that America has been and should be a Christian nation.
The Bible is "indelibly woven into our national identity and way of life," Trump said in a statement commemorating the event. The statement cited historical figures such as the Puritan leader John Winthrop as "imploring his fellow Christian settlers to stand as a beacon of faith for all the world to see."
Here's what Trump actually said in his statement:
From Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World and the first permanent English-speaking settlement at Jamestown to our founding in 1776 and to the present day, the Bible has been indelibly woven into our national identity and way of life. Nearly 400 years ago, a decade after the arrival of the Mayflower, the legendary John Winthrop powerfully invoked Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew: “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us,” Winthrop said, imploring his fellow Christian settlers to stand as a beacon of faith for all the world to see.
In the decades that followed, the truths of Holy Scripture remained deeply embedded in our culture—not only within the walls of our churches but in our homes, schools, courtrooms, and public square. Nearly 150 years after Winthrop’s storied sermon, on July 4, 1776, our Founders echoed Holy Scripture in the central animating principle of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
From the declaration of those immortal words at the very beginning of our Republic, and ever since, the Bible has enduringly illuminated our system of Government, given life to our constitutional framework, bolstered our educational institutions, and informed our deepest civic and moral identity. The 1787 Northwest Ordinance—one of our Nation’s earliest and most formative laws—stated that “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Two decades later, John Adams, our second President, wrote the following to his fellow Founding Father Benjamin Rush: “The Bible contains the most profound Philosophy, the most perfect Morality, and the most refined Policy, that ever was conceived upon Earth.”
PBS reported, "Critics say the event has a highly partisan list of participants and is part of a larger project to connect America's upcoming 250th birthday with a Christian nationalist vision that portrays the nation's founding as essentially Christian, something many historians dispute. White Christians, particularly evangelicals, have been crucial to Trump's electoral base."
Truth is, a significant number of so-called progressive church leaders and pastors were invited to participate.
All of them declined.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, said, "We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. … Its refining and elevating influence is indispensable to our most cherished hopes and ideals.”
He also said, "Those forces [Communism and Naziism] hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy.”
Takeaway
The message further cited George Washington's inaugural oath, in which he placed his hand on the Bible and kissed it after taking office. The White House noted that Abraham Lincoln quoted Scripture four times and mentioned God 14 times in his Second Inaugural Address. The presidential message also cited Franklin D. Roosevelt’s radio prayer on the eve of the Normandy landings in 1944 and Ronald Reagan’s 1983 proclamation, which named that year the Year of the Bible.
This is not a political stunt by Trump, as some suggest.
Many in his Administration are also participating in the Bible reading.
They include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Dr. Ben Carson are also participating.
Our Founding Fathers are speaking to us through history:
"Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties. Write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Ulysses S. Grant).
Be Informed. Be Discerning, Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.
