Donald Trump, the Bible and the Truth

The former president is selling “God Bless the USA” Bibles. What will happen if he has to swear on Scripture in court during one of his many trials?

“Do you swear that the evidence you shall give to his court in this matter shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

Swearing in court witnesses is usually a perfunctory ritual. No one really pays attention. But if Donald Trump testifies in the case accusing him of hiding a hush payment to a porn star to protect his political campaign, all eyes would and should  focus on Trump’s hand on that Bible.

Here’s a good read in The New York Times headlined, “Trump’s Trial Could Bring a Rarity: Consequences for His Words.”

These veteran journalists — Maggie Haberman and Jonah E. Bromwich— raise the issue of truth itself, as journalists are supposed to do, and ask whether the former President and presumptive GOP presidential candidate will finally face consequences for his steady stream of lies over literally a whole life. They ask whether the truth will ever be protected in relation to Donald Trump, and suggest that it might be at this important legal moment. They write:

Eventually, the case could threaten not only Mr. Trump’s freedom but also the central tenets of a lifelong ethos ever-present in the former president’s pattern: a convenient disregard for the truth, the blunt denial of anything damaging and a stubborn insistence that his adversaries are always acting in bad faith.”

On the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ had a debate about truth with Pontius Pilate. The ruler and the prisoner were discussing the meaning of the truth, and Pilate was losing the debate. And that’s when he said to Jesus, “What is truth?” That is: Oh, what is the truth anyway, and how could we ever find it! Aren’t there “alternative facts” here? 

Sound familiar? Strong men don’t just lie all the time, they want to undermine the very existence of the truth. When they succeed and people give up on ever finding the truth, they are told to believe whatever the strong man says the truth is.

In John 8:32, Jesus tells us, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” I now see this iconic text as telling us that the opposite of truth is not just more lies, but captivity. Freedom and truth are indivisible, Christ is teaching here. Fact-checkers tell us that Donald Trump committed a record number of lies during his four years in the White House (30,573 if anyone is counting). But at a much deeper level Trump has spent his life undermining even the idea of the truth. Trump’s life has offered a continuous stream of lies, and now he’s trying to dilute our nation’s understanding and comprehension of the truth, threatening us all with captivity to his falsehoods. 

Donald Trump has never been comfortable with the Bible. After using the military to violently clear peaceful protesters, the then-president walked from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square, where he brandished a Bible upside down (ironically and revealingly). He had nothing to say about the Good Book; he was using it as a prop for his contrived photo-op. He has never been able to say what books of the Bible were his favorites to read, and once referred to the Epistle of Second Corinthians as “two Corinthians,” prompting one of my colleagues to joke, “Did you hear the one about two Corinthians walking into a bar?” 

And now Donald Trump is actually selling his own American nationalist Bibles — keeping a portion of proceeds for himself, of course

Since Trump keeps lifting the Bible up, we should too, asking if any part of his political agenda can be found in the Bible. For example, the way Trump talks about immigrants as “animals and “vermin” who will “poison the bloodstream of America.” That’s not found in the Bible, but the opposite: to welcome the stranger, rather than creating huge internment and deportation camps immigrants, many of whom have been here for decades and most of their lives. And where in the Bible does it say to favor the rich and ignore the poor, as the huge tax cuts for the wealthiest he pledges to push for should he return to the White House. And the God of the Bible is a God of justice, not the revenge and “retribution” that Trump is promising. Pardoning his most violent supporters and punishing his adversaries is again exactly the opposite of what the Bible teaches.  

In Galatians 3:28, Paul says that all of us –Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female–are now one in Christ Jesus. I have learned that this was a text read at baptisms in the early church, showing the commitment of this new community to bring down and transform the barriers of religion, race and gender. But Trump appeals to the racial grievances of his white followers. 

The power of one man to rule over a country with few checks or balances disregards the Bible’s warnings about the power of sin and selfishness. The glorification of riches, with attacks on the most vulnerable, is completely contrary to what the Bible teaches from beginning to end. The prophet Micah tells us to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.” That instruction is completely counter to the life and agenda of Donald Trump, a life of lies that is only about one thing – himself.

One of Trump’s posts on his social media platform – ironically called “Truth Social”— was stunning. It’s a picture of Donald Trump at a defense table in a courtroom – a place where he spends more and more of his time. The cartoon Trumped shared shows Jesus Christ sitting next to him at the defendants table in the courtroom. Trump has told his Christian Nationalist followers that: “I am being indicted for you.” No presidential candidate has ever compared himself to Jesus Christ like this one does. So if Trump wants to bring up Jesus, we should too and directly compare his agenda with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Let’s have a debate about the Bible over these next critical months, and a conversation that might bring us back to Jesus. In the meantime, I will be waiting to see if Trump ever puts his hand on a Bible and swears to tell the truth. Much more than a judge’s verdict will be at stake.

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