"If My President. . .": Trump to Read Scripture Publicly Amid Questionable Attempts At Religious Reformation

Pres. Donald Trump has been criticized for using the Bible as a prop and selling his own Bible, but will read a scripture from the holy book from the Oval Office tonight as a part of the "America Reads the Bible" event taking place this week. The event engages clergy and politicians reading the Word of God from cover-to-cover.

 

The moment comes when the faith of the POTUS has been questioned by his evangelical base after he posted an image of himself in the likeness of Christ and repeatedly engaged in negative banter with Pope Leo, a global religious leader who is directly tied to the lineage of the Christian church. Notably Trump will be reading 2 Corinthians 7:14, the very book of the Bible that he presumably flubbed in 2016. Gospel artists had criticized him for pronouncing the number two instead of saying second, the common way the book is mentioned in the U.S. They took it as a sign that he was not familiar with the scripture he was quoting. However, in other parts of the word the "2" is pronounced so it was not necessarily a mistake. This passage of the Bible is a common reference faith leaders us to urge Christians in America to turn from its wicked ways in order to receive God's blessed healing. The scripture begins, "If my people who art called by my name..."

 

Considering many Americans blame the president for causing many of the problems in society and in the world due to the triggering the war in the Middle East -- his participation may fall on deaf ears.

The week-long Bible reading effort is designed to celebrate the Christian heritage of the nation and fits with Pres. Donald Trump religious reform efforts around centering God in government.  He has been criticized for not honoring the separation of church and state.