I'm wondering what one or two of your most favored
Bible
verses are and why. I wouldn't want to get into
it because to me,
that's very personal. The Bible means a lot to me,
but I don't want to get into specifics,
even to cite a verse thing like I don't want
to do that Old Testament guy or New Testament.
Probably equal.
Today is Good Friday, which if Donald Trump had ever
read or even briefly scanned the Bible,
he might know. But if you are a Christian believer,
you know that it marks the day Jesus of Nazareth,
a Palestinian Jewish Carpenter born in poverty as a displaced
refugee in his own land.
The land conquered by the Roman Empire was crucified for
the crime of defying the Roman emperor by worshipping the
God of Israel rather than the emperor himself.
An invented crime for which he was nailed to a
cross and mocked by Roman soldiers who affixed to his
head a crown of thorns and labeled him king of
the Jews. A man who performed miracles for the poor,
the sick, and the hated,
and who, despite being the son of the divine,
died for the sins of the masses.
A man whose entire ministry was about serving the poor,
the immigrant, and embracing the rejected.
Good Friday is when Christians commemorate his sacrifice for all
mankind.
And then there's Donald Trump,
a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth
who has only ever served himself and to his running
for president again to keep himself out of prison.
And yet he has also cast himself as a modern
day Jesus.
During this most sacred week in the Christian calendar,
he posted this message from a follower.
It's ironic that Christ walked through his greatest persecution,
the very weak they are trying to steal your property
from you.
The term Christ, by the way,
is not Jesus last name.
It's an Anglicization of the Greek translation of the word
Messiah,
the king and Savior of the world.
Well, to my knowledge, Jesus the Messiah never paid off
a porn star to cover up committing adultery while his
third wife was pregnant with his fifth child.
Nor do I recall Jesus selling a golden calf or
golden sneakers that his followers could worship as an icon
to him.
Jesus certainly wasn't Hawking bibles as part of a never
ending grift.
But for the low, low price of
5999, you can buy the God Bless the USA Bible,
the only Bible endorsed by Trump.
Because to Donald Trump, a Bible is no more sacred
than a Trump board game or Trump Water.
It's just another cheap tchotchke to sell to his followers
as his faith.
It's just another thing to sell to frightened white evangelical
Christians to get them to set aside what they know
about their faith and vote for Trump anyway to keep
him out of jail.
Trump has turned them into cult members,
shared his persecution complex with them to get them to
believe he's fighting a holy war for them.
But because he doesn't know anything about the actual Jesus,
Donald Trump doesn't understand that a real Messiah would never
say migrants are poisoning the blood of our country.
What Jesus actually said was I was a stranger and
you welcomed me.
And before he died, he said Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do.
Joining me now is the Reverend Al Sharpton,
president of the National Action Network and host of Politics
Nation on MSNBC.
And Robert P Jones, president and founder of the Public
Religion Research Institute and author of The Hidden Roots of
White Supremacy and The Path to a Shared American Future.
Gentlemen, thank you for being here.
I have to turn to my my play pastor,
my part time pastor. Every now Sharpton did my theology.
Did I get my theology right?
You were right on. No.
No problem at all. OK,
good. Because I listen. I listen to the fastest including
yourself.
My Big Brother. Let talk to me about Trump because
Trump is not any is not a Christian.
I mean he's not a religious man at all.
He's never do you know him.
He's not religious, No, I've never heard him even discuss
religion that's known be accused of of attending religious gatherings.
And which is why it is so insulting to me
as one who grew up in the church and have
been a preacher since I was a boy.
For him to not only come with selling bibles
during Holy Week, I mean this is the week that
we that believe in Christ,
the real Christ,
deal with the crucifixion today of Jesus,
Good Friday and Sunday, the resurrection.
And for him to use that as a marketing tool
where the money goes to Donald Trump,
not to A cause, not to help the poor,
not even to his campaign to him.
Which means he's really doing this to pay off lawyers
to get out of the porn star situation,
defraud and bank situation, and to do this show somebody
that is not only not religious,
but is totally insensitive to those that are to take
the Bible and say that this is the only Bible
endorsed by Donald Trump.
If you believed it was the sacred word of God,
who are you or I to endorse
the word of God and add to it and add
to it?
There was no Council of Nicaea that added to the
Bible.
Donald Trump did it. He thinks he has the right
to do it.
Then I need to know,
Robert Jones, because you've got the data.
Why do so many white evangelical Christians?
Why are they down with this?
This is what you might might call apostasy,
idolatry. This is sin and yet they are saying we
are for it.
Yeah. Well, I, you know,
I'll dust off my own master divinity degree here and
say there's one other word that's been rolling around in
my head this week and that's blasphemy.
Yes, right. I mean, anytime,
you know, someone attributes the,
the attributes of the deity to themselves and defiles things
that are sacred,
I mean that's straight up blasphemy.
And and this deeply, deeply troubling.
The other and the other thing too is,
you know, the, the most fundamental,
you know, peace and sort of Christianity is a willingness
to repent of one's sins.
And Trump has openly said he has never felt the
need
to repent of his sin.
Right. And this kind of fundamental
tenet of becoming Christian. But you know,
here's the thing. I think the only reason why we,
I think, are scratching our heads or seem confused about
white evangelical support for Trump is because we've accepted some
mythology that they have handed us.
And that is that it's been all about abortion and
that white evangelical because have held their nose and voted
for Trump.
But the data simply does not back that up.
Here's the truth. It is not just been about abortion.
When Trump denigrates Emirates, calls them rapists and criminals.
White evangelicals are with him
in that sentiment about fearful sentiment of Emirates.
When Trump has
denigrated the Black Lives Matter movement and it really supported
Confederate monuments,
white evangelicals are with him
on those sentiments. So it is this broader world view
that is really the reinstitution of a
1950s white Christian America. It is white Christian nationalism.
That Bible is if we ever had any doubts about
Trump's white Christian nationalist agenda,
this Bible and I hesitate to even call it that
this book right that he's bound these things up,
these unholy things together is are an indication that this
is exactly what he is going to institute if he
is returned to power
it it is. I mean we've seen Vladimir Putin do
this Rev You know in Russia where he is a
not a religious man but has sort of cultivated the
church in in in Russia to do what he needs
to do.
We've seen maybe Netanyahu cultivate highly religious people to get
what he wants what Donald Trump it is blasphemy
but it's do you is it does it surprise you
that there are not more white Christian leaders who stand
up and say that.
Well, I think if you're dealing with white Christian nationalism,
which is not Christian at all,
it is not surprising.