{"id":13988,"date":"2020-06-04T00:27:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T23:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/?p=13988"},"modified":"2020-06-10T12:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T11:25:57","slug":"the-bible-the-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/the-bible-the-president\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible & the President"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A picture of the Bible has flashed all around the world.
\nIt\u2019s on every news channel and in every newspaper.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

As an organisation devoted to distributing and promoting the Bible, we (Bible Society) might be expected to be happy about that. But we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

The Bible in question was held by President Trump, who\u2019d taken a short walk from the White House to St John\u2019s Episcopal Church. The area in front of the church had been cleared by police using teargas of demonstrators protesting against the killing of George Floyd by a white policeman who knelt on his neck.<\/p>\n

Video shows the President standing by the church signboard turning the Bible around until he finds the right pose.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not entirely clear what Mr Trump intended to convey by this photo-op, but it\u2019s a disturbing image. Certainly he outraged the church\u2019s bishop: Rt Revd Mariann Budde told CNN, \u2018Let me be clear, the President just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s genuinely troubling to see the Bible being used as a prop \u2013 particularly when, as the bishop says, it\u2019s associated with images of violence. Co-opting the Bible as a justification for repression is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

What was in President Trump\u2019s mind?\u00a0 Perhaps Romans 13.1, which says, \u2018Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.\u2019 But Christians have always understood that this authority has limits, and that authority can be exercised oppressively and tyrannically. We read Romans, but we also read Amos, who said: \u2018let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream\u2019\u00a0(5.24).<\/p>\n

Amos is one of many prophets to express holy outrage at wrongdoing. This passion for justice permeates every page of Scripture. It\u2019s what lay behind Jesus\u2019 actions in turning over the tables in the Temple. It\u2019s what has lain behind every great movement for social reform in Christian history. It lies behind the anger expressed by church leaders at George Floyd\u2019s death, and what it reveals \u2013 yet again \u2013 of what it\u2019s like to be black in parts of America today. It lies behind the marches and the protests that have greeted the death of another innocent black man. And while it may be right to say that these have sometimes been hijacked by thugs and criminals, there\u2019s a righteous and biblical anger there as well.<\/p>\n

When President Trump held up Paul\u2019s words in Romans, he was holding up Amos too \u2013 the prophet who warned that the longed-for \u2018day of the LORD\u2019 would be \u2018as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him\u2019\u00a0(5.19)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enlisting the Bible in our cause is a dangerous thing to do. It is fundamentally untamed; it judges all of us \u2013 presidents and people. Yes, it judges the looters and destroyers \u2013 but it judges murder, racism, oppression and injustice too.<\/p>\n

Author: Mark Woods, Bible Society’s Editor, 2 June 2020\u00a0 \u00a0 (https:\/\/www.biblesociety.org.uk\/<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A picture of the Bible has flashed all around the world. It\u2019s on every news channel and in every newspaper. As an organisation devoted to distributing and promoting the Bible, we (Bible Society) might be expected to be happy about that. But we\u2019re not. The Bible in question was held by President Trump, who\u2019d taken … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Bible & the President”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13988"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14001,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988\/revisions\/14001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}