Trump's Bible -- Read it and Weep

President Donald Trump formulating his next online diatribe while faith leaders gather around him  in the Oval Office.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.  When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people,  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.  For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.  As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne, as I made a covenant with your father David saying, ‘You shall never lack a successor to rule over Israel.’ 

 “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from the land that I have given you, and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.  And regarding this house, now exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord the God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them.’ ”

2 Chronicles 7:12-22 NRSVue 

Do not be overly alarmed if at 7:00 this evening the sky should go black as midnight and thunder roars. This will be a sign of God's displeasure as President Trump reads a pre-corded scripture passage from the Oval Office. This will be part of a week-long "America Reads the Bible event to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Trump's blasphemous two-and-a-half minute reading from 2 Chronicles is part of this initiative involving about 500 people from varying walks of life and celebrity. Of course, reading scripture is not blasphemous but coming from a leader who chose Easter morning to fire off a profanity laced threat of hell against Iran was, and to ask a man who has probably never turned to the bible for guidance and wisdom in his life to now participate in this project is. This Hebrew scripture passage includes  verses beloved by Christian Nationalists:  

...if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 

You may recall that during his first term Trump ordered peaceful protesters gathered in a public square in Washington DC to be cleared by force so that he could march, unannounced, to an Anglican Church where he glowered and brandished a bible as though it was an assault rifle. When asked if was his bible he responded that it was a bible. Trump has also sold bibles because he really needs the money.

Trump isn't known for his humility, except, perhaps in his own mind, but maybe he will be prophetic without knowing it. The passage promises that those who serve other gods will be plucked up and cast from God's sight. The opinion polls are not good for the Mob Boss in Chief, so we can only hope. 

So, what is the shortest verse in the bible? "Jesus wept." John 11:35