Bids opened Monday for a contract to supply the state Department of Education with 55,000 Bibles. According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.
A salesperson at Mardel Christian & Education searched, and though they carry 2,900 Bibles, none fit the parameters.
But one Bible fits perfectly: Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and commonly referred to as the Trump Bible. They cost $60 each online, with Trump receiving fees for his endorsement.
Isn’t it ironic that bibles sold to this agency have the documents stating there is separation of church and state included in the book?
OH WOW! That’s such a weird coincidence! Imagine the odds of that! /s
Of course they did. The thing is the way the law is written violates the Constitution by promoting an ideologically-loaded, outdated translation of the Bible used by more socially extreme groups.
- NRSV(UE) is the gold standard nowadays.
- Leather cover? Why? What’s the point?
- The Founding Documents to the United States do not belong in a Bible. Not everything has to be tarnished with crass “Patriotic” grift.
- Just the Bill of Rights? The Amendments to the Constitution are legally part of the Constitution. What are they not included? Is there something in those Amendments they don’t feel is appropriate?
- This Bible has consistent poor reviews on Youtube. A number of Bible collectors, theologians, pastors, etc have panned this book for being cheaply and poorly made. It has poor print quality, it’s pages stick together, are thin, and rip easy.
It should be obvious to anyone this is an ideological grift and it is criminal graft too. These criminals need to be thrown in prison for this.
you mean to tell me the requirement isn’t “be a bible” ???
Did a con artist promote it for money? If so-✅
Wait, I thought these guys were against indoctrinating children or whatever?
They’re against anyone else indoctrinating children.
Who tf wrote those requirements?
It seems pretty clear to me that they intended the Trump Bible to be the only one that fit all the specifications.
While it’s obviously weird to want the bill of rights and declaration of independence in your Bible; let me just say, if your goal is to convert kids to Christianity, the KJV bible is just completely opaque to children that don’t normally read 17th century literature.
At the rate these political hacks are going, students won’t be able to parse modern text.
Pretty clear they wrote the requirement to fit some recently hacked up version as opposed to the one hacked up by king james.
The article states they hacked it up 2900 times at least before this one. 30k different Christian sects in the U.S. last I knew
I’m sure its more than that. The really perverse thing about that is all the people that are super sure their particular flavor is right and everyone else is wrong. Its the old thing about what is a cult and what is a religion? A cult is a small unpopular religion and a religion is a large popular cult.
For fuck’s sake in ten years we’re going to hear kids tell us the Constitution was given to us by Jesus.
There will be no Constitution
Oh no. It’s an important point of legitimacy to have one. It won’t be worth a damn though.
Wasn’t it George W. Bush that said, “… it’s just a god damn piece of paper?”
I’m sure he wasn’t the first. (Yeah I’m looking at you Andrew Jackson, we haven’t forgotten.)
Yep, that’s when you start with the answer you want, then set “general” requirements that only it can meet
Why are they putting bibles in classrooms in the first place? Did they repeal the First Amendment?
The first amendment doesn’t apply to Christian evangelism.
According to SCOTUS at any rate.
Apparently, the State Superintendent gets to decide what gets taught in classrooms, and how it gets taught is left up to individual school districts. But it’s fully within his right because no “commentary” is allowed around the Bible, just how important it was to America’s history.
Why that requires a physical copy that’s leather bound, I have no idea. Nor why the money has to come from the fucking payroll budget.
Oklahoma is ranked 49th in education, yet this is what we’re spending money on? Seriously?
I’m certain they take 49th with equal amounts salt and pride, as that means theres still a few states left to beat.
They’re really gunning for 50th.
But they are top five in propaganda training!
The Bible is really important for understanding western society and it’s history. It has a place in the classroom.
I’m sure that was not the motivation behind that law but it’s true.
There are history books that can contextually bring our students up to speed on what religious texts drove certain events/societies.
You’re not wrong but, thankfully, studying history and teaching the impact of things doesn’t require the things to physically be in the room.
It might fit into history if it hadn’t been changed and edited, sections omitted, additions made, for the entire time it existed. It was only the printing press that allowed us to have true copies for the masses.
It surely has a place in history, but not for psychology or sociology. In my opinion there is some value educationally but its very limited. There are even denominations that exclude books or add them, so it depends which religion you consider to be the “main” one.
To have a truly nuanced class about it, would have to be in college I would think.
Is there a term for a society that has all the wealth, technology, industrial knowledge, and manpower readily at hand to be a utopia and despite that, leans hard into dystopia?
Idiocracy
Capitalism
Leech.
Thats the word for a country that turns worldwide suffering into cash.
Murika
Civilization
Bible […] must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights
I’m sorry? Why would people mixed (modern) political text to their religious ones? Aren’t people buying bibles suppose to care about their religion?
By making those requirements they are making sure money is diverted from teacher’s paychecks an into Trump’s pockers
The goal is to abolish separation between church and state bit by bit.
Pretty sure the goal here is to funnel more money to Trump.
Why not both?
This seems more like taking a tank through a screen door. The separation is barely there to begin with.
They catered the criteria so only a single company fit the bill
I’m sure jeebus had a thing or two to say about marketplaces of thieves and swindlers.
“It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.” -Matthew 21:13
To be clear, I don’t believe in fairy tales, but they clearly don’t either.
I like to read the biblical texts as texts you have to interpret. Basically like fairytales and fables are in versions that aren’t from the brothers Grimm and especially Disney - they often were used to carry points that wouldn’t have been tolerated by authority if they hadn’t been covered like that, or simply to tell about some aspects of life.
When reading it like this the Bible is an extremely interesting book, and I’m saying that as an atheist.
Its more interesting once you find out how many things were changed over the years. The why it was changed is the most curious part. Was it a tired scribe who skipped a passage, completely omitting it? Was it intentionally rewritten by someone to “clarify” its intent?
There are some good papers and presentations recorded online if you are interested.
Fables if u will
if that doesnt convince you that religion is made up on the spot for conniving convenience, nothing will
Religion is the multi-tool, always there to back you up no matter what.
Trump, cashing in on licensing. Like the $100K watches, where proceeds don’t quite go to funding his campaign. They money goes pretty much directly to his pocket. He loves the poorly educated!
And shoes!
There is no better description of the anti christ than trump.
I don’t believe in the coming of an antichrist but damn, why do so many prophecies written two millennia ago point to one specific person, especially when those prophecies are so specific
I think they just had a very good idea of the concept of an evil, immoral leader.
They had plenty of them back then after all. Especially in the Roman empire.
But then there’s also the seven heads (seven trump headquarters), getting shot in the head thinking it’s fatal but surviving seemingly through a miracle, the ones about his relations to the kingdom to the south, resulting in criticism from the north and east etc
Of course it’s coincidence (at some point there just has to be someone who can be accurately described with these prophecies) but it’s still very interesting
He’s also the Republican’s golden calf.
