I’ve been a pastor for 40 years. I have encouraged every kind of person — all backgrounds, all politics, all walks of life — to read the Bible if they’d like. So I’m not against Bible reading. Not even a little.
But you don’t read the Bible to perform it; you read it because it changes how you live. You read it because it calls you toward the common good — toward your neighbor, toward the vulnerable, toward something bigger than yourself.
So when the President of the United States reads 2 Chronicles in a curated, televised event while simultaneously threatening entire populations, gutting programs that feed children, and deporting people from their homes and communities, that’s not living the Bible.
The same day the AP story ran, I posted a short video about a conversation I had with my plumber. He’s been a hard-core Trump supporter for years, but when he came to my house yesterday, he told me he’s “pissed and depressed” and that Trump is no longer his guy.
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