Thursday, March 28, 2024
Religious/Political Mayhem Thursday: The Trumpish Bible
For sixty bucks, you can now buy the "God Bless the USA" Bible from Donald Trump. It includes not only the King James Bible, but the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the pledge of allegiance, and the lyrics to a Lee Greenwood song.
There are a lot of issues here.
First of all, as far as I know (check me on this, IPLawGuy) all of these materials except the song are out of copyright, so Trump is paying nothing for the content. More accurate and modern Bibles, that take into account new discoveries, include translations that often are still under copyright.
Second, there are lots of conflicts between the documents in there. For example, the First Commandment says "Have no other Gods before me," while the First Amendment in that pesky Constitution advises that we can have whatever God we want-- or none at all. And in that Bible, Jesus says to "take no oaths before God or Man," yet, the pledge of allegiance is exactly that. Hmmm.
Finally, the best kind of Bible is this: full of side-tabs, marked up with pen in the margins, taped together from being carried around, and full of fingerprints. No Trump required.
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I certainly have not picked up a copy, but my understanding is that the Trump Bibles have some Christian Nationalist commentary and other "explanatory" material. That's what is protected by Copyright. This is why you often see tedious and pointless forwards and analysis, not to mention footnotes, in reprints of books from the 1800's or early 20th Century. Copyright on the underlying work has indeed run, but any "new" material is protected.
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