Patriots: For over 26 years, your generosity has made it possible to offer The Patriot Post without a subscription fee to military personnel, students, and those with limited means. Please support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today.

April 15, 2024

The Bible Is America’s Book

Selling Bibles is a very American venture, and the Bible, particularly the King James Version endorsed by Trump, is a very American book.

Of all the objectionable things Donald Trump has ever done, selling a Bible would seem to rank pretty far down the list.

Yet his marketing, along with Lee Greenwood, of a God Bless the U.S.A. Bible for $59.99 has occasioned a couple of news cycles of outrage. The Bible has an American flag cover and accompanying American historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence, as well as the words to Greenwood’s iconic patriotic song.

Hawking the Bible like it’s a digital trading card or a personalized sneaker — to name a couple of other products Trump has pushed in his inimitable style — is tasteless and unpresidential, needless to say.

Dwight Eisenhower didn’t market golf balls, and it was notoriously Jimmy Carter’s brother — not the president — who sold a specially branded beer.

Nor should anyone confuse the handiwork of Thomas Jefferson — or Lee Greenwood — with the Word of God.

But the incensed commentary makes it sound as though Trump is the first person to sell an edition of a Bible catering to a niche market. In reality, there’s a dizzying array of Bibles in this country for people with different interests, whether it’s the law enforcement Bible, busy mom’s Bible or outdoorsman’s Bible with a camouflage cover and “devotions that tie directly to the sports of hunting, fishing, backpacking or any outdoor activity.”

The God Bless the U.S.A. Bible was first published in 2021, and already had competition in the American Patriot’s Bible from 2009.

The fact is that selling Bibles is a very American venture, and the Bible, particularly the King James Version endorsed by Trump, is a very American book, in fact the American book.

The ship’s carpenter on the Mayflower might have brought the first copy of the King James Bible to our shores. The historian of Christianity Mark Noll notes that the Bible was often the only book that families owned.

By around 1800, traveling Bible salesman Parson Weems (famous for his biography of George Washington) was marveling at the hot market: “I tell you, this is the very season and age of the Bible. Bible dictionaries, Bible tales, Bible stories — Bibles plain or paraphrased, Carey’s Bibles, Collins’ Bibles, Clarke’s Bibles, Kimptor’s Bibles, no matter what or whose, all, all will go down, so wide is the crater of public appetite at this time.”

According to Noll, between 1794 and 1815, 186 novels were published in America compared to 246 editions of the New Testament or the full Bible. Almost all of the Bibles published before 1840 were the King James Version. Already early in the 19th century, he writes, “printer-publishers were creating and meeting demand by packaging the King James Version in many sizes, shapes, and prices.”

Constant innovations in printing and distribution meant that the Bible and Bible-related literature led to what another historian calls “the birth of mass media in America.”

The King James Version played an enormous role in shaping America’s anti-monarchical attitudes during the Revolution. And the way the Bible pervaded and shaped American life was one reason that the country’s early leaders hoped a state establishment of religion was unnecessary — thanks to the Bible, they could have Christianity, and a virtuous society, without Christendom.

The King James Bible became foundational to American rhetoric and literature such that it is impossible to imagine the work of the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. or William Faulkner without it. Even as its influence has declined, we often quote or echo it without even realizing it.

“The great influence of the King James Version in American history,” Noll has said, “came precisely because it was so widely available; because precisely its words, and what the words communicated, had entered so deeply into the consciousness of so many Americans, and particularly of otherwise voiceless Americans.”

The God Bless the U.S.A. Bible won’t be a signal contribution to this tradition, but neither is it a betrayal of it.

© 2024 by King Features Syndicate

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.