bible reading
President Donald Trump is one of many high-profile conservatives taking part in a marathon Bible reading this week, with Trump’s reading of 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 airing on Tuesday night.
“America Reads the Bible,” organized by the nonprofit Christians Engaged, began on April 18 and runs through April 25. Trump recorded his reading of the 2 Chronicles passage last week, reading directly into the camera from his seat in the Oval Office. His reading will be livestreamed and aired at the Museum of the Bible.
Incidentally, his recording was made shortly after Trump’s first Truth Social post attacking Pope Leo XIV and his AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. Trump, who later deleted the post, claimed he thought it depicted him as a doctor. The post was controversial enough to raise the ire of even stalwart supporters like conservative Christian activists Candance Owens and Sean Feucht.
Ten books on the shelf of one of our most respected biblical scholars.
The puzzle here is not that readers of the Bible would tilt toward the political left. That, for me, as well as for thousands of other American evangelicals, is self-evident. Jesus, after all, summoned his followers to be peacemakers, to turn the other cheek, to welcome the stranger and to care for “the least of these.” He also expressed concern for the tiniest sparrow, a sentiment that should find some resonance in our environmental policies.
No, the real conundrum lies in the subtitle the editors of Christianity Today assigned to Franzen’s article, which was titled, “A Left-Leaning Text.” Adjacent to a picture of a Bible tilted about 45 degrees to the left, the editors added the subtitle: “Survey Surprise: Frequent Bible reading can turn you liberal (in some ways).”
The fact that anyone should register surprise that the Bible points toward the left should be the biggest surprise of all.