Posted on 02/25/2016 10:19:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has made a number of comments about the Bible in the past few days, from suggesting that Secretary of State John Kerry hasn't read it, to claiming that no one reads it more than himself.
Trump told CBN's Pat Robertson at Regent University on Wednesday that the United States has made a number of foreign policy mistakes during the past couple of decades, including the recent nuclear deal with Iran which lifted economic sanctions from the Islamic Republic in exchange for limiting its nuclear program.
"When you think of how Iran is doing lately, right? Between the Iran deal, we give them $150 billion — we got nothing for it," Trump said. "We should have gotten our prisoners back long before we started negotiating ... (Secretary John) Kerry — this is the worst negotiator I think I've ever seen."
The billionaire businessman then said:
"Obviously Kerry did not read The Art of the Deal. Probably didn't read the Bible, either."
Kerry is a devout Catholic. He spoke about his faith in a Dec., 2013, interview with ABC News, and described how reading the Bible helped him understand that suffering is part of God's plan.
"You read the letters of St. Paul and you read other parts of the scripture and it talks about suffering and it talks about adversity. And I sort of began to put that in a better place. Not see it so much as, you know, a determinative God who makes every decision for everything that happens. But rather creates a framework within which we're responsible for making things happen," Kerry said at the time.
The Hill pointed out that on Tuesday, Trump touted his engagement with the holy book:
"Nobody reads the Bible more than me," Trump declared ahead of his third consecutive win in the GOP primary in the Nevada caucuses.
Trump has insisted that he is a committed Christian despite making some gaffes related to the Bible.
He described "Second Corinthians" as "Two Corinthians" at Liberty University earlier this year after the verse was provided to him by Family Research Council's Tony Perkins. Perkins said that he can accept the blame for Trump's gaffe at the time, since he wrote some helpful notes which referenced "2 Corinthians 3:17," but said that Trump's mistake "shows that he's not familiar with Bible."
Trump called the Bible his favorite book back in August 2015, but then refused to name his favorite verse when asked repeatedly in an interview on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect."
"I wouldn't want to get into it. Because to me, that's very personal," Trump explained at the time. "The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics."
Then later he claimed his favorite verse is "never bend to envy," which is not in the Bible.
Trump says he is a Presbyterian and a member of Marble Collegiate Church, but Marble Collegiate is not a Presbyterian church and has no record of Trump being a member.
The GOP frontrunner has also insisted that he has a "great relationship" with God and with evangelical voters.
"I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think," Trump has said.
"I'm talking about over the last number of years, I'm leading a very good life. I try to lead a good life and I have."
Before the Iowa Caucus, he attended a church service in Iowa as part of his outreach to Evangelicals. But the church he attended was a Mainline Protestant denomination that supports gay marriage. At another Iowa church service, he put money in the communion plate, mistaking it for the offering plate.
Some conservatives, such as TV personality and radio host Glenn Beck, have dismissed the entire notion that Trump even reads the Bible.
Beck, who is a Mormon, said at a Ted Cruz rally earlier in February that "too many people are looking at Trump and believing that man has ever opened a Bible … that's the biggest crock of [expletive] I've ever heard."
"I'm going to be very blunt with you tonight," Beck added. "Donald Trump is very dangerous in my opinion."
Bump!
Ouch, my magical disappearing aching bone spurs. . ....../s
You’re being mean to Draft Ducking Donnie.
Because issues don’t matter anymore, neither does record.
Trump is the god of the middle finger,
the Patron Saint of F*ck You,
and that’s all that matters to them anymore.
It’s sickening that some so-called conservatives are passionately defending John Kerry against Trump. So Trump is a bigger enemy than John Kerry? Some Freepers are becoming absolutely deranged. You definitely aren’t Christians.
I honestly think that if Trump were assassinated, many on FR would celebrate in the streets. And I’m a Cruz voter.
So John Kerry’s a Christian, according to some Freepers. Pathetic.
I despise that kind of nastiness but I’ve never seen it.
Stuff like that has been reported to me ... well not like that exactly but similar...
But I have been on many, many threads for months now and I have never personally seen it.
If I did, I would disavow it at once.
I don’t think so.
I never wanted anyone to be assassinated. It’s not American, it’s what they do to rulers in third world countries.
Must as I despised the Clinton’s (both of them), I never wished them that kind of harm.
Never wished it for Obama.
Never wished it for Trump for gosh sakes. I’ll probably have to vote for the man.
And don’t go all postal on us and do the not Christian thing. Nobody knows about anyone else’s relationship with God.
What the heck is John Kerry to do with anything.
He’s despicable. I was totally on board with the Swift Boat guys who really knew him.
For the record, Donald Trump just did to John Kerry exactly what he chastised the Pope for doing to him.
Well, yeah, there’s that.
I just got an innocuous post pulled from chat for “flame bait”
Interesting times.
We used to be able to support the conservative candidates without being attacked.
That should never have happened. Ok, you now have a first and can move on. Lol
Which is what any normal person would do.
None the less, I did link people to it. I put a series of links on the forum laying out what I had seen.
Didn’t get a single note saying folks didn’t approve. Not one...
I even linked individuals to this specific thing, and had them come back and say it was no worse than the Trump insults.
Strangest thing...
At any rate, thanks for the nice response.
Ditto
Yup.
They’re offended.
Ahhh... I was wondering how that would play out.
PRE-NOMINATION-
Anti Trump: "We can't nominate this guy. He has too many skeletons. We don't really know where he stands. He has never been vetted. The media is going to turn on this guy. This is a terrible idea and his supporters are going to give the election to Hillary"
Pro Trump: "No. He is yuge. He is better than anyone. You are just jealous. You are an un-American RINO. Trump is the greatest, purest, most honest best person ever."
POST NOMINATION -
Anti Trump: "Damn it! You idiots! Do you see what you have done? He is terrible. The media is finally putting out the information that we knew was going to come out. He looks like a complete jackass. We are doomed!"
Pro Trump: "You must want Hillary to win."
You’re correct, I shouldn’t have said that the posters weren’t Christian.
But, on the other hand, you don’t know what Trump’s relationship with God is.
I never dreamed that John Kerry would be defended on FR. I would even defend Rubio against Kerry, even though I absolutely despise Rubio.
How’s the shark look down there, Donald?
I don’t particularly like running to Daddy but you should have alerted Jim to those nasty posts.
I don’t want people like that on this forum on either side.
The main post was deleted. To be honest, I think the poster asked to have it deleted, after I started referencing it big-time.
None the less, you can follow the conversation down thread and pick up on references that make it clear what was being discussed.
Did I mention the guy that said someone should frag Trump?
He did it twice about five months apart, and I called him on it each time.
He had both of those posts deleted, but again references are made to it even by him.
He claimed the second time as he had the first, that he didn’t know what it meant. I remembered explaining it to him the first time, so that didn’t fly.
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