According to a recent news report, James Dobson, former head of the group Focus on the Family (and remember that any group that has the word ‘family’ in its name is likely to be a bigoted one) said that Donald Trump had recently come to “a relationship with Christ” and that he knows the person who recently brought Trump and Jesus together. Dobson also said that Trump was still a ‘baby Christian’.

It may be that the story is apocryphal. Dobson is now walking the story back according to Erick Erickson (a conservative who is opposed to Trump):

Dobson now says he does not know for sure and, more importantly, he claims that the person who supposedly led Donald Trump to the Lord is noted prosperity gospel heretic Paula White.

White, you may recall, was under investigation by the IRS and was also accused of having an inappropriate relationship with fellow charlatan Benny Hinn.

This is just embarrassing. James Dobson, like so many before him, is seeing his credibility compromised by the Trump brand.

But it is clear that evangelical leaders are desperately seeking ways to justify supporting Trump and are clutching at straws. Dobson made excuses for him, saying:

“He doesn’t know our language. You know, we had 40 Christians together with him. He used the word hell four or five times. He doesn’t know our language, he really doesn’t. And he refers a lot to religion and not much to faith and belief. “You got to cut him some slack, he didn’t grow up like we did. I think there’s hope for him and I think there is hope for us. I have great concerns about the next election.”

And Ralph Reed said:

“But he made it abundantly clear, ‘I don’t know the Bible as well as you do, I’m not a theologian, but I’m a Christian,'” Reed said. “He talked about his children and how he raised his children, moral values, don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t do drugs.”

Reed further noted: “It’s not really our job to judge other peoples’ spiritual journey. Just because they’re not in the same place we are, we accept him for who he is now.”

I am surprised that Trump himself, in his attempt to appeal to evangelicals, has not boasted about his faith in his own inimitable style and tweeting things like “Nobody has a better relationship with Jesus than I have”. Ligonberry Fields imagines what such a Trump campaign might look like.

Republican presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump has released a new translation of the Holy Bible that he promises will make a “huuuge improvement” on the sacred text.

Officially titled “The Art of the Trump American Version of the Bible,” or “Trump Bible” for short, the first copies were made available for sale exclusively at the Sharper Image.

In a press conference held under a large banner that read “Make the Good Book Great Again,” Trump talked about the great quality of translation done for his Bible.
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Priced at about $80 a copy, the Trump Bible is elegantly designed with a gold-plated hardcover and includes an autographed photo of Trump as a bookmark.

While largely similar to the New International and King James versions, the Trump Bible does occasionally take certain interpretative liberties with some passages.

For example, Jesus’ declaration that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” has been edited to read “You cannot serve God and mammoths.”