Former President Donald Trump is now selling Bibles for $59.99, inscribed with the phrase "God Bless the USA" and accompanied by copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But he's not the first U.S. ex-president to sell Bibles for his own purposes. After leaving office, Thomas Jefferson put together "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” which was a private exercise undertaken to make sense of Jesus's teachings. The Miami Herald contrasts the two books, saying of Trump's Bible: “The use of flag imagery and political texts in conjunction with the bible suggests a dangerous politicization of Christianity and religion more broadly — the exact phenomenon that Jefferson feared.”
Sept.17 marks the anniversary of the signing of the #Constitution. #JamesMadison wrote to #ThomasJefferson in March 1787, when plans were underway for the #ConstitutionalConvention, “What may be the result of this political experiment cannot be foreseen.”
11 days before the Constitution was signed, Madison wrote Jefferson, “If the present moment be lost it is hard to say what may be our fate.”