(OPINION) A North Carolina pastor has gone viral after urging his congregants not to embrace the “God Bless the USA Bible” endorsed by former President Donald Trump, which includes documents central to the founding of the United States.
Pastor Loran Livingston of Central Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, condemned the “God Bless the USA Bible” in a sermon delivered on April 14. Clips of the sermon have been viewed millions of times after various users have shared them on social media in recent days.
During Holy Week, Trump endorsed the “God Bless the USA” Bible in a video posted to Truth Social last month. On sale for $59.99, the special edition Bible contains copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Pledge of Allegiance, along with the handwritten chorus to the Lee Greenwood song “God Bless the USA,” which is frequently played at Trump’s rallies.
Livingston warned that “people that don’t read [the Bible] and pray will get politics mixed up with church.”
“Some of you bring politics into the Church,” he lamented. “You think that politics is spiritual stuff.”
Livingston pushed back on this notion, asserting that “politics is of this world.” Directing a message to people who he said “bring politics into the Church,” he told them, “You think it’s your duty to be political about this, that and the other.”
“No!” he exclaimed. “Your duty is to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Livingston urged the congregation not to tell him about his “spiritual responsibility to vote” because “I don’t have a spiritual responsibility to vote.” Instead, he characterized voting as a “civic privilege.”
He maintained that the belief that voting is a “spiritual responsibility” stems from a failure to read the Bible.
“When you don’t read and pray, you say, ‘Wow, there’s a Bible out now that includes the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, isn’t that wonderful?'” Livingston said. “No! It’s disgusting, it’s blasphemous, it’s a ploy. Are you kidding me? Some of you are so encouraged by that?”
Livingston said, “the Gospel is not an American Gospel; it is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He argued that it’s inappropriate to place historical, foundational documents of the U.S. besides the word of God as the “God Bless the USA” Bible does.
He compared the U.S. Constitution’s use of the phrase “of the people, by the people and for the people” and the repeated use of the term “the people” with the Bible’s message of “of Him, by Him, through Him, to Him, from Him, are all things,” suggesting that the dueling ideas were incompatible.
“If you glory in that kind of thing, you don’t have a prayer life. If you glory in that kind of mess, political mess, you do not know what the word of God says,” Livingston stressed. “This is not my home. This world is not my home.”
