The Almighty Dollar: Did schools official rig bid to allow Trump to grift off taxpayers with his Bible?

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 538 points – The Almighty Dollar: Did schools official rig bid to allow Trump to grift off taxpayers with his Bible?
nj.com

A report from from The Oklahoman confirmed that Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters is pushing to put more Bibles in the classroom, but it appears the bid might have been rigged to benefit Donald Trump.

The Oklahoma Department of Education opened bids this past week to vendors to supply the Department with about 55,000 new Bibles to place in the public schools system.

According to The Oklahoman, the requirements for the vendors include:

"Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material."

Is it a coincidence that few Bibles meet those requirements? The Bible endorsed by Trump, however, does. Trump receives fees for endorsing musician Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, which has been endorsed by Trump., and those Bibles likely would meet Oklahoma's requirements.

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This feels so blatantly illegal. This isn't surprising in the slightest.

Inb4 No one will be punished and nothing is changed.

It violates the first amendment establishment clause they can't privilege Christianity over other religions before even getting to the selection criteria obviously only one grifter can meet, but with the federal courts disproportionally filled by theocrats the separation remains very threatened.

It also violates collusion laws and also collusion clauses in their own terms found at
https://sde.ok.gov/ev00000555

Kinda odd that they chose to adbicate any fiduciary responsibility in order to prefer a book with an extremely specific physical design on the basis of durability, despite that design being so specific that it costs >10 times more than less specifically-designed books, when the only people who can acquiesce to such a request are political figures of the same affiliation

I worked at a major public university for 14 years during the late 90s / early 00s. This happens more than people realize.

I believe you. It doesn't make it right, and I wish we could do something. Justice feels fairly hopeless at this point

it's not. at any point, if enough people band together, we can make anything happen, with or without the government's support. we are looking down the barrel of global catastrophe. at some point, we have to do something.

Separation of church and state concerns aside, much less expensive Bibles are readily available. Paperback versions of the New King James Version are available online for $2.99 each, less than 5% of what the Trump-endorsed Bible would cost.

Conservatives, everyone. Don't worry, a bunch of people will sue due to the anticompetitive and nonsensical nature of requirements and waste even more taxpayer money.

The requirements literally violate church/state seperation because it requires a specific version of the Bible that also has to contain things like the constitution and declaration of independence.

No one makes a bible like that because it doesn't make any sense.

You can buy a 5 dollar bible and just stuff them in as inserts. I recommend you place a bid lol

https://sde.ok.gov/ev00000555

Edit: this an ambulance chaser's and an opportunistic troll's wet dream

Nowhere does it say that it should only contain the listed requirements. If you are the lowest bidder, I‘m sure you can throw in a few bonus pages about the importance of the right to choose, equality, other religions and much more. The possibilities are endless.

There are plenty of E-Bibles (pardon my terrible term) available on the Internet for free since many translations are in the public domain. Edit: All of the other stuff is available via webpages, multiple e-book formats, and on webpages. Again, it's all public domain.

The dumbest thing about this is, doesn't the Trump bible only contain the parts of the constitution that they like, and omit others? So if the requirement is that it contains "the Constitution", does the Trump bible even really qualify?

I guess that's the reason for the nonsensical wording "U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights," since it incorrectly attempts to imply that all the Amendments are anything other than an integral part of the Constitution itself to begin with.

stop trying to make sense of it. logic fails on the average conservative. you have to realize that there is no reasoning with them. that's the first step. once you do, you can then begin to ask yourself, "what do we do to stop them?"

The requirements literally violate church/state seperation because it requires a specific version of the Bible that also has to contain things like the constitution and declaration of independence.

This is interesting though because if the religion is okay to incorporate those elements, then ... it's only an issue if the religion doesn't want interference from the State, but the State tries pushing it anyways.

No one makes a bible like that because it doesn’t make any sense.

Only one fits the criteria as per the article. Basically the requirements were developed so only orange voldemort's bible would fit. (His is also interesting because in addition to mixing church/state, politics is getting added into mix too - whereas we often see things like the Hatch Act - https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/13/politics/what-is-the-hatch-act/index.html - designed to try and keep them separate.)

In a 6-3 ruling, SCROTUS will probably allow it by saying that the Trump Bible is the most godly bible since it was blessed by god himself

A grift implies that taxpayers were given a degree of choice. This is straight up theft of public tax dollars.

Religion (ANY religion) is bad, but religion in schools is barbaric.

and the more they shove this stuff into the curriculum, the dumber the people get. the dumber the people get, the more likely we are to sleepwalk into the next global catastrophe. the entire future of the world seems to hinge on what the people who are alive now do. so what do we do?

I'm GLAD my Taxdollars are going to THIS and NOT Feeding Starving Children!

“Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.”

So not even a bible then.

I'm torn. If our country ever goes back to normal, I'd love to be able to show my grandkids a Trump Bible 50 years from now. I like to think that they'd be shocked by the audacity of it - by the fact that a guy peddled something so blasphemous and still locked up the religious vote. But I know Trump is probably getting royalties on the sale, so I guess they'll just have to take my word for it.

Kind of like in "The Walking Dead" comics when Carl is telling his children about all of the events of the past?

Honestly, I think trump paraphernalia 50 years from now is going to have an underground ultra-wealthy cult-like following. Rich shitheads are going to collect that shit the same way they collect nazi shit now. I wouldn't pay full price, but if you can find some trump shit in good condition at goodwill or an estate sale, you might think about snatching it up and throwing it in a safe for a few decades, assuming you don't have a problem with facilitating some affluent fuckers fascism fetish.

must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights;

What? I can understand if it was the Christian Creeds, but what does this have to do with the Bible? Also, the King James version is a bit unwieldy to children. Why not a list of approved translations? And why leather bound?

Because the orange turd’s bible is the only version that fits that description.

It was designed that way.

The point was to send trump a bribe.

It would be fun to get ahold of these bibles before distribution, so we could highlight all the best stories. Like when the daughters of Lot decided to get their dad drunk and have sex with him, or when a prostitute was said to lust after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey’s and emissions like those of a horse.

Or when God aborts the baby.

Where's that?

Numbers 5: 11-31…. Not much is said but a recipe to perform abortions is given

I'm sorry but... what?

Numbers 5:11-31 ESV

[11] And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, [12] “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, [13] if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act, [14] and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, [15] then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance. [16] “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. [17] And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. [18] And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and unbind the hair of the woman’s head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. [19] Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. [20] But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, [21] then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. [22] May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’ [23] “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. [24] And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. [25] And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. [26] And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. [27] And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. [28] But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children. [29] “This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, [30] or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. [31] The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

There's absolutely no mention of abortion here- in fact, verse 28 makes it clear that she "shall be free to conceive", so it shows that she wasn't even pregnant to begin with. It's clearly talking about a woman becoming infertile if she cheats on her husband, and nothing to do with an abortion or terminating a pregnancy.

The thighs fall away, god kills the baby, but only if she cheated seems pretty clear to me, but this is English version rewritten from other English versions of a Hebrew bible

This is the only thing I know of that even comes close to talking about abortion in the Bible though, and it is sanctioned by god and the priest.

If I cared that much about what god thinks I would ask myself but if you want to find other translations more close to the original Hebrew I’m interested in reading lol

Abortion is legal in Israel, and based on just reading the headlines became so even more shortly after our supreme court overturned roe v wade in the United states

There's zero mention of a baby being present. Verse 28 says she will be free to conceive. The Hebrew just mentions the same that her womb swells up and she becomes infertile and inflicted with heavy periods, which would make her "unclean". Also, the State of Israel isn't a Christian country, so I don't see how that's relevant.

The Christian’s use the same book and have made shit up

But I’m looking online and some say this is the abortion verse but you’re right even the Jewish word for abortion is not used

As far as whether any verse is about abortion is interesting to me, but the Bible is ridiculous to use as any kind of modern day reference to what law should or shouldn’t be

No, the State of Israel isn't dictated by the Old and New Testament canons of scripture. Jews also use the Talmud and fully reject Christ. You cannot claim that abortion is okay in Christianity because the state of Israel - a Jewish country - have it legalised.

Christians can stick the Bible up their ass. I don’t really care what it says or doesn’t say in the Bible, and I won’t allow the Bible to have a say in any laws where I live.

I am interested though in what people are saying the Bible says, and this verse is frequently used to justify abortion.

To find it I just googled abortion Bible verse, there are apparently others as well.

Judaism is a much older religion than Christianity obviously, but the Hebrew Bible and the commentary are a good place to start when learning about Judaism

Why didn't you just say that then? You don't need to use the Bible to justify your political opinions.

Judaism in it's current form isn't the same Judaism that existed before Christ. After Christ came, Christianity was formed due to prophetic fulfillments and modern-day Judaism came from doctrine trying to explain away what just happened (as some dude showed up, fulfilled their prophecies, claimed to be God, was crucified then rose from the dead), notably the talmud. So we could equally say we're as old as Judaism. Kind of like how the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church both claim to be the oldest- but they split 1000 years ago and both have changed quite a bit since

it won't change their minds.

I’m not expecting to change the minds of adults. But if they’re going to force a bible into childrens’ hands, they better be prepared to address the passages in it that might even make Christians uncomfortable.

There's nothing wrong with these passages, though - they're just descriptions of things that happened

Wow, so then we don't need to ban any books because they are just descriptions of things that happened.

Why should we ban books?

It's still not comparable to political manifestos though that encourage or seek to normalise certain ideas though, like mein kampf trying to advocate for discrimination against Jews

What's wrong with these passages specifically? That they're sexually explicit and not appropriate in schools?

And the ultimate benefit is a paultry sum to orange shit pants Lord? That's worth losing everything for? How pathetic

Doesn't the bible trump endorsed only have a portion of the bill or rights? The requirement say constitution and bill of rights. The way I read trump endorsed bible does not meet the requirement.

It has the bill of rights but not all constitutional amendments. Among other things, in Trumps bible, slavery is still legal and women can't vote, just the way they want it.

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