Faith

The monarch was joined by wife Queen Camilla and other royal family members for a church service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle

King Charles III attended an Easter service at Windsor Castle with the queen and other royal family members, marking his most important public outing in months.

Sunday, March 31 is many things on the calendar. Knewz.com has confirmed that Donald Trump and his backers think Joe Biden is emphasizing the wrong things,

“Happy Easter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social during the morning.

“Happy Easter, America,” the President’s X feed (formerly Twitter) posted 61 minutes earlier.

But Biden’s statement came too late for Trump supporters, who say Biden is anti-Christian even though he is Catholic. Trump posted links during the weekend to several arguments for that view.

For one thing, the White House website posted a proclamation about Sunday being the “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Friday, March 29. A “statement… on Easter” was not posted until Sunday morning, with no proclamation.

For some conservative Republicans, that difference can be a big deal.

“The American people are sick of this,” former Trump aide Steve Bannon wrote on social media, with Trump “retruthing” it.

Trump also posted links to articles about items banned from the White House Easter Egg Roll Monday, April 1.

One was a Fox News story indicating National Guard personnel could not submit religious designs for the eggs.

A promotional flyer said the Egg Roll art contest “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.”

The theme of the art contest is “Celebrating our Military Families.” But entries could not be racist, bigoted or promote “discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”

The President of the American Egg Board sees no problems with the rules.

“We just can’t be seen to be promoting one religion over the other,” Emily Metz said, “the same way we can’t be seen to be promoting one political viewpoint or ideology over the other.” She called the approach “egg-nostic.”

But Trump clearly is promoting Christianity. Knewz.com reported on his “Holy Week” video Tuesday, March 26 promoting Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible.”

“We need to bring them back fast,” Trump said of religion in general and Christianity in particular.

In his White House statement, Biden said Easter “reminds us of the power of hope and the promise of Christ’s Resurrection.

“We remember Jesus’ sacrifice. We pray for one another and cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities,” Biden added.

After writing “Happy Easter” on Truth Social, Trump posted a flurry of items about politics and the presidential race.

For some people, March 31 is not about Easter or transgender people. It’s also “César Chávez Day,” marking the birthday of the Hispanic worker rights activist. Efforts to make that day a national holiday have not caught on.

Biden issued a lengthy proclamation on that event as well, writing, “I am proud to keep a bust of César Chávez in the Oval Office.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Chávez’s family is demanding independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stop using the name and image in campaign material.

Kennedy says he was a good friend of Chávez, and held a Latino outreach event in Los Angeles during the weekend.

Some relatives admit Kennedy helped carry Chávez’s casket in 1993. But they say they’re backing Biden.

The King James Bible is more than 400 years old. Now, in a way, there’s a Donald Trump Bible.

Knewz.com has learned about the former President and current Republican candidate’s latest promotional idea: the “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible.”

“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, March 26 as he unveiled the Bible offer.

A three-minute video of Trump embedded in the post said the offer is in partnership with country singer Lee Greenwood, who is best known for the song God Bless the U.S.A.

Trump said the Bible is a King James Version, which is the only version some conservative Christians accept.

It “also includes our founding father documents,” Trump added. That means the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.

“You are being threatened to lose those rights,” Trump warned.

Trump called religion and Christianity “the biggest things missing from this country… We need to bring them back fast… It’s so missing.”

Trump called the Bible his favorite book and said he owns many. 

“We have to protect anything that’s pro-God,” he said, adding left-wing groups and media organizations want to “silence, censor or discriminate” against believers.

The Truth Social post directs people to a sales website. There, it notes the Bible is in large print and includes the “handwritten words” to Greenwood’s song.

But the website does not indicate that it’s a fundraiser for Trump’s campaign or his defense fund.

“GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign,” the website says. But it notes Trump’s “name, image and likeness” are used under a paid licensing agreement.

The website’s privacy policy page reveals it is “operated by 16 Creative,” a marketing company based along the Alabama Gulf Coast.

Its website lists celebrity clients ranging from Hank Williams Jr. to the estate of the late “Kamala the Ugandan Giant.” He was a pro wrestling star long before Kamala Harris became Vice President with a different name pronunciation.

The “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible,” which sells for $59.99, is not a new edition. The Nashville Tennessean reports Greenwood came out with it several years ago.

But his edition became controversial because some people considered the inclusion of historic U.S. documents a promotion of “Christian nationalism.” At least one Christian publishing house turned down the idea, and a petition drive calling it a “toxic mix” even was launched against it.

The sight of Trump holding a Bible may bring back memories to the summer of 2020. The then-President posed for photos with a Bible outside St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. amid Black Lives Matter protests.

It also is similar to the “Trump sneakers” promotion that Knewz.com mentioned in February, which took Trump to a “Sneaker Con” event in Philadelphia.

OK Magazine noted Donald Trump Jr. promoted a different “We the People” Bible on social media in early 2023.

While many evangelicals support Trump and believe he’s being persecuted by prosecutors, scoffers quickly found fault with the former president’s Bible promotion.

“Read it, including Exodus 20:14,” former Rep. Liz Cheney wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”