President Donald Trump, fresh off an embarrassing loss on the shutdown and his wall to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is turning his attention from the Southern border to an entirely different topic: religion.
The President, desperate to shore up his rapidly dropping polling numbers, kicked off the week with a tweet aimed at the only segment of his base that is still sticking by him: Christian Evangelicals.
“Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible,” Trump tweeted. “Starting to make a turn back? Great!”
It was not clear what he meant by, “Starting to make a turn back?” but presumably he meant toward God and religion.
In many if not most cases, “Bible Literacy classes” are just ways to get around the fact that public schools cannot use religion in class. By claiming to study the Bible as a work unrelated to the religion it preaches, some think they can sidestep the constitutional wall between church and state.
Trump may have been motivated by an article in last week’s USA Today that reveals a “wave of ‘Bible literacy’ bills” are “emerging in state legislatures.”
“Some of the lawmakers – and leaders of Christian groups supporting the bills – say they want to restore traditional values in schools and give students a chance to study the religious text deeply,” USA Today notes.
“The Bible is an integral part of our society and deserves a place in the classroom,” said Republican state Rep. Aaron McWilliams of North Dakota, a co-sponsor of a bill that would require the state’s public high schools to offer an elective on Bible studies.
UPDATE: 10:31 AM ET –
NCRM would like to apologize for suggesting President Trump might have been reading a newspaper. Apparently the tweet was likely in response to a Fox News segment: