In this Jun. 1, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House in Washington. AP-Yonhap
President Donald Trump will read verses from the Old Testament that will be streamed across the country Tuesday evening as part of a week-long "America Reads the Bible" event to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump's reading of 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 will go out online on the faith-based Pure Flix app and streamed via the America Reads the Bible website a week after he recorded the two-and-a-half minute passage to camera, reading from the bible in the Oval Office.
The recording will also be played at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.
The White House confirmed Trump's involvement to USA Today on Monday.
Other members of the administration, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were among almost 500 people taking part in the event which was organized by Christians Engaged, a non-profit that promotes change through prayer, voting and civic participation.
CNN said the specific verses voiced by Trump, which say God will heal the nation if God's people "will humble themselves," have long represented a clarion call for the Christian-right in the United States.
Christians Engaged founder and president Bunni Pounds told CNN the group had reserved the passage for an elected official and that she had personally prayed that Trump would agree to read it.
"I've just been praying with a small group of people, asking the Lord to move to allow our president to pray this prayer, the words of God that he would hear," said Pounds.
Trump's participation comes at a time when his relationship with Christians in the United States is under pressure over a now-deleted AI-generated social media post that appeared to show him as a Christ-like figure dispensing healing to the sick and a high-profile spat online with Pope Leo XIV over the war in Iran.
Source: Korea Times News
