I’m delighted to be on the advisory committee for MennoMedia’s forthcoming Anabaptist Community Bible. It’s an edition of the Common English Bible with marginal notes from more than 500 Anabaptist study groups across North America. 

There’s an introduction to each book of the Bible, in addition to topical essays on subjects many of us have questions about. 

My hope is that the Anabaptist ­Community Bible reinvigorates our love for the Bible as we prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism in 2025.

When we were imagining this Bible, we did not realize Donald Trump would be promoting an edition of the King James Version called the God Bless the USA Bible (page 54).

As it turns out, the Bible we’ve been working on is a perfect counter to Trump’s.

There’s no cross on the cover of Trump’s Bible, rather, the American flag. This Bible includes the U.S. ­Constitution, the Declaration of ­Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s 1984 hit, “God Bless the USA” (also known as “Proud to Be an American”). 

American civil religion — with its hymns, founding patriarchs and sacred documents — has always tried to mimic what authentic faith offers. Pandering to Christian nationalists, the God Bless the USA Bible marries American civil religion with Trumpism and patriotism. It’s a transparently cynical way to garner support from Trump’s most trustworthy voting bloc: White evangelical Christians. 

The problems with this Bible are deeper than the political motivations. The God Bless the USA Bible is an affront to the very scriptures it contains. It places the United States and its founding documents (and a patriotic country song) on the same plane as scripture, though they have nothing to do with biblical principles and teachings. 

It promises not to offer any critique of the nation’s sins — the displacement of Indigenous people and the occupation of their land, racialized slavery and the legacy of racism that has followed it.

Aside from the idolatry of plastering an American flag and U.S. founding documents on a Bible, the version of America that Trump is calling his followers back to is full of sin, prejudice and death. It victimizes LGBTQ people, immigrants, people of color, women and almost every vulnerable minority. 

Trump is trying to marry Christianity with the worst parts of U.S. culture and history. His own statements and actions assault even the noble parts of American government and society: democracy, a free press, the peaceful transfer of power. 

It’s no sin to be proud of one’s homeland. I am proud of my mine: Egypt. But my pride in no way blinds me to Egypt’s problems. Nor does it cause me to believe in the supremacy of my homeland. 

As a Christian, I do not think any nation is more worthy than another. More than that, I believe our true homeland is something we are partnering with God now to create — and also anticipating as we await the return of our Messiah. 

Nationalism of any sort is an affront to the teachings of Jesus and the Bible to welcome strangers and love our neighbors and enemies.

Jesus’ offer of salvation and liberation cannot be tied to any nation-state. The legacy of Christendom in Europe — thoroughly secular societies where church-state unions once ruled — shows us Trump is leading Christians on a path of destruction. 

Anabaptists have resisted nationalistic faith from our beginning in 1525. Our spiritual ancestors refused to participate in the state church and its sacraments. Some paid with their lives for their beliefs.

It is fundamentally Anabaptist to resist a Bible baptized into American civil religion and steeped in Christian nationalism. 

I am proud, then, to be part of releasing a Bible that highlights our anti- nationalist tradition. The timing of its release couldn’t be better. 

The Bible is under enough assault as it is. Too often it is seen as an esoteric, outdated book. The Anabaptist Community Bible hopes to inspire people to engage with the Bible’s prophetic words, relevant for our time. 

With the advent of the God Bless the USA Bible, I am even more excited that we are offering a Bible that tells a different and, dare I say, better story.