Last week Donald Trump was hounded about his religious beliefs after he refused to share his favorite Bible verse with Bloomberg Politics, though he’s repeatedly declared that the Bible is his favorite book. (When asked if he’s “an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy,” he did reveal he’s “uh, probably equal.”) This sparked a #TrumpBible hashtag, and the candidate got into another religion-related dispute when he said he attends Marble Collegiate Church in Queens. On Friday the church said in a statement, “Donald Trump has had a longstanding history with Marble Collegiate Church, where his parents were for years active members and one of his children was baptized. However, as he indicates, he is a Presbyterian, and is not an active member of Marble.”
In a cable TV interview on One America News Network on Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Trump’s defense, attacking the press for asking “these personal ‘gotcha’ questions” about Trump’s favorite book. “I listened to that, going, ‘Do they ask Hillary that? What does it have to do with running for the office of the presidency? Is it anybody’s business?’” (They don’t ask Clinton, possibly because she spontaneously recited a Bible verse while speaking with a pastor recently.)
“I love the Bible, and I’m Protestant, I’m Presbyterian. And they were hitting me with different questions, one after another,” Trump responded. “I don’t know if it’s ‘gotcha questions,’ it probably is. And then they said, ‘What’s your favorite verse?’ You know, that’s a very personal thing. I don’t like giving that out to people that you hardly know. Frankly, I don’t know if they’re fair questions, or not fair questions, but there are certain things that you and myself and a lot of other people like to keep personal.”
As Trump notes, polls show he’s currently leading among evangelicals. That might not mean much at this point, but perhaps voters understand that Trump’s just a private guy.
