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Blue Nagia wrote:

Yeah.

I think the problem is, as we in the US have seen over the past 4 years, if people are corrupt enough they'll swear on anything that makes their point. No one who needs to be held to truth-telling is going to be swayed by a Bible, and anyone who is sufficiently honest will consider their word to be bond regardless of what they swear on.

In practice, people bend their religion to their morals, not the other way around.

One of the wisest lessons my father taught me early on was to always put more value on what people do instead of what they say (they will do) and what they believe in. In that sense Trump was often an improvement over "regular" politicians. We sure as hell disagreed about the course of action but at least he did try to do what he said he was going to do. I think to many people that is part of his appeal and that goes for a lot of "populists". It therefore surprised me that people were constantly surprised about what he did it and how he did it. The guy was compared to other politicians an open book (one with glaring plot holes and a protagonist I had really difficulty feeling empathy for.....even with Hitler in "Der Untergang" as the clash between his own delusions and the horrible reality became more and more apparent I felt that at some level you could still relate to him. That is probably what makes that movie so powerful and scary at the same time. Trump however while also failing to acknowledge reality did almost nothing to make him recognisable as a "human being". He presented himself as a machine that couldn't fail and shss'd anyone and everyone who dared to claim anything different....I simply don't know how to relate to that).

Politicians are "reality benders". They bend it to fit whatever their narrative is at the moment. Trump was the ultimate (so far) example of this (if people have other examples I would gladly hear about them). If you can fool yourself into believing that "your reality" equals or even trumps "actual perceived reality" (our collective view of what that reality is) than something as abstract as religion is indeed a piece of cake so I fully agree with Blue Nagia.

EDIT: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/02/14/trump-mocks-faith-others-his-own-religious-practices-remain-opaque/