Exclusive: Zondervan, HarperCollins in talks to produce ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible that includes Constitution
A screenshot of the God Bless the USA Bible website showing Lee Greenwood’s endorsement.
Update: A petition is now circulating asking Zondervan and HarperCollins to “stop the presses” on the “God Bless the USA Bible.”
NEW YORK— Zondervan, a giant in Bible publishing, is in talks to produce a “God Bless the USA Bible” that includes America’s founding documents and will ship to customers this September to mark 20 years after 9/11, according to the Bible’s Tennessee-based seller.
READ the latest news: Exclusive: After Pushback HarperCollins Will Not Produce ‘God Bless The USA’ Bible
In its last pages, the custom Bible pre-selling for $49.99 includes the full texts of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and pledge of allegiance. The holy book also includes licensed lyrics to the popular 1984 song by country music singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood, “God Bless the USA.” The song has a long history. It rose in prominence after the Gulf War and again after 9/11 in 2001. More recently it became known as the chorus for Trump rallies, but many artists have performed their own versions, including Dolly Parton and Beyoncé.
Zondervan, a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., is known for its New International Version, an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 and created by a committee of evangelical Bible scholars who studied Bible texts in their original languages. It’s the world’s best-selling modern English translation of the Bible. About 450 million copies of the NIV translation have sold worldwide.
HarperCollins Christian Publishing sells its license to clients in North America who want to print custom NIV Bibles, but obtaining the license requires layers of approval, including approving descriptions of additional content that will be added to the Bible text and knowing the target audience and size. Representatives for Zondervan’s Bibles and HarperCollins had not responded to a request for comment by the time of this article’s publication.
The “God Bless the USA Bible” is a product of Elite Source Pro, a Middle, Tenn.-based company that helps businesses with sales, marketing and strategy, including in Nashville’s entertainment industry. Hugh Kirkpatrick, president of Elite Source Pro, confirmed to Religion Unplugged that Zondervan granted the required licensing for the custom Bible.
The idea began brewing in fall 2020 when Kirkpatrick and friends in the entertainment industry heard homeschool parents complain that public schools were not teaching American history anymore— not having students read and understand the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
“We noticed the divide in the public where some people started seeing pro-American images like the flag, the bald eagle, the statue of liberty as weaponized tools of the Republican party, and we didn’t understand that,” Kirkpatrick said.
Then in the height of Black Lives Matter protests, activists began tearing down or destroying statues and monuments they connected to racial injustice.
“In past civilizations, libraries have been burned. Documents torn down. We started seeing statutes coming down and we started seeing history for good or bad trying to be erased,” Kirkpatrick said. “That’s when we started thinking, okay how far does this erasing of history go? Love it or hate it, it’s history. But how far does it go…? Part of having these statues … is so that we don’t repeat those same mistakes.”
Over the past several months, Kirkpatrick and some Nashville-based Christians working in the music industry decided to ask Greenwood if he’d be interested in putting a Bible together that featured his song and some founding documents. Greenwood, 78, wants to leave a legacy for future generations to have both the complete Bible and complete founding documents, Kirkpatrick said.
He’s very aware that critics will say the Bible is an example of White Christian nationalism, the belief that the U.S. is a Christian nation and Christians should actively work to keep it that way through privileging Christianity in the public square. But Kirkpatrick insists that this Bible has nothing to do with current politics. It’s about getting more people no matter their age, gender, sexuality, race or politics to read the Bible and U.S. founding documents in their entirety, he said.
“We’ve never heard of anyone throwing a Bible away. It’s always prominent somewhere in the house, it’s either on the coffee table, it’s somewhere that’s accessible,” he said. “So if the Bible contained holy scripture but it also contained these documents it would be a one-stop shop for people to learn the basics of why the founders built into those documents divine providence.”
Other Bibles have wrapped in American history, most notably the Founder’s Bible that includes evangelical author David Barton’s commentary on the documents and Bible passages that he argues influenced the creation of the U.S. Constitution and government. The Founder’s Bible uses the New American Standard Bible translation, published by the Lockman Foundation. The American Patriot’s Bible uses the New King James Version and is marketed as “the one Bible that shows how ‘a light from above’ shaped our nation.” It was first published by Thomas Nelson in 2009. HarperCollins Christian Publishing Inc. acquired Thomas Nelson in 2012.
The “God Bless the USA Bible” is the first known Bible publishing the NIV translation alongside American governing texts.
Meagan Clark is the managing editor of Religion Unplugged. She has reported for Newsweek, International Business Times, Dallas Morning News, Religion News Service and several outlets in India, including Indian Express and the Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Meagan_Salia.