Sprinkled into hilarious commentary mocking both Biden’s autopen and ongoing accusations of criminality of Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Schumer at the annual White House tradition of turkey pardoning, President Donald Trump declared religion – specifically Christianity – was making a huge comeback in the United States.
For context, both polling and statistics support such claims made by the president. While there is no denying that the past few decades have seen the lowest levels of Americans suggesting they identify as Christians, recent trends indicate a reversal. The American Tribune recently covered Pew and Barna Research reports in a separate article on Trump’s Thanksgiving speech. Pew reported the downward slide appears to have bottomed out at around 62%, with a Barna Research study showing about 30 million Americans have become Christians in the past five years while also reporting some 66% of Americans now view Jesus Christ as an important figure in their lives.
While there is no single reason for Americans returning to faith, one catalyzing event could easily be seen as the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. In the month of September, the same month Americans witnessed his horrific murder, Bible sales soared by 36% year over year. What’s more, observers said Americans were returning to church in that same timeframe for the first time in years.
So it was with this background that President Trump proudly declared a renaissance of Christianity. “We have more people praying. The churches are coming back. I don’t know if you’ve been reading that story, but religion is coming back to America. Some people say, ‘Oh, why would you mention that?’ To me, that’s a big deal.” Watch him speak to this positive change below:
In the same speech, he also joked about dubious pardons from the Biden White House utilizing the infamous autopen. “He [Joe Biden] used an auto pen last year for the turkey’s pardon. So I have the official duty to determine -and I have determined- that last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid. As are the pardons of about every other person that was pardoned, other than… where’s Hunter?”
Continuing with his jokes, Trump then discussed the two turkeys and commented he wanted to name this Chuck and Nancy after seeing their faces. “The turkeys being pardoned today go by the names Gobble and Waddle. When I first saw their pictures, I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy, but then I realized I would never pardon those two people.”
As mentioned previously, secondary metrics seem to corrobate the president’s assertion of Christianity making a comeback. As reported by The Christian Tribune, “The month of September witnessed sales increases of 36% for Bible purchases in the United States, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. While data is impossible to ascertain that explains why such a sudden jump occurred, it seems safe to say Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s death sparked a revival.”
“After Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence, we didn’t see rioting, we didn’t see revolution,” Erika Kirk said during her moving eulogy to her late husband at memorial service attended by President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and many others from the current administration.
“Instead,” she continued, “we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival. This past week, we saw people open a Bible for the first time in a decade. We saw people pray for the first time since they were children. We saw people go to a church service for the first time in their entire lives.”
The tradition of the presidential turkey pardon dates back only to the administration of George H.W. Bush, when turkeys selected were annually granted pardons. Prior to that, the practice was interspersed with sparing them and eating them. Ronald Reagan named two turkeys and pardoned them in 1982 but did not keep up with the practice. Since the first Bush administration, presidents both Democrat and Republican have used the occasion to offer levity in otherwise tumultuous political climates and bring the country together.