A colossal gold leaf statue of Donald Trump was unveiled at the president’s golf course in Doral Florida. The 22-foot abomination depicts the president thrusting his fist into the air, in a defiant gesture.
You would expect Christian and Jewish leaders to keep their distance from a ceremony that celebrates a brazen act of idolatry. Both Jewish and Christian traditions condemn the sin of idolatry as codified in the 2nd Commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
It should not be surprising that Trump’s longtime spiritual advisor Pastor Mark Burns and a circle of evangelical and Jewish clergy blessed the unveiling of this travesty.
Burns likely knew he was blessing a golden calf or, in Trump’s case, a golden pig. “Let me be clear: this is not a golden calf,” he protested.
Burns is familiar with the story of the golden calf:
While Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the Israelites grew impatient and pressured his brother Aaron to create a golden calf. On Moses’ command, the Levites killed 3,000 men involved in the idolatry.
Whether you read the golden-calf story as history or as an allegory, the point stands: people who deify themselves are ultimately undone by vanity, arrogance, and stupidity.
Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump, many evangelicals have elevated him to a near-messianic status and accountability will follow. As surely as any graven image can fall, his political moment will pass; the moral arc bends toward justice, and the movement that enabled his abuses will face lasting scrutiny and consequences.