Golden Donald Trump Statue Sparks Idolatry Debate
According to social media comments, not everyone bought the arguments of Pastor Mark Burns. “The best way to convince people you aren’t praying before a golden idol would be to not pray before a golden idol,” posted “VeggieTales” creator Phil Vischer.
RELATED: Phil Vischer, Part 2: Fighting To Save Evangelicalism From Fundamentalism
That animated Christian series once used a giant bunny to teach about King Nebuchadnezzar. In reply to Vischer, someone wrote, “If only you’d made a cautionary tale for children about this very thing.”
Next to a photo of the “Don Colossus” ribbon-cutting ceremony, Rev. Benjamin Cremer wrote, in part, “This is what idol worship looks like.”
Supporters of President Trump pushed back against comparisons to the golden calf of Exodus 32. Conservative author Eric Metaxas posted:
Those calling a statue “an idol” because it’s gilded and in honor of a great president who LOVES this country—and has been subject to vicious slander, lies, and assassination attempts—have simply exposed themselves as victims of [Trump Derangement Syndrome]. Nor can a spirit of religiosity be ruled out. Maybe they should protest the Lincoln Memorial too. Get a life!
Someone responded that people don’t gather around the Lincoln Memorial “to pray, worship, and dedicate their loyalties.”
Rock musician Jack White, a vocal Trump critic, posted, “The most frustrating part of modern American life is the attempt to make sense of people who don’t even CARE that they make no sense at all.”
Burns, who has been making TV appearances to defend “Don Colossus,” said he welcomes “honest theological conversation” but rejects “the false accusation that honoring a leader is the same thing as worshiping a leader.”
RELATED: ‘Outrageous Blasphemy’—Christians Respond to Now-Deleted Image of President Trump as Jesus
For Trump supporters, accusations of idol worship aren’t new. One month after the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, some CPAC attendees posed by a golden statue of Trump. More recently, Trump posted—and then deleted—an image of him healing someone while wearing a Jesus-style robe. The president defended the April post, saying he was portraying a doctor.
