South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns spent part of his weekend defending his involvement in the dedication of a 22-foot-tall, $400,000 gold-plated statue depicting President Donald Trump with a raised fist, and on Monday, journalist Prem Thakker issued him a particularly scathing rebuke over what he called the “hypocrisy of the religious right.”
The statue was erected at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Doral, Florida, with Burns heading a dedication ceremony last Wednesday.
After facing criticism that the statue bore a striking resemblance to a biblical tale involving a golden calf and warnings against false idols, Burns felt compelled to clarify that the golden Trump statue was “not,” in fact, “a ‘golden calf.’” He went on to stress the distinction between “worship and honor,” arguing that the Trump statue was an example of the latter, and not the former.
“Of course, one reason the claim that such a display is not blasphemous rings hollow – or indeed the claim that it’s not as if Trump dedicated the statue to himself – is that Trump posted a photo depicting himself as Jesus, just weeks ago. And has got into repeated fights with the pope,” Thakker argued in an analysis published Monday in Zeteo.
“But then, why bother counting such absurdities? We should remember that the hypocrisy of the religious right has been exposed again and again. The world knows it’s less concerned with faith in a higher power dedicated to universalist ideals than with faith in whatever enables it to wield the highest power over all. And the unholy essence of religious right support for the Trump administration is the ultimate case in point.”
Beyond Trump’s ongoing feud with the head of the Catholic Church and social media posts that even some of his strongest supporters have called “blasphemous,” Thakker argued that praising Trump despite his long list of controversies – particularly coming from an evangelical minister – was unbecoming of someone carrying the title of “pastor.”
“No higher power of mine, or of any normal person, blesses a sexual abuser, a proud racist, a bloodthirsty warmonger, whose foremost accomplishments include bombing schoolchildren and covering up files related to one of the most infamous pedophiles ever to walk the earth,” Thakker wrote.
“If a ‘pastor’ can excuse all that, and more, what difference can a gold-colored statue possibly make?”