Pastor Mark Burns, the president's informal "spiritual advisor," wants to make one thing very clear about the extremely tall gold statue of Donald Trump that was officially dedicated last week in Doral, Miami. "Let me be clear: this is not a golden calf. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone," he wrote on Twitter.
He's technically right, just as Rene Magritte was technically right that his painting of a pipe was not actually a pipe. In the most literal sense, the statue of Trump, which is named "Don Collosus" is not a golden calf.
Despite the president calling it "The Real Deal - GOLD," on Truth Social, the statue is not made of gold. Unlike the golden calf, which was made from melting the jewelry of the Egyptians, the Trump statue is not actually made of solid gold. "Don Collusus" is cast in bronze and covered in gold leaf, making it much, much less valuable. It is also obviously not a calf, as calves are baby cows, and the statue is certainly not a baby cow.
The giant monument to the president of the United States, clad in gold leaf, cost approximately $450,000 (including a copyright payment and the installation of the gold leaf). Alan Cottrill, the sculptor, told The Daily Beast that suggesting the gold leaf finish for the sculpture was, " like pitching ice water to a man dying of thirst. It was not a hard sell."
There is neither honor nor sanctity in very carefully avoiding building a "golden calf" in the ignorance of the real lesson in the Bible. In Exodus 32, a chapter of the Bible where Moses ascends up a mountain to commune with the Lord. The people Moses has led across the Red Sea to safety become frustrated and impatient, and Moses's idiot brother Aaron agrees that they need some kind of God to worship. So he uses all of their gold jewelry to create an "idol cast in the shape of a calf." They proceed to build the calf an altar and throw it a festival.
In the Bible, Moses has the calf melted back down and sprinkled over water, which he forces the people to drink. He then demands that they tie swords to their sides and run back and forth and "three thousand people died." Even this was not enough punishment for the worship of a fake idol. The Lord then struck the people with a plague. It was, after all, the first commandment the Lord gave them "You shall have no other gods before me."
Pastor Burns has been tweeting and appearing on the news to explain how exactly how this giant, not-solid-gold sculpture is not an idol. He tweeted: "Romans 13:7 says, “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” Giving honor where honor is due is biblical."
Romans 13 is a favorite cherry-picked chapter of the Bible for pastors and other people in positions of authority because it advises Christians to follow the law and listen to people who are in charge, and assume that they are right because God has given them positions of authority. It is very easy to follow the teachings of the Bible if you pick and choose which ones apply to you in order to justify your own decisions. Sure, the statue isn't a golden calf exactly. Sure, you're not singing songs to it in the park, so it cannot be an idol.
The gospel of John tells a different story. Jesus has just performed his first miracle (turning water into wine to keep a rager of a wedding going), when he goes to Jerusalem and finds "people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money," in the temple. He is so angry about this that he braids a whip and uses it to drive everyone out. "Stop turning my father's house into a market!" Jesus says as he wields his whip.
But no one worry! Let him be clear: this is NOT a golden calf.
