Christian leaders honor golden statue of Trump

[Bootstrap]

I have a question for those who have been arguing this event was secular and had no worship or idolatry overtones. Why was a pastor involved at all? Why didn't the chair of the committee who created it, or the local politician representing the president's party dedicate the statue?

I don’t think any of us here know.

“Pastor” Mark Burns appears to be primarily involved in politics. I can’t find a church for him with actual service times. The “church” appears to primarily be a podcast/TV show that is primarily political, not religious.

There also isn’t any denomination, as far as I know, represented.

Yeah. And Mark Burns seems to have lied about having an education he does not and about his military service, and has been involved in some other shady looking things. He's prominent in "Pastors for Trump", which seems to be all about politicizing religion.

Social Gospel politics is a similar phenomenon on the Left. I think it's important to avoid mixing faith and politics as though they were the same thing. Though sometimes each speaks to some of the same issues.

[JohnH]

Yeah. And Mark Burns seems to have lied about having an education he does not and about his military service, and has been involved in some other shady looking things. He's prominent in "Pastors for Trump", which seems to be all about politicizing religion.

Social Gospel politics is a similar phenomenon on the Left. I think it's important to avoid mixing faith and politics as though they were the same thing. Though sometimes each speaks to some of the same issues.

I don't really have a firm response outside of the general conservative Anabaptist position which is "We don't do that". This is a good example of why we don't, though. We also tend to avoid being a televangelist, having a big following on a podcast (except for a few of the less conservative groups, I guess), and so on. Nothing good seems to come of any of that, in our view.

With that said, I might question about "leader" in the title... leader of what? I would likewise question a headline of "Orthodox Jewish honor golden statue of Trump." We can barely even figure out who some of these people are, what their background is, and they don't see to be accountable to anybody.

[Bootstrap]

Yeah. And Mark Burns seems to have lied about having an education he does not and about his military service, and has been involved in some other shady looking things. He's prominent in "Pastors for Trump", which seems to be all about politicizing religion.

Social Gospel politics is a similar phenomenon on the Left. I think it's important to avoid mixing faith and politics as though they were the same thing. Though sometimes each speaks to some of the same issues.

I don't really have a firm response outside of the general conservative Anabaptist position which is "We don't do that". This is a good example of why we don't, though. We also tend to avoid being a televangelist, having a big following on a podcast (except for a few of the less conservative groups, I guess), and so on. Nothing good seems to come of any of that, in our view.

With that said, I might question about "leader" in the title... leader of what? I would likewise question a headline of "Orthodox Jewish honor golden statue of Trump." We can barely even figure out who some of these people are, what their background is, and they don't see to be accountable to anybody.

I agree.

But sadly, so many people think the loudest "Christianity" defines Christianity.

[JohnH]

I agree.

But sadly, so many people think the loudest "Christianity" defines Christianity.

I think there are very, very few people who think Mark Burns defines Christianity.

Part of freedom of speech, religion, and separation of church and state means someone like him can go around saying all kinds of things. There are many more people like him who have podcasts, TV shows, "churches" that don't have service times, and so on. Some of them try to affiliate themselves with political movements or figures.

I'm not sure we do ourselves any favours to even try to sharply denounce such people. I'm simply content to say what a conservative Mennonite position is, and distance myself from that sort of thing, but without a sharp denouncement. For all I know, that's another side of him that has done good personal ministry for people. I have no idea. That's why the best answer is distance - I have my own church, congregation, denomination, our political stance is fairly well known, and we can leave it at that.

None of us can be policeman to define or say what Christianity is. We are having another thread where there is a rather sharp debate about who gets to define what the "true" church is. This is a consequence of the classically liberal outlook on these things.

[mike]

I agree.

But sadly, so many people think the loudest "Christianity" defines Christianity.

I think there are very, very few people who think Mark Burns defines Christianity.

I agree with that, and I also think there are very few Christians who don't instinctively know that the idea of a Christian pastor dedicating or blessing a golden statue of a US president evokes the biblical golden statues and the bad stuff that was attached to them.

We all know it's just silly and stupid. The statue, the "pastor" dedicating it, all of it.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I agree.

But sadly, so many people think the loudest "Christianity" defines Christianity.

I think there are very, very few people who think Mark Burns defines Christianity.

I agree with that, and I also think there are very few Christians who don't instinctively know that the idea of a Christian pastor dedicating or blessing a golden statue of a US president evokes the biblical golden statues and the bad stuff that was attached to them.

We all know it's just silly and stupid. The statue, the "pastor" dedicating it, all of it.

Boy, the Bee got that one spot on.