Trump's New Golden Calf and the Church That Chose Power Over Faith

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:04]I can't believe this is how I'm starting my YouTube channel.

[00:00:07]Then the Lord said to Moses, go down because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.

[00:00:15]They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a cat.

[00:00:22]They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, these are your gods Israel who brought you up out of Egypt.

[00:00:30]have seen these people, the word said to Moses.

[00:00:32]and they are stiff-necked people.

[00:00:35]Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.

[00:00:40]Then I will make you a great nation.

[00:00:47]I can't believe the first thing I ever do on my YouTube channel is quote from the Bible.

[00:00:50]But that was Exodus chapter seven.

[00:00:53]My name is Katelin Burns.

[00:00:54]I've been a politics writer for the last decade.

[00:00:56]I was the first openly trans capital hold reporter in US history.

[00:01:00]Nowadays I'm writing more at burnsnotice.com, but I'm also a columnist for MS Now, which used to be MSNBC.

[00:01:08]Don't ask me why they changed the name.

[00:01:09]They didn't ask me about it.

[00:01:10]Every week we go over something new from my newsletter.

[00:01:13]and talk about it here.

[00:01:15]Do have any thoughts on this?

[00:01:16]Leave a comment down below and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[00:01:19]It might be weird that I, a lefty trans journalist, am quoting from the Bible.

[00:01:26]Like that is not something that is typically assumed to happen when it comes to like LGBT reporters and political reporters like me that come from the left.

[00:01:34]But it became strangely relevant this week.

[00:01:37]A group of like evangelical and right-wing religious leaders.

[00:01:42]They weren't all Christians, by the way, gathered at Trump Doral National Golf Club in Miami, and they dedicated a 22 foot tall golden statue of Trump and This to me jumped out immediately as the golden calf story from the Bible.

[00:02:04]And I was not the only person, by the way, that noticed this.

[00:02:07]This was all over social media and this guy, Pastor Mark Burns, no relation, by the way, he tweeted, today at Trump National Doral Miami, we witnessed an unforgettable moment with the dedication of the 22 foot statue honoring President Donald J.

[00:02:27]Trump.

[00:02:27]Let me be clear, he said.

[00:02:29]This is not a golden calf.

[00:02:33]We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone.

[00:02:39]My This Is Not a Golden Calf shirt has a lot of people asking me a lot of questions previously answered by my shirt.

[00:02:45]This is just the latest example of conservative political leaders who ah pretty much worship at the altar of Trump.

[00:02:56]There's all these videos and pictures from White House ceremonies with faith leaders where they gather around in like a semi-circle behind the president's desk in the Oval Office and they lay hands on him and they pray for his success and prosperity and all of that.

[00:03:14]And I can't think of anybody less Christ-like than Trump for these people to be worshipping.

[00:03:22]And the problem really is not so much an issue with the belief in Jesus.

[00:03:32]This is not like a Christianity issue.

[00:03:35]It has more to do with a thing called the prosperity Bible, which is the belief that if you are holy and righteous and good enough, God will bestow wealth and power to you.

[00:03:50]And I suppose it's all fine and well to believe this, but I think it really opens people up for exploitation.

[00:03:59]So what ends up happening is these televangelists who are on TV or like You know, if you give me money, you will be prosperous.

[00:04:07]But at the same time, they use their wealth as proof of their own moral goodness and righteousness in the eyes of this God they profess to love.

[00:04:17]What ends up happening is, is that these people end up making moral judgments about people that are more based on how they perceive their wealth and power than how actually righteous they are.

[00:04:31]Donald Trump is a multi- time divorcee is a adulterer.

[00:04:38]He has spent his life, you know, sleeping with anybody that he could.

[00:04:43]He's credibly accused of pedophilia.

[00:04:45]He's been convicted in court of rape and sexual assaults and He is the hero of the American conservative religious right wing.

[00:05:00]And he's the hero not only because he's rich and powerful, but because he has all of the right enemies.

[00:05:05]He hates all of the right political outgroups in this country.

[00:05:09]So trans people, Muslims, Jews that aren't in Israel can be on the list sometimes.

[00:05:16]Homeless people, the list goes on and on and on.

[00:05:19]If you hate those people, they're religious right.

[00:05:21]will love you because these churches are not really set up to worship Jesus.

[00:05:28]It's more like a money laundering operation for conservative politics.

[00:05:32]These churches exist for the most part to enrich the pastors and the preachers that run them.

[00:05:39]And then secondly, to expand conservative political power in this country and everything else comes after that project.

[00:05:47]Like there are no services to advance the teachings of Christ.

[00:05:54]I grew up Catholic in the Northeast, Irish Catholic, so I haven't had a lot of personal exposure with these churches.

[00:06:02]This is just how I perceive them through their actions and covering politics for over a decade now in this country.

[00:06:12]It's getting worse and worse.

[00:06:14]mean, we're engaged in this war in Iran and you have military leaders telling troops that this is God's plan, that this is a fight for God's will.

[00:06:26]And you start getting into the apocalypse stories, which is really a Protestant thing where, you know, a lot of American Protestants believe that the coming of Jesus Christ will happen after that.

[00:06:39]There is an apocalyptic war in Israel.

[00:06:45]And it gets even worse.

[00:06:47]Like this is kind of the source of the evangelical support for Israel and American politics today.

[00:06:53]And it gets worse when you realize that part of their prophecy that they believe in is that all of the Jews must move to Israel.

[00:07:01]And then there will be this apocalyptic catastrophic war for the world.

[00:07:07]And Jesus himself will descend and demand that all of the Jews in Israel convert to Christianity.

[00:07:12]And if they don't, they die and they go to hell.

[00:07:15]Why is this part of our political calculations, this should not, this prophecy, this just wild, illogical prophecy should not be contributing at all to the decisions that the leaders of the United States make.

[00:07:34]And I think this is partly how we've been on decline in the world.

[00:07:40]We no longer believe in science or fact and All these are other things.

[00:07:47]We don't demand proof before making decisions.

[00:07:49]Everything's taken on faith.

[00:07:50]We'd go on gut feelings.

[00:07:52]Experts be damned.

[00:07:53]And it's leading us off a cliff.

[00:07:55]And it's just really scary for the state of the country right now.

[00:07:58]Anyway, go read my piece.

[00:07:59]It's on burnsnotice.com.

[00:08:02]And I will be doing this every week when I publish a piece.

[00:08:05]The next day there will be a companion YouTube video going over what I talked about with a little rant by yours truly.

[00:08:11]If you like my work, go ahead and subscribe.

[00:08:13]That's burnsnotice.com.

[00:08:14]We pick out one interesting politics story or culture story or LGBT news story of the week and we cover it and we do this video.

[00:08:23]So see you next week.