The Not-So-Golden Idol

 This past weekend a truly weird and definitely not wonderful event took place in Orlando Florida. It's called the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, an annual gathering which brings together conservative political activists and elected officials from across the United States -- in other words, a mess of right-wing Republicans. Sunday's key speaker was none other than the soundly defeated, twice-impeached, former president, Donald Trump. Woo-hoo. 

The only reason I've noticed the shenanigans of CPAC is the bizarre statue of the Emperor Trump created for the conference by American artist Tommy Zegan, who lives in Mexico. Apparently Zegan spent six months creating the statue, which in my humble opinion is a fine representation of the sad state of the Republican party and the idol-worship of the person who may go down in history as the worst president who ever held the office. I honestly thought it was some sort of joke. 

\Not surprisingly, people immediately began comparing the monstrosity to the biblical story of the Golden Calf, the idol which the people of Israel worshipped rather than God when Moses was away on Mount Sinai. If you recall the story, this turned out badly for those who bowed down before the calf.. Zegan, a Christian,  insists that his work is not an idol. We beg to differ. We have witnessed the bizarre worship of the craven Trump for years now, and many of his staunched supporters have been the quasi-Christians who got him elected in the first place. Their fealty to this pathetic false god, chronic liar and philanderer, is beyond comprehension, but it made no sense when he was running for the Republican nomination and during his four years in office so why would it stop now? 

Yesterday,as expected, Trump falsely claimed victory in the election, disparaged immigrants and transgendered persons, and generally spoke in the hateful, xenophobic manner we've come to expect. Shame on those who delight in this sort of speech and claim to followers of Christ. 

A couple of years ago Pope Francis offered these thoughts, which are timely in this moment. 

“The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal.”  Pope Francis