Why Trump’s spiritual advisor dedicated a golden statue to the president

Last week at Trump National Doral Miami Golf Club, a group of religious leaders dedicated a twenty-two-foot golden statue to President Donald Trump, owner of the resort. During the ceremony, Trump called in and called the statue “beautiful.” The event was chaired by Pastor Mark Burns, a longtime Trump supporter, while the idea for the statue came from a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts who support the president and used its creation to sell a meme coin called $PATRIOT. According to Burns, Trump was originally scheduled to attend the ceremony in person, but apparently changed his plans due to criticism over the publication, and then deletion, of an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ. (Burns later took to social media to strongly deny that the statue represented any form of idol worship.)

I recently spoke by phone with Burns, senior pastor of Harvest Praise & Worship Center, in Easley, South Carolina, and founder of the internationally syndicated evangelical television network NOW. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the history behind the statue, why Burns believes God told him to support Trump, and why he thinks the president’s opponents misunderstand how his supporters actually see him.

How did you come to be someone who is sometimes described as President Trump’s spiritual advisor?

Well, I’m just a very, very early supporter. Before he announced it, I was in his orbit, and I guess it was about me being faithful to the word of God. For me, it was never about power or position. Remember, many people considered him to be far from winning the presidency. And pretty soon, I was there, and the Lord told me. The first thing the Lord said to me was to show the world that this man is not racist.

The Lord told you directly, you mean?

Well, yes, yes, absolutely, He told me directly. Yes. The Bible says very clearly that He speaks to us through dreams. He speaks to us through the word of the Lord. And so He told me to show the world that this man is not racist. I know what real racism looks like, being from the Deep South, and it’s not Donald Trump. And that’s where my relationship began. And of course, I didn’t know he was going to become president.

I think it was probably more likely that he would become president if the Lord wanted him to be president.

I assume you say that respectfully because we believe God chooses our leaders. And that includes President Biden, former President Obama, and any other American leader. He lifts one up and sits down another. But the Bible also says that we should pray for our leaders. This includes Democrats and Republicans.

You’re talking about a period, in 2015, early in the campaign, and a lot of conservatives were upset that Donald Trump was living such a colorful life, having extramarital affairs and saying these things about women. Why could you have ignored all of this?

The word of God.

Well, that’s a good answer.

When you read God’s word, He looks past our flaws. We are all sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God, and yet we understand that it is by the blood of Jesus that we are cleansed. I know Noah was an alcoholic. He was so drunk that he fell naked and his sons had to walk backwards to cover him. But God chose him to try to save the world. You have David, who was a lustful man and also a murderer. And yet, this is the man God still used to write the Psalms. And so, because I know what God’s word says, I know that God doesn’t judge us based on who we were. He judges us based on who we are and who we are becoming.

So, do you think Trump has changed over the last decade?

I know for a fact that who he was when I first met him spiritually and who he is today are two different people.

It seems that sometimes Trump’s allies or supporters say negative claims about him are lies or smears. But what you seem to be saying is not that Trump hasn’t done any of these things in his past, but that he has, and that’s OK, or maybe not OK, but that God works in mysterious ways and can still use Trump to lead the country. Is this correct?

Well, I think that could be said of all of us. I mean, Isaac, you have things in your closet that you pray are never shown on CNN. There are things you’ve done that you pray that God will never become a New York story

It’s interesting, but I didn’t grab women against their will and brag about it, or post a video of Obama being a monkey. So maybe there is a sliding scale of what people do and how we should judge them?

Ultimately, God is our judge, not the people. And we can have a sliding scale, as you say, in the law of man, because it’s true, murder is much more dangerous and carries heavier weights than jaywalking or overeating. Gluttony is just as much a sin as murder, but in the eyes of man, murder carries far more weight, and it must be treated the way the word of God says it must be treated. But in the eyes of God, who is our ultimate judge, God is a God of forgiveness. God is a God of love. That said, it doesn’t matter what President Trump has done in his past.

Doesn’t it matter?

It doesn’t matter in the eyes of the Lord, and apparently it doesn’t really matter in the eyes of American voters, because they voted for him and made him president twice. Many would argue three times.

You would argue three times, wouldn’t you?

They voted for him twice and he won twice.

But you think he won three times, to be clear.

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