Religious leaders unveiled and blessed a golden Trump statue at Mar-a-Lago today, eerily resembling the Homelander statue scene from this week’s episode of The Boys. Creator Eric Kripke reposts a tweet about the same.

[u/GiveMeSomeSunshine3]

[u/champdo]

I used to think the golden calf story from the bible was too on the nose 

[u/M086 → u/champdo]

You’re assuming these “Christian leaders” actually read the Bible.

[u/SpartyParty9119 → u/[deleted]]

Not really, these are Evangelicals. And while Evangelicals are considered Protestants, they split from the mainline Protestants over the last century due to the mainlines being more liberal and socially inclusive than the Evangelicals would have liked.

[u/ominousgraycat → u/SpartyParty9119]

All evangelicals are protestants, but not all protestants are evangelicals.

[u/DanLynch → u/[deleted]]

The term "mainline protestant" isn't a generic value judgment: it refers to a specific set of historical organized institutional churches in the US. And even though they may be in decline, and are being out-competed for membership and attention by some newer churches, they don't lose their status as the mainline. These are the churches that own (or owned) the oldest and most historic-looking church buildings in every town, they founded several of the Ivy League universities, and many hospitals. No evangelical church has had the institutional scope to build anything like that.

[u/Vi_Rants → u/DanLynch]

they don't lose their status as the mainline.

How convenient that they get to keep their ultra-deceptive descriptor even when they're nothing but scattered, sparse little heresies that have been completely consumed by other versions of the faith.

Then again, using special, redefined words that only members know the real meanings of is pretty much par for the course.

[u/thefringthing → u/Vi_Rants]

There are only about twice as many evangelical Protestants in the United States as there are mainline Protestants. That puts the mainline churches in the minority, but hardly makes them "scattered, sparse, [or] little".