Trifling with the sacred

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. One image posted online—then quickly deleted—has stirred backlash, even among the president’s supporters.

It showed Donald Trump in a way many Christians say crosses a line.

EICHER: WORLD Opinions contributor Denny Burk says the explanation for it doesn’t hold up—and the deeper issue shouldn’t be ignored.

DENNY BURK: Sunday night, President Trump posted an image that offended even some of his strongest Christian supporters.

By yesterday, it was gone.

But the explanation that followed only made things worse. Listen:

REPORTER: Mr. President, did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ?

TRUMP: Well, it wasn’t depicted. It was me, I did post it, and I thought it was me as the doctor and had to do with Red Cross. There was a Red Cross worker there, which we support. And, ah, only the fake news could come up with that one, so. I, I had, ah, I just heard about it and I said, ‘How do they come up with that? It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better.’ And I do make people better. I make people a lot better…

That explanation strains credulity. The image didn’t depict a doctor. It showed Trump in flowing robes—radiant, healing, surrounded by symbols of power and reverence. People looking on… even appearing to pray.

No reasonable person sees that and thinks physician.

What makes this worse is not just the image—but the defense of it.

Some supporters have argued that the president is simply expressing faith… that Christians are overreacting… that prayer and healing are part of Christian life.

But that misses the point entirely.

The issue is not prayer. The issue is blasphemy.

Scripture is not silent about this kind of thing.

When King Nebuchadnezzar took glory for himself, God brought him low—driving him from his throne until he recognized who truly rules.

When King Herod accepted praise as a god, the book of Acts says he was struck down on the spot.

These are not obscure warnings. They are clear. God will not share His glory.

There is a pattern here. Irreverence. Carelessness. A willingness to treat sacred things as tools—for humor, for messaging, for effect.

And it shows up in moments like this—where something plainly serious is waved away with a casual explanation.

None of that changes the central issue: God is not mocked. There is a limit to how long such things go unanswered.

Whether judgment comes now or later is not for us to say. But Scripture is clear that it does come.

There is still time for repentance.

But repentance is more than deleting a post, or offering a thin explanation.

It means taking responsibility. Turning away. And turning toward Christ.

Making blasphemy “great again” will not end well—not for the president, and not for those who excuse it.

For WORLD, I’m Denny Burk.

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