Texas Church Melts Gold to Forge Statue of Donald Trump-Fiction!

Texas Church Melts Gold to Forge Statue of Donald Trump-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:

First Baptist Church in Dallas has melted the golden watches, jewelry and trinkets of church members to create a golden statue of President Donald Trump.

The Truth:

A website that publishes works of “Christian news satire” is behind false reports about a Texas church melting gold into a statute of Donald Trump.
The satirical story appeared at The Babylon Bee under the headline “First Baptist Dallas Members Melt Golden Jewelry Down Into Towering Donald Trump Statue” on January 2, 2018. After forging the Trump statute, church members supposedly assembled around it and delivered a rendition of an original hymn titled “Make America Great Again.”

According to sources from within the church, members had demanded that Jeffress form the statue, crying out, “Simple faithfulness to the gospel hasn’t brought us the political clout we desire!” and “Make for us a political god who will go before us!” This reportedly prompted the pastor to ask for the church’s jewelry to be passed forward and forged into a Trump idol for the church to worship.

First Baptist Church in Dallas is real —  but the story about the Texas church melting gold is not. The Babylon Bee clearly identifies its stories as “Christian news satire,” but many readers miss that disclaimer and mistake its content for factual news. We’ve investigated many stories published by The Babylon Bee — including a report that playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving is now illegal. As always, stories that appear at The Babylon Bee are for entertainment purposes only.