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President Donald Trump brandished an upside-down Bible in front of a church he rarely attends and whose leaders and congregation work against the policies he trumpets, the clouds of toxic irritants deployed to part peaceful protesters and allow his visit still hanging in the air, it was idolatry. As the singer John Prine, who died of COVID-19 in April, put it: “Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven.” Only idolaters believe that waving a flag makes you a patriot or wearing a cross makes you a Christian. Just as destroying these objects has no magic power, neither does holding them up. Even the perpetual attempts to criminalize flag-burning consistently-and rightly-fail. The power of words and images in the United States is in the values they represent, not the objects themselves. Its citizens do not worship pictures of leaders. That is why its laws-unlike those of many other nations-do not criminalize the burning of holy books or the destruction of sacred images. Not just the act of idolatry but the very idea that idols have power.