This weekend two stories in the news caught my attention. The first was Peggy Noonan\u2019s column in The Wall Street Journal* and the second was David French\u2019s column in The New York Times.** Both addressed Trump\u2019s corruption of religion to bolster his power and importance.<\/p>\n
Noonan was her conciliatory and entertaining self while pointedly criticizing the president and his lieutenants of blasphemy and ignorance in their criticism of the pope. Especially appalling was her relating the comments of Paula White-Cain, head of the administration\u2019s Faith Office, in comparing President Trump to Jesus. \u201cIt was quite something,\u201d Noonan wrote; \u201cIf you really believe in Christ, as a Christian preacher should, you wouldn\u2019t compare him to any leader in this world\u2026.What is going on with this administration and it\u2019s use and abuse of Christianity? Shouldn\u2019t the great churches of America be thinking about this, and at this point talking about it publicly, thoughtfully?\u201d<\/p>\n
Think about Noonan\u2019s observation, \u201cWHAT IS GOING ON WITH\u2026CHRISTIANITY? SHOULDN\u2019T THE GREAT CHURCHES OF AMERICA BE THINKING ABOUT THIS, AND AT THIS POINT BE TALKING ABOUT IT PUBLICLY, THOUGHTFULLY?\u201d<\/p>\n
David French adds to Noonan\u2019s examples and her support for the right and obligation of the pope to speak out against violence and war. He writes \u201cPope Leo\u2019s pleas for peace are hardly unprecedented. I distinctly remember Pope John Paul\u2019s strong objections to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yet an American president has never responded to a pope with personal attacks and lies as Trump has.\u201d By now the president\u2019s blasphemous postings of himself as Jesus and his apologists\u2019 comments continue to stir controversy.<\/p>\n
French comes down hard on Franklin Graham as a prominent evangelical minister and zealous supporter of Trump. Graham accepted Trump\u2019s laughable explanation that he thought he was posing as a doctor when he posted himself depicting Jesus. Graham can\u2019t be that gullible, but he can be vehemently partisan, apparently, when it comes to prostituting himself for the MAGA fellowship. \u201cI think his enemies\u2026\u201d Graham wrote, \u201care always foaming at the mouth at any possible opportunity to make him look bad.\u201d Clergyman Graham clearly makes no distinction between church and state in Trump\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, French who comes from a conservative protestant background, doesn\u2019t believe that \u201cit\u2019s possible to separate Trump\u2019s public fight with Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic Church from his own sense of divine authority.\u201d And if this is not bad enough, French warns that Trump\u2019s attacks could \u201cstir up long-buried divisions between Catholics and Protestants.\u201d<\/p>\n
My take away from all this is that the Trump establishment\u2019s growing use of Christian symbols and religious language to wage war and deprecate others is an abomination that needs calling out. As Peggy Noonan wrote, \u201cShouldn\u2019t the great churches of America be thinking about this \u2026talking about it publicly, thoughtfully. And, as I\u2019ve written in an earlier post, speaking out does not simply mean chatting with our congregations and issuing platitudes about peace, love and non-violence. The titular heads and prominent theologians of all major Christian denominations need to speak publicly as well.<\/p>\n
*Peggy Noonan, \u201cTrump Meets His Match in Pope Leo,\u201d Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
**David French, \u201ci Missed the Part About there Divine Right of Presidents,\u201d New York Times, April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This weekend two stories in the news caught my attention. The first was Peggy Noonan\u2019s column in The Wall Street Journal* and the second was David French\u2019s column in The New York Times.** Both addressed Trump\u2019s corruption of religion to bolster his power and importance. Noonan was her conciliatory and entertaining self while pointedly criticizing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n