Belief

While Republicans are trying to ban "Sharia Law," President Donald Trump's administration is trying to bring its own version of it to force on the U.S. military.

Sharia is Islamic religious law derived from the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. It guides Muslims’ personal conduct, worship and ethics and, in very few countries, it can control aspects of civil or criminal law. Retired Gen. Mark Hertling can't help but think that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is bringing his own brand of Christianity and forcing it down the throats of every soldier for what he believes is some kind of holy war.

On MS NOW, the conversation turned to Hegseth's recent announcement that he's creating a new Pentagon office to “elevate spiritual readiness." Hegseth has a "menu of options" listing out various religions that military members must identify as.

In a memo in May, Military.com reported that 180 faiths were cut from the list of "recognized religions" in the military. Things like Humanism, Deists, Spiritualists and Unitarian Universalists were cut. While there were once 211 acceptable religions to identify as, there are now 31.

“The Department of War protects the constitutional right of every service member and civilian employee to practice their faith without coercion or discrimination,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told MS NOW. “Despite the Left’s efforts to remove our Christian heritage from our great nation, Secretary Hegseth is among those who embrace it.”

Hertling said the whole thing made him confused.

"I've commanded soldiers of every religious background, including those with no religious beliefs at all. And one of the most important things a leader has responsibilities to do was to make sure every single soldier, sailor, airman, marine feels respected and valued as members of the team," said Hertling.

"Faith is important to soldiers, and so is if they don't have any faith at all. And it's particularly true in combat," the retired general explained. "The military has always protected their right to practice the faith of their choosing. But there's a profound difference between religious freedom and religious favoritism. And that's what the secretary of defense seems to be doing right now. He has a way of worshiping, and god bless him for it. You know, I'm a Christian, and I don't know of anyone who's trying to get Christianity out of the military."

He said that every member of the U.S. armed forces deserves to practice whatever faith they want.

"And I think that we're seeing a real lien by the secretary of defense, one individuals who is trying to persuade people to do a certain kind of faith, which he agrees with. And that's really unfortunate," Hertling continued.

Host and reporter Ayman Mohyeldin sees it as an extension of the Trump administration's agenda to invoke Christian nationalism into government strategy and philosophy.

"They have invoked this kind of white nationalist imagery in the way they recruited people to the Department of Homeland Security," he recalled. "They've tried to characterize and evoke this imagery with the immigration operations that they're using here domestically. We've all seen the pictures of the president with the prayer services and the various evangelical pastors with their hands on him. He's tried to anoint himself as a messenger of God, acting on behalf of Christianity in this country, which I think is very dangerous to the larger issue."

Hertling added that the whole thing plays right into the hands of Islamic extremists who believe they are in a holy war against the Christian West. When Trump and Hegseth try to craft the military into some kind of soldier for Jesus it is quickly used by the extremists to recruit into terrorist groups.

"And it also makes the job of our allies in the region who are predominantly Muslim that much harder," he added.

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A prominent group of conservative Christians are denouncing President Donald Trump's top military official, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, for ordering that convicted terrorist and mass murder Nidal Malik Hasan — who committed the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that led to 13 deaths and 32 injuries — be executed publicly by firing squad. It is the first public execution in modern American history.

"The National Association of Evangelicals (along with several other religious groups) are now joining the USCCB in condemning Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth’s plans to publicly execute Nidal Malik Hasan, also saying doing so promotes a 'culture of death,'" reported journalist Jack Jenkins of the religious news outlet RNS on Friday.

In an excerpt from his report, Jenkins wrote that "Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, told RNS that while he affirms the 'need for justice' regarding Hasan’s crime, 'at the same time, a live-streamed execution by firing squad risks turning one of the state’s most solemn responsibilities into a public spectacle, promoting a culture of death, rather than a culture that upholds the dignity of every human being.'"

Evangelical Christian organizations are not alone in slamming Trump and Hegseth for choosing to publicly execute Hasan. On the social media platform X, prominent commentators from all sides of the political spectrum expressed disgust with the decision.

Billy Binion, reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason Magazine, posted, “This is sick. You can support justice for Nidal Hasan’s victims without making his execution a source of entertainment. This administration so often governs for the online mob. It’s depraved.”

Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Intercept and ideologically heterodox, argued, “There are a very small number of countries that still carry out public executions. Those are the countries we are constantly told are uniquely primitive, barbaric, sick and evil. It’s revealing that Pete Hegseth wants the US to join that group but also entirely unsurprising.”

Wajahat Ali of the liberal Substack The Left Hook stated, “Public lynchings will be next.”

Trump and Hegseth are also under fire for terminating the employment of dozens of top staff at the Pentagon, amounting to more than 900 years of combined experience, and replacing them with partisan loyalists.

"Since January 2025," Michael N. Schmitt, a law professor at New York University, wrote for Just Security in June, "the Defense Department has removed, replaced, or forced the early retirement of a remarkable concentration of operationally experienced senior officers. Among them are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Army, and the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, who concurrently serves as director of the National Security Agency. Most recently, Gen. Christopher Donahue, one of the most decorated and combat-experienced officers of his generation, has been forced out as commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and, in his NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) role, as commander of Allied Land Command. Public explanations have been sparse and, to the extent they have been offered, largely general."

Schmitt added, "The question regarding these departures is not whether the president and secretary of defense have broad lawful authority to reshape the senior officer corps. They unequivocally do. Nor is it a question of whether personnel decisions of this kind are ever warranted. Sometimes, they certainly are. Instead, at its core, a central question is their impact on the combat effectiveness, indeed the lethality, of our armed forces."

Even Gen. Christopher LaNeve, Hegseth’s senior military aide, indirectly admitted the mass firings could become a problem.

“Every shortcut in training and lapse in discipline will be paid for in blood,” LaNeve wrote.

A federal judge’s recent ruling on a religious charter school in Oklahoma could make way for a precedent that is a direct contrast to the separation of church and state — and a new wave of taxpayer-funded religious schools.

Per Friendly Atheist, Western District Judge David L. Russell of Oklahoma recently ruled that the state violated the First Amendment after denying the approval of the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School on the basis of religion.

In his ruling, Russell stated that the court is not expressing “judgment on the wisdom of the State of Oklahoma opening up its coffers to charter schools of disparate philosophical or educational persuasions.”

However, once it does, the court can’t deny a school on account of its “religious character.”

While the ruling, which occurred late last month, doesn’t mean that the charter school is close to opening, it does give way to the school being able to continue the steps of becoming established.

Now, the state Charter School Board has to reconsider Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School’s application when the board next reconvenes.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond previously sued to stop the school from receiving the taxpayer funds, but was ultimately stopped by the Supreme Court.

Additionally, Drummond sued the Charter School board earlier this year due to claims the board “didn’t thoroughly explain all the existing problems with the school’s application,” per the outlet.

Despite the recent ruling by the court to give the taxpayer funds the go-ahead for the school, Drummond’s lawsuit is ongoing.

Following the news of the ruling, many close to the situation voiced their opinions on what it means moving forward.

The ruling “opens the door to a dangerous sea change for our democracy,” the legal team of a [pro-church/state separation] group said via statement. “Forcing taxpayers to fund religious public schools violates state and federal law.”

“Ben Gamla will not only indoctrinate students into a particular religion — it will discriminate against families that don’t share the school’s beliefs. We will continue to fight for all Oklahomans, who deserve public schools that are secular and open to all students,” the attorneys added.

As for Drummond, in a statement on Oct. 1, he addressed the ruling saying, “In 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a religious charter school violates the Oklahoma Constitution, state law and the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court left that decision in place last year.”

President Donald Trump long relied on evangelicals and other religious Christians to power his presidential campaign. Now, according to a recent report by The Bulwark, these same devout individuals are finding that Trump is abandoning their political interests.

"One of the major subplots in American politics over the past half-decade is evangelical Christians—the political constituency without which Trump would have never been elected president—becoming the dog that caught the car," wrote The Bulwark's Joe Perticone on Tuesday. "They just haven’t had much reason to go to the polls since June 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned the legal right to an abortion in its landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision."

Perticone added, "The Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit was once a marquee political gathering for evangelicals and their allies in politics. But at this year’s event in Leesburg, Virginia, decline was evident everywhere, from the downsized venue far outside the Beltway to the sparse attendance and general lack of interest from elected officials. When the organization’s leader, Tony Perkins, addressed the audience, it became clear that he has been relegated to the D.C. sidelines after enjoying years of high-contact play as a leader in the anti-abortion movement."

The reporter added that Tony Perkins, who leads the Family Research Council, has called out Trump as well as a Democrat they more traditionally oppose, former President Joe Biden.

"Throughout the event, he expressed frustration with the Trump administration for a lack of interest in addressing abortion rates, and with Congress for claiming to be pro-life while showing little follow-through," Perticone observed. He quoted Perkins as saying that "we’re fighting for this life issue that many people thought was solved in 2022 when the Court overturned Roe, but it’s more of a battle today than it was then,” continuing that conservatives “have an administration that’s not as committed to it as we’ve seen before.”

Perticone also detailed how several prominent Republicans have snubbed the once-hot ticket of going to the Family Research Council events.

"House Speaker Mike Johnson moved from confirmed speaker, to no longer on the roster, to appearing via Zoom on the final day," Perticone wrote. "Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) all appeared on the confirmed speakers list at one point or another, but none was on the final roster. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who is struggling through a surprisingly tight race this November (ironically, facing a Democratic nominee who pastors a megachurch), also dropped off the confirmed speakers list at some point this summer."

While the Christian right today is rife with anti-Semitism, racism and misogyny, there are also individuals within the movement who criticize Trump for his intolerance. For example, earlier in September MAGA loyalist Tim Moore wrote an editorial for Washington Examiner arguing that Trump's anti-immigrant agenda is abandoning persecuted Christians in non-white countries.

"There’s one confusing inconsistency in Trump’s defense of Christians, though, and as a stalwart supporter, I fear he may be listening to some bad advice on this theme that could significantly depress evangelical turnout in November," Moore wrote.

After pointing out that Biden had welcomes 29,478 Christian refugees from 50 countries during his term, in 2026 Trump had invited none.

"Countries like Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of Congo," Moore wrote, saying that among the 50 countries on the Watch list roughly 388 million people are persecuted for their religious beliefs.

"And hundreds of thousands were newly forced to flee their homes because of religious persecution," he added.

A decade ago, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will expressed his disdain for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement by leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent. And he hasn't grown any more favorable to Trump or MAGA since then. In a late September Post column, Will is highly critical of MAGA Christians — including Vice President JD Vance — and argues that they mirror, in many ways, the "socialists" they condemn.

"Undeterred by the axiom that there can be indecent exposure of the mind as well as the body," the 85-year-old Will writes in the Post, "the Democratic Socialists of America candidly announce their agenda. Religious 'integralists' should be similarly explicit. DSAers want to scrap the Constitution in order to facilitate confiscating wealth, private property and other impediments to government-enforced equality and social perfection. Christian integralists, who are disproportionately Catholic, are devout and determined to make the nation more so. They would enliven politics if they would specify the measures they advocate to, as they mistakenly say, return America to being a 'Christian nation.'"

Many MAGA Christians are fundamentalist Protestant evangelicals, but the ultra-MAGA Vance is a convert to Catholicism. And Will cites Vance as a prime example of an "integralist."

"Integralists want to integrate spiritual and temporal (government) power, subordinating the latter to the former," Will argues. "Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule, the most intellectually interesting integralist, opposes 'the relentless expansion of individualistic autonomy,' and those who are 'enslaved to the original meaning of the Constitution.' Integralists have no 'horror of political domination and hierarchy' because law — government — must be 'parental, a wise teacher and an inculcator of good habits.'"

Will continues, "Vermeule's constitutionalism aims not to 'protect liberty' as 'an end in itself,' because 'constraints on power are good only derivatively,' by serving the integralist agenda, which requires robust parental government. Government should 'direct' individuals and society toward virtuous living through 'respect for the authority of rule and of rulers; respect for the hierarchies needed for society to function.' Well."

'Integralist' Christianity, according to Will, runs counter to "libertarian" principles.

"Integralists who speak, as Vance does, of 'the Christian foundation of this country,' are baptizing the Founders without their permission," Will writes. "The six most important — Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton — held, tepidly, various flavors of deism, which says a clockmaker deity got the universe going, then His attention wandered. The six tended toward unitarianism, the watery belief that there is at most one God. Integralists, like socialists, promise political transformations that will achieve salvation for our fallen world. Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world' (John 18:36). Integralists, like socialists, are more ambitious."

Founded in 1989 during George H.W. Bush's presidency, the Christian fundamentalist legal group Liberty Counsel has a long history of representing white evangelicals in far-right causes. The Florida-based nonprofit has a new client: Foundations for Nations, a Wyoming church being asked to leave a Native American reservation. And Liberty Counsel is representing the church on a pro bono basis.

According to WyoFile reporter Maya Shimizu Harris, Foundations for Nations is "facing demands to leave the Wind River Indian Reservation after its pastor delivered a sermon urging Native congregants to renounce Northern Arapaho traditions has a formidable ally in its corner as tensions continue to simmer."

"Last month," Harris explains, "the Foundations for Nations church lodged a complaint with state and federal agencies against the Food Bank of Wyoming, alleging the organization unlawfully cut off its support on the basis of religious, political and racial discrimination. According to Foundations For Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas, Food Bank of Wyoming ended the partnership after her controversial sermon, telling her that it was in response to a call claiming her message was discriminatory, the Ranger reported."

Liberty Counsel, Harris reports, "filed the complaint on the church's behalf" and "is providing legal services to the church for free."

Richard Mast, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel, is claiming that Foundations For Nations' situation is a free speech/freedom of religion battle.

Mast told WyoFile, "When a matter arises in their local area, we reach out to them, offer them an opportunity to participate, and we are frequently taken up on that. We appreciate our local counsel in Wyoming … People have reached out to us from Wyoming. We've come to their assistance, and at least one of those cases I recall was successful."

Over the years, Liberty Counsel has repeatedly clashed with liberal and progressive attorneys — many times, in cases involving gay rights and abortion.

"In addition to filing the discrimination complaint," Harris notes, "Liberty Counsel sent a letter to Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Keenan Groesbeck in July after the council had adopted a resolution stating that outside organizations should consult with the council before initiating or expanding recurring organized activities on lands governed by the Northern Arapaho Tribe. While stating that the church believes it's in compliance with the resolution, the letter asserted that the church 'requires no authorization' from the Northern Arapaho Business Council 'to conduct religious activities on its own private fee simple property,' and that the church 'will not be leaving its property.'"

Harris continues, "Following Lucas' sermon, the Northern Arapaho Business Council told church officials to leave the reservation, and some called on the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes to use the 'bad men' clause in their treaties with the U.S. government to oust the church from the reservation. But in an August 31 resolution, the Northern Arapaho Business Council stated that it doesn’t regulate activities on the church’s private property, and that it hadn't designated the church or any person as 'bad men.'"

A racist social post by Bo French, GOP nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, set off an intense debate among Republicans — with veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove saying he would vote for the Democratic nominee and President Donald Trump attacking Rove as a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only). And according to Democratic insider Christopher Hale, a Catholic bishop is now the target of MAGA rage for calling French out.

After Texas won a college football game, French posted a photo of University of Texas, Austin fans celebrating the victory — and French was offended that they were Indian-America. French, in a September 13 post on X, wrote, "I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is obviously now far worse than anyone imagined."

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth vehemently condemned French's post, tweeting, "This is racist and sinful rhetoric that seeks to harm and to divide. It is disturbing that it comes from a candidate for public office. An apology is called for."

Olson's post drew a scathing response from MAGA Republicans and French defenders.

MAGA conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec is among French's defenders, telling Olson, "Every nation in the world is allowed to determine appropriate levels of immigration, Bishop Christ never commanded that all nations of the world accept endless amounts of foreign immigration. In fact, elected officials are allowed to publicly discuss these issues in a republic."

Hale notes, "Under Olson's post, the replies called him an apostate who should 'go join Prevost in Rome and pray to Pachamama,' a shepherd who cares 'more for the wolves than for his own sheep.' One account informed him that 'Racism is not sin.' That last line is the whole fight, and Olson knows it. He gave an interview to Kevin Clarke of America magazine, published Friday, and repeated the charge. French's refusal to apologize, and his decision to raise money off the uproar, left the bishop 'astounded and disturbed.' The photo, he said, was 'a point of political exploitation,' and its logic was plain: 'there's no knowing if those young people are citizens or not. All that is known is that they are of a different complexion.'"

Hale adds, "These were, in his reading, 'not even dog whistle words.' The students in it 'were being disqualified from participation in American society — even in something like a football game, as important as that is in Texas — by the color of their skin.'"

Hale points out that some Texas Republicans aren't defending French's racist post but are still supporting his campaign.

"A Catholic bishop in Fort Worth said more in three sentences than the governor of Texas has managed in a week," Hale argues. "He was called an apostate for it, and he answered by giving an interview in which he repeated himself, slowly, for the record.

That is what a shepherd looks like when the wolves are inside the fence. The Republican Party of Texas may yet find its voice before November. The Church in Texas did not wait."

A political activist group that has long supported President Donald Trump, the late Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, is reportedly struggling with its identity as Christian nationalism has become an increasingly potent influence within its ranks.

"Jonah Scott became president of the University of Central Florida’s Turning Point chapter within months of arriving on campus in the fall of 2024, after previously founding a chapter at Seminole State College," reported The Dispatch's Eli Kronenberg on Thursday. "He said the chapter’s meetings in his first year took place in a small conference room that held 30 to 40 students, but after Kirk’s death, the chapter had to start booking the campus’s largest meeting room in order to accommodate more than 200 students."

Kronenberg added that "with a growth in attendance came a shift in tone. When Scott stood for reelection as president this spring, some new members sought to push the chapter in a different direction, and Scott lost." Scott told Kronenberg that "I think Turning Point became a lot more of a Christian organization since Charlie passed, and they wanted more Christian leadership. I myself am Jewish, so there was a lot of that. Though we did incorporate a lot of Christian stuff into the group, I think a lot of people wanted it to be a more explicitly Christian organization.”

A former chapter president also told Kronenberg that "Everything’s like, ‘Oh, God did this, God did this. If you don’t support us, you’re not a God-loving person.’ That kind of feels like the vibe. It feels like it’s more like Christian extremism now.”

Kronenberg added that "several students" who he spoke to echoed that critique. Additionally, as right-wing influencer Candace Owens spreads conspiracy theories about Kirk's death, the organization has fought radicalization from that angle too.

"Most chapters have taken a big-tent approach to discussions surrounding Owens’ criticism of Turning Point," Kronenberg wrote. "Van Lemay, a high school student who leads a Club America group at West Michigan Aviation Academy, said it was 'sickening' to hear lies about Turning Point leaders, but cited Kirk’s support for the free exchange of ideas as a reason to hear critics out in meetings. 'I think that it’s really good actually to bring these conversations into real life, because most of this is online rhetoric and kind of lives within social media,' Lemay told The Dispatch. 'When you have something completely online, that’s often when it gets spun to the more extreme.'"

He added, "Asked how he would encourage chapters to handle discussions surrounding Owens’ conspiracy theories, Kolvet pointed out that today’s high school and college students came of age during the COVID pandemic, which he said led to a collapse in trust of authority figures. 'I’m super sympathetic to young people that question … official narratives or information from government authorities,' Kolvet said. 'Yes, it’s okay to ask questions. It’s quite another thing to engage in warrantless, reckless character assassination of people who themselves are victims, in this case Erika Kirk.'"

Kirk was assassinated one year ago as of Thursday, a moment that galvanized a Christian nationalist movement that has already largely rallied behind Trump.

“The religious right has been ascendant during the second presidency of Donald Trump, and they’ve harnessed his disdain for rules and norms to blur the lines between church and state,” reported Vox's Christian Paz in May. “Inside the White House, the secretary of defense has framed the war in Iran and American military action abroad as sanctioned and guided by God. Outside the government, this alliance between church and state often skirts near the edge of outright idolatry. Conservative pastors are erecting golden statues of Trump (but insisting it does not mirror the infamous golden calf of the Old Testament). They’re extending their hands over the president in prayer after comparing him to Jesus and standing by him, with some mild criticism, after he cast himself as an AI-slop Messiah.”

Despite Christian nationalist claims, America was not founded as a Christian country.

President Thomas Jefferson, who also co-authored the Declaration of Independence, famously wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptists during his administration arguing that “believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

An evangelical MAGA mom from Michigan truly believed that God would provide for her, but then the affordability crisis hit.

The International Business Times pointed to an interview with Stephania Messina, who joined the so-called "trad wife" movement. A world created on social media in which women live "traditional wife" roles such as homemaking, child-rearing and support for their husbands. They post videos romanticizing cooking and homeschooling children. So much of it comes from evangelical Christianity, and in the case of Messina, that's where hers began.

Speaking to The Guardian, Messina explained that she was in the throes of postpartum depression when she got deeper and deeper into her faith. She said that she truly believed, "I don't need to work. I don't need to worry about how I'm going to afford these kids, because God's going to figure it out."

"I took that 100 percent seriously. I was a tradwife," she said.

As a child, her family attended an Assemblies of God church, which she described as reminiscent of Pentecostal, where she saw parishoners speak in tongues. Then the pastor embezzled a lot of money and her family ultimately left the church. When she first voted, it was for President Barack Obama, but then she pivoted to former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Her logic was that if she fully submitted to her husband's control, then God would provide financially.

"I don't need to work. I don't need to worry about how I'm going to afford these kids, because God's going to figure it out. If I'm obedient, if I surrender to the leadership of my husband, then God's going to bless me," she said that she believed.

She also started to avoid politics.

"They don't want you knowing about politics. It wasn't my job to vote or to know who to vote for. I was just supposed to submit to my husband and do what he thought was necessary," Messina explained

While she was a supporter of President Donald Trump, it didn't come from him, it came from God. "I never wore a red hat. I never went to a Trump rally. My MAGA was 'Make America Godly Again.' My loyalty wasn't to Trump. My loyalty was to God and the church."

She was taught not to even look at independent media, "because it's demonic."

"I was so deep in what I can only call a religious psychosis," she said that she now understands.

It isn't a formal diagnosis; rather, it's an informal phrase describing a detachment from reality as a result of delusions, hallucinations or when intense fears take on religious or spiritual themes, explained the mental health organization AMFM.

For her, everything changed during the pandemic. Before her tradwife lifestyle, she worked as a respiratory therapist. So, her years of training and expertise, compared to what the president and church leaders were saying, was in complete conflict with everything she'd known.

Then her spouse died in a motorcycle accident. Her pastor's wife called it a "blessing in disguise" because her children wouldn't grow up with a non-Christian influence in their lives.

"After that, I was done," she said.

"I was afraid to speak out because I thought everyone would hate me. But it wasn't until my perspective became more progressive that I felt like my empathy came back," she said, noting that she began rebuilding her worldview.

"I don't care how long it takes. I will be deconstructing the rest of my life," Messina estimated.

MAGA loyalist Tim Moore sees Trump as lacking when it comes to an important aspect of the evangelical Christian agenda.

Writing for the conservative Washington Examiner, Moore said he's been happy with Trump's war on transgender people, helping eliminate Roe v. Wade and reproductive freedom and his "commission" on anti-Christian bias. Where Trump is failing, however, is a key piece of the evangelical agenda.

"There’s one confusing inconsistency in Trump’s defense of Christians, though, and as a stalwart supporter, I fear he may be listening to some bad advice on this theme that could significantly depress evangelical turnout in November," he wrote in a column Thursday.

Trump's war against immigrants and refugees has disenfranchised those being persecuted for their Christianity. Moore said that 2026 marks the first year in which not one Christian refugee has been allowed to enter the U.S. Citing a new report from the Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors US, Moore said former President Joe Biden allowed 29,478 Christian refugees from the 50 countries on the "Watch List" into the U.S. In 2026, under President Donald Trump, that number was zero.

"Countries like Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of Congo," are among those on the watch list, Moore cited. Among these 50 countries, he cited that roughly 388 million people are at risk of persecution due to their beliefs. "And hundreds of thousands were newly forced to flee their homes because of religious persecution."

What he found startling, Moore said, is that Trump promised victims of religious persecution, “No matter where you go, you have a place in the United States of America.”

In fact, just six months ago at the National Prayer breakfast, Trump told the audience, “No administration in modern history has done more to confront the plight of persecuted Christians around the world."

Trump even highlighted some of the persecuted Christians in the audience whom the U.S. gave refugee status to in the past.

Typically, a refugee would apply for asylum in the U.S., saying that they are the victim of persecution due to their identity or beliefs. Trump has repeatedly mixed up applications for "asylum" as applying to people coming from insane asylums.

They're “coming from prisons. They’re coming from jails. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums," Trump said at the Republican National Convention in 2024. In May of that year, Trump claimed, "the mental institution population is down because they're taking people from insane asylums [in foreign countries]" and sending them to the U.S. "You know what the difference is, right? An insane asylum is a mental institution on steroids."

It was also the speech where he began talking about Hannibal Lecter, the fictional character of the film Silence of the Lambs.

"But Hannibal Lecter, congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter. We have people that have been released into our country that we don't want in our country, and they're coming in totally unchecked, totally unvetted. And we can't let this happen. They're destroying our country, and we're sitting back. And we better damn well win this election because if we don't, our country is going to be doomed," Trump said.

Moore recalled celebrating Trump after he "became the first president ever to prioritize resettlement of individuals who 'have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of religion.'"

Now, however, Moore said, "Persecuted Christians have been shut out."

He said that as evangelical Christians head to the polls for the 2026 midterms, issues like this matter and it might prompt many MAGA allies to stay home.

Reuters reported in June that support for Trump among evangelical Christians has slipped to 52 percent. In Aug. 2025, approval sat at 61 percent.

Moore cited a poll conducted by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Research, which found four out of five pastors see it as a moral responsibility to accept refugees. Only 2 percent believe none should be admitted.

President Donald Trump greatly offended many Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, when he posted an image depicting himself as Jesus Christ back in April. Vice President JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, defended Trump during a late August interview with evangelical podcaster Bryce Crawford. But the host didn't back down from calling out the image as highly offensive.

Crawford told Vance, "I'm a Christian, I saw the photo — it made me upset. I'm not going to lie, it made me upset."

Vance, in response, didn't defend the image but was careful to avoid direct criticism of the president.

"I hear you, and I know the president didn't mean any offense," the "Hillbilly Elegy" author told Crawford. "Obviously, he loves Christians, and politically, has done a lot of good for religious liberty, and certainly didn't mean anything by it. I'm biased because I see this from the inside. So, it's like, 'Did Donald Trump mean to post a meme of himself as God?' No."

Trump posted the image depicting him as Jesus Christ as part of a blistering online rant again Pope Leo the 14th, who hasn't been shy about criticizing the U.S. president on immigration and other issues. And when the image sparked a vehement outcry, Trump removed it and claimed, "I thought it was me as a doctor."

But Crawford didn't believe Trump's explanation, telling Vance, "I don't know how he thought he was a doctor in the photo. He was (wearing) a white robe with a red sash on it, you know — and that makes me upset as a Christian."

Crawford said, however, that he "did appreciate" Trump removing the offensive image.

Vance continued to defend the president, insisting that he never meant to offend Christians. The vice president argued that because Trump is too busy to spend a lot of time surfing social media, "people will bring him stuff" — and that image, Vance maintained, was an example.

Crawford told Vance, "Sometimes, he'll like chuckle at it — and sometimes, if he really thinks it's funny, he'll have somebody post it. And that's exactly what happened here. He did not mean to like, mock or mimic God. That's just not who he is."

Vance himself was a vehement critic of Trump during the United States' 2016 presidential election. But he later went full MAGA and became a major ally of Trump, aggressively championing his policies during his years in the U.S. Senate.

On Monday, August 31, a court in Seoul, South Korea sentenced Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church) leader Han Hak-ja to two years in prison on charges of political bribery, embezzling church funds and making illegal political contributions. And according to The New Republic's Elle Hardy, Hak-ja's legal problems have "raised questions about the dwindling church's continued influence in the Trump administration."

Hak-ja is the widow of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who died in 2012. The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) has long been known for its far-right politics, from defending President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal to allying itself with President Donald Trump. But according to Hardy, Trump's recent favorable comments about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un are complicating the FFWPU/GOP alliance.

"Prosecutors had sought a 13-year sentence, which would have essentially meant life behind bars for the aging leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, or FFWPU, formerly known as the Unification Church," Hardy explains in The New Republic. "The sentence was something of a surprise, as the church had expected the court to agree to the prosecutors' request. Han was found guilty of political bribery of former first lady Kim Keon Hee and another conservative politician, with the church apologizing for causing 'big concerns and disappointment to the people' but vowing to appeal Han's conviction."

Hardy continues, "Han, her chief of staff, Won-ju Jeong, and former church deputy Yoon Young-ho were accused of embezzling over $7 million in church funds through false accounting between 2017 and 2025, with investigators seizing a further $26 million in funds hidden in a safe in Han's bedroom. Han was acquitted of these charges, leading to the greatly reduced sentence."

Hardy notes that Hak-ja "embarked on a campaign to convince the Trump administration to intervene on the grounds of Christian persecution" and that her "pleas rest on more than her faith."

"They bring into focus the church's 50-year ties to the Republican Party and the fact that many senior figures in the Trump court — including the president himself — have been lavished with the church's largesse in recent years for appearances at its conferences," according to Hardy. "Moon's fervent anti-communism and seemingly endless pots of money helped the church gain substantial influence during the Cold War across Korea, Japan, Latin America, and the United States."

But Hardy points out that Trump's "recent re-embrace of" North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "hasn't helped matters for any side."

"The current administration in Seoul feels ever more isolated from its greatest ally, and Korea's powerful conservative Christian right is dismayed that the president is embracing its great foe and the longtime source of its strong military alliance with Washington," Hardy observes. "Last week, Trump further inflamed tensions with a Truth Social post attacking South Korea for refusing to join his war against Iran, noting that he has 'a very good relationship' with Kim Jong Un…. So far, Han's allies in Washington have remained conspicuously quiet — but given their long-standing financial arrangements, that’s unlikely to last long."