How Christian Reconstructionism influences US politics: scholar

A Christian chruch service on July 8, 2024 (Paul Shuang/Shutterstock.com)

Art Jipson
The Conversation

January 12, 2026 

Christian Reconstructionism is a theological and political movement within conservative Protestantism that argues society should be governed by biblical principles, including the application of biblical law to both personal and public life.

Taking shape in the late 1950s, Christian Reconstructionism developed into a more organized movement during the 1960s and 1970s.

It was born from the ideas of theologian R. J. Rushdoony, an influential Armenian-American Calvinist philosopher, theologian and author. In his 1973 book, “The Institutes of Biblical Law,” Rushdoony argued that Old Testament laws should still apply to modern society. He supported the death penalty not only for murder but also for offenses listed in the text such as adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality, witchcraft and idolatry.

As a scholar of political and religious extremism, I am familiar with this movement. Its following has been typically very small – never more than a few thousand committed adherents at its peak. But since the 1980s, its ideas have spread far beyond its limited numbers through books, churches and broader conservative Christian networks.

The movement helped knit together a network of theologians, activists and political thinkers who shared a belief that Christians are called to “take dominion” over society and exercise authority over civil society, law and culture.

These ideas continue to resonate across many areas of American religious and political life.
Origins of Christian Reconstructionism

Rushdoony’s ideas were born from a radical interpretation of Reformed Christianity – a branch of Protestant Christianity that follows the teachings of John Calvin and other reformers. It emphasizes God’s authority, the Bible as the ultimate guide and salvation through God’s grace rather than human effort.

Rushdoony’s ideas led him to found The Chalcedon Foundation in 1965, a think tank and publishing house promoting Christian Reconstructionism. It served as the movement’s main hub, producing books, position papers, articles and educational materials on applying biblical law to modern society.

It helped train Greg Bahnsen, an Orthodox Presbyterian theologian, and Gary North, a Christian reconstructionist writer and historian, both of whom went on to take key leadership roles in the movement.

At the heart of reconstructionism lies the conviction that politics, economics, education and culture are all arenas where divine authority should reign. Secular democracy, they argued, was inherently unstable, a system built on human opinion rather than divine truth.

These ideas were, and remain, deeply controversial. Many theologians, including conservatives within the Reformed tradition, rejected Rushdoony’s argument that ancient Israel’s civil laws should apply in modern states.
Christian dominionism and different networks

Nonetheless, reconstructionist ideas grew as people who more broadly believed in dominionism began to align with it. Dominionism is a broader ideology advocating Christian influence over culture and politics without requiring literal enforcement of biblical law.

Dominionism did not begin as a single, unified movement. Rather, it emerged in overlapping strands during the same period that Christian Reconstructionism was developing.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, Christian Reconstructionism helped turn dominionist beliefs into an explicit political project by grounding them in theology and outlining how biblical law should govern society. Religion historian Michael J. McVicar explains that Rushdoony’s work advocated applied biblical law as both a theological and political alternative to secular governance. This helped in influencing the trajectory of the Christian right.

At the same time, parallel streams – especially within charismatic and Pentecostal circles – advanced similar claims about Christian authority over society using different theological language.

The broad network of those who believe in Christian dominionism includes several approaches: Rushdoony’s reconstructionism, which provides the theological foundation, and charismatic kingdom theology.

Charismatic kingdom theology, which emerged in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, teaches that believers – empowered by the Holy Spirit – should shape politics, culture and society before Christ’s return.

Unlike reconstructionism, it emphasizes prophecy and spiritual authority rather than formal biblical law; it seeks influence over institutions such as government, education and culture.

What unites them is the idea that Christian faith should be the basis of the nation’s moral and political order.

Taken together, I argue that these strands have reinforced one another, creating a larger movement of thinkers and activists than any single approach could achieve alone.
From reconstructionism to the New Apostolic Reformation

Christian reconstructionist and dominionist ideas gained wider popularity through C. Peter Wagner, a leading charismatic theologian who helped shape the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, by adapting elements of Christian Reconstructionism. NAR is a charismatic movement that builds on dominionist ideas by emphasizing the use of spiritual gifts and apostolic leadership to shape society.

Wagner emphasized spiritual warfare, prophecy and modern apostles taking control of seven key areas – family, church, government, education, media, business and the arts – to reshape society under biblical authority. This is known as the “Seven Mountains Mandate.”

Both revisionist and dominionist movements share the belief that Christians should lead cultural institutions.

Wagner’s dominion theology, however, adapts Christian Reconstructionism to a charismatic context, transforming the goal of a Christian society into a spiritually driven movement aimed at influencing culture and governments worldwide.
Doug Wilson and homeschooling

Another key bridge between reconstructionism and contemporary dominionist thought is Doug Wilson, a pastor and author in Moscow, Idaho.

Though Wilson distances himself from some of reconstructionism’s harsher edges, he draws heavily from Rushdoony’s intellectual framework. Wilson’s influence can be seen in publications such as “Reforming Marriage,” where he argues for applying biblical principles to law, education and family life.

He has promoted Christian schools, traditional family roles and living out a “Christian worldview” in everyday life, bringing reconstructionist ideas into new areas of society.

Through his writings, teaching and leadership within the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches – the CREC – network, Wilson encourages a vision of society shaped by Christian values, connecting reconstructionist thought to contemporary cultural engagement.

Wilson’s publishing house, Canon Press, and his classical school movement have brought these ideas into thousands of Christian homes and classrooms across the U.S. His local congregation – the Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho – numbers around 1,300.

The Christian homeschooling movement offers parents a curriculum steeped in reformed theology and resistance to secular education.
Enduring influence

Some critics warn that the fusion of dominionist and reconstructionist theology with political action can weaken pluralism and democratic norms by pressuring laws and policies to reflect a single religious worldview. They argue that even moderated forms of these visions challenge the separation of church and state. They risk undermining the rights of religious minorities, nonreligious citizens and others who do not share the movement’s beliefs.

Supporters frame their mission as the renewal of a moral society, one in which divine authority provides the foundation for human flourishing.

Today, Christian Reconstructionism operates through small but influential networks of churches, Christian homeschool associations and media outlets. Its reach extends far beyond its original movement.

Even among those unfamiliar with Rushdoony, the political and theological patterns he helped shape remain visible in modern evangelical activism and the ongoing debates over religion’s place in American public life.

Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

MAGA claims of 'massive religious revival' meticulously debunked

CEO of Turning Point USA Erika Kirk reacts as she speaks during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Cheney Orr

Alex Henderson

January 07, 2026

ALTERNET


Christian nationalist themes were alive and well at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025 gathering at the Phoenix Convention Center, which found Vice President JD Vance declaring that the United States "always will be a Christian nation." But that claim was debunked by MS NOW's Steve Benen, who noted what the Founding Fathers had to say on the subject — for example, John Adams, in 1797, writing that "The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion," and Thomas Jefferson saying, in 1802, that the U.S. Constitution created "a wall of separation between church and state."

Another prominent Christian nationalist theme at AmericaFest 2025 is that the U.S. is seeing a widespread evangelical renaissance, which is also what the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. claimed during the 1980s. But Salon's Amanda Marcotte, in an article published on January 7, counters that the U.S. is moving in a more "secular" direction — not converting to evangelical Christian fundamentalism in huge numbers.

"For decades now," Marcotte explains, "the Christian Right has been the most powerful and influential force in the GOP, and yet even by their standards, this marked a dramatic shift toward the theocratic impulse. From a purely rational perspective, this is bad politics. Only 23 percent of Americans identify as evangelicals. Trump was able to win in 2024 only by convincing large numbers of people outside of evangelical Christianity that he has a secular worldview. This was aided by the fact that he quite clearly doesn't believe all the Christian language, both coded and overt, his aides coax him to say."

The Salon journalist continues, "But none of that seems to register with MAGA leadership right now. They've convinced themselves — or at least are trying to persuade their donors and followers — that the U.S. is undergoing a massive religious revival. Right-wing media has been pushing the view that huge numbers of Americans, especially young Americans, are converting to fundamentalist Christianity."

Right-wing media, Marcotte observes, are claiming that the murder of Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk in September is fueling a "tidal wave of Americans, especially young Americans, discovering or returning to Christianity." But that "imaginary religious awakening," she stresses, isn't materializing.

"There is no evidence-based reason to believe there's a religious revival among the young that is about to create massive election windfalls for Republicans," Marcotte writes. "On the contrary, a December report from Pew Research found that, 'on average, young adults remain much less religious than older Americans. Today's young adults also are less religious than young people were a decade ago.'"

Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

Amid Trump’s War on Antifa, Activists Face Arrest for Zines and Group Chats


The Trump administration now has zine distributors and jail support efforts in its sights.

News Analysis
By Brit “Red” Schulte , 

Truthout

January 10, 2026

Composite / Getty Images / Truthout


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I’ve been making zines since I was 14 years young. I’ve been distributing them since I was 16. I’m now 37 years old and pursuing a doctorate in art history studying communities of zine makers.

In recent years I’ve seen a notable increase in people talking about zines, making them, and attending zine fests — it’s been heartening and wild to witness! I’ve watched what felt at times like this niche and nerdy part of my life blossom into something much more expansive.

When working with my students, or hosting community zine making workshops, I often define zines as small, independently published objects that are amateurish in the best way — they’re free or cheap to get copies of, contain typed or handwritten text, and depending on what zine you find, they’re filled with collage, art, poetry, political history, personal stories, recipes, health advice, quite literally everything you can think of. Zines are an embodiment of the “do it yourself” ethos.

Now, the latest targets of President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda of political repression include a diverse group of protesters, jail support volunteers, educators, and, crucially, zine distributors, and print artists. More than a dozen people face criminal charges, including riot; conspiracy to use and carry explosives; the use and carrying of explosives; attempted murder of officers and employees of the United States; discharging a firearm during, in relation to and in furtherance of a crime of violence; and corruptly concealing a document or record. And at the center of their charges is a box of zines and jail support group chats.

From a Typical Noise Demo to a Series of FBI Raids

On July 4, 2025, protesters had gathered at the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, to oppose immigration enforcement practices and show support for detainees, using fireworks and noise-making as their demonstration method — a traditional form of protest in solidarity with incarcerated people. When local police responded to ICE’s call to remove the protesters, an officer reportedly suffered a neck injury that authorities attributed to a gunshot. Prosecutors have only identified two individuals as alleged shooters despite the broad scope of arrests. Following the demonstration, federal authorities launched an extensive investigation that resulted in charges against 16 individuals known as the Prairieland Defendants, and harassment of their extended friends, families, and neighbors.

These Dallas Residents Are on the Front Lines of Trump’s War Against “Antifa”
If convicted, people who showed up to a protest could face “decades of prison time,” the National Lawyers Guild says. By Andrew Lee , Truthout October 25, 2025

Guidelines issued by the White House in September detail how the Trump administration will target and pursue anyone it deems to be motivated by “anti-Americanism, anti-Capitalism, and anti-Christianity” as domestic terrorists. Trump has also designated “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. Those of us who are anti-fascist know that “antifa” simply refers to a collective sense of being anti-fascist and believing that fascism is ultimately a real and present threat to all life. It is not a unified entity or organization. Antifa is a rallying cry, a politic, a historical reference that connects one to a legacy of fighting Nazism in Germany, and fighting other fascists in Italy, Spain, and elsewhere in the 1930s.

Zines have been criminalized before our current moment, and at times their creation and circulation was made punishable by death.

Texas resident Des Revol, in particular, is being targeted by the Trump administration under these guidelines. He did not attend the July 4 demonstration in Alvarado, Texas, but he was arrested two days afterward after he had a phone call with his wife, who was detained at the noise demonstration. FBI agents stopped him for a traffic violation in Denton, Texas, and took him into custody at gunpoint. Authorities charged him with evidence tampering constituting obstruction of justice as well as conspiracy, alleging he “transported a box that contained numerous Antifa materials” from his residence to another location. This literature — pamphlets and zines commonly found in activist spaces — became the basis for his prosecution. Despite having no connection to the original demonstration, Des faces potential federal imprisonment and additional risks from both immigration enforcement and hostile right-wing groups that have publicly identified him online.

When we spoke, Lydia Koza, the wife of Prairieland Defendant Autumn Hill, plainly stated what’s happening: “At the most abstract level, I believe the Trump administration and the state of Texas know in some collective-unconscious way that authoritarian, grasping models of power are unsustainable and require ever-greater levels of escalation; and that models predicated on care and equity are both more natural and more sustainable. Solidarity and compassion therefore become threats.”

Meanwhile, Prairieland Defendant Savanna Batten has lost more than 30 pounds since her incarceration in September of 2025, according to her sister, Amber Lowrey. When we spoke about her mounting concerns, Lowrey said:

When an individual becomes a target of state repression, it harms everyone within their orbit. Everyone who was taken from the Prairieland protest has lost, at very least, their employment. Many lost their homes or vehicles, and some owe huge repair bills as a result of violent raids that left their dwellings badly damaged and exposed to the elements. At least two minor children said goodbye to their parents as they left to go to a protest five months ago, and they never came back. Pets have had to be rehomed … State repression is violent. It is extreme. It is incredibly isolating, and that is by design. This has been, by far, the most traumatic experience of my life — and I wasn’t even the target.

Likewise, when the FBI began raiding the home of Autumn Hill and Lydia Koza, “I wondered if I was going to die or be taken to a rendition site,” Koza said. “At that moment, I had resigned myself to losing everything I cared about. Every ounce of ideological opposition to police violence, to state terror, to incarceration, suddenly became viscerally relevant.”

Are Zines a Threat?

I myself have copies of most, if not all, of the zines that Des Revol had in that box. Those zines were free or cheap to get, and are filled with history, free thought, anarchist political analysis, discussions of shared struggle, and hope. I have many such titles, and yes, I believe they are at once paper and ink and also incendiary devices. I reject the framing of innocence and crime being used to describe zines and those who make or share them.

“Zines could be called the atomic unit of free speech — the simplest possible, highest-impact pamphlet; the most entry-level way of disseminating ideas that can’t find footing in mainstream discourse,” Koza told me.

Two other Prairieland Defendants had previously established a small, independent print shop and literature distribution to support local book clubs as well as anarchist and socialist reading groups, and had only just begun tabling at book fairs and zine fests. These artists’ and writers’ arrest and subsequent incarceration has shuttered this local resource, ending access to affordable and free printing and breaking up print communities — an outcome the Trump administration is all too happy to execute.

How many of us have visited a public library’s zine rack, or attended a local print fair or zine fest? Under a fascist political regime, all oppositional discourse … is subject to attack.

Zines are often sources of great inspiration and personal conviction. If being against a regime that deports, kills, silences, poisons, and cages is criminal, then we must abandon the nonsensical concept of innocence. Political literature should make you feel, think, learn, and act. Zines have been criminalized before our current moment, and at times their creation and circulation was made punishable by death — in revolutionary France, in the post-revolutionary United States, and in Nazi Germany, just to name a few. Nothing about the Trump administration’s tactics should surprise us; we are sure to see more zines, pamphlets, leaflets, and other print culture be labeled “domestic terrorism materials” in the future.

Even still, there is solidarity everywhere. In October, I traveled to Athens, Greece, and visited La Zone, a beautiful anarchist community space and cafe, with a tremendous selection of zines, books, artwork, and free literature. At the time of writing this, I learned that La Zone hosted a “letter-writing & solidarity evening for the imprisoned Prairieland (Texas) codefendants.” Yes, zines are folded pieces of paper, but they’re also lifelines, histories, and embodiments of hope.

How many of us keep a box of zines, or leaflets, or political pamphlets around the house? Around our offices or apartment? How many of us have visited a public library’s zine rack, or attended a local print fair or zine fest? Under a fascist political regime, all oppositional discourse, literature, art, and life is subject to attack. We must recommit to solidarity, and rise to the defense of those whose lives and actions become criminal by default. The Trump administration wants us to live in ignorance and fear, so we must continue making, thinking, and learning together. Zines will continue to play vital roles in our movement organizing and political education. Keep informing yourself about the calls for support and solidarity with the Prairieland defendants. Keep reading, keep making.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Brit “Red” Schulte
Brit “Red” Schulte is a doctoral candidate in art history at the University of Texas at Austin, a community organizer, and zinester. They are a guest librarian with the Sherwood Forest Zine Library in Austin, a founding member and current organizer of Midwest Perzine Fest, and The Support Ho(s)e Collective zine distro. Their writing can be found at Truthout, The Funambulist, In These Times, Monthly Review, The Avery Review, and Kernel Magazine.

The ‘holy war’: How the far right is trying to hijack Christianity

Left Foot Forward

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Yesterday

Right-Wing Watch

Does the far right’s capture of a debased Christianity matter in the UK, where religion holds far less sway than in the US? Given America’s superpower status, and the reluctance of global leaders to challenge Trump, it should concern us all.

Whatever happened to “love thy neighbour,” the foundational Christian principle Jesus identified as the second greatest commandment? In the Gospels, loving one’s neighbour, and even one’s enemies, are central to the faith’s moral vision of compassion, mercy and peace.

Yet in Tommy Robinson’s version of Christianity that ethic is turned upside down. This week, the far-right activist, long associated with divisive and anti-immigrant messaging, celebrated the US military’s controversial operation in Venezuela and called on Donald Trump to “free us” by invading the UK and removing prime minister Keir Starmer.

Trump’s raid in Venezuela, which led to the capture and extradition of President Nicolás Maduro, has been widely condemned as illegal and a breach of international law. Robinson’s comments were criticised as contradictory for professing patriotism while inviting foreign military action on British soil.

This is the man who, in 2025, began promoting himself as a Christian, organising “Unite the Kingdom” rallies and Christmas carol services centred on Christian themes.

Yet just as the sincerity of his patriotism has been questioned, so too has the authenticity of his newly professed faith.

Following a far-right rally led by Robinson in London last September, bishops, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and leaders from the Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical, Salvation Army and Catholic traditions, wrote an open letter, condemning the use of Christian symbols. They said they were “deeply concerned about the co-opting of Christian symbols, particularly the cross,” warning that elements of the march contained “racist, anti-Muslim and far-right” themes.

“As Christians from different theological and political backgrounds we stand together against the misuse of Christianity,” they wrote.

Billionaire influence

Tommy Robinson isn’t the only figure on the British right to invoke Christianity while promoting views many Christians regard as deeply un-Christian.

Sir Paul Marshall, the billionaire financier and major investor in right-wing media outlets, including GB News, the Spectator and UnHerd, is a prominent Christian philanthropist. He sits on the board of the Church Revitalisation Trust, which describes its mission as contributing to “the evangelisation of the nations, the revitalisation of the Church and the transformation of society.”

Yet Marshall’s public conduct has drawn scrutiny. He has been accused of supporting extremist voices on social media, raising questions about his suitability for media ownership.

The anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate has pointed to posts he has liked or shared on X, accusing him of endorsing “extreme Islamophobic and anti-migrant activists” and holding “deeply disturbing views of modern Britain.”

Among the content were claims that Europe is heading for civil war because “native European populations” are losing patience with “fake refugee invaders,” and that societies cannot remain peaceful once Muslim populations reach a certain size.

The framing of entire communities as existential threats sits uneasily alongside Christian teachings on human dignity, peace and the welcoming of the stranger, raising questions about how faith is being mobilised in contemporary right-wing politics.

‘Republican Jesus’

As so often when examining the actions of the right, the trail leads us to the United States. There, the rise of self-identified Christians who enthusiastically support Donald Trump raises an unavoidable question: how can a movement that proclaims Jesus Christ as its saviour so readily endorse policies that contradict the values he is said to embody?

Consider the sickening news emerging from Minneapolis this week. Renee Good, a mother of three and a US citizen, was gunned down in cold blood, in broad daylight, by agents of Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Reports also indicate that at least two pastors were shoved and exposed to pepper spray while protesting the actions of federal immigration agents in the city.

After reporting that its pastor had been detained by ICE, the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) denomination condemned the violence. In a statement, it said that “… the violence of shooting a woman sitting in her own car, the detention of a clergy person who is protesting peacefully by a masked and unidentifiable officer, are all outrages against a just and caring society,”“As MCC, we are committed to resisting the structures that oppress people and to standing with those who suffer under the weight of oppressive systems.”

Critics argue that such events expose the rise of a politicised figure sometimes dubbed “Republican Jesus,” a reimagined Christ invoked to oppose social welfare, sanctify nationalism, justify harsh immigration regimes, and celebrate military power.

One such critic is Stephen Mattson, author of The Great Reckoning: Surviving a Christianity That Looks Nothing Like Christ. Writing for Christians for Social Action, Mattson captures the depth of these contradictions:

“There’s a religion whose savior was a refugee, yet it rejects refugees. Whose God embraces sojourners, yet it deports immigrants. Whose parishioners worship someone called the Prince of Peace, yet they defend violence and are pro-war. Whose hero was an ethnic minority, yet they’re complicit in white supremacy… There’s a popular type of “Christianity” that wants nothing to do with Christ other than to use His namesake to promote its own agendas.”

This is not merely hypocrisy but theological inversion. That inversion was on display this week as Trump hailed the seizure of Nicolás Maduro as “brilliant,” despite reports that dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel were killed during the operation.

The question is, who is funding right-wing Christian messaging?

Trump’s Christian ‘legal army’

Two US organisations closely linked to Donald Trump have played a major role in funding and exporting Christian nationalist ideology and conservative culture-war activism, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the American Centre for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Both use strategic litigation to oppose LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access.

ADF was co-founded by US Christian right leader Alan Sears, who co-authored a book attacking “the homosexual agenda.” The ACLJ was founded in 1990 by televangelist Pat Robertson to counter the American Civil Liberties Union.

An openDemocracy investigation found that between 2008 and 2019 the two groups spent over $20 million in Europe, signalling a concerted effort to export US Christian nationalist priorities.

Britain, in particular, appears to be viewed as fertile ground.

Since 2020, ADF has more than doubled its UK spending and quadrupled its British team. After helping engineer the overturning of Roe v. Wade and repeatedly challenging LGBTQ+ rights in the US, ADF is now deploying the same legal tactics in Britain, including backing Christians prosecuted for breaching abortion clinic buffer zones.

Vladimir Putin and the ‘holy war’

If Trump exemplifies “Republican Jesus,” Vladimir Putin offers a parallel model. In 2014, Putin appeared on the cover of Decision, an American evangelical magazine, with a cover story written by conservative pastor Franklin Graham, who praised Putin’s signing legislation restricting LGBTQ+ expression. The issue was published just as Russian troops were moving into Crimea.

Interestingly, the ACLJ operates an affiliated office in Moscow, the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, which also praised Vladimir Putin’s laws banning so-called “gay propaganda,”

Graham visited Russia in 2015, and ever since, has promoted Putin as a godly leader. Days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he urged people to ‘pray for Putin,’ but not for Ukrainians, prompting backlash

.

Patriarch Kirill, bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and long-time Putin ally, has framed Russia’s expansion into Ukraine as a sacred struggle, suggesting that soldiers who die in combat have their sins forgiven.

As with Trump, and figures like Tommy Robinson, Putin’s public identification as a defender of Christian values and his close relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, has prompted scepticism about the sincerity of his faith.
Christian theologians and clergy worldwide have condemned this rhetoric, with Orthodox clerics accusing Putin and Patriarch Kirill of using “Russian world” ideology as the principal theological justification for a war of aggression.

In 2023, Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow councillor imprisoned for opposing the war, wrote to Kirill asking how the teachings of Jesus could possibly justify the killing of Ukrainians in the name of “Christian values.”

Is there hope?

So does the far right’s capture of a debased Christianity matter in the UK, where religion holds far less sway than in the US? Given America’s superpower status, and the reluctance of global leaders to challenge Trump, it should concern us all.

Yet a counterweight may also come from the US. By continuing papal warnings on climate change, expressing solidarity with the world’s poorest, and renewing calls for peace, Pope Leo, the first American pope, has made clear he is no ally of Trump. In early December, he warned that the US was preparing a military attack on Venezuela. Last weekend, he again stressed the importance of human rights, national sovereignty and justice.

As theology writer Catherine Pepinster, observed this week: “Calling out Donald Trump on the legality and morality of a US military incursion will take courage. The signs so far are encouraging – but the moment has come for Leo’s voice to be louder, stronger and angrier.”

Leo, says Pepinster, “could be their most important ally – without an army.”

The neofascist right has had some success in co-opting patriotism and free speech to its perverted cause: so far at least, Christianity seems more resistant.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is author of Right-Wing Watch

ANIMISTIC POLITICAL PROTESTANTS

'God is using Trump': Latino evangelicals celebrate Maduro’s capture as divine victory

(RNS) — Latino evangelicals maintain that their shared faith was key to Maduro’s capture and that the church will play a critical role in charting the country’s future.

People celebrate in Doral, Fla., after President Donald Trump announced Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of Venezuela, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain
January 7, 2026
RNS



(RNS) — Since the U.S. government’s Jan. 3 capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, many Latino evangelical Christian communities in the United States have been celebrating what they call a spiritual victory as well as a political one.

“God is using Donald Trump to liberate Venezuela from the 27-year-old chains of oppression,” said the Rev. José Durán, a Venezuelan immigrant in Michigan, voicing a view held by some, though not all, Latino evangelicals and referring to the time that Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have led the country.

Durán, who was interviewed in Spanish, serves as pastor of a senior team of advisers of María Corina Machado, the Venezuela opposition leader who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. He’s also the executive director of Movimiento de Ciudad, an organization that supports urban ministry throughout Latin America.

Though Machado is a Catholic, her inner circle in the Vente Venezuela Party includes several evangelicals, who have taken up her charge that opposing Maduro is a “battle between good and evil.”

“We’re in agreement that we want the liberty of Venezuela from satanic communism, socialism,” Durán said.

But with Maduro’s successors increasing repression in the country and President Donald Trump insisting that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela without calling immediate elections, the future of the country is uncertain.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an evangelical adviser to President Trump and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told RNS that U.S. Latinos’ support in the 2024 elections played a key role in the administration’s decision to remove Maduro from office and that Latino evangelicals will have a voice in the country’s future.

“ You combine the evangelical vote plus the Latino vote, and you get Nicólas Maduro in New York City in prison,” Rodriguez said. ”That’s the result because we demanded that.”

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez. (Photo courtesy of NHCLC)

Rodriguez said the NHCLC would be sending the Rev. Iván Delgado Glenn, the Colombian leader of the NHCLC’s new Latin America expansion, to Venezuela along with four other faith leaders to observe the leadership transition after Maduro’s arrest and how it “will impact the church.” Rodriguez added that “appropriate governmental authorities stateside on our side” will ensure their safety.

He applauded Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement that the U.S. does not want to govern Venezuela and said the secretary wants to help the country transition to a “legitimate form” of democracy.

“The White House and the Trump administration have given the evangelical community more than an ear,” Rodriguez said, adding that he’d met with Trump just before Christmas. Rodriguez said that, while evangelicals are not weighing in on specific tactics, such as the boat strikes near Venezuela that preceded the operation that removed Maduro, the administration is “ taking action based on what they hear from an evangelical community that really would like to advance an agenda of righteousness and justice, truth and love.”

Even before Maduro’s capture, the U.S. government had been applying pressure to effect regime change in Venezuela, particularly through sanctions. The Washington Post reported that those sanctions contributed to an economic contraction in the country roughly three times as large as the one caused by the Great Depression in the United States.
RELATED: How Maduro’s Indian guru became a household name in Venezuela

Marcos Velazco, a director of Vente Venezuela’s grassroots organizing who fled the country in August 2024, attributed reports of political prisoners and their Maduro-government torturers accepting Jesus to the presence of God, as well as his own escape from the country and his movement’s ability to connect with allies abroad.

“If something has been a true miracle, it’s how God has drawn our cause near to influential and important people, not just in the United States, I should say, but in the whole world,” Velazco said in Spanish via video. Beyond praying with Machado’s team, Velazco said, Durán has been a key “architect” for making important connections.

The Rev. José Durán. (Video screen grab)

“We have seen how faith has generated sufficient trust to defend the Venezuelan cause,” Velazco said, mentioning relationships with Rubio and Republican members of Congress such as U.S. Reps. Bill Huizenga of Michigan and Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and María Elvira Salazar of Florida.

But Velazco said these victories have not come without pain. As a result of his advocacy, he said, his father, who is not involved in the movement, was accused by the Maduro government of inciting hate, criminal association and terrorism. He is being held as a political prisoner in a location unknown to his family and could face a sentence of up to 30 years, the Machado adviser said. Velazco, 26, also said he became a key leader at such a young age because his boss was imprisoned and is now being held at El Helicoide jail, where there have been reports of systematic torture.

Chávez and Maduro together have been “a regime that, from its position of power, has spiritually delivered the country to the forces of evil,” said Velazco.

Durán and Velazco both point to public accusations that Maduro has engaged in witchcraft and Santería, which Velazco said gives the president the feeling he is “spiritually protected while they slam civil society and while they dilute the structure of the free and democratic state.”

Durán said his group continues to count on God to act. Machado allies are praying that interim President Delcy Rodríguez and other prominent figures of the regime will be removed, and while he said he did not understand Trump’s approach to Rodríguez, “God is the one that removes and places kings.”

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado addresses supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Machado has heaped praise on Trump publicly, even offering her Nobel Peace Prize to the president. Velazco said the Trump administration “has done a fantastic job” with Maduro’s “Cartel de los Soles,” a slang term for corrupt government officials taking drug money.

Machado prays with her evangelical advisers, Durán said. “We’ve prayed, and she’s Catholic, but she cries like a person very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.”

Durán said Christians must influence society, though he said they should not be partisan. “The church must be the church, and that’s the problem. The church has been locked away in thinking just about the spiritual, or that there’s a dichotomy between the secular and the spiritual. And that’s a plan from Satan,” he said.

Venezuelan evangelicals have heard God’s intentions for the country since the 1980s, said Durán. “We have heard prophetic words that God has a plan for Venezuela and that liberty for Venezuela is coming and a new Venezuela will be born.”

Durán, who had been ordained in the Foursquare Church, said he trained hundreds of Latinos for Billy Graham’s 2000 Nashville Crusade after he came to the U.S. Durán is now affiliated with the Reformed Church in America.

Rodriguez, the leader of the NHCLC, also said the church was “not done” in Latin America. He said the Venezuela policy is the beginning of a “domino effect” and called on the Trump administration to effect change in Nicaragua, Cuba and Brazil, explaining that he was calling for “geopolitical pressure,” not the same exact tactics because the other countries are “a different reality.”

He said a major policy goal of the NHCLC is to build “a multigenerational firewall against communism, socialism” in Latin America. “ I want Christianity to thrive, and I do believe that a political apparatus that is counterintuitive to religious liberty serves as an impediment to Christianity expanding, to people coming to Christ as Lord and Savior,” he said.



Maduro’s capture “is not the period — it’s the comma,” Rodriguez said.

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The response from pastors within Venezuela has been more muted, reflecting a significant difference in views between those still living in the country and those who’ve joined the diaspora. Almost two-thirds (64%) of Venezuelans living abroad support U.S. military intervention in the country, compared with only a third (34%) of those in Venezuela, according to an October AtlasIntel poll.

But the same poll found that majorities of Venezuelans everywhere considered Maduro a dictator and said the country would be better off without him. About 4 in 10 (41%) Venezuelan residents and 55% of those in the diaspora said they trusted Machado to lead a transition to democracy.

The Evangelical Council of Venezuela wrote in a statement the day of Maduro’s capture that its members were praying for their fellow citizens “that go through moments of uncertainty or fear” and for “the peace of the country and for a true and enduring transformation that honors the justice, the truth and the dignity of every citizen.” The next day, the council announced a week of fasting and prayer for the nation.

On Sunday back in Orlando, the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, the Venezuelan evangelical council’s U.S. counterpart, told his congregation at The Gathering that in Venezuela, “the last chapter has still not been written,” referencing “powerful forces” still in place.

“We have to pray,” alongside thousands of other churches in his network, he told them, “for the freedom of the Venezuelan people and for democracy that respects the self-determination of the people.”

 

Opinion

Trump's lies are killing us: The deadly consequences of big and little lies everywhere

(RNS) — If we trace the chain of events that caused ICE agents to be deployed to Minneapolis in the first place, they are anchored in Trump’s lies.

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Robert P. Jones
January 9, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — During the opening days of his first term, Trump achieved something remarkable: according to The New York Times, “He said something untrue, in public, every day for the first 40 days of his presidency.” His spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, coined the Orwellian term “alternative facts” to try to justify Trump’s insistence, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that the crowd size at his inauguration was larger than Obama’s. By the time he was finally forced from office four years later, The Washington Post had logged 30,573 times that Trump had uttered false or misleading claims.

Trump’s lies, both big and small, have been corrosive to the foundations of civil society and democracy, which depend on a shared sense of reality. But the events of the first days of 2026 also show they are deadly. They are literally killing us.

Given Trump’s inclination to dishonesty, his authoritarian leanings and his inability to admit failure, it’s no surprise he would respond to electoral defeat with what became known as The Big Lie: his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. What is remarkable is how willing his followers, including his stalwart white Christian supporters, were to embrace this lie.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s endless “stop the steal” appeals produced the inevitable violent result in an attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Public opinion polls confirmed Trump’s hold on the minds of his followers. Despite Trump losing all 62 lawsuits claiming fraud in the 2020 election, and even after witnessing the violence at the Capitol, fully two-thirds of Republicans and 61% of white evangelical protestants said they believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

The Big Lie has had remarkable staying power among the MAGA base. Trump turned affirmation of the Big Lie into a loyalty test for administration appointments in his second term. And as they were casting their ballots in the 2024 election, PRRI data revealed that majorities of Republicans and white evangelicals (62% and 56% respectively), compared to only 31% of the public, continued to believe this false claim.


“The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.” (Graphic courtesy of PRRI)

Just this week, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump installed his Big Lie onto an ominous-looking page at the official White House website. The page includes intentionally glitchy black and white photos of the members of Congress who served on the bipartisan “House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” while featuring cheery color photos of insurrectionists — several holding stuffed animals and their kids — who are labeled “patriots.” The narrative on that page turns the truth of that day on its head, reasserting the Big Lie and blaming the Democrats for the violence:


The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as “insurrectionists” and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government. In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters….

These distortions of reality are not the first to happen on government websites under the Trump regime (see the widespread erasure of the contributions of women and people of color across various agency websites), but they are the most flagrant.

They represent a new stage in the backsliding of America away from democracy. This desecration of the truth is a signal that the White House and the U.S. government, under this regime, have now officially become the propaganda machine for a mythomaniac and would-be dictator.

It is a mark of our time, in this second coming of the Trump regime, that Trump’s lies are no longer surprising. His lying is so expected that I doubt we’ll see any media outlet attempting to quantify them as they did during his first term. Today, the lies aren’t just spewing from Trump’s mouth during rants at rallies or late-night insomnia-induced tirades on social media. They are now propagating on official government websites from the Oval Office to the Department of Homeland Security to the National Park Service to the Centers for Disease Control. We now must accept that nothing we read on official government websites can be trusted.



These cynical attacks on truth are also deadly. On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s Big Lie resulted in the deaths of one U.S. Capitol Police officer, along with four insurrectionists. It also contributed to the deaths of four other U.S. Capitol Police officers, who took their own lives after the experience of being violently assaulted by their fellow citizens.

And just yesterday, the evidence suggests that Renee Nicole Good — a U.S. citizen and mother of three — was shot and killed in cold blood by an ICE officer while trying to drive away. Trump is lying about the encounter. “She behaved horribly,” Mr. Trump asserted in an interview with The New York Times. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” The video evidence — independently analyzed and verified by Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team and The Washington Post’s Visual Forensic team — clearly contradicts Trump’s claims.

(Screen grab from video by Caitlin Callenson, Minneapolis.)

While some media outlets continue to hedge, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is mincing no words. In a passionate and courageous public response, he said, “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed … What I can tell you is the narrative that this was just done in self-defense is a garbage narrative that is not true … It has no truth, and it needs to be stated very clearly.”

If we trace the chain of events that caused ICE agents to be deployed to Minneapolis in the first place, they are anchored in Trump’s lies. Trump has openly claimed that Minneapolis is being targeted because of its large Somali population, which is predominately Black and Muslim (a largely refugee population, by the way, that was assisted with resettlement by Lutheran Social Services with government support). At a cabinet meeting in December, as more than 2,000 ICE agents were first being deployed to Minnesota, Trump went on a racist screed, describing Somalia as a country that “stinks and we don’t want them in our country.” He went on to compare Somalis to “garbage” and falsely claimed that Somali gangs had “taken over” Minnesota and were “roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’”

We can trace a direct line from those racist lies by our president to the death of Renee Good. And to the 14 other shootings by ICE officers that have happened since late July. Just yesterday, ICE agents reportedly shot two more people at a traffic stop in Portland, Oregon, and then fled the scene before local police arrived. And I haven’t even mentioned the funerals for dozens of people, including civilians, killed in American strikes on Venezuela. Without Trump’s lies, all of these people would be with their families today.

There will be more of all of this to come in 2026: lies that beget violence and death, which beget more lies. We’ll need to grasp that living out the simple Christian dictum “the truth shall set you free” will be a dangerous task in Trump’s 2026 America.

With an ICE budget of $170 billion that was designated in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (a figure large enough to effectively end homelessness in America, by the way), Trump’s lies are being manifested in the president’s own shock troops, guns and concentration camps. And they are, eventually, coming for all of us if we do not rise up en masse in the name of truth this year.

(Robert P. Jones is president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and the author, most recently, of “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future.” This article first appeared on his Substack newsletter. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

Trump's attacks on Renee Good part of MAGA's 'war on empathy': analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a question about the the fatal shooting in Minnesota, in which a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. 

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Adam Lynch

January 09, 2026 

ALTERNET

Slate Senior Writer Christina Cauterucci says the right is waging a "war on empathy," and the fatal shooting of Minneapolis mother Renee Good shows just how close they’ve come to winning.

“Among their base, today’s GOP is trying to drum out any natural impulses toward compassion, such that there is no imperative to feel — let alone express — any dismay at the killing of an ideological adversary. If Good wasn’t on Trump’s side, the party line goes, she got what was coming to her,” said Cauterucci. “The rush to defend Ross is more than a political move to justify Trump’s personal militia run amok. It’s another round in the right wing’s mounting war on empathy.”

Influential Christian conservatives have been proclaiming empathy as toxic and sinful, arguing that using caring for others as a means to sway righteous Americans toward liberal causes, such as eradicating racism or feeding the poor. It’s the argument that makes letting 500,000 children die worldwide more palatable, in addition to “Medicaid cuts, SNAP freezes, ICE raids, refugee bans, and forced childbirth.”

She also noted that Tesla and SpaceX CEO (and Trump donor) Elon Musk calls empathy “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.”

“In this worldview, anyone who poses a danger to those within the inner circles of human worthiness does not warrant much empathy. And it’s easy enough to argue that just about anyone is a threat to one’s family, town, or country, thus exempting them from our responsibilities of care,” said Cauterucci, who named examples such as “a drag queen” or “a liberal judge.” This, she said, could also apply to “someone wearing a Zohran Mamdani T-shirt at the grocery store” or, more recently, “a concerned Minnesotan who stopped to film the agents plucking people out of her community.”

“Once a person is no longer worthy of empathy, they become a justifiable casualty in service to any political aim,” Cauterucci argued. “There is no need to consider proportionality; killing someone for distracting ICE agents is just as defensible as ending a life on a battlefield. From the right’s perspective, Good’s political views made her fair game, so her gruesome, untimely death by the gun of a masked federal agent need not be met with outrage or remorse. Any empathy for her or her family imperils a greater project: cleansing Minneapolis of immigrants.”

From there, Cauterucci said there is a very short distance from “believing someone’s death is unworthy of mourning to believing they deserved to die.” And eventually to “inciting more death.”

“Every falsehood spun by Trump and his acolytes is an attempt to degrade their followers’ capacity for empathy past the point of flinching at an innocent woman’s death,” Cauterucci. “The goal is to diminish the ghastliness of Good’s death, and with it, the value of her life.”

Read Cauterucci's full slate column at this link (subscription required).

JD Vance Says Americans Should Actually Thank ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good

“This is a guy who’s actually done a very, very important job for the United States of America,” Vance said.

By Sharon Zhang ,

Truthout

January 9, 2026

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. on January 8, 2026.Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images

Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that Americans outraged by the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis should actually be thanking, not criticizing, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who shot the 37-year-old mother of three.

In a press conference in the White House the day after Good was killed, Vance repeated the lie that Good hit the officer, identified as Jonathan Ross, with her car. He said that Good’s death was a “tragedy of her own making,” while the real victim is Ross, who he painted as an essential agent of the law.

“This is a guy who’s actually done a very, very important job for the United States of America,” Vance said, asking for prayers for Ross and condemning the media for reports on the killing. “He’s been assaulted, he’s been attacked, he’s been injured because of it. He deserves a debt of gratitude.”

Vance referred to an incident from June, in which court documents say Ross broke the car window of a man who wasn’t complying with a traffic stop and reached inside. The man tried to drive away, with Ross’s arm reportedly “stuck” inside the car, and Ross was dragged, requiring stitches.

“So you think maybe he is a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?” Vance said, suggesting that Ross’s past trauma justifies him killing Good, the latter of whom he painted as “a victim of left-wing ideology.”

Trump Blames Woman Killed by ICE Agent in Minneapolis for Her Own Death
Analysis of the incident shows the ICE agent was in no real danger before opening fire on Renee Nicole Good. By Chris Walker , Truthout  January 8, 2026

During the press conference, Vance also said that Ross has “absolute immunity” to act under his job. Experts dismissed this as patently untrue.

But it suggests that Vance believes that not even the slightest amount of accountability — not even just public criticism — of Ross is acceptable, considering that the vice president believes that Ross shouldn’t be prosecuted for his actions. Nothing short of total fealty to Ross is sufficient, Vance’s comments seemingly suggest.

Reporting has found that Good was a poet, wife, and a devout Christian. She was on the way home from dropping off her youngest child at elementary school when Ross killed her.

Analyses from multiple news outlets, including The New York Times, NBC, The Washington Post, and more, have undercut the administration’s narrative that Ross was in danger. They have found that Good was, in fact, moving away from Ross when he shot her — and, further, have shown Good was trying to wave officers by, and that officers instead tried to stop her, with Ross purposefully positioning himself in front of her running car.

Further, CNN reported on Thursday that new footage of the shooting showed that Good had arrived minutes before ICE officers did, and wasn’t blocking any cars from being able to proceed on the street. It also showed that Ross was easily able to move out of the way of the car.

Critics have also noted, however, that Good’s use of lethal force was unjustified regardless of the details of the incident.

Trump's DHS has 'repeatedly been caught' in outright lies: analysis

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Florida on July 1, 2025 (DHS photo by Tia Dufour/Flickr)

Adam Lynch 

January 09, 2026 |

  ALTERNET

MS NOW data journalist Philip Bump says the public should no longer take the word of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seriously anymore.

“The skepticism one ought to bring to any pronouncement of [President Donald] Trump should similarly be applied to those who work for and defend him. Particularly when — as in the case of the Department of Homeland Security — those officials have repeatedly been caught in fabrications of their own,” Bump said.

Trump is a liar, said Bump. And he hires liars to work for him, even in federal departments where credibility is central to function. This includes the justice department.

“The president has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness in the past decade to make false claims that impugn his opponents or celebrate his allies — or both,” said Bump. “This approach has permeated the government, carried into individual agencies by the loyal allies he’s installed as their leaders.

The Department of Justice offers countless examples of uttering blatant falsehoods. Trump officials claim DHS is targeting immigrants who have committed crimes, but Bump said the number of detainees “arrested by ICE without convictions or pending criminal charges rose from 842 on Dec. 1, 2024, to 21,892 on Nov. 30, 2025 — an astounding 2,500 percent increase.”

When the Cato Institute reported that only 5 percent of ICE detainees have convictions for violent crimes, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed their pie chart was a lie. But when a Cato rep posted a DHS document confirming the data, McLaughlin knew better than to reply, and didn’t. McLaughlin has also lied that the U.S. does not arrest or deport U.S. citizens in defiance of proof. In fact, in November online news site Zeteo posted a list of seven incidents of McLaughlin being caught making false claims. That list did not include the department’s false claim that a U.S. mother shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis was a “domestic terrorist” who tried to use her vehicle as a “weapon” despite video evidence proving otherwise.

Even federal judges have acknowledged the lapsing credibility of the DOJ, with U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis issuing a 233-page November ruling relating to a lawsuit over the excessive use of force in Chicago, by ICE agents.

“While Defendants may argue that the Court identifies only minor inconsistencies, every minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that Defendants represent,” Ellis wrote, adding in the same document that Trump’s department officials are “simply not credible.”

“One might wonder why agents of the federal government would consistently misrepresent the actions of their agency and its employees,” said Bump. “Some of it might be explained by their desire to show allegiance to their workforce. Some might be ascribed to errors or incomplete information. But we cannot assume that this is the sole motivation when the government agency at issue is part of the Trump administration.”

Read the MS NOW report at this link.

Opinion

After Renee Good, are you really going to keep pretending Trump and Vance are pro-life?

(RNS) — The deeds of the Trump administration have stood in sharp contrast to the reassuring words they have offered to religious believers.

Vice President JD Vance speaks as President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Steven P. Millies
January 9, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross on Wednesday (Jan. 7), at the site of an ICE enforcement in Minneapolis. She was shot three times while driving away from Agent Ross.

“We vow to celebrate and support every heroic mother who chooses life.” — Vice President JD Vance, 2025, March for Life

Ms. Good was a U.S. citizen and an observer, one of countless people in American communities who have sacrificed their convenience and put their own safety at risk to ensure their neighbors might feel a little more secure during the Trump administration’s deportation campaign.

“We will always stand for the sanctity of life and protect the most innocent and vulnerable in our society.” — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 2021

The enforcement action that cost Ms. Good her life was a part of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge,” which began on Jan. 5. It is too soon to know who the 150 or so detainees are who have been swept up by the 2,000 agents deployed to the Twin Cities. But the New York Times reports 70% of those detained by ICE since deportations began have no criminal convictions, and ICE operations have grabbed an unknown but not insubstantial number of U.S. citizens or others in the U.S. legally.

“I was saved by God to make America great again.” — President Donald Trump, 2025 Inaugural Address

This second Trump administration came to power on the strength of overwhelming support from Roman Catholics and other Christians who are motivated, pro-life voters. The support of important Catholic and evangelical leaders has been critical to make this second term possible.

“I was proud to be the most pro-life president in U.S. history.” — Donald Trump, 2022

No matter how clear the Bible is about welcoming the stranger — a theme to which the Old Testament returns over 90 times — there is some considerable, partisan division among Christians about immigration policy. Yet protecting human life, we can feel sure, has been something Christians of all stripes have generally found it easy to agree about.

“Every human life is a gift to the world.” — President Donald Trump, 2021

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

That is why, quite naturally, the tone coming from the Trump administration since Ms. Good’s life was taken by an ICE agent has been so jarring. President Trump described Ms. Good as behaving “viciously” and gives an impression that she had forfeited her right to her own life.

“Reverence for every human life, one of the values for which our Founding Fathers fought, defines the character of our Nation.” — President Donald Trump, 2018, Proclamation for National Sanctity of Human Life Day

Republicans who have long championed protecting human life have said shocking things. Texas congressman and Senate candidate Wesley Hunt suggested that “you get to keep your life” only if you obey government. That’s un-American. But it also does not sound much like the Rep. Hunt who has previously championed the sanctity of life.

“I am pro-life.” — Representative Wesley Hunt, June 20, 2019

Perhaps strangest of all is a zealous Roman Catholic like Vice President JD Vance, whose absence of sympathy for Ms. Good and her loved ones has been shocking. He called Ms. Good a “deranged leftist,” as though she were a member of some other, less worthy species without any sign that his Catholic faith found her killing in the least way to be problematic.

“Christianity, Imago Dei, the idea that we are all made in the image of our Creator, means that we must respect the free will of every single person.” — Vice President JD Vance, Oct. 30, 2025

When JD Vance speaks about unborn human beings and voices his opposition to abortion, he is uncompromisingly clear.

“We march to protect the unborn; we march to proclaim and live out the sacred truth that every single child is a miracle and a gift from God.” — Vice President JD Vance, 2025 March for Life

Ms. Good once was a child. She was born. She grew into an adult whose free will led her to observe ICE enforcements. Yet, where her killing is concerned, the vice president gives no sign of his respect for her free will or her life. Neither does he show any compassion for her family. Simply because he disagrees with her, he seems to say her killing was acceptable.

“President Trump will be the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.” — Vice President JD Vance, 2025, March for Life

The Roman Catholic Church to which Vance belongs is unambiguous about deportations, authoritatively calling them “infamies” and a “supreme dishonor to the Creator.” Catholics can have good-faith disagreements about the best way to have a just immigration policy. But the inhumanity and violence (that includes denying rights to exercise religious belief) accompanying this administration’s immigration enforcement is not something Catholics should see very differently.

“I stand for everything that you stand for and that the church stands for.” — Donald Trump, 2024, interview with Raymond Arroyo (EWTN)

What is happening now — from masked agents acting with impunity to inhumane detention conditions to the shootings in our streets — was all foreseeable before so many religiously motivated voters gave Trump their support again.

“God has given you a sound mind, make wise decisions, use discernment and everything, but above all he’s called us to love each other.” — Gov. Kristi Noem, 2024, Speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition

Even if the first Trump administration that ended with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol weren’t enough to tell us what a vote for Trump and Vance would mean, the 2024 campaign was clear about their intentions when it came to immigrants and deportations, saying immigrants have “poisoned the blood of our country” and that his administration would “stop the invasion very quickly.”

“Every person is worth protecting. And above all, we know that every human soul is divine, and every human life — born and unborn — is made in the holy image of Almighty God.” — President Donald Trump, 2020, March for Life

Mass deportations — a phrase that conjures the darkest chapters in human history — was their goal. That has included people who came to the United States for protection, seeking asylum. There always were limits on who a second Trump administration would protect. Now we know a conscientious citizen like Renee Good, whose memory Trump again insulted today, was beyond their care.

“Today, we focus our attention on the love and protection each person, born and unborn, deserves.” — President Donald Trump, 2018, Proclamation for National Sanctity of Human Life Day

For too long, the deeds of the Trump administration have stood in sharp contrast to the reassuring words they have offered to religious believers. It has become impossible to ignore, but it should not surprise us. Years ago, Trump wrote in The Art of the Deal about telling people what they “want to believe” in order to get what he wants. The question for religious voters now is what they actually believe. So much effort went into electing Trump. The costs and the real meaning of all that no longer can be denied — maybe even by Trump.

“I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.” — President Donald Trump, Jan. 8, 2026, shown video of his administration’s agent killing Renee Good

Will it make any difference?