Belief

In rural Appalachian areas of Tennessee and Kentucky, Josh Abbotoy operates a real estate company called Ridgerunner. And he uses socially conservative rhetoric to promote his company, declaring, "Faith, family and freedom — those are the values that we try to celebrate."

According to BBC reporters Ellie House and Mike Wendling, some of Abbotoy's clients are far-right Christian nationalists who openly push extreme ideas like repealing the U.S. Constitution's 19th Amendment — which gave women the right vote — and overturning civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

"Initially, he didn't attract much local attention after setting up shop in Jackson County, (Tennessee)," House and Wendling explain in a late December article. "But in late 2024, a local TV news report broadcast controversial statements made by two of Mr. Abbotoy's first, and most outspoken, customers: Andrew Isker, a pastor and author originally from Minnesota, and C. Jay Engel, a businessman from California. They are self-described 'Christian nationalists' who question modern values, such as whether female suffrage and the civil rights movement were good ideas, and call for mass deportations of legal immigrants far in excess of President Donald Trump's current plan. Another thing they sometimes say: 'Repeal the 20th Century.'"

The BBC reporters note that although "Abbotoy himself does not identify as a Christian nationalist," his tenants' extreme views are worrying their neighbors."

House and Wendling quote Jackson County resident Nan Coons as saying, "You don't know who these people are, or what they're capable of. And so, it's scary."

Engel has even called for deportations of legal non-white immigrants, writing, "Peoples like Indians, or South East Asians or Ecuadorians or immigrated Africans are the least capable of fitting in and should be sent home immediately."

Gainesboro, Tennessee resident Diana Mandli, however, is calling Isker's church out.

Mandli told the BBC, "I believe that they have been attempting to brand our town and our county as a headquarters for their ideology of Christian nationalism."

Read the full BBC article at this link.

When President Donald Trump announced the creation of the White House Faith Office on February 7, he appointed far-right evangelical pastor and televangelist Paula White as its leader. Rev. White is a longtime spiritual adviser to Trump, giving an inaugural invocation during his first presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017. And she claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by "demonic forces."

White once equated defying Trump with defying God, and she is the target of brutal mockery in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, December 26 by Republicans Against Trump — not to be confused with the conservative Never Trump group formerly known as Republican Voters Against Trump. Organizers for that group, now called Republican Accountability (RA), have included Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller and other well-known conservative Trump opponents associated with The Bulwark.

The video shows a collage of White making over-the-top comments, including "Wherever I go, God rules. When I walk on White House grounds, God walks on White House grounds….. I had every right to declare the White House holy ground because I was standing there. And where I stand is holy."

One of the clips shows White saying, "To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God, and I won't do that." And White, in another clip, describes Trump's opponents as "demonic."

"Let every demonic network that has aligned itself against the purpose — against the calling of President Trump — let it be broken," White declares in that clips. "Let it be torn down in the name of Jesus."

Far-right Christian nationalists are feeling empowered during Donald Trump's second presidency. Idaho-based evangelical Christ Church, led by pastor Doug Wilson — who believes that women never should have been given the right to vote — is openly embraced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And Vice President JD Vance, speaking at Turning Point USA's recent AmericaFest 2025 convention in Phoenix, told the MAGA crowd that the United States "always will be a Christian nation."

Vance received an aggressive fact-check from MS NOW's Steve Benen, who attacked his statement as "offensive, ahistorical nonsense" and reminded him that President Thomas Jefferson described the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment as "a wall of separation between church and state" back in 1802.

But as much support as Christian nationalism is receiving within the MAGA movement, reporting by Axios' Russell Contreras describes a pattern of "unchurching" in the U.S.—with many Americans having either a secular outlook or embracing a milder version of Christianity.

"The U.S. is undergoing its fastest religious shift in modern history, marked by a rapid increase in the religiously unaffiliated and numerous church closures nationwide," Contreras explains in a post-Christmas article published on December 26. "Why it matters: The great unchurching of America comes as identity and reality are increasingly shaped by non-institutional spiritual sources — YouTube mystics, TikTok tarot, digital skeptics, folk saints and AI-generated prayer bots. It's a tectonic transformation that has profound implications for race, civic identity, political persuasion and the ability to govern a fracturing moral landscape."

Contreras continues, "By the numbers: Nearly three in 10 American adults today identify as religiously unaffiliated — a 33 percent jump since 2013, according to the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). That's quicker than almost any major religious shift in modern U.S. history, and it's happening across racial groups, an Axios analysis found…. The shift in religious activity also is leaving behind a trail of 'church graveyards,' or empty buildings that are now difficult to sell or have been abandoned."

The Axios reporter notes that according to Gallup, roughly 57 percent of Americans seldom or never attend religious services — an increase from 40 percent in 2000 — and that an "unprecedented 15,000 churches are expected to shut their doors this year" compared to only a "few thousand expected to open."

PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman told Axios that there is no evidence of a widespread religious revival.

"Despite anecdotal and media reports about Gen Z men returning to church," Contreras notes, "there's little evidence it's happening beyond scattered examples to reverse the overall decline, she said. The bottom line: The old religious map is disappearing."

Read Russell Contreras' full article for Axios at this link.

A decision from the University of Oklahoma on Monday left some asking whether the research university can still be seen as having “academic standards” after an instructor was removed from teaching duties for giving a failing grade to a student who focused on her own religious beliefs about gender in a paper for a psychology course.

The university released a statement saying the graduate teaching assistant in the course, Mel Curth, had been “arbitrary” in the grading of a paper by student Samantha Fulnecky, who wrote an assigned essay about an article the class read about gender, peer relations, sterotyping, and mental health for the course.

Fulnecky’s paper cited the Bible and focused heavily on her beliefs that “God made male and female and made us differently from each other on purpose and for a purpose.”

“Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men,” she wrote in the essay, adding that “society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth.”

Curth, who is transgender, gave Fulnecky a zero for the essay and emphasized in her response that she was “not deducting points because you have certain beliefs,” but because the paper “does not answer the questions for the assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.”

“Using your own personal beliefs to argue against the findings of not only this article, but the findings of countless articles across psychology, biology, sociology, etc. is not best practice,” Curth wrote.

Another instructor concurred with Curth on the grade, telling Fulnecky that “everyone has different ways in which they see the world, but in an academic course such as this you are being asked to support your ideas with empirical evidence and higher-level reasoning.”

On Monday, the university suggested Curth’s explanation for the grade was not satisfactory.

“What is there to say other than that the University of Oklahoma has no academic standards?” asked journalist Peter Sterne in response to the university’s statement.

One civil rights advocate, Brian Tashman, added that the school’s decision opens up numerous questions about how academic papers that focus on a student’s religious beliefs will be graded in the future.

“So if a geology student at the University of Oklahoma says in class the earth is 6,000 years young because that’s what they believe, a geology teacher can’t say squat?” asked Tashman. “What if their religion teaches the earth is flat? Or that all of mankind’s problems can be traced back to Xenu?”

Curth had initially been placed on administrative leave earlier this month when Fulnecky filed a religious discrimination complaint with the school.

Fulnecky’s allegations drew the attention of the school’s chapter of Turning Point USA, the right-wing group that advocates for conservative political views on college and high school campuses. The group is closely aligned with the Trump administration. Vice President JD Vance spoke at Turning Point’s AmericaFest last weekend—and used the appearance to tell young conservatives that their movement should not root out antisemitism with “purity tests”—and the assassination of its founder, Charlie Kirk, earlier this year, was followed by the White House’s efforts to crack down on what it called left-wing extremism, with President Donald Trump directly blaming the “radical left” for Kirk’s killing before a suspect was identified.

While Fulnecky garnered support from the Turning Point chapter, hundreds of her fellow students rallied in support of Curth in recent weeks, chanting, “Protect Our Professors!” at a recent protest.

A lawyer for Curth said Monday that she is “considering all of her legal remedies, including appealing this decision by the university.”

“Ms. Curth continues to deny that she engaged in any arbitrary behavior regarding the student’s work,” Brittany M. Stewart told the Washington Post.

The university did not release its findings of the religious discrimination investigation it opened into Fulnecky’s case.

The school’s decision to remove Curth from teaching duties, said author Hemant Mehta, “is what academic cowardice looks like.”

Like Islam, Christianity is incredibly diverse, ranging from severe fundamentalists to people who are devout but have a more nuanced and complex view of their faith.

President Donald Trump is not a Christian fundamentalist; he was raised Presbyterian in Queens and comes from a Mainline Protestant background. But some of his most ardent supporters in the MAGA movement are white evangelical fundamentalists and far-right Christian nationalists, who embrace a much more severe form of Christianity than the Presbyterian churches Trump's mother, a Scottish immigrant, attended in Queens and Scotland.

Trump's Christian nationalist supporters have very strong views on scripture. But during an appearance on Mother Jones' "More to the Story" podcast posted on Christmas Eve Day 2025, author/religious scholar Dan McClellan stressed that New Testament scripture doesn't necessarily mean what Chrisitan nationalists claim it does.

McClellan, author of the book "The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture's Most Controversial Issues," told host Al Letson, "The hot new thing right now is to be a Christian nationalist. And I think a lot of people are jumping at the opportunity to get on board this attempt to take over the government on the part of Christians. And unfortunately, it means hurting an awful lot of people along the way."

McClellan noted that Christian nationalists are demonizing the word "empathy" and railing against "the sin of empathy." Claiming that "empathy" is inherently bad, according to McClellan, is a distortion of scripture.

McClellan told Letson, "Those are the people who are overwhelmingly trying to defend precisely parochial empathy because they're trying to convince others it's bad for us to empathize with undocumented immigrants. It's bad for us to empathize with people from other nations. It's bad for us to empathize with either conservatives or liberals. I think empathy that is outward looking is good."

During the interview, McClellan emphasized that Christian nationalists are "interpreting" the Bible in a way that fits with their political worldview.

McClellan told Letson, "Like everywhere else in the gospels, Jesus says, 'You cannot serve God and mammon.' And Jesus says, 'Blessed are the poor.' And you can look in the sermon on the Mount and in Matthew 5, and it says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.' And so, people say, 'Aha. It doesn't say…. That's not about economic poverty, that's about humility.' But you can then go to the sermon on the plain in the Gospel of Luke and it just says, 'Blessed are the poor' — which very clearly is referring to economic poverty."

The author/scholar continued, "As I said before, the Bible is a text. It has no inherent meaning. We create meaning in negotiation with the text, which means we're bringing our experiences and our understanding to the text, and that's generating the meaning."

The full Mother Jones podcast is available at this link.

Donald Trump's MAGA movement has pushed policies that conflict with "simple human decency," while claiming to stand for Christian values. According to a new analysis from Salon, this is creating "yet another crack in the MAGA coalition," as actual religious leaders and groups push back against Trump's agenda, and as the party risks alienating a significantly growing evangelical demographic.

Writing in a piece published Tuesday, Salon columnist Hannah Digby Parton extensively broke down the religious pushback Trump's second term has received, despite claiming to represent Christian values. The most notable has come from the Roman Catholic Church, as the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, has spoken out strongly against Trump's inhumane treatment of immigrants. This, in turn, has prompted broader pushback from other Catholic leaders.

"Leo... has called the treatment of undocumented immigrants extremely disrespectful and implored that they be treated humanely," Parton wrote. "The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a 'special message' condemning the policy, saying 'we oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.' The pope’s decision to replace the retiring Timothy Dolan, the pro-Trump Archbishop of New York, with Ronald Hicks, a pro-migrant bishop from Illinois, underscores his intentions."

Parton suggested that Trump's relentless targeting of Latin American individuals as part of his immigration crackdowns represents a "crack in the MAGA coalition," given that Latinos are the fastest-growing evangelical demographic and broke for Trump in 2024 by huge margins. Targeting them so heavily now might directly conflict with the MAGA movement's "self-preservation."

"... This represents yet another crack in the MAGA coalition, even if they don’t acknowledge it," Parton continued. "As a matter of self-preservation, one might have assumed that the Southern Baptists would be supportive of Latino immigrants, especially since they are the fastest-growing group of American evangelicals, the majority of whom voted for Trump in 2024. Evangelical communities are also expanding rapidly in Latin America. Only four percent of that population identified as evangelical 40 years ago; today about 20% do. It seems short-sighted to be so hostile to a group that represents the future of the church. The Southern Baptist leadership’s unwillingness to even engage the question shows that the fault line is present and they don’t know how to deal with it."

Above all, aside from any religious affiliations, Parton argued that "the real schism" in the US currently is between those who understand "simple human decency" and those who do not.

"It’s between the people who understand that and those who gleefully indulge in an orgy of cruelty and inhumanity, even while they display the trappings of Christianity and brag about their piety," Parton concluded.

Via San Gregorio Armeno, a street in Naples, Italy, is known for shops that, around Christmastime, sell carvings of Nativity scenes. Some of them incorporate secular figures. And according to New York Times reporter Motoko Rich, that may include U.S. President Donald Trump this year.

In an article published on December 23, Rich explains, "For years, figures of Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer star who played for the city's leading team, have been perennial top sellers, as have statuettes of Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon and four-time Italian prime minister. This Christmas, models of Mr. Trump are the new frontrunners."

According to Rich — the Times' bureau chief in Rome — "Three rows of Trump figures, wearing dark suits with red ties and crowned with bright yellow helmets of hair, stood on a table in a workshop at the back of" a Via San Gregorio Armeno studio that Naples resident Michele Buonincontro founded in the early 1990s.

Rich reports, "Some of Mr. Buonincontro's clients insert figurines of Mr. Trump into Nativity scenes as one of the three wise kings who brought gifts for the newborn Jesus, he said."

Buonincontro told the Times, "I am not saying he is a saint, but he is connected to religion, to religiosity."

Federico Battaglia, secretary to the archbishop of Naples, told the Times that having figures of Trump on Via San Gregorio Armeno makes sense. Battaglia noted that Jesus Christ was born "under the Empire of Augustus," adding, "Augustus was the most powerful man of his time, as Trump is of ours."

Read Motoko Rich's full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).

During his speech at AmericaFest 2025 — Turning Point USA's first convention since the fatal shooting of co-founder Charlie Kirk on September 10 — Vice President JD Vance declared that the United States "always will be a Christian nation." And he is far from the only MAGA Republican who is making that claim. Christian nationalists and the Religious Right have long claimed that the Founding Fathers meant for the U.S. to be a Christian theocracy.

The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, however, promises freedom of religion but doesn't give Christianity preferential treatment over any other religion.

According to the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

In a December 22 column, MS NOW's Steve Benen argues that Vance and others are dead-wrong when they claim that the U.S. is a "Christian nation." And he notes what the Founder Fathers actually had to say on the subject, including the second U.S. president, John Adams, and the third, Thomas Jefferson.

"Indeed, Vance received an exceedingly warm welcome from the far-right crowd," Benen observes, "but his 'Christian nation' comment appeared to be the rhetoric the audience liked the most. The obvious problem with the Ohio Republican's assertion, which is popular within the Republican Party's theocratic wing, is that the claim is offensive, ahistorical nonsense. The United States is based on a secular Constitution — the nation's actual 'anchor' — which in turn created a secular government. Thomas Jefferson wrote, in 1802, that our First Amendment built 'a wall of separation between church and state.' In 1797, John Adams agreed: 'The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.'"

When Vance and others claim the U.S. is a "Christian nation," Benen emphasizes, they are not only ignoring the First Amendment — they are also promoting unconstitutional discrimination against other religions.

"Americans unsure what to believe have a straightforward choice: They can listen to Vance, or they can read the Constitution and honor the declarations of actual Founding Fathers," Benen writes. "This doesn't seem like an especially tough call. But just as notable is the unsubtle message behind the rhetoric: Those who espouse the idea that the United States is a 'Christian nation' appear eager to tell those of minority faiths, as well as those who've chosen no religious path, 'You'll be tolerated, but you're still The Other, relegated to second-class status."

Benen adds, "That sentiment, rooted in the idea that those who think as Vance does are entitled to dominance over those who do not, is at odds with our most basic principles."

Steve Benen's full column for MS NOW is available at this link.

Ever since the religious right made its presence felt in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, far-right white Christian fundamentalist evangelicals and their opponents have been having an intense debate over the role of religion in government.

The religious right claims that the United States was founded on fundamentalist Christianity, while their opponents — who have ranged from People For the American Way to the late conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) — counter that the U.S. Constitution promises freedom of religion but forbids government to favor one religion over another.

In 2025 — 45 years after Reagan's 1980 campaign — that debate rages on. And retired Gen. Mark Hertling, who served as commander of U.S. Army Europe during Barack Obama's presidency, offers scathing criticism of MAGA Republicans' efforts to impose Christian nationalism on the military in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on December 22.

"Last Week, Secretary Of Defense Pete Hegseth released a video on social media asserting that 'a real problem facing our nation's military' is 'the weakening of our chaplain corps,'" Hertling explains. "In the clip, he cited parts of the Army's newly published Spiritual Fitness Guide — the online version of which has since been un-published — as evidence of the decline, arguing that the religious role of chaplains had 'degraded' into what he characterized as 'self-help and self-care' with too much attention toward 'feelings.' In doing so, he made two fundamental mistakes: One about the chaplain corps and the Army document he attacked, and the other about the composition and needs of the force he is tasked with leading."

The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Herling notes that military chaplains aren't necessarily Christians. For example, Muslim chaplains offer spiritual support to Muslims serving in the U.S. military.

"If Hegseth's objective is to strengthen moral grounding and spiritual resilience in the Army," Hertling argues, "the answer is not to misread guidance documents or narrow a role that has never been narrow…. About one in five Americans doesn't believe in God. Less than two thirds are sure God exists. The purpose of a chaplain isn't to preach a particular faith to the force, but to look after their spiritual needs at the extreme of human stress and experience, up to and including death. That goes as much for the atheists or the soldiers who believe in many gods as for those who share the secretary's religion."

Mark Hertling's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

Within Christianity, President Donald Trump is drawing everything from adulation to intense disdain.

The adulation is mostly coming from a specific demographic: far-right white evangelicals. Among fundamentalist white evangelicals, Trump's approval in recent months has ranged from 78 percent (Pew Research Center) to 83 percent (Public Opinion Strategies).

But not all Christians are associated with the evangelical Religious Right.

Pew Research found that Trump's support among non-evangelical white Christians is 51 percent. Among Catholics, Pew found only 42 percent support for Trump. And Trump's support among Black Protestants, according to Pew, was a mere 10 percent.

In an op-ed published by The Guardian on December 21, two Mainline Protestant ministers — the Revs. Doug Pagitt and Lori Walke — offer a scathing critique of Trump's second presidency and "MAGA Christianity."

"MAGA Christianity represents a self-serving, commercialized version of the Christian faith — putting power over service and empathy — and it is everywhere in our federal government," Pagitt and Walke explain. "In February, Trump announced a task force led by (U.S. Attorney General) Pam Bondi with the goal of rooting out 'anti-Christian' bias. In September, Trump announced his plans to protect prayer in schools. Later that month, he issued a memorandum identifying anti-Christianity as a potential driver of terrorism."

The reverends continue, "These are not just one-off incidents. This is a national effort to push the MAGA Christianity agenda on Americans, and we’re already seeing the consequences.

Pagitt and Walke lay out a variety of ways in which "MAGA Christianity" and "Christian nationalism," they argue, are unchristian.

"Despite the Bible's clear call to 'love thy neighbor,'" the pastors lament, "the MAGA movement has used its version of the Christian faith to oppress immigrants, oppose the rights of women and condemn the LGBTQ+ community. At the same time, we've seen shootings at places of worship and arrests of faith leaders at peaceful protests."

Pagitt and Walke continue, "As faith leaders, our greatest strength during Trump 2.0 and the rise of Christian nationalism is our local congregations. It's our ability to physically come together in our communities, communicate with one another, support our neighbors in need and elevate our own Christian values that set us apart. Faith leaders have a powerful role to play, especially as the Trump Administration continues to use religion to divide us."

Rev. Doug Pagitt and Rev. Lori Walke's full op-ed for The Guardian is available at this link.

The union for US Department of Education workers has raised alarm about a top department official’s display of a flag with Christian nationalist associations that was flown during the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol building.

The flag was spotted outside the Washington, DC, office of Murray Bessette, the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, according to a report on Monday from USA Today. However, it’s not clear how long it’s been displayed there.

The stark white banner, emblazoned with a pine tree and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven”—a reference to John Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government”—was first used during the American Revolution and flown by six schooner privateers known as “Washington’s Cruisers” for naval operations and supply capture missions.

The flag was flown sporadically throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, most prominently in New England. But it remained relatively obscure until recently.

As the Southern Poverty Law Center explained in November, it has undergone a revival among proponents of Christian nationalism over the past decade:

Its affiliation with Christian supremacist politicians largely began in 2013 after being reintroduced as a symbol of supremacy by Dutch Sheets, a highly influential leader in the New Apostolic Reformation, today’s most powerful Christian supremacist movement.The NAR is an anti-democratic Christian supremacist movement that seeks to control all areas of national life, from the halls of Congress to one’s living room, compelling all Americans to align their lives with NAR’s worldview. According to NAR leaders, those who oppose them are not just wrong but under the control of the demonic, and are even possibly demonic entities themselves.

Sheets, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, helped to mobilize thousands of Christian followers to the Capitol leading up to the January 6 riot, where supporters of the president sought to violently overturn the electoral victory of his opponent, former President Joe Biden. The pastor referred to the recognition of Biden’s election as “an evil attempt to overthrow the government of the United States of America.”

The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was spotted on multiple occasions at the Capitol on that day and at other “Stop the Steal” events protesting Trump’s 2020 election loss. It has continued to cause controversy in the years since.

In 2023, the right-wing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was seen flying the flag outside his New Jersey beach house. Alito blamed his wife for the flag flying outside their property just weeks before a documentarian published a secret recording of him expressing his desire to return the country to “a place of godliness,” and agreeing with radical right-wing groups who he said refuse to “negotiate with the left.”

The flag has also been displayed by several Republicans in Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has expressed many Christian nationalist viewpoints, including a distaste for the idea that the Constitution requires the separation of church and state.

Its appearance outside Bessette’s office is not the first time a government agency has displayed the flag during the second Trump presidency. In June, the Small Business Administration also displayed it during a ceremony, though only for about a day, according to Wired.

Rachel Gittleman, the president of the union for Education Department workers nationwide, said in a statement that the agency “has no place for symbols that were carried by insurrectionists.”

“Since January, hardworking public servants at the US Department of Education have been subjected to threats, harassment, and sustained demoralization,” she added. “Now, they are being asked to work in an environment where a senior leader is prominently displaying an offensive flag—one that, regardless of its origins in the American Revolution, has come to represent intolerance, hatred, and extremism.”

The use of a flag with Christian nationalist affiliations is especially noteworthy at the Education Department, which has been at the center of Trump’s push to “bring back religion in America” and promote “Judeo‑Christian principles.”

Trump has endorsed state-level policies requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms, which he called a “major step in the revival of religion.” In September, he also said that he would soon roll out a policy to provide “total protection” for prayer in public schools, which has long been considered unconstitutional when sponsored by school or state officials.

For most of his life, Doug Wilson — the 72-year-old pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho — was a fringe figure even on the Religious Right. Wilson's Christian nationalist views were so extreme that he gained a reputation for being to the right of familiar evangelical fundamentalists like Liberty University's Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., the Christian Broadcasting Network's Rev. Pat Robertson, and Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.

But during Donald Trump's second presidency, Wilson has become increasingly visible. Trump's allies, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, openly embrace Christ Church.

Religion News Service (RNS) reporter Tracy Simmons examines Wilson's growing prominence in the MAGA movement in an article published on December 12.

"Critics say that Christ Church's renown has less to do with the Almighty than with Wilson's dedication to Christian nationalism and his ties to like-minded officials in the Trump Administration and among its allies," Simmons explains. "Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has attended a Christ Church-affiliated congregation in Tennessee and has amplified Wilson's most controversial views, including his argument that women should not be allowed to vote. In the space of a month in April 2024, Wilson was interviewed by Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk on their respective podcasts."

Wilson, who believes that Christ Church is now "punching about our weight," started out as a Baptist but later moved to a severe form of Calvinism.

"Wilson came to national attention in 2003, when he organized a conference at the University of Idaho at Moscow about revolutions throughout U.S. history," Simmons explains. "Some in the community picked up on a booklet titled 'Southern Slavery, As It Was' that Wilson had co-authored some years earlier arguing that slavery, besides being allowed for in the Bible, was not as harsh in the antebellum South as is commonly portrayed. Soon, the campus and Downtown Moscow were plastered with flyers referring to Wilson’s university event as a 'slavery conference'…. To maximize his footprint in Washington, Wilson planted a church there this year, introducing what Wilson critic Kevin DeYoung called 'the Moscow mood' — cultural engagement 'with a spirit of … having fun while you’re doing it.'"

Read Tracy Simmons' full Religion News Service (RNS) article at this link.

A Cape Cod artist crafted a Nativity set perfect for New England: Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and others are depicted by lobsters. It certainly isn't the first time a Nativty has been swapped out with other creatures, but it's causing some debate on so-called "Catholic Twitter."

Leviticus 11:9-12 and Deuteronomy 14:9-10 ban the consumption of sea creatures that lack both fins and scales, granting Old Testament protection to crustaceans like lobsters.

Still, that wasn't the inspiration behind Rosemary Quantick's Lobster Nativity, which has been for sale for a few years but has recently gained notoriety online.

Speaking to the Cape Cod Times last year, Quantick, an English immigrant, explained that her motivation was her adopted home of the Cape and the New England love of lobsters.

The Nativity set is encased in a lobster trap, rather than the manger and baby Jesus rests in a clam shell on a bed of seaweed.

Agnostic Faine Greenwood, a civilian drone mapping technology and GIS/spatial data consultant, said on BlueSky that she bought the Nativity set, prompting both chuckles and questions from followers.

"King of the Crustaceans," celebrated Kenneth Freeman.

One follower called it "Christaceans."

"With all due respect to you and your faith traditions ... what the f——?" asked author Sarah Day.

Greenwood explained she is agnostic, and was raised by other agnostics, "which probably explains a lot."

However, Christopher Roberts, a self-described "Christian raised by (sadly) Christian nationalists," also fell in love with the lobster Nativity.

Assistant Professor Brittany Sutherland, who teaches at George Mason University, wondered how something like that would play in the "deeply Catholic parts of Louisiana."

"On the one hand," she continued, "lobsters are pretty close to crawfish and Cajuns know their edible aquatic bugs. On the other hand, eating Crustacean Jesus seems pretty significant in the sin department."

That said, Transubstantiation is the Catholic belief that during the Eucharist, the bread and wine change into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Holy communion is a sacrament in most Christian churches and symbolizes the sacrifice Jesus made for the sins of man.

Real estate lawyer Maggie Hooman asked "Catholic Twitter" whether they found the Nativity offensive and got some mixed answers. Most who indicated they were Catholic found it funny or acceptable but "tacky."

John Grondelski, conservative foreign policy specialist and Catholic theologian, answered, "Yes, because the Christian message of the Nativity is Incarnation — God became man, not Sebastian the Lobster. Maybe 50 years ago, as a kid, it might have been cute in a kitschy/tacky sort of way, but human embodiment is under such attack that diluting the Incarnation is wrong."

He later added, "we have an Incarnation problem today — and since religious scenes shape minds, I do not want the Savior to be thought of as a shape-shifter."

A few folks on X asked about whether it was considered offensive. Gabriel Said Reynolds, a Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at Notre Dame, polled his following. The majority agreed it was "blasphemy."

In its report, the news and culture site Denison Forum commented, "A 'Lobster nativity scene' on Cape Cod challenges perceptions of Christmas. Consider the profound humility of Jesus, who chose to become human and sacrifice his own 'life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.'"

An Israeli resident questioned, "Can lobster Jesus walk on water?"

Dan Turrentine, co-host of The Huddle, said he planned on getting the lobster Nativity for former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, a devout Catholic.

Several remembered the Nativity scene in the film "Love Actually," which featured a Christmas play in which the daughter of one character, played by Emma Thompson, was "First Lobster."

"There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?" she questioned.

Meanwhile, the Church of Lorb, has embraced the lobster Nativity. The faith describes itself as "conscientious creators with plans to create and worship our Leviathan Lobster God. Lobsters don't die of old age and typically can't keep up with their gigantic size as they continue to grow and molt their shells. Together we can make a difference. The faith's mission is to help save the planet."

The lobster Nativity is available online for $114.90.

Jimmy Swaggart, one of the most popular and enduring of the 1980s televangelists, died on July 1, 2025, but his legacy lives.