Why Pope Leo is clashing with MAGA’s version of Christianity: religious scholar

Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost, AKA Pope Leo XIV — the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church — has been outspoken in his criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump's war against Iran. In contrast, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a far-right Christian nationalist, is characterizing Trump's military operation as a Christian holy war.

During an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast" posted on March 31, religious studies scholar Sarah Posner examined the contrasting views of Pope Leo and the Trump Administration. And she stressed that Hegseth's Christian nationalism is a radically different view of Christianity than the one Pope Leo embraces.

Posner told host Greg Sargent, "Hegseth is expressing an extreme version of Christian supremacy, where America, a Christian nation, is entitled, and in fact probably, in his mind, required by God, to smite America's enemies — or to smite the enemies of Christianity, even. When we talk about Christian nationalism, this is exactly what we're talking about. But the important thing to remember with Hegseth, in contrast to other versions of Christian nationalism that we see more commonly in the Republican Party, is that his is a very extreme version of Christian supremacy where we Christians are entitled to go out and take dominion over the world, to vanquish enemies, and to do so violently — and even when they do so violently, with the express mandate from God."

Sargent noted that Hegseth's Iran war prayer "was dramatically undercut by the Pope."

According to Posner and Sargent, Hegseth's views are consistent with a severe version of evangelical fundamentalist Christianity known as "Christian reconstructionism."

Posner told Sargent, "Christian reconstructionism holds that biblical law is superior to civil law and that the Bible — biblical law — should govern every aspect of life: your personal life for sure, but also political life, military life. So to Hegseth, this biblical law — the interpretation of which would be contested by different scholars or adherents to the Bible — but his version of biblical law is superior to the Pentagon's own internal military law, American civil law, and also, importantly, when we're talking about Hegseth and the prosecution of this unjust, illegal war, that it is superior to international law and the rules of engagement in war and military conflicts.