Weaponizing God
COMMENTARY
While there is far too much to fully address, the intention of this future section will be to highlight clear patterns of cherry picking, hypocrisy, and twisting scripture. Though I’m not religious or deeply versed in scripture, I can still recognize when religion is being manipulated or used for personal gain.
Due to the lofty nature of this section, I don’t have a timeline for completion.
Prior to March 2026
There is much to cover; still trying to gather. However, such events are peppered throughout the file
2026 March
2026-03-26 Hegseth gave a sermon at the Pentagon about God’s involvement in battle, praying for eternal damnation and overwhelming violence in the name of God and claiming the United States as righteous in this war in Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsqVj3G0cmA&list=WL&index=11&t=215s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NrJU2aqGvQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erZ6A5Wmy00
2026 April
2026-04-01 Pope Leo condemned the war in Iran, saying leaders who start wars have hands full of blood. He said, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood”. This came after Pete Hegseth prayed for “overwhelming violence” against his enemies, invoking the name of Jesus Christ for bloodshed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyPPkp36nso&list=WL&index=2
https://ewtnvatican.com/articles/pope-leo-xiv-god-does-not-hear-prayers-for-war
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/04/pope-says-that-god-doesnt-listen-to-donald-trumps-prayers/
https://www.ms.now/opinion/pete-hegseth-pope-leo-iran-war
2026-04-01 Trump’s pastor Franklin Graham weaponized the book of Esther during a Presidential prayer at the White House, “Father, you tell us in the book of Esther that the Persians, the Iranians, were wanting to kill every Jew, woman, child, and do it all in one day”. He went on to politicize faith, calling Iranians the “wicked regime”, accused Iran of wanting to kill all Jews, compared Trump to Queen Esther, and claimed that Trump was “raised up for such a time as this”. This was during the war in Iran started by the U.S. and Israel, and during the same Easter prayer breakfast when Paula White compared Trump to Jesus. Fact-check: the villain in the book of Esther was not the Persians. Giving politics a biblical narrative to gain power and control is probably a sin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an9D8G1BtjY&list=WL&index=3
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9lmpBqaiGtI
2026-04-01 Article in Daily Citizen: “Jaden Ivey, ‘All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me’.” The NBA star expressed anti-LGBTQ sentiment publicly and the Chicago Bulls cut ties with him. Following this TreVeyon Henderson posted, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:10.
https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/jaden-ivey-nba-religious-discrimination/
https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/tag/religious-discrimination/
https://x.com/TreVeyonH4/status/2038786657608941846
2026-04-03 Leader of the Archdiocese for Military Services Timothy Broglio rebuked Hegseth for invoking Jesus to stoke war with Iran.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/militarys-top-catholic-rebukes-pentagon-pete-for-war-boasts/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/03/us-military-archbishop-iran
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Nru2b0Iz5qo
2026-04-10 Headline “Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran”. According to a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches followers (i.e. Hegseth) don’t “believe in social equality among people. They think that God created the world and that some people are destined to have authority and to rule over other people, and other people are destined to be followers…legitimate authority comes directly from God”.
2026-04-12 Trump posted – then deleted – an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ. After backlash, he claimed it was a picture of himself as a doctor healing people.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/13/trump-jesus-truth-social-pope-leo.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-faces-backlash-over-post-144400174.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17v8y0z9z2o
https://abc7.com/post/trump-takes-down-image-social-media-depicted-jesus-like-figure/18880184/
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/13/politics/trump-jesus-post-pope-feud
SUB WALL https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/us/politics/trump-jesus-pope-leo-truth-social-post.html
SUB WALL https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/13/trump-jesus-religious-conservatives/
2026-04-15 ARTICLE: Catholic Bishops Deliver Brutal Slap-Down to Convert Vance (The Daily Beast 04/15). Top Catholic advisers to the Pope backed him up after Vance said the Pope should “be careful talking about theology”.
SUBSCRIPTION WALL https://www.thedailybeast.com/catholic-bishops-deliver-brutal-slap-down-to-convert-jd-vance-after-lecturing-pope-leo-xiv-on-theology/
2026-04-15 Mike Johnson argued that Pope Leo should not have condemned the war, stating, “There’s something called the Just War Doctrine…”. The Poper corrected Johnson by explaining the doctrine is only in self-defense once ALL PEACE EFFORTS HAVE FAILED, and then later wrote on social media, “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth” and warned that the world is currently “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taNi3btpaLs&list=WL&index=1
https://www.americamagazine.org/vatican-dispatch/2026/04/16/pope-leo-cameroon-peace/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/news-wrap-pope-warns-of-tyrants-spending-billions-on-wars
2026-04-16 During a briefing at the Pentagon Pete Hegseth attacked the media and compared them to the biblical Jewish group that opposed Jesus. He stated, “Our press are just like these Pharisees — not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press. Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors,” he said. Hegseth added: “The Pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation, only looking for the negative. The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn. I would ask you to open your eyes to the goodness, the historic success of our troops, the courage of this president…the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on.”.
https://x.com/gretchencarlson/status/2044752887029358926?s=46&t=qjA9BAv6BhOCNlxoiZWFbw
2026-04-16 Pete Hegseth quoted a fake bible verse from the movie Pulp Fiction during a prayer, then compared Trump to Jesus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZdkRiTs_4w&list=WL&index=4
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5834822-hegseth-pulp-fiction-bible-reference/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-pulp-fiction-bible-verse_n_69e0e4d2e4b09c96f93e9391
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hegseth-bible-pulp-fiction/
2026-04-16 MEDIA OUTLETS ARE WARNING THE FOLLOWING POST IS FAKE (CONTEXT: I think it’s important to include this. Even though the Trump regime is bad, it’s really imperative that we pay attention to lies on BOTH sides and not get caught up in conspiracy). Trump posted a threat to Pope Leo via Truth Social: “As President of the United States, I have access to information that could bring down the Papacy, the Vatican and the entire Catholic Church overnight! These are called the Vatican files, which I won’t release, out of respect for the BILLION catholics worldwide, but, the weak Pope Leo of Vatican would do well to remember who he has to answer to, if he continues to interfere in politics on behalf of the Terrorist Regime of Iran, the misinformation Pope spreads regarding the special combat operation is extremely dangerous! JESUS would have wanted PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, just like I do! Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and we will use our OVERWHELMING STRENGTH to make sure they never do! This is the PATH TO PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter! -President DJT”.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fact-check-trump-did-not-005541014.html
https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.A88G3ZQ
2026-04-16 Headline “Pete Hegseth attacks ‘unpatriotic’ media and compares reporters to Jewish biblical group” (NBC News). He compared reporters covering the Iran war to the Pharisees, the biblical Jewish group that opposed Jesus.
2026-04-19 (context because they are trying to establish one religion - this is exclusionary) The Trump administration announced it will be reading the Bible to Americans, from Genesis-to-Revelations over an 84-hour public presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp6bb8SC_Cs&list=WL&index=1&t=56s
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/19/politics/trump-bible-reading-oval-office
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/17/trump-scripture-angering-christians-00879747
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5837716-trump-bible-reading-pope-leo-feud-ai-jesus/
2026 May
2026-05-07 Marco Rubio visited the Vatican for a private media with Pope Leo after the Trump administration’s repeated attack at the Pope for not supporting war.