Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
By Frank Schaeffer
Trump’s AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure sparked outrage among his Catholic and evangelical Christian supporters. And the new memoir by JD Vance detailing his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church has also sparked outrage across multiple fronts, because of Vance’s intersection of faith and the most corrupt presidential power ever in Trump and his family. The book is Vance’s attempt to become president someday soon by cloaking his limitless political ambition in spiritual authority.
Vance’s core policy positions are in direct conflict with core Catholic teachings on issues of truth-telling, poverty, immigration, and human dignity. Church leaders are already challenging the authenticity of his conversion, turning what might otherwise be a personal narrative into a broader cultural and political flashpoint. Worst of all is Vance’s defense of the indefensible wickedness of Trump.
Religious leaders and conservative writers expressed sadness and strong criticism over the image and Trump’s remarks about Pope Leo XIV.
For instance Rod Dreher, a conservative writer who attended the Catholic baptism of Vice President JD Vance before he entered politics, went further. “Not saying Trump is the Antichrist,” Dreher told The Wall Street Journal. “But he’s radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question.” Pastor Douglas Wilson, co-founder of the conservative Calvinist denomination to which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth belongs, called the image “blasphemous.”
In another time when religion was taken more seriously the Spanish Inquisition might have conducted a trial of Donald Trump and JD Vance designed to root out heresy. Those accused, in this case would have been arrested, their property seized to fund their detention, and subjected to closed investigations in which they faced repeated interrogations culminating in a public sentencing ceremony known as the Auto-da-fé, where punishments ranging from fines and penitential garments to imprisonment or execution by secular authorities were pronounced, a process most characteristic of the Inquisition’s from the late 15th century through the early 17th century.
Here then, retold in the language of the Seventeenth Century, is the trial of Donald Trump and the Inquisition’s warning too Trump’s obsequies servant JD Vance as I imagine the Proceedings before the Holy Office
Read the Full Piece
open.substack.com/pub/frankschaeffer/p/concerning-blasphemy-and-the-crime?r=1uznkl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
By Frank Schaeffer
Trump’s AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure sparked outrage among his Catholic and evangelical Christian supporters. And the new memoir by JD Vance detailing his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church has also sparked outrage across multiple fronts, because of Vance’s intersection of faith and the most corrupt presidential power ever in Trump and his family. The book is Vance’s attempt to become president someday soon by cloaking his limitless political ambition in spiritual authority.
Vance’s core policy positions are in direct conflict with core Catholic teachings on issues of truth-telling, poverty, immigration, and human dignity. Church leaders are already challenging the authenticity of his conversion, turning what might otherwise be a personal narrative into a broader cultural and political flashpoint. Worst of all is Vance’s defense of the indefensible wickedness of Trump.
Religious leaders and conservative writers expressed sadness and strong criticism over the image and Trump’s remarks about Pope Leo XIV.
For instance Rod Dreher, a conservative writer who attended the Catholic baptism of Vice President JD Vance before he entered politics, went further. “Not saying Trump is the Antichrist,” Dreher told The Wall Street Journal. “But he’s radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question.” Pastor Douglas Wilson, co-founder of the conservative Calvinist denomination to which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth belongs, called the image “blasphemous.”
In another time when religion was taken more seriously the Spanish Inquisition might have conducted a trial of Donald Trump and JD Vance designed to root out heresy. Those accused, in this case would have been arrested, their property seized to fund their detention, and subjected to closed investigations in which they faced repeated interrogations culminating in a public sentencing ceremony known as the Auto-da-fé, where punishments ranging from fines and penitential garments to imprisonment or execution by secular authorities were pronounced, a process most characteristic of the Inquisition’s from the late 15th century through the early 17th century.
Here then, retold in the language of the Seventeenth Century, is the trial of Donald Trump and the Inquisition’s warning too Trump’s obsequies servant JD Vance as I imagine the Proceedings before the Holy Office
Read the Full Piece
open.substack.com/pub/frankschaeffer/p/concerning-blasphemy-and-the-crime?r=1uznkl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
