I have always been inquisitive, wanting to know how things work. Some years ago, however, it was during my first weeks as a theology student, at the then Catholic University of Nijmegen, that my questioning became quite personal. I had left the American College Seminary at the Catholic University of Leuven, after three years there, and was curious about post Vatican II progressive theological and pastoral developments in the Netherlands. My favorite Nijmegen professor was Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009), often called “the Dutch theologian” but he was Belgian, born in Antwerp. It was during his course about “The God Question” that I found myself in world of unsettling questions.

One day after class I asked him if I could speak with him. He said: “Of course how about right now?” So, we pulled a couple chairs across from each other and he asked what I wanted to talk about. I told him that his lectures made me do a lot of deep questioning. He smiled and said, “in what way?” I responded that, thanks to him, I had started questioning everything: God, Jesus, the church, the meaning of life, and my own identity. He smiled and said: “Then I am a good teacher.”

Professor Schillebeeckx reminded me that the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, had said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Schillebeeckx said he would help me become an open-minded questioner and pursue a life worth living. “And” he said, with a chuckle, “become a good teacher.”

Well, this week’s post is not about Edward Schillebeeckx, who became a supportive good friend, whom I often saw up until shortly before his death in 2009. But I am writing this week about being open-minded.

Over the years, my open-minded questioning and research has led me to many discoveries.

Today I know that Jesus’ disciples were men AND women. As an open-minded and questioning historian I have learned as well that women presided at Eucharistic liturgies in the early Christian communities. I have also realized that Jesus did not ordain anyone because ordination did not exist during his lifetime. In fact, in the first three centuries of Christianity, we have no direct evidence of an ordination ceremony.

Now have learned and realize very humbly that on this human life journey we do question and we do learn new things, by being open to the knowledge and insights of other people. Being open-minded, we need to continually adjust our understandings and beliefs.

Being an open-minded and questioning believer truly enriches a person’s life. I can think of seven ways, but I am sure there are more:

• Open mindfulness enables one to explore and discover. Being an open minded person allows one to experience new ideas and fresh thoughts that stimulate personal growth as they challenge old visions, understandings, and beliefs. It can be a very liberating look at one’s contemporary world through an open mind. Remember Paul in First Corinthians: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
• Open mindfulness promotes personal change and transformation. Opening our minds to new ideas allows us the opportunity to change what we think as well as change our view of the world. This does not mean one will necessarily change basic beliefs. It does mean one has to be open and respectful to people with differing perspectives. We work together. We must work together.
• Open mindfulness makes oneself vulnerable. This is scarier. In agreeing to have an open-minded view of the world, we acknowledge we do not know everything. We accept that there are possibilities we may not have considered. This vulnerability can be both terrifying and exhilarating. The jar is either half full or half empty. It depends on one’s perspective. I prefer to say that it is only half full.
• Open mindfulness helps one see and acknowledge personal mistakes. With an open mind one begins to see things from others’ perspectives. One can recognize the mistakes one has made. From time to time, we all fail and fall. The challenge is to acknowledge it and then get back up again and continue the journey, anchored in the virtues of Christian humility and courage.
• Open mindfulness strengthens oneself and gives stability. It presents a platform upon which a person can build, putting one idea on top of another. With an open mind, one learns about new things; and one uses innovative ideas to build on old ideas. In my field we call this ongoing theological development. Dangerous stuff for the old guard ecclesiastics. Nevertheless, everything a woman or a man or a child experiences adds up. It strengthens who one is and what one believes. Note well: It is extremely hard to build on experiences without having an open mind.
• Open mindfulness helps one gain confidence. When a person really lives with an open mind, he or she develops a stronger sense of self. One can respect and appreciate but is no longer confined by the beliefs of others. Then the respectful dialogue can and should begin.
• Open mindfulness promotes self-honesty. Being open-minded means admitting that one is not all-knowing. Even if one is an older theologian! Whatever “truth” one holds, each person must realize that the underlying reality in its depth has more to it than anyone realizes. This understanding creates a sense of honesty that characterizes anyone who lives with an open mind.

 

For some people, being open-minded is easy. It seems to come as effortlessly as breathing. For others, having an open mind can be a challenge. But for anyone who wants to travel the road of life, it is essential. We remember the words of Jesus, in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

– Jack

Dr. John Alonzo Dick — Historical Theologian

Email: jadleuven@gmail.com

 

 

On Thursday April 16, 2026, in a speech in Cameroon, Pope Leo XIV denounced world leaders who invoke religion to justify violence. “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.”

On Wednesday April 15, 2026, the incumbent U.S. President had posted an image to his Truth Social platform depicting himself being embraced by Jesus with the US flag as a backdrop, days after a backlash from supporters – including many on the religious right – forced him to delete an AI-generated image portraying the robed U.S. President as a Christ-like healer of the sick.

Thinking about these events has led me to write some reflections about the political use and abuse of Christianity.

First, I offer some historical observations and then some contemporary thoughts.

Historical Observations

Authoritarian leaders have always found Christianity a wonderful convenience, which they manipulate to their advantage. It enables them to lord it over other people and allows them to punish their “enemies” since that punishment, they can proclaim, is what God wants. The very first authoritarian political leader to do this was Constantine.

The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (272-337 CE), who was emperor from 306 to 337 CE, greatly institutionalized and militarized Christianity to use it as a unifying and controlling force in his Roman Empire. Constantine was baptized on his deathbed in May 337, but scholars generally view his life-long religious practice as a blend of less than Christian personal beliefs and political pragmatism. Throughout his life he had continued to use pagan symbols on his coinage and maintained elements of traditional Roman state religion.

Constantine ordered Christian bishops to attend the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE in Nicaea (modern-day İznik, Turkey). Actually, he had convened the council and his Council of Nicaea established ecclesiastical laws that explicitly regulated priests and bishops to enforce institutional authority in support of his imperial socio-political program.

I would call Constantine the Great the “Great Distorter of Christianity.” Nevertheless, he is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, which honors him as “equal to the apostles” alongside his mother, St. Helena (c.246-330). Helena greatly promoted her son’s influence over Christianity. She made a tour of  Jerusalem and her well-paid tour guides helped her discover presumed-to-be Christian relics: the cross on which Jesus was crucified, the iron nails used during the crucifixion, and even some thorns from Jesus’ Crown of Thorns.

Post-Constantine Christianity in the Middle Ages saw a significant rise in institutional and sectarian violence as Christianity was intertwined with imperial power.

Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century there of course have been three very significant political users and abusers of Christianity.

The atheist and anti-clerical Benito Mussolini (1883 – 1945) needed backing by the Vatican to promote his National Fascist Party. He therefore married in the Catholic Church and had his children baptized. In his first parliamentary speech in 1921, he announced that “the only universal values that radiate from Rome are those of the Vatican.”

Spain’s Generalissimo Franco (1892 – 1975) became a cruel and murderous dictator. Although Franco himself was not very devout, he portrayed himself as a fervent Catholic and used religion to increase his power. He used the Guerrilleros de Christo Rey (the Warriors of Christ the King) to implement his policy of torture and executions.

And then there is Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945). Hitler ceased being a Catholic when a teenager. But Hitler and his Nazi party promoted their brand of “Positive Christianity.” He described Jesus as an “Aryan fighter” who struggled against the corrupt Pharisees. Joseph Goebbels (1897 –1945), Hitler’s Reich Minister of Propaganda and one of his closest and most devoted associates, wrote in April 1941 that, although Hitler was “a fierce opponent” of the Vatican, “he forbids me to leave the church, for tactical reasons.” The use and abuse of Christianity.

Twenty-First Century Observations

Getting back to the contemporary United States, I suspect we all remember that day in early June 2020 when, Bible in hand, the 45^th U.S. President posed for photos in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. It was typical political theater. The Right Reverend Dr. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC, stressed that the U.S. President had used the Bible at St. John’s “as if it were a prop or an extension of his military and authoritarian position.”

In his second presidential administration, the now 47^th U.S. President, began implementing “Project 2025,” the 900-page policy guide created by The Heritage Foundation to turn the United States into an authoritarian Christian nationalist state by expanding presidential power and promoting conservative Christian values.

Using and abusing Christianity, of course, is not just a contemporary U.S. issue. Russian Orthodox priests have often sprinkled holy water on jets, tanks, and nuclear missiles to “spiritually protect Russia.” Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian Orthodox leadership under Patriarch Kirill (born 1946) strongly supported the military effort, with Orthodox clergy actively blessing troops and equipment heading to the front lines.

In reanimated Constantinian Christianity, Patriarch Kirill has called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership “a miracle of God.” Putin was born in October 1952 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) during the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), a time when religious practice was banned. His mother, a devout Orthodox Christian, Maria Ivanovna Putina (1911-1998), took him to the Transfiguration Cathedral with a female neighbor to have him baptized but without telling her husband, who was a strict member of the Communist Party and would have faced severe consequences if party authorities had discovered Vladimir’s baptism.

Today, displaying his public piety, President Putin attends Orthodox Christmas and Easter services and often wears a baptismal cross. Many Russian observers question the depth of his Christian belief, viewing his public displays of Christianity as political tools rather than signs of genuine spiritual devotion. A helpful book to read about Vladimir Putin and his version of Christianity is the 2024 book by Lucy Ash, an expert on Russian social, political, and cultural issues, The Baton and the Cross: Russia’s Church Under Putin.

Concluding Thoughts

Healthy Christianity is honest. It unites us and gives us hope and courage for tomorrow. It calls all to honesty, justice, respect, and compassion.

Promoting a healthy Christian way of life may very well be our biggest Christian challenge in 2026.

I close with the Franciscan Version Serenity Prayer for Our Times, brought to my attention by my friend Bishop Nancy Meyer, who made history as Indiana’s first female bishop within the Roman Catholic Women Priests organization in June 2014.

“God, grant me the patience to work with the unjust systems I cannot change today. Grant me the courage to strategically enact progress when I know I can. And grant me the wisdom to know that, despite structural oppression, I still can make a difference. Amen.”

 

Jack

Dr. John Alonzo Dick – Historical Theologian

Email:  jadleuven@gmail.com

Right now, I am re-reading George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It was published on June 8, 1949, as Orwell’s ninth and final completed book. Thematically, it centers on totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people. A friend suggested that it should be reprinted today with the title Twenty Twenty-Six.

The most famous Orwellian sentences in Nineteen Eighty-Four are: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength” and “Big Brother is watching you.”

Researchers and writers in every discipline today are finding it increasingly difficult to effectively communicate in an environment in which findings are distorted or ignored to serve an ideological agenda. Arguments rage at school board meetings, for example, about what can and what cannot be discussed or taught, and a new report from PEN America, the non-profit organization founded in 1922 that protects free expression, human rights, and literature, more than 3,700 unique books were banned during the 2024-2025 school year, more than double the number of titles PEN America tracked in the 2021-2022 school year when it began counting.

Teachers in schools today hesitate to tackle topics like racism and socioeconomic or LGBTQ+ issues in their classrooms for fear of being targeted by conservative parents and losing their jobs.

Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. But school boards today are also banning books with “uncomfortable” interpretations of reality, such as the Holocaust book Maus, the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. Surprisingly even Mark Twain’s classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has now been banned for racial slurs. Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel about a white lawyer’s defense of a black man against a false rape charge by a white woman, has now been repeatedly banned in schools.

During and between his terms as president of the United States, the incumbent president has made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. Fact-checkers at The Washington Post documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first presidential term, an average of 21 per day.

Back in 2020, when the 45th president launched his audacious lie yet about his “stolen election” many commentators cited Hannah Arendt’s observations about political lying. Hannah Arendt (1906 – 1975), the German historian and philosopher became interested in how the most outrageous lies get a political hold over people, ever since Nazi lies about the Jews, Communists, and intellectuals drove her from Berlin in 1933 after her arrest by the Gestapo. She wrote, “This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”

Well, our contemporary world is experiencing a crisis in facts and truth, which also contributes to distrust in various political and religious institutions. The situation has become more complicated with AI generated false images that are proclaimed as genuine.

The Israeli medievalist Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) urges voters to make artificial intelligence the main issue in the upcoming 2026 U.S. midterm elections. Harari warns that artificial intelligence poses a unique threat because it is the first technology that can make decisions, independent of human beings, and generate new ideas. 

Democracy relies on conversation, but AI can hack human language and manipulate public debates.

Theologian John Dominic Crossan (born 1934) said it very well in his 2014 book Paul as Pharisee: A Vision of Post-civilization: “We now live, verbally and visually, nationally and internationally, in a world of smiling lies, alternative facts, fake news, aspirations masquerading as interpretations, and conspiracy theories where truth is at best a personal opinion or at worst an obsolete artifact.”

The key question is how do we know what is true and what is not true when watching the news, listening to elected officials, listening to religious leaders, or using social media? Conflicting messages bombard us every day.

Here, below, are my suggestions for truth-seeking and truth-speaking:

(1)  A helpful tool today, when checking the accuracy of what one finds on social media and news websites is “Snopes.com.” Founded in 1994, Snopes is a reliable resource to research and debunk urban legends, fake pictures, etc. I use it to check Facebook observations. Another helpful website is “FactCheck.org.” It is very helpful checking news reports about the positions and statements of current political candidates. I use both to check the veracity of Facebook reports.

(2) We are not expected to have all the answers on our own. As we look for truth, we can turn to trusted sources for guidance. That may mean a trusted mentor, a well-informed friend, an insightful public figure respected for her or his integrity, or a respected book using primary source material. We need trustworthy speakers. They need our support and collaboration.

(3) When truth becomes simply a personal or a group fabrication, the understanding of reality is turned upside down. Discrimination and cruelty become the norm and compassion disappears. Extremist websites and groups gather more supporters. Self-advancement at any cost becomes the new virtue, and self-advancement today is politically very “in.”

(4) When truth becomes simply a personal or group fabrication, God can become part of that fabrication, becoming a religious figure who condones and blesses liars and tyrants. Far removed from Jesus of Nazareth who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

(5) We have a responsibility to be not just truth-seekers but courageous truth-speakers.

 

Jack

Dr. John Alonzo Dick – Historical Theologian

Email: jadleuven@gmail.com