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