For years, Donald Trump sold himself as the anti-war candidate, mocking the architects of the Iraq War, ridiculing “forever wars,” and promising no more regime changes, no more nation building, no more American blood and treasure wasted in deserts half a world away. He said he would end the chaos.
And yet here we are. Another drumbeat. Another Middle Eastern enemy. Another breathless claim that this time the threat is existential. Another insistence that military escalation is not war but “strength.”
Christians, of all people, should be appalled.
Instead, many are cheering.
The Same Script, Different Year
We have seen this movie before.
In the early 2000s, under George W. Bush, we were told that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and as such, that action couldn’t wait. Many Christians lined up behind the war machine, framing it as righteous, even providential.
It was all a lie.
No stockpiles of WMDs were found. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. Thousands of Americans died. The region was destabilized. Terror networks metastasized. And the United States forfeited moral credibility it has yet to regain.
Now the rhetoric is hauntingly familiar. We are told that Iran is “two weeks away” from a nuclear bomb. Two weeks. The same ticking clock, the same breathless urgency.
But haven’t they been “two weeks away” for decades?
And if Trump “obliterated” their nuclear facilities in 2025, as he most assuredly claimed, how exactly are they perpetually on the brink? Was the obliteration exaggerated? Was the threat inflated? Or are we once again being manipulated by fear?
Roughly 80 percent of the country does not want another war. Americans are tired. They are skeptical. They remember Iraq. They remember Afghanistan. They remember the lies.
Yet many white evangelicals remain some of the loudest cheerleaders for escalation.
Why?
The Seduction of Power
Let’s be honest about the fact that the regime in Iran is brutal. It suppresses dissent. It imprisons and executes critics. It polices women’s bodies. It persecutes minorities. It crushes freedom.
It is, for all intents and purposes, evil.
But bombing for peace is like having sex for celibacy. The method undermines the goal.
War does not baptize itself simply because the enemy is wicked. If that were the case, every nation on earth would be justified in perpetual violence. The logic collapses under its own weight.
Christians confess allegiance to a crucified Messiah, not a Caesar. Jesus refused the sword in Gethsemane. He rebuked Peter for reaching for it. He announced blessing on peacemakers, not preemptive strikers. And yet, in American Christianity, the cross is often draped in a flag says it represents freedom but it is a freedom found at the end of a sword (or bomb, or gun).
Trump promised to be the anti-war, anti-regime-change president. That promise was central to his appeal. He castigated the “deep state.” He attacked the bipartisan foreign policy establishment. He positioned himself as the disruptor. But what do we call it when a man campaigns on ending wars and then escalates toward another one?
If a Democrat had done this, many of these same Christians would be apoplectic.
Instead, they sing worship songs in the West Wing.
“Peace Through Strength” or War Through Lies?
There is a pattern here. Inflate the threat, question the intelligence only when it contradicts the narrative, frame dissent as weakness, and cast critics as naïve or unpatriotic.
In 2003, dissenters were told they were siding with Saddam of all people. Today, those wary of escalation with Iran are accused of siding with terrorists or appeasing tyrants.
This is how fear works. It compresses moral reasoning and reduces ethical questions to a binary: bomb them or betray your country.
But Christians are not called to think in binaries manufactured by cable news channels or politicians bought and paid for by Israeli money. They are called to test the spirits. To discern truth from propaganda. To refuse false witness.
If 80 percent of the country does not want war, why are so many pastors and pundits acting as if escalation is inevitable and holy?
What has happened to the church’s prophetic voice?
The Russia Factor
There is another layer that should trouble even the most ardent MAGA loyalist: Iran is closely aligned with Russia. Therefore, escalation with Iran is not a neat, contained conflict. It risks entangling global powers and widening the conflict beyond anyone’s control.
A Thought Experiment
Imagine my 18-year-old self being transported 25 years into the future. He was earnest. He believed in Jesus. He believed in Truth with a capital-T. He believed Christians were supposed to be different (i.e., less power-hungry, less violent, less enthralled with empire).
If you told him that in 2026 a thrice-married casino mogul turned reality TV star named Donald Trump would convince millions of Christians that he alone was God’s chosen instrument…
If you told him that this man would promise to end wars and then posture toward another Middle Eastern conflict…
If you told him that this same man would face, among so many similar allegations, rape accusations involving a 13-year-old girl and still be treated as a moral champion…
If you told him that Christians would dismiss every lie, every exaggeration, every betrayal of stated principle, because he delivered judges and owned the libs…
That 18-year-old would not hesitate.
He would say: “That’s the Antichrist.”
Not because of barcodes or microchips. Not because of numerology. But because of deception. Because of the manipulation of faith for power. Because of the seduction of Christians into worshiping a strongman who leads them away from the Sermon on the Mount and toward the machinery of war.
And yet here we are, time and time again, repeating the same patterns.
Singing worship songs from the West Wing while Trump pisses on the legacy of Christ. Confusing proximity to power with proximity to God. Trading the upside-down kingdom of Jesus for a red, white, and blue empire that promises safety through domination.
The tragedy is not merely political, but deeply spiritual.
Christians should be the first to question the rush to war. The first to demand evidence. The first to resist fearmongering. The first to remember Iraq. The first to insist that truth matters.
Instead, many are the loudest cheerleaders. And history has a way of judging cheerleaders far more harshly than skeptics when the bombs yet again start falling.
If you’re navigating faith after certainty, loving Jesus but not the empire, or trying to hold on to hope in a burning world, you’re not alone. I explore these themes weekly on the Heretic Happy Hour podcast.
You can also explore my books—including Heretic!, The Wisdom of Hobbits, and others—right here: https://quoir.com/authors/matthew-j-distefano/
Thanks for reading. Thanks for thinking. And thanks for refusing to settle for easy answers.
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