When Politics Becomes Religion

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Why would a man throw away a promising career and his entire life to try to kill a president of the United States?

[00:00:08]Obviously, there's the unprecedented amount of non-stop online rage, media coverage, constant slander and bickering.

[00:00:15]>> Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

[00:00:23]>> But I think the problem is a little bit deeper than that. When does politics kill? It kills when it becomes one's religion. People in the United States have long been secularizing, becoming less religious in the sense of traditional organized religion. I think this has affected even religious communities within the United States.

[00:00:46]But I contend that one really can't keep people from being religious. What we've done instead, particularly with my generation, is make politics our religion. People see politics now not as voting about the economy, but as something transformative, something transcendent, some way to save oneself and save the world. And politicians often use this rhetoric about themselves and their parties >> and believe in it. Then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless. This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. This was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last best hope on earth.

[00:01:48]>> Now, President Trump obviously made this blasphemous, distasteful, insane post comparing himself to Jesus. And I think I think honestly just lied about it after the fact to save face. But this has been happening my entire adult lifetime. In 2008, Oprah said this. What I saw with Barack Obama was something that was transcendent. I felt transformational for me as a human being and for this country. See, to her, Barack Obama was more than a political figure. He was something spiritual. And I don't mean to criticize those who support the Democratic party for maybe the labor unions, but let's not pretend that there hasn't been messianic language used about Barack Obama the entire time. Here's a piece of art from 2009. Here's Trump surrounding himself with heretics that speak well of him, uh, that feed Ezekiel, but speak to him like he's Jesus.

[00:02:42]>> Jesus taught us so many lessons through his death, burial, and resurrection. He showed us great leadership, great transformation requires great sacrifice.

[00:02:55]And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price.

[00:03:00]>> It almost cost you your life.

[00:03:04]You were betrayed >> and arrested and falsely accused.

[00:03:11]It's a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. But it didn't end there for him and it didn't end there for you.

[00:03:20]>> See, people cannot be religious less.

[00:03:23]Even non-religious people find something to fill that gap in their lives, that place of meaning, purpose, feeling like they're being part of something, a movement that can save the world, change the weather through politics. And so they feel like they're part of a movement. They'll devote more time to 24/7 news commentary, rage bait than they will to prayer, good works, charity. I have been frustrated to say the least in the last few days. There are people online, I won't name names, who build entire internet personalities and careers off of bashing particular bishops for not criticizing the right as much as they criticize the left. You can be successful online if you simply just feed rage bait and find an audience that also hates who you're raging against.

[00:04:07]And if you do it in an entertaining way, you absolutely will build a crowd. But this is the rhetoric that's hurting us.

[00:04:13]the same people who complain about the lopsidedness and lack of balance. Some of them I've talked to personally and said, you know, there is there's a big violence loving crowd on the left, not everyone on the left, but there's a lot of uh revolutionary Marxists on the left and they don't believe me. They will argue with me till they're blue in the face. I can show them examples of major influencers and they won't believe me.

[00:04:34]And when there's another assassination attempt, it's crickets. Like it or not, America's political rallies often resemble old-fashioned American revival meetings, left and right.

[00:04:46]>> Now, we can all just relax and have a good time.

[00:04:49]>> With respect, President Obama would often use preacher voice to appeal to a certain demographic when it suited him.

[00:04:57]I'm not naive enough to think that you can fully detach your deepest held beliefs about the world, philosophical or religious, from our politics. I'm not even saying that we should, but there are some elements across the spectrum that tend to think of their political figures as secular messiahs and they're willing to die and some even willing to kill for them. I'm praying often for peace because I don't have to tell you how quickly this thing could spiral out of hand. I pray to patch him domin Lord give peace. There's an interesting note about this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a book I highly recommend you read. It's talking about the final test of the church with the antichrist. Now, it just says this in passing. The antichrist deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the escatological judgment. The church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of melaninarianism, especially the intrinsically perverse political form of secular messianism.

[00:06:14]Why would someone kill for politics?

[00:06:17]They'll do it when it becomes their religion. And it's a false hope. As the scriptures say, put not your trust in princes. As the madness in the world increases, I'd like to encourage you.

[00:06:26]Let's do our best to get over ourselves and forgive others when we can. To actually try to love and be there for our neighbors when they need help. To say hello to a stranger at the grocery store, ask them how they're doing and mean it. To pray for our enemies to love each other as much best as we can. And I think in our hearts, our heart of hearts turn more and more to God to be more and more converted. Whatever happens in the world, it could get bad. I hope you know that your life genuinely matters.

[00:06:54]Someone somewhere loves you and misses you when you're gone. God loves you.

[00:06:59]Don't forget that. Don't check out early. Live your life. Live it to the fullest. As always, thanks for watching.

[00:07:04]God bless.