Atlantic Writer Says Many Americans Believe So Strongly In Trump He Takes ‘Precedence Over Feelings About God’

Elizabeth Bruenig with The Atlantic said that Christianity is ‘hopelessly riven by partisan politics” in the United States and that she thinks many Americans allow their feelings about President Donald Trump to “take precedence” over their religion and “feelings about God.”

Bruenig made the comment during an appearance on the Sanity podcast with hosts Alisyn Camerota and Dave Briggs. The interview aired as world leaders traveled to the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis, who died earlier this week.

At one point during the wide-ranging interview, Briggs asked Bruenig about the influence the next Pope might have on religion in the country.

“I’m just curious, what is the role of future Popes and religion in this country, given the extraordinary moment, and divisiveness, and downright religious devotion towards Donald Trump?” he asked.

“I think it’s really depressing,” Bruenig said, adding she believes that for many Americans, partisan affiliation and feelings about Trump “take precedence over feelings about God.”

She explained:

I think the Christianity that Pope Francis left behind in the United States, at least, is sort of hopelessly riven by partisan politics. And I think for a lot of Americans, their partisan affiliation, their feelings about Trump, are sort of – they take precedence over feelings about God. And so you have, I think forming a kind of conservative practice of religion, especially Catholicism. Sort of coalescing around Trump. You know, JD Vance is a Catholic convert. There was a Eucharistic adoration at Mar-a-Lago. So they’re definitely reaching out to this conservative Catholic community that was very much anti-Francis.

And so I feel like the next Pope, no matter who it is, is going to immediately be read by American Catholics as sort of either left or right. And that’s, I think, unfortunate, because the Pope should speak to values that precede partisan politics, things that we all share in common. And I feel like the days of the Pope being read as kind of a spiritual father as opposed to a political candidate or political leader might be over. And I find that really sad.

Pope Francis died a day after Easter and hours after meeting privately with Vance during the vice president’s official visit to Rome.

The funeral was held Saturday at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Watch above via Sanity with Alisyn & Dave beginning at the 28:30 mark.