Faith-based fissures continue to grow among conservatives, as prominent right-wing Catholics and Protestants grapple for control of the MAGA movement’s future.
Recent remarks from far-right pastor Doug Wilson have placed a spotlight on the infighting. Wilson is one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mentors, and his denomination preaches that married women shouldn’t have the right to vote. He recently led a prayer service at the Pentagon.
Some of this acrimony began last year, when prominent Catholic figures — including conservative ones — opposed different aspects of the Trump administration’s racist anti-immigrant agenda. Even Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic himself, has had to reckon with some of the invective he falsely directed at Catholic bishops over their support for immigrants.
Wilson’s comments add fuel to that fire. As Right Wing Watch reported, the pastor said recently that in his ideal Christian nation, “public displays of idolatry” would be banned, including Catholic parades.
Among some of the people most outraged by his remarks are a bunch of right-wing Catholics online — including Carrie Prejean Boller, whose recent removal from Donald Trump’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission also exposed ideological disputes in MAGA world. Boller was booted from the commission after a heated argument over antisemitism at a panel meeting.
At the event, in which she argued that anti-Zionism is essential to her Catholic faith, Boller took up for right-wing influencer Candace Owens, a fellow MAGA Catholic who’s known for promoting brazenly antisemitic rhetoric. Boller has been turned into a cause célèbre by some members of the right — including Hitler fanboy Nick Fuentes — who have portrayed her removal from the commission as an attack on her Catholic faith.
On Friday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., shared a letter he sent to the House oversight and judiciary committees, requesting congressional review of Boller’s expulsion. He said she was axed “due to her expressing Catholic religious viewpoints” and that Boller’s “internal conflict with the Commission arose after she echoed statements perceived as critical of the Israeli government — statements that had been issued by Pope Leo XIV and other Catholic leaders.” Over at Jewish Currents magazine, the “On the Nose” podcast just released an episode titled “MAGA Catholics in Revolt,” which dives into the varying incentives — some of them obviously self-serving — that some MAGA Catholics appear to have found to buck Trump and his allies on issues such as immigration, warfare and more. It’s a great primer to help understand the infighting that threatens to make the MAGA movement even more off-kilter than it already appears to be. Check it out here.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
