There is a profound and painful irony unfolding across the heartland. While the quiet, steepled icons of our rural communities are being shuttered, the vacuum is being filled by a loud, distorted version of “faith” that feels more like a campaign rally than a worship service. In Iowa, we are watching the heartbeat of our small towns fade as churches close, even as the national stage weaponizes Christianity into something unrecognizable.​

The Blasphemy of the “Kingdom of Men”​

We’ve reached a point where the line between divinity and ego has been completely erased. Today, President Trump shared an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus. It isn’t just “cringe” or “weird” it is sacrilegious.

​This came just hours after he launched an unprecedented tirade against Pope Leo XIV, calling the first American-born Pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” because the Pontiff dared to pray for peace. When a political leader tells the head of the Catholic Church to “get his act together” and “stop being a politician,” the projection is deafening.

While Trump posts AI blasphemy and claims he “thought he was a doctor” (a dizzying display of confusion from a man more interested in power than truth), I am reminded of what a true life-saver looks like.

​I think of Dr. G at Nebraska Medical, who facilitated the stem cell transplant that saved my life during my battle with stage 4 cancer. One man is doing the quiet work of saving lives; the other is sacrificing lives and the sanctity of faith. When you have figures like Paula White “speaking in tongues” like a performance piece, you realize we aren’t looking at a revival, we’re looking at a circus.​

The Danger of “Political Pastors”

​This shift toward a “Kingdom of Men” is driven by leaders who have traded the Gospel for a seat at the table of power. When pastors prioritize lobbying and culture wars over the Kingdom of God, they threaten the faith in three specific ways:

• They Replace the Cross with a Flag: They suggest that the Holy Spirit isn’t enough and that we need the temporary power of the ballot box to “save” us.
• They Create “Conditional” Grace: The message becomes “Jesus loves you… as long as you vote for our guy.” This pushes seekers away and turns the church into a “sketchy” sales floor.
• They Distract from Local Mercy: A church focusing on national mandates while ignoring hungry families in its own backyard has lost its way.

If a pastor’s message makes you feel like you’re at a rally instead of at the foot of the Cross, your skepticism isn’t a “lack of faith” it’s your discernment kicking in.​

The Fading Rural Heartbeat

​As the political stage grows louder, our local sanctuaries are growing quieter. April 11, 2026, marked a painful milestone for many families in eastern Iowa. The Archdiocese of Dubuque’s “Journey in Faith” initiative has delivered its verdict: our small-town parishes are being “grouped,” and for many, the doors of community life are effectively closing.​

The irony is staggering. While the “mega-church” model and the urban elite thrive, the rural families who have stayed loyal for decades are told their churches are no longer sustainable.

The pain of this transition isn’t just being felt by Catholics. St. John’s Lutheran Church, where my husband grew up and our children were baptized, shared a message on Saturday that truly captured the weight of this moment. Pastor Will reached out with grace that our own leadership seems to be lacking right now:

​”Today, please pray for our neighbors in the Roman Catholic churches of our communities… as they prepare for the announcements related to their Journey in Faith process… we can and should pray for our neighbors and let them know that we are doing so and that we care about their churches’ futures in our shared communities.”

These aren’t just buildings. These are the places where children were baptized and people said goodbye to their loved ones. When you take the priest and the Sunday Mass out of a small town, you take the soul out of the town.​

We are being asked to trade our local, humble communities for a loud, nationalized brand of Christianity that looks more like a brand than a belief system. We don’t need AI-generated saviors or political pastors. We need the quiet grace of a community that cares for its own and a faith that stays rooted at the foot of the Cross, not the foot of a candidate.