Saturday, April 18, 2026
Newsletter About
News & Politics

Trump’s antipathy for Pope may have roots in childhood Protestant church

Manhattan church led by Norman Vincent Peale was known for opposing presidency of JFK – and Catholics in generalDonald Trump’s attacks this week on Pope Leo, for his criticism of the US attack on Iran and the US president’s decision…

This article was originally published by The Guardian World and is republished here under license.

Manhattan church led by Norman Vincent Peale was known for opposing presidency of JFK – and Catholics in general

Donald Trump’s attacks this week on Pope Leo, for his criticism of the US attack on Iran and the US president’s decision to post an image of himself as Jesus Christ on social media, make a good deal more sense considering Trump attended services as a young man at the Protestant Marble Collegiate church in Manhattan, which was led at the time by an anti-Catholic pastor.

That church’s pastor in Trump’s youth, Norman Vincent Peale, who would later officiate at Trump’s first wedding, is best-known today as the author of the Christian self-help book The Power of Positive Thinking, but when Trump was 14, Peale made national headlines as the leader of a group of Protestant churchmen who loudly objected to the presidential candidacy of John F Kennedy, on the grounds that he was a Catholic.

Continue reading…

More in News & Politics

View All →

Leave a Reply

Discover more from The Meridian Review

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading