THE BLUE LETTER

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This guest column originally appeared at the Substack of journalist Jonathan Larsen, a veteran of ABC, CNN, and MSNBC, who served as executive producer of Up with Chris Hayes. You can check out and subscribe to Jonathan's Substack here.

Exclusive: White House Bible Study Teaches that Jews Killed Jesus

The preacher who leads Bible studies for cabinet secretaries at the White House — and in both chambers of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — said in one of his lessons this month that “Israel … executed the Messiah.”

In two study guides and videos, right-wing preacher Ralph Drollinger, who runs the Bible studies, made multiple references to Israel, or its people, killing Jesus. (Drollinger has disparaged Catholicism, as well, in one of his previous scandals.)

Blaming Jews for killing Jesus has been a staple of antisemitic attacks for hundreds of years and remains a driver of Christian antisemitism everywhere from school playgrounds to Capitol Hill.

One of Drollinger’s Republican senators reportedly led an effort to exempt the slur from recent legislation defining antisemitism.

As I reported previously, on the day after Israel began its attacks on Iran, Drollinger launched a two-week course of study urging top U.S. officials to come to Israel’s aid. In the process, he shared antisemitic tropes.

Drollinger has been teaching his Bible studies to members of Congress, predominantly Republican, since 2010. He made his way into the White House during Pres. Donald Trump’s first term. (Trump reportedly didn’t attend but sent Drollinger remarks he wrote on Drollinger’s study guides.)

In Trump’s second term, right-wing Christian nationalist Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect who now runs the Office of Management and Budget, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins helped Drollinger revive his White House Bible studies, inviting new cabinet members to attend.

The Pentagon confirmed to me last month that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is among the participants. He and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are among the listed sponsors of the Bible study.

Drollinger made his case for supporting Israel just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing for the same thing. (Trump ultimately ordered air and missile strikes on June 21 against three Iranian nuclear facilities.)

In his two-part lesson, titled “The Biblical Case for Defending Israel,” Drollinger sought to refute the common evangelical claim that God’s covenant with Israel has been transferred to Christianity. Drollinger argues that God’s promise to reward Israel’s allies and punish Israel’s enemies still applies.

To make his case, Drollinger says that Israel may have killed Jesus, but God never meant to hold that against them forever. Therefore the U.S. should consider God’s promises still binding, and enter the conflict against Iran.

The first of Drollinger’s two online study guides, dated June 13, argues:

“[T]he spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant accrue to the Church for a time (until God grafts Israel back in) due to the present apostasy of Israel, having executed the Messiah.”

In a video for Part 2, posted June 17 but apparently taped on or before June 14, Drollinger discusses Romans 11, in which Paul says God has not rejected the Jewish people. Again, Drollinger argues that Jews were not rejected, only “sidetracked” temporarily. For crucifying Jesus.

“Since Paul’s a Jew, he doesn’t want his audience to know, well, what happens to the Jews, because they for by and large rejected the messiah. They’ve been sidetracked. … In other words, Israel has stumbled. They’re on the side track of God’s plan as He grafts in the gentiles into His kingdom. And they’ve been sidetracked because they crucified their messiah.”

Drollinger says in the video this is in the study guide he’d be teaching cabinet members, senators, and representatives (White House lessons include remote participation by governors and ambassadors). In the two-part guide, he says Israel, and Jews, have been “sidetracked” or put “on pause” by God, for rejecting Jesus.

“God has not replaced Israel forever with the Church, and He has a huge future plan ahead for the Jews, even if for now they are on the ‘sidetrack’”

In biblical contexts, Drollinger uses the words “Israel” and “Jews” interchangeably. The Jews were and still are the biblical tribes and now the nation of Israel. He discusses both the hardened hearts of Jews who refuse to accept Jesus today and their initial rejection of Jesus, as Drollinger refers to the crucifixion:

“Speaking further about the hardened hearts of Israel, a people having previously rejected Jesus, there remains much hope.”

That hope is for redemption, the prophesy of 144,000 Jews witnessing for Jesus (Jews who don’t convert are cast down with the other non-believers). So, in Drollinger’s teaching, Jews may have crucified Jesus, but not all are fallen forever:

“[B]eing sidetracked or having badly stumbled is to be distinguished from having been rejected or fallen in the sense of finality.”

Drollinger’s dissemination of the Jews-killed-Jesus slur is not new. He has periodically revived and slightly revised this study guide since at least 2011. It returned most recently after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

The phrase in Drollinger’s June 13 version, about Israel executing the Messiah, appears in archived iterations as far back as May 31, 2011, addressed “To Legislators.”

There have been tweaks, though. For example, in the May 2011 one, Drollinger writes:

“In God’s big plan He has temporarily sidetracked His chosen people. He did this right after they rejected their Messiah (cf. Matthew 27:51). This passage makes it clear that being sidetracked or having badly stumbled is to be distinguished from having been rejected or fallen.”

Some time between the versions archived on Feb. 25, 2021, and Oct. 18, 2021 (the start of Pres. Joe Biden’s administration), Drollinger changed the language.

“Rejected” became “did not recognize” and Drollinger added a parenthetical caveat that’s still there today. His addition clarifies that when he says the Jews didn’t recognize Jesus, he’s speaking euphemistically (italics added for emphasis):

“In God’s big plan, He has temporarily sidetracked His chosen people. He did this right after they did not recognize (to say it politely) their Messiah…”

Drollinger put that euphemistic rejection of Jesus on “the Jews” even more publicly as recently as February last year, telling Business Insider:

“[W]hen the Jews rejected their Messiah, God put them on a side track. He grafts in the gentiles. But in the End Times, he brings them back on the main track.”

One thrust of that Business Insider article was Drollinger’s interest in end-of-the-world prophecies, and whether his Biblical teachings might nudge his students to hasten it in the course of their day jobs running the country.

While Drollinger plays in the eschatological sandbox, he seldom sees news events as a sign the end is nigh. His focus is on getting The Bible right. More precisely, on politicians getting it right according to him. He has bragged that they listen to him.

Who’s Listening to Drollinger?

In the case of Israel, Drollinger isn’t teaching that supporting Israel will fulfill prophecy. He’s telling his students that America must side with Israel because Israel’s still the chosen people, despite God putting them in time out for executing Jesus.

It’s not public which cabinet members, ambassadors, governors, and members of Congress attend each of Drollinger’s Bible lessons. He posts the study guides online and emails them out on Sundays. He also posts video versions.

Then, on weekday mornings at 8am, breakfast provided, he teaches those study guides to his students. Tuesdays at the Senate. Wednesdays at the White House. Thursdays at the House of Representatives.

Some of his students let Drollinger list their names in the printed pamphlets as sponsors. The pamphlet that says Israel executed Jesus lists sponsors including:

• Hegseth

• Huckabee

• Johnson

• Ambassador to China David Perdue

• Rollins

• Thune

• Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner

• Vought

The pamphlet appears to have received financial support from Logos, a maker of Christian apps. “Powered by Logos Bible Software,” the pamphlet reads. Logos is owned by Faithlife, a publisher of Christian software and ebooks.

Fourteen senators and 38 members of the House¹ are listed as sponsors of this pamphlet and others. One is Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-AR), who lets Drollinger use a committee room for their study sessions.

Other members of Congress are said to participate, without having their names listed. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) in January confirmed my reporting that she has participated and helped Drollinger recruit other members. (Drollinger does not permit women to lead study groups.)

The pamphlets note that “views expressed in each Bible Study are those of the author” and don’t necessarily reflect those of any sponsors, but of course they’re still legitimizing Drollinger.

There is evidence that some don’t agree with everything he says. Many of his congressional students supported an antisemitism bill that included blaming Jews for the crucifixion as an example. But some opposed it.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) first sponsored Drollinger’s Bible studies as early as 2013. He also sponsored the June 13 pamphlet and reportedly pushed to protect the claim that Jews killed Jesus from being included the antisemitism bill. As chair of the committee considering the Antisemitism Awareness Act, Cassidy sought Republican support with an amendment to exclude blaming Jews for the crucifixion, the Forward reported.

In April, Cassidy shelved the whole bill — put it on pause, as it were — because he objected to Democratic amendments exempting criticism of the Israeli government.

According to the Jewish Insider, then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was reluctant to bring the bill up for a vote last year. A source explained Schumer’s reasoning:

“His office, the source said, had been informed that a Republican [senator] would insist on an amendment vote … about accusing Jews of killing Jesus. The source said that Schumer wanted to avoid a vote on the subject on the Senate floor, viewing it as harmful to the Jewish community.”

Instead, Schumer thought he could get the bill through both chambers by attaching it to a much bigger one: defense funding.

Reportedly, Johnson refused. According to the Jewish Insider, Johnson faced opposition from Republicans even further right than him.

The Anti-Defamation League calls it a “myth” to blame Jews for Jesus’s crucifixion:

“The myth that Jews collectively murdered Jesus, also referred to as ‘deicide,’ has been used to justify violence against Jews for centuries. Historians as well as Christian leaders have agreed that the claim is baseless.”

The New Testament says Roman soldiers crucified Jesus, on the orders of provincial Roman governor Pontius Pilate, in accordance with the wishes of local Jewish leaders, after Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, as part of God’s plan to sacrifice His son for humanity’s sins.

The execution of Jesus, in other words, was ultimately planned by God, who deemed it necessary to redeem humanity.

Claims of divine biblical authorship notwithstanding, there is no contemporary, historical record of Jesus’s capture, trial, or execution.

But Christians began blaming Jews within the first couple hundred years and the slur of “Christ-killer” has motivated persecution and violence ever since, including forced conversion and torture, the Crusades, the Inquisition, pogroms, ethnic cleaning and displacement, and incalculable numbers of individual acts of bullying and harassment.

Multiple Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church have formally repudiated the claim.

But Drollinger has repudiated Catholicism itself.

It’s Not Just Judaism

“It's the world's largest false religion," Drollinger reportedly said, discussing Catholicism² in a 2004 interview. That got Drollinger’s group kicked out of then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R-CA) office and into a legislative room. It was not Drollinger’s only scandal.

Drollinger has suggested that women shouldn’t work as legislators if they’re raising kids.

He has also caused controversy by holding to a pretty common tenet of many denominations: That they and they alone are correct. Drollinger wrote in 2008, regarding his ministry in California:

“I have visited with a Jewish legislator, a Catholic legislator and a liberal Protestant legislator — all of whom reject the Jesus of Scripture and are proud of their syncretism.”

He said a rival fellowship group for state legislators was “more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior” for claiming Jesus loves everyone regardless of religion.

In this year’s June 13 study guide, Drollinger wrote, “In the End Times a person will not go to heaven just because they are Jewish, it is not as if there is a second pathway to heaven that circumvents the way of the cross…”

He repeated another trope about Jews, titling one section on why to support Israel: “Israel is smart.”

As Drollinger explained in his video for that study guide:

“Israel’s smart. Much scientific and technological advancements have been achieved by Israel. Financial management and information processing make them a world leader.”

Although Drollinger says it admiringly, associating Jews with money and financial expertise is a toxic, longtime trope that’s been wielded disastrously against Jewish people, including as part of conspiracy theories about them secretly running the world.

Drollinger also claims that Israel is “now void of earlier, socialistic, economic tendencies and has a free market.” But Israel still has multiple remnants of its more-socialist past, including universal coverage for health care and caps on college tuition of around $3,000.

The Drollinger Orbit

While Drollinger opposes direct church control of government, he says legislators should govern in accordance with his interpretation of biblical principles.

His study-group sponsors include Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), one of the Republicans most active with the Fellowship Foundation, which also inculcates Christianity into governments around the world. (Drollinger is publicly dismissive of the Fellowship, best known for running the National Prayer Breakfast, as insufficiently biblical and focusing on fellowship over Bible study.)

Another Drollinger sponsor with Fellowship ties is Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), whose Fellowship activities are in line with Drollinger’s condemnation of homosexuality (an “abomination”) and LGBTQ+ rights broadly. As I reported in 2023, The Fellowship paid for Walberg to fly to Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast and support the president’s new LGBTQ+ death penalty.

Other sponsors of note include Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), who last year voted against the antisemitism bill because it included blaming Jews for the crucifixion:

“This statement is not antisemitic; it is a biblical and historical fact, as Jesus was a Jew.

“I sincerely wish I could have supported this bill, as I have always opposed antisemitism, but I cannot approve of any measure that mischaracterizes what the Bible says as bigoted or hateful.”

Other right-wing Christians studying under Drollinger in the House include Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson. Both have been listed as sponsors of Drollinger since at least 2013.

Another sponsor, Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), represents a swing district that might be uncomfortable with some of Drollinger’s doctrine. Sometimes described as a moderate, Ciscomani has been tied to other right-wing theocratic organizations.

Drollinger cites the views of other evangelical leaders to support his contention that God will eventual restore his favor to the Jewish people. But even some of those leaders have antisemitic records.

For one thing, Drollinger cites the late Billy Graham and his son, Franklin Graham.

The elder Graham’s antisemitism made headlines when tapes of him and then-Pres. Richard Nixon discussing Jews came to light in 2002. Graham said Jews had a “stranglehold” on the media.

Franklin’s defense at the time: "His concern was liberalism in that time in the media. And it's changed." (Franklin Graham continues to rail against “liberal media.”)

NOTE: Further reporting uncovered that the very un-Jesus-like DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and AG Pam Bondi also attend Blood Libel Sunday School with Drollinger

…Yo, Check This Out!

They don’t want immigration reform. They want intimidation to rule. And if we don’t stop them now, they’ll turn every county into a checkpoint.

• ICE Storms California Like It’s Fallujah
  Armed agents ambushed Ventura County farms, dragging away migrant workers without warrants—no probable cause, just pure authoritarian theater.

• They Came for the People Who Feed Us
  These weren’t criminals. These were the hands that harvest America’s food. Trump’s goons are targeting the backbone of the supply chain.

• Minors Taken. Workers Hospitalized. Communities Terrorized.
  Ten kids detained. Tear gas. Blood in the fields. All to flex for a Fox News segment.

• Tom Homan’s America: “No Amnesty. No Exceptions.”
  Trump’s Border Czar bragged about detaining teenagers and blamed Congress for “softness.” Translation? They’re not done.

• Newsom Fires Back—But Who’s Next?
  California’s Governor called it what it was: a militarized raid to stoke fear. But where’s the national outcry?

• The Constitution Wasn’t Invited.
  No due process. No oversight. Just raids, rifles, and raw power. This is what tyranny looks like in a windbreaker.

🐱 KITTY PIC! On a roof in Sant’agata Di Militello, Sicily. Tell us how many kitties you see in the comments

🎥 VIDEO ON DEMAND!

Blue Amp’s building something big. But we need YOUR help! We launched The Soundcheck Fund to provide grants to independent-media voices and build an ecosystem of bold, hard-hitting journalists, video producers & commentators.

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