One of Donald Trump’s most vocal Christian supporters has justified the Israeli-US military strike on Iran, claiming it was akin to preventing a rape.
Pastor Mark Burns, speaking to The Telegraph at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), said, "It’s our obligation, spiritual obligation. If I saw a woman being raped by a man, it’s my spiritual obligation to go over there and to defend that innocent woman.
“There are millions of innocent Iranians that have been held by gunpoint at the hand of this evil dictator, just like what’s happening in Russia, in Ukraine. It is our obligation. We don’t want the fight. We’re not looking for the fight.
“There are millions of Iranians that, again, are shouting thankfulness to [Netanyahu]], thankfulness to President Trump, that this evil regime is now being toppled and being challenged so that they can be free.”
Pastor Burns said that President Trump had received God’s protection from the two attempts on his life, adding that the near miss in 2024 had led Trump to a more serious engagement with his own personal faith.
The current conflict began with a US-Israeli military strike assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei and other key leaders. Conflict has been raging ever since, with both sides launching missiles and airstrikes at each other’s territory and proxies.
Both sides have also accused each other of using religious justifications for the current conflict and of attempting to bring on their own religion’s version of the end times.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of comparing Iran to the biblical “Amalek”, a tribe that God orders to be exterminated, while complaints have also been received within the US military about the use of Christianity to justify the war.
One complaint alleges that a commander told soldiers that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”.
