Donald Trump’s White House Religious Liberty Commission is composed of members from various religious communities. The former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean Boller entered the Catholic Church during the Easter vigil in 2025. Less than two weeks later, Trump appointed her to the commission.
This week, the new Catholic had questions.
Speaking to the panelist Yitzchok Frankel, a law student and former defendant in a case over anti-Jewish harassment against him, Boller wanted to know, “So I need to ask you, in a country built on religious liberty and the First Amendment, do you believe someone can stand firmly against antisemitism, including what you experienced, and at the same time condemn the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, or reject political Zionism, or not support the political state of Israel? Or do you believe that speaking out about what many Americans view as genocide in Gaza should be treated as antisemitic?”
She continued, “Because in my view, the United States cannot and must not make loyalty to a particular theology about Israel a litmus test for protected speech or moral legitimacy.”
Boller seemed to question making Zionist theology an exception to the First Amendment.
After further exchange, Boller eventually asked forthrightly, “So by not being a Zionist, does that make you an antisemite?”
Frankel responded, “I don't think you need to be a Zionist to support a country that defends itself and is free and religious in a hostile neighborhood.”
The panel was moderated by the committee’s chairman, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Boller asked again, “So is anti-Zionism antisemitism?”
Patrick said, “Hold on one second, Carrie.”
But Frankel didn’t hesitate. “Yes, it is,” he shot back.
“It is? “ Boller responded. She asked for at least a third time, seemingly for good measure, “Just to be clear, is anti-Zionism antisemitism?”
Frankel: “Yes.”
Frankel would be joined by Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman, who would also insist that being against Zionism was antisemitism. These Jewish leaders share similar pro-Israel views with American evangelical Christian Zionists like Paula White-Cain, also a member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Committee, who believe that the modern state of Israel founded in 1948 fulfills biblical prophecy.
And it is their mission to help see this prophecy through.
As White-Cain has explained, “In the Bible, in Genesis 12:3, the Lord reminds us of the covenant He made with Abraham when He said: ‘I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
She continued (capitalization and emphasis original), “This relates not only to the Jewish people but also to the nation of Israel. And in this pivotal moment in human history, we are called to STAND with ISRAEL! This isn’t about politics; this is about living in harmony with the WORD of God!”
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, is also a vocal Christian Zionist.
Boller is not. She had a follow-up question.
“Well, as you know, I'm a Catholic,” she said. “I’m a Catholic, and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know.”
“So are all Catholics antisemites, according to you?” Boller asked.
There was no immediate “yes” this time.
Rabbi Berman replied, “As I said, anti-Zionism, by denying the right of the Jews to have their own state while not saying the same for any other peoples, that is a double-standard—hypocrisy and antisemitism.”
Boller asked again, “So just to be clear, are Catholics antisemites?”
Again, no straight answer.
In fact, the overall reaction seemed to be that Boller’s questions were inherently antisemitic. Ben Carson, vice chairman of the Religious Liberty Committee, closed by saying, “First of all, I want to thank you all for your passionate stance and bringing some clarity to this issue. You know, I’ve known a lot of Jewish people, worked with a lot of Jewish people, some of the finest people that I know.”
Nobody was questioning whether or not there are fine Jewish people. Boller had a legitimate question about whether the way Catholics might approach Zionism, as opposed to the way pro-Zionist Jews and evangelical Christians do, makes them bigots.
This matters within current First Amendment debates in the United States. But it also matters regarding rational American discussions about foreign policy.
Boller cannot claim to speak for all Catholics. That’s a job for the pope. Pope Leo has urged time and again an end to the “barbarity” and “terror, destruction and death” of the war in Gaza—something American Christian Zionists rarely, if ever, focus on—while also condemning antisemitism.
The late Pope Francis said on Christmas 2024, “With pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty…. Yesterday children were bombed.”
“This is cruelty, this is not war,” Francis insisted.
This is not how Huckabee speaks—and he sounds like he thinks he’s speaking for all Americans: “Every one of us must stand with Israel, and we must do it with a great sense of confidence—and an extraordinary sense of urgency.”
“If America doesn’t stand with Israel when those who seek to attack it get close to destroying it, then I do believe this: God will remove His hand from us,” Huckabee has declared.
So what about Pope Leo and Francis’s criticisms of Israel and how they are conducting their war? Do they need to listen to Huckabee instead? Should Catholics just ignore their Church and just get on board with Paula White-Cain and her ideology? Should the de facto way in which speech is policed in the U.S. and foreign policy is conducted by the U.S. fall to the infallible leadership of Ambassador Huckabee and those like-minded?
Or should more Americans question this seeming consensus in Washington and among many Jewish and evangelical U.S. communities that Zionism rules the day?
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Boller just did, and her questions were not only not antisemitic, they were necessary and long overdue.
Boller has now been kicked off the committee by Lt. Gov. Patrick. But she should not be condemned, but joined.
