Carrie Prejean’s nuttiness isn’t the problem. Insurrection Barbie’s is.

By Peter Wolfgang ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 27, 2026

I am with Bishop Barron on the specific matter of Carrie Prejean. But this column is not about that. It is about the last lines in my friend Austin Ruse’s column today, with which I wholeheartedly concur:

Protestants and Catholics cannot separate over Israel. There are too many important battles in our own country where we are needed together.

Austin is not wrong about the Protestant dispensationalist “head-hunting” of Catholics who do not share their theology. Or that this head-hunting will lead to “a diminution of support for 1948 Israel.” Consider the case of “Insurrection Barbie.”

“Insurrection Barbie” is the pseudonym of an X account with a million followers. Earlier this month she published a sprawling screed portraying Catholic conservatives—especially traditionalists and integralists—as a kind of subversive enemy within the Right, depicting them as manipulative, power-hungry extremists undermining Protestant and evangelical political coalitions. Her piece was filled with sweeping stereotypes, sloppy theological claims, and guilt-by-association smears that treated Catholic political thought as inherently suspect. It gained wide notoriety when Senator Ted Cruz shared it approvingly, calling it “the best and most comprehensive explanation of what we’re fighting.” Cruz boosted ignorant, anti-Catholic propaganda dressed up as insider commentary.

For the most comprehensive response to Insurrection Barbie and Ted Cruz, see the video by Joe Heschmeyer, Catholic Answers’ “Shameless Popery” guy. Catholic Answers was, ludicrously, attacked by name in the Insurrection Barbie post. That was the moment I realized it must have been at least partially generated by AI. Heschmeyer lists more reasons why this is likely the case.

Heschmeyer also calls out Cruz for his nativism. He warns against the twin extremes of “everything Israel is doing is ok” and “everything Israel is doing is the worst thing in the world.” He counters Insurrection Barbie’s claim that the drop in support for Israel is somehow the fault of Catholics and that, if you don’t believe in Scriptura Sola, you’re the enemy. Most importantly, he notes that Insurrection Barbie makes an idol of Israel. That the Evangelical theology of which she approves is only viewed through the prism of how it serves Israel. As Heschmeyer notes, dear Evangelicals, she only cares about your theology because you’re useful to her. She’s using you.

There is a lot to unpack here. Both in Insurrection Barbie’s post and in the susceptibility of Ted Cruz and others to it.

My sense is that Protestant frustration with Catholicism is boiling over in several ways that don’t normally intersect. The Christian Zionists are frustrated by Catholic resistance to their theology and its disproportionate influence over U.S. foreign policy. Protestant apologists are frustrated by the success Catholic apologetics are having on their young. And Protestant Integralists are trying to out-Integralist the Catholic Integralists with Doug Wilson’s goofy talk about banning Eucharistic processions.

But there is an underlying anxiety that runs even deeper. One of the most striking things to me, in the years I have worked alongside many good and wonderful Protestants, is that their implicit big proof for the superiority of Protestantism over Catholicism is the USA itself. Not their “solas” or anything else theological but their belief that the USA—greatest country in the world and all that—owes its existence to Protestantism and that Catholicism could never have produced the USA. Every aspect of that claim is debatable. But as to their current frustrations, if the USA fails, what does that say about Protestantism? We all want the USA to succeed. But for them it’s existential in a way that it’s not for us.

Modern Israel as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The United States of America as the fulfillment of Protestantism. The Catholic Church as the fulfillment of Old Testament Judaism. The chasm between the Catholic and Protestant understanding of these claims is not new. But it is growing. Does it matter? And if so, what can we do about it?

If what we Catholics claim about the Church is true, that it is the fullness of the faith, then of course it matters. Even short of that, it matters for the reason Austin mentioned: “There are too many important battles in our own country where we are needed together.”

Catholics need to acknowledge that there are some real issues in certain corners: confusion, bad theology and troubling rhetoric in fringe spaces. But Insurrection Barbie takes scattered realities and presents them as a coherent, coordinated project. That’s a significant leap. Joe Heschmeyer names it all carefully and critiques it on a theological and philosophical level. Catholics need to build on Heschmeyer’s response by clearly articulating what the Church actually teaches regarding the Jewish people and antisemitism. And we need to distinguish between mainstream Catholic thought and marginal or unstable movements.

To that end, I recommend the recent book “From Sinai to Rome: Jewish Identity in the Catholic Church” from Ignatius Press, an anthology that includes chapters by Scott Hahn, Brant Pitre and others. I also recommend again this upcoming conference at Benedictine College at which I will be one of the co-moderators (and Heschmeyer will be giving a talk.)

Catholics and Protestants do not need to agree on dispensationalism to work together for the common good. We do not need to share an identical theology of Israel to defend the unborn, resist gender ideology, protect religious liberty, and preserve the moral foundations of civil society. Those fights are too urgent for sectarian sabotage.

The coalition between Catholics and Protestants has been one of the most historically consequential forces in American public life. It is worth defending. But it cannot survive if some insist on treating Catholicism as a hostile foreign power—and if U.S. Senators are willing to endorse anti-Catholic trash.