Conservatives thought they found a new savior in Alan Ritchson. Then he shared his views with the world and all those conservatives screamed, cried, and are now throwing fits.

Ritchson said he doesn’t understand Christians who support Donald Trump and made comments on law enforcement getting away with murder. (He’s right, though.) In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson talked a lot about his faith. He is very public about his religion, and one of the things he brought up is how politics are corrupting Christianity. Specifically, he talked about Donald Trump.

He started by talking about his own connection to Christianity and how he feels about it. “I’m a Christian quite simply because of what Jesus calls us to do,” Ritchson said. “Love other people until death. It doesn’t mean we’re all to be hung on a cross, but how can I suffer for you? That is a beautiful thing.”

And then came Ritchson’s comments that conservatives gasped at. “Christians today have become the most vitriolic tribe. It is so antithetical to what Jesus was calling us to be and to do,” he said before going in on how many Christians are cozying up to former President Donald Trump. “Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to be treat him like he’s their poster child and it’s unreal. I don’t understand it.”

He’s right about the Catholic church

In that same interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson talked about his mother being Catholic but made it clear that he cannot support the church given how it protects its cardinals. The Catholic church is notorious for protecting men who prey on young children, and it has made many, including my own Catholic family, push back.

“It’s worth saying that the atrocities that are happening in the church that are being actively covered up, even to this day with people not being held accountable, is repulsive,” he said. “I can’t for one second support the Catholic Church while there are still cardinals, bishops and priests being passed around with known pedophilic tendencies.”

Ritchson on law enforcement

One of the aspects of Ritchson’s online persona that made me warm to him in the midst of the conservatives claiming him for themselves was the fact that he wore a shirt that read, “Arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor.” That didn’t go over well with Reacher’s right-leaning fans, but it did usher in a new appreciation of the show for the left-leaning crowd.

“That was a tragic case,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter. “Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can’t really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me. We should completely reform the way that we do it.

I mean, you shouldn’t have to spend more time getting an education as a hairstylist than as a cop who’s armed with a deadly weapon. We should make it very hard for people to make mistakes or abuse power in our institutions.”

The FOP (The National Fraternal Order of Police) did not take kindly to Ritchson’s statement, and he fired back, taking to Instagram to call out the post. “This kind of emotionally immature response is the epitome of what concerns me about law enforcement today.

If this is how leadership handles a peaceful disagreement, what does life look like for those unseen interactions in the street? ⁣How does this shape the character of those police officers looking to management? ⁣Do you really want individuals so easily angered, who bully like school children to have a gun and the protection of an untouchable union? ⁣I don’t.⁣”

Ritchson continues to push back against the idea that Christianity and support for Donald Trump go together, and the more comments he makes to anger those conservatives who think that Reacher is theirs, the more new fans come to the series.