At first I thought he was the sole person against Shuli, but now I see it's the group he belongs to, and why do I feel his comment made it feel like he was on Shuli's side, just a little bit? AM I CRAY CRAY??
I believe Shuli is a victim of her appearance, except for the kids not acceptance of her, everything else that happened to her, happened because she looks like the late empress.
About the crazy asshole, in his fanatic mind he probably thinks that he's helping her and saving her of this vile world. I don't think It's farfetched to say that he idolized her, but her political actions, that go against his belief of what is a "woman's place", trigger his murderous "act of salvation". (This last part is a supposition based on a conversation of his with some other church guy where they were discussing about Shulli after one of the House of Lord's meetings)
By the way, these are ALL purely my expeculations, from everything I read until now. To know better we would need someone who actually read the novel to drop some spoilers.
The worst part is mf rationalizing it as necessary and telling Shulli (in his thoughts) that he's gonna meet her in the afterlife...