News/Politics thread by @TaylorMatthewD

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🧵-- I've spend the past 3.5 yrs researching the Christian leaders, theologies, & movts that gave us the chaotic, Christian nationalist violence we witnessed on #January6th.

We are currently seeing similar (if not more alarming) patterns emerging in this election cycle... 👇 1/

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1st, if you're unfamiliar w/ my research, I've argued that a little-understood network of Christian leaders called the New Apostolic Reformation was at the heart of Xn organizing & theologizing of the January 6th Insurrection.

See my audio-doc series. 2/

icjs.org/charismatic-re…

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Contrary to a lot of conspiracy-tinged online speculation, the NAR leaders aren't a secretive cabal or Christian Illuminati.

They are a highly networked/loosely affiliated set of Christian celebrities w/ immense sway in nondenom charismatic circles. 3/

wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/a…

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If American Christian nationalism is a spectrum, the NAR leaders occupy the far-right, extremist, hardline end, what I call "Christian supremacy."

They've proven very adept at radicalizing Christians around belief in modern prophecy, spiritual warfare, & visions of revival. 4/

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NAR leaders are esp. fixated on what NAR founding father C. Peter Wagner called "strategic-level spiritual warfare."

They believe high-level demons control Amer society. The NAR apostles & prophets are "generals of spiritual warfare" & orchestrate mass anti-demon campaigns. 5/

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In the 2020 election cycle, the NAR leaders spearheaded a grand spiritual warfare campaign to see Trump elected.

When he denied the election results, that apparatus switched to overturning the election. This shaped the spirituality of January 6th. 6/

youtube.com/watch?v=0Ev0P9…

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The NAR leaders are presently running the same 2020 playbook -- they don't have another one! -- this election cycle.

If we can identify the patterns, we'll know what to pay attn to.

Here's a diagram I made illuminating the 2020 template. I'll spell it out below. 7/

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The core 2020 NAR spiritual warfare campaign had 3 phases: 

1) nebulous prophecies & culture-war narrative formation,

2) mass charismatic events on the National Mall pre-election,

3) post-election conversion of that energy/infrastructure into overturning the election. 8/

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The 2020 Trump prophecies were multitudinous. 100s of prophets all singing in unison.

But the Trump prophecies also entwined w/ culture war messages about covid restrictions, Supreme Court/abortion, & (racially coded) BLM/Antifa conspiracy theories. 9/

nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/…

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NAR & other charismatic leaders staged 2 major pre-election events on the Nat. Mall:

*A pan-evangelical event in Sept 2020 titled "The Return" w/ ~70-250K attendees (we should doubt all big crowd size estimates!)

This was the day ACB was nominated. 10/

thereturn.org/thereturn-wash…

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And

*Sean Feucht's culminating "Let Us Worship" concert in Oct 2020 w/ ~35k in attendance

"Let Us Worship" was Feucht's iconic anti-covid-restriction worship-protest tour. He claimed this Oct event was largest church gathering in 2020 during covid. 11/

www2.cbn.com/news/us/let-us…

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On the surface these events were about cultivating piety & hope for revival in the US (unobjectionable goals), but, in hindsight, we see these were gathering & radicalizing events, stepping stones to another mass religious convergence on the National Mall just months later... 12/

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It takes commitment to travel (cross-country for some) to DC for spiritual reasons. These were ecstatic events, w/ intense prayer & fasting & very belligerent spiritual/cultural warfare rhetoric.

Many of the Christian leaders who showed up on J6 were at these NAR-led events. 13/

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These Sept-Oct events also locked in the 2020 Trump prophecy narrative: 

1-everything is on the line in this election, 

2-Trump is an anointed figure--a sort of secular messiah--commissioned to defeat God's liberal enemies & help exorcise the societal demons that plague us. 14/

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After the election, when Trump denied the plain results, this whole NAR-led propaganda warfare campaign architecture was converted over into the communications & mobilization infrastructure for the Christian side of the Stop the Steal election fraud effort. 15/

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The public side of this campaign was Jericho Marches, Christians marching around swing-state capitols, sometimes daily, in Nov & Dec 2020.

The apex Jericho March was in Wash, DC on Dec 12. NAR leaders Lance Wallnau & Cindy Jacobs were speakers. 16/

www2.cbn.com/news/us/jerich…

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Other speakers at the Jericho March included Michael Flynn, Alex Jones, Mike Lindell, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

That night (12/12/20) Proud Boys & Trump supporters rioted in DC's streets, stabbed ppl & tore down a church's BLM banners. 17/

npr.org/2020/12/12/945…

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These interregnum ramp-up events not only est'd the leadership core of J6, they also fashioned the religious iconography of the Insurrection: 
-shofars, 
-yellow "Jesus Saves" signs, 
and 
-"Appeal to Heaven" flags
(symbols assoc. today w/ J6) were prolific at these events. 18/

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In my forthcoming book (October!), I profile the leaders whose ideas & efforts were at the molten core of this January 6th spir. warfare campaign -- Paula White-Cain, Cindy Jacobs, C. Peter Wagner, Ché Ahn, Lance Wallnau, Sean Feucht, & Dutch Sheets. 19/

icjs.org/the-violent-ta…

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Now, we are seeing the same pattern play out in 2024:

The culture of prophecies about Trump is alive & kicking, though it's become background noise by this point.

The assassination attempt on 7/13 has only cemented the idea that Trump is anointed. 20/

politico.com/news/magazine/…

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The prophecy/culture-war narrative now includes Trump's 2020 election lies, anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ fear-mongering, & apocalyptic support for Israel.

You almost can't overstate how much the culture of wild conspiracy theorizing has blossomed on the right since January 6th. 21/

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There are 2 major NAR-led events scheduled in Oct for the National Mall:

*The "Million Women March" (a.k.a. Her Voice Movt, "Don't Mess w/ Our Kids") is planned for Oct 12 -- Yom Kippur.

Many key NAR leaders (Sheets, Engle, etc.) will be there. 22/

dontmesswithourkids.us

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This campaign to activate Christian women blends Mom's for Liberty, QAnon, & NAR collective-exorcism theology.

Proud Boys & militias have already embraced this effort.

If they reach even 1/2 their 1M goal, this will dwarf other recent NAR events. 23/

x.com/SometimesPDX/s…

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Sean Feucht's latest iteration, "Kingdom to the Capitol," is culminating its 50-state tour w/ another big event on the National Mall on Oct 26.

Feucht has made common cause w/ extreme far-right militias & has threatened others w/ their violence. 24/

religionnews.com/2023/08/23/sea…

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"Kingdom to the Capitol" is sponsored by TPUSA, & Feucht's received fawning support from household-name Repub politicians including: Hawley, Taylor Greene, Boebert, DeSantis & Trump.

He's also been mentored by the same ppl leading the 1M Women March. 25/

rightwingwatch.org/post/sean-feuc…

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To sum up: the next insurrection (or worse!) is being incubated publicly by the same Xn leaders who nurtured January 6th w/ the same narratives. 

These upcoming events have a façade of revival & repentance, but they are actually mass exorcism & radicalization mechanisms. 26/

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We all (appropriately) paid close attn to the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally by emboldened far-right groups.

If past is prologue, these 2 Oct events will have a similar effect of galvanizing reality-detached groups while laying claim to the Nat. Mall. 27/

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RELIGION & POLITICS REPORTERS: 
we need to cover these events, 
understand the sentiments being cultivated among attendees, 
track these messianic theologies & prophetic leaders, 
& recognize how potent the apocalyptic rhetoric used there can be in our divided politics. 28/

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If we’d been paying attn in the fall of 2020, we could’ve been more prepared for (& responsive to) what transpired on January 6th.

The same leaders are making the same moves again in support of the same megalomaniacal candidate. Will we learn the lesson of recent history?   29/

🧵-- I've spend the past 3.5 yrs researching the Christian leaders,...

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