Chuck Darwin on Nostr: At the Pennsylvania statehouse, I met an apostle named #Abby #Abildness, whom I came ...
At the Pennsylvania statehouse, I met an apostle named #Abby #Abildness,
whom I came to understand as a kind of Kingdom diplomat.
It was the spring of 2023,
and she had recently returned from Iraqi Kurdistan,
where she had met with Kurdish leaders she believed to be descended from King Solomon,
and who she said wanted
“holy governance to go forth.”
I watched YouTube videos of prophets broadcasting from their basements.
I watched a streaming show called "FlashPoint",
where apostles and prophets deliver news from God;
guests have included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
because another dimension of the NAR is that the movement is a prominent advocate of Christian Zionism.
I came to understand how the movement amounts to a sprawling political machine.
The apostles and prophets,
speaking for God,
decide which candidates and policies advance the Kingdom.
The movement’s prayer networks and newsletters amount to voter lists and voter guides.
A growing ecosystem of podcasts and streaming shows
such as FlashPoint
amounts to a Kingdom media empire.
And the overall vision of the movement means that people are not engaged just during election years but,
like the people at Gateway House of Prayer, 24/7.
As November’s election neared,
I watched the whole juggernaut crank into action to return Trump to the White House.
Wallnau, in partnership with the Trump-aligned "America First Policy Institute",
promoted an effort called "Project 19",
targeting voters in 19 swing counties.
He also launched something called the "Courage Tour", which similarly targeted swing states,
and I attended one event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
It looked like an old-fashioned tent revival,
except that it was also an aggressive pro-Trump mobilization effort.
Wallnau dabbed frankincense oil onto foreheads,
anointing voters into God’s army.
Another speaker said that Kamala Harris would be a
“devil in the White House.”
Others cast Democrats as agents of Lucifer,
and human history as a struggle between the godless forces of secular humanism and God’s will for humankind.
A march called
“A Million Women” on the National Mall
drew tens of thousands of people
and culminated with the smashing of an altar
representing demonic strongholds in America.
With the Capitol dome as their backdrop,
people took turns bashing the altar
as music surged and others prayed,
and when it was rubble, the prophet Lou Engle declared,
“We’re going to point to the north, south, and east, and west, and command America!
The veil has been ripped!”
The NAR movement was a major source of the “low-propensity voters”
who backed Trump.
🔸Frederick Clarkson,
a senior research analyst with Political Research Associates,
which tracks antidemocratic movements,
has been documenting the rise of the NAR for years,
and warning about its theocratic goals.
He believes that a certain condescension,
and perhaps failure of imagination,
has kept outsiders from understanding what he has come to see as the most significant religious movement of the 21st century,
and one that poses a profound threat to democracy.
“Certain segments of society have not been willing to understand where these people are coming from,”
Clarkson told me.
“For me, it’s part of the story of our times.
It’s a movement that has continued to rise, gathered political strength, attracted money, built institutions.
And the broad center-left doesn’t understand what’s happening.”
Which leaves the question of what happens now.
whom I came to understand as a kind of Kingdom diplomat.
It was the spring of 2023,
and she had recently returned from Iraqi Kurdistan,
where she had met with Kurdish leaders she believed to be descended from King Solomon,
and who she said wanted
“holy governance to go forth.”
I watched YouTube videos of prophets broadcasting from their basements.
I watched a streaming show called "FlashPoint",
where apostles and prophets deliver news from God;
guests have included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
because another dimension of the NAR is that the movement is a prominent advocate of Christian Zionism.
I came to understand how the movement amounts to a sprawling political machine.
The apostles and prophets,
speaking for God,
decide which candidates and policies advance the Kingdom.
The movement’s prayer networks and newsletters amount to voter lists and voter guides.
A growing ecosystem of podcasts and streaming shows
such as FlashPoint
amounts to a Kingdom media empire.
And the overall vision of the movement means that people are not engaged just during election years but,
like the people at Gateway House of Prayer, 24/7.
As November’s election neared,
I watched the whole juggernaut crank into action to return Trump to the White House.
Wallnau, in partnership with the Trump-aligned "America First Policy Institute",
promoted an effort called "Project 19",
targeting voters in 19 swing counties.
He also launched something called the "Courage Tour", which similarly targeted swing states,
and I attended one event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
It looked like an old-fashioned tent revival,
except that it was also an aggressive pro-Trump mobilization effort.
Wallnau dabbed frankincense oil onto foreheads,
anointing voters into God’s army.
Another speaker said that Kamala Harris would be a
“devil in the White House.”
Others cast Democrats as agents of Lucifer,
and human history as a struggle between the godless forces of secular humanism and God’s will for humankind.
A march called
“A Million Women” on the National Mall
drew tens of thousands of people
and culminated with the smashing of an altar
representing demonic strongholds in America.
With the Capitol dome as their backdrop,
people took turns bashing the altar
as music surged and others prayed,
and when it was rubble, the prophet Lou Engle declared,
“We’re going to point to the north, south, and east, and west, and command America!
The veil has been ripped!”
The NAR movement was a major source of the “low-propensity voters”
who backed Trump.
🔸Frederick Clarkson,
a senior research analyst with Political Research Associates,
which tracks antidemocratic movements,
has been documenting the rise of the NAR for years,
and warning about its theocratic goals.
He believes that a certain condescension,
and perhaps failure of imagination,
has kept outsiders from understanding what he has come to see as the most significant religious movement of the 21st century,
and one that poses a profound threat to democracy.
“Certain segments of society have not been willing to understand where these people are coming from,”
Clarkson told me.
“For me, it’s part of the story of our times.
It’s a movement that has continued to rise, gathered political strength, attracted money, built institutions.
And the broad center-left doesn’t understand what’s happening.”
Which leaves the question of what happens now.