Evangelicals see Trump as God’s warrior in their battle to win America from satanic forces

The Conversation
November 9, 2024 7

Chris Straub, prays with the congregation during an ‘Election Eve Service of Prayer,’ in support of Republican Presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump at Suncoast Liberty Fellowship in Largo, Florida, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

A growing movement believes President-elect Donald Trump is fighting a spiritual war against demonic forces within the United States. Trump himself stated in his acceptance speech on Nov. 6, 2024, that the reason that “God spared my life” was to “restore America to greatness.”


I have studied various religious movements that seek to shape and control American society. One of these is the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, whose followers believe that they are waging a spiritual battle for control of the United States. NAR is an offshoot of Protestant Christian evangelicalism.

NAR advocates claim they receive divine guidance in reconstructing modern society based on Christian spiritual beliefs. In 2015, an estimated 3 million adult Americans attended churches that were openly part of NAR. Some scholars estimate that the number of active NAR adherents may be larger, as the movement may include members of Protestant Christian churches that are not directly aligned with the NAR movement.
The beginning of the movement

NAR emerged in the late 1990s when theologian C. Peter Wagner popularized the term “New Apostolic Reformation.” Wagner argued that God was creating modern-day apostles and prophets who would lead Christianity in remaking American society.

The roots of the New Apostolic Reformation can be traced to the broader charismatic movement that sees spiritual forces as an active part of everyday life.

This view does not separate sacred experience from regular everyday life. For the much larger network of charismatic Christians and Pentecostal movements that emphasize a personal relationship with God, the world is full of the active presence of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts and direct divine experiences.
Core beliefs

Central to NAR is the belief that Christian religious leaders should be the main source of cultural and political authority in America.

NAR proponents argue that select leaders receive direct revelation from God, guiding the direction of churches and fighting spiritual warfare against demonic influences, which they believe corrupt the behavior of individuals and nations.

NAR advocates for a hierarchical structure in which religious leaders and their political allies hold authority in society.

They believe in “The Seven Mountains Mandate,” a way to represent Christian control of society through a strategy that Christians should infiltrate, influence and eventually control seven key areas in society – business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family, and religion – to bring about cultural transformation.

By doing so, NAR proponents believe they can establish a pure and true form of what they believe is a society ruled by divine guidance and strict adherence to biblical ideas.

Lance Wallnau, a prominent Christian author, speaker, social media influencer and consultant associated with NAR, has promoted the idea that such engagement where NAR Christian leaders hold authority through a government tied to divine will is essential for advancing societal transformation.

Wallnau has been a vocal supporter of Trump, viewing him as a significant figure in NAR’s vision.
Spiritual warfare

Followers of the NAR believe that they must engage in spiritual warfare, which includes prayers and actions aimed at combating perceived demonic influences in society. 

Evangelist Lance Wallnau speaks during a September 2022 rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in Chambersburg, Pa. Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

This practice often involves identifying “strongholds” of evil, around cultural issues, such as gay marriage, transgender rights and LGBTQ+ activism, and working to dismantle them. An example of this is a recent series of religious-based political rallies led by NAR leaders known as “The Courage Tour” that advocated directly for Trump’s second election.

The NAR emphasizes that Christians should expect to see miraculous signs, where extraordinary events, such as Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt, are interpreted to be explained only by divine or spiritual intervention.

The movement’s adherents also believe in faith-based healing and supernatural experiences, such as prophetic utterances and speech.
Trump as divinely ordained

Many NAR leaders and followers support Trump, viewing him as a divinely appointed figure who would facilitate NAR’s goals for societal reconstruction, believing he was chosen by God to fulfill a prophetic destiny.

They position Trump as a warrior against a so-called demonically controlled – and therefore corrupted – “deep state,” aligning with NAR’s emphasis on spiritual warfare and cultural dominion as outlined in the “Seven Mountains” mandate. NAR leaders followed Trump’s understanding of a corrupt government.

The NAR led a “Million Women” worship rally on Oct. 12, 2024, to Washington, D.C., in which the organizers sought to encourage 1 million women NAR adherents to come to pray, protest and support Trump’s campaign. The event was promoted as a “last stand moment” to save the nation by helping Trump win the election as a champion against dark, satanic forces.

Several prominent politicians, legislators and members of the judiciary, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, have flown the NAR-based “Appeal to Heaven” flag.

For NAR evangelicals, the presidential election is interpreted through a Christian apocalyptic rhetoric. In this rhetoric one candidate is a force for good, a warrior for God – Trump – and the other is led by demonic forces such as Harris. Trump’s 2024 win is seen as a critical moment of spiritual warfare where the forces of God defeat the forces of evil.
Criticism from many Christian denominations

Despite its growing popularity, NAR faces substantial criticism. Many mainstream Christian churches argue that the movement’s teachings deviate from traditional Christian orthodoxy.

Critics highlight abuse of authority by people who claim God is directing their actions and the potential for abuse of authority by those claiming apostolic roles. The embrace of Trump raises concerns about blending evangelical faith and political ambition.

Critics argue that the NAR’s support for Trump compromised the integrity of the gospel, prioritizing political power over spiritual integrity. The events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol further complicated this relationship, exposing the potential dangers of conflating religious beliefs with partisan politics.

Moreover, the NAR’s emphasis on spiritual warfare and the idea of taking control over society has raised other Christian groups’ concerns about its potential to foster an “us versus them” mentality, leading to increased polarization within society.

The New Apostolic Reformation represents a significant development, blending charismatic practices with a strong emphasis on politics and cultural transformation.

However, a large majority of Americans disagree that society should be remade based on religious theology. Thus, for now, the NAR movement’s fundamental views about religion and government are starkly at odds with most Americans.

Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/11/time-to-read-mikhail-bakunin-god-and.html

WHO TO BLAME

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

(RNS) — White Christians remain an influential force in American culture and politics. Their support, and the support of Hispanic Christians, helped Donald Trump regain the White House.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures as he walks with former first lady Melania Trump at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Bob Smietana
November 6, 2024


(RNS) — While the United States has become more religiously diverse in recent decades, white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42% of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute. And for Donald Trump, their support has once again proved key to his victory.

Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics said they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020 and similar to the 80% of support Trump received in 2016.

Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said that kind of support is hard to overcome, especially in the Rust Belt swing states that helped seal Trump’s victory.

“It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in a place like Pennsylvania, or Michigan and Wisconsin,” he said.

But Trump also won the Christian vote overall: 58% of all Catholics voted for him and 63% of Protestants, according to the early exit polls. If the early exit poll numbers hold steady, that will prove to be a jump in Catholic support for Trump compared with 2020, when 50% of Catholics voted for him.

Some of that may have to do with an increase in Trump support among Hispanic voters. Almost two-thirds of Hispanic Protestant (64%) and just over half of Hispanic Catholic voters (53%) also supported Trump, according to initial CNN exit polls. In the 2020 election, only about a third of Hispanic Catholics voted for Trump.

Jews (78%), other non-Christians (59%) and those with no religious affiliation (71%) supported Kamala Harris, according to the CNN exit poll.

Robert Jones, PRRI’s president, said more data is needed to understand the Hispanic vote in the 2024 election. But he wonders whether economics played a major role in Hispanic support for Trump, more than religion.

“They don’t feel like their situation has improved over the past four years,” he said.

Jones said Trump was able to send two distinct messages during the campaign — one about being tough on immigration and crime, which appealed to white Christians, and the other about the economy, which appealed to Hispanic Christians.

Burge suspects Hispanic Catholics and Protestants are more conservative on social issues, such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, which may also have played a role in the election.

He wonders if the Harris campaign’s support for abortion rights, in particular, may have backfired with Hispanic Christians.

“That’s a hard message for a moderate Hispanic voter,” he said, adding that while voters in a number of states supported abortion rights, that did not carry over to overall support for Harris. Burge also wonders if inflation and other issues about the economy swung the elections. While Trump is known for causing controversy online, Burge said, many voters are paying more attention to day-to-day concerns.

“All they are thinking is, gas is expensive, bread is expensive, milk is expensive,” he said. “Let’s try something else. That’s the story.”

Both white and Hispanic Christians may also be worried about the changing nature of America and the decline of religion’s power in the culture. While few Americans want the nation to have an official Christian religion, many do see Christianity as important or feel a nostalgia for God and country patriotism, rather than a culture where secular values dominate.

And the swing states that decided the election, such as Wisconsin, are places where white Christians — especially white mainline Protestants and white Catholics who supported Trump — are found in large numbers.

Samuel Perry, a University of Oklahoma sociologist who studies Christian nationalism and other religious trends, wonders if the growth of nondenominational and Pentecostal churches in the United States may have played a role in the 2024 races.

Those churches are often multiethnic, he said, but not because white Christians are joining predominantly Black or Hispanic Christians. Instead, he said, Christians of color are joining majority-white churches that often lean Republican. That can affect their voting patterns, he said.

“Their allegiance is not to their ethnic group, who tend to vote Democrat,” he said. “It’s going to be more of a multiethnic conservative, white-dominated Christianity that unequivocally votes Republican.”

Jones said the 2024 election once again shows the close allegiance between white Christians and the Republican Party and the divided nature of religion in America. Most faith categories in America — Jews, Muslims, Black Protestants, nonreligious Americans and, until 2024, Hispanic Catholics — have supported the Democratic Party. White Christians, on the other hand, remained tied to Republicans.

“They have not moved a centimeter,” said Jones. “And they get out and vote.”

Faith groups resolve to protect migrants, refugees after Trump win

(RNS) — ‘Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,’ Omar Angel Perez, Faith in Action’s immigrant justice director, said.

Immigrants from Honduras recount their separation from their children at the border during a news conference in 2018 at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. 

AP Photo/Matt York

Aleja Hertzler-McCain
November 6, 2024

(RNS) — Former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term prompted faith groups that work with migrants and refugees to reaffirm their commitment to continue their work on Wednesday (Nov. 6), after Trump campaigned on blocking migration and carrying out record deportations.

“Given President-elect Trump’s record on immigration and promises to suspend refugee resettlement, restrict asylum protections, and carry out mass deportations, we know there are serious challenges ahead for the communities we serve,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in a statement.

On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to end automatic citizenship for immigrants’ children born in the U.S.; end protected legal status for certain groups, including Haitians and Venezuelans; and reinstate a travel ban for people from certain Muslim-majority areas

If Trump carries out his plans, FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projects that by the start of 2025, about 1 in 12 U.S. residents, and nearly 1 in 3 Latino residents, could be impacted by the mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.

“If the mass deportation articulated throughout the campaign season is implemented, it would tear families, communities, and the American economy apart,” Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit working with refugees, said in a statement. “The solution to the disorder at the border is to prioritize comprehensive immigration reform that updates our antiquated immigration laws while protecting people who need refuge.”

“We will continue to speak truth to power in solidarity with refugees and displaced people seeking safety around the world,” Hetfield said. “We will not be intimidated into silence or inaction,” his organization wrote.
RELATED: Threats to Catholic Charities staffers increase amid far-right anti-migrant campaign

Omar Angel Perez, immigrant justice director for Faith in Action, a social justice organization, said in a statement, “We recognize the fear and uncertainty many are feeling and pray that we can channel that energy into solidarity and resilience.”

“This moment calls us to take immediate action to protect the communities targeted throughout this campaign and during the prior Trump administration,” Perez said. “We remain committed to providing resources, support, and training to empower people to know their rights and stand firm against attempts to undermine their power.”


Matthew Soerens. Photo courtesy of World Relief

Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to polling by Lifeway Research earlier this year that showed that 71% of evangelicals agree that the U.S. “has a moral responsibility to accept refugees.”

“A majority of Christian voters supported President-elect Trump, according to the exit polls, but it’d be an error to presume that means that most Christians align with everything that he’s said in the campaign related to refugees and immigration,” he said.

Soerens explained that when Christians “realize that most refugees resettled to the U.S. in recent years have been fellow Christians, that they’re admitted lawfully after a thorough vetting process overseas and that many were persecuted particularly because of their faith in Jesus, my experience has been that they want to sustain refugee resettlement.”

“We’ll be doing all we can to encourage President-elect Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christians against persecution, to ensure that the U.S. remains a refuge for those fleeing persecution on account of their faith or for other reasons recognized by U.S. law,” he said.

In a statement, Jesuit Refugee Service said Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric and his previous term had harmed “forcibly displaced people.”

Policies in his first term “separated families, set up new hurdles in the asylum process, dramatically reduced the number of refugees the U.S. resettled, introduced a ban on admitting travelers from predominantly Muslim countries, and deprioritized international efforts to address the exploding global refugee population,” the Catholic organization said.

To welcome and serve migrants is “an obligation” for Catholics, the JRS statement said. “How we respond to the tens of millions of people forced to flee their homes is a serious moral, legal, diplomatic, and economic question that impacts all of us,” the organization wrote.

Despite the disproportionate impact that Trump’s proposed immigration policies would have on Latino communities, Trump made significant gains among Latinos compared with previous elections, winning Latino American men’s vote by 10 points.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, attributed Trump’s success to several factors, including a rejection of progressive ideologies, economic concerns and concerns about government overreach.


The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez in 2013. Courtesy photo

But the evangelical megachurch pastor also said, “While immigration is a nuanced issue within the Latino community, there is a growing sentiment against open-border policies and the provision of resources to illegal immigrants at the perceived expense of American citizens.”

Karen González, a Guatemalan immigrant and author of several books on Christian responses to immigration, called Trump’s victory in the popular vote “especially crushing” in light of his anti-migrant rhetoric. She attributed Trump’s success with Latinos to white supremacy and misogyny within the community.

“We really aspire to be secondary white people, and we think that aligning ourselves with white supremacy is going to save us, and it’s not,” she said.

González was among the faith leaders who said they had not emotionally reckoned with the possibility of a Trump win before the results were announced.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization that supports migrants in El Paso, Texas, and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, across the U.S.-Mexican border, told RNS, “I was hopeful that we had turned the page because I think (the first Trump term) represents a really challenging time in our country.”

Corbett called for “deep reckoning” in churches and grassroots communities. “There’sthe perception that the (immigration) system is broken, and I think the longer we wait to really fix the situation, you open up the door to political extremism. You open up the door to incendiary rhetoric, to cheap solutions,” he said.

While President Joe Biden’s administration had begun with “some really aspirational rhetoric,” it “left a mixed legacy on immigration,” opening the door to Trump’s “dangerous politics.”

“Faith leaders in particular are going to have to assume a very public voice in defense of the human rights of now a very vulnerable part of our community,” he said.

Corbett expressed concern that Trump might mirror Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s tactics in Operation Lone Star in his push for massive deportations, citing deaths due to high-speed chases on highways and record migrant deaths.

“It’s going to fall to border communities like El Paso to deal with the fallout of what we can expect will be some very broken policies and some very dangerous rhetoric,” Corbett said. “And so I think we have to prepare for that. And that means turning back to our faith, going back to the Gospels, going back to the witness of Jesus, the witness of the saints, martyrs,” he said.

In Global Refuge’s statement, the organization encouraged Americans to support immigrants and refugees, “emphasizing the importance of family unity, humanitarian leadership, and the long-standing benefits of immigrant and refugee contributions to U.S. communities and economies.”

Vignarajah added, “In uncertain times, it is vital to remember that our role as Americans is to help those in need, and in doing so, we advance our own interests as well.”

Perez told RNS before the election that Faith in Action had prepared for a potential Trump win and that the organization would draw on its experience “responding to the attacks on the immigrant community” and mounting protection defense campaigns to prevent deportations.

González recalled working in a legal clinic after Trump’s 2016 election and helping migrants process citizenship and sponsorship applications before he took office. “This is really the time for that sort of practical action of how we can serve our neighbors,” she said.

“Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,” Perez said.

Five takeaways from the 2024 election

(RNS) — Harris did worse with women, Hispanics and young people than did the Democratic candidates in the last two presidential elections.

(Photo by Sora Shimazaki/Pexels/Creative Commons)

Thomas Reese
November 6, 2024


(RNS) — An editorial writer is someone who comes upon the scene of a disaster and assigns blame. This election season has provided rich fodder for editorial writers of both parties, but especially Democrats.

In such a close election, almost anyone could be blamed or praised for the results. Democrats will look for people to blame; Republicans for people to praise. The exit polls are bad news for Democrats, showing them doing worse with women, Hispanics and young people than they did in the last two presidential elections.

Having followed the American political scene since I was a graduate student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1970s, I know that this process of blame and praise often ignores larger trends that really mattered.

Instead, here are five takeaways that I believe political scientists and historians will be pondering for years in an attempt to make sense out of this election.

First, yes, it was the economy, stupid. From the Great Depression through the 1960s, men without a college education were the backbone of the Democratic Party — so much so that progressive elites, who had lured them into the party, came to take them for granted. Their concerns were not taken seriously, and instead, Democrats constantly talked of the plight of minorities and women, but not of working-class males.

Under President Bill Clinton, free trade and globalization were supposed to make everyone’s life better, but in reality, they only made the lives of the college-educated better. Blue-collar workers were told to retrain for new industries after their jobs were lost, but the programs meant to facilitate this were a joke.

RELATED: Bipartisan stupidity

With the end of factory jobs, the path to the middle class closed for many men, and the healthy neighborhoods and small towns they supported were gutted. It should have surprised no one that these alienated men turned to Donald Trump as their savior. COVID, supply chain disruptions and the Biden administration’s massive spending bills, meant to fix this problem, added inflation to that mix.

Second, nativism, racism and isolationism, which have afflicted America in the past, are by no means dead.

The Republican Party appears to be especially susceptible to these diseases. Richard Nixon had his Southern Strategy to entice Southern whites into the party. He also preyed on the fears of white middle-class Americans with faintly disguised racial tropes.

Wall Street elites, who favored immigration and globalization, thought they could continue to control the party even as it racked up votes by pandering to bigots. But with the rise of Trump, they lost their handle on the party. This is no longer the GOP of Ronald Reagan or the Bushes.

This profoundly changed the political landscape. College-educated Americans who once tended to vote Republican because of economic issues switched to the Democratic Party because they rejected the GOP’s culture wars. Noncollege educated whites became Republican. This was the most significant party realignment since white Southern voters turned Republican at the end of the 1960s.

Third, Kamala Harris attempted to mobilize women with her uncompromising support for abortion, but the strategy did not work. Her edge among women this year (10 percentage points) did not exceed that of Biden (15) or Hillary Clinton (13). Nor did Taylor Swift deliver younger voters (18 to 29 years), who shifted toward Trump in comparison with 2020 and 2016.

Women’s issues are central to the Democratic Party. The teachers’ union, whose members are mostly women, is the party’s most powerful ally. Abortion is nonnegotiable for the party, as are diversity, equity and inclusion. Yet despite doing everything it could to push women away — nominating Trump, a serial abuser of women, demonizing DEI programs and largely retaining its opposition to abortion on the state level — the GOP doesn’t seem to have lost its share of women.
RELATED: In a world where Christ is king, authoritarian leaders can only be antichrists

Fourth, the anti-abortion movement is in disarray without a home, as both political parties have become pro-choice. While anti-abortion forces celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago, it was a Pyrrhic victory as a majority of voters in almost every state where it was on the ballot voted to protect abortion rights.

For years, the anti-abortion movement ignored the polls and claimed that the American public was opposed to legalized abortion. The polls and the votes on abortion-related referenda show that the public wants abortion to be legal.

Instead of converting the public to their cause, anti-abortion proponents relied on Republican politicians and judges to get their way. Facing electoral losses, Trump and Republican politicians ran away from the issue as quickly as they could.

But Democrats have only doubled down on choice. After Trump forced the GOP to abandon its abortion plank at the party’s convention this summer, Harris showed herself unwilling to say that medical personnel would not be forced to perform an abortion if it violates their faith, even though, as a lawyer, she knows courts will support doctors whose consciences will not allow them to do abortions. (In any case, who in their right mind would want an unwilling doctor to operate on them?)

Fifth, evangelical leaders continue to compromise their Christian beliefs for partisan ends. While most Catholic bishops do not endorse candidates or political parties — and I thank God they don’t — they also fail to point out that LifeSiteNews, Catholic Vote and Catholics for Catholics are political not Catholic organizations.

Too many progressive Democrats, meanwhile, continue to exhibit hostility toward religious Americans — remarkable, given that both Joe Biden and Harris are active Christians themselves.

In late October, when a man yelled “Jesus is Lord” at a Harris rally in Wisconsin, she responded, “You guys are at the wrong rally.”

This was a stupid response. She could have said, “Yes, and Jesus said, ‘Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked.’ He said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Isn’t it wonderful that we live in a country where everyone can believe and practice their faith in freedom.”

Progressive Democrats don’t know how to talk to Christians, even when Jesus is on their side.

Authoritarian movements depend on political religions — not least in America

(RNS) — On Election Day 2024, one is on offer.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Rocky Mount Event Center, Oct. 30, 2024, in Rocky Mount, N.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Mark Silk
October 31, 2024


(RNS) — From Russia and Hungary to Turkey and India to the U.S. of A., actual and wannabe authoritarians make a practice of imbuing their movements with religious significance, in a way that identifies them with the sacred dimension of their nations.

All nation-states sacralize themselves to some degree. In the U.S., texts from the Declaration of Independence to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” are treated as holy, and Washington is littered with temples and shrines, from the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the U.S. Supreme Court to the various war memorials. Not to mention our military sites — the battlefield at Gettysburg, the Valley Forge camp and above all the burial grounds for those who served in the armed forces such as Arlington National Cemetery.

We have come to call this civil religion, defined by the Italian scholar Emilio Gentile as “the conceptual category that contains the forms of sacralization of a political system that guarantee a plurality of ideas, free competition in the exercise of power, and the ability of the governed to dismiss their governments through peaceful and constitutional methods.” In Gentile’s view, “civil religion respects individual freedom, coexists with other ideologies, and does not impose obligatory and unconditional support for its commandments.”


This civil religious inclusivity helps explain why we ban partisan political activity in U.S. military cemeteries — a ban Donald Trump was widely regarded as having violated in August, when he visited Arlington with family members of military personnel killed in the United States’ 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The headline on a column by USA Today’s Marla Bautista read, “Trump’s appalling desecration of Arlington National Cemetery shows he still can’t be trusted.”

Only something sacred can be desecrated.

The opposite of civil religion is what Gentile calls “political religion”: “the sacralization of a political system founded on an unchallengeable monopoly of power, ideological monism, and the obligatory and unconditional subordination of the individual and the collectivity to its code of commandments.” Political religion is therefore “intolerant, invasive, and fundamentalist, and it wishes to permeate every aspect of an individual’s life and of a society’s collective life.”

A historian of fascist Italy, Gentile is above all interested in the expressly secular totalitarianisms of the mid-20th century. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, he argues, constructed fascism, Nazism and communism as national political religions to some extent modeled on familiar religious beliefs and forms.

Civil religion and political religion à la Gentile are, to be sure, ideal types. A civil religion can have aspects of a political religion, and a political religion may likewise incorporate civil religious forms.

Thus, with the onset of the Cold War, American civil religion was expressed so as to exclude atheistic communists. The addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 was explicitly intended to differentiate the U.S. from the Soviet Union and its godless supporters, as was the designation of “In God We Trust” as the national motto two years later.

The Air Force Academy chapel in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

(Photo by Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

A quintessential expression of that moment is the Air Force cadet chapel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, built in 1959. It is, in form, a militarized version of a Christian church — an apparent expression of political religion. But it is very much an expression of the civil religion of the times in featuring separate Protestant, Catholic and Jewish chapels inside.

Contrast this with the cathedral of the Russian military, consecrated in 2020: a Russian Orthodox church with no nod to religious inclusion in a country that is only 40% Russian Orthodox and where fewer than half the citizens consider themselves Christians of any sort. It perfectly expresses the alliance Russian President Vladimir Putin has made with Russian Patriarch Kirill, harking all the way back to the linkage of church and state in the Byzantine Empire.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, at the consecration of the Cathedral of Russian Armed Forces outside Moscow, June 14, 2020. (Oleg Varov, Russian Orthodox Church Press Service via AP)

A mini-me version of Putin’s political religion has been cooked up by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who governs with the idea of “illiberal democracy” — a nice term for populist authoritarianism. Presenting Orbán with the “gold degree” of the Order of St. Sava, Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije praised him for “defending Christianity.” Orbán “fights for the soul of Europe,” the patriarch said. Replied the prime minister, “We are peaceful people, we want peace, but there is indeed a war for the soul of Europe, and without Christian unity – including Orthodoxy – we cannot win this battle.”

Such use of religion can look like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s incorporation of Islam into his own authoritarian regime. The difference is that where Erdogan’s Islamism serves to appeal to Turkey’s sizable conservative Muslim population, the Christianism (to put it that way) of Putin and Orbán has no significant religious grassroots constituency, but seems all about rebuilding a postcommunist authoritarian ideology. In the case of Hungary, it resists at once immigration (from Muslim countries) and the pluralistic liberal culture of Western Europe.

How religious constituencies function under authoritarian regimes depends, of course, on how they view those regimes, and vice versa. A half-century ago, Shiite Muslims protested against the authoritarian Shah of Iran, who sought a connection to the glory days of the pre-Islamic Persian Empire. In 1979, these turned into parades supporting the authoritarian regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which promoted Islamic legal authority as the basis for a theocratic political religion.

A different kind of switching sides occurred in Myanmar, where religious power resides in the community of Buddhist monks. In 2007, the monks denied legitimacy to the military regime by refusing to accept its alms — symbolically represented by “turning over” their begging bowls. The regime yielded but reestablished its power via a genocidal campaign to rid the country of the Muslim minority Rohingya, in which anti-Muslim monks played an ideological role.

Meanwhile, hostility to Islam has been at the center of the Hindu nationalism successfully advanced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Its ideology of Hindutva has generated a postsecular political religion that builds on hostility to Muslims in India dating to the Moghuls.

In America, meanwhile, Donald Trump’s incorporation of a form of Christianity into his MAGA movement is personified by his principal spiritual adviser Paula White, a Pentecostal pastor who has praised Trump as “chosen by God to protect religious values.”

White has been strongly influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation, a politically ambitious collection of charismatic Christians who are the subject of “The Violent Take It by Force,” an important new book by Matthew D. Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. Credited with providing Christian nationalists with their marching orders, the NAR should be understood as promoting a political religion based on Christian supremacy summed up in the so-called Seven Mountains Mandate.

The mandate holds that Christians should ascend to dominion over the “mountains” of contemporary culture: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business and government. As Taylor puts it in describing one of the movement’s leaders, while he “speaks the language of democracy and justice and constitutional rights, his ultimate vision is a retrenchment from democracy in the church and society.”

I don’t want to suggest that the MAGA movement is all about establishing the NAR political religion. But there’s no question that NAR ideas have spread through MAGA world.

As for Trump himself, it’s anything but clear that he knows or grasps the Seven Mountains Mandate. But like other authoritarian leaders, he is driven inexorably toward the exclusivism of a political religion. And it’s the NAR’s political religion that’s on offer from the Republican Party this Election Day.\\

Opinion

The ‘Courage Tour’ is attempting to get Christians to vote for Trump − and focused on defeating ‘demons’

(The Conversation) — The ‘Courage Tour,’ a religio-political rally, is going around battleground states. It is focused on defeating Democrats, but also on defeating ‘demonic forces.’

Michael E. Heyes
October 30, 2024

(The Conversation) — As a scholar of religion, I attended the “Courage Tour,” a series of religious-political rallies, when it made a stop in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, from Sept. 27-28, 2024.

From what I observed, the various speakers on the tour used conservative talking points – such as the threat of communism and LGBTQ+ “ideologies” taking over education – and gave them a demonic twist. They told people that diabolical forces had overtaken America, and they needed to expel them by ensuring Donald Trump was elected.

The tour is attempting to get those Christians to vote for Trump. The tour has moved through several battleground states such as Arizona, Michigan and Georgia, drawing several thousand people at every site.

The tour is not only focused on defeating Democrats but also on defeating demons. The idea that demons exert a hold over the material world is a key feature of the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, worldview. The NAR is a loose group of like-minded charismatic Christian churches and religious leaders – sometimes termed “prophets” – who want to see Christians dominate all walks of life.

As someone who recently finished a book on the intersection of demons and politics, “Demons in the USA: From the Anti-Spiritualists to QAnon,” I was eager to see this combination for myself. I believe it would be a mistake to think that the New Apostolic Reformation is a fringe group with no real influence.
The influence and reach

The group has an associated nonprofit organization known as Ziklag – named for a town in the Hebrew Bible that is an important site associated with David’s kingship – with deep pockets for the movement’s goals. A ProPublica investigation found that the group had already spent US$12 million “to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the New Apostolic Reformation “the greatest threat to U.S. democracy that you have never heard of.”

The diffuse nature of NAR membership and its rapid growth make it difficult to gauge followers: Estimates have placed the number of NAR adherents between 3 million and 33 million, but individuals who may not label themselves as part of the NAR might nevertheless agree with the group’s theology.

Moreover, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s presence at the meeting I attended is also a tacit and significant endorsement for this group.


The ‘Seven Mountain Mandate’

According to NAR’s theology, there are “seven mountains” that govern areas of worldly influence, and Christians are destined to occupy all of them. These mountains are religion, government, family, education, media, entertainment and business.

Known as the “Seven Mountain Mandate,” this “prophecy” first rose to prominence in 2013 with the publication of “Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate,” written by Bill Johnson, lead pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, and member of the NAR, and Lance Wallnau, NAR prophet and one of the founders of the Courage Tour. In the book, the Seven Mountain Mandate is trumpeted as a message received directly from God.

The NAR perceives the majority of these mountains as currently occupied by diabolical spiritual forces. To counter these forces, the NAR engages in “spiritual warfare,” which are acts of Christian prayer that are used to defeat or drive out demons.

As religion scholar Sean McCloud writes, these prayers can be taken from “handbooks, workshops and hands-on participation in deliverance sessions.” Deliverance sessions involve diagnosing and expelling demons from an individual.

Alternatively, it is not uncommon for pastors to incorporate spiritual warfare into church services. For example, in a much-reported sermon, Paula White-Cain, the former spiritual adviser to Trump, commanded all “satanic pregnancies to miscarry.” In the sermon’s context, satanic pregnancies were not literal pregnancies. Instead, White-Cain was praying for the failure of satanic plots “conceived” by the devil.

In NAR theology, all Christians are embattled by demons, and spiritual warfare is a necessary part of life. As scholar of religion André Gagné writes, the NAR sees spiritual warfare as happening on three “levels.”


The ground level occurs in a case of individual exorcism or deliverance, a kind of “one-on-one” battle with demons. The second level is the occult level, in which believers seek to counter what they believe to be demonic movements such as shamanism and New Age thought. Finally, there is the strategic level in which the movement does battle with powerful spirits whom they believe control geographic areas at the behest of Satan.


Friday night on the Courage Tour.

The Courage Tour

The Courage Tour is part of a strategic-level act of spiritual warfare: Stumping for Trump is really about exerting Christian influence over the “government mountain” that followers of the NAR believe to be occupied by the devil.

According to the speakers on the tour, America is in trouble: It is currently being run by “the Left,” or Democrats, a group that is slowly pushing the U.S. toward communism, a system of government in which private property ceases to exist and the means of production are communally owned.

It claims that the Left wants to see this shift occur because it is populated by “cultural Marxists.” This is part of a far-right conspiracy theory that suggests all progressive political movements are indebted to the ideas of Karl Marx, whose Communist Manifesto is most closely associated with communism.

In more extreme forms of communism, nation-states disappear – an idea reflected in speakers’ frequent criticism of “globalism,” which was generally defined as a single, worldwide governmental structure. The group rejects globalism on the grounds that God instituted nation-states as a divinely ordained form of government.

Wallnau described globalism as a sign of the beast and the end of days, and claimed that “the intent of that Marxist element in our country is to collapse our borders.”




Promotional sign on the Courage Tour for My Faith Votes, an organization that encourages voters to vote biblically.
Michael E. Heyes, CC BY

Demonizing queerness

The speakers further claimed that this demonic Marxism was perverting the educational system in the United States. For example, numerous speakers criticized schools for supposedly indoctrinating or “evangelizing” children with “LGBTQ ideologies.”

Wallnau even suggested that the “trans movement” began “in the days of Noah” when the fallen angels of Genesis 6 married human women and had hybrid children. This echoes a discussion Wallnau and Rick Renner had on the “Lance Wallnau Show,” linking such “ideologies” to fallen angels and the Apocalypse.

This negative view of nontraditional gender and sexual orientations is a long-lived feature of the group. John Weaver, a scholar of religion, notes in his book “The New Apostolic Reformation” that the group’s ideas are indebted to conservative theologian Rousas John Rushdoony, who supported the death penalty for homosexuals.

Likewise, religion scholar Damon T. Berry writes that members of the movement believe that “demonic spirits” are “acting to subvert the will of God through aspects of culture like the toleration of homosexuality, abortion, addiction, poverty and political correctness.”

Wallnau encouraged the audience on the Courage Tour to “fight for your families because I don’t want to leave behind a demonic train wreck for my children.”

As hard as it is to believe, one of the most important questions of the election might well be – how many Americans believe in demons?

(Michael E. Heyes, Associate Professor and Chair of Religion, Lycoming College. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)


The Conversation religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The Conversation is solely responsible for this content.

These Latina Christians are shaping the future of abortion in Florida

(RNS) — Latina Floridians told RNS their faith has guided them as they work to engage their communities to vote for or against Amendment 4.

People argue about abortion rights at an event kicking off a national “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour” by the Harris-Walz campaign, Sept. 3, 2024, in Boynton Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
October 31, 2024

(RNS) — Since the Supreme Court returned the question of abortion to the states in 2022, voters have consistently sided with abortion rights. In every state where abortion measures have been put on ballots, abortion rights have come out on top. But that may change in Florida next week.

Abortion is on the ballot in 10 states this election, but Florida is seen as anti-abortion groups’ best chance to notch a win, as they need to convince just slightly more than 2 in 5 Florida voters to vote no on Amendment 4, a ballot initiative that would constitutionalize Floridians’ right to abortion before viability. Florida currently has a ban on abortion after six weeks — a restriction, passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, that in May 2024 replaced a previous 15-week ban. Because the ballot measure is an amendment to the state’s constitution, Amendment 4 requires a 60% support threshold in order to pass.

The stakes are high for both abortion rights and anti-abortion groups as they fight for and against the amendment. If Florida were to open up abortion rights, it would be the only abortion access point in the southeastern United States, as all the states bordering Florida — and the states bordering those states — have abortion bans or restrictions on abortion earlier in pregnancy than Roe v. Wade had. If Florida maintains its abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country, it would offer a first voter victory against abortion. And, according to some anti-abortion advocates, it could offer an example of a six-week ban with more popular support because of its exceptions for rape, incest, human trafficking, life of the pregnant person, as well as serious irreversible health impacts to the pregnant person and fatal fetal abnormalities.


Religious groups and people of faith have been at the forefront on both sides — advocating for and against the amendment.

Catholic bishops, though they have spent less money in Florida than on some of the 2022 state abortion ballot measures, are still one of the largest anti-abortion donors in the state, while clergy members from five other faiths have argued that the abortion ban violates their religious freedom. Catholics for Choice and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism have been actively working to mobilize voters in support of the amendment.
RELATED: Catholic bishops are spending millions less to fight abortion this election

With Latinos making up more than a quarter of Florida’s population — and most of them identifying as either Catholic or evangelical, two groups with staunchly anti-abortion doctrine — they have become a key constituency for both sides and are expected to play a crucial role in deciding one of Tuesday’s most contentious races beyond the presidential election.

RNS spoke with three Latina Floridians who said their faith has guided them as they work to engage their communities to vote for or against the amendment.

When Luz Alvarado thinks about Amendment 4, the abortion rights measure, she thinks about her daughter, Génesis Alba.

Alvarado became pregnant with Génesis after finishing breast cancer treatment. The mother of two had just lost a pregnancy in her third trimester while undergoing that treatment, and her doctor told her it was not wise to have another pregnancy so soon and advised her to get an abortion.

The Colombian lifelong Catholic ended up in one of the Archdiocese of Miami’s pregnancy help centers, not realizing the center was anti-abortion.

Luz Alvarado celebrates the first birthday of her daughter, Génesis Alba. (Photo courtesy of Luz Alvarado)

“We got the place wrong, but we ended up in the right place,” Alvarado told RNS in Spanish.

The center sent her to get a second opinion from another doctor, who told her and her husband she could proceed with her pregnancy, as well as helped her with medical costs.

Génesis was healthy, and eight years later, Alvarado’s cancer has not returned.

Since her third month of her pregnancy with Génesis, Alvarado has regularly volunteered with the Respect Life center. She sees abortion as an error that humans make because of a “lack of knowledge” and believes pregnancy crisis centers can provide that knowledge, as well as concrete resources.

When pregnant women hear their fetus’s heartbeat, “bad decisions become good decisions,” Alvarado said. “A baby’s heartbeat is the most heavenly sound you can hear,” she said. “I say it’s the voice of God.”

As the election approaches, Alvarado believes the best way to combat Amendment 4 is to share stories like hers, which she has done through the Archdiocese of Miami and within small groups.

As for the Catholics who are supporting the amendment, Alvarado doesn’t see them as truly Catholic. “They have not known the Word of God well,” she said.

But across several opinion polls, a majority of U.S. Latino Catholics support abortion being legal in most or all cases, ranging from 6 to 7 in 10 Latino Catholics. These opinions stand in contrast to teaching from Catholic bishops, who have instructed Catholic voters that the “threat of abortion” should be their “preeminent priority” when voting.
RELATED: What you might miss in news coverage about Latino voters and faith

Before she wrote an op-ed in the Miami Herald supporting Amendment 4, Olga Granda told RNS that “people probably knew me as a quote unquote pro-lifer,” having worked because of her Catholic faith against the death penalty and for the “health and lives of women and babies.”

In her article in the Miami Herald, Granda wrote that, as a practicing Catholic, her opinion on abortion began to shift as she saw friends go through difficult pregnancies, including a friend who nearly lost her life carrying a baby medical professionals knew would not survive.

Still, it wasn’t until she began to hear about the impacts of new anti-abortion laws after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, and particularly Florida’s six-week ban, that Granda was motivated to publicly take a stand.

Granda told RNS that as she heard more stories of women experiencing negative health outcomes due to abortion restrictions, she felt “this is getting out of hand.” She asked herself, “Is that really what the church wants? Are we trying to force people to be in positions in which their lives are in danger and they don’t have access to the health care that they need?”

So at the invitation of a friend and mentor, Granda joined forces with Catholics for Choice, a national nonprofit organization advocating for abortion rights from a Catholic social justice lens, and “started to learn how you could reconcile being Catholic and advocating for reproductive freedom.”

Beyond her op-ed, Granda has organized house meetings to speak with her community, especially other Latino Catholics, about the importance of the amendment.

The Cuban-American business owner and mother said she shies away from “hands off my body language,” saying families, medical professionals and even sometimes spiritual leaders should be involved in those decisions. She emphasized, “It should not be something that is dictated by politicians.”

“Does that mean that I’m encouraging people to have abortions?” Granda asked. “Of course, the answer is no.”

Lucy Rodríguez, Florida state director for voter engagement organization Mi Vecino, has handed out Catholics for Choice pamphlets as her organization goes door-to-door advocating for Amendment 4.

But Rodríguez herself is not Catholic, instead coming from an evangelical Christian family full of “pastors and great leaders of the Christian church.” The organizer, who said, as a mother hen, she treats her team like her children, told RNS in Spanish that her faith is strong because “I have seen many miracles.”

Lucy Rodríguez, right, canvasses with colleagues from the Mi Vecino organization in Florida. (Photo courtesy of Lucy Rodríguez)

Rodríguez attends Centro Cristiano El Pan De Vida, or the Christian Center The Bread of Life, in Kissimmee, part of the Pentecostal Church of God of Prophecy denomination.

While she hasn’t heard anything about abortion from the pulpit recently, when it is preached about, “they say it’s a sin,” Rodríguez said.

“That’s why I tell you I’m a conservative on the issue,” Rodríguez said, adding it’s also something she tells voters. “But I’m not in agreement with the government coming to your house,” she said. “It’s an issue the government should not get involved in.”

Having immigrated from the Dominican Republic, Rodríguez has seen the impact of a complete ban on abortion. “Many people have lost their lives, and many people have turned to secret clinics, and things have happened that shouldn’t have because of such a strong taboo,” she said.

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Rodríguez wants to be sure of the health of her 26-year-old daughter in any future pregnancies. “For me, the life of my daughter is worth more,” she said.

While her focus — and Mi Vecino’s focus — has shifted to advocating for Amendment 4 in this election, including gathering 13,000 signatures to put the amendment on the ballot, Rodríguez’s roots with the organization are in voter registration, including reaching disengaged voters.

“I never go to a house and say goodbye without first saying to the person, ‘Please, get out and vote,’” Rodríguez said.

Latino evangelical voters torn between their faith and harsh rhetoric around immigration


Pastor Arturo Laguna speaks during services at Casa de Adoracion, 

Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024 in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Chris Coduto)

BY DEEPA BHARATH
, October 30, 2024

The Rev. Arturo Laguna leads a largely immigrant church of about 100 followers in Phoenix. His job as a pastor, he says, gets complicated come election season.

Laguna’s church, Casa de Adoracion, is in Arizona — one of seven closely-watched swing states that could possibly decide the next president. It is also a microcosm of the larger Latino evangelical Christian community in the U.S.

The soft-spoken Laguna says, for the members of his congregation, voting is “not an intellectual issue.”

“It’s a matter of faith and spirituality,” he said. “We’re in a complicated moment because, on the one hand, we are against abortion, and on the other, we are concerned about the sharp rhetoric around immigration and lack of reform. It’s a difficult choice.”

This is not a new dilemma for Latino evangelicals, who are growing in numbers even as mainline white Protestant denominations have steadily declined. Latino evangelicals are an influential voting bloc. Both parties have tried to appeal to them over the past two election cycles — neither with remarkable success — according to faith and community leaders.

A 2022 Pew Research Center survey showed 15% of Latinos in the U.S identify as evangelical Protestants. Among all American evangelicals, they are the fastest-growing group. About half of Latino evangelicals identified as Republicans or as independents who lean right, while 44% identified as Democrats or as independents leaning left.

While U.S. Latinos generally favor Democratic candidates, a majority of Latino evangelicals backed Donald Trump in 2020. According to AP Votecast, about six in 10 Latino evangelical voters supported Trump in 2020, while four in 10 supported Biden.

A Pew survey released last month showed that about two-thirds of Latino Protestants planned to back Trump this year, while about two-thirds of Hispanic Catholics and religiously unaffiliated Hispanics said they were supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.

Agustin Quiles, president and founder of Mission Talk, a Florida-based Latino Christian social justice organization, says conflicting priorities leave some Latino evangelicals feeling politically homeless. Some are torn between their conservative views on social issues such as abortion and their desire to see immigration and criminal justice reform, he said.

While many are offended by Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, Quiles added, Democrats still haven’t figured out how to have conversations with the community about issues such as abortion.

“So there is a lot of silence among Latino evangelicals right now,” he said. “That does not mean they are not going to vote. There is just a lot of discontent.”

To understand Latino evangelicals, it is important to understand their origins, said Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, a scholar of the Association of Hispanic Theological Association. The word “evangelico” pertains to Protestants or those who are not Catholic, which includes a wide swath of churches, cultures and traditions, she said.

“When immigrants come here and have to reestablish themselves, the Protestant, Pentecostal and mainline churches become spaces where people create a new sense of community and family,” Conde-Frazier said. “People are trying to understand what life is supposed to be in this country.”

With white Protestantism in decline and different mainline denominations vying for the loyalty of these communities, second-generation Latino Christians became more a part of the dominant culture and often embraced the fervor of the white evangelical church, she said.

“Latino churches, in order to gain a sense of power and acceptance, began to align with (white conservative) evangelical churches in the U.S., moving away from their ‘evangelico’ roots,” Conde-Frazier said. Now, she added, some Latino evangelicals find themselves increasingly at odds with their white counterparts because they are pro-immigration.

Quiles says in white evangelical churches where Latinos, including undocumented immigrants, are growing in numbers, there is palpable dissonance between what is said in the pulpit and how those in the pews perceive it.

“Just because a pastor pushes anti-immigrant agenda, that does not mean members are receiving it,” he said. “They selectively take what they want from the teaching.”

The Rev. Juan Garcia, who leads a 100-strong Hispanic ministry at the First Baptist Church in Newport News, Virginia, said the word “evangelico” represents the Gospel to him. He says the “evangelical” label feels tainted because of its affiliation with one political party.

“Jesus is not Democrat or Republican,” he said. “Some see their Christian values being represented by the Republican party and others see some of their values represented by the Democrats. But neither party is Christian in essence.”

Garcia feels that sense of political homelessness, too.

“I have a candidate I may vote for, but no political party I’d like to belong to,” he said. “The most important value we as Christians must live by is love — love our neighbors, the poor, those fleeing persecution.”

Garcia said he has his “opinions and inclinations” but doesn’t view the candidate he favors as flawless. He warns his flock: “If one is the anti-Christ, the other is not Christ.”

The Rev. Jacqueline Tavarez, pastor of the Pentecostal Church of God in Raleigh, North Carolina, says her diverse congregation cares more about the values a political party represents rather than the face or the voice of the party.

“Our community doesn’t care about the politics,” she said. “They care about laws that affect our communities in terms of jobs, opportunities, education. And they view abortion and transgender laws as an attack on family values. When they see the ballot, they don’t see Trump or (Harris). They see what the party supports and how the community is going to fare under a candidate.”

The Rev. Lori Tapia, the Arizona-based national pastor and president of the Obra Hispana, Disciples of Christ, said politics is not typically integrated into the life of the Latino evangelical church. Unlike white evangelical congregations, political engagement happens more organically, she said.

“Here, the compassion piece is always stronger and there is a desire to see leaders who will prioritize compassionate politics,” Tapia said. “There is also frustration at how slow progress is on critical issues. Anyone can pitch a story or a political campaign. But where is it being manifested in the lives of people who are struggling?”

Bishop Angel Marcial, who leads the Church of God that oversees more than 15,000 churches, says some of the main issues for his congregants are healthcare education, public safety and housing.

“Voting gives you respect in this country and it brings opportunities for marginalized communities,” he said. “As pastors, we don’t tell people whom to vote for, but we do tell them about the platforms that best align with the values of the church and needs of our communities.”

John P. Tuman, professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, observes that in Las Vegas, Latino evangelicals who join larger evangelical churches that have English and Spanish services tend to skew conservative. However, in communities that form their own congregations and conduct services in Spanish and Otomi, an Indigenous language in Mexico, are likely to have more diverse political views.

“They tend to be historically in favor of immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, along with other elements of a social justice message that resonates more with Democratic candidates,” he said.

Nevada is also a key swing state.

Pastor Willie Pagan, who leads the 700-strong Iglesia de Dios in North Las Vegas that falls under the Church of God, said the economy is a top issue for his congregants.

“Yes, people are worried about immigration, but those who are here already, they want the economy to be stable,” he said. “They see homelessness and crime growing in Las Vegas. Our church was in a rough neighborhood that has gotten rougher recently.”

Pagan says some in his congregation believe they were better off financially and safer during the Trump administration, and wish to vote Republican to uphold their conservative religious values. But there are also those who fear they or their loved ones could get deported, he said.

“The struggle is real.”
___



Janett Laguna prays prior to services at Casa de Adoracion, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024 in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Chris Coduto)


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Pastor Arturo Laguna speaks during services at Casa de Adoracion, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024 in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Chris Coduto)



Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

DEEPA BHARATH
Bharath is a reporter with AP’s Global Religion team. She is based in Los Angeles.
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Christian nationalism is growing among US Hispanics. Scholars explain why.

(RNS) — At a gathering at Princeton, scholars suggested Hispanic Protestants are connected to transnational apostolic networks that seek to advance Christian power in each society.

Scholars gathered at Princeton Theology Seminary for the Herencia Lectures event titled, "Christian Nationalism: A Dangerous Threat to Democracy." Video Screengrab

Aleja Hertzler-McCain

RNS
October 18, 2024

(RNS) — Over the last year and a half, surveys have tracked a significant rise in support for Christian nationalism among U.S. Hispanic Protestants, even as support for the ideology has remained fairly stable among other racial and ethnic Christian groups.

Among Hispanic Protestants, strong and moderate support for a group of ideas that include “U.S. laws should be based on Christian values” and “God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society” have inched up from 43% in 2022 to 55% in 2023 and 59% in June 2024, according to Public Religion Research Institute surveys. That brings Hispanic Protestant support for Christian nationalism close to white evangelical support.

Hispanic Protestants make up under a quarter of U.S. Hispanics (23% in PRRI’s latest census). Among Hispanic Catholics, a larger group that makes up about half (48%) of U.S. Hispanics, support for Christian nationalism remains low, with less than a quarter (22%) expressing strong or moderate support.

While academics have long studied a version of U.S. Christian nationalism that privileges white, native-born Christians, a group of scholars gathered at Princeton Theological Seminary on Monday (Oct. 14) to consider the rise in U.S. Hispanic Christian nationalism. Scholars at the evening symposium, part of the Herencia (“Heritage”) Lectures, said that U.S. Hispanic Protestants participate in a strand of Christian nationalism connected to transnational apostolic networks that seek to advance Christian power in nations across the globe.

Matthew Taylor, a scholar at The Institute for Jewish, Christian and Muslim Studies in Baltimore, said that apostolic and prophetic Christian nationalists believe they must exert power to convert and Christianize whole nations.
RELATED: New survey points to correlation between Christian nationalism and authoritarian views

These apostolic and prophetic circles have a “natural sense of alliance” with authoritarian political leaders because they have “at least in their own mind, moved beyond democracy in the governance of their own coalition” and instead “installed these charismatic individuals, the apostles and prophets, as the quasi-authoritarian leaders within their networks,” Taylor said.

Prominent U.S. Latino Protestant pastors, including some who have advised former President Donald Trump and who mobilized Christians for the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, are involved with these loose international networks within what is called either the apostolic and prophetic movement or the Five-Fold Ministry movement, explained Taylor. His new book, “The Violent Take It by Force,” explores the charismatic Christians who have supported Trump and their role on Jan. 6.

The movement, where Pentecostal theology and nondenominational governance are combined, extends across continents, and different leaders voluntarily submit to the spiritual authority of other leaders, sometimes in other countries.

“You have to be part of a chain of authority in order for your prophetic acts to have authority in the spiritual world,” Raimundo Barreto, Jr., associate professor of world Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, explained to RNS after the event.



Before the lecture, attendees gathered for a lively worship service, which featured readings and music in Spanish and Portuguese. Video Screengrab

In contrast to the model of sending missionaries, “apostolic networks transcend national borders, so that ideas and leaders and resources flow in every direction,” Taylor said.

João Chaves, assistant professor of the history of religion in the Américas at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, said that “the overlaps in the transnational influences” on the Christian far right have been very clear as he and Barreto write a book about the political movement in Brazil and its international connections.

Chaves and Barreto have followed the political influence of the growing population of Pentecostals in Brazil. Chaves said that in the 2022 elections, more than 500 candidates for political office used classic evangelical terms, like missionary, pastor, reverend and bishop, as they campaigned.

Both scholars emphasized the links between the U.S. and Brazil, with Barreto referencing sociologist David Hess’ description that the two countries are “slightly distorted mirror-images of each other.”
RELATED: Brazilians march for Eshu, an Afro-Brazilian deity, to protest Christian intolerance

Chaves noted that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, was in Washington, D.C., just before the Jan. 6 insurrection. Two years later, on Jan. 8, 2023, Bolsonaro’s supporters, including many evangelicals, invaded government buildings and called for a military coup following their leader’s defeat in the 2022 Brazilian general election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Several speakers noted that Zionism is a common feature in worship and politics among charismatic Pentecostals who also advance Christian nationalism. Chaves said, “When Trump was trying to move the embassy (to Jerusalem), you could see them pushing in Brazil also.”

Barreto said that, while televangelist Paula White has connected Trump to apostolic networks, Silas Malafaia, a Brazilian Pentecostal televangelist, has played the same role for Bolsonaro, a Catholic who appeals to Brazil’s right-wing evangelicals.

Malafaia “is not a thinking head of that movement,” Barreto said in his lecture. “He is repeating the same discourse that we are hearing from other apostolic voices,” including that “Brazil belongs to Jesus Christ” and that cultural Marxism, feminism, abortion, the LGBTQ+ community and the whole left are enemies to be fought, Barreto said.

The rise of Christian nationalism in Brazil is pushing some people out of the church, but others are forming a resistance, Barreto told RNS.

Vozes Marias, or Maria Voices and Novas Narrativas Evangélicas, or New Evangelical Narratives, are among the groups led by young people “from the peripheries, the favelas,” that have both stepped up, Barreto said.

Miranda Zapor Cruz, a professor of historical theology at Indiana Wesleyan University, says the rise of Hispanic Christian nationalism is replaying some debates about new prophecy in the early church

“Those who are part of these movements affirm a version of modern-day Gnosticism and Montanism that rejects the authority of creedal Christianity in favor of new revelation that has authority,” Cruz said.

(This story was reported with support from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation.)