Did you hear? Project 2025 is no more and Donald Trump had nothing to do with it. He didn’t even know what it was. Yep. That’s the laughable message we’ve been getting from the Trump campaign over the last month.
It’s not a secret as to why the Trump campaign feels the need distance itself from the plot. The distancing came just days after Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts dropped the mask during a July 2 interview when he declared the Second American Revolution was underway and “will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” It was political poison. Trump had to claim ignorance at that point. Sure, many of Trump’s ardent fans were acting livid over Trump’s disavowals, but it was obviously just theatrics. You can’t actually separate the Trump agenda from Project 2025. They are the same. But that doesn’t mean Trump can’t pretend.
But it’s also worth keeping in mind the other injection of political poison into the 2024 election that took place just two days before Roberts’s declaration of a Second American Revolution: “Some folks need killing! ... It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity!
Keep in mind that Robinson won the primary for the governors race largely due to an endorsement from Trump.
It’s not the political message one necessarily expects to hear from candidates running for office in a democracy. But that’s the message that North Carolina voters got from their lieutenant governor Mark Robinson during a half-hour-long speech. At a church. Even worse, the pastor of the church, Reverend Cameron McGill, dismissed the comments as “non-controversial” and informed reporters that he fully expected in advance for Robertson to make those comments and that he agreed with them. McGill even preceded Robertson’s speech with commentary of his own about how the Biden administration is directed by Satan.
Yes, Mark Robinson called for ‘some people’ to be ‘killed’ as a matter of ‘necessity’ at a ‘killing friendly’ church. And then two days later Kevin Roberts declared his Second American Revolution. It was a Robertson/Roberts joint threat. And days later, Donald Trump suddenly had no idea what Project 2025 is all about. Before going on to select JD Vance — who wrote the forward for the Project 2025 book — as his vice presidential running mate.
Now, on one level, Robinson’s ‘some people need killing’ comments are exactly what we might expect. As we’ve seen, Mark Robinson political rise isn’t solely based on endorsements from Donald Trump. Robertson’s open embrace of QAnon-style politics and calls for an end to the taboo on quoting Hitler at the 2023 Moms for Liberty Summit are exactly the kind of politics that will resonate with today’s Republican primary voters. Back in 2019, before getting elected to office for the first time as Lt. Governor, Robertson joined none other than Sean Moon on Moon’s podcast where they exchanged all sorts of ideas about how Satanists run world. This would be the same Sean Moon who happens to be the son of Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church and who went on to start his own far right congregation that appears to quite literally worship AR-15 rifles as a divine gift to god’s chosen people. Mark Robinson is exactly the kind of nutty politicians we should expect to rise rapidly in today’s Republican circles. The fact that he’s a black man in in an overwhelmingly white party makes him all the more alluring a politician for the conservative establishment to rally behind.
But as we’re going to see when we take a closer look at the context of Robinson’s ‘some people need killing’ speech, it becomes clear that Robinson owes his political rise to far more than just Trump’s endorsement and his knack from tapping into the GOP’s contemporary zeitgeist. It turns out Robinson is like the star figure at a number of events put on by a largely obscure, but deeply influential, organization known as the American Renewal Project. Reverend McGill is part of the project too.
The American Renewal Project, Mark Robinson’s Biggest fan
And as we should expect by now, the American Renewal Project is one of the many groups working towards a dominionist theocratic capture of government under the umbrella of the Council for National Policy (CNP). What does the American Renewal Project do? Well, its stated goal is recruiting conservative pastors to run for public office. As of 2015, the American Renewal Project claimed to have already recruited a network of 100,000 pastors with the goal of recruiting 1,000 pastors to run for elected office in 2016. But while recruiting pastors to run for office is the state goal of the group, its activities also include holding all sorts of ‘Renewal’ rallies through state based branches — like the Texas Renewal Project or Iowa Renewal Project — that basically serve as political organizing events for the dominionist far right.
Started in 2005 by evangelical political activist David Lane, the American Renewal Project has long been housed by the American Family Association (AFA), a Christian fundamental 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization set up in 1977 by CNP member Don Wildon and currently led by Wildmon’s son, CNP member Tim Wildmon (Don died in 2023). Recall how Tim Wildmon was among the group of CNP leaders who effectively gave their blessings to the candidacy of Donald Trump in June of 2016. And as we’ve seen, Tim Wildmon’s “Today’s Issues” AFA radio show was filled with so much extremist content that the American Family Association shows up on the SPLC’s list of hate groups, along with Tony Perkins’s Family Research Council (FRC) and Michael Farris’s Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). As we should expect, David Lane is an open dominionist. In fact, he penned a piece published in World Net Daily in 2013 calling for a violent dominionist revolution that we’re going to examine below. Lane really doesn’t like ‘pagans’.
But while the American Renewal Project is effectively a branch of the AFA, that doesn’t mean it’s an exclusively AFA operation. For example, in 2015, Lane to have raised $50 million over the years, with $10 million coming from the Texas billionaire Wilks brothers. Recall how the billionaire Wilks brothers are key partners with Tim Dunn in the theocratic capture of the Texas Republican Party. Also recall how Farris Wilks is such a staunch advocate of the Old Testament that he actually opposes the celebration of Christmas and Easter, arguing that are “rooted in paganism”. Yep, one of the major financiers of the American Renewal Project hates Christmas and Easter. And he’s one of this theocratic movement’s biggest donors.
And as we’re going to see with a close look at the American Renewal Project political organizing in 2011, the American Renewal Project should really just be seen as another CNP front group. It’s the same network. A network that, as of 2011, seemed to have chosen a Republican candidate of choice to take down then-President Obama in the 2012 election: Texas Governor Rick Perry. As we’re going to see, Perry effectively launched his campaign during an August 2011 prayer rally hosted by The Response, for which Dave Lane serves as the national financial director. It was a rally for Perry filled with so many far right evangelical leaders that it actually resulted in a number of alarmed media about about the rise of dominionism in GOP. In particular, alarm over the number of figures associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) at the rally, including ‘prophet’ Cindy Jacobs. As we’ll see in a piece penned by Sarah Posner at the time, while some of labels used by the NAR dominionists — like the “Seven Mountains” mandate — may have been relatively new at the time, it should still all be seen as the same dominionism that helped usher in the Reagan administration in 1980. And the same dominionism that formed the CNP in 1981. This is a good time to recall Posner’s warnings from July of 2011 about how Rick Perry wasn’t just closely allied with dominionist but also neo-Confederates and how much overlap there is between theology and neo-Confederacy.
That August 2011 prayer rally Lane helped organized where Perry launched his campaign was preceded by a close-door two day meeting of around 80 far right pastors and Christian leaders with the focus on determining how they were going to defeat then-president Barack Obama. The list of reported attendees included one CNP member after another: Richard Land, Richard Lee, Vonette Bright, Jerry Boykin, Harry Jackson, Don Wildmon, Tony Perkins, Bob McEwen, and Bob Reccord, who was leading the CNP at the time. Davis Lane was also in attendance.
The gathering was by organized by Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison, and was actually a follow up meeting to a September 2010 meeting. And as we’re going to see, part of what made this meeting notable is the historic parallels it had with another meeting James Robison organized 32 years earlier. It was Robison who arranged similar secret meetings in 1979 that culminated in a series of prayer rallies in 1980 boosting Ronald Reagan’s candidacy. Included an August 1980 rally attended by Reagan where he ironically told the audience of 15k, “You can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.”
Figures featured at the August 1980 rally included key CNP members Bill Bright, Tony Perkins, Tim LaHaye, And James Dobson. Along with Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. As we’ve seen, Paige Patterson and Pressler were the figures behind the South Baptist Convention’s “Conservative Resurgence” in the 1970s. Pressler was also a serial sexual abuser routinely protected by Patterson. Not that Patterson was only protecting Pressler. Instead, Pressler was just the most prominent and scandalous example of what had become a pattern of endemic sexual abuse and cover up inside the SBC denomination. In the end, Pressler’s legacy was in such tatters that his death earlier this year didn’t even get acknowledged at the SBC despite happening just four days before. Key Republican political strategist Paul Weyrich also spoke at the rally. Even Mike Huckabee — then Robison’s 26 year old aide — and Rafael Cruz — father of Ted Cruz — attended the rally.
Shortly after they rally, Weyrich went on to assemble a network that would become the Council on National Policy the next year. Initially, the CNP consisted of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Study Committee, the American Legislative Exchange Comittee (ALEC, founded by the Koch Brothers), the Moral Majority and Robison’s “Religious Roundtable” of politically active pastors. A list that had enormous overlap with the entities behind Project 2025 today.
That’s the context of the Mark Robinson’s “Some Folks Need Killing!” comments. Not only did Robinson make these comments at a church, and not only did the pastor of the church endorse the comments, but both Robinson and Reverend McGill happen to be key operatives in an organization dedicated to recruit far right pastors to run for office. An organization that ultimately operatives as just one more arm of the dominionist Council for National Policy. As bad as those “Some Folks Need Killing!” comments were on their own, their much worse when placed in their that historic context. Because don’t forget, this context doesn’t just include the reality that the Republican Party has been allied with theocrats for decades. There’s also the context of their incredible successes over the years in realizing those goals. Success that is on the cusp of culminating in Project 2025 and the planned “Second American Revolution”.
Ok, here’s a summary of the article excerpts below:
* August 2, 2024: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson pivots on abortion in a new campaign ad
In keeping with spirit of Donald Trump’s new disavowals of Project 2025, Mark Robinson’s Gubernatorial campaign now declares that Robinson will support a 12 week abortion ban. As the article notes, this new position comes despite Robinson’s history of calling abortion “murder” and “genocide”. Along with comments about how abortion is about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible to keep your skirt down” and how “there can be no compromise on abortion.”
* August 1, 2024: Christian Nationalists Pursue State Capture — and North Carolina Is Exhibit A
A warning from Truthout about how far along North Carolina already is in current serving as a kind of canary in the coal mine (and template) for an ongoing “state capture” far right agenda. An agenda focused on tactics like gerrymandering and voter suppression to achieve power under the guise of “Christian populism”. The kind of ‘populism’ that isn’t actually shared by a majority of the state’s population. But North Carolina isn’t alone in this state capture. States like Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and Oklahoma are in the process of complete capture too. That’s part of the context of the rise of Mark Robinson and his calls for killing: this is just one facet of a much larger story.
* July 5, 2024: MAGA Gov Candidate’s Ugly, Hateful Rant: “Some Folks Need Killing!”
In a closer look at Mark Robinson’s “Some Folks Need Killing!” comments, we find that no only did he say this at a church, but that the church’s pastor, Reverend Cameron McGill, both endorsed and downplayed Robinson’s comments. He didn’t just admit to knowing Robinson was going the killing comments but went on to defend them by insisting that Robinson didn’t mean killing innocent people. “Without a doubt, those he deemed worthy of death [were] those seeking to kill us,” according to the pastor.
* July 6, 2024: In speech about freedom ‘slipping away,’ Mark Robinson talks about ‘wicked people,’ killing
In another look at the context of Mark Robinson’s “Some Folks Need Killing!” speech, we find that this was actually the second year in a row that Robinson gave an Independence Day-themed speech at the same church. We also learn that in Reverend McCill’s speech preceding Robinson, McGill told the audience he thinks the devil is behind Joe Biden. McGill also shared how he had the same ‘the devil is behind Biden’ message last week at his congregation. “I said here last week, and I know it’s offensive, probably...But people ask me all the time, Who’s behind President Biden, and that administration? Is it Obama, is it Clinton? Read your Bible. It is the devil. He is the father of lies. He is the deceiver. He is the divider. He is the manipulator.” We also learn that McGill isn’t just a pastor. He’s an elected official who serves on the Bladen County Board of Commissioners.
* November 4, 2022: The American Renewal Project wants to mobilize pastors for the Republican Party
An article from back in November 2022 about the American Renewal Project’s efforts to mobilize conservative pastors to run for office. As the article notes, Mark Robinson had made speeches at American Renewal Project gatherings at least eight time in the prior several months. He’s the group’s star. But Robinson isn’t the only figure playing a recruitment role for the group. As article also notes, Reverend McGill had joined American Renewal Project founder David Lane in a 2019 trip to Israel focused on recruiting US pastors to run for office and McGill was planning on returning that year to continue the effort. So when Mark Robinson made those “Some Folks Need Killing!” comments at McGill’s church and McGill went on to defend the comments, it was basically two of the American Renewal Project’s recruiters behind that call for killing. At a church.
* December 11, 2015: For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016
A Reuters report from December 2015 about the American Renewal Project’s then-efforts to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for elected office in 2016. At the time, Lane claimed the group already had a network of 100,000 pastors. Lane also claimed to have received $50 million for the project over the years, with $10 million donated by the billionaire Wilks Brothers. Recall how the billionaire Wilks brothers are key partners with Tim Dunn in the theocratic capture of the Texas Republican Party. Also recall how Farris Wilks is such a staunch advocate of the Old Testament that he actually opposes the celebration of Christmas and Easter, arguing that are “rooted in paganism”. As we’re going to see, a fixation on the threats posed by “paganism” is an obsession Lane shares with Wilks.
* June 29, 2013: David Lane Calls for Dominionist Revolution
To get a better idea of the kinds of end goals David Lane has in mind for the American Renewal Project, all we have to do is read a 2013 screed penned by Lane in 2013 calling for a violent dominionist revolution. As we’ll see in Frederick Clarkson’s review of Lane’s piece, this call from dominionism came after the 2012 election. An election where Lane played a little noticed but significant role in the launch of dominionist-friendly Texas governor Rick Perry’s ill-fated presidential campaign. In addition to running the American Renewal Project, housed in the American Family Association, Lane served at the national financial director for The Response prayer rally where Perry launched his campaign. As Clarkson also notes, Lane’s dominionist screed was largely ignore by the broader media. It just flew under the radar, like almost all of Lane’s work.
* June 5, 2013: Wage war to restore a Christian America
A look at David Lane’s 2013 World Net Daily screed calling for a violent dominionist revolution. As we’ll see, the big theme of the piece is both the power of martyrdom and the necessity for modern martyrs. The piece is also filled with references to the ‘pagan media’ and ‘pagan schools’. Lane clearly hates ‘pagans’ as much as Farris Wilks.
* September 30, 2011: American Family Association Targets Radio Hosts Over Association With Critic
Taking a closer look at the nature of the prayer rally, The Response, co-organized by David Lane in 2011 that served as the launch point for Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign, we’re going to look at an interesting September 2011 piece underscoring just how radical the theology behind this movement really is. So radical that popular religious broadcaster Brannon Howse — who is an extremely conservative evangelical himself and a close ally of Mike Lindell — made a point of routinely attacking the forces behind that prayer rally for the heretical nature of their teachings. In particular, Howse took issue with the many figures associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a strain of dominionism that emerged in the 1990 and continues to animate this movement. Howse was especially critical of the invitation of Cindy Jacobs, a self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ with a habit of making predictions. In response to Howse’s critiques, the AFA ended up kicking two of its radio show hosts who were friendly with Howse off their radio network. The AFA also went on to insist that it wasn’t involved with Jacobs’s invitation and suggested maybe the Perry campaign was behind it. As we’re going to see, Jacobs has a remarkable ability to show up at these kinds of events.
* May 24, 2016: Donald Trump To Court Anti-LGBT Hate Groups, ‘Prophets’ And Televangelists
Just a quick look back at that fateful June 2016 meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and a delegation of key CNP leaders, including the AFA’s Tim Wildmon. As we’re going to see, that meeting also included a number of prominent NAR leaders including Jim Garlow and ‘prophet’ Cindy Jacobs.
* April 2, 2011: An Iowa Stop in a Broad Effort to Revitalize the Religious Right
Another look at the kind of forces behind David Lane and the American Renewal Project. The April 2011 New York Times piece describes the key role the Iowa branch of the project — the Iowa Renewal Project — plays in the Republican primary process. At the time, the Iowa Renewal Project was organizing an event attended by nearly 10,000 pastors and features speakers like David Barton (key dominionist pseudo-historian for the movement), Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich. As the article notes, when a similar event was held by the Iowa Renew Project in 2007 weeks before the Iowa caucuses, then-candidate Huckabee was the only candidate to attend. He went on to earn a surprise victory in the caucuses weeks later. The article also mentions how Lane first began his efforts to recruit pastors to run for office in the 1990s, but it was ‘in the last five years’ that the project had grown substantially. That, of course, coincides with the launch of the project under the banner of the Wildmons’ AFA.
* June 22, 2011: Conservative Christian Group Plots Political Revival
In another look at the networks backing the American Renewal Project, we’re going to take a look at a June 2011 piece in Ethics Daily describing a two-days closed door event of a group of about 80 pastors and other evangelical Christian leaders. As we’re going to see, the list of attendees included one CNP member after another: Richard Land, Richard Lee, Vonette Bright, Jerry Boykin, Harry Jackson, Don Wildmon, Tony Perkins, Bob McEwen, and Bob Reccord, who was leading the CNP at the time. The gathering was called by Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison in order to hammer out their plans for defeating then-President Obama, and was actually a follow up meeting to a September 2010 meeting. As the article notes, these secret gatherings were somewhat reminiscent of similar secret meetings in Dallas Robinson arranged in 1979 to strategize how to defeat Jimmy Carter. An effort that ultimately manifested as an August 1980 meeting with Ronald Reagan that helped mobilize pastors for his presidential campaign. And, the next year, the formation of the CNP.
* August 21, 2011: The Christian right’s “dominionist” strategy
As a further look at the broader context of this dominionist movement, we’re going to take a look at an August 2011 piece by Sarah Posner, written a few weeks after Rick Perry’s dominionist-tinged presidential campaign launch. As Posner reminds us, while much of the media coverage at the time was treating this movement as something new in American politics, the fusion of dominionist forces with the Republican Party goes back decades, since at least 1980. Similarly, with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), which only emerged in the 90s, might use new jargon and labels like “Seven Mountain”, it’s really just an extension of the same kind of dominionist forces James Robison was organizing around Ronald Reagon. Forces that culminated in the 1981 formation of the CNP.
* February 7, 2020: The secret network that threatens democracy
Another look at the role James Robison’s organizing played in Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign and how that culminated in the formation of the CNP the following year. As the article describes, one of the rallies Robison helped to organize for Reagan in August of 1980 where Reagan told the audience of 15,000, “You can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.” Boy how times change. Some of the figures featured at the really included prominent CNP members like Bill Bright, Tony Perkins, Tim LaHaye, And James Dobson. Along with Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. As we’ve seen, Paige Patterson and Pressler were the figures behind the South Baptist Convention’s “Conservative Resurgence” in the 1970s. Pressler was also a serial sexual abuser routinely protected by Patterson. Not that Patterson was only protecting Pressler. Instead, Pressler was just the most prominent and scandalous example of what had become a pattern of endemic sexual abuse and cover up inside the SBC denomination. In the end, Pressler’s legacy was in such tatters that his death earlier this year didn’t even get acknowledged at the SBC despite happening just four days before. Key Republican political strategist Paul Weyrich also spoke at the rally. Even Mike Huckabee — then Robison’s 26 year old aide — and Rafael Cruz — father of Ted Cruz — attended the rally. Shortly afterwards, Weyrich went on to assemble a network that would become the Council on National Policy. Initially, it consisted of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Study Committee, the American Legislative Exchange Comittee (ALEC, founded by the Koch Brothers), the Moral Majority and the Religious Roundtable. A list that had enormous overlap with the entities behind Project 2025 today.
* January 11, 2021: The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage
As a reminder of the extensive role played by the CNP in the organizing leading up to January 6 Capitol insurrection, we’re going to take a look at a piece published days after the insurrection trying to make sense of Senator Josh Hawley’s then-enduring support for the narrative about a stolen election. This is the same senator who famously ‘fist pumped’ the insurrectionary crowds hours before being caught on video inside the Senate fleeing from those same mobs. As the piece notes, Hawley has made his dominionist ideology quite clear, especially during a 2017 speech to the American Renewal Project where Hawley described how he viewed the roots of society’s current problems back to the Pelagius, a British monk who taught 17 centuries ago. According to Pelagius, human beings have the freedom to choose how they live their lives and that grace comes to those who do good things, as opposed to those who believe the right doctrines. Hawley views this as heretical. As Hawley sees it, Christians have a divine mandate to impose their vision of right and wrong all over the world. As Hawley put it in his speech, “There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord....We are called to take that message into every sphere of life that we touch, including the political realm...That is our charge. To take the lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm, and to seek the obedience of the nations. Of our nation!”
* March 23, 2023: This rising GOP star embodies the Christian right’s bigotry
Finally, bringing this back to mark Robinson, we’re going to look at another piece by Sarah Posner, this one from March of 2023, describing how the sudden rise of Robinson’s political star was in no small measure thanks to the sponsorship from powerful dominionists. And as Posner warns, Robinson’s rapid ascent from political newcomer to top statewide official isn’t just a remarkable story for Robinson. It’s a model for other dominionists seeking higher office and the power to impose their views on society.
That’s all just some of the incredibly disturbing context surrounding Mark Robinson’s “Some Folks Need Killing!” comments. Comments made at church as this political newcomer makes his bid for the North Carolina governor’s office. Robinson isn’t a political rising star solely thanks to his bombastic rhetoric. He’s a political rise thanks to the fact that his bombastic rhetoric is exactly the kind of rhetoric the dominionist network that have spent decades organizing want to hear from politicians. “Some Folks Need Killing!” wasn’t an throwaway line from a moment of pique. It’s the unspoken slogan of dominionism. Except now it’s spoken.
Mark Robinson’s Sudden ‘Moderation’ On Abortion. Because Elections Still Matter. For Now.
Ok, first, let’s start off with a recent piece in Axio describing a rather surprising pivot from the Robinson campaign: the ardent abortion foe is suddenly fine with the state’s existing 12 week abortion law. Surprising because, until now, Robinson has been pretty unequivocal about his completely opposition to abortion, including statements like “there can be no compromise on abortion.”
Now, it also turns out that Robinson and Wife decide to get an abortion 30 years ago, something they’ve disclosed in the past. So on one level this flip flop may just an attempt to preemptively thread the needle on an issue that could be very damaging to Robinson’s prospects. And then there’s the fact that Robinson is technically only pledging to let the state legislature determine the abortion laws. Republicans have a super-majority in North Carolina’s legislature so it shouldn’t be too hard to imagine stricter laws coming under a Project 2025 theocrat purge scenario. Plus, complete abortion bans just don’t poll well. It really is a drag on his chances.
But while there may be some sort of political strategy that explains the Robinson campaigns decision to back flip on his abortion stance, it’s still pretty surprising. After all, this was the same guy who declared “Some folks need killing!” barely a month earlier and has spent years serving as a dominionist superstar. It’s a timely reminder that were still in the ‘have to get elected first’ phase of this dominionist revolution. Granted, presumably near the end of that phase:
Axios
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson pivots on abortion in a new campaign ad
Lucille Sherman
Aug 2, 2024 -North Carolina’s Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, released a TV ad Friday in which he and his wife tearfully describe their decision to get an abortion 30 years ago.
Why it matters: Robinson has previously rebuked abortions and expressed support for a ban with no expressions, equating the procedure to “murder” and “genocide.”
* But with three months to go before the election, he says in the ad he stands by the state’s current 12-week ban, with exceptions.
Driving the news: “It provides common-sense exceptions for the life of the mother, incest and rape, which gives help to mothers and stops cruel late-term abortions,” Robinson said in the ad.
What they’re saying: Asked about Robinson’s reversal on his position, his campaign spokesperson said “the legislature has already spoken on the issue.”
...
Catch up quick: Robinson’s Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, Attorney General Josh Stein, aired an ad earlier this summer featuring a compilation of statements Robinson has made on abortion, including one in which Robinson said abortion is about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible to keep your skirt down.”
* He also said “there can be no compromise on abortion.”
* Robinson’s campaign responded, saying Stein was “twisting words,” CBS17 reported.
Between the lines: Elections in North Carolina are won on the margins, often by just a few points.
* That means both candidates tend to have to walk a fine line on issues like abortion, to appeal to as many voters as possible.
* The number of Americans who support abortion is at record highs, with around 54% of those polled by Gallup in May saying they identify as “pro-choice.” Around 41% identify as “pro-life.”
* Robinson’s latest ad appears to an attempt to thread the needle of appealing to more moderate voters, along with the more conservative Republican base.
The other side: Stein has said that if he’s elected, he would veto any attempts by the legislature to further restrict abortion or “criminalize women’s freedom over their own bodies.”
...
* The campaign also pointed to Robinson removing references to abortion from his campaign website, as NBC reported, saying he stopped using the “a‑word.”
...
———–
“Why it matters: Robinson has previously rebuked abortions and expressed support for a ban with no expressions, equating the procedure to “murder” and “genocide.””
It’s quite the flip flop. Not necessarily unexpected given the extreme nature of Robinson’s previous stance on abortion and the fact that he’s already secure the GOP nomination and is the middle of the general election. Flipping flopping on previously held extreme positions is a classic political. But it’s somewhat notable given the recent vibe shift of the Republican Party since the Democrats swapped out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris and the 2024 presidential race started looking a lot more like a toss up. First we had Donald Trump’s laughable attempts to disassociate himself with Project 2025, and now this. What’s next? Will JD Vance endorse childless cat ladies next week? We can’t rule it out at this point. It’s that ‘week of the mega-flop’ timing that is a big part of what makes this not just a story about the North Carolina governor’s race but a national political story. Mark Robinson is trying to tamp down the crazy. When the crazy was more or less all he had. The crazy was his brand:
...
* But with three months to go before the election, he says in the ad he stands by the state’s current 12-week ban, with exceptions.Driving the news: “It provides common-sense exceptions for the life of the mother, incest and rape, which gives help to mothers and stops cruel late-term abortions,” Robinson said in the ad.
What they’re saying: Asked about Robinson’s reversal on his position, his campaign spokesperson said “the legislature has already spoken on the issue.”
...
Catch up quick: Robinson’s Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, Attorney General Josh Stein, aired an ad earlier this summer featuring a compilation of statements Robinson has made on abortion, including one in which Robinson said abortion is about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible to keep your skirt down.”
* He also said “there can be no compromise on abortion.”
* Robinson’s campaign responded, saying Stein was “twisting words,” CBS17 reported.
...
* Robinson’s latest ad appears to an attempt to thread the needle of appealing to more moderate voters, along with the more conservative Republican base.
...
Was this a predictable ‘moderating for the general’ tonal shift or a sign of a more significant strategic rebranding? We’ll see. There’s still plenty of time for Robinson to revert back to his ultra-extreme abortion stance. But, for now, it looks like we’re going to get ‘moderate’ Mark Robinsons.
And don’t forget that when the Robinson campaign deflects questions by insisting that “the legislature has already spoken on the issue,” the GOP has a super-majority in North Carolina’s legislature. What are the odds a governor Robinson doesn’t get a more extreme law handed to him to sign over the next four years if he wins?
Some Folks Need Killing!
It’s also worth noting that, as a relatively inexperienced politician, it’s potentially easier for Robinson to make major policy pivots. He has less of a track record to turn his back on. So if it seems like we could be a looking at a real shift of Robinson’s policy stance on abortion, it’s important to keep in mind that Robinson’s rapidly rising political star hasn’t actually been some independent rise. He’s has support, and not just from Trump. Robinson has had institutional extensive support. Because of course he has. Mark Robinson carrying out the Republican establishment’s bidding. A bidding that happens to be Christian Nationalist state capture:
Truthout
Christian Nationalists Pursue State Capture — and North Carolina Is Exhibit A
North Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson exemplifies the Christian right’s sinister agenda.
By Lewis Raven Wallace, Truthout
Published
August 1, 2024North Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson exemplifies the Christian right’s sinister agenda.
The Christian right has a new charismatic leader: Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, who is running a bone-chilling campaign to become the state’s next governor. Most recently, he made news when he delivered a speech in a church saying some people who are “evil” or “wicked” might just “need killing.”
North Carolina is among the southern states that should be regarded as canaries in the coal mine for “state capture”: the process by which the far right is wresting control of U.S. politics in spite of representing a minority of the population’s views.
...
Right-wing state capture is increasingly a threat within U.S. states, which are systematically being taken over by Christian right leaders and their corporate and wealthy supporters through a combination of gerrymandering, voter suppression, organized and coordinated propaganda, and privatization. Public institutions that often serve as venues for free debate and social change — such as libraries and universities — are under aggressive attack.
North Carolina has been among the testing grounds for this approach, alongside states like Texas, Florida, South Carolina and Oklahoma (just to name a few). Now Mark Robinson poses an imminent threat of pushing the state’s undemocratic policies to a new level.
Robinson came onto the political scene relatively recently, catching people’s attention with a fiery speech he gave on gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018. Since then, he’s been a splashy figure with a fast rise to fame: He is a Black arch-conservative known for calling education about sexuality and gender identity “filth,” calling Muslims “invaders,” tweeting about Holocaust denial and promoting anti-Jewish tropes, and spreading coronavirus conspiracy theories. Robinson, a former factory worker and army reservist, ran a successful campaign to become North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor in 2020.
Robinson is in some ways low-hanging fruit for liberal pundits, and an example of what our politics in 2024 have boiled down to: inflammatory, viral and uncompromising. But more important than his attitude and style is Robinson’s actual policy and platform. The problem is not just his words, but the actions they lead to: state capture dressed up as righteous Christian populism.
Robinson’s vision for North Carolina is a kind of Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale: He dreams of Christian supremacy, openly enforced by both police and armed civilians. This brand of Christian nationalism would mean rolling back abortion rights even further; defunding public schools and severely restricting all school-based discussions of race, gender and sexuality; preventing trans people’s access to health care; deporting immigrants; increasing policing; and even taking up arms against what he describes as anti-patriotic and anti-Christian forces.
Robinson may seem like a loose cannon, but with him as a spokesman, the state’s Republican Party is in fact pursuing most of these goals systematically. After the Dobbs decision in the Supreme Court, the Republican-run legislature passed a ban on abortions after 12 weeks, overriding current Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto with their powerful supermajority vote. If Robinson is elected, he plans to further those goals: He supports a total ban on abortions except in cases of rape, incest or endangering the life of the parent.
“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers,” he said in a video that his Democratic opponent Josh Stein has made a key part of his campaign ads. “It’s about killing a child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
Just last year, Robinson also supported a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” passed by the North Carolina legislature that restricts young people from accessing sexual and gender identity education or changing their names or pronouns without parental consent, and makes it impossible for trans youth to get health care or even mental health support at school if their parents do not approve. Teachers essentially become mandatory reporters of children’s trans identities, a prospect that has both LGBTQ advocates and educators concerned.
This bill came on the heels of a performative attack on public education that Robinson spearheaded over several years. Robinson led a task force that claimed to be investigating “indoctrination” in schools — he called it the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students (F.A.C.T.S.) Task Force. After a brief period of “investigation” with no public meetings or even minutes regarding the process, the task force produced a report baselessly claiming that kids in the state were being indoctrinated with “critical race theory” and exposed to so-called white shaming and sexualization of kids, among other things.
In reality, the report cherry-picked submissions from conservative parents and teachers whose complaints included teachers posting Black Lives Matter signs, children being required to learn about racial discrimination and racial equity, counselors being given instructions on how to support trans kids, and even — gasp — a teacher telling his fifth-graders about having “two daddy’s and two mommy’s [sic] and how that was okay.”
“There’s no reason anybody anyplace in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” Robinson quipped on a church stage the year the task force launched.
Education advocates are angry about this infringement on their freedom to teach and support students as they see fit — and equally concerned about the GOP’s underlying agenda of increasing school vouchers and offering them to wealthy families while shifting funding out of the public school system. A bill that would shift hundreds of millions in school funds from public schools to vouchers is currently stalled in the state legislature.
While right-wing politicians are shrouding all these actions in preachy morality, their long-term impact is actually to defund public schools, creating — over time — an ill-informed and disempowered electorate with little power.
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Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson tends toward the flashy and apocalyptic, implying that “Christian patriots” ought to take up arms. “Our government is out of control,” he told a crowd in Raleigh. “But I can assure you, just as the barefooted patriots who stood on Bunker Hill got the British under control, the angry and indignant patriots of the United States and North Carolina are going to rein this government back in control.”
Pro-democracy activists in North Carolina are rightly pointing out that the state provides a blueprint for state capture by the Christian right. This process is already well underway in North Carolina, and a Robinson win would only accelerate it. The viability of his current campaign should be a warning to all who care to protect both states and the nation from a future in which more and more of us live under regimes of Christian supremacy.
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“Robinson is in some ways low-hanging fruit for liberal pundits, and an example of what our politics in 2024 have boiled down to: inflammatory, viral and uncompromising. But more important than his attitude and style is Robinson’s actual policy and platform. The problem is not just his words, but the actions they lead to: state capture dressed up as righteous Christian populism.”
Mark Robinson might wear populist robes. But he’s a political soldier an army directed by very powerful elite forces. Forces who may not be God but could be effectively kings and queens once they’re done with their capture of the state. Or states, rather. North Carolina is just one of the states experiencing Christian Nationalist institutional capture. And when these forces have succeeded, you can be confident the Old Mark Robinson’s complete abortion restrictions will be back on the agenda. Because it was never actually off the agenda. The end goal really is something like Gilead:
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Right-wing state capture is increasingly a threat within U.S. states, which are systematically being taken over by Christian right leaders and their corporate and wealthy supporters through a combination of gerrymandering, voter suppression, organized and coordinated propaganda, and privatization. Public institutions that often serve as venues for free debate and social change — such as libraries and universities — are under aggressive attack.North Carolina has been among the testing grounds for this approach, alongside states like Texas, Florida, South Carolina and Oklahoma (just to name a few). Now Mark Robinson poses an imminent threat of pushing the state’s undemocratic policies to a new level.
...
Robinson’s vision for North Carolina is a kind of Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale: He dreams of Christian supremacy, openly enforced by both police and armed civilians. This brand of Christian nationalism would mean rolling back abortion rights even further; defunding public schools and severely restricting all school-based discussions of race, gender and sexuality; preventing trans people’s access to health care; deporting immigrants; increasing policing; and even taking up arms against what he describes as anti-patriotic and anti-Christian forces.
Robinson may seem like a loose cannon, but with him as a spokesman, the state’s Republican Party is in fact pursuing most of these goals systematically. After the Dobbs decision in the Supreme Court, the Republican-run legislature passed a ban on abortions after 12 weeks, overriding current Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto with their powerful supermajority vote. If Robinson is elected, he plans to further those goals: He supports a total ban on abortions except in cases of rape, incest or endangering the life of the parent.
“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers,” he said in a video that his Democratic opponent Josh Stein has made a key part of his campaign ads. “It’s about killing a child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
...
And as we were reminded of less than two weeks before the assassination attempt on Trump, those extremist forces behind him were perfectly fine with his other extremist views. Like the view that “Some Folks Need Killing!” A view Robinson shared during a June 30 speech at a church. “It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity!” Robinson actually said that. At a church.
Some Folks Need Killing. It’s a Non-Controversial Church-Approved Message
How was this message of killing received at this church? Well, as Reverend Cameron McGill, the Pastor of Lake Church, confirmed, these comments about the necessity for killing were expected to be “scrutinized,” but McGill defended them as in no way meant to imply innocent people be killed. Robinson only meant that those “seeking to kill us” should be killed, according to McGill. It was really “non-controversial” words, as McGill put it journalists afterwards:
The New Republic
MAGA Gov Candidate’s Ugly, Hateful Rant: “Some Folks Need Killing!”
Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina, has a long history of incendiary comments. But he may have topped himself this time.
Greg Sargent
July 5, 2024Mark Robinson, the extremist GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina, appeared to endorse political violence in a bizarre and extended rant he delivered on June 30 in a small-town church.
“Some folks need killing!” Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, shouted during a roughly half-hour-long speech in Lake Church in the tiny town of White Lake, in the southeast corner of the state. “It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity!”
Robinson’s call for the “killing” of “some folks” came during an extended diatribe in which he attacked an extraordinary assortment of enemies. These ranged from “people who have evil intent” to “wicked people” to those doing things like “torturing and murdering and raping” to socialists and Communists. He also invoked those supposedly undermining America’s founding ideals and leftists allegedly persecuting conservatives by canceling them and doxxing them online.
In all this, Robinson appeared to endorse lethal violence against these unnamed enemies, particularly on the left, though he wasn’t exactly clear on which “folks” are the ones who “need killing.”
Robinson, a self-described “MAGA Republican,” has a long history of wildly radical and unhinged moments. He has linked homosexuality to pedophilia, called for the arrest of trans women, pushed hallucinogenic antisemitic conspiracy theories, endorsed the vile “birther” conspiracy about Barack Obama, described Michelle Obama as a man, hinted at the need to violently oppose federal law enforcement and the government, and posted memes mocking and denying the brutal, violent assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, among many other things.
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Here’s what Robinson said (bold mine):
We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know, there’s a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield, and guess what we did to it? We killed it! … When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, what did we do? We flew to Japan! And we killed the Japanese Army and Navy! … We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard. No, they’re bad. Kill them. Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to.
Some folks need killing! It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity! When you have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering and raping. It’s time to call out, uh, those guys in green and go have them handled. Or those boys in blue and have them go handle it.…
We need to start handling our business again.… Don’t you feel it slipping away? … The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus. They’re watching us. They’re listening to us. They’re tracking us. They get mad at you. They cancel you. They dox you. They kick you off social media. They come in and close down your business. Folks, it’s happening … because we have forgotten who we are.
Robinson might try to argue that he only meant that our enemies during World War II—and torturers and murderers and rapists today—deserve “killing.” But the sum total of his remarks plainly suggests otherwise. He seemed to analogize the need to kill World War II enemies to the need to kill enemies in the present, enemies who harbor “evil intent,” enemies conservatives are struggling against “now.”
What’s more, Robinson described those enemies in very broad terms. He suggested that conservatives will lose the spirit of 1776 (meaning their country) to enemies who harass them on social media and elsewhere unless they are prepared to unleash the army and cops to “handle” (i.e., kill) them. These appear to be the “folks” who “need killing.”
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The Reverend Cameron McGill, the Pastor of Lake Church, confirmed to me that he and Robinson expected these remarks about “killing” to be “scrutinized,” but defended them.
“Without a doubt, those he deemed worthy of death [were] those seeking to kill us,” Pastor Cameron said in an email, adding that Robinson “certainly did not imply the taking of any innocent lives” and that the rest of his speech was “non-controversial.” There was no formal media presence during the speech, the Pastor confirmed.
Video of the speech was clipped by a Democrat, who took it off Lake Church’s video of the event on Facebook, which is still there in full. The Democrat flagged it for The New Republic. You can watch it here:
[See video]This tendency on the right to invoke an infinitely hallucinogenic and malleable leftist enemy to justify in advance the political violence that the right itself wants to unleash on its enemies is a near-daily occurrence. Another ripe example came just this week from Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the brain trust behind Project 2025’s radical blueprint for MAGA authoritarian rule under a second Trump presidency.
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts declared.
In this, Roberts essentially said that if liberals and Democrats too vehemently resist MAGA’s intent to stock the government with corrupt loyalists to Trump and unleash mass persecution of the opposition, violence will be necessary to crush them—and if so, it will be their fault for not meekly accepting what they have coming to them. Meanwhile, Trump himself recently suggested that political violence may erupt if the presidential election isn’t conducted with “fairness” and is stolen from him, by which he really means, “if I don’t win.”
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““Some folks need killing!” Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, shouted during a roughly half-hour-long speech in Lake Church in the tiny town of White Lake, in the southeast corner of the state. “It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity!””
He wasn’t mincing words. Some folks just need killing as a matter of necessity. It’s not about spite. It’s about necessity. That was Robsinson’s message in a church just two weeks before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump by a young man who by almost all accounts appears to have been a far right gun nut.
So who were these people who need killing? Well, Nazis. At least Nazis back during WWII. Today it’s people ‘canceling’ conservatives on social media, for example. Those kind of enemies:
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Robinson’s call for the “killing” of “some folks” came during an extended diatribe in which he attacked an extraordinary assortment of enemies. These ranged from “people who have evil intent” to “wicked people” to those doing things like “torturing and murdering and raping” to socialists and Communists. He also invoked those supposedly undermining America’s founding ideals and leftists allegedly persecuting conservatives by canceling them and doxxing them online.In all this, Robinson appeared to endorse lethal violence against these unnamed enemies, particularly on the left, though he wasn’t exactly clear on which “folks” are the ones who “need killing.”
...
Here’s what Robinson said (bold mine):
We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know, there’s a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield, and guess what we did to it? We killed it! … When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, what did we do? We flew to Japan! And we killed the Japanese Army and Navy! … We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard. No, they’re bad. Kill them. Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to.
Some folks need killing! It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity! When you have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering and raping. It’s time to call out, uh, those guys in green and go have them handled. Or those boys in blue and have them go handle it.…
We need to start handling our business again.… Don’t you feel it slipping away? … The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus. They’re watching us. They’re listening to us. They’re tracking us. They get mad at you. They cancel you. They dox you. They kick you off social media. They come in and close down your business. Folks, it’s happening … because we have forgotten who we are.
Robinson might try to argue that he only meant that our enemies during World War II—and torturers and murderers and rapists today—deserve “killing.” But the sum total of his remarks plainly suggests otherwise. He seemed to analogize the need to kill World War II enemies to the need to kill enemies in the present, enemies who harbor “evil intent,” enemies conservatives are struggling against “now.”
What’s more, Robinson described those enemies in very broad terms. He suggested that conservatives will lose the spirit of 1776 (meaning their country) to enemies who harass them on social media and elsewhere unless they are prepared to unleash the army and cops to “handle” (i.e., kill) them. These appear to be the “folks” who “need killing.”
...
And in case it wasn’t clear the leader of the Church, Reverend Cameron McGill, fully endorsed this message of the necessity for killing, he cleared that up with an email arguing the words were “non-controversial” and only meant to be applied to the people who deserve it. The people “seeking to kill us.” Not the innocent:
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The Reverend Cameron McGill, the Pastor of Lake Church, confirmed to me that he and Robinson expected these remarks about “killing” to be “scrutinized,” but defended them.“Without a doubt, those he deemed worthy of death [were] those seeking to kill us,” Pastor Cameron said in an email, adding that Robinson “certainly did not imply the taking of any innocent lives” and that the rest of his speech was “non-controversial.” There was no formal media presence during the speech, the Pastor confirmed.
Video of the speech was clipped by a Democrat, who took it off Lake Church’s video of the event on Facebook, which is still there in full. The Democrat flagged it for The New Republic. You can watch it here:
[See video]
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And as this article reminds us, far right threats of violent, implied or very explicit, has become a near daily occurrence in the age of Trump. Including the threat of violence from Trump if doesn’t win issued during an April interview with Time Magazine. ‘Tis the season of threats of violence:
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This tendency on the right to invoke an infinitely hallucinogenic and malleable leftist enemy to justify in advance the political violence that the right itself wants to unleash on its enemies is a near-daily occurrence. Another ripe example came just this week from Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the brain trust behind Project 2025’s radical blueprint for MAGA authoritarian rule under a second Trump presidency.“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts declared.
In this, Roberts essentially said that if liberals and Democrats too vehemently resist MAGA’s intent to stock the government with corrupt loyalists to Trump and unleash mass persecution of the opposition, violence will be necessary to crush them—and if so, it will be their fault for not meekly accepting what they have coming to them. Meanwhile, Trump himself recently suggested that political violence may erupt if the presidential election isn’t conducted with “fairness” and is stolen from him, by which he really means, “if I don’t win.”
...
And as the following article notes, while the speech came on June 30, it was a really written for July 4. This was the second year in a row Robertson gave an ‘Independence Day’-themed speech at this same church. That’s part of the context of the ‘killing’ talk. Which, puts it squarely in the context of Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts’s July 2 threats of a ‘Second American Revolution’ which will “remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”. That’s near daily.
Mark Robinson and Reverand Cameron McGill: American Renewal Project Favorites
And in case it seems like Robertson’s call for killing was limited to the general category of ‘people trying to kill us’, as Reverend McGill put it, note the person who McGill declared was working for the devil before Robertson’s speech: Joe Biden. Do president’s working the devil deserve to be killed? We didn’t get that clarification from McGill. And now Kamala is running. Although we can be pretty confident McGill is confident Kamala also works for the devil. It would almost be weird at this point if he didn’t:
The News & Observer
In speech about freedom ‘slipping away,’ Mark Robinson talks about ‘wicked people,’ killing
By Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan
Updated July 06, 2024 4:31 PM
RALEIGH
North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor used a recent speech about freedom to talk about how he sees the United States “slipping away” from the Declaration of Independence and how he thinks “wicked people” should be punished by the military and police.
This is the second year in a row that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has given an Independence Day-themed speech at an ultra-conservative church and made controversial comments. In 2023, he talked about “hell’s gates” and targeted teachers and LGBTQ+ people. Before a speech June 30 at Lake Church in Bladen County celebrating the Fourth of July, the pastor hosting Robinson said he thinks the devil is behind President Joe Biden.
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Robinson spoke during the church’s two-hour service. Before his speech, he had a conversation in rocking chairs by the pulpit with Lake Church pastor, the Rev. Cameron McGill. The church, which also has a lakefront retreat camp, is in White Lake, and is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
McGill also serves on the Bladen County Board of Commissioners. McGill said the church will also host U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, who is running for attorney general, and Dave Boliek, who is running for state auditor.
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Robinson thinks freedom is ‘slipping away’
By saying “handling our business again,” Robinson explained by referencing something he said at the beginning of his speech, about people on their way to the church having the freedom to dress how they like and listen to what they want on the radio. He thinks those freedoms are “slipping away.”
“Keep thinking about it. Don’t you feel it slipping away? Don’t you feel it slipping away?” he repeated. “The further away we get from the concept of 1776 and why we declared our independence and how we declared our independence. The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory, and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus.”
Robinson claimed “they” are watching, tracking, listening to, canceling, doxxing and mad at “you” and “us.”
He also used his speech to preach about salvation through Jesus Christ, how he didn’t want to wear a mask in a store during COVID-19 restrictions and why he doesn’t celebrate Juneteenth.
Robinson is North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor, and if he wins in the fall will be the state’s first Black governor. For Juneteenth, Robinson said he isn’t from Galveston, Texas, which was the location where news of the Emancipation Proclamation last reached enslaved people, noting that slavery was not ended until the 13th Amendment was ratified. Ratification was on Dec. 6, 1865. Congress passed it on Jan. 31, 1865.
White House reaction
Robinson, who is part of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. During his visit to the Lake Church, McGill showed the congregation a photo of Robinson with Trump. Before Robinson’s speech, McGill also talked about President Joe Biden.
“I said here last week, and I know it’s offensive, probably,” McGill said. “But people ask me all the time, Who’s behind President Biden, and that administration? Is it Obama, is it Clinton? Read your Bible. It is the devil. He is the father of lies. He is the deceiver. He is the divider. He is the manipulator.”
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“This is the second year in a row that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has given an Independence Day-themed speech at an ultra-conservative church and made controversial comments. In 2023, he talked about “hell’s gates” and targeted teachers and LGBTQ+ people. Before a speech June 30 at Lake Church in Bladen County celebrating the Fourth of July, the pastor hosting Robinson said he thinks the devil is behind President Joe Biden.”
The second year in a row an Independence Day themes speech by Robertson. It’s a little scary to imagine what last year’s speech was like.
And note the other rhetorical repeat in this story: The comments Reverend McGill made about Joe Biden have the devil behind his administration, he prefaced those comments with “I said here last week, and I know it’s offensive, probably,” before making those assertions about Biden’s devil-driven administration. ‘Joe Biden does the devil’s work’ is apparently a theme in McGill’s teachings:
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Robinson spoke during the church’s two-hour service. Before his speech, he had a conversation in rocking chairs by the pulpit with Lake Church pastor, the Rev. Cameron McGill. The church, which also has a lakefront retreat camp, is in White Lake, and is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.McGill also serves on the Bladen County Board of Commissioners. McGill said the church will also host U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, who is running for attorney general, and Dave Boliek, who is running for state auditor.
...
Robinson, who is part of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. During his visit to the Lake Church, McGill showed the congregation a photo of Robinson with Trump. Before Robinson’s speech, McGill also talked about President Joe Biden.
“I said here last week, and I know it’s offensive, probably,” McGill said. “But people ask me all the time, Who’s behind President Biden, and that administration? Is it Obama, is it Clinton? Read your Bible. It is the devil. He is the father of lies. He is the deceiver. He is the divider. He is the manipulator.”
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But Reverend McGill shouldn’t be seen as a lone killing-friendly preacher. He’s part of an organization: The American Renewal Project. As the following article describes, the American Renew Project operates as a network of pastors dedicated to the Republican Party. But it’s not just dedicated to getting Republicans elected to office. It’s dedicated to recruiting pastors to run for office. A network dedicated to convincing conservative pastors to run for public office. With Cameron McGill serving as one of its recruiters and Mark Robinson as some sort of star salesman:
Religion News Service
The American Renewal Project wants to mobilize pastors for the Republican Party.
The goal is to bring Christianity back into the public square.
by Yonat Shimron
November 4, 2022WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (RNS) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has a message for the state’s evangelical pastors: Run for office.
Robinson has repeated his message at least eight times over the past few months at church luncheons across North Carolina hosted by the American Renewal Project, a group dedicated to mobilizing evangelical pastors to run for school boards, city councils, county commissions, the state legislature and beyond.
The project, which has hosted similar events in Iowa, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas, takes the now decades-long effort to get evangelicals engaged in electoral politics one step further. It seeks to bring pastors into elected office.
Robinson, a 54-year-old Republican and a first-time officeholder himself, said the nation needs pastors willing to fight a spiritual war in the halls of power.
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If Jerry Falwell Sr. founded the Moral Majority to get evangelicals to lobby Congress on issues of morality, and if the Christian Coalition mobilized Christians to cast ballots, then the American Renewal Project wants pastors to run as candidates on the Republican Party ticket up and down the ballot.
Now in its 17th year, the project reorganized two years ago to focus on regional pastor luncheons in a handful of states. This year, eight of its 19 luncheons were held in North Carolina, drawing more than 1,500 pastors and their wives. The events were free, and no offerings were taken.
In addition to the lieutenant governor, each luncheon featured North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, who promised the pastors that if they run, the party will provide them the logistical support they need.
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Driving the project is the Christian nationalist notion that America has strayed from its origins and needs to be restored to its Christian foundations.
“America was founded on the Judeo-Christian heritage and established a biblically based culture,” said David Lane, a Dallas, Texas, political operative who founded American Renewal Project. “We no longer have that. Secularism was officially crowned in the mid-20th century.”
Lane said evangelical donors have given him nearly $50 million since 2005 to support his project and convince pastors to take up the cause.
Those invited to recent luncheons come from various denominations. Most are Southern Baptist, charismatic or Pentecostal. The men — there are few, if any, women pastors — are overwhelmingly white. And despite the commonly used term Judeo-Christian, there are hardly any Catholics, and certainly no Jews.
Among those who spoke at most of the eight events across the state were two Baptist pastors on the Nov. 8 ballot. One is running, unopposed, for commissioner in Bladen County; the other is running for the North Carolina House in heavily Republican-leaning Randolph County. Barring a disaster, both will win.
The two pastors peppered their on-stage appeals with biblical references. One cited Peter, Jesus’ disciple, finding the courage to get out of the boat during the storm. The other paraphrased the Book of Esther so beloved by evangelicals: “You’ve been brought into the kingdom for such a time as this.”
A common refrain at the American Renewal Project is that Jesus’ saying, “Upon this rock I will build my church,” is commonly misconstrued. The Greek word “ecclesia,” often translated as “church,” actually means “assembly.” American Renewal’s supporters take this as a sign that Jesus wanted Christians to have influence in the public square, not just inside the walls of a church.
Project leaders think the strategy is working. They claim 50 pastors ran for various North Carolina offices in this year’s primaries, and 25 won their nominations and will appear on this November’s ballots.
The Renewal Project did not, however, provide a list of those vying for public office, and only a handful could be independently verified. The group does not fund any the pastors’ campaigns.
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It wasn’t until 1978 that it was even possible for pastors in all states to run. Historically, some states had clauses in their constitutions prohibiting clergy from running for office, a holdover from English common law. In McDaniel v. Paty, the Supreme Court struck down the last of those clauses, ruling that a Tennessee law prohibiting clergy members from serving as political delegates violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
“For much of the 19th and 20th centuries there was a general idea that ministerial service was a separate profession from politics and it was incompatible with running for office,” said Daniel K. Williams, professor of history at the University of West Georgia.
Black pastors have, at times, been the exception, and almost exclusively on the Democratic ticket. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., onetime pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, served as a Democratic U.S. congressman from 1945 until 1971. The Rev. Jesse Jackson ran unsuccessfully for president in 1984 and 1988. The Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, is now running for reelection to the U.S. Senate. In local races there have undoubtedly been many more.
Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, who is Black, is an exception. He captured the state’s second-highest elected office after a 2018 video that captured him admonishing the Greensboro City Council for attempting to cancel a biannual gun show went viral. Since winning office in 2020, he has defined himself as a culture warrior, decrying “transgenderism and homosexuality” as “filth,” calling for eliminating the state Board of Education and opposing abortion (though he acknowledged that he and his future wife terminated a pregnancy in 1989).
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Robinson, who is not a pastor, shares with the American Renewal Project a mythical vision of America’s founders. At this week’s pastor’s luncheon at a church in Jamestown, near Greensboro, he rhapsodized about the faith of the Mayflower Puritans and the pioneers who traveled west in covered wagons in search of land. There was no mention of the displacement of Native people or the enslavement of Blacks.
“Those people were made of something different,” Robinson bellowed. “Look at us now. You got people that can’t get around the corner of Walmart without GPS. We have literally forgotten how to do anything.”
At the end of Robinson’s 15-minute testimony, Gary Miller, the project’s director, asks pastors to get up and lay hands on the lieutenant governor and pray for him. For about two minutes, the pastors crowd around the stout, broad-chested Robinson. They lay hands on his back or lift their arms up in the air and pray out loud — a moment reminiscent of Trump’s Oval Office prayer circles.
Renewal Project leaders do not take a public stand for former President Trump or unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Lane, the group’s founder, said he is not involved in helping reelect Trump and does not believe the election was stolen.
His fight, as he wrote in his weekly email, which he says is emailed to 80,000 pastors, is against “profane secularists and cultural Marxism.”
“If North Carolina Christians stay home on election day, then those in active rebellion against God will get the chance to elect their representatives,” he wrote in a recent email to followers, in which he also castigated the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina for holding its annual meeting on Election Day.
The last of this year’s luncheons were held this week. But Lane’s work is not done. Immediately after Election Day, Lane is headed for Israel with a delegation of pastors he wants to convince to run for office. A frequent traveler to Israel, Lane has taken Huckabee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul along on these trips.
Cameron McGill, the Baptist pastor and Bladen County commissioner who traveled to Israel with Lane in 2019, is returning this year to help convince a new crop of pastors to step up and run for office.
“God has called us not just to build our church but to impact the culture,” McGill said. The trip to Israel, he said, may help U.S. pastors see how Jesus himself did so.
———–
“Robinson has repeated his message at least eight times over the past few months at church luncheons across North Carolina hosted by the American Renewal Project, a group dedicated to mobilizing evangelical pastors to run for school boards, city councils, county commissions, the state legislature and beyond.”
Eight speeches by Robinson at American Renewal Project over the course of just a few months. And that was back in late 2022. As we can see, Robinson is quite a popular figure with the American Renewal Project. Mark Robinson isn’t just a random politician with respect to the American Renewal Project. He’s their star politician. Which is rather ironic given that the American Renewal Project is dedicated to convincing pastors to run for office and Robinson is now pastor:
...
Now in its 17th year, the project reorganized two years ago to focus on regional pastor luncheons in a handful of states. This year, eight of its 19 luncheons were held in North Carolina, drawing more than 1,500 pastors and their wives. The events were free, and no offerings were taken.In addition to the lieutenant governor, each luncheon featured North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, who promised the pastors that if they run, the party will provide them the logistical support they need.
...
Driving the project is the Christian nationalist notion that America has strayed from its origins and needs to be restored to its Christian foundations.
...
Those invited to recent luncheons come from various denominations. Most are Southern Baptist, charismatic or Pentecostal. The men — there are few, if any, women pastors — are overwhelmingly white. And despite the commonly used term Judeo-Christian, there are hardly any Catholics, and certainly no Jews.
...
Project leaders think the strategy is working. They claim 50 pastors ran for various North Carolina offices in this year’s primaries, and 25 won their nominations and will appear on this November’s ballots.
The Renewal Project did not, however, provide a list of those vying for public office, and only a handful could be independently verified. The group does not fund any the pastors’ campaigns.
...
It wasn’t until 1978 that it was even possible for pastors in all states to run. Historically, some states had clauses in their constitutions prohibiting clergy from running for office, a holdover from English common law. In McDaniel v. Paty, the Supreme Court struck down the last of those clauses, ruling that a Tennessee law prohibiting clergy members from serving as political delegates violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
“For much of the 19th and 20th centuries there was a general idea that ministerial service was a separate profession from politics and it was incompatible with running for office,” said Daniel K. Williams, professor of history at the University of West Georgia.
...
So who is behind the American Renewal Project? Well, as we can see, it was founded by Dallas-based political operative David Lane, which claims to have received nearly $50 million from donors for the project since 2005. And look who was attending Lane on a planned trip to Israel to help convince more pastors to run for political office: Cameron McGill, who also traveled with Lane there in 2019 as part of the pastor recruitment agenda:
...
“America was founded on the Judeo-Christian heritage and established a biblically based culture,” said David Lane, a Dallas, Texas, political operative who founded American Renewal Project. “We no longer have that. Secularism was officially crowned in the mid-20th century.”Lane said evangelical donors have given him nearly $50 million since 2005 to support his project and convince pastors to take up the cause.
...
The last of this year’s luncheons were held this week. But Lane’s work is not done. Immediately after Election Day, Lane is headed for Israel with a delegation of pastors he wants to convince to run for office. A frequent traveler to Israel, Lane has taken Huckabee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul along on these trips.
Cameron McGill, the Baptist pastor and Bladen County commissioner who traveled to Israel with Lane in 2019, is returning this year to help convince a new crop of pastors to step up and run for office.
“God has called us not just to build our church but to impact the culture,” McGill said. The trip to Israel, he said, may help U.S. pastors see how Jesus himself did so.
...
Robinson and McGill are clearly important figures in the American Renewal Project. But as we’re going to see, the American Renewal Project has been around for a lot longer than Mark Robinson’s political career. And it has about as much institutional support as a far right Christian Nationalist entity can receive.
The American Renewal Project’s Texas Patrons (who also want to ban Christmas and Easter)
For example, let’s take a look at the following Reuters article from December of 2015 about the American Renewal Project’s then-nearly-decade old efforts to recruit more pastors to run for office. Recall how this was the period not long before Donald Trump’s formal capture of the Republican Party, when Ted Cruz was still the candidate of choice among these powerful theocrats. It was also a month after the highly contentions political fight over the Houston ‘bathroom bill.’ A fight that served as an early template for the GOP’s embrace of ‘anti-trans’ politics and by key Texas theocratic political operatives Jared Woodfill and Steven Hotze, with groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Family Research Council (FRC) helping to propel the story to a national audience. Several pastors described as instrumental in that efforts are also part of the American Renewal Project.
And as the following Reuters article describes, David Lane was holding gatherings across the US at this time as part of his American Renewal Project efforts, claiming to have a network of 100,000 pastors already at that point. Gatherings financed in part by the powerful Texas billionaire Wilks brothers, who chipped in $10 million for the effort. Recall how the billionaire Wilks brothers are key partners with Tim Dunn in the theocratic capture of the Texas Republican Party. Also recall how Farris Wilks is such a staunch advocate of the Old Testament that he actually opposes the celebration of Christmas and Easter, arguing that are “rooted in paganism”. Yes, it turns out the Texas billionaire who is such a giant theocrat he actually hates Easter and Christmas for being un-Christian also happens to be one of the major financiers of the American Renewal Project:
Reuters
For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016
By Michelle Conlin
December 11, 2015 9:22 AM CST
UpdatedNEW YORK (Reuters) — One Sunday two years ago, Pastor Rob McCoy, who believes in banning abortion and gay marriage and putting prayer back in schools, stood at the pulpit of his California mega church and announced he was endorsing a political candidate: himself.
“Every single person in this room has been inculcated and trained to think that any time a pastor opens his mouth to talk about politics from the pulpit, somehow that’s wrong,” said the 51-year-old McCoy. “You’ve been taught incorrectly. There should be no other place that you should speak of it but from the pulpit.”
McCoy lost his bid for the California State Assembly but, with the help of 650 volunteers, mostly from his church, he later won a seat on the Thousand Oaks, California, city council.
McCoy represents a tactical shift within a Christian far right seeking to regain its political influence after losing several big battles in the so-called culture wars, including the Supreme Court ruling this year allowing gay marriage. That shift is being brought into sharp focus as activists prepare the battleground for the 2016 general election.
Aiming to motivate conservative Christians, they are focusing on smaller political races, local ballot initiatives and community voter registration drives.
At the center of the effort is the American Renewal Project, an umbrella group that says it has a network of 100,000 pastors. It is headed by evangelical Republican political operative David Lane, who wants to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for elected office in 2016.
So far, roughly 500 have committed to running, Lane told Reuters.
...
In some instances, pastors are trumpeting their candidacies or those of other evangelicals directly from the pulpit, in violation of Internal Revenue Service rules governing tax-exempt churches. Some are launching church-wide voter registration drives.
One, Brad Atkins, pastor of South Carolina’s Powdersville First Baptist Church, said he has just finished registering every eligible voter in his church of 300. “I even lick the envelope and stick on the stamp for them,” said Atkins.
Several of the pastors in Lane’s network were instrumental in last month’s defeat of Houston’s “transgender bathroom bill,” the local ordinance that banned discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity in public places. The pastors united to decry the measure and encourage congregants to sign a petition that eventually put the new law to a ballot initiative, where it was voted down.
...
In the runup to November 2016, Lane says he is holding conferences in hotels across the country nearly every week, bringing together thousands of far right pastors and their wives for two-day, all-expenses paid retreats. There are lectures on running political campaigns, turning out voters, and injecting sermons with a healthy dose of politics.
...
Helping fund the events are political donors like the billionaire Wilks brothers, who have given up to $10 million according to sources close to the family. The Wilks, together with their wives, have also given $15 million to a Super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a favorite of evangelicals.
“THE LORD IS LEADING ME”
Cruz, who has shown up at about 10 of the events this year alone, appears to be the candidate who may benefit most from Lane’s drive. He attended a recent gathering at a hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, where about 200 pastors and their wives listened to a series of speakers.
...
Critics say openly discussing politics from the pulpit — even announcing plans to run for office — threatens the concept of separation of church and state. It is also prohibited by the IRS, if churches want to remain tax exempt.
Since 2012, about 900 preachers from evangelical fundamentalist churches across the United States have made recordings of politically infused sermons and sent them to the IRS. The federal tax agency, which declined to comment, has yet to take any action.
Lane and his network of pastors say they are well within their rights to bring politics into the church. “The founding fathers never meant for the church not to participate in government,” said Lane. “They meant for the government not to interfere with the church.
———–
“At the center of the effort is the American Renewal Project, an umbrella group that says it has a network of 100,000 pastors. It is headed by evangelical Republican political operative David Lane, who wants to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for elected office in 2016.’
As we can see, the American Renewal Project was already well underway by 2015, with Lane claiming a network of 100,000 pastors. Again, this was 2015. It’s presumably a much larger network by now. And as the article points out, several of the pastors in the network were “instrumental” in the defeat of the Houston ‘bathroom bill’, the political fight led by Jared Woodfill and Steven Hotze that served as the GOP’s template for anti-trans politics. But it’s the $10 million from the Wilks brothers that underscores the importance of Texas’s powerful theocrats in this network:
...
Several of the pastors in Lane’s network were instrumental in last month’s defeat of Houston’s “transgender bathroom bill,” the local ordinance that banned discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity in public places. The pastors united to decry the measure and encourage congregants to sign a petition that eventually put the new law to a ballot initiative, where it was voted down....
In the runup to November 2016, Lane says he is holding conferences in hotels across the country nearly every week, bringing together thousands of far right pastors and their wives for two-day, all-expenses paid retreats. There are lectures on running political campaigns, turning out voters, and injecting sermons with a healthy dose of politics.
...
Helping fund the events are political donors like the billionaire Wilks brothers, who have given up to $10 million according to sources close to the family. The Wilks, together with their wives, have also given $15 million to a Super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a favorite of evangelicals.
...
Cruz, who has shown up at about 10 of the events this year alone, appears to be the candidate who may benefit most from Lane’s drive. He attended a recent gathering at a hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, where about 200 pastors and their wives listened to a series of speakers.
...
And, again, this was 2015. It’s not hard to imagine the Wilks brothers have given a lot more since.
David Lane’s Call for Violent Dominionist Revolution. Which is Just Fine With His American Family Association Patrons
But the American Renewal Project isn’t just another Wilks brother project. It has much broader theocratic institutional support. Plus, technically it’s an extension of the American Family Association, founded by Don Wildmon (who died in 2023) and now led by his son Tim Wildmon. Both CNP members.
Recall how Tim Wildmon was among the group of CNP leaders who effectively gave their blessings to the candidacy of Donald Trump in June of 2016. And as we’ve seen, Tim Wildmon’s “Today’s Issues” AFA radio show was filled with so much extremist content that the American Family Association shows up on the SPLC’s list of hate groups, along with Tony Perkins’s Family Research Council (FRC) and Michael Farris’s Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
It’s the kind of context that should make us utterly unsurprised to learn that David Lane penned a piece for World Net Daily in 2013 calling for a violent dominionist revolution. Because as should be clear by now, David Lane and his American Renewal Project is a dominionist project supported by this much larger dominionist network led by figures like Wildmons and their fellow dominionists at the CNP:
Talk To Action
David Lane Calls for Dominionist Revolution
Frederick Clarkson
Sat Jun 29, 2013 at 07:55:25 PM ESTThe theocratic intentions of Christian Right leaders sometimes surface in unexpected ways. Most recently David Lane, a top Christian Right political operative and longtime behind-the-scenes ““power broker”” called for violent dominionist revolution in an essay published (and then taken down) by World Net Daily.
Lane has, among other things, been the national finance director for The Response, the 2011 prayer rally that served as the de facto launch of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s ill-fated run for president, as well as the organizer of the Texas Restoration Project, which had boosted Perry’s political career. He has worked with and for such GOP pols as Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann, and most recently, Sen. Rand Paul (R‑KY). Lane currently leads the American Renewal Project of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association which is targeting twelve states for political development towards the 2014 elections.
Such nuts and bolts electoral work not withstanding, Lane called in his essay for Christians to “Wage war to restore a Christian America.” The depth and ferocity of Lane’s vision is so remarkable that it cannot be explained away by the pundits of pooh pooh. Perhaps that is why it has gone unmentioned in the mainstream press. But Lane’s words taken together; in the context of the politics of the moment as he understands it; and in set in the series of epochal historical and biblical moments he invokes — his meaning is unambiguous.
He opens by quoting Christian Reconstructionist author Peter J. Leithart:
“Throughout Scripture, the only power that can overcome the seemingly invincible omnipotence of a Babel or a Beast is the power of martyrdom, the power of the witness to King Jesus to the point of loss and death.”
Lane goes on, still quoting Leithart, to denounce American Christianity for failing to produce martyrs and for substituting a “heretical Americanism for Christian orthodoxy.” He insists that to put things right “Christians must risk martyrdom” to force people to either “acknowledge Jesus [as] an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”
Lane expresses frustration with what he regards as the superficial politics of press releases of “inside the Beltway” Christian Rightists. He calls for “champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see.” The champions for Christ of his vision will “wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture.”
“America’s survival is at stake,” he declares, “and this is not tall talk or exaggeration.”
...
“You ask,” Lane continued, “What is our goal?” To wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage with all of our might and strength that God will give us. You ask, “What is our aim?” One word only: victory, in spite of all intimidation and terror.”
Finally, he calls for a contemporary “Gideon” and a “Rahab the Harlot” to rise to the occasion. Gideon is the Biblical figure who as a young man leads an Israelite army against the oppressive Midianites, who worshiped false gods. Rahab is revered for sheltering two Israelite spies in preparation for the sacking of the city of Jericho by Joshua’s army, which resulted the massacre of everyone but Rahab and her family. That Lane is calling for a network of spies to inform an army aimed at destroying an oppressive, “pagan” government, is also unambiguous.
Almost as revelatory as the content of Lane’s essay is the lack of a response from the media and the political community. Even as it was covered a bit in the blogosphere, notably by Denise Oliver Velez, a featured writer at Daily Kos and by Right Wing Watch and The New Civil Rights Movement, its been pretty much crickets everywhere else.
———–
“Such nuts and bolts electoral work not withstanding, Lane called in his essay for Christians to “Wage war to restore a Christian America.” The depth and ferocity of Lane’s vision is so remarkable that it cannot be explained away by the pundits of pooh pooh. Perhaps that is why it has gone unmentioned in the mainstream press. But Lane’s words taken together; in the context of the politics of the moment as he understands it; and in set in the series of epochal historical and biblical moments he invokes — his meaning is unambiguous.”
A call for a violent Christian Nationalist revolution. That was the substance of David Lane’s World Net Daily piece in June of 2013. Keep in mind this was just three months after the GOP’s ‘autopsy’ examining the party’s 2012 failures that recommended the party take a more inclusive approach to winning future elections. An ‘autopsy’ that was famously tossed out the window with Donald Trump’s nomination in 2016. In that sense, Lane’s calls for a violent Christian Nationalist revolution were pretty prescient:
...
He opens by quoting Christian Reconstructionist author Peter J. Leithart:“Throughout Scripture, the only power that can overcome the seemingly invincible omnipotence of a Babel or a Beast is the power of martyrdom, the power of the witness to King Jesus to the point of loss and death.”
Lane goes on, still quoting Leithart, to denounce American Christianity for failing to produce martyrs and for substituting a “heretical Americanism for Christian orthodoxy.” He insists that to put things right “Christians must risk martyrdom” to force people to either “acknowledge Jesus [as] an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”
Lane expresses frustration with what he regards as the superficial politics of press releases of “inside the Beltway” Christian Rightists. He calls for “champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see.” The champions for Christ of his vision will “wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture.”
“America’s survival is at stake,” he declares, “and this is not tall talk or exaggeration.”
...
As another example of Lane’s ties to Texas politics, note how Lane’s organizing in Texas — like organizing the Texas Restoration Project and serving as the national finance director for The Response prayer rally where Perry launched his campaign — was instrumental in former governor Rick Perry’s political career. So when we see how the American Renewal Project was founded as a project of the Wildmons’ American Family Assocation, it’s an indication of how much influence Tim Wildmon presumably wields in Texas’s Republican politics. Dominionist influence:
...
Lane has, among other things, been the national finance director for The Response, the 2011 prayer rally that served as the de facto launch of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s ill-fated run for president, as well as the organizer of the Texas Restoration Project, which had boosted Perry’s political career. He has worked with and for such GOP pols as Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann, and most recently, Sen. Rand Paul (R‑KY). Lane currently leads the American Renewal Project of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association which is targeting twelve states for political development towards the 2014 elections.
...
And as Frederick Clarkson observes, the lack of any mainstream recognition of Lane’s call for a violent dominionist revolution is also very much part of this story. We can’t understand the rise of organized Dominionism without recognizing the extent to which it’s been allowed to largely fly under the radar:
...
Almost as revelatory as the content of Lane’s essay is the lack of a response from the media and the political community. Even as it was covered a bit in the blogosphere, notably by Denise Oliver Velez, a featured writer at Daily Kos and by Right Wing Watch and The New Civil Rights Movement, its been pretty much crickets everywhere else.
...
And as we’ll see when we take a look at Lane’s dominionist screed below, part of what made the mainstream media’s ignoring of Lane’s open call for political violence so noteworthy is that the screed is filled with terms like the “pagan media” and “the pagan, liberal media elite.” Which is a reminder that any sort of theocratic power grab along the lines of Lane was calling wouldn’t just include a purge of the government (like Project 2025). It will be a purge of all major institutions, including, and especially, the media with all those influential ‘pagan elites’:
World Net Daily
Wage war to restore a Christian America
Exclusive: David Lane rejects ineffective ‘press release’ tactics of Beltway believers
By David Lane
June 5, 2013The last paragraph of Peter J. Leithart’s “Between Babel and the Beast” frames properly the battle facing America:
“Throughout Scripture, the only power that can overcome the seemingly invincible omnipotence of a Babel or a Beast is the power of martyrdom, the power of the witness to King Jesus to the point of loss and death. American Christianity has not done a good job of producing martyrs, and that is because we have done such an outstanding job of nurturing Americanists who regret that they have only one life to give for their country. Americanists cannot break Babelic or bestial power because they cannot distinguish heretical Americanism from Christian orthodoxy. Until we do, America will lurch along the path that leads from Babel to Beast. If America is to be put in its place – put right – Christians must risk martyrdom and force Babel to the crux where it has to decide either to acknowledge Jesus an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”
Where are the champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see on America? Who will wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture?
Let’s make it crystal clear: Those who embrace homosexual marriage and homosexual Scouting – or homosexuality in general – know little and practice nothing of Christianity. Notwithstanding Sen. Rob Portman – or the 1,400 Boy Scout delegates who buckled – Christian love is regulated not by impulse, but by principle. “We hence conclude, that not only the reprobates ought to be reproved, severely, and with sharp earnestness, but also the elect themselves, even those whom we deem to be children of God.” [John Calvin]
As to the future of America – and the collapse of this once-Christian nation – Christians must not only be allowed to have opinions, but politically, Christians must be retrained to war for the Soul of America and quit believing the fabricated whopper of the “Separation of Church and State,” the lie repeated ad nauseum by the left and liberals to keep Christian America – the moral majority – from imposing moral government on pagan public schools, pagan higher learning and pagan media. Bill Bennett’s insight, “… the two essential questions Plato posed as: Who teaches the children, and what do we teach them?” requires deep thought, soul-searching and a response from Christian America to the secular, politically correct and multicultural false gods imposing their religion on America’s children.
...
Polling shows that of the 65–80 million evangelical Christians who read their Bible, attend church and pray, half of those are not registered to vote, half of that half don’t vote, and of the 25 percent who voted in 2012, 22 percent of them voted for President Obama.
Whether the mobilization of pastors and pews to save the nation goes against the grain of the pagan, liberal media elite is not relevant. America’s survival is at stake, and this is not tall talk or exaggeration.
Men of Issachar – “who understand the times and know what America should do” – with imagination, insight, competence and resourcefulness are required to turn America from ruin and death back to Him.
Let me be clear. The currency used by the present generation of Christian “inside the Beltway” D.C. leaders – press conferences, press releases and getting a shout-out on the evening news – is no longer viable; political action by spiritual political operatives and candidates is required. The old model used by the policy boys – seemingly sane and skillful a generation or two ago – has taken us over the cliff. Christian America is in ruins.
As demonstrated by the give-and-take with the pagan media elite and pagan National Education Association, it is impossible to hold a conversation with someone bent on delivering a monologue. Christian America must war to make our nation a better place for our kids and grandkids.
If the American experiment with freedom is to end after 237 years, let each of us commit to brawl all the way to the end because, “Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.” [Winston Churchill]
...
———
“Wage war to restore a Christian America” By David Lane; World Net Daily; 06/05/2013
“As to the future of America – and the collapse of this once-Christian nation – Christians must not only be allowed to have opinions, but politically, Christians must be retrained to war for the Soul of America and quit believing the fabricated whopper of the “Separation of Church and State,” the lie repeated ad nauseum by the left and liberals to keep Christian America – the moral majority – from imposing moral government on pagan public schools, pagan higher learning and pagan media. Bill Bennett’s insight, “… the two essential questions Plato posed as: Who teaches the children, and what do we teach them?” requires deep thought, soul-searching and a response from Christian America to the secular, politically correct and multicultural false gods imposing their religion on America’s children.”
As we can see, David Lane’s version of the United States will be a ‘No Pagans Allowed’ version. Where pretty much everyone who isn’t a fundamentalist Christian is a pagan.
But it wasn’t just an anti-pagan screed. It was a call for Christian martyrdom. This is a good time to recall the evidence suggesting the assassination attempt on Donald Trump could have had a ‘make Trump a martyr’ motive carried about by a far right Thomas Matthew Crooks. Or the CNP’s eager embrace of insurrectionary tactics to keep Donald Trump in office on January 6, 2021. This is a movement looking for martyrs:
...
The last paragraph of Peter J. Leithart’s “Between Babel and the Beast” frames properly the battle facing America:“Throughout Scripture, the only power that can overcome the seemingly invincible omnipotence of a Babel or a Beast is the power of martyrdom, the power of the witness to King Jesus to the point of loss and death. American Christianity has not done a good job of producing martyrs, and that is because we have done such an outstanding job of nurturing Americanists who regret that they have only one life to give for their country. Americanists cannot break Babelic or bestial power because they cannot distinguish heretical Americanism from Christian orthodoxy. Until we do, America will lurch along the path that leads from Babel to Beast. If America is to be put in its place – put right – Christians must risk martyrdom and force Babel to the crux where it has to decide either to acknowledge Jesus an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”
Where are the champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see on America? Who will wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture?
Let’s make it crystal clear: Those who embrace homosexual marriage and homosexual Scouting – or homosexuality in general – know little and practice nothing of Christianity. Notwithstanding Sen. Rob Portman – or the 1,400 Boy Scout delegates who buckled – Christian love is regulated not by impulse, but by principle. “We hence conclude, that not only the reprobates ought to be reproved, severely, and with sharp earnestness, but also the elect themselves, even those whom we deem to be children of God.” [John Calvin]
...
And there’s the repeated references to the pagan media and the pagan, liberal media elite. Along with all the pagan teachers. It’s reminder of how the ‘Schedule F+’ institutional purge envisioned by Curtis Yarvin — a purge that goes far beyond government institutions and includes the private sector — is very much in line with the kind of dominionist vision laid out by Lane:
...
Whether the mobilization of pastors and pews to save the nation goes against the grain of the pagan, liberal media elite is not relevant. America’s survival is at stake, and this is not tall talk or exaggeration.Men of Issachar – “who understand the times and know what America should do” – with imagination, insight, competence and resourcefulness are required to turn America from ruin and death back to Him.
Let me be clear. The currency used by the present generation of Christian “inside the Beltway” D.C. leaders – press conferences, press releases and getting a shout-out on the evening news – is no longer viable; political action by spiritual political operatives and candidates is required. The old model used by the policy boys – seemingly sane and skillful a generation or two ago – has taken us over the cliff. Christian America is in ruins.
As demonstrated by the give-and-take with the pagan media elite and pagan National Education Association, it is impossible to hold a conversation with someone bent on delivering a monologue. Christian America must war to make our nation a better place for our kids and grandkids.
...
David Lane really doesn’t like ‘pagans’, where ‘pagans’ are defined as everyone who isn’t a Christian fundamentalist. Or rather, the right kind of Christian fundamentalist.
AFA Fellow Traveler, and Prophet, Cindy Jacobs
As we’re going to see, there are plenty of Christian fundamentalist leaders who don’t see eye to with Lane and the Wildmons. For example, recall above how Lane played an important role in helping to launching Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential run, serving as the national finance director for The Response prayer rally where Perry launched his campaign. As the following Religion Dispatches excerpt from September of 2011 describes, that pro-Perry rally ended up eliciting some harsh criticism of the AFA from popular religious broadcaster Brannon Howse, with Howse accusing the AFA of forming improper alliances with leaders in New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) such as Cindy Jacobs, a self-proclaimed Christian ‘prophet’. Howse had apparently also been attacking other prominent figures at Perry’s event like Jim Garlow, Tony Perkins, and James and Shirley Dobson.
As we’ve seen, the NAR is one of the more prominent strains of dominionist “Seven Mountains” theology. A very QAnon-friendly theology. The NAR is also lead by figures like Washington State Republican Matt Shea, who secretly penned a manifesto calling for the waging of Biblical War to takeover the US in 2016? Recall how Shea’s manifesto called for the execution of any adult males who refused to submit to the new theocracy and he was even plotting with other local militants in coming up with a assassination list of left-wing leaders. The plan to was kill the Antifa leaders in their homes. And as we’ve also seen, Shea is not only deeply tied to the same group of theocrats behind Project Blitz but also close to Ken Peters and his network of “Patriotic Churches” along with militia groups like the Oath Keepers. In other words, Shea is someone who would have no problem with the notion that ‘some people need killing’. He penned a whole manifesto about it.
And then there’s Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s ties to the NAR. Recall Johnson’s ties to NAR leaders like Jim Garlow. As well as chief pseudo-historian for this movement, David Barton. Also recall Johnson’s ties to the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) and how Johnson gave the 2023 keynote address and the NACL’s annual event. The NACL is basically an organization for pushing the NAR political capture at the state level. The NAR is a big part of this broader story of theological capture that we’re looking at here. And, at least in 2011, Brannon Howse was alarmed to see all the NAR figures and allies involved with the launch of Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign. A launch David Lane played a key role in organizing.
Howse’s criticism of the AFA’s sponsorship of Perry’s launch-event ended up getting a pair of radio show hosts on the AFA’s radio network kicked off the network. Why? Well, according to Tim Wildmon, the two hosts, John Loeffler and Todd Friel, had also appeared at Howse-sponsored events where Howse was attacking the AFA and its allies over their NAR ties. That was the transgression.
Interestingly, as a sign of just how toxic Cindy Jacobs is, even the AFA was denying it played any role in inviting her to Rick Perry’s presidential campaign launch event, with Wildmon suggesting that “maybe it was someone from Governor Perry’s office.” In other words, Cindy Jacobs is so ‘out there’ theologically that even a dominionist like Tim Wildmon doesn’t want to admit she’s a fellow traveler:
Religion Dispatches
American Family Association Targets Radio Hosts Over Association With Critic
By Warren Throckmorton
September 30, 2011The American Family Association has taken aim at fellow religious conservative Brannon Howse over his criticism of the AFA’s recent sponsorship of GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s The Response prayer meeting. Earlier this week, Jim Stanley, program director of AFA’s radio network, American Family Radio, sent notices to two talk show hosts who are associated with Howse, informing them that continued presence on the AFA’s radio network was conditioned on severing ties with Howse.
The talk show hosts, John Loeffler and Todd Friel, have shows aired by American Family Radio and also speak at Howse sponsored events. According to Tim Wildmon, president of the AFA, “we identified two people with programs on our networks and told them, ’you have to make a choice.’” In defense of the move, Wildmon said “AFR is under no obligation to run programs of individuals who are going to help Brannon when he is attacking our friends. We make programming decisions all the time.”
Howse heads Worldview Weekend, a socially conservative ministry which espouses similar conservative views as the AFA on culture war issues as abortion and homosexuality. However, Howse charges that religious right leaders have formed improper religious alliances with leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation such as Cindy Jacobs in order to promote a conservative political agenda. About his stance, Howse said, “Christians must defend the gospel when we believe Christian leaders are giving credibility to what the Bible describes as false teaching. About Wildmon’s concerns, Howse added, “I have avoided naming this radio network or pro-family group and I have avoided naming several of the pro-family groups hoping they would repent.”
Wildmon acknowledged that Howse had not named the AFA in his articles but “everybody knows who he’s talking about.” In an email, Wildmon told me that Howse had tried to “sabotage The Response that we were sponsors of and has gone after our friends and associates like Jim Garlow, Tony Perkins, James and Shirley Dobson, etc., by name.” He explained that the network had received calls from listeners and that the situation had been “a headache.”
Wildmon also pointed to an article on the Worldview Weekend website titled, “Pro-Family and Christian Leaders Unite with ‘Prophet’ Cindy Jacobs” and which included a link to the sponsors of The Response. Wildmon said, “The headline was unfair. We did not unite with Cindy Jacobs.” Asked who invited her to endorse the event, Wildmon responded that he did not know, saying “maybe it was someone from Governor Perry’s office.”
...
Friel and Loeffler are both slated to speak at Worldview Weekend events in 2011 and 2012. Until recently, they have hosted shows broadcast on the AFR. Friel’s show is called Wretched Radio and airs on Saturday evenings. Loeffler’s show, Steel on Steel, will continue to broadcast on other stations. Friel did not want to comment for this article.
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“Howse heads Worldview Weekend, a socially conservative ministry which espouses similar conservative views as the AFA on culture war issues as abortion and homosexuality. However, Howse charges that religious right leaders have formed improper religious alliances with leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation such as Cindy Jacobs in order to promote a conservative political agenda. About his stance, Howse said, “Christians must defend the gospel when we believe Christian leaders are giving credibility to what the Bible describes as false teaching. About Wildmon’s concerns, Howse added, “I have avoided naming this radio network or pro-family group and I have avoided naming several of the pro-family groups hoping they would repent.””
That’s quite warning. Not just Howse’s words but the fact that it’s someone as staunchly conservative as Howse issuing the warning. Brannon Howse is an extremely conservative religious figure. So it’s quite notable that he wasn’t just critical of the presence of ‘prophet’ Cindy Jacobs but also has apparently been attacking key leaders in this movement by name like Jim Garlow, Tony Perkins, James and Shirley Dobson:
...
Wildmon acknowledged that Howse had not named the AFA in his articles but “everybody knows who he’s talking about.” In an email, Wildmon told me that Howse had tried to “sabotage The Response that we were sponsors of and has gone after our friends and associates like Jim Garlow, Tony Perkins, James and Shirley Dobson, etc., by name.” He explained that the network had received calls from listeners and that the situation had been “a headache.”Wildmon also pointed to an article on the Worldview Weekend website titled, “Pro-Family and Christian Leaders Unite with ‘Prophet’ Cindy Jacobs” and which included a link to the sponsors of The Response. Wildmon said, “The headline was unfair. We did not unite with Cindy Jacobs.” Asked who invited her to endorse the event, Wildmon responded that he did not know, saying “maybe it was someone from Governor Perry’s office.”
...
This was not criticism from some progressive pastor. So when someone like Howse is raising warning signs about the corrupt nature of this movement, that’s the kind of warning that everyone might want to pay attention to. And when a group like the AFA can’t even admit to an association with Jacobs, that’s an even bigger warning.
So given how touchy everyone was about Cindy Jacobs attending Rick Perry’s 2012 launch event organized by David Lane, it’s worth noting another important political even where Jacobs made an appearance: that June 2016 gathering where then-candidate Donald Trump met a delegation that was like a ‘Who’s Who’ of CNP leaders. Including Tim Wildmon. And as the following Rightwing Watch report observes, other attendees included NAR leader Jim Garlow and ‘prophet’ Cindy Jacobs:
Rightwing Watch
Donald Trump To Court Anti-LGBT Hate Groups, ‘Prophets’ And Televangelists
By Brian Tashman | May 24, 2016 3:10 pm
Next month, Donald Trump will host a meeting with some of the country’s most radical anti-LGBT and anti-choice leaders in New York City.
Trump, who has already recruited a variety of far-right activists and conspiracy theorists to his campaign, is set to take part in a convening organized by Ben Carson, a former rival turned campaign surrogate, aimed at bringing reluctant Religious Right leaders to his side.
According to a copy of the invitation to the event obtained by the National Review, Trump will be joined by Religious Right activists including Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Penny Nance, Jim Garlow, Rick Scarborough, Phil Burress, Ken Cuccinelli, Lila Rose, E.W Jackson, Harry Jackson, Tim Wildmon, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and Cindy Jacobs.
The meeting will be cohosted by the Family Research Council, Vision America and AFA Action, the political arm of the American Family Association, three of the most vicious anti-LGBT hate groups in the country.
Trump has already pledged to use nominees to the Supreme Court to pave the way for the reversal of the landmark rulings on abortion rights and marriage equality and has vowed to defund Planned Parenthood, key priorities of right-wing activists.
...
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“According to a copy of the invitation to the event obtained by the National Review, Trump will be joined by Religious Right activists including Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Penny Nance, Jim Garlow, Rick Scarborough, Phil Burress, Ken Cuccinelli, Lila Rose, E.W Jackson, Harry Jackson, Tim Wildmon, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and Cindy Jacobs.”
This was the delegation that effectively embraced Donald Trump that year. Somehow Cindy Jacobs keeps getting invited to these events. She must have some awesome prophecies to share. It’s also worth keeping in mind that this isn’t the only time we’ve heard about Donald Trump meeting with Christian prophets.
American Renewal Project’s Profound Primary Influence
As we just saw, the Texas Renewal Project — Texas’s branch of the American Renewal Project — played a central, if controversial, role in the 2011 launch of Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign. But that wasn’t the only state branch to make political waves that year. As the following New York Times article excerpt from April 2011 describes, the Iowa branch of the American Renewal Project — the Iowa Renewal Project — was holding an event attended by nearly 10,000 pastors featuring speakers like David Barton, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich and other GOP presidential contenders. And Gingrich wasn’t just a speaker. The event was paid for with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the political action committees of Gingrich along with the American Family Association. Mike Huckabee also appears to be a regular co-sponsor for these events. Huckabee is also an example of the influence pastors can have on politics: Huckabee was the only GOP presidential candidate to show up at an Iowa Renewal meeting in December of 2007, weeks before the Republican caucuses, and went on to win that key primary. It turns out having the backing of a large network of pastors is extremely helpful in politics. Especially in Iowa.
As the article mentions, David Lane actually first started arranging pastor conferences in Texas and California in the 1990s, but the project has grown in “the last five years” — which would coincide with when the American Renewal Project was launched — with the American Family Association largely footing the bills for the gatherings. Keep in mind what we saw about about Lane claiming in 2015 that he had raised $50 million for the project over the year, including $10 million from Wilks Farris. It’s context to keep in mind regarding who is behind the American Renewal Project: while the American Family Association appears to be the primary benefactor, there’s been a variety of sources have been financing the effort. In other words, the American Renew Project is far from just an American Family Association project. It’s a group effort:
The New York Times
An Iowa Stop in a Broad Effort to Revitalize the Religious Right
By Erik Eckholm
April 2, 2011WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Hundreds of conservative pastors in Iowa received the enticing invitation. Signed by Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential contender, it invited the pastors and their spouses to an expenses-paid, two-day Pastors’ Policy Briefing at a Sheraton hotel.
Nearly 400 Iowa ministers and many of their spouses accepted, filling a ballroom here on March 24 and 25. Through an evening banquet and long sessions, they heard speakers deplore a secular assault on evangelical Christian verities like the sanctity of male-female marriage, the humanity of the unborn and the divine right to limited government.
The program, sponsored by a temporary entity called the Iowa Renewal Project, featured several superstars of the Christian right as well as four possible Republican contenders for president. It was the latest of dozens of free, two-day conventions in at least 14 states over the past several years, usually with Mr. Huckabee listed as a co-sponsor, that have been attended by nearly 10,000 pastors who have spread the word in their churches and communities.
...
The Iowa pastors heard David Barton, a Christian historian, argue that the country was founded as explicitly Christian and lament that too few evangelicals get out and vote. They heard Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and like Mr. Huckabee a possible 2012 presidential candidate, say that constitutional liberties like the right to bear arms were ordained by God. They heard how to promote “biblically informed” political advocacy by churchgoers within the confines of federal tax law.
The other possible candidates who spoke were Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.
Support from many of the pastors in the audience here helped Mr. Huckabee, an evangelical minister, win the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2008. He had been the only candidate to appear at a pastors’ meeting before the Republican caucuses and went on to gain a surprise victory, with 60 percent of the caucus voters describing themselves in exit polls as evangelicals..
...
He and the other Republican speakers were careful not to sound too much like candidates in this officially nonpartisan forum, instead emphasizing the threats to conservative Christian values and the need for churches to be engaged. Mr. Gingrich, for one, described the “Rediscovering God in America” films he has made with his wife, Callista, and said America is exceptional because its founding documents enshrine rights “endowed by our creator.”
He told the crowd that it was their Christian duty to fight for the “truth,” exposing threats like overreaching by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama health care law that may put the country “on the road to dictatorship.”
Mr. Barbour pledged relentless opposition to abortion and accused liberals of trying to remove religion from politics. Ms. Bachmann challenged the pastors to “be the voice of freedom.”
The organizer and, to many, the unsung hero of this effort to mobilize pastors is David Lane, a 56-year-old born-again Christian from California.
“What we’re doing with the pastor meetings is spiritual, but the end result is political,” Mr. Lane said in a rare interview, outside the doors of the Iowa meeting. “From my perspective, our country is going to hell because pastors won’t lead from the pulpits.”
Mr. Lane shuns publicity as he crosses the country forming local coalitions under names like Renewal Project and securing outside financing to put on the pastor conferences. Something of a stealth weapon for the right, he has also stepped in to assist in special-issue campaigns, like the successful effort in Iowa last year to unseat three State Supreme Court justices who had voted to allow same-sex marriage.
Mr. Lane first started arranging pastor conferences in Texas and California in the 1990s, but the effort has grown in the last five years. The meetings, which cost many tens of thousands of dollars, have been largely paid for by the Mississippi-based American Family Association, he said.
The association, founded by the Rev. Donald E. Wildmon, is known for its strident condemnation of same-sex marriage and considers homosexuality to be “immoral, unnatural and unhealthy,” said Bryan Fischer, its director of issue analysis. Mr. Fischer said the association was a co-sponsor of the pastor meetings and maintained e‑mail contact with 40,000 to 60,000 pastors nationwide, a list that is expanding.
In 2010, Mr. Lane said, he organized pastor meetings in Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as two in Iowa. He expects to revisit some of the same states this year, several of which are important battlegrounds in presidential politics.
Compared with the 1980s, when it was dominated by prominent leaders like the Revs. Jerry Falwell with his Moral Majority and Pat Robertson with the Christian Coalition, the religious right is now decentralized, said Mark DeMoss, who was a close aide to Mr. Falwell.
“But it’s not true to suggest that it’s dead and gone,” he said. Mobilizing pastors has remained important, with “people out there like David Lane, whose names we may not know, who are contributing to a large fabric of involvement,” said Mr. DeMoss, who runs a Georgia public relations company for Christian causes.
...
In perhaps no state has the mobilization of churches paid off more than in Iowa, where evangelical Christians now dominate the state Republican Party and presidential caucuses even though their share of the population, one in four, is at the national average.
Republican leaders and pastors call Mr. Lane the unheralded mastermind of the campaign last year to unseat the State Supreme Court justices. The Rev. Jeffrey Mullen, 47, the pastor of Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa, had not been involved politically, he said. But he was jolted by the court’s 2009 decision permitting same-sex marriage, which he called not only morally wrong but also a usurpation of power.
“God used David Lane and his sphere of influence to bring together all the elements” of the campaign to oust the justices, Mr. Mullen said. Mr. Lane secured hundreds of thousands of dollars from the political action committees of Mr. Gingrich and the American Family Association and devised a broad strategy, bringing together the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, which provided voter guides to churches, and the Iowa Family Policy Center, which got 834 ministers to sign a letter stating that marriage was established by God as between a man and a woman.
Beyond presidential politics, the main focus of Iowa conservatives next year, many said, will be taking control of the State Senate, which has blocked their drives for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and stronger anti-abortion laws.
Like all the pastor meetings, the recent one in Iowa was not advertised and was closed to the news media. But the speeches were streamed on the Web site of the American Family Association, and highlights were broadcast online on March 26 to crowds gathered in 177 churches around the country by a California-based group called United in Purpose, which shares the goal of drawing pastors into politics.
Speakers at the conference described what they called the biblical roots of American government and a rich early history of political engagement by the clergy. They exhorted the pastors and their flocks not only to fight harder to have same-sex marriage and abortion banned but also to follow God’s word by opposing activist judges, high taxes, explicit sex education and assaults on private property rights.
A pastor from Louisiana described the political costs of sexual scandals in the church and recommended that pastors avoid temptation by never being alone in a room with women who are not their wives.
The audience heard how to push their flocks to register and vote along “biblical principles” without running afoul of tax laws against endorsing candidates from the pulpit.
...
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“Mr. Lane shuns publicity as he crosses the country forming local coalitions under names like Renewal Project and securing outside financing to put on the pastor conferences. Something of a stealth weapon for the right, he has also stepped in to assist in special-issue campaigns, like the successful effort in Iowa last year to unseat three State Supreme Court justices who had voted to allow same-sex marriage.”
A stealth weapon for the right. That’s how this NY Times piece described David Lane’s efforts back in 2011. A stealth effort comprised of many separate “Renewal” Projects. Like the Iowa Renewal American Renewal Project, which managed to throw an event with superstars of the Christian right, including co-sponsor Mike Huckabee, and four possible GOP presidential contenders. It’s the kind of attendance that underscores just how influential this network inside the Republican Party:
...
The program, sponsored by a temporary entity called the Iowa Renewal Project, featured several superstars of the Christian right as well as four possible Republican contenders for president. It was the latest of dozens of free, two-day conventions in at least 14 states over the past several years, usually with Mr. Huckabee listed as a co-sponsor, that have been attended by nearly 10,000 pastors who have spread the word in their churches and communities....
The Iowa pastors heard David Barton, a Christian historian, argue that the country was founded as explicitly Christian and lament that too few evangelicals get out and vote. They heard Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and like Mr. Huckabee a possible 2012 presidential candidate, say that constitutional liberties like the right to bear arms were ordained by God. They heard how to promote “biblically informed” political advocacy by churchgoers within the confines of federal tax law.
The other possible candidates who spoke were Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.
Support from many of the pastors in the audience here helped Mr. Huckabee, an evangelical minister, win the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2008. He had been the only candidate to appear at a pastors’ meeting before the Republican caucuses and went on to gain a surprise victory, with 60 percent of the caucus voters describing themselves in exit polls as evangelicals.
...
And as we can see, David Lane’s organizing activities aren’t limited to ‘Renewal’ meetings. He’s been described as a kind of unheralded mastermind in the successful effort to unseat three Iowa Supreme Court judges who voted in favor of gay marriage, and was instrumental in developing strategies like bringing together the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition and the Iowa Family Policy Center. With the help of hundreds of thousands of dollars from sources like New Gingrich’s political action committee:
...
The organizer and, to many, the unsung hero of this effort to mobilize pastors is David Lane, a 56-year-old born-again Christian from California.“What we’re doing with the pastor meetings is spiritual, but the end result is political,” Mr. Lane said in a rare interview, outside the doors of the Iowa meeting. “From my perspective, our country is going to hell because pastors won’t lead from the pulpits.”
...
Mr. Lane first started arranging pastor conferences in Texas and California in the 1990s, but the effort has grown in the last five years. The meetings, which cost many tens of thousands of dollars, have been largely paid for by the Mississippi-based American Family Association, he said.
The association, founded by the Rev. Donald E. Wildmon, is known for its strident condemnation of same-sex marriage and considers homosexuality to be “immoral, unnatural and unhealthy,” said Bryan Fischer, its director of issue analysis. Mr. Fischer said the association was a co-sponsor of the pastor meetings and maintained e‑mail contact with 40,000 to 60,000 pastors nationwide, a list that is expanding.
...
Republican leaders and pastors call Mr. Lane the unheralded mastermind of the campaign last year to unseat the State Supreme Court justices. The Rev. Jeffrey Mullen, 47, the pastor of Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa, had not been involved politically, he said. But he was jolted by the court’s 2009 decision permitting same-sex marriage, which he called not only morally wrong but also a usurpation of power.
“God used David Lane and his sphere of influence to bring together all the elements” of the campaign to oust the justices, Mr. Mullen said. Mr. Lane secured hundreds of thousands of dollars from the political action committees of Mr. Gingrich and the American Family Association and devised a broad strategy, bringing together the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, which provided voter guides to churches, and the Iowa Family Policy Center, which got 834 ministers to sign a letter stating that marriage was established by God as between a man and a woman.
...
As we can see, David Lane already had a remarkable level of clout back in 2011. Clout that routinely puts him shoulder to should with one politically connected theocrat after another. For example, just two months after the above NY Times, we can another update on David Lane’s political strategizing: as the following Ethics Daily article describes, it turns out Lane was one of the attendees at a two-day closed door meeting of a group of about 80 pastors and other Christian leaders. As we’re going to see, the named attendees included one CNP member after another. CNP members listed in the article include Richard Land, Richard Lee, Vonette Bright, Jerry Boykin, Harry Jackson, Don Wildmon, Tony Perkins, Bob McEwen, and Bob Reccord, who was leading the CNP at the time. NAR leader Jim Garlow was also in attendance as chairman of Newt Gingrich’s organization, Renewing American Leadership.
The gathering was called together by Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison in order to hammer out their plans for defeating then-President Obama, and was actually a follow up meeting to a September 2010 meeting. As the article notes, these secret gatherings were somewhat reminiscent of similar secret meetings in Dallas Robinson arranged in 1979 to strategize how to defeat Jimmy Carter. An effort that ultimately manifested as an August 1980 meeting with Ronald Reagant that helped mobilize pastors for his presidential campaign. It’s a reminder that David Lane wasn’t the first person to come up with the strategy of mass mobilizing pastors for politics. He’s just the guy who has been the leading the contemporary version of that effort for the past few decades now. An effort that he’s clearly doing in close coordination with the GOP, the CNP and its theocratic fellow travelers:
Ethics Daily
Conservative Christian Group Plots Political Revival
by Brian Kaylor | Jun 22, 2011 | News
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part series about this week’s closed-door meeting by a group of conservative Christians, called together by Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison, to plot its behind-the-scenes strategy to defeat President Obama.
A group of about 80 pastors and other conservative Christian leaders from across the country met this week in a two-day closed-door meeting to discuss the need for spiritual and political change in the nation.
The meeting was a follow-up session to one last September as the group plans its behind-the-scenes strategy to defeat President Obama.
“This nation right now is facing a tremendous crisis, and it’s as though Christians have buried their head in the sand and not recognized that we were placed here on earth to be overseers of what he entrusted to our watchcare,” Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison told EthicsDaily.com as he expressed his hopes for the gathering.
“One of the points that I’ve made that the leaders agree with is that … the vast majority of those who profess faith are uninspired, uninformed and uninvolved,” he added. “With the privilege of choosing our leadership and putting in place those who establish the policies that govern our lives and affect us comes the responsibility to choose right. And correct choices will always be based upon principles that are consistent with biblical truth and the views of our founders – the providential perspective of our founders.”
Last year, EthicsDaily.com broke many of the details of a secret Sept. 8–9, 2010, meeting at the Grand Hyatt DFW Hotel in Dallas where about 40 conservative Christian leaders gathered at the request of Robison. The June 21–22, 2011, meeting at the campus of Robison’s LIFE Outreach International in Euless, Texas, was a continuation of that effort.
In 1979, Robison led a similar secret meeting in Dallas to plot how to defeat then-President Jimmy Carter. That effort culminated in an August 1980 rally with Republican presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan that helped Reagan mobilize pastors for his presidential campaign.
Following up on his September 2010 meeting, Robison held two conference calls in March with 35 conservative Christian leaders.
...
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, 76 conservative Christians gathered for another meeting to continue their dialogue and planning. Robison told EthicsDaily.com that the group plans to release a video of highlights of the event to send to pastors across the country and invite them to join the effort.
According to a list obtained by EthicsDaily.com, among the attendees at the meeting were several Southern Baptist leaders: Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas who recently suggested on Fox News that Obama was a Muslim; Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Richard Lee, pastor and the editor of the controversial The American Patriot’s Bible; and former North American Mission Board head Bob Reccord, who now heads the semi-secretive group the Council for National Policy, founded by Tim LaHaye. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University and son of the late founder of the Moral Majority, was scheduled to attend but couldn’t make it.
Also attending the meeting were: Jacob Aranza, a minister who in the 1980s helped popularize the theory that rock ’n’ roll music included backmasked messages promoting drug use and sex; Vonette Bright, widow of Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright, who played a key role in conservative religious-political efforts that birthed the so-called “Religious Right”; Jerry Boykin, a former Pentagon official rebuked for violating policies by speaking in churches in uniform; Jim Garlow, chairman of Newt Gingrich’s organization, Renewing American Leadership; Ruth Graham, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham; Harry Jackson, a politically active conservative pastor; David Lane, who has led several efforts to politically mobilize pastors; Ron Luce of Teen Mania Ministries; former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen; Rod Parsley, a controversial megachurch pastor who endorsed John McCain in 2008 before being rejected by McCain; Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leaders Conference; and Don Wildmon of the American Family Association.
Also attending the meeting was Rabbi Daniel Lapin, whom Robison described to EthicsDaily.com as someone who is “convinced that Christians hold the hope for stability on earth.” Lapin, who has been heavily involved in various Republican efforts, was part of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s financing work that landed Abramoff in prison.
...
Over the past few months, Robison has welcomed several participants from the September meeting in Dallas on his TV ministry show, “Life Today.” During some of the discussions, he and his guests have made vague references to the September meeting. Although the comments shed little insight into the plan, they do show part of Robison’s vision for the effort.
During the April 4 broadcast, Robison talked with evangelist and author Tony Evans, who was at both the September and June meetings. As the two talked about the importance of Christians being involved in politics and the need to “put principled people” who are “under God’s control” in office, Robison referenced the September meeting.
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One of the guests on the program, Craig Groeschel, quickly affirmed Robison’s vision. Groeschel, who attended the September meeting, is the pastor of LifeChurch.TV and was on the program with his wife to promote their new book, “Weird.”
“I don’t know anybody else that could have brought together that diverse group of leaders,” Groeschel said as he praised Robison after Robison asked for affirmation. “I believe what you’re doing is one of the most important things on planet earth. I believe you’re hearing from God. I believe you’re calling together amazing leaders.”
“I think what happened in prayer that day was big, and I think the foundation that was built to move forward together with leaders from all different groups of Christianity, I think it was a profoundly special meeting,” Groeschel added.Tony Perkins, president of the James Dobson-founded Family Research Council, similarly praised Robison during the June 2 broadcast. Perkins attended both the September and June meetings.
“I sensed a new leadership that the Lord has called you to, in that there is a clear recognition that America needs to turn to God,” Perkins said. “But I think what you’re able to do as kind of a senior statesman of the church is to call together those leaders today that are emerging, and those that are present, to bring them together because unity is the key. I know one of the conversations we had is that you prayed for that unity among us. I think if we could ever be unified and we could walk together as a body of believers in this country that we could profoundly impact this nation.”
...
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““This nation right now is facing a tremendous crisis, and it’s as though Christians have buried their head in the sand and not recognized that we were placed here on earth to be overseers of what he entrusted to our watchcare,” Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison told EthicsDaily.com as he expressed his hopes for the gathering.”
James Robison had a call to action. The action being getting Christians to recognize that “we were placed here on earth to be overseers of what he entrusted to our watchcare.” Which sure sounds like dominionist language. Dominionist language that was presumably shared with the numerous CNP members who attended these closed-door events: Richard Land, Richard Lee, Vonette Bright, Jerry Boykin, Harry Jackson, Don Wildmon, Tony Perkins, Bob McEwen, and Bob Reccord, who was leading the CNP at the time. NAR leader Jim Garlow was there as chairman of Newt Gingrich’s organization, Renewing American Leadership. Those were just some of the fellow attendees David Lane was networking with roughly a month before the prayer rally organized by Lane that launched Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign:
...
Last year, EthicsDaily.com broke many of the details of a secret Sept. 8–9, 2010, meeting at the Grand Hyatt DFW Hotel in Dallas where about 40 conservative Christian leaders gathered at the request of Robison. The June 21–22, 2011, meeting at the campus of Robison’s LIFE Outreach International in Euless, Texas, was a continuation of that effort....
Following up on his September 2010 meeting, Robison held two conference calls in March with 35 conservative Christian leaders.
...
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, 76 conservative Christians gathered for another meeting to continue their dialogue and planning. Robison told EthicsDaily.com that the group plans to release a video of highlights of the event to send to pastors across the country and invite them to join the effort.
According to a list obtained by EthicsDaily.com, among the attendees at the meeting were several Southern Baptist leaders: Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas who recently suggested on Fox News that Obama was a Muslim; Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Richard Lee, pastor and the editor of the controversial The American Patriot’s Bible; and former North American Mission Board head Bob Reccord, who now heads the semi-secretive group the Council for National Policy, founded by Tim LaHaye. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University and son of the late founder of the Moral Majority, was scheduled to attend but couldn’t make it.
Also attending the meeting were: Jacob Aranza, a minister who in the 1980s helped popularize the theory that rock ’n’ roll music included backmasked messages promoting drug use and sex; Vonette Bright, widow of Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright, who played a key role in conservative religious-political efforts that birthed the so-called “Religious Right”; Jerry Boykin, a former Pentagon official rebuked for violating policies by speaking in churches in uniform; Jim Garlow, chairman of Newt Gingrich’s organization, Renewing American Leadership; Ruth Graham, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham; Harry Jackson, a politically active conservative pastor; David Lane, who has led several efforts to politically mobilize pastors; Ron Luce of Teen Mania Ministries; former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen; Rod Parsley, a controversial megachurch pastor who endorsed John McCain in 2008 before being rejected by McCain; Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leaders Conference; and Don Wildmon of the American Family Association.
Also attending the meeting was Rabbi Daniel Lapin, whom Robison described to EthicsDaily.com as someone who is “convinced that Christians hold the hope for stability on earth.” Lapin, who has been heavily involved in various Republican efforts, was part of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s financing work that landed Abramoff in prison.
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Tony Perkins, president of the James Dobson-founded Family Research Council, similarly praised Robison during the June 2 broadcast. Perkins attended both the September and June meetings.
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And this was James Robison’s first secret meeting dedicated to toppling a president. 1979 saw a similar secret meeting to take down Carter:
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In 1979, Robison led a similar secret meeting in Dallas to plot how to defeat then-President Jimmy Carter. That effort culminated in an August 1980 rally with Republican presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan that helped Reagan mobilize pastors for his presidential campaign.
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And let’s not forget: the CNP was formed in 1981 by this same network of theocrats.
How Did We Get Here? Decades of Dominionist Organizing Going Back to the CNP’s Origins
And as we also saw, it was just a couple of months after that secret June 2011 meeting organized by James Robison that Rick Perry effectively launched his 2012 presidential campaign at a ‘The Response’ rally, organized in party by David Lane who was serving as The Response’s national financial director. A rally filled with “Seven Mountains” preachers affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). And as Sarah Posner reminded us at the time, while the open dominionism behind Rick Perry’s presidential run was certainly highly disturbing and seemingly a new trend in US politics, it was anything but new. As Posner described, the ‘NAR’ is really just the latest label for a coalition of dominionist movements that been aggressively politically organizing with the Republican Party for decades. Since at least 1980, as Posner put it, although as we just saw, there was plenty of organizing in 1979:
Salon
The Christian right’s “dominionist” strategy
The emergence of Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann as top presidential candidates is a story 30 years in the making
By Sarah Posner
Published August 21, 2011 1:01PM (EDT)An article in the Texas Observer last month about Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s relationship with followers of a little-known neo-Pentecostal movement sparked a frenzied reaction from many commentators: Dominionism! Spiritual warfare! Strange prophecies!
All the attention came in the weeks before and after “The Response,” Perry’s highly publicized prayer rally modeled on what organizers believe is the “solemn assembly” described in Joel 2, in which “end-times warriors” prepare the nation for God’s judgment and, ultimately, Christ’s return. This “new” movement, the New Apostolic Reformation, is one strand of neo-Pentecostalism that draws on the ideas of dominionism and spiritual warfare. Its adherents display gifts of the spirit, the religious expression of Pentecostal and charismatic believers that includes speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing and a belief in signs, wonders and miracles. These evangelists also preach the “Seven Mountains” theory of dominionism: that Christians need to take control of different sectors of public life, such as government, the media and the law.
The NAR is not new, but rather derivative of charismatic movements that came before it. Its founder, C. Peter Wagner, set out in the 1990s to create more churches, and more believers. Wagner’s movement involves new jargon, notably demanding that believers take control of the “Seven Mountains” of society (government, law, media and so forth), but that’s no different from other iterations of dominionism that call on Christians to enter these fields so that they are controlled by Christians.
After Perry’s prayer rally, Rachel Maddow featured a segment on her MSNBC show in which she warned,
“The main idea of the New Apostolic Reformation theology is that they are modern day prophets and apostles. They believe they have a direct line to God ... the way that they’re going to clear the way for it [the end of the world] is by infiltrating and taking over politics and government.”
Maddow’s ahistorical treatment of the NAR, however, overlooked several important realities. For anyone who has followed the growth of neo-Pentecostal movements, and in particular the coalition-building between the political operatives of the religious right and these lesser-known but still influential religious leaders, the NAR is just another development in the competitive, controversial, outrageous, authoritarian and often corrupt tapestry of the world of charismatic evangelists.
Before the NAR came along, plenty of charismatic leaders believed themselves to be prophets and apostles with a direct line to God. They wrote books about spiritual warfare, undergirded by conspiracy theories about liberals and Satan and homosexuality and feminism and more (my own bookshelves are filled with them). They preached this on television. They preached it at conferences. They made money from it. They all learned from each other.
Before the NAR, Christian right figures promoted dominionism, too, and the GOP courted these religious leaders for the votes of their followers. Despite a recent argument by the Daily Beast’s Michelle Goldberg that “we have not seen this sort of thing at the highest levels of the Republican Party before,” it’s been there since at least 1980. Michele Bachmann is a product of it; so was Mike Huckabee. Ronald Reagan pandered to it; so did both Bushes; so does Perry.
In 2007, I saw Cindy Jacobs and other “apostles” lay hands on Shirley Forbes, wife of Rep. Randy Forbes, the founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, which boasts some Democrats as members and many of the GOP’s leading lights. “You are going to be the mother of an army,” they told Forbes, prophesying that she would “speak the power of the word into politics and government. Hallelujah!”
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A few days ago, the Washington Post’s religion columnist, Lisa Miller, took Goldberg and Maddow to task for overhyping dominionism as a plot to take over the world. Miller, though, misses the boat, too, by neglecting to acknowledge and describe the infrastructure the religious right has built, driven by the idea of dominionism.
Oral Roberts University Law School, where Bachmann earned her law degree, was founded with this very notion in mind: to create an explicitly Christian law school. Herb Titus, the lawyer converted by Christian Reconstructionism who was instrumental in its launch, describes his mission in developing a Christian law school as a fulfillment of a “dominion mandate.” After ORU was absorbed into Regent University in the 1980s, Titus was the mentor to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who last week was elevated to chair of the Republican Governors Association and is widely speculated to be a possible vice-presidential pick.
Christian Reconstructionists, and their acolytes of the Constitution Party, believe America should be governed by biblical law. In her 1995 book, “Roads to Dominion: Right Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States,” Sara Diamond describes the most significant impact of Reconstructionism on dominionism:
“the diffuse influence of the ideas that America was ordained a Christian nation and that Christians, exclusively, were to rule and reign.” While most Christian right activists were “not well-versed in the arcane teachings” of Christian Reconstructionism, she wrote, “there was a wider following for softer forms of dominionism.”
For the Christian right, it’s more a political strategy than a secret “plot” to “overthrow” the government, even as some evangelists describe it in terms of “overthrowing” the powers of darkness (i.e., Satan), and even some more radical, militia-minded groups do suggest such a revolution. In general, though, the Christian right has been very open about its strategy and has spent a lot of money on it: in the law, as just one example, there are now two ABA-accredited Christian law schools, at Regent (which absorbed the ORU law school) and Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. There are a number of Christian law firms, like the Alliance Defense Fund, formed as a Christian counterweight to the ACLU. Yet outsiders don’t notice that this is all an expression of dominionism, until someone from that world, like Bachmann, hits the national stage.
John Turner, University of South Alabama historian and author of “Bill Bright and the Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America,” said that the NAR’s “Seven Mountains” dominionism is “just a catchy phrase that encapsulates what Bright and many other evangelical leaders were already doing — trying to increase Christian influence (they would probably use more militant phrases like ‘capture’) in the spheres of education, business and government.”
Bright, like Perry’s prayer cohorts, believed America was in trouble (because of the secularists) and needed to repent. One of the most well-known evangelicals in the country, Bright had agreed to let Virginia Beach preacher John Gimenez, a charismatic, organize the rally, despite evangelical discomfort with charismatic religious expression. In his book, Turner describes the Washington for Jesus rally of 1980:
From the platform, Bright offered his interpretation of the source of the country’s problems, asserting that “[w]e’ve turned from God and God is chastening us.” “You go back to 1962 and [196]3 [when the Supreme Court banned school-sponsored prayer and Bible-reading],” Bright argued, “and you’ll discovered a series of plagues that came upon America.” Bright cited the Vietnam War, increased drug use, racial conflict, Watergate, and a rise in divorce, teenage pregnancy, and alcoholism as the result of those decisions. “God is saying to us,” he concluded, “ ‘Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!’ ” ... “Unless we repent and turn from our sin,” warned Bright, “we can expect to be destroyed.”
Unlike Perry’s rally, Ronald Reagan the candidate wasn’t present at the Washington for Jesus rally. At a 2007 gathering at his church, Gimenez recounted how he and Bright later met with President Reagan, and Bright told him, “You were elected on April 29, 1980, when the church prayed that God’s will would be done.”
In August 1980, though, after Reagan had clinched the nomination, he did appear at a “National Affairs Briefing” in Texas, where televangelist James Robison (also instrumental in organizing Perry’s event) declared, “The stage is set. We’ll either have a Hitler-type takeover, or Soviet domination, or God is going to take over this country.” After Robison spoke, Reagan took the stage and declared to the 15,000 activists assembled by Moral Majority co-founder Ed McAteer, “You can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.”
That was also a big moment for Huckabee, who worked as Robison’s advance man. It was even imitated by then-candidate Barack Obama, who met with a group of evangelicals and charismatics in Chicago and repeated Reagan’s infamous line. Obama’s group included publisher Stephen Strang (an early endorser of Huckabee’s 2008 presidential bid) and his son Cameron, whose magazines Charisma and Relevant help promote the careers of the self-declared modern-day prophets and apostles. Huckabee appeared with Lou Engle at his 2008 The Call rally on the National Mall (like Perry’s, billed as a “solemn assembly”) in which Engle exhorted his prayer warriors to battle satanic forces to defeat “Antichrist legislation.”
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In my book, I examined the theology and politics of the Word of Faith movement (also known as the prosperity gospel) and how Republicans cultivated the leading lights of the movement. Primarily because of television, but also because of the robust (and profitable) speaking circuit these evangelists maintain, they have huge audiences. All that was in spite of — just as the scrutiny of NAR figures now is revealing — outlandish, strange and even heretical theology. What’s more, Word of Faith figures have endlessly been embroiled in disputes not just with their theological critics, but with watchdogs and former parishioners who charge they took their money for personal enrichment, promising that God would bring them great health and wealth if they would only “sow a seed.”
At Gimenez’s 2007 event, Engle and the other “apostles” were not the stars; rather, the biggest draw was Word of Faith televangelist Kenneth Copeland. In 1998, writing to Karl Rove, Wead called Copeland “arguably one of the most important religious leaders in the nation.” At Gimenez’s church, Copeland, who has boasted that his ministry has brought in more the $1 billion over his career, preached for two hours. The sanctuary was packed, with the audience hanging on every word. Gimenez introduced him as “God’s prophet,” and Copeland urged them to “get rid of the evening news and the newspaper,” study “the uncompromised word of the Holy Ghost,” and take “control over principalities.”
The commenters who have jumped on the NAR frequently overstate the size of its following. Engle’s events, for example, are often smaller than advertised, including a poorly attended revival at Liberty University in April 2010, where one would expect a ready-made audience. When I’ve covered these sorts of events, including smaller conferences by local groups inspired by figures they see on television, it’s often hard to see how the often meandering preachers are going to take over anything, even while it’s clear they cultivate an authoritarian hold on their followers. I meet a lot of sincere, frequently well-intentioned people who believe they must be “obedient” to God’s word as imparted by the “prophets.”
Most chilling, though, is the willingness to engage in what’s known in the Word of Faith world as “revelation knowledge,” or believing, as Copeland exhorted his audience to do, that you learn nothing from journalism or academia, but rather just from the Bible and its modern “prophets.” It is in this way that the self-styled prophets have had their greatest impact on our political culture: by producing a political class, and its foot soldiers, who believe that God has imparted them with divine knowledge that supersedes what all the evil secularists would have you believe.
Last week CNN’s Jack Cafferty asked, “How much does it worry you if both Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry have ties to dominionism?” That worry crops up every election cycle. If people really understood dominionism, they’d worry about it between election cycles.
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“The Christian right’s “dominionist” strategy” By Sarah Posner; Salon; 08/21/2011
“All the attention came in the weeks before and after “The Response,” Perry’s highly publicized prayer rally modeled on what organizers believe is the “solemn assembly” described in Joel 2, in which “end-times warriors” prepare the nation for God’s judgment and, ultimately, Christ’s return. This “new” movement, the New Apostolic Reformation, is one strand of neo-Pentecostalism that draws on the ideas of dominionism and spiritual warfare. Its adherents display gifts of the spirit, the religious expression of Pentecostal and charismatic believers that includes speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing and a belief in signs, wonders and miracles. These evangelists also preach the “Seven Mountains” theory of dominionism: that Christians need to take control of different sectors of public life, such as government, the media and the law.”
Rick Perry’s campaign launch filled with NAR leaders and themes sure got a lot of attention. Alarmed attention. But as Posner reminded us at the time, while the NAR and “Seven Mountains” language may have only started in the 1990 and was, at that time, a relatively new phenomena in US Christianity, it wasn’t actually new. It was just the latest derivation of dominionism in American Christianity. The jargon is new but the goals and theology are not. Nor is the courting of dominionist by the Republican Party new. It’s been going on since at least 1980:
...
The NAR is not new, but rather derivative of charismatic movements that came before it. Its founder, C. Peter Wagner, set out in the 1990s to create more churches, and more believers. Wagner’s movement involves new jargon, notably demanding that believers take control of the “Seven Mountains” of society (government, law, media and so forth), but that’s no different from other iterations of dominionism that call on Christians to enter these fields so that they are controlled by Christians.After Perry’s prayer rally, Rachel Maddow featured a segment on her MSNBC show in which she warned,
“The main idea of the New Apostolic Reformation theology is that they are modern day prophets and apostles. They believe they have a direct line to God ... the way that they’re going to clear the way for it [the end of the world] is by infiltrating and taking over politics and government.”
Maddow’s ahistorical treatment of the NAR, however, overlooked several important realities. For anyone who has followed the growth of neo-Pentecostal movements, and in particular the coalition-building between the political operatives of the religious right and these lesser-known but still influential religious leaders, the NAR is just another development in the competitive, controversial, outrageous, authoritarian and often corrupt tapestry of the world of charismatic evangelists.
Before the NAR came along, plenty of charismatic leaders believed themselves to be prophets and apostles with a direct line to God. They wrote books about spiritual warfare, undergirded by conspiracy theories about liberals and Satan and homosexuality and feminism and more (my own bookshelves are filled with them). They preached this on television. They preached it at conferences. They made money from it. They all learned from each other.
Before the NAR, Christian right figures promoted dominionism, too, and the GOP courted these religious leaders for the votes of their followers. Despite a recent argument by the Daily Beast’s Michelle Goldberg that “we have not seen this sort of thing at the highest levels of the Republican Party before,” it’s been there since at least 1980. Michele Bachmann is a product of it; so was Mike Huckabee. Ronald Reagan pandered to it; so did both Bushes; so does Perry.
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As University of South Alabama historian John Turner notes, the NAR’s language about the divine mandate for Christians to capture the government is really just a description of of what evangelical leaders like Bill Bright were already doing since Reagan. Recall how, as we saw above, Bright’s widow, Vonette Bright, was one of the attendees of Robison’s June 2011 gathering where they plotted their strategy for defeating Barack Obama. A strategy that appears to have included boosting Rick Perry’s campaign with dominionist blessings. Much like what Bright helped organize for Ronald Reagan in 1980, including the “Washington for Jesus” rally of 1980 organized by charismatic Virginia Beach preacher John Gimenez. Flash forward to 2007, and Gimenez is holding a gathering of at his church where he recounts meeting Reagan with Bright in 1980. And the big draw to that gathering at Gimenez’s church was prominent NAR preacher Kenneth Copeland. Recall how Gloria Copeland, co-founder of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Texas, became Donald Trump’s Evangelical advisor duing his term in office. It’s a movement that’s been working on building deep political connections for decades now, before the NAR event existed, with decades of wild success:
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John Turner, University of South Alabama historian and author of “Bill Bright and the Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America,” said that the NAR’s “Seven Mountains” dominionism is “just a catchy phrase that encapsulates what Bright and many other evangelical leaders were already doing — trying to increase Christian influence (they would probably use more militant phrases like ‘capture’) in the spheres of education, business and government.”Bright, like Perry’s prayer cohorts, believed America was in trouble (because of the secularists) and needed to repent. One of the most well-known evangelicals in the country, Bright had agreed to let Virginia Beach preacher John Gimenez, a charismatic, organize the rally, despite evangelical discomfort with charismatic religious expression. In his book, Turner describes the Washington for Jesus rally of 1980:
From the platform, Bright offered his interpretation of the source of the country’s problems, asserting that “[w]e’ve turned from God and God is chastening us.” “You go back to 1962 and [196]3 [when the Supreme Court banned school-sponsored prayer and Bible-reading],” Bright argued, “and you’ll discovered a series of plagues that came upon America.” Bright cited the Vietnam War, increased drug use, racial conflict, Watergate, and a rise in divorce, teenage pregnancy, and alcoholism as the result of those decisions. “God is saying to us,” he concluded, “ ‘Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!’ ” ... “Unless we repent and turn from our sin,” warned Bright, “we can expect to be destroyed.”
Unlike Perry’s rally, Ronald Reagan the candidate wasn’t present at the Washington for Jesus rally. At a 2007 gathering at his church, Gimenez recounted how he and Bright later met with President Reagan, and Bright told him, “You were elected on April 29, 1980, when the church prayed that God’s will would be done.”
In August 1980, though, after Reagan had clinched the nomination, he did appear at a “National Affairs Briefing” in Texas, where televangelist James Robison (also instrumental in organizing Perry’s event) declared, “The stage is set. We’ll either have a Hitler-type takeover, or Soviet domination, or God is going to take over this country.” After Robison spoke, Reagan took the stage and declared to the 15,000 activists assembled by Moral Majority co-founder Ed McAteer, “You can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.”
...
At Gimenez’s 2007 event, Engle and the other “apostles” were not the stars; rather, the biggest draw was Word of Faith televangelist Kenneth Copeland. In 1998, writing to Karl Rove, Wead called Copeland “arguably one of the most important religious leaders in the nation.” At Gimenez’s church, Copeland, who has boasted that his ministry has brought in more the $1 billion over his career, preached for two hours. The sanctuary was packed, with the audience hanging on every word. Gimenez introduced him as “God’s prophet,” and Copeland urged them to “get rid of the evening news and the newspaper,” study “the uncompromised word of the Holy Ghost,” and take “control over principalities.”
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Also, just quickly note who was seen laying hands on public officials during a 2007 Congressional Prayer Caucus: Cindy Jacobs, the same ‘prophet’ whose presence at the “The Response” in 2011 raised the ire of Brannon Howse for promoting false teachings. And the same ‘prophet’ who attended that June 2016 gathering where this network first formally met then-candidate Donald Trump. Cindy Jacobs has quite a knack for appearing around politicians:
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In 2007, I saw Cindy Jacobs and other “apostles” lay hands on Shirley Forbes, wife of Rep. Randy Forbes, the founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, which boasts some Democrats as members and many of the GOP’s leading lights. “You are going to be the mother of an army,” they told Forbes, prophesying that she would “speak the power of the word into politics and government. Hallelujah!”
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Again, let’s not forget that Jacobs isn’t the only ‘prophet’ we’ve seen palling around with politicians. Julie Green has been attending the ‘ReAwaken America’ events organized by Michael Flynn and Clay Clark.
We just saw how James Robison helped to organize what looks like an early dominionist plan for Ronald Reagan’s success in 1979. Not Robison alone. He had extensive help from figures like Bill Bright and a number of other major religious leaders who went on to help found the Council for National Policy in 1981. Leaders like Bill Bright, as we saw above. Or the figures who attended the August 1980 rally that Reagan actually attended, where Reagan told the crowd of 15,000, “You can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.”.
And as the following Washington Daily News piece from 2020 describes, that August 1980 rally featured a number of now familiar names who went on to form the CNP in 1981. Figures like Tony Perkins, Tim LaHaye, And James Dobson. Along with Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. As we’ve seen, Paige Patterson and Pressler were the figures behind the South Baptist Convention’s “Conservative Resurgence” in the 1970s. And, of course, Pressler was also a serial sexual abuser routinely protected by Patterson. Not that Patterson was only protecting Pressler. instead, Pressler was just a shining example of what had become a pattern of endemic sexual abuse and cover up inside the SBC denomination. In the end, Pressler’s legacy was in such tatters that his death earlier this year didn’t even get acknowledged at the SBC despite happening just four days before. Other young, up and coming, figures involved with this event included Rafael Cruz — father of Ted Cruz — and Mike Huckabee. In fact, Huckabee was then Robison’s 26-year-old assistant.
Key Republican strategist Paul Weyrich also spoke at that August 1980 rally. Shortly afterwards, Weyrich went on to assemble a network that would become the Council on National Policy. Initially, it consisted of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Study Committee, the American Legislative Exchange Committee (ALEC, founded by the Koch Brothers), the Moral Majority and the Religious Roundtable. So when Sarah Posner describes how dominionist movements have been actively coordinating with the Republican Party since at least 1980, this is the network she’s talking about. The network that went on to form the CNP during Reagan’s first year in office and continued to grow its influence and ties to the GOP ever since:
The Washington Daily News
The secret network that threatens democracy
Published 6:45 pm Friday, February 7, 2020
By Polk CulpepperIn 1980, a 39-year-old firebrand Southern Baptist TV evangelist named James Robison called together a group of conservative pastors based in Dallas. Robison had earlier made a name for himself by calling “for God’s people to come out of the closet” and take back the nation.
Robison’s group named themselves the Religious Roundtable. The Roundtable sought to convince the nation that homosexuality was a grave, unforgivable sin which was rotting the nation from within.
In August, Robison persuaded his group to team up with like-minded Christian fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority and Republican political operative Paul Weyrich. The group initially came together to sponsor a rally in Reunion Arena, a new sports stadium in Dallas shaped like a flying saucer. It was a huge success, drawing more than 15,000 Christian lay and ordained pastors.
The only 1980 presidential candidate to speak at the event was Ronald Reagan. He received a standing ovation. Those applauding included men who would lead the movement for decades to come: Mike Huckabee, then Robison’s 26-year-old assistant; Rafael Cruz, who would become an influential Dominionist pastor and father of a U.S. Senator; Paul Pressler, who helped launch the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence in the 1970s; Paige Patterson, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth; Adrian Rogers, president of the Convention; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Tim LaHaye of the famous Left Behind series; James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Weyrich.
Weyrich was more of a political operative, but he quickly grasped the potential of joining fundamentalist Christianity to conservative political movements. Or, as Bill Moyers later put it: “In Dallas, the religious right and the political right formally wed.”
“We are talking about Christianizing America,” Weyrich explained. Democracy was not as important as victory. “I don’t want everybody to vote,” he explained. “Elections are not won by a majority of people … our leverage in the elections goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Shortly after the 1980 rally, Weyrich began to construct the network that would become the Council on National Policy. At that time, it consisted of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Study Committee, ALEC (a group of conservative legislatures originally called together by the Koch brothers), the Moral Majority and the Religious Roundtable.
Through the years, CNP operations have been funded by right-wing financiers like Joseph Coors, Richard Scaife, Richard DeVos and his children, Richard and Betsy, Edgar Prince and his son, Erick, Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, and Charles and David Koch.
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Council members in the political sphere have included Ed Meese, Kellyanne Conway, Ralph Reed, the pollster George Barna and Mike Pence.
The CNP is not well known, because it likes to operate in the shadows. But its accomplishments are significant. The Council helped elect state and federal representatives who support the agendas of fundamentalist Christians and international corporations. The former want to see the nation governed according to the dictates of the Old and New Testaments. The latter want government to simply disappear and take its regulations and taxes with it.
To accomplish these ends, the CNP combines the power of uniquely effective political logarithms and other techniques to convince millions of conservative Christians to vote for right-wing candidates. Support for candidates selected by the Council is reinforced by the broadcasts of evangelical radio and TV stations.
...
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“Robison’s group named themselves the Religious Roundtable. The Roundtable sought to convince the nation that homosexuality was a grave, unforgivable sin which was rotting the nation from within.”
The “Religious Roundtable”. That was the name Robison gave to his group of influential pastors he had assembled in 1980 to help ensure Ronald Reagan wins the White House. By August of 1980, Robison’s group had teamed up with Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority to put on a large rally featuring speakers like Tony Perkins, Tim LaHaye, and James Dobson. Along with key GOP political strategic Paul Weyrich. And then there’s Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson of SBC infamy. Even Rafael Cruz — father of Ted Cruz — and Mike Huckabee were there, with Huckabee then serving as Robison’s 26-year-old assistant:
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In August, Robison persuaded his group to team up with like-minded Christian fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority and Republican political operative Paul Weyrich. The group initially came together to sponsor a rally in Reunion Arena, a new sports stadium in Dallas shaped like a flying saucer. It was a huge success, drawing more than 15,000 Christian lay and ordained pastors.The only 1980 presidential candidate to speak at the event was Ronald Reagan. He received a standing ovation. Those applauding included men who would lead the movement for decades to come: Mike Huckabee, then Robison’s 26-year-old assistant; Rafael Cruz, who would become an influential Dominionist pastor and father of a U.S. Senator; Paul Pressler, who helped launch the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence in the 1970s; Paige Patterson, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth; Adrian Rogers, president of the Convention; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Tim LaHaye of the famous Left Behind series; James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Weyrich.
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And the article reminds us, Paul Weyrich isn’t just famous for being a top Republican strategist. He’s also famous for making comments like, “I don’t want everybody to vote...Elections are not won by a majority of people … our leverage in the elections goes up as the voting populace goes down.” Which is more or less the rallying cry of the GOP today. Shortly after the rally, Weyrich goes on to help organize the formation of the CNP, initially consisting of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Study Committee, ALEC, the Moral Majority and the Religious Roundtable. Which is a reminder that the CNP has been a joint effort between the Republican Party and dominionists from its very inception:
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Weyrich was more of a political operative, but he quickly grasped the potential of joining fundamentalist Christianity to conservative political movements. Or, as Bill Moyers later put it: “In Dallas, the religious right and the political right formally wed.”“We are talking about Christianizing America,” Weyrich explained. Democracy was not as important as victory. “I don’t want everybody to vote,” he explained. “Elections are not won by a majority of people … our leverage in the elections goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Shortly after the 1980 rally, Weyrich began to construct the network that would become the Council on National Policy. At that time, it consisted of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Study Committee, ALEC (a group of conservative legislatures originally called together by the Koch brothers), the Moral Majority and the Religious Roundtable.
Through the years, CNP operations have been funded by right-wing financiers like Joseph Coors, Richard Scaife, Richard DeVos and his children, Richard and Betsy, Edgar Prince and his son, Erick, Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, and Charles and David Koch.
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Council members in the political sphere have included Ed Meese, Kellyanne Conway, Ralph Reed, the pollster George Barna and Mike Pence.
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And as the article also reminds us, it’s not a secret as to why we would see such an enthusiastic and enduring alliance between dominionist theocrats and the industrial interests like the Koch Brothers. An Old Testament version of government has very low taxes and regulations. Mission accomplished:
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The CNP is not well known, because it likes to operate in the shadows. But its accomplishments are significant. The Council helped elect state and federal representatives who support the agendas of fundamentalist Christians and international corporations. The former want to see the nation governed according to the dictates of the Old and New Testaments. The latter want government to simply disappear and take its regulations and taxes with it.To accomplish these ends, the CNP combines the power of uniquely effective political logarithms and other techniques to convince millions of conservative Christians to vote for right-wing candidates. Support for candidates selected by the Council is reinforced by the broadcasts of evangelical radio and TV stations.
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It’s been quite an enduring legacy. Not a positive legacy, but enduring. Flash forward to 2011, and it was Robison who was helping to assemble the group of pastors who ended up helping to launch Rick Perry’s ill-fated 2012 presidential campaign with a rapturous The Response rally. David Lane was The Response’s national finance director at the time as well as the organizer of the Texas Renewal events that further boosted Perry’s campaign. Now, Rick Perry obviously didn’t have a successful campaign. It was more of an ‘oops’ endeavor. Still, it’s remarkable just how enduring the influence of Robison’s network has been over the years. David Lane’s decades of organizing under the American Renewal Project is effectively an extension of the effort Robison helped launch in 1979.
Josh Hawley’s Insurrectionary Allegiance to the America Renewal Project
Flash forward again to January of 2021, and we can see how this movement hasn’t just been enduring but making alarming progress in its attempts to replace democracy with a theocracy. After all, while the January 6 Capitol insurrection may not have succeeded in keeping Donald Trump in office, it was still an incredible success of sorts. Success in the sense that it represented a very real ideological capture of the Republican Party. Thanks to Donald Trump’s corrupt nature, the party was ready to abandon democracy. And as we’ve seen, January 6 and the months of organizing that went into it was very much a CNP-backed effort. And effort that remains wildly successful in its ideological capture of the Republican electorate as exemplified by Donald Trump’s vengeance-based 2024 run and the open plans for a sweeping far right purge under the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot, which is yet another product of the CNP and its allies.
And that brings us to the following New York Times excerpt from January 11, 2021, about Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who famously ‘fist pumped’ the insurrectionary crowds hours before being caught on video inside the Senate fleeing from those same mobs. As the following piece describes, despite actively fleeing for his safety that day, Hawley remained adamant in sticking with the narrative about a stolen election in the speeches he delivered on the Senate floor in the wake of the attack. Why was Hawley, and so many of his peers, seemingly at war with democracy? Well, as the piece describes, Hawley has been a pretty open theocrat his entire political career. Hawley has repeated spoken and written about how the roots of society’s ills go back to Pelagius, a British monk who taught that human beings have the freedom to choose how they live their lives and that grace comes to those who do good things, as opposed to those who believe the right doctrines. Hawley views this as heretical. As Hawley sees it, Christians have a divine mandate to impose their vision of right and wrong all over the world. And an example, we can look at a 2017 speech Hawley gave to the American Renewal Project where Hawley declared “There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord....We are called to take that message into every sphere of life that we touch, including the political realm...That is our charge. To take the lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm, and to seek the obedience of the nations. Of our nation!” Hawley’s eager embrace of narratives that could topple what’s left of the US’s democratic institutions isn’t a mystery. We just need to listen to the dominionist language what Hawley has been saying for years:
The New York Times
The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage
Why do so many Republicans appear to be at war with both truth and democracy?
Jan. 11, 2021
By Katherine StewartMs. Stewart has reported on the religious right for more than a decade. She is the author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.”
In today’s Republican Party, the path to power is to build up a lie in order to overturn democracy. At least that is what Senator Josh Hawley was telling us when he offered a clenched-fist salute to the pro-Trump mob before it ransacked the Capitol, and it is the same message he delivered on the floor of the Senate in the aftermath of the attack, when he doubled down on the lies about electoral fraud that incited the insurrection in the first place. How did we get to the point where one of the bright young stars of the Republican Party appears to be at war with both truth and democracy?
Mr. Hawley himself, as it happens, has been making the answer plain for some time. It’s just a matter of listening to what he has been saying.
In multiple speeches, an interview and a widely shared article for Christianity Today, Mr. Hawley has explained that the blame for society’s ills traces all the way back to Pelagius — a British-born monk who lived 17 centuries ago. In a 2019 commencement address at the King’s College, a small conservative Christian college devoted to “a biblical worldview,” Mr. Hawley denounced Pelagius for teaching that human beings have the freedom to choose how they live their lives and that grace comes to those who do good things, as opposed to those who believe the right doctrines.
The most eloquent summary of the Pelagian vision, Mr. Hawley went on to say, can be found in the Supreme Court’s 1992 opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Mr. Hawley cited Justice Anthony Kennedy’s words reprovingly. “At the heart of liberty,” Justice Kennedy wrote, “is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” The fifth-century church fathers were right to condemn this terrifying variety of heresy, Mr. Hawley argued: “Replacing it and repairing the harm it has caused is one of the challenges of our day.”
In other words, Mr. Hawley’s idea of freedom is the freedom to conform to what he and his preferred religious authorities know to be right. Mr. Hawley is not shy about making the point explicit. In a 2017 speech to the American Renewal Project, he declared — paraphrasing the Dutch Reformed theologian and onetime prime minister Abraham Kuyper — “There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord.” Mr. Kuyper is perhaps best known for his claim that Christianity has sole legitimate authority over all aspects of human life.
“We are called to take that message into every sphere of life that we touch, including the political realm,” Mr. Hawley said. “That is our charge. To take the lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm, and to seek the obedience of the nations. Of our nation!”
Mr. Hawley has built his political career among people who believe that Shariah is just around the corner even as they attempt to secure privileges for their preferred religious groups to discriminate against those of whom they disapprove. Before he won election as a senator, he worked for Becket, a legal advocacy group that often coordinates with the right-wing legal juggernaut the Alliance Defending Freedom. He is a familiar presence on the Christian right media circuit.
The American Renewal Project, which hosted the event where Mr. Hawley delivered his speech in 2017, was founded by David Lane, a political organizer who has long worked behind the scenes to connect conservative pastors and Christian nationalist figures with politicians. The choice America faces, according to Mr. Lane, is “to be faithful to Jesus or to pagan secularism.”
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At the heart of Mr. Hawley’s condemnation of our terrifyingly Pelagian world lies a dark conclusion about the achievements of modern, liberal, pluralistic societies. When he was still attorney general, William Barr articulated this conclusion in a speech at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he blamed “the growing ascendancy of secularism” for amplifying “virtually every measure of social pathology,” and maintained that “free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people.”
Christian nationalists’ acceptance of President Trump’s spectacular turpitude these past four years was a good measure of just how dire they think our situation is. Even a corrupt sociopath was better, in their eyes, than the horrifying freedom that religious moderates and liberals, along with the many Americans who don’t happen to be religious, offer the world.
That this neo-medieval vision is incompatible with constitutional democracy is clear. But in case you’re in doubt, consider where some of the most militant and coordinated support for Mr. Trump’s postelection assault on the American constitutional system has come from. The Conservative Action Project, a group associated with the Council for National Policy, which serves as a networking organization for America’s religious and economic right-wing elite, made its position clear in a statement issued a week before the insurrection.
It called for members of the Senate to “contest the electoral votes” from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states that were the focus of Republicans’ baseless allegations. Among the signatories was Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who advised Mr. Trump and participated in the president’s call on Jan. 2 with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. Cosignatories to this disinformation exercise included Bob McEwen, the executive director of the Council for National Policy; Morton C. Blackwell of the Leadership Institute; Alfred S. Regnery, the former publisher; Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council; Thomas Fitton of Judicial Watch; and more than a dozen others.
Although many of the foot soldiers in the assault on the Capitol appear to have been white males aligned with white supremacist movements, it would be a mistake to overlook the powerful role of the rhetoric of religious nationalism in their ranks. At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, on the eve of Electoral College certification, the right-wing pastor Greg Locke said that God is raising “an army of patriots.” Another pastor, Brian Gibson, put it this way: “The church of the Lord Jesus Christ started America,” and added, “We’re going to take our nation back!”
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, a number of Christian nationalist leaders issued statements condemning violence — on both sides. How very kind of them. But few if any appear willing to acknowledge the instrumental role they played in perpetuating the fraudulent allegations of a stolen election that were at the root of the insurrection.
They seem, like Mr. Hawley, to live in a post-truth environment. And this gets to the core of the Hawley enigma. The brash young senator styles himself not just a deep thinker who ruminates about late-Roman-era heretics but also a man of the people, a champion of “the great American middle,” as he wrote in an article for The American Conservative, and a foe of the “ruling elite.” Mr. Hawley has even managed to turn a few progressive heads with his economic populism, including his attacks on tech monopolies.
Yet Mr. Hawley isn’t against elites per se. He is all for an elite, provided that it is a religiously righteous elite. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, and he clerked for John Roberts, the chief justice. Mr. Hawley, in other words, is a successful meritocrat of the Federalist Society variety. His greatest rival in that department is the Princeton debater Ted Cruz. They are résumé jockeys in a system that rewards those who do the best job of mobilizing fear and irrationalism. They are what happens when callow ambition meets the grotesque inequalities and injustices of our age.
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Make no mistake: Mr. Hawley is a symptom, not a cause. He is a product of the same underlying forces that brought us Mr. Trump and the present crisis of American democracy. Unless we find a way to address these forces and the fundamental pathologies that drive them, then next month or next year we will be forced to contend with a new and perhaps more successful version of Mr. Hawley.
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“The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage” By Katherine Stewart; The New York Times; 01/11/2021
“In other words, Mr. Hawley’s idea of freedom is the freedom to conform to what he and his preferred religious authorities know to be right. Mr. Hawley is not shy about making the point explicit. In a 2017 speech to the American Renewal Project, he declared — paraphrasing the Dutch Reformed theologian and onetime prime minister Abraham Kuyper — “There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord.” Mr. Kuyper is perhaps best known for his claim that Christianity has sole legitimate authority over all aspects of human life.”
The only real freedom humans have is the freedom to conform to the dictates of the theocrats who have assumed the responsibility to impose God’s will on every square inch of creation. That’s the vision of freedom Senator Josh Hawley shared in 2017. At an American Renewal Project gathering, appropriately:
...
“We are called to take that message into every sphere of life that we touch, including the political realm,” Mr. Hawley said. “That is our charge. To take the lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm, and to seek the obedience of the nations. Of our nation!”Mr. Hawley has built his political career among people who believe that Shariah is just around the corner even as they attempt to secure privileges for their preferred religious groups to discriminate against those of whom they disapprove. Before he won election as a senator, he worked for Becket, a legal advocacy group that often coordinates with the right-wing legal juggernaut the Alliance Defending Freedom. He is a familiar presence on the Christian right media circuit.
The American Renewal Project, which hosted the event where Mr. Hawley delivered his speech in 2017, was founded by David Lane, a political organizer who has long worked behind the scenes to connect conservative pastors and Christian nationalist figures with politicians. The choice America faces, according to Mr. Lane, is “to be faithful to Jesus or to pagan secularism.”
...
And as the piece reminds us, we cannot separate the events that led up to the January 6 Capitol Insurrection from the CNP. January 6 was a CNP-lead political production. Sure, keeping Trump in office was part of the goal. But the end goals were so much bigger:
...
Christian nationalists’ acceptance of President Trump’s spectacular turpitude these past four years was a good measure of just how dire they think our situation is. Even a corrupt sociopath was better, in their eyes, than the horrifying freedom that religious moderates and liberals, along with the many Americans who don’t happen to be religious, offer the world.That this neo-medieval vision is incompatible with constitutional democracy is clear. But in case you’re in doubt, consider where some of the most militant and coordinated support for Mr. Trump’s postelection assault on the American constitutional system has come from. The Conservative Action Project, a group associated with the Council for National Policy, which serves as a networking organization for America’s religious and economic right-wing elite, made its position clear in a statement issued a week before the insurrection.
It called for members of the Senate to “contest the electoral votes” from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states that were the focus of Republicans’ baseless allegations. Among the signatories was Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who advised Mr. Trump and participated in the president’s call on Jan. 2 with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. Cosignatories to this disinformation exercise included Bob McEwen, the executive director of the Council for National Policy; Morton C. Blackwell of the Leadership Institute; Alfred S. Regnery, the former publisher; Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council; Thomas Fitton of Judicial Watch; and more than a dozen others.
...
Make no mistake: Mr. Hawley is a symptom, not a cause. He is a product of the same underlying forces that brought us Mr. Trump and the present crisis of American democracy. Unless we find a way to address these forces and the fundamental pathologies that drive them, then next month or next year we will be forced to contend with a new and perhaps more successful version of Mr. Hawley.
...
It’s kind of sad to grim prediction at this end: “Unless we find a way to address these forces and the fundamental pathologies that drive them, then next month or next year we will be forced to contend with a new and perhaps more successful version of Mr. Hawley.” Yep. And here we are, with Trump threatening and vengeance-filled return to power with the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot waiting in the wings. All the pieces are in place for the kind of future Hawley and his fellow travelers envision. A future where you are free to obey them or face the consequences.
Mark Robinson: the Christian Nationalist Celebrity Who Says the Right Things.
And that all brings us back to Mark Robinson, the American Renewal Project’s ‘populist’ politician of choice. The kind of leader who isn’t afraid to declare that “Some people need killing!” At a church. As we’ve seen, Robinson isn’t some lone nut. Robinson is a foot soldier in a decades old movement on the cusp of its biggest victory yet. Or in the words of Tony Perkins, Robinson is “truly a trophy of God’s grace, a man to be admired for his courage, righteousness and justice”:
MSNBC
This rising GOP star embodies the Christian right’s bigotry
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is a religious conservative favorite because of his derogatory comments, not in spite of them.
March 23, 2023, 6:50 PM CDT
By Sarah Posner, MSNBC ColumnistNorth Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, according to a report from Talking Points Memo, has for years used his Facebook feed to promote racist, antisemitic, homophobic and transphobic viewpoints and memes. Elected in 2020, the Republican is reportedly considering a run for governor next year. He is a rising star on the Christian right, and his cache of appalling social media posts is further evidence that there is no daylight between the movement that bills itself as being committed to “family values” and “religious freedom” and the swamps of the bigoted far right.
The lieutenant governor’s prolific Facebook posts promoted a hodgepodge of familiar right-wing conspiracy theories, blaming “globalists,” the “occult” and “the New World Order” for America’s woes. He used racist epithets against the Revs. William Barber and Al Sharpton, the civil rights activists, and claimed expressions of “white pride” aren’t racist. He rejected his own membership in the Black community, writing, “Why would I want to be part of a ‘community’ that sucks from the putrid tit of the government and then complains about getting sour milk?” He dabbled in antisemitic conspiracy theories and regularly posted homophobic and transphobic statements, among them calling homosexuality “a FILTHY ABOMINATION, that satisfies your degenerate, un-natural lust.” (Robinson hasn’t responded to requests for comment from Talking Points Memo or other outlets covering the story.)
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Like his Facebook posts, Robinson’s more public hatred doesn’t stop with LGBTQ Americans. He has indulged antisemitic conspiracy theories. He has told an audience that “we are called to be led by men,” not women. And he has equated abortion with murder, even though he and his future wife got one in 1989, before they were married.
Robinson has risen in prominence thanks in no small part to having attained celebrity status on the Christian right. Tony Perkins, the influential president of the Family Research Council, Washington’s top Christian right political advocacy group, called him “truly a trophy of God’s grace, a man to be admired for his courage, righteousness and justice,” in an endorsement of his 2022 book. He has been a speaker at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference, a who’s who of GOP stars. My Faith Votes, a leading organization that mobilizes evangelicals to vote, has promoted Robinson’s political rise. He has appeared on the popular Trinity Broadcasting Network program of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who told him, “God has given you an ability to communicate.”
That support springs from his public pronouncements of faith and his adherence to the Christian right’s talking points, including opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights, and his demagoguery about supposed bogeymen like socialism, critical race theory and “indoctrination” in public education. Robinson also ardently promotes of the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation and the idea that Christian patriots must seize it back from anti-Christian forces. Last year, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Robinson opened his speech by declaring, “The United States of America is a Christian nation, founded on the principles and wisdom of Jesus Christ,” and he called on “patriots to stand up and reclaim who we are as Americans.”
At the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, he told the audience they were “the soldiers” holding the line against “a whole horde being led by Jim Crow Joe, Nasty Nancy and Chump Schumer,” referring to President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D‑Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑N.Y. He closed his speech with eliminationist fervor, imploring the audience to “sweep this socialist horde off of this blessed land we call the shining city on the hill.”
Evangelicals’ admiration isn’t in spite of Robinson’s derogatory comments but because of them. After his transphobic comments in the Baptist church sparked an uproar, Perkins lauded Robinson for taking a courageous stand against “cancel culture” and for “not apologizing for telling the truth.” Right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk hosted him as a “courageous” guest on his radio program to discuss “how conservatives can confront the radical transgender agenda that is attempting to infiltrate American schools.”
Robinson’s rapid ascent from political newcomer to top statewide official is a model for other right-wing activists who aspire to wage a spiritual battle to save Christian America. Last year, he was a featured speaker at a North Carolina gathering of the American Renewal Project, which recruits and trains pastors and other evangelicals to run for office. David Lane, who spearheads the effort, has long claimed his goal to be “the mobilization of pastors and pews to restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage.” These gatherings are typically closed to the media, but Religion News Service reported that in his appearance, Robinson called on the 200 attendees: “Join the fight. Don’t join the fight under man’s power. Join the fight under God’s power.”
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“Robinson’s rapid ascent from political newcomer to top statewide official is a model for other right-wing activists who aspire to wage a spiritual battle to save Christian America. Last year, he was a featured speaker at a North Carolina gathering of the American Renewal Project, which recruits and trains pastors and other evangelicals to run for office. David Lane, who spearheads the effort, has long claimed his goal to be “the mobilization of pastors and pews to restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage.” These gatherings are typically closed to the media, but Religion News Service reported that in his appearance, Robinson called on the 200 attendees: “Join the fight. Don’t join the fight under man’s power. Join the fight under God’s power.””
Robinson’s political rise isn’t a flash in the pan fluke. It’s a model for other right-wing activists who aspire to wage a spiritual battle to save Christian America. A model that finds figures like Robinson willing to say the ‘right’ things (like how some people need killing) and elevating them to higher office with robust theocratic institutional support. The kind of robust theocratic institutional support Donald Trump has relying on increasingly over the years as he becomes more and more of a ‘divinely inspired’ figure in the eyes of his followers:
...
Robinson has risen in prominence thanks in no small part to having attained celebrity status on the Christian right. Tony Perkins, the influential president of the Family Research Council, Washington’s top Christian right political advocacy group, called him “truly a trophy of God’s grace, a man to be admired for his courage, righteousness and justice,” in an endorsement of his 2022 book. He has been a speaker at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference, a who’s who of GOP stars. My Faith Votes, a leading organization that mobilizes evangelicals to vote, has promoted Robinson’s political rise. He has appeared on the popular Trinity Broadcasting Network program of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who told him, “God has given you an ability to communicate.”That support springs from his public pronouncements of faith and his adherence to the Christian right’s talking points, including opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights, and his demagoguery about supposed bogeymen like socialism, critical race theory and “indoctrination” in public education. Robinson also ardently promotes of the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation and the idea that Christian patriots must seize it back from anti-Christian forces. Last year, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Robinson opened his speech by declaring, “The United States of America is a Christian nation, founded on the principles and wisdom of Jesus Christ,” and he called on “patriots to stand up and reclaim who we are as Americans.”
...
Evangelicals’ admiration isn’t in spite of Robinson’s derogatory comments but because of them. After his transphobic comments in the Baptist church sparked an uproar, Perkins lauded Robinson for taking a courageous stand against “cancel culture” and for “not apologizing for telling the truth.” Right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk hosted him as a “courageous” guest on his radio program to discuss “how conservatives can confront the radical transgender agenda that is attempting to infiltrate American schools.”
...
Don’t forget: Charlie Kirk is a CNP member too. The CNP clearly loves Mark Robinson. And why wouldn’t it? He’s effectively the modern manifestation of their decades long investments. A politician willing to openly make dominionist proclamations.
Well, at he least he was openly making dominionist proclamations. And then we got his sudden ‘moderation’ on the abortion question after years of “no comprise” stances. But we can be confident the CNP and its operatives at the American Renewal Project will be more than happy to forgive Robinson for his sudden ‘moderation’. After all, like vampires, dominionists still need an invitation into public office. For now. Barring the violent revolutions they keep talking about.
Mark Robinson is a demonstrably talented politician. Or at least that’s one way of interpreting his meteoric rise. After all, he only won his first political office, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, in 2020. And here he is in 2024 as the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee. And, of course, he’s the darling of the American Renewal Project, focused on recruiting pastors to run for office. The “Some Folks Need Killing!” guy is great for recruiting pastors. Now you know.
But it’s worth keeping in mind that it could be argued Robinson’s political career started long before that. As TPM documented, Robinson had been a prolific purveyor of far right content on social media for over a decade and effectively became a right-wing star after a pro-gun speech he gave at a city council meeting in 2018 went viral. And as we also saw, it was 2019 when Robinson appeared for an extended conversation with Sean Moon, son of Reverend Sun Myung Moon who now runs his own church in Pennsylvania that treats AR-15 rifles as divine tools for God’s chosen people. The next year, he goes on to win his first political race. Weeks later, the January 6 Capitol insurrection transpires, with Sean Moon there at the Capitol among the pro-Trump mob. And where do we find Donald Trump on September 11, 2021, the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks? At a Unification Church event. The CNP may be the dominant theocratic entity in the US, but the Unification Church is no slouch. It still has clout.
And that brings us to the follow Covert Action Intelligence Bulletin from back in the Spring of 1987 about the fascinating ties between the Unification Church and the dominionist forces behind the CNP. Ties that were on full display at the time. The piece, by Fred Clarkson (who covered David Lane’s open calls from a violent dominionist revolution in 2013), covers the history of the Unification Church’s then-decades-long investments in acquiring power and influence inside the United States. A history that obviously centers around snuggling up to the Republican Party. But as we’re going to see, Moon had some major allies in this effort. Allies who made their affiliation with Moon’s agenda abundantly clear after Moon was sentenced to an 18-month prison sentence in 1984 over systematic tax fraud. And as we’re going to see, these allies were more or less the same network of evangelical religious leaders who rallied around Ronald Reagan in 1980 and went on to form the Council for National Policy (CNP) the following year.
The support for Moon primarily manifested through the DC-based Coalition for Religious Freedom (CRF), itself formed in 1984 as a project by the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, headed by Republican representative George Hansen. On the board of the CRF was a list of now familiar names: Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, James Robison, Rex Humbard, D. James Kennedy, and Jimmy Swaggart. As we saw, it was James Robison who played a key role in 1979 bringing together the group of evangelical dominionists who rallied behind Ronald Reagan’s campaign the following year. Including Tim LaHaye, one went on to become one of the CNP’s founding members in 1981 and group’s first president.
Also note that, not only do Falwell and Dr. D. James Kennedy also show up on the CNP list, but so does William T. Allen (Chairman of the Board, D. James Kennedy Ministries) and Dr. Frank Wright (President & CEO, D. James Kennedy Ministries). In other words, CRF board was stacked with CNP heavyweights. And that’s the group that was waging
Moon’s legal plight wasn’t the only issue the CRF and Hansen were upset about that year. The loss of tax-exempt status for Bob Jones University over its racist policies outraged Hansen. Keep in mind that Bob Jones III is another prominent CNP member.
But the CRF’s ties to Moon aren’t just found in their vociferous defense of Moon following his sentencing. CRF president Don Sills took $500,000 from Moon sources. Beyond that, CRF spokesperson and executive committee member Joseph Paige was active in key Unification Church entity CAUSA.
Another example the ties between Moon and this powerful network of evangelical leaders can be found in the right-wing lobby Christian Voice, founded in 1978 by CNP member Robert Grant. While Christian Voice characterizes itself as a lobby for all evangelicals, that was a characterization that didn’t sit well with then-director of the National Association of Evangelicals Robert P. Dugan, who described Christian Voice as “not constructed to be a representative organization and its political positions may well be determined by a handful of activists meeting over lunch. They are accountable to no one but themselves.” Even Paul Weyrich another CNP founder — described the group as “conservative first and Christian incidentally, as opposed to other groups that are Christian first, and conservative incidentally.”
What are the ties between Christian Voice and the Unification Church? Well, it turns out the group’s legislative director, Gary Jarmin, was a long-time Unification Church activist in the 1970s. And while Jarmin claimed to have left the group after joining the CRF, it also turns out he helped to organize the first CAUSA North America conference in 1983, along with Christian Voice Advisory Board members W. Steuart McBirney and Ray Allen. Jarmin and Grant went on to attend CAUSA’s 1985 conference too.
So that’s the very interest piece of history to keep in mind when we’re looking at this historic arc of how the same network behind rise of the ‘Religious Right’ in the 1980s and the formation of the CNP has grown to the point where its on the cusp on implementing that long sought theocracy. On the cusp of winning that power democratically or on the cusp of a violent revolution. Either way, they are on the cusp. Which means their fellow travelers, like the Unification Church and its AR-15-worshipping offshoots, are on the cusp too:
“According to the Fraser Report, political operations in the U.S. were at first opposed by religious “purists” in the Unification Church. However it was “pointed out to them that the Church in Japan and Korea carried extensive anticommunist political programs. They were told it was Master’s expressed desire to begin political work in the United States. Thereafter, a member’s objection to political activities was considered infidelity to Master and was like being disobedient to God.”13 In 1971, Moon came to the U.S. after his immigration difficulties were overcome through the intervention of Senator Strom Thurmond (Rep.-S.C.), who had spoken at Moon’s 1970 WACL conference in Tokyo. Based on interviews with ex-Moonies, Robert Boettcher, the staff director of the Fraser Committee, wrote that Moon was “appalled” by American individualism, and he considered relocating to Germany, where people “were trained in totalism.” Some former members recall that Nazi films on organizing Hitler Youth were shown as examples to Moonie leaders. Nothing was more important than developing a cadre of strong leaders totally subservient to his will.”14″
Reverend Moon finally arrived in the US in 1971, thanks to the intervention Republican Senator Strom Thurmond. Five years after the founding of the World Anti-Communist League and three years after Moon’s Shokyo Rengo organization was made a WACL chapter. And while Moon’s plans for the US had a large ‘anti-Communist’ component, it went much further. In a theocratic direction. According to The Divine Principle — the basic theological work of Unificationism — “Since the Constitution is not made of God’s words,” the US’s system of separation of powers, “cannot help opposing and conflicting with one another, and lack mutual harmony and order”:
But Moon’s organizing in the US didn’t start with his arrival in 1971. The American affiliate of Shokyo Rengo, the Freedom Leadership Foundation, was incorporated in 1969 in Washington DC, with the mission of winning the “power centers” and guided by the advice from Moon, “part of our strategy in the U.S. must be to make friends in the FBI, the CIA and police forces, the military and business community… as a means of entering the political arena, influencing foreign policy, and ultimately of establishing absolute dominion over the American people”. Absolute dominion is a common theme in this milieu:
But by 1984, Moon’s US activities managed to land him an 18-month prison sentence over tax fraud. Somehow, Moon’s defense team didn’t find success with their “Messiah defense”:
And it was during Moon’s prison sentence when we got to see the fruits of Moon’s years of cultivating influence inside US centers of power. In particular, theocratic centers of power, with the DC-based Coalition for Religious Freedom (CRF) playing a leading role. Only formed in 1984 itself, the CRF was an offshoot of the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, headed by Republican representative George Hansen. But Moon’s legal plight wasn’t the CRF’s only rallying cry. Hansen was also outraged over loss of tax-exempt status by Bob Jones University over its racial discrimination policies. And yes, as we should expect, Bob Jones III is a CNP member. But the CRF wasn’t just Hansen’s pet project. Its board hosted most of major televangelists at the time, including Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, James Robison, Rex Humbard, D. James Kennedy, and Jimmy Swaggart. As we saw, it was James Robison who played a key role in 1979 bringing together the group of evangelical dominionists who rallied behind Ronald Reagan’s campaign the following year. Including Tim LaHaye, one went on to become one of the CNP’s founding members in 1981 and group’s first president. Also note that, not only do Falwell and Dr. D. James Kennedy also show up on the CNP list, but so does William T. Allen (Chairman of the Board, D. James Kennedy Ministries) and Dr. Frank Wright (President & CEO, D. James Kennedy Ministries). In other words, CRF board is stacked with CNP heavyweights. So when we find how, not only did the CRF jump to Moon’s defense, but that CRF president Don Sills was taking large donations from Moon sources and prominent CRF spokesperson and executive committee member Joseph Paige was active in CAUSA, it’s pretty unambiguous that the CRF viewed Moon as an important ally. And why not? This is a network of theocrats with a shared goal:
And then there’s the ties between Moon and Christian Voice, a rightwing group that claims to be Christian lobby for all evangelicals. It was a self-characterization that faced some pushback from figures like Robert P. Dugan of the National Association of Evangelicals, who described the group as “not constructed to be a representative organization and its political positions may well be determined by a handful of activists meeting over lunch. They are accountable to no one but themselves.” Interestingly, Paul Weyrich — another CNP founder — described the group as “conservative first and Christian incidentally, as opposed to other groups that are Christian first, and conservative incidentally.” And as we can see, Gary Jarmin — a former Moonie activist — was Christian Voice’s legislative director. Jarmin even helped to organize the first CAUSA North America conference in 1983 while serving in that role. Also in attendance at the CAUSA conference were Christian Voice chairman (and CNP member) Robert Grant and Advisory Board members W. Steuart McBirney and Ray Allen. Grant and Jarmin also addressed the 1985 CAUSA conference. Grant was, at the time of this 1987 piece, chairing the Executive Committee of the CRF. It’s quite a tight network:
How deep does the relationship between the Unification Church and this CNP network of dominionists go? Well, as we can see, it was quite deep in the 1980s. Openly so, despite the denials. And that deep relationship has had four decades to fester. So, you know, ‘way too deep’ is the likely answer. We’ll presumably find out more about this ongoing relationshiop after the theocracy gets imposed. Or rather, those not killed during the theocratic revolution will get to find out more.
As we’ve seen, the American Renewal Project is massive multi-state effort that’s been operating for years now. Since 2005. And as we’ve also seen, the project has a number of state-based spin offs — the Texas Renewal Project, the Iowas Renewal Project, etc — with major financing coming from the American Family Association (AFA) run by CNP members Don and Tim Wildmon. But as we’re going to see in the following report from November 2011, there’s another significant entity behind the American Renewal Project: The Niemoller Foundation.
Founded in 2005 by San Antonio tycoon James Leininger, the Niemoller Foundation was formed as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit entity. As part of that tax-exempt status, the foundation was supposed to avoid participating in direct support of, or attacks against, an particular candidates for office. As we’ll see, it was the Niemoller Foundation that was financing an early iteration of the Texas Renewal Project — then known as the Texas Restoration Project — that was effectively operating as a sophisticated get-out-the-vote effort targeting churches in support of then-Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 2006 re-election campaign.
As we should expect, Leininger happens to be an ardent theocrat. He’s also described as Rick Perry’s Svengali. And As we’ve seen, Leininger isn’t just a major conservative donor in Texas. He’s the founder of a Texas entity that has repeatedly popped up in relation to theocratic initiatives not just in Texas but nationally: the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). Yep.
This is the same ‘think tank’ where where fellow Texas theocratic billionaire Tim Dunn has served as a board member since 1998. Dunn still serves as the TPPF’s Vice Chairman. As we also saw, former TPPF president and CNP member Kevin Roberts went on to become the current president of the Heritage Foundation. This is the same Kevin Roberts who leads the American Renewal Project 2025 scheme and recently declared the Second American Revolution is underway and will remain bloodless “if the left allows it to be.” Also recall how the TPPF and the Claremont Institute ran the “79 Days Report ‘simulations in 2020 imagining contested election scenarios. Kevin Roberts, John Eastman, and fascist businessman Charles Haywood all participated in the simulations.
And, of course, Leininger is a member of the CNP, as we should expect given Leininger’s clear theocratic ambitions. But he’s not the only CNP member cited as a major funder. Wealthy businessman Bob J. Perry — also a financier of the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” smear campaign — was also an early donor Niemoller foundation donor as the group was financing the Texas Restoration Project to operate as a Rick Perry get-out-the-vote operation. In addition, key CNP members Kelly Shackelford and David Barton were organizing pro-Perry events in association with the project. Recall how not only did Mike Johnson call Shackelford his mentor but Shackelford served as the CNP’s vice president in 2020. He was also part of the delegation of CNP members who met with Donald Trump back in June of 2016 to give the Trump campaign their blessing.
It’s also noteworthy how Leininger and his fellow theocrats eagerly viewed the Great Recession that was still playing out back in 2011 as an incredible opportunity to return the US to God. Government could not be part of the solution for the Great Recession. Only God. Evangelist James Robison was a champion of this view and had been searching for a politician to push this idea with the public. Rick Perry — the first major politician to embrace the then-nascent Tea Party movement — was Robison’s choice.
That’s all part of the context, and relevance, of the now infamous 2011 dominionist organizing in association with the American Renewal Project around Rick Perry’s 2011 presidential run: The whole ‘Renewal’ initiative effectively started off as a 2006 Rick Perry gubernatorial re-election effort with extensive funding from one of Tim Dunn’s long-time fellow theocrats:
“The idea that the recession was a blessed opportunity to turn Americans against government and toward “biblical principles” was already a familiar one for Robison’s followers. It was a message that Perry was poised to carry into the mainstream. Robison had been looking for a prominent public official to convene a large-scale prayer and fasting rally to spread the word. Perry took up the call. He would soon be inviting Christians and political leaders to a Houston stadium rally, The Response, explaining that while the country was facing grim economic times, “There is hope for America. It lies in heaven, and we will find it on our knees.””
The Great Recession was a blessed opportunity to turn Americans against government and towards “biblical principles”. That was the great hope of powerful pastors like James Robison as the financial crisis was playing out. And opportunity to showcase the principles of the kind of ‘Biblical capitalism’ promoted by figures like Glenn Beck and David Barton. Two of Rick Perry’s long-time key allies. Only God could heal the economy. Slashing the size of government was a biblically ordained response to the crisis. A crisis caused by a government that was “against God”:
That dedication to “Biblical capitalism” and shrinking the size of the federal government is a big part of context of Rick Perry emerging as the political avatar of this network: Perry wasn’t just an advocate of Christian Nationalism. He’s a “wealth first” ideologue and he’s not afraid of admitting it:
So it should come as no surprise to see how Rick Perry was effectively the first major politician to embrace the Tea Party. His ideology was effectively a theocratic version of Grover Norquist’s ideology:
And that all brings us to the key role of San Antonio tycoon James Leininger, described as Rick Perry’s Svengali. As we’ve seen, Leininger isn’t just a major conservative donor in Texas. Leininger founded the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), the ‘think tank’ where fellow Texas theocratic billionaire Tim Dunn has served as a board member since 1998. Dunn still serves as the TPPF’s Vice Chairman. As we also saw, former TPPF president and CNP member Kevin Roberts went on to become the current president of the Heritage Foundation. This is the same Kevin Roberts who leads the American Renewal Project 2025 scheme and recently declared the Second American Revolution is underway and will remain bloodless “if the left allows it to be.” Also recall how the TPPF and the Claremont Institute ran the “79 Days Report ‘simulations in 2020 imagining contested election scenarios. Kevin Roberts, John Eastman, and fascist businessman Charles Haywood all participated in the simulations. And, of course, Leininger is a member of the CNP, as we should expect given Leininger’s clear theocratic ambitions:
And as we can see, it was James Leininger’s Niemoller Foundation that helped launch the initial “Texas Restoration Project” (eventually renamed the Texas Renewal Project), with an initial goal of helping Rick Perry’s 2006 re-election campaign. So while the American Family Foundation (AFA) may be the entity that has long housed the American Renewal Project, it sounds like a lot of the money for the effort came for Leininger’s Niemoller Foundation. Also note how the goal of the Texas Restoration Project wasn’t really to encourage pastors to run for office themselves. The mission was getting those pastors to rally their congregations around Rick Perry. It’s a reminder that, while the American Renewal Project claims to be focused on recruiting pastors to run for office, the organization doubles as as church-based get-out-the-vote operation:
By 2008, the “Texas Restoration Project” had expanded to other states like Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Colorado, Tennessee, California, Florida, and Iowa, thanks to funding from the Niemoller Foundation and the AFA. And as Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network reminds us, the Niemoller Foundation is ostensibly a non-partisan non-profit group that engages in blatant partisanship like putting on pro-Rick Perry events. That was model expanded to other states thanks to all that Niemoller/AFA funding and David Lane’s organizing efforts:
Now let’s take a closer look at the non-profit fraud the TFN accused the Niemoller Foundation of perpetrating under the guise of ‘non-partisan’ activities. AS the TFN described, the Texas Restoration Project masked a sophisticated voter identification and mobilization strategy intended to benefit the Perry campaign in 2006. A strategy with the CNP’s fingerprints all over it: In addition to Leininger, CNP member Bob Perry also made major donations to the effort, with CNP members Kelly Shackelford and David Barton helping to organize the operation:
“To qualify for tax exemption under the federal tax code, a 501(c)(3) organization like the Niemoller Foundation must not participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. In a 2006 speech, the IRS commissioner said his agency had found nine nonprofits, including churches, had broken the law by “giving improper preferential treatment to certain candidates by permitting them to speak at functions.””
As the TFN found, the Niemoller Foundation claims to be a 501(c)(3) non-profit, meaning it couldn’t engage in any political campaign directly on behalf or against a candidate while maintaining its tax-exempt status. As the TFN describes it, those early pastor events of the “Texas Restoration Project” were effectively masking a sophisticated voter identification and mobilization strategy intended to benefit the Perry campaign in 2006. That’s the model that was expanded to other states:
And as we should expect, the list figures involved with the those 2006 efforts to re-election Rick Perry includes a number of CNP members. On top of Jim Leininger, we find “Swift Vote Veterans for Truth” financier Bob Perry serving as a major donor and Kelly Shackelford and David Barton helping to organize pro-Perry events. Recall how not only did Mike Johnson call Shackelford his mentor but Shackelford served as the CNP’s vice president in 2020. He was also part of the delegation of CNP members who met with Donald Trump back in June of 2016 to give the Trump campaign their blessing. In other words, Rick Perry’s 2006 re-election effort was effectively a CNP Rick Perry re-election effort. Before it became a template to export to other states:
And what happened to the TFN’s calls for the IRS to revoke the Niemoller Foundation’s tax-exempt status? The IRS ruled in the Niemoller Foundation’s favor in 2009. That’s also part of the context of the broader American Renewal Project active today. This church-focused get-out-the-vote model may have started as a Rick Perry re-election effort but it was the kind of model these theocrats were eager to export to one state after another. Which is exactly what they’ve done, thanks, in part to the IRS’s unwillingness to address this blatant abuse of tax exempt non-profit status. But also thanks to the seemingly endless financing finances from people with more money than God and plans to reshape society to ensure they get even more.
Oh look, the CNP had another group exposed. This time it was ProPublica, reporting on a new dominionist mega-donor organizing entity: The Ziklag group. It’s another 501(c)(3) tax-exempt ‘charity’ that in reality exists to help Republicans win elections. As the founder of the group, Ken Eldred, puts it, he wanted to wanted to create a donor network like the one created by Charles and David Koch but for Christians. Really wealthy Christians. Aspiring members need a net worth of $25 million to even apply. And if they aren’t Dominionist evangelical Christians they probably aren’t going to want to apply anyway. The Ziklag group is like the Koch network but specifically for Dominionists.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen reports on a ‘Ziklag’ dominionist initiative in recent years. As we’ve seen, Eldred also founded United in Purpose, an organization that appears to largely exist to promote dominionist projects. Recall how United in Purpose’s former director, CNP Member Bill Dallas, co-organized the big gathering of evangelicals in New York City in June of 2016 to effectively give their blessings to the then-nominated Donald Trump. Then, in February of 2020, Eldred played a key role in organizingthe formulation of CNP plans to deal with the results of the 2020 election in the event of an popular or electoral vote loss. They developed a three-pronged strategy: The first prong was an expansion of the use of voter data to turn out the GOP vote and suppress the Democratic vote. The second was to mobilize supporters in swing states to ignite Tea Party-like protests against COVID lockdowns. The third was finding physicians willing to publicly dismiss the dangers of COVID in a media blitz. United in Purpose called the campaign “Operation Ziklag”.
We’ve also seen Eldred’s United in Purpose show in relation to a number of other key CNP organizers, like Ralph Reed and Ginni Thomas. For example, United in Purpose partners with Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition in GOTV efforts. And then there’s the fact that Ginni Thomas started emceeing an annual Impact Awards awards ceremony celebrating some of the best-known Trump allies, put on in conjunction with United in Purpose. Plus, when Ginni Thomas tried to persuade state legislators in her efforts to overturn the 2020 election results utilizing the website everylegalvote.com to reach out to the legislators, she was using a website built by United in Purpose. And then there’s the fact that United in Purpose’s board members include CNP executive director Bob McEwen and has a network of allies and clients that include the American Family Associate, the Family Research Council, and Reed’s Faith & Freedom Coalition. And as we’ll see in the following ProPublica report, it was CNP member Charlie Kirk who was invited to the 2023 Ziklag gathering where he made the pitch that Ziklag was the counter to George Soros and other liberal billionaires. Kirk, McEwen, Reed, and Thomas all very active CNP organizers, which is what United in Purpose appears to be designed to facilitate. Interestingly, Eldred, the ostensible leader of the group, stands out for not showing up on the leaked CNP members lists. Almost everyone else involved with this story is a CNP member.
The group appears to made copious use of the ‘Seven Mountains’ dominionist terminology. The chair of the ‘education mountain’ is CNP member Peter Bohlinger. As we’re going to see, whipping up hysterics over education is one of the prongs in the groups three-pronged strategy for 2024. Specifically, whipping up hysterics over transgender children. That initiative is dubbed “Watchtower”, along with the “Checkmate” prong — focused on ‘election integrity’ efforts — and the “Steeplechase” prong dedicated to politically mobilizing conservative pastors. While there’s no indication David Lane’s American Renewal Project is involved with the Steeplechase efforts, it’s hard not to notice the enormous overlap.
As we should probably expect, the ‘Checkmate’ initiative centers around another major CNP figure: Cleta Mitchell. As we’ve seen, it was Mitchell who played a key organizing role in the CNP efforts to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. An insurrection with the CNP’s fingerprints all over it. Notably, the support from Ziklag for Mitchell appears to have been channeled through a $600,000 donation in 2022 to the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). Recall how the CPI serves as a kind of CNP organizational mothership, spinning off all sorts of new groups and deeply involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot. It’s a reminder that, while this Ziklag Group is portrayed as a kind of independent dominionist organizing entity, it’s really just another CNP front group. Albeit one that is more explicitly ‘Seven Mountains’ oriented than usual.
Fittingly, it sounds like one of the leading figures in the popularization of the Seven Mountains mandate, Lance Wallnau, is also playing a leading role in this Ziklag Group. In 2013, Wallnau co-authored the book Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate. And as we also saw, Wallnau was pushing the idea that Donald Trump is a God-ordained change agent analogous to the Biblical figure King Cyrus in the first year of Trump’s presidency. Wallnau sits on the board of the Truth and Liberty Coalition, alongside David Barton. The group targets public schools and collaborates with the CNP’s Moms for Liberty. In March 2022, Wallnau bragged that “we” had “flooded” Southlake, Texas with “one thousand people” who “took over the school boards… the city council… the mayor’s office.” He added that, “The media doesn’t know it because we never said it was a church initiative. We called it a community initiative.”
And yes, the Ziklag Group claims to be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-partisan charity despite having three major initiatives focused on partisan election results. As multiple tax experts tell ProPublica, this appears to be a gross misrepresenation for an entity blantly engaged in partisan organizing. But as we’ve also seen, trolling the IRS with blatantly fraudulent claims of non-partisanship is a long-standing pastime of this dominionist network. As the ProPublic report points out, while confidential donor networks regularly channel hundreds of millionos of dollars into political and charitable groups — like the liberal Democracy Alliance to the Koch-affiliated Stand Together organization — those groups don’t claim to be 501(c)(3) charities like this Ziklag is claiming. As experts describe, Ziklag appears to be the first coordinated effort to get wealthy donors to fund an overtly Christian Nationalist agenda. This is also a good time to recall how two of the key entities backing the American Renewal Project — the American Family Association and the Niemoller Foundation — bothclaim to be and 501(c)(3) charities. In other words, Ziklag isn’t the first dominionist 501(c)(3). But it does appear to be novel in its focus on mega-donors-only for dominionist organizing.
So that’s all part of the background of this seemingly ‘new’ dominionist network ProPublica reported on last month. And in a technical sense it is relatively new. Or new-ish. And yet, it’s also obviously just one more entity in this same old CNP dominionist network that has been accruing power, and ambition, for decades. For charity, of course:
“According to the Ziklag files, the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations targeting voters in battleground states: Checkmate, focused on funding so-called election integrity groups; Steeplechase, concentrated on using churches and pastors to get out the vote; and Watchtower, aimed at galvanizing voters around the issues of “parental rights” and opposition to transgender rights and policies supporting health care for trans people.”
A triple-pronged strategy for winning elections in 2024: Watchtower, Checkmate, and Steeplechase. In other words, monstering transgender kids, denying elections in the same manner that resulted in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and engaging in American Renewal Project-style ‘pastor outreach’ efforts. And it’s about as unpopulist a movement as one can imagine: only Domioninsts dedicated to the “Seven Mountains” Christian Nationalist capture of society, and worth at east $25 million, need apply. So of course we’re seeing CNP member Peter Bohlinger serving as Ziklag’s ‘education mountain’ chair. Ziklag has all the hallmarks of a classic CNP operation. And while it’s fair to characterize the ‘Seven Mountains’ theology as a ‘break’ from the kind of Christian fundamentalism as a ‘break’, rhetorically speaking, from the kind of Christian Nationalism peddled by CNP founders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell in the 1980s, as Sarah Posner has pointed out, the underlying theocratic ambitions aren’t really different. ‘Seven Mountains’ is more of dropping of the mask for the same movement than a real change in ambitions:
And Bolhinger being just the first of string of CNP figures running or coordinating with Ziklag, with former United in Purpose director Bill Dallas being a notable example. It’s United in Purpose’s founder, Ken Eldred, who apparently founded Ziklag in the spirit of ‘like the Koch Brothers’ influence network but just for super-rich Domionists’ following Trump’s win in 2016. Recall how it was United in Purpose’s then-director and CNP Member Bill Dallas who co-organized the big gathering of evangelicals in New York City in June of 2016 to give their blessings to the then-nominated Donald Trump. Eldred went on to organize the formulation of CNP plans in February of 2020 to deal with the results of the 2020 election in the event of an popular or electoral vote loss. They developed a three-pronged strategy: The first prong was an expansion of the use of voter data to turn out the GOP vote and suppress the Democratic vote. The second was to mobilize supporters in swing states to ignite Tea Party-like protests against COVID lockdowns. The third was finding physicians willing to publicly dismiss the dangers of COVID in a media blitz. United in Purpose called the campaign “Operation Ziklag”.
And then there’s all the CNP members we’ve seen pop up in relation to United in Purpose activities. For example, United in Purpose partners with Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition in GOTV efforts. Also recall how Ginni Thomas started emceeing an annual Impact Awards awards ceremony celebrating some of the best-known Trump allies, put on in conjunction with United in Purpose. Plus, when Ginni Thomas tried to persuade state legislators in her efforts to overturn the 2020 election results utilizing the website everylegalvote.com to reach out to the legislators, she was using a website built by United in Purpose. And then there’s the fact that United in Purpose’s board members include CNP executive director Bob McEwen and has a network of allies and clients that include the American Family Associate, the Family Research Council, and Reed’s Faith & Freedom Coalition. And as we can see, it was CNP member Charlie Kirk who was invited to the 2023 Ziklag gathering where he made the pitch that Ziklag was the counter to George Soros and Google billionaires. Kirk, McEwen, Reed, and Thomas all very active CNP organizers, which is what United in Purpose appears to be designed to facilitate. It’s another CNP initiative, founded by Eldred, who stands outs in this group by not showing up on the leaked CNP membership lists:
And then we get to /lance Wallnau, described as as driving force behind the Ziklag efforts. As we’ve seen, Wallnau is an NAR leader who has played a big role in popularizing the ‘Seven Mountains Mandate’ Dominionist theology. In 2013, Wallnau co-authored the book Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate. And as we also saw, Wallnau was pushing the idea that Donald Trump is a God-ordained change agent analogous to the Biblical figure King Cyrus in the first year of Trump’s presidency. Wallnau sits on the board of the Truth and Liberty Coalition, alongside David Barton. The group targets public schools and collaborates with the CNP’s Moms for Liberty. In March 2022, Wallnau bragged that “we” had “flooded” Southlake, Texas with “one thousand people” who “took over the school boards… the city council… the mayor’s office.” He added that, “The media doesn’t know it because we never said it was a church initiative. We called it a community initiative.” Wallnau is a leading dominionist and Ziklag is a dominionist effort, like the most of the CNP does:
And as evidence of the Ziklag group’s ongoing focus on overturning unfavorable election results through any means necessary, here’s showing as a recipient of the Ziklag group’s giving. The same election refuting specialist Cleta Mithell who played a key organizing role in the large-scale CNP effort to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. It’s worth noting how that support from Ziklag for Mitchell appears to have been channeled through a $600,000 donation in 2022 to the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). Recall how the CPI serves as a kind of CNP organizational mothership, spinning off all sorts of new groups and deeply involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot. So when we see large donations from a Dominionist group like Ziklag getting channeled to Mitchell’s election-overturning efforts via the CPI, it’s a reminder that the CPI isn’t just a tool of the conservative movement’s mega-donors. It’s a tool of the domioninist mega-donors who helped organize January 6, as is the Ziklag group:
So given the dominionist nature of this group’s ambitions, we shouldn’t be surprised the third prong in the Ziklag group’s strategy is a conservative pastor mobilization effort, coordinated with groups like Charlie Kirk’s Turning Points USA, Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, and the America First Policy Institute, one of the entities playing an important role in the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot. Is there any coordinating with the effort American Renewal Project? There doesn’t appear to be any indication of that yet but it’s hard not to notice the enormous overlap in shared interests and efforts. In other words, what are the odds the American Renewal Project funders aren’t also Ziklag donors? It’s the same CNP-organized dominionist effort. The same one:
Finally, there’s the glaring tax code violation for Ziklag’s ‘charitable’ tax-deductible efforts that’s another parallel with the American Renewal Project — housed by the ‘charitable’ American Family Association and financed by the ‘charitable’ Niemoller Foundation. All 501(c}(3) entities, allegedly engaged in nonpartisan tax deductible activities:
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the IRS to finally crack down on this blatant trolling that’s been going on for decades. Trolling that doubles as effective tax evasion. To help finance a movement dedicated to the complete capture of society. It’s hard to get more partisan than that. And yet this is all for ‘charity’. LOL. The joke is on us.
“You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” That was the highly disturbing message delivered by Donald Trump a little over a month ago at the Turning Point Action’s “Believers Summit” in West Palm Beach, Florida. Christians just had to vote this one last time and they could be done with voting forever. It was a message that was understandably interpreted as just one more open hint at plans to effectively end what’s left of the US’s democratic institutions. An interpretation that logically follows the ongoing Schedule F/Project 2025 Christian Nationalist plot.
And while it’s certainly very possible Trump really did intend to send a message of “I’ll permanently ‘fix’ democracy so you never lose again” message to this audience, it’s worth noting how that rhetoric synergizes with the messaging targeting evangelical voters coming from another keenly interested group: David Lane and his claims over the years that only around a quarter of evangelical voters even bother voting in presidential elections. It’s a message Lane has apparently been sharing with audiences at his various American Renewal Project ‘pastor events’ for years. Nor is Lane the only one to make this claim. Mike Huckabee, for example, has made the same claims.
It’s not a particularly surprising message to hear coming from someone in Lane’s position. He’s leading a group dedicated to politically organizing pastors and, in turn, their congregations. A message about a vast untapped pool of voters sitting in these congregations has a lot of obvious appeal. And yet, as we’re also going to see, it’s not actually true. Evangelical voters in US vote at roughly the same levels as other demographics, consistently hovering somewhere around 50 percent voting rates.
But there’s another very interesting political story related to this quest to increase the evangelical vote: before Donald Trump came along to conquer the Republican primary in 2016, it was Ted Cruz who was not only leading the Republican pack but did so through a high effective strategy of targeting pastors. A strategy that not only had parallels with David Lane’s American Renewal Project but was literally part of it. As we’re going to see, Cruz was a regular attendee at Lane’s various ‘pastor events’ going back to 2013, along with Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz. It turns out Rafael is also quite close to Lane and a regular speaker at these events. Along with chief dominionist pseudo-historian David Barton. This is a good time to recall how, back in 1980, both Mike Huckabee and Rafael Cruz were involved with the organizing of the Jame Robison’s “Religious Roundtable” that whipped up major evangelical enthusiasm for Ronald Reagan’s presidential run. Rafael Cruz has been a key driving force behind the politicization of the evangelical community for decades, effectively grooming his son to be ‘God’s president’ someday.
And that brings us to another aspect of Rafael’s activism that should be kept in mind: recall those stories in 2022 about how the dominionist Moms for Liberty and the Truth and Liberty Coalition — run by Lance Wallnau and David Barton — working to successfully take control of school boards in Texas by focuses on anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ hysteria. Wallnau is the prominent New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) leader who co-authored of a popular 2013 book promoting the idea of dominionism. Following Trump’s election in 2016, Wallnau started pushing the idea back in 2018 that Trump was a God-ordained change agent analogous to the Biblical figure of King Cyrus. A “modern-day Cyrus”, as Wallnau described Trump. This was a story about a dominionist capture of school boards in Texas. A highly successful capture that had them planning a national rollout of the strategy.
As we also saw, one of the groups also working on that effort was Patriot Mobile, a conservative christian cellphone company with a business model that pledges to spend some of the profits on conservative causes. It’s worth taking a closer look at the group and its efforts in those school board captures. Founded in 2012, the company initially boasted of a business model that pledged to support groups that opposed abortion, defend religious freedom, protect gun rights and support the military. After Trump’s election, Patriot Mobile became much more overtly dominionist. By 2022, it was one of the entities deeply involved this this school board capture effort, including coordinating with the True Texas Project on the effort. As we’ve seen, the True Texas Project is one of those groups heavily reliant on the finances of Texas theocratic billionaire Tim Dunn through his Defend Texas Liberty PAC. And also infested with Nazis. As we saw, not only is the group founded by Julie McCarty, who openly sympathized with the motives of El Paso shooter Patrick Crusius. But just three weeks before that now-infamous October seven hour long meeting with Nick Fuentes at the headquarters of Dunn’s Pale Horse Strategies political group held in early October 6 2023, the True Texas Project held a ‘passing the torch’ event in Dallas that featured John Doyle and Jake Lloyd Colglazier. Doyle has frequently appeared alongside Nick Fuentes at events. For example, Doyle and Fuentes co-led a Lansing Michigan “Stop the Steal” rally in the lead up to the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. Colglazier was one of the most prominent members of Fuentes’s ‘groyper army’. In 2019, Colglazier, Fuentes, and Patrick Casey — the leader of Identity Evropa, since rebranded as the “American Identity Movement” — were the headliners at a white nationalist conference where they advocated a strategy of pulling the Republican Party further to the right with a strategy of attacking Republicans for issues like being weak on immigration or support for Israel. In 2018, Casey was openly telling NBC News he was planning on infiltrating the Republican Party, with an emphasis on befriending and winning over young college Republicans. The True Texas Project was listed as an affiliated on Patriot Mobile’s own website as one of its affiliate. So when we see Patriot Mobile coordinating with the True Texas Project, keep in mind that it’s one of multiple Nazi-friendly groups closely associated both Nick Fuentes and Tim Dunn who have a youth-focused strategy of radicalizing Republicans even more.
During this school board capture campaign in 2022, none other than Rafael Cruz was giving weekly Bible study classes at the Patriot Mobile headquarters. The lectures, broadcast on Youtube, were dominionists lessons in how the separate of church and state should really only be seen as ‘one-way’, with government prohibited from meddling with church but churches free to wield whatever influence they deem appropriate over government. Not only is it a reminder that Rafael Cruz’s decades of political activism is still very much active today, but it raises the question as to who is more influential these days when it comes to mobilizes conservative voters: Ted Cruz or his dad? Rafael is clearly very influential with this community and has been since before Ted Cruz first got elected.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that it was Rafael Cruz who Donald Trump suggested may have played a role in the JFK assassination back during the GOP primary race of 2016, when Ted was his only remaining obstacle to the nomination. It’s a fascinating winkle to this ongoing story of Rafael Cruz’s decades of dominionist activism, which included grooming his son to be “God’s president” some day. A role his son could have secured in 2016 had Trump not charmed the party with his fascist madness. We can only assume Rafael’s activism has a ‘Trump is a divinely inspired actor’ message since that’s the messaged embraced by the rest of this movement. But it was supposed to be his son. Instead it was Trump, who accused him of being involved in the JFK assassination, which is all the more fascinating because we can’t really rule out the possibility he worked with Lee Harvey Oswald’s Fair Play for Cuba leafleting activities.
So while Trump’s “you won’t have to do it anymore” message to evangelical voters certainly has an air of ominousness due to the theocratic authoritarian perils posed by a second Trump administration, it’s worth keeping in mind that focusing on surging the evangelical vote is the same strategy the GOP has been relying on for decades. It was the same strategy Rafael Cruz has been helping David Lane cultivate for years through the American Renewal Project’s numerous ‘pastor gatherings’, and the same strategy that was supposed to secure the GOP nomination for Ted Cruz in 2016 before Trump came along. And it’s ultimately the same strategy at the heart of the anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ panics getting whipped up at the local level.
In other words, if the prospect of a second Trump term — with all of the associated Project 2025 theocratic ambitions — almost sounds like what we might expect from a Ted Cruz presidency, that’s because that’s sort of what Trump’s presidency really was: the theocratic policies that appeal to Ted Cruz voters, but delivered with that demented Trumpian flare that seems to have more popular appeal. When we see Donald Trump actively distancing himself from the politically toxic nature of Project 2025’s theocratic agenda, he’s not just running away from his own agenda. He’s running away from the Cruz agenda. An Rafael Cruz groomed Ted to execute at the executive level. But Trump is the one God chose instead. Either way, it’s dominionist agenda, MAGA patina or not. An agenda designed to appeal to the core of evangelical voters that David Lane and Rafael Cruz have been cultivating for decades and that was supposed to propelled Ted Cruz into the White House in 2016, before Donald Trump hijacked it:
“Barton’s anonymity was fitting. It was something of a metaphor for the relationship between Cruz and Barton, both of whom hail from Texas. Cruz has maintained a delicate balance in his association with Barton, a figure who is a hero to some evangelical Christians, and a fraud to others.”
The anonymous ‘Ted Cruz whisperer’. That’s how David Barton was depicted in this piece of January of 2016. Barton’s form of Christian Nationalism has clearly had a profound influence on Cruz, serving as a kind of theological mentor. And yet, thanks to the controversial nature of Barton’s theology, it’s a mentorship that could end up becoming a political liability outside of theologically-friendly circles. So when we see Barton was acting as the de facto master of ceremonies at this Cruz campaign event without ever introducing himself, we can see how Barton’s political endorsements sort of operate in a ‘If You Know, You Know’ manner:
Similarly, we can see how Barton was instrumental in organizing the December 2015 gathering at the Texas ranch of Farris Wilks, who turned out to be a major Cruz donor. Recall how the billionaire Wilks brothers are key partners with Tim Dunn in the theocratic capture of the Texas Republican Party. It’s a reminder that, while Barton serves as a potentially potent, but also potentially controversial, spokesperson for Cruz when dealing with the public, he’s a theocratic mega-donor super-star in the right circles:
And as the article describes, while Ted Cruz and David Barton may not be particularly close personally, it’s a very different situation when we’re talking about Barton and Rafael Cruz, who are described as extremely close:
And as the following Boston Globe article, also from January of 2016, describes, it’s not just that Rafael Cruz and David Barton are longtime close associates. Rafael was seen by many as his son’s ‘secret weapon’ in the GOP primarily precisely because the elder Cruz has so much sway with evangelical voters. Beyond that, as the article also describes, Ted Cruz has effectively been groomed by his father to run for president since he was a child. So when we see how David Barton was playing a key role rally evangelicals around Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid, keep in mind that this was a moment Rafael had been planning on for a very long time. Perhaps longer than Ted had been:
“Meet Rafael Cruz, Ted Cruz’s 76-year-old father, a crucial — if sometimes divisive — element of the Texas senator’s campaign to win over conservative Christian voters. The senior Cruz’s crusades at churches across Iowa have paid big dividends; with strong support among evangelicals, Cruz has pulled within striking distance of front-runner Donald Trump in next week’s first-in-the-nation caucus.”
Rafael Cruz is quite the crowd pleaser. At least for the right kind of crowd. Like an Iowan Republican primary audience.
But as we can see, Rafael hasn’t just been meeting with churchgoers to promote his son’s presidential bid. He had been meeting in private with pastors all over the US for at least a year at that point. And had been preparing Ted for this role since childhood:
And when we see how Rafael sought out the endorsement of key Iowa conservative king-maker, Bob Vander Plaats, recall how Vander Plaats ended up endorse Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Iowa caucus, triggering a big fight for Vander Plaats with the ‘Pastors for Trump’ group that’s emerged in recent year. In fact, Pastors for Trump was started not long after Vander Plaats began openly criticizing Donald Trump following Trump’s now-infamous dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West and neo-Nazi leader Nick Fuentes. It’s a reminder that the race of evangelical endorsements has become more complicated since Trump’s capture of the Republican Party:
And then we get a reference to one of David Lane’s American Renewal Project events, featuring Ted Cruz. An event attended by Rafael too:
And that brings us to the following April 2015 piece from the Washington Times describing a relationship we should more or less expect at this point: it turns out David Lane and Rafael Cruz have a longstanding working relationship. The kind of relationship that could have been very helpful had Ted won the primary. Because as the Cruz campaign explained at the time, Ted Cruz’s path to the White House was predicated on activated two different groups of evangelicals: regular evangelical voters and non-regular evangelical voters. And as David Lane explained, one of his goals was getting preachers to energize the then 30-to-40 million evangelicals not registered to vote. It’s a reminder that, while the American Renewal Project might have a public focus on recruiting pastors to run for office, at its core the project appears to be more about using pastors to convert non-voting evangelicals into voters:
“There are about 65 to 80 million evangelical Christians in America, half of those are not registered to vote, and only about 25 percent of the ones who are registered do, according to Mr. Lane.”
Only around half of the 65–80 million evangelicals in America are even registered to vote and, only around a quarter of those who are registered vote at all. In other words, a clear majority of American evangelicals don’t vote. Or at least that was claim David Lane was making in 2015. As we’re going to see below, it was a wildly exaggerated claim that others in Lane’s orbit also like to repeat. Still, it’s a reflection of the intense focus in Republican primary politics on mobilizing evangelical voters in particular. As Ted Cruz was describing at the time, energizing and mobilizing the evangelical vote was at the core of his presidential campaign strategy. It’s not clear the strategy would have worked, as plenty of skeptics pointed out. But that was the plan:
And not how these American Renewal Project events at the time didn’t just feature presidential hopefuls like Nikki Haley or Ted Cruz. Rafael Cruz himself was featured guest at some of these events, giving PowerPoint presentation to other pastors dubbed “Reclaiming America: Why Pastors and Christians in General Need to be Involved in the Political Arena”:
Next, let’s take a quick look at this November 2013 piece in the Washington Monthly about Lane’s American Renewal Project events, featuring David Barton, that were already underway for the 2014 election cycle. And as it notes, Ted Cruz was already attending these events. Keep in mind that he was first elected to the Senate in 2012, so he wasn’t actually facing any elections in the 2014 election cycle. In other words, Ted Cruz was already starting the process of winning over evangelical pastors for his 2016 presidential race in 2013, with the American Renewal Project as his venue of choice:
“Barton was present at the first such event of the 2014 electoral cycle in Iowa back in July. So, too, were Rand Paul, and the man who stole the show, Ted Cruz”
Look who stole the show at the ‘first’ American Renewal Project event of the 2014 election cycle, back in July of 2013 in Iowa. And then, in November of that year, he attended another such event, this time South Carolina. That’s part of the context of all these reports we were getting 2015 and 2016 about how Cruz was relying on Lane’s network to secure his primary victory and go on to win the White House: Ted Cruz has apparently been attended a large number David Lane’s events.
And note when we see the reference to Dr. Laurence White delivered a blood-curdling speech at a 2012 American Renewal Project event, recall how White and his wife were two of three directors on the Niemoller Foundation’s governing board. In other words, White is an American Renewal Project mega-donor. He could presumably give as many blood-curdling speeches at he wanted at these kinds of events:
Finally, let’s take a look at the following March 2015 Washington Post piece exploring these claims we’ve heard from Lane about how only a quarter of evangelicals vote in presidential elections. Note the piece is by Philip Bump, who , as we saw in the above Washington Times piece, was actively mocking Ted Cruz’s strategy at the time of relying pretty much exclusively on generating turnout from non-voting evangelicals to secure his path to the White House. Mockery based, presumably in part, on the following analysis examining just how accurate this ’25% of evangelical voters actually vote’ claim really is. Surprise! It’s not a very accurate claim:
“The idea of low turnout in the group isn’t unique to Cruz. Last year, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee — who would very much like to absorb those same religious votes in next year’s primaries — articulated a more extreme version of Cruz’s math. At the Value Voters Summit, Huckabee said that there are about 80 million evangelicals, half of whom are registered to vote — and a quarter of whom actually vote in presidential elections. And in midterms? Only half of those who vote in presidential races!”
As Bump points out, Mike Huckabee was making the same claim we heard from David Lane: only a quarter of evangelicals actually vote in presidential race. And yet, as Bump’s team found, evangelical voters appear to vote roughly in line with other demographics...something around half vote, like everyone else in the US:
Again, it’s not really a surprise to find the claims of a vast evangelical under-voting crisis are basically a fabrication. It’s a very convenient fabrication for figures like Mike Huckabee or David Lane. Or Rafael and Ted Cruz. Figures who have built entire careers centered around energizing this voting demographic. Just as it’s not surprising to find that a second Trump administration is predicated on placating this same demographic. The path to the White House for Republicans has long been on the backs of evangelical voters and that remains the case today.
But it’s not just that Trump is relying on this same evangelical-heavy model for victory that Republicans have long predicated their White House bids on. Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ politics — and his demonstrated willingness to cater to the dominionist crowd when it comes to Supreme Court justices — really has amplified the dominionist movement in large part because it’s so compatible with it. ‘Make America Great Again’ is music to the ears of those arguing conservative Christians should forcefully seize the reigns of government and use that government power to actively impose ‘godly’ policies. As the following August 2022 NBC report describes, that was the sentiment driving many of the groups pushing for the dominionist capture of local school boards across Texas that year. A wildly successful capture, as we’ve seen. Recall how the Southlake school board takeover effort was a major focus of the CNP’s Moms for Liberty, along with the Truth and Liberty Coalition run by David Barton and Lance Wallnau. Also recall how Wallnau — the co-author of a popular 2013 book promoting Dominionism — was pushing the idea back in 2018 that Trump was a God-ordained change agent analogous to the Biblical figure of King Cyrus. A “modern-day Cyrus”, as Wallnau described Trump.
And as we also saw with those Southlake school board efforts, another group assisting in that effort was Patriot Mobile, a conservative Christian cellphone company that spends a portion of its funds on conservative political causes. Rafael Cruz was giving weekly Bible study classes for Patriot Mobile’s employees during this period. Note that Patriot Mobile’s co-founder and CFO, Glenn P. Story, shows up on the CNP members list.
So let’s take a closer look at Rafael Cruz’s Bible study teachings to the Patriot Mobile employees during this joint capture of the local Texas school boards. As we’ll see, the lessons were effectively that there should be an end to the separation of church in state. Instead, it should be a “one-way wall”, where churches are allowed to directly interfere with the state but not the other way around.
And as the article also points out, there’s another we’ve seen before that was directly involved in the school board capture. The group asked its followers to show up to public hearings and loudly support the array of new proposals that soon inundated the school boards this movement took over. The group happens to be the True Texas Project. As we’ve seen, this is one of those groups in the direct orbit of Texas billionaire theocrat Tim Dunn where dominionism and overt Nazis mingle. One of many political entities with Tim Dunn’s Defend Texas Liberty as its primary donor. As we saw, not only is the group founded by Julie McCarty, who openly sympathized with the motives of El Paso shooter Patrick Crusius. But just three weeks before that now-infamous October seven hour long meeting with Nick Fuentes at the headquarters of Dunn’s Pale Horse Strategies political group held in early October 6 2023, the True Texas Project held a ‘passing the torch’ event in Dallas that featured John Doyle and Jake Lloyd Colglazier. Doyle has frequently appeared alongside Nick Fuentes at events. Recall how Doyle and Fuentes co-led a Lansing Michigan “Stop the Steal” rally in the lead up to the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. Colglazier was one of the most prominent members of Fuentes’s ‘groyper army’. In 2019, Colglazier, Fuentes, and Patrick Casey — the leader of Identity Evropa, since rebranded as the “American Identity Movement” — were the headliners at a white nationalist conference where they advocated a strategy of pulling the Republican Party further to the right with a strategy of attacking Republicans for issues like being weak on immigration or support for Israel. In 2018, Casey was openly telling NBC News he was planning on infiltrating the Republican Party, with an emphasis on befriending and winning over young college Republicans. The True Texas Project was listed as an affiliated on Patriot Mobile’s own website as one of its affiliate. So when we see Patriot Mobile coordinating with the True Texas Project, keep in mind that it’s one of multiple Nazi-friendly groups closely associated both Nick Fuentes and Tim Dunn who have a youth-focused strategy of radicalizing Republicans even more. Nazis and Dominionists. And Rafael Cruz. Amped up more than ever on dominionism thanks to Donald Trump:
““We’re not here on this earth to please man — we’re here to please God,” Wambsganss said, adding later in the interview, “Ultimately we want to expand to other counties, other states and be in every state across the nation.””
Patriot Mobile isn’t here to please the public. They are here to please God. Starting with getting dominionists elected to school boards. It started in Texas but they have nation ambitions. It’s not to see why. They won every race by a landslide. The model works fantastically. At least fantastically in these 2022 trial runs:
But as we’ve seen, they haven’t been winning these school board races on their own. First, as we’ve seen, the 2022 Southlake school board takeover effort was a major focus of the CNP’s Moms for Liberty, along with the Truth and Liberty Coalition run by David Barton and Lance Wallnau. Also recall how Wallnau — the co-author of a popular 2013 book promoting Dominionism — was pushing the idea back in 2018 that Trump was a God-ordained change agent analogous to the Biblical figure of King Cyrus. A “modern-day Cyrus”, as Wallnau described Trump. Patriot Mobile Action was just one of the many CNP-connected groups focused on Texas school boards in 2022.
And then there’s the True Texas Project, one of many political entities with Tim Dunn’s Defend Texas Liberty as its primary donor. As we saw, not only is the group founded by Julie McCarty, who openly sympathized with the motives of El Paso shooter Patrick Crusius. But just three weeks before that now-infamous October seven hour long meeting with Nick Fuentes at the headquarters of Dunn’s Pale Horse Strategies political group held in early October 6 2023, the True Texas Project held a ‘passing the torch’ event in Dallas that featured John Doyle and Jake Lloyd Colglazier. Doyle has frequently appeared alongside Nick Fuentes at events. Recall how Doyle and Fuentes co-led a Lansing Michigan “Stop the Steal” rally in the lead up to the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. Colglazier was one of the most prominent members of Fuentes’s ‘groyper army’. In 2019, Colglazier, Fuentes, and Patrick Casey — the leader of Identity Evropa, since rebranded as the “American Identity Movement” — were the headliners at a white nationalist conference where they advocated a strategy of pulling the Republican Party further to the right with a strategy of attacking Republicans for issues like being weak on immigration or support for Israel. In 2018, Casey was openly telling NBC News he was planning on infiltrating the Republican Party, with an emphasis on befriending and winning over young college Republicans. So when we see Patriot Mobile coordinating with the True Texas Project, keep in mind that it’s one of multiple Nazi-friendly groups closely associated both Nick Fuentes and Tim Dunn who have a youth-focused strategy of radicalizing Republicans even more:
And last, but certainly not least, in the long list of Dominionist groups working on those 2022 school board races we find Rafael Cruz, who began holding weekly Bible studies for Patriot Mobile employees where he advocated for an end to the separation of church and state while imploring conservative Christians to run for office:
And as the article describes, while Patriot Mobile was founded in 2012 and politically active from the beginning, it was only after the election of Donald Trump in 2016 that the group began openly embracing Dominionist stances. At the same time it became rapidly pro-Trump. “Make America Great Again” was dominionist code. At least to the dominionists:
Trump turbo-charged American dominionism. It’s one of the most underappreciated and likely consequential aspects of the whole Trump ‘experience’ for the United States. Of course, it wasn’t just Trump’s presidency that turbo charged this agenda. His ‘stolen election’ narrative has been instrumental in shifting the discussion from how to win the next election to how to seize power permanently. A ‘Second American Revolution’, as Kevin Roberts infamously put it. The movement is ready to drop the pretense of democracy, and just might get an opportunity to confirm that, should Trump win or lose. Don’t forget, the insurrection was a CNP project too. You can’t really separate the madness of the Trump years from the CNP. Which is why any attempts to separate Trump from the CNP’s Project 2025 is nothing more than silly theatrics. Along with any attempts to seriously differentiate the kind of policies we’d get get a second Trump presidency from what we could expect from Ted Cruz’s first term. The one Rafael has been planning for Ted’s whole life. Same diff. On one level, Trump is a wild phenomena that capture the Republican Party and is permanently shaping it in his image. But from the perspective of the CNP’s long-standing agenda that Rafael has been working on for decades, Trump just Ted with the fascist charisma necessary to pull it off. They hope.
It’s also all a reminder that, should Trump lose and not manage to drag what’s left of US democracy down with him in the process and there’s still elections in the future, the ‘post-Trump’ GOP sort of has default leader. Ted Cruz. The same guy who was probably going to win the nomination through an evangelical-focused primary strategy in 2016 before Trump came along. Which means we should probably brace ourselves for the new and improved Trumpian ‘charismatic’ MAGA Ted, ready and eager to claim Trump’s mantle. It can always get worse. Ted Cruz worse, in this case.
Tucker Carlson still has it. “It” being the ability to trollishly platform Nazis and their fellow travelers while acting like he did nothing wrong. In this case, the Nazi happened to be Darryl Cooper, who Carlson described as “the best and most honest popular historian” in America. Cooper happens to be the kind of historian who has concluded the chief villain of WWII was Winston Churchill and that the Holocaust was just an accidental consequence of poor German planning.
Carlson’s recent interview of Cooper generated the kind of outcry we might expect. But adding to the outcry is the fact that both Donald Trump and JD Vance have appearances scheduled on Carlson’s show later this month. And so far there’s no indication those interviews have been canceled. In fact, the Trump campaign has already issued the statement declaring that Vance “obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson” but that he also “doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture.”
It’s also worth recalling last year’s ‘Hitler controversy’ surrounding Moms for Liberty. Or rather, controversies. It started when the Indiana chapter of the Council for National Policy (CNP)-backed ‘grass roots’ group decided to include a Hitler quote in one of its newsletters. “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.” Following the public outcry led by the SPLC’s reporting on the topic, the group issued the defiant statement that “Moms for Liberty will not be intimidated by hate groups.” Weeks later, Moms for Liberty held its annual summit featuring none other than North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. As Robinson declared, “Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler; whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao; whether you’re talking about Stalin; whether you’re talking about Pol Pot; whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba; or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe; it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.” Robinson then went on to imply Hitler was a left-wing dictator by adding, “It’s time for us to start teaching our children about the dirty, despicable, awful things that those communist and socialist despots did in our history.” Now, obviously, Robinson’s comments weren’t as ‘pro-Hitler’ as Cooper’s. But the trend is clear. The idea that ‘you know, there’s a lot to be learned from Hitler’ just keeps getting more and more mainstream.
As we’re going to see, another part of what makes the Carlson’s Cooper interview such a political lightning rod for the Trump campaign is the reality that JD Vance literally “follows” Darryl Cooper on Twitter. And Cooper is far from the only white nationalist account Vance is following. As one observer describes, Vance is openly following many of the leading figures in what is now called the ‘post-Alt-Right’. A ‘post-Alt-Right’ that has been downright giddy following his selection as Trump’s VP. From their perspective, ‘one of their own’ is about to be vice president. It’s not exactly clear what distinguishes the ‘Alt-Right’ from the ‘post-Alt-Right’, except perhaps the mask has been dropped quite a bit more.
But as we’re also going to see, Vance’s extremist appeal isn’t limited to the ‘post-Alt-Right’. He’s the member of another important ‘post-’ movement: ‘postliberal’ Catholicism, a growing Catholic movement that could almost be seen as the Catholic analog to protestant Dominionism. Less a Catholic philosophy and more a political movement, ‘postliberal’ Catholicism appears to have at its foundation the conclusion that modern liberalism is a scourge that must be rolled back, with Catholic doctrines sort of tacked on as a justification for what is ultimately a political project. A political project that is very much aligned with the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme to purge society’s institutions of liberals and use those institutions to impose an extremely conservative vision of society. A scheme that JD Vance has openly endorsed.
And guess who happens to be the individual Vance attributes with his conversion to ‘postliberal’ Catholicism: Peter Thiel. According to Vance, it was a talk Thiel gave in 2011 while Vance was a student at Yale Law School that planted the seed of Vance’s conversion. At that point, Vance was an atheist going along with the Ivy League crowd. Vance, of course, went on to a career as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with Thiel as his chief business patron. And by 2019, Vance formally converts to Catholicism. Which also happens to be right around the time when he formed his Narya Capital venture capital fund with heavy financing from Thiel. A company that went on to fund the ‘Alt-Right’ friendly social media startup Rumble.
Interestingly, while Thiel has clearly played a major role in Vance’s conversion to ‘postliberal’ Catholicism, Thiel isn’t exactly aligned with ‘postliberal’ Catholics, who tend to view modern societal ills as being rooted in Western prioritization of individual liberty and expectations of continual economic growth over the ‘common good’. Instead, as we’ve seen, Thiel actually feels that the problem with modern society is not nearly enough technological advancement, which Thiel blames on liberal democracy. Technological advancement in the area of transhumanism have been especially. As Thiel argues, Christianity is fundamentally a transhumanist philosophy and has been a driving force for technological and scientific advancements. Until democracy got in the way. This is a good time to recall Thiel’s many investments in longevity technologies and his quest to live forever that includes having his body cryogenically frozen after he dies. He’s very serious about his transhumanism.
Another aspect to keep in mind with this ‘postliberal’ Catholic network is the reality that today’s far right Supreme Court majority is overwhelmingly Catholic: Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. As we’ve seen, Amy Coney Barrett happens to be a member of the “People of Praise”, the group that served as the real life inspiration for Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. And then there’s the fact that the individual long tasked with selecting Republican administration Supreme Court nominees, Leonard Leo, is not just Catholic but also heavily financed by the billionaire Corkery family who are Opus Dei members. In other words, a significant element of the contemporary authoritarian-leaning conservative grip on institutional power happens to be Catholic at the same time the Republican Party is increasingly in the grip of an evangelical-dominated Dominionist movement culminating around the Schedule F/Project 2025 agenda. That’s all part of the relevance of Vance’s ‘postliberal’ affiliations. The Catholic and Protestant wings of this fundamentally political movement need a shared agenda. ‘Postliberal’ Catholicism is a part of that ideological cohesion.
So we’ll see what kind of grotesqueries emerge from Vance’s upcoming interview with Carlson. We can be pretty confident Vance won’t make any claims about why the Nazis were actually right. But it’s going to be worth keeping in mind that Vance isn’t just a fan favorite for the ‘post-Alt-Right’ and its dreams of overthrowing democracy and ushering in a post-democratic order. He’s the fan favorite for all sorts of groups that want to see the emergence of a post-democratic order, including Dominionists and their Catholic ‘postliberal’ fellow travelers:
“The former Fox News host sparked a right-wing “media meltdown” after interviewing a Holocaust-denying podcaster on his new online platform, Axios said. Carlson called Darryl Cooper “the best and most honest popular historian” in America. Cooper in turn called Winston Churchill the “chief villain of the Second World War,” said CNN. Cooper also suggested that the Holocaust was an inadvertent consequence of poor German war planning, in which “millions of people ended up dead.””
Forget Hitler. The chief villain of WWII was Winston Churchill. It’s the kind of perspective one might expect to hear on a neo-Nazi podcast. And, sadly, it’s now also the kind of content we should expect on Tucker Carlson’s show. The once-leading Fox News anchor is now running what amounts to an internet neo-Nazi podcast. A presumably very popular internet Nazi-friendly podcast with enormous reach and influence. So when we see how Donald Trump and JD Vance are both scheduled to join Tucker Carlson later this month, keep in mind that they’re going to be communicating with an audience that is, at this point, familiar with pro-Nazi content. In other words, Vance will be lucky if he doesn’t say end up saying something a lot more inflammatory than his now-infamous “childless cat ladies” comment from his 2021 Carlson interview. These could be some wild interviews:
Also note one of the conservative critics of Tucker for the Cooper interview: Sohrab Ahmari. As we’re going to see below, Ahmari happens to be a leading thinker in the ‘postliberal’ Catholic movement. In other words, while Ahmari might be decrying the invitation of a Nazi apologist on Carlson’s show, he also happens to be part of fundamentally undemocratic movement with its own predilections for authoritarianism:
And as we’re going to see in the following piece in The Independent, the criticisms of Trump and Vance for being willing to appear ar Carlson’s program shortly after the Cooper interview isn’t really complete without recognizing that Vance actually ‘follows’ Cooper on Twitter. One of many Nazi-adjacent social media accounts Vance openly follows. It’s why the selection of Vance as Trump’s VP had so many in the ‘Alt Right’ world giddy with excitement. Or rather, the ‘post-AltRight’ world. Yes, we’ve been in the ‘Alt Right’ era for so long now, we’ve already made it to the ‘post-Alt Right’ era. And JD Vance is one of post-Alt Right’s favorite politicians:
“Since Vance received the nomination on Monday, Molloy said there has been a “buzz of excitement” in the community, which is sometimes referred to as “anon Twitter” or “Frog Twitter,” in reference to the alt-right meme Pepe the Frog.”
As we can see, the ‘Alt-Right’ was palpably excited with the selection of Vance as Trump’s vice president. And why wouldn’t they be? Vance is an open ‘Alt-Right’ fan. Or, rather, the ‘post-Alt-Right’. The ‘Alt-Right’ is yesteryear, apparently. But ‘Alt-Right’ or ‘post-Alt-Right’, the affection between Vance and this movement appears to be mutual:
And then there’s Vance’s description of Richard Hanania as a “friend” and “really interesting thinker”. As’ve we’ve seen,Hanania was basically posting as a Nazi pseudononymously for years before getting exposed and declaring himself reformed (a story with a number of parallels with conservative lawyer (and closet Nazi) Christopher Roach). Along with Laura Loomer — who recently attended a 9/11 memorial ceremony as one of Donald Trump’s guests — and Darryl Cooper. These are Vance’s fellow travelers:
But as we’re reminded of in the following AP piece, Vance’s extremist admirers isn’t limited to his many ‘post-Alt-Right’ fans. He also happens to be a member of the ‘postliberal’ Catholic movement. A movement that sounds more or less like the Catholic version of Domionism. An extremely Schedule F/Project 2025-friendly movement with ambitions of taking over society’s institutions and wielding that power for the “common good”, where “common good” is defined under an extremely conservative lense. And as we’ve seen, this ‘postliberal’ movement has one very prominent conservative mega-donor fellow traveler: Peter Thiel. In fact, according to Vance, it was a 2011 talk by Thiel while Vance was a Yale Law School student that put Vance on the path towards his conversion to Catholicism and embrace of a ‘postliberal’ worldview.
Now, as we’ve also seen, Thiel isn’t quite a ‘postliberal’ Catholic. Because while most postliberals raise harsh critiques on modern society for creating existential dread by placing an emphasis on personal liberties and economic growth, Thiel actually feels that the problem with modern society is not nearly enough technological advancement, which he blames on liberal democracy. Technological advancement in the area of transhumanism, in particular. At Thiel argues, Christianity is fundamentally a transhumanist philosophy and has been a driving force for technological and scientific advancements. Until democracy got in the way and derailed all that advancement. And Thiel is, of course, JD Vance’s chief patron in both business and politics. So when we see all of these ‘postliberal’ Catholic leaders declaring Vance as one of their own, keep in mind that Peter Thiel has his own transhumanist version of ‘postliberal’ Catholicism that is presumably influencing Vance too:
“The professors and media personalities in this network don’t all agree on everything — even on what to call themselves – but most go by “postliberal.” Vance has used that term to describe himself, though the Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to questions about where Vance sees himself in the movement and whether he shares some of the beliefs promoted by many postliberals.”
JD Vance isn’t just a Catholic convert. He’s a ‘postliberal’ Catholic convert. And as we can see, this ‘postliberal’ movement just happens to be highly ideologically aligned with the sentiment driving the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot to purge all major US institutions of the influences of ‘the left’ and then using those hijacked institutions to impose of far right vision of society on a majority that doesn’t necessarily agree with this agenda. The ‘postliberal’ movement is ultimately post-democratic. So when we see Vance praising prominent ‘postliberal’ author like Patrick Deneen, who openly calls for a Schedule F‑style imposition of postliberal goals on society, it’s important to keep in mind that the whole Schedule F/Project 2025 agenda for a second Trump administration is effectively the realization of this movement’s goals:
And when we see how Vance’s path to Catholicism was apparently deeply influenced by Peter Thiel — Vance’s chief political patron — at the same time Thiel is described as a Catholic who is ‘outside of Cathol postliberalis’, it’s important to keep in mind how Thiel’s worldview aligns with that of prominent postliberal thinkers like Deneen. As we saw, Thiel largely agreed with Deneen’s conclusion that modern society’s woes are a result of liberalism. But where Deneen saw liberalism’s emphasis on personal liberty and economic growth as the root of this malaise, Thiel saw a lack of material scientific progress as the underlying issue. Beyond that, Thiel seemed to embrace a kind of transhumanist philosophy that he argued was very much in keeping with the true nature of Christianity. So yes, technically, Thiel isn’t completely aligned with the ‘postliberals’, but they do share the underlying goal of overthrowing society and imposing something radically different, under the banner of Christianity:
Finally, as we’re going to see in the following piece in The Atlantic, the ‘postliberal’ movement is perhaps surprisingly not very focused on the traditional of Catholic philosophy. Instead, it appears to be a movement rooted in a conviction that liberalism is bad and must be repealed, with Catholic arguments then glommed on as part of the movement’s justification. And as the article also notes, while Peter Thiel shares many of ‘postliberal’ Catholicism’s criticisms of modern society, Thiel doesn’t advocate a ‘postliberal’ solution. Instead, he advances a kind of hyper-technology-focused goal of transhumanism as a kind of sacred mission for humanity. That’s also part of the context of Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism, to appears to have happened right around he formed his Narya Capital venture capital fund with heavy financing from Thiel. A company that went on to fund the ‘Alt-Right’ friendly social media startup Rumble. That’s all part of the context of Vance’s ‘postliberal’ theology: it’s a theology that has political goals as its core objectives and underlying motives and Vance happened to have his conversion to this movement right around the time he started a new ‘Alt-Right’-friendly venture capital fund with Thiel’s patronage:
” This group of Catholic intellectuals—which includes Patrick Deneen of Notre Dame, Adrian Vermeule of Harvard Law School, and Sohrab Ahmari, a founder and an editor of the eclectically populist magazine Compact—is known for its sweeping attack on classical liberalism. It claims that a long list of contemporary problems (rising rates of economic inequality, drug addiction, suicide, homelessness, childlessness) can be traced back to moral-philosophical errors made centuries ago by the American Founders and their ideological progenitors. In place of our polity’s commitment to individual rights, autonomy, and pluralism, the post-liberals aim to create a society unified around the common good, which is itself fixed on a theological vision of the Highest Good.”
A ‘postliberal’ purge predicated on imposing their idea of the ‘common good’, whether the majority likes it or not. It’s a vision that isn’t just radical but also relatively new. And not really based on a tradition of Catholic philosophy. Instead, it appears to be a branch of Catholicism that has, at its root, a political rejection of modern liberalism:
And then we get more info on the role Thiel played in Vance’s conversion away from atheism to Catholicism. As Vance tells it, a talk from Thiel during Vance’s time at Yale Law School included a critique by Thiel about personal emptiness and society stagnation. As Thiel apparently argues, the theological precepts of Christian civilization are what inspired great scientific achievements and that’s been lost under liberal democracy. Again, don’t forget how Thiel appears to argue that Christianity is inherently a transhumanist religion and the solution to society’s woes is massive technological leaps. So when we see Thiel lamenting the lack of scientific progress, keep in mind that he’s like lamenting the lack of transhumanist technological leaps. Specifically, the transhumanist technological leaps that might allow oligarchs like Thiel to live forever:
Finally, recall how we saw Sohrab Ahmari decrying Tucker Carlson’s decision to invite Darryl Cooper on for an interview. As we can see, Ahmari is a ‘postliberal’ leading intellectual. Sure, it’s very possible that Ahmari really is genuinely appalled by Nazi apologists like Cooper. But it’s important to recognize that such criticisms are coming from the leader of a movement that appears to be the authoritarian Catholic analog of dominionism:
It’s going to be interesting to hear what Ahmari has to say following Vance’s upcoming Tucker Carlson interview. We can be confident Vance is presumably going to avoid complimenting Hitler. But at the same time, we can also be confident that the interview with be filled with Vance and Carlson mutually commiserating over their shared critique of the modern world that will include a number of ‘postliberal’ arguments very much in line with not just the Dominionists leading Schedule F/Project 2025 effort but also the kinds of critiques of modern society we might expect to hear from the likes of Darryl Cooper and the rest of Vance’s ‘post-Alt-Right’ fellow travelers.
It’s also worth keeping in mind in all of this that there really is an array of very valid extreme criticisms of the modern world that absolutely have to be grappled with. A rejection of the ‘postliberal’/‘post-Alt-Right’ post-democratic movements shouldn’t be misconstrued as some sort of happy embrace of our collective state of affairs. Modernity really is in a state of peril. Thanks, in part, to the enduring nature of human authoritarian impulses. In that sense, Peter Thiel’s transhumanist ambitions shouldn’t be discounted entirely. There really would be immense good that could be achieved if humanity could somehow rid itself of the compulsion to dominate and subjugate. Fortunately, however, we don’t actually need to change human biology to achieve that. We just need to be diligently mindful and committed to resisting those impulses. Difficult, but possible, with failure ever looming as a possibility too. Otherwise known as progress. It’s long been one of the underlying messages of Christianity and pretty much every other major religion once you cut through the chaff, which is why it’s worth keeping in mind that a collective rejection of the kinds of toxic worldviews championed by JD Vance really would represent the kind of ‘transhumanist’ advancement Thiel longs form. Long overdue advancement consistently held back by these stubborn post-democratic authoritarian impulses that continue to plague the modern world.
“I’m a black Nazi!” Famous last words? We’ll see. But there’s no denying Mark Robinson’s already troubled gubernatorial campaign is facing its biggest challenge so far following a devastating CNN report detailing Robinson’s years-old anonymous internet posts, mostly made to online pornography forums. But it’s not the fact that these posts were made on pornography forums that has Robinson’s campaign hemorrhaging staffers. It’s the content of those posts. Content like “I’m a black Nazi!”, all made by a ‘minisoldr’ online moniker widely used by Robinson for years.
Robinson has already denied the report, vaguely insisting that he’s the victim of some sort of hack that also included artificial intelligence. As we’re going to see, it would be effectively impossible for hackers to have somehow created retroactively create this content, much of which are online posts dated between 2010–2012. Because while it’s possible for a hacker to possibly hack into the data base of an individual forum’s content to inject new content that looks like it was posted by ‘minisoldr’ back in 2010, the CNN report isn’t based on a single website. It draws on a number of sources, included the 2017 public leak of content from the Disqus commenting platform where Robinson’s name is associated with both the ‘minisoldr’ moniker and also the same email address used for those pornography forum posts years earlier. Not that this has stopped Robinson for insisting on an ‘nefarious AI’ explanation.
There’s also a very real AI angle to this story. It’s not necessarily nefarious AI, but it’s ethically complicated: it turns out a progressive activist group really has been using AI to generate audio clips that seem to be Mark Robinson’s voice saying absolutely outrageous things and put those clips in ads. The thing is, while the absolutely outrageous things may not be things Robinson has said, they are things Robinson has written. In other words, this group is sort of putting Robinson’s written words into his own mouth.
As we’re also going to see, while Robinson’s campaign may be losing staffers, the North Carolina GOP appears to be sticking with him. Along with the Trump campaign. And plenty of Trump voters. As one Trump supporting North Carolina voter put it to a reporter, “We’ve all done things in our past that we’re sorry for. Some of the things are crazy....I mean, if we just went on that, we wouldn’t be here for Trump, would we?”
So on one level, this is just the latest story about Mark Robinson making news for saying something outrageous and obscene. But on another level, this is very much a modern technology story, with journalists piecing together online clues left by Robinson — or by the 2017 public Disqus leak — to effectively ‘out’ the guy as a closet Nazi. Granted, Robinson has barely been in that closet for years, but he obviously didn’t want his “I’m a black Nazi!” comments discovered and outed.
And that brings us to another story that should also be seen as part of the context of this Robinson’s outing as a Nazi. Because let’s not forget that Robinson also happens to be the favorite speaker in recent years for David Lane’s American Renewal Project, a fundamentally dominionist project with a goal of enforcing a theocratic worldview on the American public. At the same time, Robinson was effectively hand-picked by Donald Trump for the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial race. And should Trump win back the White House, we can fully expect the dominionist Project 2025 scheme to not just execute a deep ideological purge of the federal workforce but a purge of the private sector too. And as we’re going to see, we got a kind of preview last year of what a theocratically driven private purge might look like: a secret Catholic non-profit group figured out how to identify priests using gay ‘hookup’ dating apps like Grindr, with a goals that included outing the priests or perhaps quietly ruining their careers.
The data was purchased from the largely unregulated online data brokerage industry. Specifically, it was data sold by advertisers who sold ads on gay ‘hook up’ apps like Grindr. That data included location data. As we’ve seen, immense amounts of data is available for sale in the largely unregulated data brokerage space, including location data. And while the data was anonymized, reidentifying the data turns out to be fairly trivial when the locations are associated with, for example, a priest’s home or office.
The Denver-based nonprofit behind the effort, Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, has three philanthropist trustees: Mark Bauman, John Martin and Tim Reichert. As we’re going to see, Reichert’s political ‘activism’ isn’t limited to secretly outing gay priests. Reichert ran in the GOP primary for a Colorado congressional seat in 2022. And while he didn’t win that primary, the race ended up exposing the extremeness of Reichert’s worldview. As Reichert sees it, not only is every abortion an act of child sacrifice on the altar of Baal, but the greatest threat facing the West is contraception.
Single women using ‘hookup apps’ are also a problem, in Reichert’s view. Did Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal make any attempts to identify other people using the various hookup apps they had data on? We have no idea, but that’s part of what makes this story about the secret outing of gay priests using commercially available internet data a story to watch. And that’s also why we should view the outing of Mark Robinson as ‘minisoldr’ as a similar ‘signs of the times’ kind of story to the outing of the gay priests. In both cases, publicly available data was used to legally expose someone’s secrets. Except, of course, in one case we’re talking about the exposure of closeted gay priests and in another case we’re talking about a closeted Nazi running to be governor of North Carolina. These are remotely the same when it comes to the ethics of exposing the targeted individuals, but they’re both a sign of what’s possible with today’s oceans of ‘big data’ readily available for whoever wants to pay. Because we can be pretty confident the folks behind Project 2025 are going to be very eager to pay for as much data on as many Americans as possible that could be used to differentiate between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Americans. And they aren’t going to be hunting for black Nazis:
“The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.”
It’s a convergence of evidence scattered across the web that, taken together, make the identity of the “I’m a black NAZI!” author abundantly clear. Mark Robinson, the “Some folks need killing!” guy, is a self-declared Nazi. Who could have seen that coming:
But it’s not just the scandalous nature of Robinson’s online anonymous comments that make this the kind of story that likely won’t just gracefully fade away amid the din of daily news. There’s also the fact that the Robinson campaign has arrived at a strategy of insisting it’s all a hoax, despite the fact that it would be effectively impossible to arrange for the array of years-old evidence this story is based on:
Compounding the evidence against Robinson is the fact that the evidence includes information released in a 2017 leak of information from the commenting platform Disqus which further confirms the use of the “minisoldr” username with Robinson’s email address. It’s worth recall that this isn’t the first time a Disqus leak was used to out a prominent conservative as an anonymous online Nazi. Richard Hanania’s online personas were also revealed thanks to a 2012 Disqus leak. Was the 2017 leaked Disqus database preemptively hacked to implicate Mark Robinson in 2024? Because that’s what would have been required for this to have been a real hacking operation:
The ‘I was hacked’ defense may be an absurd alibi for Robinson but it’s clearly the alibi he’s going with. And given the preponderance of the evidence against him, ‘I was hacked!’ might be his best defense, if only to give supporters something to pretend to believe. But as the following WaPo piece by Philip Bump notes, Robinson isn’t just claiming to have been hacked. That’s old school. Instead, he’s making some sort of nebulous ‘AI did it’ defense. Mark Robinson can’t explain how AI did it, but he’s confident AI is somehow the culprit:
“What’s more, the report was robust. CNN’s team not only uncovered the comments, published more than a decade ago on a site called “Nude Africa,” but showed how details from that and other sites tied Robinson to the account and to the username “minisoldr,” under which the comments were posted. It’s a digital trail that would be all but impossible to create artificially.”
As Philip Bump describes, you really can’t feasibly artificially create the digital trail this story is based on. The incriminating data is triangulated across too many different websites. But that impossibility isn’t preventing the Robinson campaign from insisting that ‘AI’ is somehow behind it. A claim consistently with the ‘AI did it’ theme we’ve been hearing coming out of the Trump campaign already this year. In other words, expect more ‘It was AI’ claims in the face of future sordid stories like this:
But then there’s this unfortunate complication: it really is the case that a group actually has used AI to create quasi-fake Mark Robinson audio clips. Fake in the sense that these audio clips are all AI generated voices intended to sound like Mark Robinson, but real in the sense that these are all things Robinson has written. So this group effectively put Robinson’s own written words into his mouth, thanks to AI:
Will the Robinson campaign successfully dissipate this scandal through an ‘AI did it!’ deflection? That’s clearly the strategy the campaign is deploying. And as the following article notes, the group behind those AI ads had more ads in mind:
“But Robinson, Republican candidate for governor, didn’t sit down to record those lines for the ads. The sounds weren’t even spliced together from past clips. Instead, his voice was digitally created—to read quotes and beliefs taken from his old Facebook posts, rallies, and media appearances—with AI.”
Yes, AI was used to put words in Mark Robinson’s mouth. Except they happen to be Robinson’s own words. Unless, of course, we assume all of the salacious comments this group attributed to Robinson were actually the result of some sort of hacking operation. A silly assumption but one the Robinson campaign is obviously happy to encourage:
Of course, as the following article notes, it’s not like Mark Robinson’s supporters are having a hard time dismissing all of these reports as just ‘fake news’. Or even just ‘old news’ that might be true but isn’t really relevant. It’s the other side of this wild story: the question of whether or not the Robinson campaign can defuse this issue isn’t necessarily the primary question facing the campaign. Instead, the big question is whether or not voters will even care. This is the political era of Trump, after all. Do enough North Carolina voters even care of Mark Robinson is a self-declared Black Nazi? It remains an open question. Either way, the North Carolina GOP and Trump campaign are sticking with Robinson:
“Dan Bishop, the Republican nominee for North Carolina attorney general, was the outlier. He spent much of his rally speech denouncing “white supremacist Democrats” from the 1890s before blaming Democrats for the Robinson drama and suggesting, inaccurately, that hacking was required to obtain the porn site posts.”
As we can see, the North Carolina GOP is rallying around Robinson, echoing the ‘hacking’ allegations. And then there’s the Trump voters who point out that, if they were to turn on Robinson for saying outrageous things, “we wouldn’t be here for Trump, would we?” It’s a pretty succinct way to put it:
And that’s all why it remains to be seen just how much damage this story is ultimately going to do to Mark Robinson’s candidacy. The guy was a raving lunatic long before this story, after all.
But as we’re going to see in the following pair of articles, part of what makes the latest Robinson scandal so fascinating is that it’s kind of an inversion of the kind of ‘big data’ fueled ‘analysis’ that we should probably expect from the theocratic far right should Donald Trump return to the White House. Project 2025 is a plan for a nationwide dominionist purge, after all. And that brings us to the following story from March of 2023 about a theocratic ‘big data’ project that could be seen as a kind of ‘proof of concept’ initiative: a secret group armed with data purchased from the largely unregulated online data brokerage industry figured out how to identify priests using gay ‘hookup’ dating apps like Grindr. It wasn’t a particularly tricky method. All they did was use commercially available information from advertisers that included location data on where the ads were served (for example, the approximate location of the phones receiving ads delivered through Grindr) and combined that with publicly available address information. So if a bunch of ads on Grindr are seen in the area of, say, a priest’s home or office, you can be at least somewhat confident about the identity of the person using that Grindr app.
Then there’s the interest theology found with the philanthropist trustees: Mark Bauman, John Martin and Tim Reichert. As we’re going to see below, Reichert ran in the GOP primary for a Colorado congressional seat in 2022. And while he didn’t win that primary, the race ended up exposing the extremeness of Reichert’s worldview. As Reichert sees it, not only is every abortion an act of child sacrifice on the altar of Baal, but the greatest threat facing the West is contraception.
Single women using ‘hookup apps’ are also a problem, in Reichert’s view. Did Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal make any attempts to identify other people using the various hookup apps they had data on? We have no idea, but that’s part of what makes this story about the secret outing of gay priests using commercially available internet data a story to watch. Because if we do end up seeing Project 2025 put into action, odds are it’s going to be a ‘big data’ project that targets a lot more than just gay priests:
“The secretive effort was the work of a Denver nonprofit called Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, whose trustees are philanthropists Mark Bauman, John Martin and Tim Reichert, according to public records, an audio recording of the nonprofit’s president discussing its mission and other documents. The use of data is emblematic of a new surveillance frontier in which private individuals can potentially track other Americans’ locations and activities using commercially available information. No U.S. data privacy laws prohibit the sale of this data.”
An secret group has made it its mission to out gay priests using legally available commercial internet data. A ‘big data’ approach to ‘morality policing’ conducted by the privately funded Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal. It’s not the same as the Mark Robinson story, but boy are there a lot of parallels. A big difference, of course, being that these gay priests aren’t self-declared Nazis running to be governor. And as the president of the group, Jayd Henricks, warns, they haven’t just been looking at dating app data. Because of course they aren’t just looking at that data. As we’ve seen, there’s a universe of data available for sale in the data brokerage space. In other words, we shouldn’t assume this 2023 report is the last time we hear about this group and don’t assume future stories will necessarily just rely on dating app info:
And note how the group was easily reidentifying the anonymized location-based ad information it was purchasing with publicly available address data, a simple technique that is obviously available to plenty of other actors. This is a good time to recall how one of the struggles US spy agencies are now dealing with is the sheer volume of commercially available information. Sifting through it all is apparently a challenge. How many other simple reidentification techniques are there available for use by anyone who gets their hands on this kind of data? And note how it’s not like the victims of these spying techniques even know it happened. Maybe they just have their careers quietly thwarted, which may have happened to some of these priests?
But also note that, while this entire project is clearly pretty sleazy, it’s also legal under US law. In part because there’s so few data privacy laws to begin with:
Finally, here’s an April 2022 piece in the Huffington Post that gives us a better idea of the kind of theology motivating this effort. Because it turns out one of three philanthropic trustees for the group, Tim Reichert, also made a 2022 congressional run for office in Colorado’s 7th District. Reichert didn’t end up winning the GOP primary. But the race still shined some light on Reichert’s views, which include viewing all abortions as a form of child sacrifice on the altar of Baal. But abortions aren’t the biggest threat facing the US, according to Reichert. That would be contraception:
“Reichert, an economist from Golden, Colorado, threw his name into the competitive primary in January, committing half a million dollars of his own money to the campaign. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D) currently represents the district, but has said he will not seek re-election in the fall. Although Democrats usually have an advantage in the region, the district was redrawn last year, shifting west, which experts believe will make it a slightly more competitive race.”
Tim Reichert wasn’t just secretly funding a project to out gay priests. He has much bigger ambitions, including a congressional seat. And while Reichert ultimately lost his primary race, it’s hard to ignore just how much his ideology has won. In particular his extreme anti-abortion ideology that views every abortion as a child sacrifice at the altar of Baal. After all, this report came just two months before the overturning of Roe v Wade. States are now free to treat abortions like child sacrifices if they choose to do so:
But Reichert isn’t just an anti-abortion extremist. Contraception is the biggest threat society faces, in his view. A fundamental threat to the West. Along with the ‘hookup culture’ that contraception enables:
How widespread is Reichert’s ‘hookups are an existential threat’ perspective among his fellow theocrats? What steps will they take to crackdown on ‘hookups’ given the opportunity and what kind of big data will they use to identify the ‘offenders’? These are the kinds of questions that should loom large over US voters in 2024. Because whether they realize it or not, they are voting on whether or not theocrats should assume the power to engage in mass morality policing of the public. That’s ultimately what Project 2025 is all about. The imposition of a far right theocracy. Sure, businesses will get their tax breaks and regulations will get gutted too. But the theocrats aren’t going to be satisfied with tax cuts. This is a plan for deep social controls, with a fixation on sexuality and female sexuality especially. The kind of deep social controls Mark Robinson the candidate would be proud to impose in public, even if ‘minisoldr the Nazi’ has a different private perspective.
Recently there was some incriminating information about Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, who was close to Trump and provided suggestions as to what to do next after the Insurrection failed including who to appoint as a Trump friendly CIA Director. He changed his pillow price to $14.88 which is the 14 Nazi words “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Along with 88 where “H” is the 8th letter in the alphabet so 88 is HH or Heil Hitler. The question to ask is, Lindell a deep cover Nazi or Fascist Agent?
Trump ‘shut down talks with Mike Lindell within minutes’ after the MyPillow CEO was seen at White House brandishing notes about ‘martial law’ and Insurrection Act January 16, 2021 Daily Mail UK
• Summary of the key points of Article: My MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell appeared at White House on Friday (January 15, 2021) carrying a set of notes. A Washington Post photographer obtained a close-up of papers carried by Lindell. The notes:
• referenced martial law and Insurrection Act. The blacked-out part of his notes supposedly referenced firing Cipollone.
• One line said ‘martial law if necessary upon the first hint of any....’
• The term does not come without precedent. Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn spoke openly about it while parroting Trump’s claims of a ‘rigged’ election – and scored his own White House meeting afterward.
• Another line, partly obscured by Lindell’s hand, most likely referenced the ‘Insurrection Act’ – the subject of discussion before after the election about use of forces inside the country. It said to ‘Act now as a result of the assault on the ...’
• Other lines reference Fort Mead and a top cybersecurity lawyer, which could identify Frank Colon, who according to his LinkedIn page is an attorney with Cyber Operations 780th Military Intelligence Brigade.
• There are also references to ‘Kraken’ lawyer Sidney Powell, who oversaw failed election challenges in court and who has been at the White House post-election.
• Another line stated ‘Move Kash Patel to CIA Acting,’ with an indication to oust CIA Director Gina Haspel, and put in her place a Trump loyalist recently moved to the Pentagon. Note that Patel wrote in an op-ed posted by Fox News Thursday – after the Biden transition complained for weeks it was not getting the briefings it requested. that ‘I ordered the DOD to fully cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden,’
• It also had some statement ‘Foreign Interference in the election Trigger ... powers, make clear this is a China/Iran ... domestic actors. Instruct Frank,’
• Lindell also appears to have developed a relationship with Mike Flynn, the national security advisor who lied to the FBI, got a pardon, then went to the Oval Office and advocated martial law.
• Lindell, 59, was a small-time Minnesota businessman who became addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, losing his wife with whom he had four children to divorce because of it, but — according to his often-told story — still managed to invent his MyPillow in 2004 and turn it into a success. The pillow itself is a patented foam design and from the beginning Lindell manufactured it in his native state and put its Made in America credentials in the pitch
• So discredited were Lindell’s fraud claims that Newsmax had to cut him off live on air but he was unstoppable: on the day of the MAGA riots he was in D.C., then after they happened he spouted claims that the whole event was staged by Antifa.
This suggests he was an agent involved in a conspiracy outside of Trump’s plans. He was affiliated with Mike Flynn whose brother Charles was a General in the Army who slow walked a response to the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Who might this Christian Patriot be working for? Another article in Newsweek published on September 23, 2024 by Sophie Clark may shed some light on this titled “Mike Lindell’s New MyPillow Price Sparks ‘Nazi’ Claims”.
MyPillow posted an advertisement that marked down the pillows from its sale price of $29.99 to an even lower price of $14.88. This specific price of $14.88 raised eyebrows as, to keen observers, it is affiliated with white supremacists and online neo-Nazi groups. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the number 88 is used in white supremacist circles as shorthand for Heil Hitler. The letter H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so two Hs together are “Heil Hitler”. Additionally, the number 14 refers to the “14-word slogan,” a phrase coined by white supremacist David Lane who was the getaway driver of the people who killed Alan Berg a liberal Jewish radio talk show host in 1984.
One neo-Nazi account by the name of Balknomic reposted the ad, saying: “14.88? How could you pass up such a great deal?”
Another account called Chud Posting that frequently posts neo-Nazi and Alt-Right memes, reposted the ad saying: “Pillows at an Aryan price. Billions must buy. Totally nice dreams.” Incidentally, The phrase “billions must buy” is a play on words of the alt-right meme “billions must die,” which is a mainstay of neo-Nazi forums.
Lindell is also currently involved in a suit led by Dominion Voting Systems for allegedly libeling their company. He denies any wrongdoing.
Lindell feigned ignorance about the issue and tried to rationalize his pricing scheme to the Rupert Murdoch Owned New York Post. Murdoch owns the right wing media outlet Fox News.
https://mol.im/a/9153263
By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR and KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:41 EDT, 15 January 2021 | UPDATED: 02:02 EDT, 16 January 2021
Trump ‘shut down talks with Mike Lindell within minutes’ after the MyPillow CEO was seen at White House brandishing notes about ‘martial law’ and Insurrection Act
• MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell appeared unexpectedly at White House on Friday
• He was brandishing sheaf of notes referencing martial law and Insurrection Act
• Lindell claims notes were from a lawyer working to prove Trump won election
• He said Trump appeared ‘disinterested’ and quickly sent him away
• Lindell demanded to see White House Counsel Pat Cipollone afterwards
• The blacked-out part of his notes supposedly referenced firing Cipollone
• Mike Flynn previously called for Trump to impose martial law and rerun elections
• It comes as 25,000 National Guardsmen descend on DC for inauguration
• Security fears run high after a mob of Trump loyalist stormed the US Capitol
President Donald Trump reportedly cut short his meeting with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell within minutes, after the entrepreneur was spotted at the White House brandishing notes referencing martial law, the Insurrection Act and a CIA leadership shakeup.
Lindell said that Trump appeared ‘disinterested’ in his notes, and officials say Trump quickly dismissed him and sent him to the White House Counsel’s office, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
Lindell, an informal Trump advisor who enthusiastically backed conspiracy theories about massive election fraud, appeared unexpectedly at the White House Friday afternoon. A Marine was stationed outside the West Wing, indicating Trump was most likely there.
The MyPillow CEO claimed to Haberman that the notes he was carrying were on behalf of an unnamed attorney he’s been working with to ‘prove’ that Trump really won the presidential election.
Lindell denied that the notes referenced ‘martial law,’ but an administration official said that they definitely contained the phrase, and photos of his notes appear to show it.
Once Trump dismissed him, Lindell insisted on meeting White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, and the meeting turned awkward in part because the blacked-out part of his notes related to calling for Cipollone to be fired, Haberman reported.
Amid a huge National Guard presence in D.C. after last week’s MAGA riots in the Capitol, close-up of Lindell’s notes revealed some bizarre snippets about what may be on his mind.
Lindell, like Trump, spoke to the January 6 rally crowd outside the White House before Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
A Washington Post photographer obtained a close-up of papers carried by Lindell.
One ominous line said ‘martial law if necessary upon the first hint of any....’ The term does not come without precedent. Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn spoke openly about it while parroting Trump’s claims of a ‘rigged’ election – and scored his own White House meeting afterward.
Another line, partly obscured by Lindell’s hand, most likely referenced the ‘Insurrection Act’ – the subject of discussion before after the election about use of forces inside the country. It said to ‘Act now as a result of the assault on the ...‘Other lines hinted at recommended staff moves. One reads ‘Colon NOW as Acting National Security...’ – suggesting a staff move atop the National Security Agency or a new National Security Advisor.
The following lines reference Fort Mead and a top cybersecurity lawyer, which could identify Frank Colon, who according to his LinkedIn page is an attorney with Cyber Operations 780th Military Intelligence Brigade.
Colon said he had never met Lindell and was baffled by the proposal to install him in a high-ranking position, according to New York Magazine.
He described himself as ‘just a government employee who does work for the Army.’
There are also references to ‘Kraken’ lawyer Sidney Powell, who oversaw failed election challenges in court and who has been at the White House post-election.
‘Move Kash Patel to CIA Acting,’ it says, in a line which could indicate a proposal to oust CIA Director Gina Haspel, and put in her place a Trump loyalist recently moved to the Pentagon.
‘I ordered the DOD to fully cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden,’ Patel wrote in an op-ed posted by Fox News Thursday – after the Biden transition complained for weeks it was not getting the briefings it requested.
Other lines are mere snippets, but they suggest Trump’s obsession with a ‘stolen’ election – although Joe Biden beat him by 7 million votes, or 306 to 232 in the Electoral College.
‘Been with getting the evidence of ALL the ... as the election and all information regarding ... among people he knows who already have security ... done massive research on these issues,’ the notes say.
‘Foreign Interference in the election Trigger ... powers, make clear this is a China/Iran ... domestic actors. Instruct Frank,’ it says.
The meeting comes days after Trump took part in a scripted video where he finally said: ‘A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20.’ But he hasn’t said outright that Joe Biden won, even as Vice President Mike Pence finally called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and began what appears to be a farewell tour.
Trump has been hunkered down in office, with bizarre White House schedules saying only that: ‘President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.’
A message to Lindell was not immediately returned. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the meeting.
Trump’s obsession with overturning the results are also reflected in charts that could be seen as trade advisor Peter Navarro walked on White House grounds. It said ‘Vote Irregularities and Illegalities by Category and State.’
Trump himself is expected to leave D.C. on January 20th, with no plans for the traditional meeting with President-elect Joe Biden.
The ominous snippets in Lindell’s notes about the election were contradicted by reality on the ground at the White House Friday afternoon. A procession of aides left the building with boxes, even packing away large framed photos that have adorned the building.
HOW MIKE LINDELL WENT FROM CRACK ADDICT TO CHRISTIAN PILLOW PITCHMAN TO QANON SPOUTING TRUMP ADVISER
With his preternaturally dark hair and mustache, ubiquitous TV ads and triumph-over-tragedy personal story, Mike Lindell should be the perfect pitchman for his pillows.
But his advocacy of Donald Trump appears to have taken him into darker and more dangerous territory, carrying notes about ‘martial law’ to the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump on his last Friday in the White House.
Lindell, 59, was a small-time Minnesota businessman who became addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, losing his wife with whom he had four children to divorce because of it, but — according to his often-told story — still managed to invent his MyPillow in 2004 and turn it into a success.
The pillow itself is a patented foam design and from the beginning Lindell manufactured it in his native state and put its Made in America credentials in the pitch.
In its first years Lindell sold it at mall kiosks and state fairs but his own life had a dramatic change, he says, in 2009, when he became sober, putting it down to the power of prayer.
Cleaned up, he recorded a 30-minute live-audience infomercial at the cost of $500,000 in 2011 and watched the success take off — with Lindell the focal point as much as the pillows.
With tranches of TV ads Lindell made a fortune — not without bumps on the way including settling a lawsuit for claims the pillows helped with snoring and divorcing his second wife after less than two months of marriage — and made his evangelical faith and then his allegiance to Trump as much part of his pitch as his products.
They appear to have first met in August 2016 and he jumped on the Trump train, going to the first presidential debate in October, and speaking at a rally that November.
Since then he has become a regular rally performer, even pitching a run for Minnesota governor in 2022 — which he has not mentioned recently — and chairing the state’s Trump campaign.
At the rallies he would be introduced as ‘the MyPillow guy’ to cheers and describe Trump as ‘chosen by God,’ tout his own faith and soak up the applause.
A fairly regular White House presence, he touted to Trump an unproven COVID ‘cure,’ oleandrin, whose manufacturer he had a stake in.
Ben Carson, a distinguished neurosurgeon turned Trump cabinet member, took it. He succumbed badly to the infection; Carson has not maintained a medical registration for some years.
Lindell devoted himself to Trump in the weeks before the 2020 election, appearing at multiple rallies and convincing the president he would win Minnesota, which he lost handily.
But after the election defeat Lindell became obsessed by Trump’s claims of voter fraud and has pushed them at every turn, including on the Right Side Broadcasting Network YouTube channel which he has a financial stake in.
He lambasted Fox News for its coverage even though he is thought to be its biggest single advertiser, and he pushed the outer fringes of conspiracy theories from discredited ‘Kraken’ attorney Sidney Powell.
He appears to have funded the Right Side Broadcasting Network, a YouTube channel which aired rallies from the March for Trump bus tour whose speakers included Lindell and Lin Wood, the even more fringe attorney who suggested Mike Pence should be executed.
Among the cast of ‘reporters’ on RSBN’s coverage were other Trump rally regulars including the ‘wall guy’ who wears a suit which represents the Mexican border wall. The suit is designed to look like it is made of bricks, when the wall is in fact steel and rebar. The ads were inevitably for MyPillow.
Lindell also appears to have developed a relationship with Mike Flynn, the national security advisor who lied to the FBI, got a pardon, then went to the Oval Office and advocated martial law.
So discredited were Lindell’s fraud claims that Newsmax had to cut him off live on air but he was unstoppable: on the day of the MAGA riots he was in D.C., then after they happened he spouted claims that the whole event was staged by Antifa.
From a private jet a few days later he recorded a message that ‘Donald Trump will be our president for the next four years.’
On January 20 his faith in Trump was not rewarded: his claims got the same F rating from reality which his company did from the Better Business Bureau.
A viewing platform for the inauguration already has printed signage for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Biden spoke in Delaware about changes he plans to institute for vaccine rollout, following reports that the Trump Administration Operation Warp Speed name will be one of the first things jettisoned.
Even lower level aides in the West Wing have already departed, leaving a skeleton crew – even as the nation faced a relentless surge of coronavirus infections and deaths.
Lindell posted even after the riots with claims about ways to ‘suppress the evil’ and ‘beat the evil’ with claims that Trump supporters ‘broke the algorithms.’
He posted brief comments, which appear to be made aboard a private jet, where he wrote that ‘Donald Trump is going to be your president for the next 4 years.’
Lindell retweeted a tweet by Right Side Broadcasting Network January 10 which bashed the idea of impeachment as pointless. ‘Seems like a whole lot of trouble to go through to impeach someone who, if tradition has its way, will be gone from office in 10 days. What is going on here, Nancy? Seems a little desperate. There must be...other factors at play,’ it said.
https://www.newsweek.com/mike-lindell-baffled-nazi-claims-my-pillow-priing
Mike Lindell Baffled by ‘Nazi’ Claims About MyPillow Pricing — Newsweek
By Sophie Clark Published Sep 24, 2024 at 9:19 AM EDT Updated Sep 24, 2024 at 2:09 PM EDT
Mike Lindell has hit back against the claims that his new MyPillow price is inadvertently linked to neo-Nazi propaganda.
Lindell spoke to the New York Post following Newsweek’s report on Lindell’s MyPillow advertisement that prices his Standard Classic Pillow at a number that is affiliated with neo-Nazi slogans. Lindell told The Post: “I have no idea what this is all about.”
On September 20, MyPillow posted an advertisement that marked down the pillows from its sale price of $29.99 to an even lower price of $14.88.
This price came to the attention of both historians and online neo-Nazis as the numbers 14 and 88 are dog-whistles in white supremacist circles.
The number 88 is used as shorthand for Heil Hitler, as “H” is the eight letter of the alphabet. The number 14 refers to the “14-word-slogan” by David Lane, a member of white supremacist group The Order. Lane, who died in prison serving 190 years for racketeering and violation of civil rights, said: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Lindell told The Post that the 88 cents price point is a common price used by companies such as Walmart.
Mike Lindell speaking at a Trump rally on July 27, 2024 in St Cloud, Minnesota. He has denied his price point has anything to do with white supremacist propaganda. Stephen Maturen/Getty images
He added: “[The price point] had nothing to do with whatever you guys are trying to make it out to be.” He then insisted that attacks on his price point were retribution for his election claims.
“This whole thing is another attack on Mike Lindell and MyPillow because I want to go to paper ballots, hand-counted in our country.”
Mike Lindell has been contacted by Newsweek via email for comment.
Lindell has frequently denied the results of the 2020 election to the point that he lost $5 million after saying he would pay that sum to anyone who could disprove his claims that the election was “rigged” in favor of Joe Biden.
Computer forensics expert Robert Ziedman successfully proved that Lindell’s account of the election being “rigged” was incorrect and Lindell was forced to hand over the money in 2024.
Lindell is also currently involved in a suit led by Dominion Voting Systems for allegedly libeling their company. He denies any wrongdoing.
The numbers 1488 tattooed on the hand of a far right protester at the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C., April 1, 2023. The exact same numbers feature in a MyPillow advert. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty images
When the MyPillow price was listed, history professor Seth Cotlar at Willamette University in Oregon wrote on his Bluesky account: “I doubt Lindell is behind this or would even get the reference, but that doesn’t really matter.”
Despite Lindell insisting that he knew nothing about the price point’s links to white supremacy, the ad has been liked and reposted by a number of neo- Nazi accounts online, meaning that even if it was a complete accident it has been picked up by white supremacist circles.
One neo-Nazi account by the name of Balknomic reposted the ad, saying: “14.88? How could you pass up such a great deal?”
Another account called Chud Posting that frequently posts neo-Nazi and Alt-Right memes, reposted the ad saying: “Pillows at an Aryan price. Billions must buy. Totally nice dreams.”
The phrase “billions must buy” is a play on words of the alt-right meme “billions must die,” which is a mainstay of neo-Nazi forums.
The sale advertisement is still listed on MyPillow’s social media accounts. It has been posted twice on their X and Facebook accounts.
The second ad on Facebook appeared 20 hours ago, the second ad on X appeared at 9:27 a.m. EDT on September 23, 20 minutes after Newsweek published the initial article detailing the price affiliation with white supremacist groups.
@Socrates: That’s definitely one of those ‘signs of the times’ kinds of stories. Our trolling times. And as you point out, Lindell’s close ties to January 6 and key organizers like Michael Flynn make clear that he isn’t just a simple Trump-loving lunatic. The guy has turned himself into a political operative with substantial financial resources to throw around. He has both a public presence and, now, experience as a backroom schemer. In one sense, Lindell has come a long way from his time as a crack head. But at the same time, it’s like he never changed and society just got cracked out enough to catch up with him. And here we are, with $14.88 getting trotted out by far right businesses as if it was nothing at all. Overt Nazi trolling as a form of political aggression is just normal these days.
And that brings us to another recent story that touches on many of the same themes: it turns out an open Nazi who was jailed over his January 6 actions has been celebrated repeatedly at Trump’s Bedminster country club over the past couple of years. The Nazi, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, is a former member of the US Navy who reportedly told his coworkers at a naval weapons station that “Hitler should have finished the job” and “babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.” He was wearing a Hitler mustache during January 6, and eventually sentenced to four years in prison, although he was released back in December.
The celebrations of Hale-Cusanelli were technically really celebrations for the Patriot Freedom Project, a group set up to champion those jailed for their January 6 activities. But in effect the group is really mostly about Hale-Cusanelli. In fact, the founder of the group, Cynthia Hughes, calls herself Hale-Cusanelli’s “adoptive aunt”. Hughes has also gone on to become a regular guest on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
Trump himself donated $10k to Patriot Freedom Project back in December of 2022, the same month Trump attended and spoke at a December 1 “open house” event held by the group. Keep in mind the timing of this. It was November 22, 2022, when Trump had his infamous dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West at Mar a Lago, leading a period of harsh criticism of fellow Republicans. So Trump was speaking at events for the Hitler Mustache Nazi’s freedom fund and even making large donations at the same time he was facing major criticism for dinner with a Nazi.
Following his release from prison back in December of last year, Hale-Cusanelli has also been making appearances at these Patriot Freedom Project events, including events at Bedminster. In fact, it was during an event at Bedminster back in August that Hale-Cusanelli was given an award for promoting “God, family and country.” And it was none other than Ed Martin giving the award. This is the same Ed Martin who, like Steve Bannon, happens to be a Council for National Policy (CNP) member. But beyond his CNP ties, recall how Martin has long been a major booster of the ‘Stop the Steal’ narrative. On January 5, 2021, Martin gave a speech outside the Capitol that involved Martin starting the chant “stop the steal”. Martin went on to implore the audience to be prepared to fight to their last breath the next day. “No matter what happens tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after, we still need to be in the fight. There’s no summer soldiers and springtime patriots here. There’s the die-hard true Americans,” Martin said. “We start today, go through tomorrow and every day till we have a last breath and go home to the Lord because we will stop the steal.” On Jan 6, Martin attended Donald Trump’s speech in the VIP section before marching off to the Capitol. Later in 2021, Martin was subpoenaed by the House’s January 6 committee, which said it had evidence that he was “involved in the logistical planning” of the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. Martin did not comply with the subpoena. Martin has since attended a number of events alongside Michael Flynn and Ali Alexander. This year, Martin served as one of three members of the RNC’s official 2024 platform committee. Yes, a CNP member of the RNC’s executive platform committee awarded the Hitler mustache Jan 6 guy with a “God, family, and country” award at a Patriot Freedom Project event at Bedminster this year. Oh, and it turns out Trump held an anti-antisemitism event at Bedminster the very next day. It’s like Trump’s version of “$14.88? What’s that?” Full spectrum Nazi trolling.
But Ed Martin isn’t just a big Hale-Cusanelli fan and ‘Stop the Steal’ promoter. He’s also on the Patriot Freedom Project board of trustees. It’s not clear when exactly Martin joined the board. But as we’re going to see, having Martin join the board helped the group with a legal problem that arose from the fact that Patriot Freedom Project claims to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity. The problem being that the group’s original board of trustees consisted of Hughes, Hughes’ sister-in-law, and Hughes’ 24-year-old son. An ‘all in the family’ board of trustees is generally seen as a red flag for charities. But that wasn’t the only red flag. Some January 6 defendants and their families accuse the group of be very selective in which defendants its champions, and questions about whether or not the Hughes family is self-enriching from donations continue to linger.
Beyond that, the group operates in blatant violation of the non-partisanship rules 501(c)(3) charities are supposed to abide by, so much so that multiple members of Congress have called on the IRS to investigate the group. But the IRS isn’t the only agency with oversight over the charity. State regulators also have a role. And yet, despite all those calls for investigations into what appears to be a shady ‘charity’ that exists largely to raise funds and celebrate a Nazi, the group still has its 501(c)(3) tax-deductible charitable status to this day. As of January of this year, the group had raised over $2 million since its founding. That’s all part of the context of Mike Lindell’s ‘$14.88’ pillow trolling. Everyone knows what’s going on. The absurd denials are just part of the fun. The kind of Nazi ‘fun’ that can also make a lot of money. For ‘charity’.
But Hale-Cusanelli isn’t the only figure championed by the Patriot Freedom Project. For example, at a June 2023 Patriot Freedom Project event at Bedminster that included a speech by Donald Trump, a different Nazi-adjacent figured was feted: Derrick Evans, then the primary challengers for West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District. Evans also happened to spent a few months in jail after livestreaming his time storming the Capitol on January 6. And guess who happened to also be at that Bedminster event to give their full throated endorsement of Evans’s candidacy: Mike Lindell! Yep. It turns out Lindell is no stranger to Patriot Freedom Project events.
So did Evans win his primary race? Nope. He lost, much to the relief of Jewish Republicans. Yes, it turns out Evans isn’t just a previously jailed Jan 6 rioter. He also happens to be a fan of the idea that “the Jews” stole in 2020 election and that Israel was the true culprit behind January 6. At least those were the view Evans shared back in February during an appearance on the far right “Stew Peters” podcast. As Evans put it, questions about the Jewish role behind January 6 were “good questions”.
That’s all part of the context of Lindell’s ‘$14.88’ stunt. Lindell literally endorsed a Nazi Jan 6 rioter for Congress just last year. At Bedminster. With Donald Trump standing next to him. At an event for a group mostly dedicated to the Jan 6 guy who was sporting a Hitler mustache that day.
Ok, first, here’s a look at this year’s Patriot Freedom Project Bedminster events. Events that included Hale-Cusanelli in person since he was already out of prison, allowing him to receive an award back in August from Ed Martin, one of the members of the RNC’s 2024 platform committee:
“Trump has made support for the Jan. 6 defendants a central plank of his 2024 presidential campaign. His first official campaign rally opened with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Jan. 6 defendants in jail. He has referred to the defendants as “patriots” and “hostages,” and promised to issue pardons to convicted rioters, including those who assaulted police officers. Approximately 140 officers were injured in the attack on the Capitol.”
Justice for the ‘Jan 6 patriots’ isn’t just a Trump rally rallying cry. It’s a central plank of the Trump agenda. Keeping Trump out of jail is kind of the whole point of him running again, after all. Sure, it’s possible Trump would have decided to run again in 2024 had he not put himself in so much legal peril during in time in the White House. But there’s no question at this point regarding Trump’s primary motive today for regaining the presidency. He needs that pardon power back for is own sake. Promising to pardon the rest of the January 6 convicts is just part of the sales pitch to make that happen.
But when we see these Patriot Freedom Project gatherings at Bedminster, it’s important to keep in mind that the Patrio Freedom Project isn’t a generic ‘pro-jail Jan 6ers’ group. It was specifically founded in response to Hale-Cusanelli’s arrest and the group’s founder, Cynthia Hughes, calls herself Hale-Cusanelli’s “adoptive aunt”. So when we see Trump making speeches alongside Hughes at a Patriot Freedom Project event held at Bedminster, this is effectively a Trump event for Hale-Cusanelli:
And note that not only did Hale-Cusanelli post a video on Twitter of his speech at the June Patriot Freedom Project event at Bedminster, but he starts off his speech (at 1:35 in in video) thanking Ed Martin, who went on to give Hale-Cusanelli an award for promoting “God, family and country” at the August Bedminster event. Yes, Hale-Cusanelli has been at two Bedminster events just since his release from prison in December, and at one of those events he was awarded by key CNP pro-insurrection operative Ed Martin:
And then, to top it all, following the August Patriot Freedom Project event where Hale-Cusanelli gets his award from Ed Martin, Trump holds a Bedminster event dedicated to fighting antisemitism:
Was that just a random coincidence? An anti-antisemitism event held just one day after a Nazi was given an award at the same property? If so, it sounds a lot like the $14.88 ‘coincidence’.
But as we’re going to see in the following articles, the relationship between the Patriot Freedom Project and Trump White world isn’t limited to the events at Bedminster over the summer and last year. For example, Cynthia Hughes has become a “War Room” regular on Steve Bannon’s podcast. Beyond that, Trump and Hughes have repeatedly made appearances at each other’s events. For example, in September 2022, Hughes spoke at a Trump rally. Video of the event was features prominently on Patriot Freedom Project’s homepage. On December 1, Patriot Freedom Project held an “open house” that included a talk by Trump. Later that month, Trump donated $10k to the group. Keep in mind that December 2022 an especially tumultuous month for Trump after the November 22, 2022, dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago. And he not only gave a talk at an “open house” but also donated $10k.
And the entire time, Patriot Freedom Project has been claiming non-partisan 501(c)(3) tax deductible status. A blatantly false status that is nonetheless still tolerated by the IRS. Despite multiple Democratic members of Congress openly calling on the IRS to crack down on this specific group. But as the following February 2022 NPR article describes, there’s one other major area where Patriot Freedom Project and MAGA world overlap: being self-enriching scams:
“In January, NPR first reported that family members of Capitol riot defendants felt the Patriot Freedom Project was not transparent enough about how it was spending the roughly $900,000 it had received in donations. Charity experts also told NPR they saw “red flags” in the group’s practices, such as the fact that the organization’s board of trustees consisted of three people: group president Cynthia Hughes, Hughes’ sister-in-law, and Hughes’ 24-year-old son.”
Yes, there’s no shortage of “red flags” when it comes to the charitable status of the Patriot Freedom Project. Starting with the fact that the original board of trustees consisted of Cynthia Hughes, Hughes’ sister-in-law, and Hughes’ 24-year-old son. But that questionable leadership composition is just the start of the red flags. As January 6 defendants and their family members charge, the ‘charity’ is really more of an exercise in self-enrichment:
But the Patriot Freedom Project hasn’t just been a family affair. Beyond the wide exposure given to the group by Trump world icons like CNP member Steve Bannon or Dinesh D’Souza, the group has been promoted by JD Vance and Trump himself. Patriot Freedom Project is a Trump endorsed affair:
And as we should expect from all this Trump World-related, Patriot Freedom Project is kind of a scam and only really seems to support a small fraction of the January 6 defendants. That’s part of the context of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli’s stardom in this circle. The Hitler lookalike was one of the few championed by the group. Which should make one wonder about the rest of defendants the group is championing:
Even Cynthia Hughes herself seems to admit she “didn’t have good people around me” when the group was first formed. Which appears to be a reference to her ex-husband. But she assured the public that everything was cleaned up by that point:
And than we get to the blatantly illegal part of this operation. Typically illegal in the world of political ‘non-profits’: a 501(c)(3) charity like this can’t legally advocate for candidates. Something Patriot Freedom Project has been doing routinely:
That was the state of affairs in February of 2022. The Patriot Freedom Project is another blatant MAGA world adjacent scam. Personally endorse by Steve Bannon and JD Vance and Trump. And that brings us to the following NPR piece from January of 2024 updating the situation. Except there isn’t really anything to update. It’s the same situation. The only thing that’s new is Ed Martin joined the board of trustees at some point. And members of Congress have been calling for the IRS to investigate it:
“Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey oversees the Internal Revenue Service as the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight. In response to NPR’s reporting, Pascrell called on the agency to open an investigation into the Patriot Freedom Project”
As the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight who oversees the IRS points out, IRS isn’t doing its job when it comes to the Patriot Freedom Project. And Rep Pascrell isn’t the only member of Congress asking the IRS to do its job. That’s part of the story here. This isn’t just a story about a sleazy MAGA non-profit. It’s also about the blank check effectively issued to these organizations by the IRS with its refusal to enforce the laws:
And note just how many events there have been on the last couple of years, including a December 1, 2022 “open house” Trump spoke along with a senior adviser to Trump’s Save America political action committee. And later that month Trump donated $10k to the group. This is, of course, right when Trump was facing scathing criticism even from Republicans over his decision to have dinner Nick Fuentes and Kanya West at Mar-a-Lago on November 22 (the 59th anniversary of the JFK assassination). This was also shortly after Trump announced his 2024 White House bid. So Trump was cuddly up to the Patriot Freedom Project while he was facing the outcry over Nick Fuentes:
$2 million raised since the group’s founding. And that was January of this year. How much more money has Patriot Freedom Project raised in this presidential election year? It’s presumably been a banner year of fundraising for the group. All tax deductible. For charity, of course. Charity mostly for the Hitler mustache guy, although his “adoptive aunt” and her family has presumably managed to eek out a bit of charity for themselves. Certainly enough to afford a few pillows on a special sale.
And that brings us to another Nazi-friendly individual who was also celebrated at the June 2023 Patriot Freedom Project event at Bedminster where Trump spoke: Derrick Evans, a Republican candidate for West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District who also spent several months in prison after livestreaming himself storming the Capitol on January 6. Guess who else attended the event: Mike Lindell:
As we should expect, Lindell is a big Patriot Freedom Project fan. Imagine that.
So did Evans end up winning his primary race? Nope. He was defeated by the incumbent, Carol Miller, much to the pleasure of Jewish Republicans. Why were Jews happy to see Evans lose? Well, it turns out Evans is kind of a Nazi. Or at least he’s the type of person who thinks it’s “good question” to ask “whether the Jews stole” the 2020 election and were actually behind the January 6 Capitol insurrection:
“In February, Evans appeared on the show of far-right streamer Stew Peters and appeared to endorse the idea that Israel may have “been behind January 6.” He added that “whether the Jews stole the election” was a good question to ask.”
That’s Mike Lindell’s endorsed candidate for West Virginia’s 1st district. The “Israel was behind January 6” guy. He didn’t win his primary, but not for lack
help. Derrik Evans has influential fans with deep pockets. Pockets that are going to be a little bit deeper by the end of the $14.88 pillows sale.
Not all Bibles are equal, at least when it comes to their educational value. That’s the apparent logic underlying a new education policy out of the state of Oklahoma as part of the state’s new mandate to put a Bible in every public classroom in the state. In fact, just two Bibles make the cut based on the weird criteria set out by the state: Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ Bible and the ‘We The People’ Bible. Both Bibles sell for much more than a typical Bible, $60 and $90, respectively. Oh, and it turns out both Bibles happen to be endorsed by Donald Trump. Trump even received $300,000 in royalties from the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible already. Imagine that.
The bidding for the contract to supply the Bibles also appears to have been rigged. Instead of a standard minimum four week window to submit bids, the state left it open for just two weeks, citing an urgency to get the Bibles into the classroom.
So is Oklahoma planning on paying those premium prices for these Trump-endorsed Bibles? Apparently so. At least that’s what we can conclude from the fact that Oklahoma’s superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, has already request $3 million to purchase 55,000 Bibles, which translates to about $55 allocated per Bible.
Beyond that, we’re told that Walters has been promoting the ‘Bible in every classroom’ initiative with national groups. And that brings us to the fact that Walters just happens to have major national aspirations including the goal of getting tapped to join Donald Trump’s cabinet in the next Trump administration. Keep in mind this isn’t the first story we’ve seen involving Walters’s loyalty to the MAGA agenda. Recall how it was Walters who ruled that students in Oklahoma couldn’t be taught about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre unless they were taught that it wasn’t about race. This was part of the ‘anti-CRT’ hysteria that has gripped the GOP in recent years.
Nor is the Trump Bible story the only example of Walters cozying up to the Trump campaign in anticipation of his national ambitions. Walters’s state agency has also been issuing some rather questionable contracts to two groups associated with none other than Russ and Mary Vought. As we’ve seen, the Voughts are key players in the CNP’s Christian Nationalist agenda, especially the ongoing Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. Or as Heritage’s Kevin Roberts put it, the “second American Revolution”: Recall how Russ Vought was the only department header under the first Trump term to actually attempt to implement the Schedule F initiative Trump enacted two weeks before the 2020 election day. Months later, in March of 2021, Vought penned a piece of Newsweek where he defended the concept of Christian Nationalism and decried how it was being smeared by detractors. Flash forward to February of this year, and we got Politico reports about how the Center for Renewing America (CRA) — headed by Vought — was actively planning on implementing Christian Nationalist policies under the next Trump administration. As we’ve seen, the CRA is one of the many think tanks actively participating in the Project 2025 scheming. Also this year, Russ Vought was one of three people tapped to craft the official RNC platform. Russ Vought is a key player in the Council for National Policy’s (CNP) theocratic ambitions. And, of course, Mary Vought is an assumed CNP member.
Mary Vought’s consulting firm, Vought Strategies, was hired this by Walters’s state agency, ostensibly for the purpose of recruiting teachers. In reality, the firm appears to have focused on securing national media appearances for Walters, especially in conservative media. And like the truncated bidding window for the Bible vendors, the bidding for this media consulting contract was also shorter than the state’s guidelines (3 weeks instead of a minimum of 4 weeks), with Vought Strategies submitting the sole bid. The contract has unsurprisingly received criticism. What’s more surprising is that much of that criticism has come from Walters’s fellow elected Republicans, including the Speaker of the Oklahoma House Charles McCall. As McCall put it, “you should not be spending state funds, taxpayer dollars, for personal promotion.”
Another Vought-connected question contract involves the company Precision Outreach, which also received a contract from Walters’s agency around the same time Vought Strategies won its contract. Precision Outreach had previously worked for the agency product content including an anti-teacher-union that was shown at a State Board of Education meeting this year. The video infuriated teachers and parents. Another video produced by the company implied transgender students are a threat to school safety. The head of Precision Outreach, Jess Fields, actually ran for office in 2016, using the same campaign manager who manages Walters’s campaigns: Matt Langston. Both Langston and Mary Vought have been political pals since the two worked in Senator Ron Johnson’s office back in 2011. Langston also currently serves as the chief policy advisor for Walters’s state education agency.
That’s all part of the context of the ‘Trump Bible’ story. This isn’t just a story about a rogue state superintendent trying to cozy up to Trump. This is a story about one of the leading candidates for Trump’s Secretary of Education who has apparently teamed up/bought off the Voughts, themselves key players in the ongoing CNP theocratic agenda on the cusp of getting put into action under the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme:
“In June, Walters announced a mandate that a Bible should be in every Oklahoma classroom, though it’s unlikely he would have the authority to enforce that. The Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed that school districts maintain local control over curricula. Some superintendents across the state have said they do not intend to add the Bible to their curriculum. ”
A ‘Bible in every classroom’ mandate by Oklahoma’s superintendent. That alone is controversial enough. But it’s the details of the mandate to expose just how corrupt this decision really was: the only Bibles that fit the stated requirements are Trump-endorsed Bibles. It’s a peek into the Trumpified Christian Nationalist theocracy in store for the US. Deep blatant corruption under the guise of public piousness:
And note how it’s not just that the only Bibles that meet in mandate happen to be Trump endorsed Bibles. They’re also wildly overpriced Bibles that cost $60 each. A price Walters appears to be planning on having the state pay based on the $3 million request he made a couple of weeks ago:
And then there’s the corrupt nature of the bidding process. A fast-tracked bidding process that only went for a couple of weeks under the pretense that the state was in a huge rush:
But then we get to the gross national angle to the this story: Ryan Walters is widely seen as angling for a Trump cabinet position. Along those lines, he’s not only pitching his Bible plan to national groups but his agency has hired Vought Strategies to manage his national media exposure. This is, of course, the consulting firm of CNP member Mary Vought, wife of Russ Vought, a key player in the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot. In March of 2021, Vought penned a piece of Newsweek where he defended the concept of Christian Nationalism and decried how it was being smeared by detractors. This year, Politico reported on how the Center for Renewing America (CRA) — headed by Vought — was actively planning on implementing Christian Nationalist policies under the next Trump administration. As we’ve seen, the CRA is one of the many think tanks actively participating in the Project 2025 scheming. Also this year, Vought was one of three people tapped to craft the official RNC platform. So Walters’s office hired Vought Strategies for consulting work at the same time Walters is rigging the ‘Bibles in the classroom’ process to ensure only Trump Bibles can be used. Walters really wants that Trump cabinet position...presumably Education Secretary, at which point we’ll presumably seen plans for Trump Bibles in every classroom in the US: