{"id":1239,"date":"2021-01-12T17:18:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T22:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2021-01-12T17:31:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T22:31:49","slug":"how-white-evangelical-christians-fused-with-trump-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1239","title":{"rendered":"How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A potent mix of grievance and religious fervor has turbocharged the support among Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war. \"Supporters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Supporters of President Trump stormed the United States Capitol building.Credit…Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post, via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Elizabeth Dias<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ruth Graham<\/a><\/strong> Jan. 11, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Before self-proclaimed members of the far-right group the Proud Boys marched toward the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, they stopped to kneel in the street and prayed in the name of Jesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group, whose participants have espoused misogynistic and anti-immigrant views, prayed for God to bring \u201creformation and revival.\u201d They gave thanks for \u201cthe wonderful nation we\u2019ve all been blessed to be in.\u201d They asked God for the restoration of their \u201cvalue systems,\u201d and for the \u201ccourage and strength to both represent you and represent our culture well.\u201d And they invoked the divine protection for what was to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they rose. Their leader declared into a bullhorn that the media must \u201cget the hell out of my way.\u201d And then they moved toward the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presence of Christian rituals, symbols and language was unmistakable on Wednesday in Washington. There was a mock campaign banner, \u201cJesus 2020,\u201d in blue and red; an \u201cArmor of God\u201d patch on a man\u2019s fatigues; a white cross declaring \u201cTrump won\u201d in all capitals. All of this was interspersed with allusions to QAnon conspiracy theories, Confederate flags and anti-Semitic T-shirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blend of cultural references, and the people who brought them, made clear a phenomenon that has been brewing for years now: that the most extreme corners of support for Mr. Trump have become inextricable from some parts of white evangelical power in America. Rather than completely separate strands of support, these groups have become increasingly blended together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This potent mix of grievance and religious fervor has turbocharged the support among a wide swath of Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war, according to interviews. And many, who are swimming in falsehoods about the presidential election and now the riot itself, said the aftermath of Wednesday\u2019s event has only fueled a deeper sense of victimhood and being misunderstood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindsay French, 40, an evangelical Christian from Texas, flew to Washington after she had received what she called a \u201cburning bush\u201d sign from God to participate following her pastor urging congregants to \u201cstop the steal.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are fighting good versus evil, dark versus light,\u201d she said, declaring that she was rising up like Queen Esther, the biblical heroine who saved her people from death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are tired of being made out to be these horrible people,\u201d she said, acknowledging there was some violence but insisting on the falsehood that Antifa was behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump supporters gathered near the Capitol during a \u201cStop the Steal\u201d rally last week in Washington, D.C.Credit…Selcuk Acar\/NurPhoto, via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump supporters invoked God last week as they surged on the U.S. Capitol.Credit. Stephanie Keith\/Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many Republicans in Congress, some evangelical leaders who have been most supportive of Mr. Trump distanced themselves and their faith from the rioters. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, called the violence \u201canarchy.\u201d The siege on the Capitol \u201chas absolutely nothing to do with Christianity,\u201d he said. \u201cOur support of President Trump was based on his policies.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But critics said it was too late to try to separate the white conservative Christian culture that helped push Mr. Trump to power from last week\u2019s violence in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t understand what happened today without wrestling with Christian Nationalism,\u201d Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said on Wednesday, adding that white evangelical movements have long at least tolerated far-right extremism, well before Mr. Trump. \u201cThey provided the political and theological underpinnings of this, and it has allowed anarchy to reign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Facebook video shot in Washington on Monday night, Tennessee pastor Greg Locke referred to himself as part of the \u201cblack robe regiment,\u201d a reference to American clergy who were active in the American Revolution. At a rally the next night, Mr. Locke preached to a crowd of Trump supporters in Freedom Plaza, predicting \u201cnot just a Great Awakening, but the greatest awakening that we have ever seen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The riot on Wednesday, carried out by a largely white crowd, also illustrated the racial divide in American Christianity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours before the attack on the Capitol, the Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta had been elected to the U.S. Senate after many conservative white Christians tried to paint him as a dangerous radical, even as his campaign was rooted in the traditional moral vision of the Black church. And for years many Black Christians have warned white believers that Mr. Trump\u2019s rhetoric on race was going to end badly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur cries go unheeded,\u201d Jemar Tisby, the president of a Black Christian collective called the Witness, said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is authentic white American Christianity on display,\u201d he said of Wednesday\u2019s event. \u201cThe challenge for white Christian America is to examine what they have wrought religiously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the Capitol, senators who objected to the election results were among the most prominent conservative Christians in their party, including Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Cindy Hyde-Smith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fruits of the alliance between far-right groups \u2014 Christian and otherwise \u2014 were clear on Wednesday, before the rioting began, as thousands of Trump supporters gathered to protest the certification of the presidential election results, with Joseph R. Biden Jr. definitively defeating Mr. Trump, even after attempts to discredit the election. Many in attendance were white evangelicals who felt called to travel hundreds of miles from home to Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oren Orr, 31, an arborist from Robbinsville, N.C., where he goes to Santeetlah Baptist Church, rented a car to drive to Washington. He carried his American flag right up below the officers on the bleachers, and his wife had a Christian flag. Mr. Trump could be the last president to believe in Jesus, he said. (Mr. Biden speaks often about his lifelong Catholic faith, and unlike Mr. Trump, attends church services frequently.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Orr said he brought a baton and a Taser to Washington but did not get them out. \u201cI know the Lord has my back no matter what happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the ample evidence that many in the crowd were racist, Mr. Orr said, \u201cWe get called white supremacists and all this. I have plenty of colored friends. Some of my best friends are from Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spread of falsehoods about the integrity of the election \u2014 and now the roots of Wednesday\u2019s rioting \u2014 have deeply infiltrated conservative Christian circles. Apocalyptic evangelical beliefs about the end of the world and the coming divine judgment blur with QAnon conspiracy theories that falsely assert the country is dominated by deep-state bureaucrats and pedophiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abigail Spaulding, a stay-at-home mother of 15 who traveled to the rally with friends from her church in South Carolina, broke down in tears as she spoke about her fears for her children under a Biden administration. She said her husband had explained to their children that when Mr. Biden is sworn in as president, \u201cthey can take the Bible and call it hate speech and throw it out.\u201d And she had other worries about Mr. Biden, drawn from Facebook and Twitter \u2014 all of which were false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Religion was on the minds of many who gathered in Washington last week to support President Trump.Credit…Kenny Holston for The New York Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kalamazoo, Mich., Laura Kloosterman, 34, attended mass on Wednesday and prayed that Congress would decline to certify Mr. Biden\u2019s victory. She had read claims online about flawed voting machines undercounting votes for Mr. Trump \u2014 there is no evidence for these claims<\/a>, which Mr. Trump and right-wing voices online have promoted<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Kloosterman follows the evangelical writer and radio host Eric Metaxas, who has repeatedly claimed the election results were fraudulent. Mr. Metaxas, who punched a protester<\/a> outside the White House last summer, told Mr. Trump<\/a> in an interview in late November that he would \u201cbe happy to die in this fight,\u201d in a conversation about attempts to overturn the election results. \u201cGod is with us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other supporters of the president have spent months sowing doubts among Christians about fraud. These false beliefs have forged even stronger connections between white evangelicals and other conservative figures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group called the Jericho March, which has led a series of demonstrations for \u201celection integrity,\u201d held five days of events in Washington that culminated on Wednesday. Last month the group, which included speakers like Mr. Metaxas and Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump\u2019s former national security adviser, marched around the Capitol seven times, modeling their protest on a biblical battle in which the Israelites marched around the city of Jericho until its walls crumbled, letting their armies take the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, when Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, was arrested in Washington on suspicion of burning a Black Lives Matter banner torn from a historic Black church, his supporters raised more than $100,000 for his legal defense on a Christian fund-raising platform called GiveSendGo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany people disagree with GiveSendGo allowing campaigns for people or causes that they personally disagree with, much like people disagreed with the way Jesus showed love to the \u2018sinners of society,\u2019\u201d the platform\u2019s co-founder, Jacob Wells, said. \u201cWe choose not to side at all and that causes a lot of both sides to hate us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the riot, many who were sympathetic to its cause said they were enraged at the removal of Mr. Trump and others from social media platforms like Twitter, and the deplatforming of the upstart conservative social-media site Parler. They viewed it as part of a broader conspiracy to silence Christianity. And they are looking ahead to make sure that their voices are heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Phillips, 44, a dry wall contractor from Robbinsville, N.C., had work and couldn\u2019t come to Washington on Wednesday \u2014 \u201cThe Lord just didn\u2019t see it fit,\u201d he said \u2014 but he came to two demonstrations since November, the Stop the Steal march and the Million MAGA March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been obvious for a while that Christians are under suppression, they are under scrutiny by everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of the things the country was founded on are under attack, they are trying to get the name of God out of everything, especially the name of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Dias reported from Washington and Ruth Graham from New Hampshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Dias covers faith and politics from Washington. She previously covered a similar beat for Time magazine. @elizabethjdias<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth Graham is a national correspondent covering religion, faith and values. She previously reported on religion for Slate. @publicroad<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 12, 2021, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Movement Buttressed by Grievance and God. Order Reprints<\/a> | Today\u2019s Paper<\/a> | Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are fighting good versus evil, dark versus light,\u201d she said, declaring that she was rising up like Queen Esther, the biblical heroine who saved her people from death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,21],"tags":[25,30,24,27,28,26,29],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domestic-terrorism","category-national-news","tag-racism","tag-racists","tag-religion","tag-sedition","tag-seditionist","tag-violence","tag-zealots"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-jZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":430,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=430","url_meta":{"origin":1239,"position":0},"title":"Taxpayers, You\u2019ve Been Scammed","author":"Donnie","date":"March 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Krugman\u00a0MARCH 1, 2018 President Trump with the just-signed tax law in December.\u00a0CreditDoug Mills\/The New York Times So you go out for dinner with a wealthy acquaintance. \u201cI\u2019ll take care of everything,\u201d he says, and orders you a hamburger. 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