Chuck Darwin<p>On a sweltering evening in the thumb pad of Michigan’s mitten, a self-described prophet promised 700 Christians under a crisp white tent that they were about to <a href="https://c.im/tags/cheat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cheat</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/death" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>death</span></a>.<br>They would do this by winning the swing state for Donald Trump.</p><p>The reasoning was simple: <br>Each of the Christians assembled would soon feel a call to become a <a href="https://c.im/tags/poll" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>poll</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/watcher" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>watcher</span></a> or to knock on doors or to organize their church<br>—to take part in some act that would aid the Republican presidential candidate. </p><p>⭐️And that act would keep them safe, the prophet said, because God would not call them home before they had completed the task He had given them.<br>🔥“The greatest argument you have with death is an unfulfilled assignment,” the man, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lance</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Wallnau" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Wallnau</span></a>, told the crowd</p><p>This was the third stop of the “<a href="https://c.im/tags/Courage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Courage</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Tour" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tour</span></a>,” <br>a traveling worship spectacle passing through key battleground states ahead of the upcoming presidential election. </p><p>Organized by Wallnau, a sixtysomething Texas-based evangelical with a salesman’s persona, <br>the three-day event was a marriage of the religious and the political, <br>a swirl of prophecies and PowerPoints and speaking in tongues. </p><p>It was a call to arms, a campaign strategy session, and<br>—above all<br>—an honest-to-God old-fashioned Pentecostal tent revival.</p><p>It was also a showcase of the power of a rapidly growing, militant right-wing movement in American Christianity.</p><p>Wallnau is a major leader in a coalition of Christians who believe that Trump is prophesied to play a critical role in the nation’s spiritual reformation<br>—that the former president is destined to be a catalyst for the next Great Awakening, even. </p><p>These Christians see Trump as a modern-day Cyrus the Great, <br>the powerful empire builder and nonbeliever who is credited in the Old Testament with returning the Jews to the Holy Land. </p><p>They believe that under Trump’s protection, American Christians will rise up, <br>defeat their <a href="https://c.im/tags/demonic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>demonic</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/enemies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>enemies</span></a>, <br>and take their rightful place of power in the country.</p><p>This belief in a Trump prophecy has only grown stronger among the faithful since the former president survived an <a href="https://c.im/tags/assassination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>assassination</span></a> attempt in July. </p><p>It is so strong, in fact, that anything that could stand in Trump’s way<br>—democratic or otherwise<br>—is perceived as a force of <a href="https://c.im/tags/evil" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>evil</span></a> that must be battled on a spiritual plane.</p><p>This has already played out once: <br>After Trump lost the 2020 election, Wallnau held nearly daily rants about the <a href="https://c.im/tags/stolen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stolen</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/election" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>election</span></a> on Facebook Live; </p><p>he decreed in one online prayer call that 💥God would overturn the election results. </p><p>He spoke at a major rally for Christian election deniers in Washington on Dec. 12 of that year, <br>warning that there was “a backlash coming” <br>and announcing that it would be the “beginning of a <a href="https://c.im/tags/Christian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Christian</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/populist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>populist</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/uprising" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uprising</span></a>.” </p><p>He and other right-wing Christian leaders circled the Capitol while blowing <a href="https://c.im/tags/shofars" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>shofars</span></a> and praying for the election to be overturned, <br>drawing clear parallels to the biblical story from the Book of Joshua in which the Israelite army marches around the city of Jericho, <br>blowing horns until its walls crumble and the Israelites conquer the city and <a href="https://c.im/tags/slaughter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slaughter</span></a> its inhabitants. </p><p>The event, which preceded a night of <a href="https://c.im/tags/political" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>political</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/violence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>violence</span></a> in the nation’s capital, drew thousands of attendees in what was widely seen as a precursor to the Jan. 6 riot.</p><p><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/donald-trump-2024-president-election-shooting-christians.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">slate.com/news-and-politics/20</span><span class="invisible">24/09/donald-trump-2024-president-election-shooting-christians.html</span></a></p>