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