Thread by @TaylorMatthewD

Yesterday was the 2nd annual National Gathering for Prayer & Repentance, led by Spkr Mike Johnson.

A review of the congressional & Christian leaders who joined him should set alarm bells clanging all over the country about the perilous influence of Christian nationalism. 1/

To review: this event appeared out of nowhere last year on the same day as the Nat'l Prayer Breakfast but held at the Museum of the Bible. @ the helm were 2 men: Tony Perkins, Family Research Council (old school relig. right) & NAR apostle Jim Garlow (new school relig. right). 2/

But then, later on, we learned that Mike Johnson, a no-name member of House leadership who got thrust into the limelight as Speaker, was actually the idea man behind this repentance event.



Garlow & Perkins were just enacting Johnson's idea. 3/plus.thebulwark.com/p/mike-johnson…

We have also since learned that Mike Johnson has deep & abiding ties to the New Apostolic Reformation leadership networks, groups that, I argue in my forthcoming book were at the heart of catalyzing & mobilizing Christians for #January6th. 4/

rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

As I wrote about the event last year, the 1st of these gatherings was a truly surreal liturgical recreation of January 6th, with many key Christian leaders & themes of the Capitol Riot strung together as a prayer liturgy. 5/

Now we come to the 2nd of these National Gathering for Prayer & Repentances: It was every bit as odd as the first, & was, if anything, even more evidence of the utter centrality of the New Apostolic Reformation leaders to the new religious right. 6/

The NGPR began with Jim Garlow's wife Rosemary facilitating a sounding of the shofar.

Mind you, the guy blowing the double shofar (that's not a thing!), Robert Weinger, is the same shofar tooter who led that part of the Dec 12, 2020 Jericho March. 7/

theamericanconservative.com/what-i-saw-at-…

The format of the mtng was different panels of pray-ers would come on stage w/ various DC monuments & buildings on the screen behind them.

These panels included guys like Jack Hibbs, a right-wing California Calvary Chapel pastor, who also prayed to convene congress this wk. 8/

These prayer panels were interspersed w/ worship sets led by Alma Rivera, who also did this last year.

Rivera was at the Capitol on January 6, with NAR prophets Cindy Jacobs & Becca Greenwood. It's her voice you hear at the start of this J6 video: 9/ fb.watch/pY9bnpjNWM/

Another call back to the Jericho March was featured speaker Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic rabbi who is ubiquitous in right-wing charismatic circles now.

You can read my run-down on Cahn here:
10/

Then Mike Johnson got up to segue to a time with congressional representatives praying. This included legislators like Greg Steube, notable for recently starting to fly the Christian flag outside his office, & Glenn Grothman, who flies the Appeal to Heaven flag by his office. 11/

Next was a panel of pastors & lawyers (whom Garlow strangely referred to repeatedly as "priests and Levites"), and would you look who it is in the center of the panel? Ché Ahn

Ahn is the paradigmatic NAR apostle, who spoke at the Trump Rally on Jan 5: 12/ straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/chari…

Next were prayers for Israel, led by apostle Mario Bramnick, a key NAR Trump advisor. He's also co-convener with Garlow of the Global Prayer for Election Integrity calls that were a core leadership gathering & election-lie transmission space, building toward January 6. 13/

Then was a panel of leaders of prayer mobilization orgs, &, bless my heart, it's NAR prophet Jon Hamill & NAR political apostle extraordinaire Dutch Sheets.

I argue that no Christian leader did more to galvanize Xns for #January6th than Sheets: 14/ straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/chari…

Next NAR prophet Lou Engle got his own segment, using his signature rocking back & forth style to rail against abortion and decree that God was going to miraculously convert tens of thousands of LGBTs (not LGBT people, but LGBTs) to renounce their false sexualities. 15/

Also featured were NAR apostle Dennis Peacocke, who was a major force in bringing dominion theology into the NAR and Michele Bachmann, who most people remember as a right-wing congresswoman but she's actually Garlow's right hand in doing congressional ministry outreach now. 16/

To conclude: here we see the merger of old & new -- the respectable religious right (Perkins & Johnson) w/ more than a dozen congressional reps + the insurgent Independent Charismatics & spiritual warriors of the NAR. 17/

Not only does this signal the cooptation of the prayer industrial complex by truly extremist leaders & NAR apostles, it also shows the creeping influence of anti-democratic theologies & practices among our elected officials. 18/

If the NAR gave us the spirituality of #January6th (see Charismatic Revival Fury & my forthcoming book), the National Gathering for Prayer & Repentance represents the translation of that spirituality into a decorous garb that public officials can wear openly. 19/

If you have 5 hours to spare, a strong stomach, & want to watch it all yourself, here's the link: .

To really want to understand all of this, please pre-order my book: There's only so much you can convey in a Tweet thread. 20/ngpr.org
icjs.org/the-violent-ta…

If you want to understand how all of this entwines w/ #January6th, watch this award-winning 25-minute documentary we made:



Truthfully, the spirituality & theology that gave us the Capitol Riot are even more popular among Amer Xns today than it was then.