Thread by @JYSexton

All right. We need to talk about a couple of vitally important things happening in the background that aren't quite in focus just yet but are going to define the coming days.

White identity evangelicalism that holds Trump as a messiah and Trump's authoritarian nature.

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Already we're seeing Trump and Republicans refer to a "foreign virus" and in the case of Jerry Falwell Jr. an outrageous claim that coronavirus is a North Korean bioweapon. What's happening is an evolution that is going to continue growing and growing for the next few months.

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I grew up in the evangelical community, this exact cult I'm about to speak about. I've come to refer to it as the Cult of the Shining City for its marriage of white identity politics and dangerous national myth. It's a merging many of us have felt but have not understood.

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When growing up in this environment, this white identity national religion, you don't understand it's a cult, that it's dangerous, that there's life outside of it. Only in recent years, with research into my book, have I actually grasped how we got here and what is happening.

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Already I'm seeing people I know who are still in the white identity evangelical world and part of the Cult of the Shining City, talk about coronavirus as a bioweapon and sign of the endtimes. We're going to see this grow as the pandemic worsens. It's going to be dangerous.

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These people, like myself before I got out, were taught to believe America was god's chosen nation and that it was beset by satanic enemies, conspiracies to bring it down in the name of evil. That mindset and worldview is already flaring up as I type this.

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Media unfamiliar with white identity evangelicalism or the Cult of the Shining City keep asking how Trump can be a cult leader for them, but it's simple and easy if you actually, objectively study the history of this movement. Knowing about this is going to be important.

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Already white identity Cult of the Shining City members are reacting to Trump's failures to deal with coronavirus by spreading wild conspiracies about weapons and plots. This is a natural response from them as they've been taught to see everything this way.

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It is so predictable that Jerry Falwell Jr. would be at the forefront of this. His father Jerry Falwell began this movement in the 1950s/1960s as a reaction to desegregation. It was an intentional distancing from civil rights using Christianity as an ideology.

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Falwell and other southern preachers were neo-Confederates, descendants of Confederate preachers who taught their parishoners that God was racist and had the Confederacy as his chosen nation. It was a warped ideology being revived as the Civil Rights Movement grew.

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Falwell and his network of preachers originally preached openly about God's support of segregation. It was the call for members, that desegregation was sinful and satanic and would lead to the downfall of America. That was the entire purpose of this new movement.

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Because Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King used Christ's emphasis on social justice, Falwell shifted the evangelical focus to accruement of wealth and power. The gospel became a living, breathing endorsement of white supremacy as proof of God's racist beliefs.

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The church, under Falwell and his contemporaries, started emphasizing wealth and power as markers of God's favor. Suddenly it became proof of unholiness to be poor or weak or vulnerable. It was a demonization of minorities and the poor that caught fire.

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This shifted religion in America toward white supremacy in totality, a maintaining of power and wealth at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. It was holy to engage in conspicuous consumption and greed. It was God's will. A racist God's will.

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In this gospel of wealth and power, figures like Norman Vincent Peale grew in influence. Peale preached that "positive thinking" and wealth accruement were godly. Of course, this appealed to Donald Trump, who held Peale as his preacher and had him officiate his wedding.

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This was a perversion of the gospel, but it gained traction because it was both incredibly prosperous and it gifted white supremacy a holy tinge. It didn't hurt, of course, that it was coming to fruition at a time where greed and pursuit of wealth was blooming.

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At the end of the 1970's, religious president Jimmy Carter was struggling in the job, and Ronald Reagan bested him by promising America nothing was wrong and conducting his campaign like a revival preacher, only he was preaching the goodness of America and greed.

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Ronald Reagan wasn't religious, but he was spiritual. In California, he and his wife Nancy were steeped in the new age movement that promoted psychics and mystics and alternate histories of the world. They traveled in these circles and genuinely held them as gospel.

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One of Reagan's foremost influences was Manley P. Hall, a mystic who gave huge lectures about America's "hidden history." It was madness. Atlantis stuff. Hidden codes. He sold books about illuminati conspiracies to create America as god's chosen nation.

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In Reagan's earliest speeches he parroted Hall's lectures, told of an angel that appeared to save the Declaration of Independence, intimated that God had personally intervened in America's affairs as it was his chosen nation. That was the foundation of Reagan's career.

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His believe in the Shining City on the Hill was informed by his occultish beliefs and was the idea that America was the result of generations' worth of secret plans and conspiracies, a fulfillment of a plan put in motion by ancient philosophers.

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In the 1980's Falwell's white identity evangelicalism merged with Reagan's occultism, creating a new national myth where America was under attack by satanic, evil forces. This new myth created an atmosphere rife with paranoia and supernatural threats.

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Those threats pushed by white evangelicalism and Reaganism were inherently white supremacist in nature. The conspiracy to undermine America was a satanic plot that manipulated poor people, minorities, women, and the media. You may recognize it as the Deep State.

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The Deep State conspiracy theory is an evolution of the New World Order conspiracy theory that was an evolution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy theory.

It's a long, white supremacist paranoid idea that is designed to protect wealthy white supremacy.

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Donald Trump is the embodiment of the ideals of Reaganism and white identity evangelicalism. His worldview is their worldview. This is why he is accepted as their messiah. Why Falwell Jr accepts him. He is the "warrior" fighting this satanic conspiracy.

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All right. So now, facing a deadly pandemic, white identity evangelicals, members of this Cult of the Shining City, will blame the spreading virus on a conspiracy. They're going to blame foreigners, minorities, and conspiracies. This is what they've been taught to do.

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The conspiracies this cult believes in will be focused on United Nations' plots to reduce population, shadowy organizations intent on destroying America, and, of course, Jewish high profile figures like George Soros carrying out deadly attacks.

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When Trump calls this a foreign virus, when Tom Cotton blames China, when Falwell Jr. wonders if it's North Korea, they're talking to evangelicals who are taught from a young age to see satanic conspiracies and to always be on guard for the end of the world.

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They're going to support Trump no matter how obvious his failures are. That's what they're taught to do. They'll go down in flames with him to save their identities and the indoctrination they've undergone. It's a foregone conclusion, and we're going to see more of it soon.

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The massive danger is that Trump is the perfect vessel for all of this. He seeks this worship even if he doesn't understand it. He craves it, and he has made an incredible cult leader. Instinctually, he will harness their paranoia and fear and use it to save himself.

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I keep saying it because people need to hear it: Donald Trump is an authoritarian. Authoritarians are ineffective and insecure, and as they fail they blame everyone else.

He'll focus on a conspiracy and all these members of the cult will hear exactly what he's saying.

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White identity evangelicals, the Cult of the Shining City members, have been waiting for a moment like this for decades. They're antidemocratic by nature and see a supernatural battle forming. They're going to jump full bore into Trump's conspiracy mongering and power grab.

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We might dodge a bullet here. Hopefully we will. But there is a real danger of all this white nationalistic, religious myth creating a more dangerous situation wherein Trump will use the crisis to seize power and be championed as a holy warrior.

That chance is real.

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But you will see more of this as the pandemic grows. White identity evangelicals are going to trumpet conspiracy theories, rumors of war and evil plots. It'll start as bizarre displays and grow and grow and grow as long as the threat grows.

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Listen for the conspiracies. Listen for the traces of holy paranoia. It's going to be everywhere and Trump will gain power and comfort from it. Trumpism and white identity evangelicalism, the Cult of the Shining City, are so intertwined now they are inseparable.

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There's more to discuss about all this, and I'll keep updating as this thing grows, because it's going to.

If you want to read more, I detail this in my upcoming book AMERICAN RULE, which is about these myths and how they've endangered all of us.

penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/a…

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