I was happy to be interviewed, & I think @7im did a very fair job of writing about the complex case of Derrick Peterson, a former sheriff deputy & candidate for Portland's school board who was commissioned as an apostle by Ché Ahn in 2020. rollingstone.com/politics/polit… 1/
Ché Ahn also listed Peterson as an advisory board member at 1Race4Life, an anti-abortion/racial-reconciliation org that he founded in 2020 after George Floyd's murder. web.archive.org/web/2021120511…. 2/
Last week Oregon Live ran a story where Peterson downplayed his 2020 apostolic commissioning & said he "is not affiliated" with 1Race4Life. oregonlive.com/education/2023…. Since then he was removed from Ahn's site & the 1Race4Life site has gone dark. What is going on here? 3/
To be clear, I haven't spoken to Peterson, & I'd be happy to do so, but, on the surface, his story doesn't hold water. Among #NAR leaders, Ché Ahn probably has the most clearly articulated theology/philosophy of apostleship (which he unapologetically got direct from Wagner). 5/
Ahn commissioned Peterson as a "marketplace apostle" (a phrase straight from Wagner's ideology), which connotes a leader who aligns with the #NAR agenda of societal transformation & #7MM/Christian supremacy but who doesn't work primarily in the church. place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewconten… 6/
Ché Ahn has spoken & written for decades about his understanding of apostles, & here are a couple of key passages from his 2019 book "Modern-Day Apostles" amazon.com/Modern-Day-Apo… where he makes clear how rigorous & serious his vetting process is for these commissionings. 7/
Incidentally, one of the other people Ahn commissioned (as an evangelist) through HIM in 2020 was Jay Koopman, who was Ahn's associate pastor at HRC & is now Sean Feucht's right-hand man. harvestim.org/leadership/com… Again, this hardly suggests Peterson was some sort of outsider. 8/
Now the 1Race4Life website is down, but the advisory board also includes: Bill Johnson (Bethel), Cindy Jacobs, Jim Garlow, Eric Metaxas, Samuel Rodriguez, & Lance Wallnau, a veritable who's who of the #NewApostolicReformation cinematic universe. web.archive.org/web/2021120511… 9/
Each of these fellow 1Race4Life board members played an important role in instigating Christians to attend the protests/riot on #January6th. Ahn, Wallnau, & Jacobs were all in DC that day. Note that Peterson does not deny knowing these folks. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cha… 10/
If Peterson has so little connection to Ché Ahn & HIM, why is he showing up to preach at churches in the HIM & Bethel networks? And why is he doing FB live videos with Stacey Campbell, a core HIM apostle in Canada? facebook.com/mattoxkent/pos… 11/
The #NAR leadership culture is fundamentally relational, not organizational. While I'm sure not everyone in HIM shares all of Ché Ahn's politics, Peterson's effort to hide/dismiss his affiliations without explaining the nature of his connections there is downright confusing. 12/
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I've argued for years that, in the Trump era, charismatic (i.e. ecstatic, supernaturalist, revivalist) evangelicals have displaced the old guard of the relig right & brought a new more aggressive evangelical politics.
That was on vivid display in TX today.
h/t @RobertDownen_ 1/
That video is of charismatic prophet & pastor, Brandon Burden--who's associated with the Dutch Sheets wing of the extremist New Apostolic Reformation networks--praying Ekklesia/dominion theology (that Christians should rule over all societies) over a group of lawmakers. 2/
Burden is locally famous for telling his congregation on 1/10/21 (a few days after the violence of January 6th, much of it perpetrated by right-wing Christians) to "keep their guns loaded & stock up on food & water" before Joe Biden's inauguration. 3/
Crucial profile of Jenny Donnelly (NAR apostle, anti-LGBTQ "parental rights" advocate, and leader of an activist network with 1000s of "mama bears") by @aliceraeherman | @guardian.
These networks were a major force galvanizing Trump's Xn base in 2024. 1/
FWIW, centrist/Leftist activists & orgs who are opposed to the Trump admin's agenda would do well to learn from the vast organizing infrastructure & impact of these -- sometimes grassroots, sometimes grass tops -- networks on the right.
They reach people media can't reach. 2/
In a decentralized media landscape & polarized political atmosphere, multiethnic networks of angry Xn mom-activists can have outsize influence, b/c:
A decade ago, Metaxas was on track to be a popular & respected evangelical public intellectual. Raised in NYC & educated at Yale, he styled himself as an erudite & engaged public figure.
He wrote pop biographies of William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, & Martin Luther. 2/
In truth, Metaxas has no pedigree as a historian nor as a theologian, but he wrote enticing books that spoke in evangelical-friendly ways about evangelical heroes.
Real scholars pointed out these books were littered w/ factual errors & poor analysis. 3/
Yesterday Trump announced he's nominating Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense.
Hegseth's a prominent Fox News personality & veterans advocate, but he also has strong ties to the Christian far right that I've not seen fully exposed yet.
Here's a thread w/ receipts... 1/
1st, what's the Christian far right?
It's a coalition of different Christian social movts bound together by aggressive theologies & (often but not always) white supremacy.
This is the extreme, militant end of the spectrum of what is popularly called "Christian nationalism." 3/
Theologically & socially, there are at least 3 distinct, major strands of the Amer Christian far right today (w/ lots of smaller ones too):
1) Radical Traditionalist Catholic networks & influencers, Opus Dei, etc. -- This is the world of JD Vance. Not my area of expertise. 4/
It's bracing to hear the dauntless words that theological giants used to hold each other to the cause of resisting fascism.
This 1933 letter from Karl Barth to Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- "You are a German & the house of your church is burning" -- summons us to Christian courage. 1/
We don't know whether 2025 will be a 1933. These things can happen fast. Dachau concentration camp was opened in March 1933 -- 2 months after Hitler came to power.
But we do know that's where casual dehumanization & demonization of vulnerable communities leads eventually. 2/
Trump & his regime have already found their "court evangelicals" (h/t @JohnFea1) who will genuflect & offer to bless his every despotic whim & assertion.
Pastors, theologians, Bible professors, & religion scholars: now is the time to find the courage of Barth & Bonhoeffer. 3/
I've tried to approach this election unflinchingly & w/ clear eyes, but this is the absolute worst case scenario.
We're in an epochal shift in American history of the worst sort, &, while it does not spell the absolute end of Amer liberal democracy, MAGA is a fatal illness. 1/
I've been ruminating since last night over this quote from John Adams:
"Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts & murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide. It's in vain to Say that Democracy is less vain, less proud... 2/
"less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than Aristocracy or Monarchy. It's not true in Fact & no where appears in history. Those Passions are the same in all Men under all forms of Simple Govt, & when unchecked, produce the same Effects of Fraud Violence and Cruelty." 3/