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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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/
This is a disgusting & unbelievably irresponsible thing for a pastor to post on election day!
Landon Schott is a pastor at Mercy Culture, a hyper-political, charismatic church in the DFW area. Sean Feucht shows up there regularly, & he shared a stage w/ Feucht in DC on 10/26. 1/
If you don't know the reference here, many charismatics have railed for decades against the "spirit of Jezebel" (a demon representing feminism, LGBTQ rights, abortion, etc.) taking over the US.
Here is Schott's wife, Heather, on stage w/ NAR apostle Ché Ahn on 10/12 when he issued his decree that Trump (Jehu) would win & Jezebel (Harris) would be "cast out" -- an unmistakeable reference to Jezebel's execution in 2 Kings 9, the same passage Schott highlights today. 3/