Matthew D. Taylor Profile picture
May 1, 2023 12 tweets 7 min read Read on X
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/
Ché Ahn is a core leader in the #NewApostolicReformation, &, as I showed in Charismatic Revival Fury, he was mentored by C. Peter Wagner at #FullerSeminary. Ahn's Harvest International Ministry is one of the largest apostolic networks in the world. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cha… 4/
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/ ImageImage
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/ ImageImage
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/ Image
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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More from @TaylorMatthewD

Nov 13
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/ Image
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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/ Image
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Read 18 tweets
Nov 8
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/
Read 6 tweets
Nov 6
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/
Read 22 tweets
Nov 5
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/ Image
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.

More recently they've begun equating Kamala Harris w/ Jezebel & Trump w/ Jehu. 2/
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/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 1
I know Trump's rally at MSG got lots of press attn for its fascistic undertones, but the most fascistic thing to happen this week in Trump world -- in my view -- is this prophecy spoken over Trump by Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn at a relig ldrs event. 1/

You'll need some context to understand what he's saying in this prophecy, but I promise: When you understand the message he's conveying to Trump & to this audience, it's chilling.

1st, who is Jonathan Cahn?

He's mostly likely the most famous Messianic Jew in America today. 2/ Image
Cahn has so many NY Times bestselling books, he's probably 1 of the most-read & most-followed religious figures in the entire U.S., but he's gotten little mainstream media attention.

Notable exception: this 2019 profile by @skestenbaum in @NYTimes. 3/
nytimes.com/2019/03/15/nyr…Image
Read 24 tweets
Oct 28
Excellent (& terrifying) reporting here from @AndyKroll & @mtredden about how Russ Vought, a far-right extremist former OMB director & likely 2nd Trump Admin cabinet member, is thinking about the agenda for Trump 2.0...

Hint: It's all aggression! 1/

propublica.org/article/video-…
Something we must all grasp heading into this election is how much Trump's lies about the 2020 election have become a new "lost cause" narrative, propagandizing & radicalizing many far-right actors to attack democracy in the name of defending the Constitution. 2/
In truth, our civic crisis today rests upon an even deeper & more far-reaching epistemic crisis -- a crisis in how we know what we know.

1/3 of Americans today believe Trump's 2020 lies, & that reality distortion field is warping their very citizenship & view of democracy. 3/
Read 8 tweets

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