At far-right roadshow, Trump is God's 'anointed one,' QAnon is king, and 'everything you believe is right'
Between rows of portable toilets, a line of strangers waited be baptized in an aluminum horse trough. One by one, they emerged from water heated all day by the Nevada sun, united in purpose as new soldiers for Donald Trump.
Nearby, Christian rock blared from a large tent where pastors standing before the main stage prayed and laid hands on attendees of the ReAwaken America Tour, a far-right religious roadshow now in its third year.
Helmed by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — a supporter of the former president and a key figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election — and Clay Clark, an Oklahoma entrepreneur and podcaster, the whirlwind event melds the MAGA movement, election denial, QAnon conspiracy theories and doomsday prophecy.
The two-day church revival held in August just outside Las Vegas featured nearly 70 speakers who preached that vaccines are poisonous and will bring about the end of the world, that a cabal of global leaders is engaged in child sex trafficking and that the 2020 election was stolen.
Through it all was an apocalyptic drumbeat that the country will be destroyed if Trump doesn't become president again. God wants him to win in 2024, speakers proclaimed to their audience, and as Christians they have been called upon to ensure he does.
"We know the one in charge up above, and I can tell you that I believe that he has his hand now on Donald Trump, that no weapon formed against him shall prosper," Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, told the crowd. "God is a part of this race. I'm telling you guys this. I feel it deep down inside."
Over the last year, the tour has become increasingly focused on reelecting Trump. In North Las Vegas, several speakers referred to him as the "rightful president." Self-described prophets spoke of Trump as God's "anointed one," and presenters told the crowd that his reelection is necessary to save the country from evil.
“Just as Jesus Christ our heavenly father saved me, I am absolutely convinced that he will deliver Donald Trump and save this nation in our greatest moment of peril,” former Trump political advisor Roger Stone told the crowd.
Rhetoric on the tour can veer toward the violent, invoking deliverance and final judgment. A crowd wearing red "Make America Great Again" caps and clothing emblazoned with the American flag roared with laughter when far-right radio personality Stew Peters called for the deaths of President Biden's son Hunter and retired White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci.
“Let's be clear. Accountability is God's job. But it's not solely God's job. No, it's our job too,” Peters said. “When [Fauci] is convicted after a short and fast but thorough trial, he will hang up from a length of thick rope until he is dead. … When [Hunter Biden] is convicted … he will get … death!”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/...r-AA1i5J9m
Between rows of portable toilets, a line of strangers waited be baptized in an aluminum horse trough. One by one, they emerged from water heated all day by the Nevada sun, united in purpose as new soldiers for Donald Trump.
Nearby, Christian rock blared from a large tent where pastors standing before the main stage prayed and laid hands on attendees of the ReAwaken America Tour, a far-right religious roadshow now in its third year.
Helmed by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — a supporter of the former president and a key figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election — and Clay Clark, an Oklahoma entrepreneur and podcaster, the whirlwind event melds the MAGA movement, election denial, QAnon conspiracy theories and doomsday prophecy.
The two-day church revival held in August just outside Las Vegas featured nearly 70 speakers who preached that vaccines are poisonous and will bring about the end of the world, that a cabal of global leaders is engaged in child sex trafficking and that the 2020 election was stolen.
Through it all was an apocalyptic drumbeat that the country will be destroyed if Trump doesn't become president again. God wants him to win in 2024, speakers proclaimed to their audience, and as Christians they have been called upon to ensure he does.
"We know the one in charge up above, and I can tell you that I believe that he has his hand now on Donald Trump, that no weapon formed against him shall prosper," Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, told the crowd. "God is a part of this race. I'm telling you guys this. I feel it deep down inside."
Over the last year, the tour has become increasingly focused on reelecting Trump. In North Las Vegas, several speakers referred to him as the "rightful president." Self-described prophets spoke of Trump as God's "anointed one," and presenters told the crowd that his reelection is necessary to save the country from evil.
“Just as Jesus Christ our heavenly father saved me, I am absolutely convinced that he will deliver Donald Trump and save this nation in our greatest moment of peril,” former Trump political advisor Roger Stone told the crowd.
Rhetoric on the tour can veer toward the violent, invoking deliverance and final judgment. A crowd wearing red "Make America Great Again" caps and clothing emblazoned with the American flag roared with laughter when far-right radio personality Stew Peters called for the deaths of President Biden's son Hunter and retired White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci.
“Let's be clear. Accountability is God's job. But it's not solely God's job. No, it's our job too,” Peters said. “When [Fauci] is convicted after a short and fast but thorough trial, he will hang up from a length of thick rope until he is dead. … When [Hunter Biden] is convicted … he will get … death!”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/...r-AA1i5J9m
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
