Thursday, September 19, 2024

This Week in Religion - Lance Wallnau and the spiritual frenzy at heart of MAGA

Lead story

Sister Delphine Okoro, a nun with the Oblate Sisters of Providence, high fives a student as she teaches a fifth grade class at Mother Mary Lange Catholic School in Baltimore, Maryland.

Editor's note:

“These are once-fringe figures who, a decade ago, you’d think were really out there,” said scholar Matthew Taylor in describing The New Apostolic Reformation, a loose network of charismatic evangelical Christian leaders who see former President Donald Trump as a modern-day King Cyrus, a secular strongman who will take back America for God. Among those leaders is Lance Wallnau, an early Trump supporter who “prophesied” a 2016 win and coined the phrase “7 Mountain Mandate,” urging Christians to seek power in seven spheres of society − politics among them. In the years since, Wallnau has built an empire promoting “God’s Chaos Candidate” − as his e-book describes Trump − and drawing more mainstream evangelicals into a subculture of Pentecostalism that would once have been “too wacky” for them, according to Taylor. More influential still, he has fomented the spiritual frenzy of the broader MAGA movement, writes Tess Owen in her profile of Wallnau for Religion News Service.

A portrait of Roxanne Stone, Managing Editor, Religion News Service.
 

Religion News

‘Haitians are not eating pets’: Springfield faith leaders stand with embattled migrants

'It was a tough week,' said Harold Herard, a Haitian community leader in Springfield and visitor at Central Christian Church on Sunday. 'But today, we feel free.' By Kathryn Post/Religion News Service

The church was named Good News. Hundreds of members died in a cult massacre that haunts survivors 

In one of the deadliest cult-related massacres ever, more than 430 bodies have been recovered since police raided Good News International Church in a forest in Kenya. Seventeen months later, many in the area are still shaken by what happened despite repeated warnings about the church’s leader. By Rodney Muhumuza/The Associated Press

A Christian pastor from California has been freed from China after nearly 20 years behind bars and is back home in the U.S. David Lin, 68, was detained after he entered China in 2006, later convicted of contract fraud and sentenced to life in prison. By Eric Tucker and Didi Tang/The Associated Press

What you might miss in news coverage about Latino voters and faith

The religiously unaffiliated, not evangelicals, are the strongest growth category of Latinos in the U.S. By Aleja Hertzler-McCain/Religion News Service

A grassy field with plots of corn. There are trees lining the edge of the field. A church steeple is visible over the treeline.

Lutherans in Walz's Minnesota put potlucks before politics during divisive election season 

Midwest Lutheranism has entered the national political limelight since Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz became Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. But how Lutherans live their faith in the public sphere, especially on hot-button issues, can be as varied and often low-key. By Giovanna Dell’Orto/The Associated Press

 

Commentary and Analysis

The settler movement has unprecedented power in Israel today − the result of a decades-long push to mainstream its views and leaders. By Arie Perliger for The Conversation

In every country, where the pope took the stage, the venue was filled to capacity and beyond. By Thomas Reese/Religion News Service

In a series of surveys, researchers studied when and why voters put up with inaccurate statements from their leaders. By Minjae Kim for The Conversation

The nascent LGBTQ+ rights movement and the Christian right each strongly shaped the early years of HIV/AIDS, a historian explains. By Anthony Petro for The Conversation

 
A procession of Orthodox Christians holding posters of Russian religious icons.

Orthodox believers carry icons as they take part in a procession along Nevsky Prospect to mark the 300-year anniversary of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Russian Orthodox faithful commemorate the date of September 12, 1724, when Russian Tsar Peter the Great transferred the relics of prince Alexander Nevsky from town of Vladimir to St. Petersburg, the new capital of Russia. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

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