On January 6, 2021, a Trump rally turned into a violent protest, when Trump supporters who believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building where Congress was in session to certify the election of then president-elect Joe Biden.
Breaking through barricades and forcing their way into the building, the siege resulted in the deaths of five people and injury to at least 138 police officers. Since that time, 727 people have been charged in connection with the insurrection, and four police officers who were present at the Capitol on January 6 have died by suicide.
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Notably, many of the violent protesters adorned themselves with Christian symbols, such as crosses and Jesus fish; some even carried Bibles and shofars. At the same time, many also carried weapons, and a makeshift gallows was constructed outside the Capitol Building as many within the crowd chanted for the hanging of then vice president Mike Pence (who is himself an evangelical Catholic).
Christian leaders were divided in the days following the Capitol insurrection, and they continue to be. While a number of evangelical leaders immediately and roundly condemned the events, others began affirming a conspiracy theory that Antifa had planted protesters within the crowd to incite the violence. Some have walked back those claims, while others have not.
A year later, Pelosi’s call for “a spirit of unity” may fall on deaf ears, as many Americans—both within the Church and outside of it—continue in their inability to agree on the facts of what exactly happened on January 6, 2021.
