The belief that the 2020 election results could be overturned by prayer and spiritual warfare connects the above with conservative commentators such as Michele Bachmann and Eric Metaxas. The latter, a former Trump critic, headlined a Jericho March event in the lead-up to the insurrection, emceeing an assembly that included addresses from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Flynn and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militia group Oath Keepers.
6. Patriots and Theocrats
Since Jan. 6, members of the chauvinist group Proud Boys, which only began displaying Christian nationalist tendencies in the lead-up to the insurrection, have increasingly added prayer and other religious expressions to their ethic of patriotism and hypermasculinity. In Idaho, there are signs that some members of the Patriot Front who were arrested in June for allegedly planning to riot at a Coeur d’Alene Pride event have shown connections to pastor and former Washington state lawmaker Matt Shea, a right-wing firebrand who has touted a document titled “Biblical Basis for War.”
Religion News Service national correspondent Jack Jenkins contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared here.
