On Saturday, tens of thousands of Christians flooded the National Mall to make amends, pray and stand up for America. In their view, America is poisoned by secularism and should be ruled by a Christian God instead.
Summoned to Washington D.C. by MLM expert turned Christian “apostle” Jenny Donnelly and prominent anti-LGBTQ+ pastor Lou Engle, they were painted with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids, a nod to the myth. They floated onto the lawn with blue and pink banners. that children are being indoctrinated to accept homosexual and transgender identities;
It was no coincidence that the event was held on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, and that many participants carried shofars and Israeli flags. Evangelical and charismatic Christians find spiritual meaning in Old Testament scriptures, Jewish rituals, and support for Israel; they believe that: End-time prophecies will occur.
Most of the day was spent in prayer and worship, but the November presidential election weighed heavily on the crowd. A newsletter promoting the event called for “the Lord’s authority and our nation’s leadership over the election process,” and organizers called for a pre-election prayer event hosted by Turning Point USA Faith, a group aligned with Donald Trump. We distributed promotional flyers.
Lance Wallnow, a MAGA evangelist who became famous for predicting Trump’s first term as president, spoke at the rally.
“We recently learned that there are 31 million Christians in our country who are under attack from woke preachers and apathetic Christians and are not going to vote this year.” Wallnow said. “Ladies and gentlemen, this Yom Kippur conference is a moment for our government to change something spiritually,” Wallnow said, calling on pastors to urge their congregations to vote.
“I was here on January 6th,” said Tami Barsen, who attended the rally from Pennsylvania. She described the experience of the Capitol riot as deeply spiritual. “It’s not a Democratic versus Republican conflict,” she said. “It’s good and evil.”
This is the first in a series of Christian nationalist rallies to be held in Washington, D.C., to rally believers to the Capitol ahead of the 2024 election.
Donnelly billed the event as a rallying call for mothers concerned about changing gender norms in modern America, calling the rally at the Capitol an opportunity for women to take a stand and for the country’s cultural , positioned it as an opportunity to play a pivotal role in changing the political trajectory.
The rally was attended by several far-right Christians affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation, a far-right political movement that aims to establish long-term Christian control over government and society and inaugurate Trump for a second term as president in November. It is a cooperation organized by religious leaders. .
Matthew Taylor, a senior fellow at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said the goal of the effort was to “create a network of many people who see occupying Washington, D.C., as a spiritual mission.” .
The most prominent figure in bringing women to the National Mall is Engle, a right-wing pastor and staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights and abortion. He gained international notoriety and fame for leading Ugandan pastors against homosexuality and coordinating the mobilization of mass worship services.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Engle an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, and Engle has in the past likened his anti-LGBTQ+ push to Southern segregationists during the Civil War, and has called out gay rights opponents to the South. He pointed out that he was calling on people to emulate military generals. “We were able to keep Washington in check” Robert E. Lee.
Donnelly’s vision of mothers descending on the Capitol in pink and blue is her own. Engle, who has held mass prayer rallies that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to Washington, D.C., in the past, is providing a platform to bring people back.
“We see a million women and their families coming together to see this great nation turn its heart back to God,” Donnelly said in June promoting the march. He spoke on the podcast on the 21st. Donnelly, who lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family, has learned how she felt during the COVID-19 lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests (two forces she said forced churches to close). He spoke about how God called him to delve deeper into the realm of politics.
“I said, ‘Lord, I’m a mother of five children. I have a great church, but it’s not very big. I’ve done women’s retreats, and I’ve done my part in the kingdom. “I feel like I’ve fulfilled my mission and I love Jesus so much, but I don’t even know where to start. Can you please join me in the fight?” she said. .
Donnelly has been trying to share that message with other Christian women through an organization called Her Voices Movement Action. The organization organizes women into decentralized, independently run “prayer hubs” that serve as both a source of spiritual community for women and a political mobilization tool. .
“We’ve been praying for our country for the past few years in a small prayer hub,” said Louette Madison, who traveled from Washington state to D.C. for the rally. Madison, whose teens attend public schools, said she hopes one day prayer will be accepted in schools. There are no consequences, but there may be further disruption to the school. ”
The decentralized organizational model is a vestige of Donnelly’s previous life. Before his reincarnation as leader of the New Apostolic Reformation, Donnelly earned millions of dollars through the multilevel marketing company Advocare, which he closed after settling a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission for $150 million. I went bankrupt. The company was an illegal pyramid scheme.
From Peru to Portland
A few years before Donnelly raised the #DontMessWithOurKids flag, a movement of the same name took off in Peru, championed by Christian Rosas, a conservative Christian political strategist and mining industry consultant. The evangelical “No te metas con miss hijos” (“Don’t touch my children”) coalition, which opposes LGBTQ+ inclusion and abortion, seeks to introduce themes of gender equality and gender equality in 2016. It gained supporters amid a wave of conservative backlash against the government’s efforts. LGBTQ+ inclusion in the school system.
When governments issued lockdown orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus, they issued travel restrictions by gender, allowing women and men to go out on different days of the week, and when enforcing this rule, Confirmed that the gender identity of transgender people will be respected. . Rosas has challenged trans-inclusive policies, arguing that police officers are obligated to enforce rules based on a traveler’s ID rather than their gender identification.
During the lockdown order, Peruvian investigative news outlet Ojo Public reported 18 incidents of humiliating and abusive police arrests of trans women.
What started as a street protest turned into an electoral strategy to elect ultra-conservative allies of the Christian Right in Peru. These lawmakers have passed a number of socially conservative laws, including this year’s law classifying transgender identity as a mental illness.
Donnelly took charge of the movement among Christian mothers in the United States, drawing directly from Rosas’ vision in Peru and consulting him on strategy.
“We challenged the law, and why? Because the law was unjust. We challenged the curriculum. Why? Because the curriculum was unjust,” Rosas said on November 6, 2023. He said this in a podcast interview with Donnelly. “Radical, religious, whatever,” but they saw that we would not back down. ”
Rosas also spoke at a Capitol rally on Saturday, preaching against LGBTQ+ acceptance and promising that his movement could be replicated in the United States.
“Obedience to the Lord also requires us to stand strong against weakened structures,” Rosas said. “Against evil, against unjust laws.”
Both “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” and “No te metas con miss hijos” attempt to operate their organizations as grassroots movements. In a 2017 interview with Vice News, a spokesperson for the group spoke on condition of anonymity and claimed to be speaking for “the collective.”
Donnelly’s “Her Voice Movement” takes a similar approach. In a recording of an August Zoom call obtained by journalist Dominic Bonney and shared with the Guardian, Naomi van Wyk, a spokeswoman for Her Voices Movement, said the group was working with Moms for Liberty. He said he has teamed up with the organization to launch a multi-state campaign called “March for Kids.” But he warned members to keep the association private.
“The parent company is Moms for Liberty, but they don’t want to be recognized. I would really like to see that expressed publicly,” Van Wyk said.
Elizabeth Salazar Vega, a reporter covering gender and politics in Peru, said she was not surprised that the movement had taken hold in the United States, or that it was expressed just weeks before the presidential election.
“This is an ideal scenario to unite these voices that normally seem isolated in civil society,” Salazar Vega told the Guardian in Spanish. “I don’t think it’s impossible for this to grow rapidly in the United States.”
Christian nationalist pastor Sean Feucht, who organized the “Kingdom to Capitol” protests in battleground states, is planning a similar march in Washington, D.C., later this month.
