How Deeply Interwoven Is Evangelicalism With Trump And Capitol Riot?
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(OPINION) For journalists who braved the chaos, the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill offered a buffet of the bizarre — a throng of Proud Boys, QAnon prophets, former U.S. military personnel and radicalized Donald Trump supporters that crashed through security lines and, thus, into history.
Many protestors at Trump’s legal “Save America” rally carried signs, flags and banners with slogans such as “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my president” or simply “Jesus 2020.” In this context, “Jesus saves” took on a whole new meaning.
Some of that symbolism was swept into the illegal attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In its poll addressing major religion events in 2021, members of the Religion News Association offered this description of the top story: “Religion features prominently during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump insurrectionists. Some voice Christian prayers, while others display Christian or pagan symbols and slogans inside and outside the Capitol.”
Consider, for example, Jacob Anthony Chansley — or Jake “Yellowstone Wolf” Angeli. With his coyote-skin and buffalo-horn headdress; red, white and blue face paint and Norse torso tattoos, the self-proclaimed QAnon shaman, UFO expert and metaphysical healer became the instant superstar of this mash-up of politics, religion and digital conspiracy theories.
“Thank you, Heavenly Father … for this opportunity to stand up for our God-given inalienable rights,” he said in a video of his U.S. Senate remarks from the vice president's chair. “Thank you, divine, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Creator God for filling this chamber with your white light and love. Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ. …
“Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists and the traitors within our government.”
That was one loud voice. A big question that must be answered — in future trials and the U.S. House investigation — is whether it's true, as claimed by the New York Times, that the “most extreme corners of support for Mr. Trump have become inextricable from some parts of white evangelical power in America.”
Terry Mattingly writes this weekly “On Religion” column for the Universal syndicate. Republished with permission of the author.