Trump-Supporting ‘Jericho March’ Ends In Protest, Burning Of BLM Banners
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn giving a speech to Trump supporters in Washington, D.C. Photo from a video of the event at jerichomarch.org
Thousands of Trump supporters, most of whom weren’t wearing masks, marched this weekend against what they called America’s corrupt institutions of government in Washington, D.C. and praying for God’s intervention in the election.
They’re hoping for — and prophesying — a miracle.
“I have people ask me, on a scale of one to 10, who’s going to be the next president?” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said. “I say, Donald Trump, a 10.”
The Jericho March, propelled by the #StopTheSteal movement, took a page from the Bible story in Joshua in which God commanded the Israelites to march around the walls of an evil city for seven days, praying and worshipping, so that God would crumble the walls and allow the Israelites to conquer it in battle.
Read: The Charismatic Christians Prophesying Trump's Victory (And Not Backing Down)
The Proud Boys, a far-right political organization, showed up en masse and protested late into the night after the prayer rally. At least four people were stabbed, their group affiliations unknown, and at least 23 have been arrested. Pro-Trump protesters also burned Black Lives Matter banners taken from historic African American churches downtown. Videos on Twitter showed Proud Boys burning one of the banners, cheering and shouting, “F*** anti-fa!”
Read: Pro-Trump Protesters Burn Black Lives Matter Banners Outside Historic DC Churches
The prayer rally stayed much more tame, including shofars, worship sessions, prayers, President Donald Trump circling in a helicopter and, for those watching at home, MyPillow ads and promo codes.
“Maybe we’ll start with a prayer,” Flynn said, and then immediately proceeded to plug an ad for MyPillow.com. “I told Mike Lindell [CEO of MyPillow] as he was walking and we bumped into each other that I actually had the first good sleep of my life last night.”
He didn’t actually pray during his time on stage.
Led by conservative evangelical Eric Metaxas, founder Ali Alexander and others, the event centered around the belief that the 2020 election was fraudulent and Trump should be in office for a second term.
Although President-Elect Joe Biden has won the electoral and popular votes by wide margins and the Trump campaign has lost more than 50 court cases challenging election results in six states and the Supreme Court, President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election, claiming widespread voter fraud occurred. Attorney General William Barr said Dec. 1 that FBI agents and U.S. attorneys have investigated claims of fraud and not found evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election. On Dec. 11, the Supreme Court rejected a suit from Texas that hoped to prevent swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania from casting their votes for Trump because of believed voter fraud.
“Courts aren’t going to decide who the next president is going to be,” Flynn said early on in his speech, likely in reference to the decision. “We the people decide.”
Jill Noble, who organized the march, used the fact that it was the second day of Hanukkah to bring up the story of the Maccabees — in the Catholic and Jewish biblical canon but not Protestant Bibles — and how they threw off government oppression. While banging a gavel down on the podium, she led attendees in a chant of “No king but Jesus!”
The #StopTheSteal event also condemned the Chinese Communist Party and rallied on Sunday for the continued celebration of Christmas.
“Politicians have used COVID as a massive power-grab to close schools, arbitrarily shut down businesses and ban church services,” said Kimberly Fletcher, president of Moms for America. “They bullied families into staying apart for Thanksgiving, and now they want to cancel Christmas… Our rights come from God, and not from government.”
Several popular conservative and Christian leaders spoke, including Flynn, radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pro-life leader Abby Johnson, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apocalyptic preacher and author Jonathan Cahn, CEO and spokesperson for MyPillow Mike Lindell and others. Great emphasis was placed on calling the event a spiritual and political “revival,” and there was an implicit trust in prophecies that Trump will remain in office.
Rabbi Curt Landry shared a vision he said he received weeks prior in which he stood next to Moses while he parted the Red Sea, and before him stood lambs that cloaked lions on the dry land. He never made a comparison outright to the crowd gathered before him, but yelled, “You’re not hearing me!” until the crowd cheered loudly enough at the prophecy.
“Lord, in the Deep State, let the oil of the cruise burn with fire and bring the light of justice into the United States of America,” Landry said as he concluded his prayer.
Rev. Kevin Jessip compared this time to the “last days” as is described in the book of Revelation.
“Our response to His call has eternal consequences in heaven, as well as on earth,” Jessip said.
At Saturday’s event, a crowd favorite was Trump’s spontaneous appearance in Marine One helicopter in the middle of Flynn’s speech. Trump had tweeted that he didn’t know about the rally but that he’d “be seeing them.”
Speakers emphasized that they only serve God and said that they were prepared to fight tooth and nail for Trump to stay in office, never providing any link between the two but presenting them as similar ideas.
“Donald Trump never stopped fighting for us, so we will never stop fighting for him,” said CJ Pearson of The Free Thinkers project. “It doesn't matter what we have to do. We will go from state to state, city to city, and we will organize, rally the troops.”
Metaxas served as a larger-than-life host of the event. In his closing remarks, he began to remind attendees that “this is about God,” encouraging them to fast in this time — and pausing several times in between to shout at one individual in the crowd who was being too loud.
The event ended with the blowing of shofars — traditionally Jewish instruments of praise that have gained popularity among evangelical Christian circles and protesters in the past few years — and an off-key rendition of “Amazing Grace,” which Metaxas led the crowd in singing along to.
It wasn’t the only worship of the weekend. It was common throughout Saturday’s events, as were prayers and proclamations of “God bless America.”
A public statement issued from the senior pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church, where one BLM banner was torn down and burned, expressed remorse for the vandalization: “It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames. For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings.”
The church has put up a paper Black Lives Matter sign in place of the one that was burned, and plans to replace it with a bigger sign.
In the meantime, those who rallied for the event don’t plan on stopping their protest this weekend. Speakers and event leaders reminded attendees that they would be back in the same place on inauguration day — Jan. 20 — to protest President-Elect Joe Biden’s entrance into the White House.
“We will never give up. We will never surrender,” Jones said in his speech. “We will never back down to the Satanic, pedophile, globalist New World Order and their walking dead, reanimated corpse Joe Biden. And we will never recognize him.”
Jillian Cheney is a Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged who loves consuming good culture and writing about it. She also reports on American Protestantism and Evangelical Christianity. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.