Last year, leaders of the Christian Right movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) staged an all-day rally on the Washington Mall in support of Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency called A Million Women. Far fewer than a million actually attended in person, but it was simulcast all over the country and the world. The 100,000 or so people who did show up to the Washington Mall—arguably the largest voter mobilization event of the 2024 election season—also rallied to support Israel, sought to drive demonic spirits from the Capitol via spiritual warfare, and, as scholar Matthew D. Taylor tweeted, targeted Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris with a “spiritual assassination order.”
Event organizers say that the Washington rally was just “the starting line. Now it’s time to mobilize.” And by mobilize, they mean going “global with this Esthers movement!”
One year later, NAR prophet and impresario Lou Engle is taking the show on the road. On October 25, a year before Brazil’s next presidential election, Engle plans to stage another Million Women event in São Paulo, the nation’s largest city.
“It has the potential to be the largest gathering of Christian women in history,” according to Virginia Garrard, Professor Emerita of History at the University of Texas. “I think they may very well exceed a million participants.”
(In 2026, they plan to stage A Million Women in Africa.)
The part that gets left out
However, urging Christian women to reimagine themselves as the biblical figure of Esther is an implied call for physical violence against perceived enemies. While various Christian and Jewish traditions draw different meanings from the story of Esther (usually celebrating her role in saving her people), NAR leaders highlight the part about the annihilation of enemies, which is typically left out.
Esther, the Jewish wife of the Persian king, and her cousin Mordecai, persuade the king to retract his order, made at the behest of his chief minister, Haman, to exterminate all Jews in the kingdom. Instead, the king hangs Haman on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and grants the Jews permission to annihilate their enemies. The story goes on to detail that Haman’s ten sons and 500 other men are killed on the first day, and 300 more the next. Eventually, 75,000 people are killed in other Persian provinces.
Thus in the context of the NAR and the Million Women rally, the call for women to look to Esther as a role model is an implied call for physical violence against perceived enemies. It is also consistent with the idea that they are living in the End Times, and the religious wars that go with it.
Eliminating demons
How the São Paulo event will be staged remains to be seen, but there are a few similarities we can virtually count on: It will be broadcast internationally on multiple platforms, and it will almost certainly feature denunciations of religious and political opponents, and the depiction of LGBTQ people as demons who must be eliminated by the army of the Lord. This incursion into a city famous for being LGBTQ friendly, is consistent with the larger NAR strategy of seeking to disrupt “demonic strongholds.”
During a February 2025 summit, two leading American apostles, John P. Kelly of Texas and Joseph Mattera of New York, met and prayed with Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of Rio de Janeiro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. He’s considered a possible candidate for president in 2026 since his father is barred from running, having been sentenced to 27 years in prison for an attempted coup in 2022. Sen. Bolsonaro has also been embroiled in controversies involving allegations of corruption and ties to paramilitary death squads, although he hasn’t yet been charged with any crimes.
Professor Garrard believes Flavio Bolsonaro may serve as a presidential proxy for his father. Former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro and another son, Eduardo, have also been considered to be possible candidates. But Eduardo Bolsonaro fled to the US ahead of criminal charges of obstruction of justice related to the prosecution of his father’s coup attempt. And Michelle Bolsonaro is now downplaying speculation about a run.
Of course, it’s possible the event won’t live up to the hype (if it’s a bust, that would be an important story too). But if a million women and men—mostly African-descended, indigenous, and mestizo people envisioning themselves as 21st century Esthers (and the men as Mordecais) turn out in São Paulo—Brazilian and global Christianity may never look, or be, the same. If this religious movement is politically harnessed in the way the Bolsonaros seem to hope it will be (which very much remains to be seen), it may add wind to the sails of authoritarian movements in Brazil, the U.S., and around the world.
Check out the articles at Religion Dispatches on which this post is based
