By now, a lot of us have probably seen PatriotTakes’ video of a gaggle of pro-Trump pastors praying in tongues as part of an event sponsored by Trump’s Faith Office. In case you missed it…
MeidasTouch and Mediaite have both fleshed out more details on what was going on there. The prayer was being led by Texas-based evangelist Sharon Bolan in the area between the West Wing and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It looks like it came after White House Faith Office senior adviser Paula White hosted a “special briefing” at the Executive Office Building last week. Indeed, one of the women in on that prayer video, Tamryn Foley of the National Faith Advisory Board—which is chaired by White—was hyping the briefing.
On the face of it, it looks like just another gathering of Trumpvangelicals. Especially since Bolan appears to be a pastor after Trump’s heart. She’s a full-on grifter who is selling a blanket supposedly carrying “the healing power of God’s word” for the low, low price of $75 (marked down from $95). But a Christian blogger watched this video and noticed something far more sinister in that video. It was chock full of buzzwords from the New Apostolic Reformation, the overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that has played an outsized role in pushing evangelical support for Trump.
When blogger Holly Pivec saw this video roll across her Twitter feed, her spidey senses went off. Pivec has blogged on the NAR for some time, and what she heard from Bolan was something a lot more unnerving than just performative prayer in the service of The Messiah, Lord Donald Trump, The Most Merciful. It was classic NAR agitprop.
Specifically, Bolan’s calls to “cancel every assignment of the enemy,” as well as declaring that “we’re taking the land” and that “heaven is being released through your people.”
As bad as this was, Bolan posted the whole thing on her Instagram feed—and it sounds even more sinister.
Bolan’s declaration that “we are taking the land” harkens to the NAR’s goal of taking over the world and putting down all who stand in their way so they can hand the world to Jesus on a platter when he returns. Her references to “heaven being released through your people” reference the NAR’s view that they can actually bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world.
Many longtime Kossacks know that I was suckered into joining an NAR-adjacent campus ministry in my college days. Looking at this is another reminder that I dodged a bullet. After all, a good number of my former friends in that outfit have gone far and fast in the network of churches of which that ministry was a part. Indeed, I wonder if I was groomed to be a leader in that group.
Almost three decades later, it still makes me shudder. The NAR is basically fascism wrapped in the cross, so it’s no surprise they’re aligning with a president who has blatantly fascist predilections. Bear this in mind when you watch this. This isn’t just another gaggle of Trumpvangelicals. It’s a rare mask-off moment.
