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| Photo Credit: AP. |
BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) — By the time the red, white and blue-colored microphone had been switched off, the crowd of 3,000 had listened to hours of invective and grievance.
“We’re under
warfare,” one speaker told them. Another said she would “take a bullet for my
nation,” while a third insisted, “They hate you because they hate Jesus.”
Attendees were told now is the time to “put on the whole armor of God.” Then
retired three-star Army general Michael Flynn, the tour’s biggest draw, invited
people to be baptized.
Scores of
people walked out of the speakers’ tent to three large metal tubs filled with
water. While praise music played in the background, one conference-goer after
another stepped in. Pastors then lowered them under the surface, welcoming them
into their movement in the name of Jesus Christ. One woman wore a T-shirt that
read “Army of God.”
Flynn warned
the crowd that they were in the midst of a “spiritual war” and a “political
war” and urged people to get involved.
ReAwaken
America was launched by Flynn, a former White House national security adviser,
and Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark a few months after the Jan. 6 insurrection
at the U.S. Capitol failed to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential
election. Attendees and speakers still insist — against all evidence and dozens
of court rulings — that Donald Trump rightfully won.
Since early
last year, the ReAwaken America Tour has carried its message of a country under
siege to tens of thousands of people in 15 cities and towns. The tour serves as
a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist
movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in
power and influence inside the Republican Party.
People cheer
and applaud in the main tent during the ReAwaken America Tour at Cornerstone
Church in Batavia, N.Y., Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. The volatile combination of
politics, Christianity and conspiracy theory pushed at the ReAwaken tour has
raised worries that attendees or the thousands of people who watch online could
come away with the idea that political violence is OK or even necessary as a
way to protect the country from sinister forces. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
People cheer
and applaud in the main tent during the ReAwaken America Tour at Cornerstone
Church in Batavia, N.Y., Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
In the
version of America laid out at the ReAwaken tour, Christianity should be at the
center of American life and institutions. Instead, it’s under attack, and
attendees need to fight to restore the nation’s Christian roots. It’s a message
repeated over and over at ReAwaken — one that upends the constitutional ideal
of a pluralist democracy. But it’s a message that is taking hold.
A poll by
the University of Maryland conducted in May found that 61% of Republicans
support declaring the U.S. to be a Christian nation.
“Christian nationalism, really undermines and
attacks foundational values in American democracy. And that is a promise of
religious freedoms for all,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the
Baptist Joint Committee, which advocates for religious freedom.
She said the
ReAwaken cause is “a partisan political cause, and the cause here is to spread
misinformation, to perpetuate the big lie and to have a different result next
time in the next election.”
This story
is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and the PBS
series “Frontline” that includes the upcoming documentary “Michael Flynn’s Holy
War,” premiering Oct. 18 on PBS and online.
ReAwaken
acts as a petri dish for Christian nationalism and pushes the idea that there’s
a battle underway between good and evil forces. Those who are considered evil
include government officials and Democrats.
It’s “a pep
rally on spiritual steroids” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at
Calvin University in Michigan, who studies evangelicalism.
ReAwaken
often appears in churches with speakers addressing attendees from the pulpit.
The Batavia show was staged on the grounds of a church, after faith and
community leaders in nearby Rochester told organizers they weren’t welcome.
Inside a
revival tent set up outside, people sat in white folding chairs packed so
tightly the rows between were nearly impassable. From the stage, speakers
stirred up fear and hatred. Immigrants are rushing over the border “to take
your place,” one said. Homosexuals and pedophiles are classified in the same
category: sinful people who don’t honor God. Life-saving vaccines are creating
“a damn genocide.” “The enemy wants to muzzle you,” another speaker warned. “He
wants to shut your mouth.”
Clark, the
Tour’s principal organizer and emcee, opened the Batavia show bellowing: “Good
morning, New York! And good morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James!”
The greeting was a reference to a letter James’ sent to Flynn and Clark warning
them against violent or unlawful conduct.
Scenes from
the ReAwaken America Tour in Batavia, N.Y. (AP Video/Carolyn Kaster)
“I want you
to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly,”
he said. “At this Reawaken America Tour, Jesus is King (and) President Donald
J. Trump is our president.”
The AP and
Frontline bought tickets for the Batavia event after Clark invited “Frontline”
to attend one of the tour’s shows. Reporters spent two days listening to
speakers and observing the events from inside. On the second day, security
escorted a “Frontline” reporter from the grounds because, he was told, Flynn
believed he intended to cover the event unfavorably. When an AP reporter began
interviewing people attending the event at the end of the second day, she was
also reported to security.
While
smaller in scale, the ReAwaken shows are similar in tone to the rallies Trump
holds. Grievance and contempt for government institutions are regular themes.
ReAwaken speakers have included Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., Trump confidant
Roger Stone, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has spread anti-vaccine
misinformation.
For a tour
stop scheduled later this month in Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial
nominee Doug Mastriano is listed as a speaker.
In Batavia,
Greg Locke, a Tennessee pastor, and Eric Trump declared in back-to-back remarks
that the FBI’s court-authorized search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida
for classified records showed how the U.S. government has been weaponized
against its citizens.
“Third world
Gestapo stuff,” said Eric Trump. After he finished speaking, a group gathered
to pray over him.
Other
speakers promoted bizarre theories. One claimed President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated in 1963 because he threatened to expose a plot to enslave every
man, woman and child in the U.S. Another said a Hebrew prophet foretold 2,500
years ago the exact date the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade,
taking away the constitutional right to abortion.
There were
frequent personal attacks on Democrats, with no remark apparently off limits.
Clark questioned the gender of former first lady Michelle Obama. Locke called
Democrats “baby-butchering mongrels.”
The volatile
combination of politics, Christianity and conspiracy theory pushed at the
ReAwaken tour could eventually tip into political violence, several political
and religious scholars told AP.
Samuel
Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma, has done numerous surveys
measuring Christian nationalist ideology. In an August 2021 survey, about half
of white Americans who most strongly identified with Christian nationalism said
they believe things are getting so bad that “real patriots” may have to resort
to violence.
“I think all
of us believe that America is on the verge of ending,” Clark told AP.
Flynn is a
constant presence at ReAwaken America events. He is painted as a martyr on the
far right __ the retired general who paid a price for working for Trump. That
status has made him the Tour’s star attraction. Offstage, people flock to Flynn
to take photos, trade trinkets or tell him how much it means to them that he is
there. He hops onstage frequently to speak or even bang a gong to welcome Eric Trump.
An
AP/Frontline investigation published last month reported that Flynn has used
public appearances to energize voters, political endorsements to build
alliances, and a network of nonprofit groups — one of which has projected
spending $50 million — to advance his movement.
The irony of
Flynn’s aura as a populist warrior is glaring. He was the ultimate Washington
insider before being fired by Trump in February 2017 for lying about contacts
he had with Russians. Now, Flynn leads a crusade against the same government
establishment that employed him for years and which gave him access to many of
its deepest secrets.
“So now,
he’s a spiritual general,” said Anthea Butler, a scholar of American religion
and politics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Butler said
that the way Flynn and ReAwaken join Christian nationalism to the idea of
spiritual warfare is dangerous because it suggests there are “demonic” people
in government, and Christians need to act to save the country. “If people are
talking about spiritual warfare and are talking about taking up arms and stuff,
then I think you should be very worried,” she said. Flynn’s battlefield
experience, she added, enhances his credibility.
Who exactly
the United States needs to be saved from is displayed on a huge monitor on the
ReAwaken America stage. The show’s villains include former President Barack
Obama and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, but the principal foe at the center
of the monitor is less familiar. He’s an 84-year-old German economist and
engineer named Klaus Schwab, who heads the World Economic Forum, a global think
tank in Switzerland, that holds an annual gathering of the world’s business and
political elites in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss ways of building a better
future.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Schwab unveiled an initiative called The Great Reset that
envisioned sweeping changes to how societies and economies work. Even though
Schwab and The World Economic Forum have no policymaking power, ReAwaken
America participants see his plan, which spoke of “greater government
interference” and a “green economy,” as an assault on America’s foundations.
The other
side of the giant monitor has photos of ReAwaken heroes: regulars including
Flynn, Locke, MyPillow CEO and 2020 election denier Mike Lindell, and three
doctors who became famous for their anti-vaccine views.
Katherine
Stewart, author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of
Religious Nationalism,” attended a March 2022 ReAwaken America show at a church
in San Marcos, California. She said it was like entering a “parallel messaging
universe.”
“The leaders
of the ReAwaken America tour are really driving people into a fact-free echo
chamber,” Stewart said. “They have been persuaded and manipulated into
believing they’re doing what’s right for their country. But all of their good
intentions are being harnessed in service of an agenda that’s dividing our
country as never before and, frankly, leading to the potential destruction of
our democracy. “
The
politics, anger and prayer were interspersed with a good dose of commerce and
fundraising.
A
gold-colored bobblehead of former President Donald Trump and other merchandise
is displayed for sale during the ReAwaken America Tour at Cornerstone Church in
Batavia, N.Y., Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A man sits
with his feet on a doormat critical of President Joe Biden during the ReAwaken
America Tour at Cornerstone Church in Batavia, N.Y., Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Ticket
prices ran as high as $500 for VIP seating or $250 for general admission,
though tickets were only sold by phone and sales agents were eager to bargain.
An AP reporter bought two tickets to the Batavia show for less than $100. A
retiree said he paid more than $700 on admission for two — one VIP ticket for
himself plus a donation of $250 for a general admission ticket for someone who
couldn’t afford it.
Trump ally
Roger Stone asked for donations to his legal defense fund. A naturopath
promoted her organic health and beauty line. The stage backdrop even carried
ads for a company that buys and sells gold and silver and bills itself as
“General Flynn’s Gold Buyer of Choice.”
In booths
inside and outside the church, buyers could pick up a $3,300 vibrating platform
that could purportedly ease back pain and increase sexual function, a $259
blanket sold to shield the user from 5G, and a “power pendant” that supposedly
helps people absorb “the natural living frequencies to empower your body, mind
and spirit.”
Flynn’s son,
Michael Flynn, Jr., manned his father’s merchandise booth, where autographed
copies of Flynn’s 2017 book, “The Field of Fight,” sold for $60.
Du Mez, who
is writing a book on the overlap of consumerism and Christian identity, said
such events are orchestrated to extract money from participants. They are
invited to participate in the movement by pulling out their credit cards.
“The
skeptical take is this is a scam. That’s not how it feels to the people who are
giving their money,” she said. “People give it happily.”
Such events,
she said, are “identity building and sustaining,” giving people a sense of
belonging.
Speakers
affirmed the message that inside the tent, they are all part of a community.
One told attendees that they should “go ahead and take the hit” if they have to
split with their loved ones over their views. At the ReAwaken tour, they were
repeatedly assured, they are welcome and their beliefs will be validated.
Amanda
Grace, a self-described prophetic minister, told the crowd that many of their
loved ones “are still under the control of the rulers of the darkness of this
world.”
“This is
war, and you have to have a different mindset for that,” Grace said. “You pray
for your family, you pray for your friends, you love them. But you have to
understand that these rulers are after you. They’re out to destroy you and your
line, and everything you’re going to birth forth through your line for the Kingdom
of God.”
So when
Flynn and others invited the crowd to be baptized at the end of the day, scores
joined in to pray and participate.
A woman
wearing a T-shirt that read “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” said
she was being baptized for a third time because she wanted to speak in tongues,
a gift that had just been described by a ReAwaken speaker as “the artillery
bomb of the enemy.”
Past the
baptismal troughs, people were invited to a circle for prayers. Pastors laid
hands on them and cast demons out, while people wearing American flag shirts and
QAnon hats, crowded around.
“You are
free!” one pastor declared. “You are free! You are free!”
Meanwhile,
Michael Flynn, accompanied by private security guards, got into his SUV and
drove away.
Lardner
reported from Washington. Associated Press photographer Carolyn Kaster, AP news
researchers Randy Herschaft and Rhonda Shafner and “Frontline” producer Richard
Rowley contributed to this report.