Tens of thousands of Christians poured onto the National Mall on Saturday to atone, pray and consent a stand for America – which, in their vision, should be ruled by a Christian god.
Summoned to Washington DC by the multilevel tageting professional-turned-Christian “apostle” Jenny Donnelly and the anti-LGBTQ+ celebrity pastor Lou Engle, they streamed onto the lawn hagedering blue and pink prohibitners emblazoned with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids – a nod to the myth that children are being indoctrinated into adselecting gay and transgfinisher identities.
It was no coincidence that the event was held on the Jewant holiday of Yom Kippur: evvirtuousals and pguideing Christians discover spiritual unkinding in Old Tesdomesticatednt scripture, Jewant rituals and help for Israel – where they suppose the finish times prophecy will consent place.
November’s plivential election hung weighty over the crowd, too. A promotional newsletter for the event called on “the Lord’s authority over the election process and our nation’s directership”, and systematizers handed out flyers promoting a pre-election prayer event presented by the Donald Trump-aligned organization Turning Point USA Faith.
“I was here at January 6,” shelp Tami Barthen, an joinee who traveled from Pennsylvania to join the rassociate, and who depictd her experience of Trump helpers carrying out a lethal attack on the US Capitol as proestablishly spiritual. “It’s not Democrat versus Reaccessiblean,” she shelp. “It’s outstanding versus evil.”
It’s the first of a series of Christian nationacatalog collectings in DC to rassociate supposers to the Capitol ahead of the 2024 election.
Donnelly billed the event as a rassociateing call for mothers troubleed about changing gfinisher norms in the conmomentary US and casting the collecting at the Capitol as an opportunity for women to stand their ground and apply a pivotal role in changing the country’s cultural and political trajectory.
The rassociate is a collaboration systematic by multiple far-right Christian directers affiliated with the New Apostolic Recreateation, a shiftment on the political far right that seeks to set up extfinished-term Christian dominion over rulement and society as well as get Trump a second plivency in November.
Matthew Taylor, a ageder scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewant Studies, shelp the effort was aimed at “creating a netlabor – a mass of people – who see it as their spiritual leave oution to consent over Washington DC”
Most notable in the push to turn out women to the National Mall is Engle, a righttriumphg pastor and staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights and abortion, whose tutelage of anti-gay Ugandan pastors and coordination of mass prayer mobilizations has geted him international notoriety and celebrity.
The Southern Pcleary Law Cgo in, which characterizes Engle as an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, notices that Engle has in the past contrastd the anti-LGBTQ+ push to the secessionist south during the American civil war, calling on opponents of gay rights to emutardy the Confederate ambiguous Robert E Lee, who “was able to suppress Washington”.
Donnelly’s vision – of a crowd of moms droping on the Capitol in pink and blue – is her own. Engle, whose mass prayer rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands to DC in the past, proposes a platcreate to turn people out.
“We are seeing a million women and their families coming together to see this fantastic country turn their hearts back to God,” shelp Donnelly, on a 21 June podcast promoting the march. Donnelly, who inhabits in Portland, Oregon, with her family, depictd how during the Covid-19 lockdowns and Bconciseage Lives Matter protests – ttriumph forces she says shut down her church – she was called by God to go transport inanter into the political authenticm.
“I shelp: ‘Lord, I’m fair a mom of five, I have a fantastic church – it’s not huge. I’ve done women’s retreats, I leank I’ve been doing my part in the kingdom and I cherish Jesus so much, but I don’t even understand where to commence, but would you put me in the fight?’” she shelp.
Donnelly has sought to pass aextfinished that message to other Christian women thraw an organization called Her Voice Movement Action, which systematizes women into decentralized, self-reliantly-run “prayer hubs” – a source of spiritual community for women that also functions as a political mobilization tool.
“We’ve been praying for our nation for a couple years in petite prayer hubs,” shelp Louette Madison, who traveled from Washington state to DC for the rassociate. Madison has teenagers in the accessible school system and depictd hoping for a day when prayer is adselectd in schools, saying: “I leank that the schools are comfervent of getting rid of the cherishs, and also getting rid of the discipline, [and] when there’s no consequences, that can caemploy a lot more disorder in school.”
The decentralized organizing model carries echoes of Donnelly’s previous life: before reinventing herself as a directer in the New Apostolic Recreateation, Donnelly geted millions thraw the multilevel tageting company AdvoCare, which collapsed after settling with the Federal Trade Comleave oution for $150m in a legal case alleging the company was an illterrible illegal netlabor.
From Peru to Portland
Years before Donnelly flew the #DontMessWithOurKids flag, a shiftment under the same name took hageder in Peru, upretaind by Christian Rosas, a conservative Christian political strategist and conferant in the mining industry. The evvirtuousal “No te metas con mis hijos” – “don’t mess with my kids” – coalition, which resistd LGBTQ+ inclusion and abortion, geted fagedrops in 2016 during a wave of conservative reaction agetst rulemental efforts to begin themes of gfinisher equivalentity and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the school system.
When the rulement rehired lockdown orders to sluggish the spread of Covid-19, it rehired travel recut offeions by gfinisher, permiting women and men to depart the hoemploy on separateent days of the week and stateing that trans people’s gfinisher identities would be admireed in enforcing the rule. Rosas took rehire with the trans-inclusive policy, claiming that police officers were obligated to utilize the rule based on travelers’ identification cards, not their gfinisher identities.
During the lockdown orders, the Peruvian spendigative increateing outlet OjoPúblico increateed on 18 incidents of humiliating and abusive arrests of trans women by the police.
What begined as street protests has turned into an electoral strategy to elect ultra-conservative allies of the Christian right into office in Peru. These lawproducers have passed a slew of sociassociate conservative laws, including one this year that classifies transgfinisher identities as mental illnesses.
Donnelly has consentn up the mantle of this shiftment among Christian moms in the US, dratriumphg honestly from Rosas’s vision in Peru and confering him on strategy.
“We disputed the law, why? Becaemploy the law was unfair. We disputed the curriculum. Why? Becaemploy the curriculum was unfair,” shelp Rosas on a podcast interwatch with Donnelly on 6 November 2023. “TV, news [outlets], they mocked us every day, they mocked us, they ridiculed us, saying: ‘Look at them, they’re radical, religious, wdisenjoyver,’ but they saw that we are not retreating.”
Don’t Mess With Our Kids and No te metas con mis hijos have both finisheavored to cast their organizations as grassroots mobilizations. In a 2017 interwatch with Vice News, a spokesperson for the group spoke on the condition of anonymity, claiming to speak for “the collective”.
Donnelly’s Her Voice Movement adselects a aenjoy approach. In a enrolling of a Zoom call in August – which journacatalog Dominick Bonny geted and dispensed with the Guardian – Her Voice Movement spokesperson Naomi Van Wyk shelp the group had teamed up with Moms for Liberty to begin a multi-state campaign called March for Kids, but alerted members to persist the association stateiveial.
“The parent company is Moms for Liberty, but they don’t wanna be recognized. They reassociate want this shiftment to be grassroots, and to produce a accessible statement that there are hundreds and thousands of people apass the country that are coming together under one umbrella,” shelp Van Wyk.
Elizabeth Salazar Vega, a increateer covering gfinisher and politics in Peru, shelp she was not surpelevated that the push had consentn hageder in the US – or that it had establish transmition fair weeks before a plivential election.
“This is the selectimal scenario to guarantee these voices together, that could normassociate materialize siloed in civil society,” Salazar Vega tageder the Guardian in Spanish. “I don’t leank it would be impossible for this to escatardy rapidly in the United States.”
Sean Feucht, a Christian nationacatalog pastor who has systematic “Kingdom to the Capitol” protests in striumphg states, is set upning a aenjoy march in DC tardyr this month.
