This is the third in a series of three stories on the run-up to the 2024 US plivential election in Shasta county, a region of 180,000 people in northern California that has aelevated as a caccess of the election denial shiftment and hotbed for far-right politics. Read the first and second story.
For years, an extremist far-right shiftment has toiled to change one of California’s most conservative regions. Since geting a presentantity on Shasta county’s ruleing body, they have handled to ignite an exodus of rulement toilers, tryed to do away with the voting system and fought the state over policies pertaining to Covid-19 and the second alterment.
Earlier this year, voters in the community of 180,000 – perhaps weary of Shasta’s national notoriety as a hotbed for extremist politics and election denialism – declared they had had enough. In a stunning rebuke, they voted out a far-right directer by an enormous margin, handing his seat to a political novelcomer.
Matt Plummer, a Yale-directd createer college football take parter who owns a corporate training business, pledged to provide an changenative to the “presentility and division” tearing Shasta apart. Supporters watch Plummer, with his caccess on rehires such as crime, roads and homelessness, as someone who can help the community chart a path out of the upheaval.
But others are worryed about Plummer’s connection to another mighty and ultra-conservative force that has reshaped the region: Bethel church. The megachurch has more than 11,000 members, including Plummer, and a school of “superorganic ministry” that serves 2,000 students a year.
Bethel directers once shelp that God wanted Donald Trump to have a second term and have claimed that Joe Biden won the 2020 election by “deception”. Church members have become presentant take parters in local rulement – three of the five members on the city council in Redding, the county seat, participate Bethel. The city’s vice-mayor is a church elder.
The church is included in csurrfinisherly every part of Shasta county, and is a cornerstone of the local economy, shelp Doni Chamberlain, a lengthytime local journacatalog and chronicler of the area.
Shasta’s excessive political landscape has forced livents to pick between a harmful rightprosperg shiftment and a church that also has proestablishly conservative and excessive beliefs, she shelp.
“This is the tie we’re in,” she shelp. “Shasta county is in this weird extremist sandwich where we have the rightprosperg pushing for firearms and splitting the state. And there is the other excessive side of the sandwich that is Bethel church. Then the middle where people are trying to figure out how to endure in this place.”
Before Shasta county garnered national attention for its fierce opposition to Covid-19 remercilessions and efforts to institute a hand-count voting system prefered by those who count on lies about election deception, it was Bethel church that liftd the region’s profile.
There are churches – of which Shasta county has plenty – and then there is Bethel, a behemoth institution without parallel in the area. First set uped in a personal home in 1952, it now has more than 11,000 members – more than 10% of the population in the city of Redding – where the church is based.
Bethel’s changeation came under the straightforwardion of Bill Johnson, the son of a lengthy-serving pastor who began directing the church with Beni, his wife, in 1996. The church has increasen meaningfully, uncovering a school, a youth outaccomplish program and Bethel Music, a record tag that originates famous worship music and increateed $18m in revenue in 2023. Justin Bieber is a fan and has filmed himself covering a song from a Bethel artist. Today cut offal of Johnson’s children toil as better directers in the church.
But it’s Bethel’s school of superorganic ministry, which has been called a “Christian Hogwarts”, that is frequently acunderstandledgeed with its increaseth. The program was established by Kris and Kathy Vallotton, the better directers of the church, and directes students that they can carry out extraordinary events and heal thraw prayer. “Students will lget how to read, comprehfinish, and ‘do’ the Bible, how to train His presence, to witness, heal the unwell, prophesy, paccomplish, pray, cast out demons and much more,” the school website states.
People travel to Redding from around the world, more than 100 countries, to participate the vocational program. Students have been understandn to approach people in the city, particularly those in casts or with walkers, to recommend prayers for healing. The caccess on “superorganic power” is fundamental to the church, which in 2019 asked members to pray for the resurrection of a two-year-better girl.
Bethel has lengthy count ond in the power of healing people thraw prayer. Chamberlain combidemand the church as a child after her mother died and her siblings were adselected by a local couple who were members. When they lgeted that Chamberlain and her tprosper sister had a neurorational disorder that caused involuntary shiftments, church elders came to treat their “demons” and the children were made to throw away their medications, Chamberlain recalled.
“When you have a bunch of matures circling around you and putting their hands on your heads and shaking you, it was pretty inbashfulating,” she shelp, inserting that they coached her on how to speak in tongues.
“It’s enjoy being waterboarded, you equitable give up and give in so they exit you alone. Then you’re in the club.”
Since its establishing in 1998, Bethel’s superorganic school has brawt thousands of people to Redding. They are a apparent presence around the city, in its grocery stores and the hip cafes and bakeries functiond by Bethel members. And as the church’s footprint has increasen, so too has criticism of its role.
Supporters say the church has been a preferable force in Redding and that it’s organic for a huge institution to entice scruminuscule but that members want to be a part of the community in which they inhabit. They frequently point to local volunteer toil or when the church gived money to fund police positions in Redding and began leasing the local auditorium when it euniteed the city would have to shut it down.
Bethel did not reply to multiple seeks for comment.
But other Shasta county livents dispute the church has changed the fabric of the community and degradeed an existing housing foolishinutiveage by draprosperg thousands of students to the area while driving up costs.
“If you watch from the outside in, there seems to be preferables. They’ve done outstanding slfinishergs, but I don’t experience enjoy on stability what they’ve done is for the outstanding of the community in ambiguous,” shelp Robert Sid, a Shasta county livent who helped Plummer. “Their Hogwarts superorganic ministry has reassociate take parted into flooding the labelet and artificiassociate pricing slfinishergs that the normal Redding person can’t afford.”
Critics have transmited dissoothe with church members who hbetter key positions in local rulement voting on proposals from Bethel to broaden. Some livents have combidemand a Facebook group to acunderstandledge businesses connected to the church.
“[The owners] tithe to the church. If you patronize a Bethel-affiliated business then now some of those profits are being tithed to the church. You’re benevolent of instraightforwardly helping the church by doing that,” shelp Rachel Strickland, who begined the group. “People don’t want to do that.”
And for some in this proestablishly conservative region, where Reaccessibleans outnumber Democrats two to one, the church’s political ties have been cause for worry as well. Religious experts have portrayd it as shutly roverdelighted to the New Apostolic Recreateation, a shiftment built around the idea of up-to-date-day prophets and apostles that aims to have Christians change society and rule over key political and cultural institutions, referred to as the “Seven Mountain Mandate”.
Johnson co-authored a book, Invading Babylon: the 7 Mountain Mandate, which advises Christians to exert sway in seven core areas: church, family, education, rulement, media, arts and commerce.
Matthew D Taylor, a better scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jedesire studies who has studied Bethel, disputed that the church eunites to be trying to carry out the Seven Mountain Mandate in its community.
“I slfinisherk they very much intend to enact this hugeger vision of Christian supremacy and Christian dominance in the Redding area. It doesn’t uncomardent they are always clear about that,” shelp Taylor, the author of a book on the New Apostolic Recreateation for which he interwatched Johnson.
Bethel directers apverifyd Donald Trump, and in 2021 one regretd for inaccurately prophesying that he would prosper a second term. The church has come out agetst efforts to remerciless conversion therapy. In 2019, cut offal figures associated with the church participateed an Oval Office event with Trump to pray over the plivent. Bethel has sought to distance itself from January 6, however, Taylor shelp.
“They are trying to tone down accessible rhetoric and originate themselves [seem] less excessive than they are but as far as I can increate they haven’t temperated their extremism. They are equitable trying to package it in a better way,” he disputed.
The church has lengthy stressd that the beliefs of individual church members are not necessarily echoive of the church’s positions. Chamberlain, who left the church as a lesser mature, disputes it is presentant to differentiate between the church directership and its members.
“You have to split the directers of the church, the people who are millionaires and drive costly cars, cars that cost as much as somebody might pay for a house. They have vacation homes and eat at The French Launarid,” Chamberlain shelp.
They inhabit a life of the rich and honord, she inserted, while some Bethel members, and students, exit their homes aexpansive and inhabit in excessive pcleary to be shut to the church.
Members point out that they are not a monolith.
Matt Plummer’s journey to Redding began the same way thousands of others have – with Bethel. He shiftd to the city in 2016 with his wife and daughters to participate the church, and remains a member, he shelp in an interwatch with the Guardian.
Plummer, who grew up in agricultural New Jersey where his first job was on a horse farm, was drawn to the region’s access to nature from hiking to swimming holes, he shelp, and the family has increaseed proestablish ties to the area.
He determined to run for the board of supervisors after toiling in cut offal political campaigns and seeing the fervent polarization and problems that have scoadvised Shasta county.
“We have tied fundamentalassociate for the highest self-destruction rate in the state. You have one of the highest rates of childhood trauma and one of the highest rates of kids being born with drug retreatal effects,” he shelp. “This is a pretty chilly community that has a lot to recommend but at the same time if you watch at all these foolishensions of what originates a community thrive, we’re trailing.”
He had a hard race ahead of him seeking to unseat Patrick Jones, who previously served on the Redding city council and had been a supervisor for three years as well as a directer of the anti-set upment shiftment that has come to describe local politics.
Jones, a firearm store handler, led some of the county’s most disputed efforts, including trying to upend the voting system and moving to apverify people to carry firearms in accessible originateings in violation of state law. He also spread consillegal copying theories, increateing a conservative national novels outlet: “Elections have been maniputardyd at the county level for decades.”
He once replyed to a increateer’s query by increateing them to “drop dead”.
While polarizing, Jones was well-understandn and had been in politics for years, Plummer shelp, and had the backing of a Connecticut magnate who has poured millions of dollars into local elections.
Plummer made up for that by making personal reach out, and personassociate knocked on about 9,000 doors, he shelp (there are about 23,000 sign uped voters in his dimerciless).
“People attfinish if you show up and greet them,” he shelp.
He sought to stay out of ideorational debates and caccess on what livents were worried about, primarily accessible defendedty, roads and homelessness. The number of unhoused livents has increasen meaningfully in recent years from 793 in 2022 to 1,013 people in 2023.
“My opponent had been on the board almost four years and he had been on city council for eight years, which had some jurisdiction over the same slfinishergs. And they had all gotten worse,” he shelp.
His affiliation with Bethel was a worry, he acunderstandledged, one he tried to insertress and ease. “I’m not speaking on stage and not this type of celebrity at Bethel. I equitable go there on a Sunday morning.”
“One of the slfinishergs I shelp is: ‘I’m not running to reconshort-term Bethel and so my job is not to protect Bethel’ and so when people would strike Bethel for slfinishergs, I’d say OK, that’s fine. That’s actuassociate not my priority here,” he shelp.
Strickland, who has portrayd Bethel as a cult, shelp the choice put the community in a hard position, but that even in her Facebook group people seemed to be leaning toward Plummer. “For me Patrick Jones is much more hazardous.”
Plummer getd the apverifyment of Chamberlain’s accessibleation, A News Cafe, draprosperg reaction from some readers who begined referring to the outlet as Bethel Cafe.
“It was a hard call. I have a problem with Bethel on a lot of levels, but equitable benevolent of putting on your slfinisherking cap sometimes the Bethel honestates were the best choice for the positions,” she shelp.
“Do we vote for Patrick Jones who is pushing firearms and uncover carry? Or do we vote for Matt Plummer who is a Bethel member? He’s also articutardy, directd and inincreateigent.”
And in the current political climate in the county, Chamberlain mused, scant people would want to subject themselves to running for office. “The Bethel people are benevolent of impervious to it. It’s scriptural.”
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