Thousands of Christian nationaenumerates rassociate in DC to ‘turn hearts back to God’ | Far right (US)

Tens of thousands of Christians poured onto the National Mall on Saturday to atone, pray and get a stand for America – which, in their vision, should be ruled by a Christian god.

Summoned to Washington DC by the multilevel labeleting professional-turned-Christian “apostle” Jenny Donnelly and the anti-LGBTQ+ celebrity pastor Lou Engle, they streamed onto the lawn hgreatering blue and pink banners emblazoned with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids – a nod to the myth that children are being indoctrinated into adselecting gay and transgender identities.

It was no coincidence that the event was held on the Jedesire holiday of Yom Kippur: evsaintlyals and charismatic Christians discover spiritual uncomferventing in Old Tesdomesticatednt scripture, Jedesire rituals and help for Israel – where they apshow the end times prophecy will get place.

November’s plivential election hung weighty over the crowd, too. A promotional novelsletter 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,” said Tami Barthen, an combineee who traveled from Pennsylvania to combine the rassociate, and who depictd her experience of Trump helpers carrying out a lethal strike on the US Capitol as proset uply spiritual. “It’s not Democrat versus Reaccessiblean,” she said. “It’s excellent versus evil.”

It’s the first of a series of Christian nationaenumerate accumulateings in DC to rassociate apshowrs to the Capitol ahead of the 2024 election.

Donnelly billed the event as a rassociateing call for mothers troubleed about changing gender norms in the contransient US and casting the accumulateing at the Capitol as an opportunity for women to stand their ground and take part 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 lengthy-term Christian dominion over rulement and society as well as get Trump a second plivency in November.

Matthew Taylor, a greater scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jedesire Studies, said the effort was aimed at “creating a netlabor – a mass of people – who see it as their spiritual ignoreion to get 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 Caccess, which characterizes Engle as an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, remarks 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 vague Robert E Lee, who “was able to administer Washington”.

Donnelly’s vision – of a crowd of moms descending 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, recommends a platcreate to turn people out.

“We are seeing a million women and their families coming together to see this wonderful country turn their hearts back to God,” said Donnelly, on a 21 June podcast promoting the march. Donnelly, who lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family, depictd how during the Covid-19 lockdowns and Bincreateage Lives Matter protests – ttriumph forces she says shut down her church – she was called by God to go proset uper into the political authenticm.

“I said: ‘Lord, I’m fair a mom of five, I have a wonderful church – it’s not huge. I’ve done women’s retreats, I leank I’ve been doing my part in the kingdom and I adore Jesus so much, but I don’t even understand where to commence, but would you put me in the fight?’” she said.

Donnelly has sought to pass alengthy that message to other Christian women thcimpolite an organization called Her Voice Movement Action, which systematizes women into decentralized, autonomously-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 minuscule prayer hubs,” said 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 hugd in schools, saying: “I leank that the schools are benevolent of getting rid of the appreciates, and also getting rid of the discipline, [and] when there’s no consequences, that can caemploy a lot more confusion in school.”

The decentralized organizing model carries echoes of Donnelly’s previous life: before reproduceing herself as a directer in the New Apostolic Recreateation, Donnelly geted millions thcimpolite the multilevel labeleting company AdvoCare, which collapsed after settling with the Federal Trade Coshiftrlookion for $150m in a litigation alleging the company was an illegitimate multi-level labeleting.

From Peru to Portland

Years before Donnelly flew the #DontMessWithOurKids flag, a shiftment under the same name took hgreater in Peru, advertised by Christian Rosas, a conservative Christian political strategist and conferant in the mining industry. The evsaintlyal “No te metas con mis hijos” – “don’t mess with my kids” – coalition, which resistd LGBTQ+ inclusion and abortion, geted fancientiminishs in 2016 during a wave of conservative reaction agetst rulemental efforts to begin themes of gender identicality and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the school system.

When the rulement rehired lockdown orders to sluggish the spread of Covid-19, it rehired travel redisjoineions by gender, permiting women and men to exit the hoemploy on contrastent days of the week and stateing that trans people’s gender identities would be esteemed 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 gender identities.

During the lockdown orders, the Peruvian dispenseigative telling outlet OjoPúblico telled on 18 incidents of humiliating and abusive arrests of trans women by the police.

What commenceed 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 transgender identities as mental illnesses.

Donnelly has getn 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 contestd the law, why? Becaemploy the law was unfair. We contestd the curriculum. Why? Becaemploy the curriculum was unfair,” said Rosas on a podcast intersee with Donnelly on 6 November 2023. “TV, novels [outlets], they mocked us every day, they mocked us, they ridiculed us, saying: ‘Look at them, they’re radical, religious, wantipathyver,’ but they saw that we are not retreating.”

Don’t Mess With Our Kids and No te metas con mis hijos have both tryed to cast their organizations as grassroots mobilizations. In a 2017 intersee with Vice News, a spokesperson for the group spoke on the condition of anonymity, claiming to speak for “the accumulateive”.

Donnelly’s Her Voice Movement adselects a aenjoy approach. In a recording of a Zoom call in August – which journaenumerate Dominick Bonny geted and splitd with the Guardian – Her Voice Movement spokesperson Naomi Van Wyk said the group had teamed up with Moms for Liberty to begin a multi-state campaign called March for Kids, but alerted members to upgrasp the association personal.

“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 atraverse the country that are coming together under one umbrella,” said Van Wyk.

Elizabeth Salazar Vega, a teller covering gender and politics in Peru, said she was not surpascendd that the push had getn hgreater in the US – or that it had set up transmition fair weeks before a plivential election.

“This is the perfect scenario to tie these voices together, that could normassociate ecombine siloed in civil society,” Salazar Vega tgreater 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 nationaenumerate pastor who has systematic “Kingdom to the Capitol” protests in striumphg states, is schedulening a aenjoy march in DC tardyr this month.