#Pastor Mark Driscoll

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Republican Party of Colorado has called to "burn all Pride flags" in a shocking Pride Month message to its followers.

The state's GOP recently sent out a campaign email that referred to LGBTQ+ people as "barbaric," "creeps," “degenerates,” "godless," "groomers," "predators," “radicals,” and “reprobates." The message also linked to a sermon from Pastor Mark Driscoll, which proclaimed in the video thumbnail "God hates flags," wordplay on a popular conservative slogan that uses a derogatory slur.

"The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children," the email stated, via Denver journalist Kyle Clark.

The email then referred to gender-affirming care as "barbaric medical procedures" and falsely claimed the treatment is "irreversible." While surgical procedures — which are rarely, if ever, performed on minors — are permanent, puberty blockers and many side effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are reversible.

"These degenerates want to violate our children and their innocence," the message continued.

After Clark posted the emails to social media, the official account for the Colorado GOP responded with a gif of pixelated fire and the message: "Burn all #pride flags this June."

The email is not the first viciously anti-LGBTQ+ message to appear in Colorado Republicans' inboxes — the party sent out another email just two weeks ago that called for parents in the state to take their kids out of public schools because Democrats are trying “to turn more kids trans.”

The May message referred to transgender identity as a "fetish" and "disturbing behavior which should be treated rather then [sic] encouraged." It also claimed that using a person’s pronouns does “not make any sense and causes gender confusion.”

[sutrala]

Lucifer Stole The Rainbow: Pastor Mark Driscoll Outlined True Rainbow Origins And Meaning With Great Demonstration

[hamliet]

Hazbin Hotel Has Better Theology Than Most Modern "Christian" Stories

As a Christian who was raised in a fundie cult and escaped to now have a far healthier and vital faith, I genuinely really like this show. The songs are bops. The characters are well crafted and interesting, and likable too. The art design is bizarre but appealing.

And, as a theology nerd who studied theology as part leaving said cult and also has since gotten papers published in theology, I'm actually fairly impressed by the show's handling of theology.

No, I'm not expecting the story to preach or even like, be explicitly Christian in a lot of ways. But it's taking a lot of the really beautiful aspects of Christian theology and re-contextualizing them in a way designed to provoke thought: by juxtaposing them with the antithesis of what you would think, by making demons heroes. In my opinion, this makes the beauty shine brighter.

Yeah, yeah, it's designed to be offensive and obscene in a lot of ways. Yet, it's never (thus far) mean-spirited. On the contrary, it seems to have a big, beating heart at its core that is perhaps best embodied by Charlie Morningstar, its protagonist and the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith.

Critique of the Church, with Caveats

The story works best with an interpretation that heaven isn't actually heaven or God (who has been conspicuously absent), but instead as a critique of the church. Specifically, the evangelical American church, and specifically, white evangelicals. (Same as She-Ra's premise, actually).

God's absence therefore makes sense, because while Christians do believe God is present as a living reality among us, we also can't like, see him physically now. So, God being not even mentioned in HH makes it seem more like a mortal reality rather than an immortal one. Honestly I kinda hope God doesn't appear in the story, not only because I think it could cross some lines (which is admittedly personal), but also because I don't see that the story really needs it.

Adam in particular reminds me of every "theobro" on Twitter (I'm not calling it what you want me to, El*n). Basically a dudebro coopting his supposed salvation to flex in an often misogynistic way, who doesn't realize that he has absolutely no love in him and therefore is actually a worse human being than everyone he condemns on the regular.

(Which is kind of why I'm expecting Adam to wake up in hell next season...)

Think red hats. And Mark Driscoll. And, I have a list of pastors. Sigh. They advocate for how "simple" Christianity is, except they themselves make it ridiculously complicated and don't even examine what they suppose is "simple" if it requires them to take the planks out of their own eyes. "Shallow" is a better description of what they actually preach.

But what sends people to hell or heaven anyways?

Eschatology and Atonement Theory

Hazbin Hotel combines a lot of theories, throwing not only the idea of a physical hell (albeit mixed with Dante's idea of what hell is the Inferno, but to be fair a lot of the church has adopted that idea too) but the idea of annihilation, which HH calls "extermination."

See, in Christianity, there's a lot of debate about hell. Like, since 2000 years ago. The reason is because a lot of Bible verses seem to indicate hell, but others indicate the eventual redemption and salvation of absolutely everything in the universe, so you have Christian universalism tracing itself back just as long. But, setting aside universalism, people who do believe in hell tend to fall into one of two camps:

Physical hell, aka suffering for eternity, or annihilation: the idea that souls that aren't saved end up annihilated, or snuffed from existence. HH combines both of them, wherein everyone lives in hell but then every so often heaven "exterminates" a certain number of sinners.

And then you also have Catholic purgatory, which is also adapted in HH in that... for most Christians, physical hell doesn't offer the ability to redeem yourself. Chance over, you're dead. But, Catholic Christianity, which draws on ideas of praying for the dead, has the idea that people can improve themselves or be prayed out of it and into heaven. This seems to be somewhat similar to the idea of Charlie's hotel, in that sinners can improve, redeem themselves, and rise to heaven.

And, I mean, it's already kinda worked. Sir Pentious acted out Jesus' words: Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

But anyways, the branch of theology that deals with the afterlife is eschatology. And Hazbin Hotel takes on a related form of theology as well, a type of theology I've only seen covered in stories once before (The House in Fata Morgana): atonement theory.

Atonement theory is something I remember well from my theology 101 class, as in I remember sitting with a friend and her turning to me and being like, "okay, so we know Jesus' death and resurrection give us eternal life, but we have no idea how or why?" To which the answer was "basically, yeah."

Most of the white, American evangelical church is very "penal substitutionary atonement," but the reality is that this theory has only been popular for the past few hundred years. It's also, imo, somewhat scripturally unsound. But there are a lot of other theories, and sometimes the theories overlap. Here's a fairly decent summary. (I'm in general a believer in Christus Victor.)

So how does atonement theory tie into Hazbin Hotel? Well, essentially the scene where Charlie and Vaggie are debating with Emily, Sera, Adam, Lute, and others in heaven is them going over various atonement theories and realizing that they actually know nothing at all. How does one get to heaven? How is one saved? They don't know.

Sera criticizing Emily for asking questions was also very relatable, and I feel for Sera. She's genuinely scared but the truth will set you free, Sera. John 8:32. Anyways, the point is like... the angels are an organized religion, an evangelical church, that preaches about simplicity but mistakes shallowness for simplicity and discourages depth and discovery.

Anyways, the whole crux of theological study and atonement theories is that they should promote humility. We don't know for certain on this side of the curtain. That's okay. So what do we have to guide us?

Love. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8).

Charlie is Jesus

"Why would you endanger your immortal life for these sinners?" 

Adam, the absolute worst, says the above to Charlie in the finale.

I mean... look. That's literally the premise of Christianity. That the immortal son of God comes down to earth, lives with sinners, loves us, and dies to save us. However that happens. Charlie even responds:

"They're my family!"

In other words, she loves them. Yeah, sure, they're destined for extermination, but they are going to be exterminated over her dead body.

In a lot of branches of Christianity, and even in some creeds--though I'm going to give into my pet peeves here and state that it is NOT Scriptural and relies on the faulty assumption that God is bound by time, when I think God exists outside of it--state that Jesus descended into hell after his death and took all the souls of people who were saved prior to his coming to earth to heaven. Again, I think that's small-minded at best. But, the idea that Charlie is working among them to bring them to heaven is pretty reminiscent of this idea. And I don't hate it lol.

Charlie sees worth inherent in everyone, and no matter what they've done, thinks there's a future for them. Honestly we need people like her on this earth.

Angel Dust

Angel Dust is clearly my favorite character. Bite back your shock, I know (I have a type). But his name is also a fascinating multi-layered pun.

Angel is clearly foreshadowing his endgame. Let's be real, we all know Angel is ending up as an angel. And "angeldust" is of course a name for PCP, and considering Angel's drug habits, yeah.

But, dust also has another meaning to it. See, when Adam was created in Genesis 2:7, the words in Hebrew are "apar min ha'adamah," which is translated literally as "dust of the ground." So the dust is what creates Adam, literally "ground."

In other words, I very much expect Angel Dust to end up being foiled with Adam even more so. Adam might be the first man, but Angel is the first sinner working towards redemption. And let's be real, for all Angel's flaws, he's already a better person than Adam. And if there's any hope for Adam (not that I particularly care if there is but) it'd be through realizing that he and Angel aren't actually different after all. Conversely (and not necessarily mutually exclusively), Angel might serve as a more symbolic "adam" in that he becomes the person all sinners look to for hope. Which, y'know, since "the last Adam" is also a Scriptural term for Jesus...

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45).

I fully expect Angel's arc, alongside Charlie's, to bring life and redemption for everyone around them. Maybe, maybe even the dramatic "all" of Colossians 1:20 (which means, literally, all, everything, everywhere, in the entire universe).

Closing Thoughts

But honestly, regardless of how the story ends--besides that it will presumably end happily because HH is at its core feel-good despite being profane--season one at least has got good theology. Why? Because it's digging into the questions that theology is concerned with. It's digging into the ideas of human nature, of what it means to be a good person, of what it means to redeem oneself, of affirming how precious each individual human soul is.

It doesn't offer cheap answers, and it specifically calls out the white American evangelical church for how it purports to be simple but actually just confuses people and punishes them for things they can't help, that creates more stumbling blocks than it does shine a light. And it does it in a way that is scandalous. Offensive to many religious people.

But, y'know, Jesus was pretty scandalous too.

So I really love the story so far because it emphasizes what I find so beautiful about my religion, and criticizes the parts that have also hurt me. I don't think it's remotely aiming to be a Christian allegory or anything like that, and I don't at all think anyone has to be religious to enjoy it or gain the core message of it, but I do think that it's doing a hell of a lot more good in the world message-wise than most evangelical movies of the past 30 years.

[naodesistadedeus]

Jesus Cristo desce para fazer todo trabalho para consertar as coisas entre nós e DEUS. Ele viveu a vida perfeita que deveríamos ter vivido, morreu a morte que deveríamos ter morrido e ressuscitou para dar o presente que não poderíamos merecer.

Pastor Mark Driscoll

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

The Republican Party of Colorado has called to "burn all Pride flags" in a shocking Pride Month message to its followers. The state's GOP recently sent out a campaign email that referred to LGBTQ+ people as "barbaric," "creeps," “degenerates,” "godless," "groomers," "predators," “radicals,” and “reprobates." The message also linked to a sermon from Pastor Mark Driscoll, which proclaimed in the video thumbnail "God hates flags," wordplay on a popular conservative slogan that uses a derogatory slur. "The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children," the email stated, via Denver journalist Kyle Clark.

The email then referred to gender-affirming care as "barbaric medical procedures" and falsely claimed the treatment is "irreversible." While surgical procedures — which are rarely, if ever, performed on minors — are permanent, puberty blockers and many side effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are reversible. "These degenerates want to violate our children and their innocence," the message continued. After Clark posted the emails to social media, the official account for the Colorado GOP responded with a gif fire of pixelated fire and the message: "Burn all #pride flags this June."

The Colorado Republican Party has recently ramped up its hateful attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, as its latest emailer featured a link to a sermon from right-wing extremist “pastor” Mark Driscoll attacking the LGBTQ+ community, falsely characterized gender-affirming care as “barbaric”, and posted a “burn all pride flags” message on X after KUSA reporter Kyle Clark called them out on it.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: State GOP tells people to “burn all Pride flags” during June

[campgender]

from The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities by Kate Bowler (2019)

transcript below the cut

[…] common when couples adopted an official or unofficial co-pastor model, effectively rendering themselves professionally married.

Ed and Lisa Young made national headlines for their co-authored book, Sexperiment, which found the couple in a bed on the roof of their Texas church for twenty-four live-streamed hours to chat mostly with other famous megachurch spouses about “tantalizing truths about sex as God intended.” Though Ed was temporarily treated for an eye injury sustained from the camera lights reflecting off the white bedsheets, the stunt was a rousing success.

When they challenged married couples in their twenty-five-thousand-member congregation to have sex for seven days in a row, “the guys gave us a standing ovation,” said Ed Young in his CNN interview, while Lisa chimed in that “God is the author and creator of sex.”

She sat beside her husband in a leopard-print dress, her long straight hair framing her carefully made-up face; and while she spoke a pop-up caption on the television under her read: “Married to Ed for more than 26 years. They have four children.” In advertisements, she appeared in yet another leopard-print dress, pulling her husband suggestively by the tie toward her on the couch. Sexual prowess became another bit of expected expertise in a megachurch wife’s grab bag of tricks.

There was an accepted cruelty toward famous women in ministry who failed to meet these standards. In the era of “militant feminism,” Ruth Peale begged feminists to stop warring against male exploitation and realize that the “real enemy” was their own lack of femininity. Women who didn’t want to be sexualized, she worried, might make “downright frigid” sexual partners.

Likewise, Beverly LaHaye initially felt sorry for a woman being berated by her husband for looking tired on a date, but then sympathized with the husband for not having a wife with a little more pride in herself. “What a pity to see a Christian woman who has developed her inner beauty but has done nothing to the frame she must house it in,” she fretted.

The common argument given was that men were visual creatures, which made women’s appearance a part of her wifely duties. Her beauty and her sexuality were not her own. When Ted Haggard, megachurch pastor and leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, was caught with a gay prostitute, fellow megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll publicly aired his concerns about “a wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband.”

Mark had already made headlines on his own accord for having instructed a woman in his church to give her husband a blow job as an apology for not “serving” him. There was always a woman to blame for a man who strayed.

Even the matronly Terrie Chappell, who described herself as a “meek-spirited woman of God” who serves “joyfully and faithfully” by the side of her husband, confessed her enduring wish to meet megaministry’s unrealistic standards. That perfect woman, she wrote, looks “fresh and attractive all the time. Her hair always does what she wants it to do and it’s never flat. Her fingernails are never broken.”

This ideal woman also doubled as a domestic expert who, with a submissive and cheerful spirit, “bakes everything from scratch” and always sticks to her diet. Terrie’s online ministry painted a much more realistic picture of her life as a grandmother who was never far from a prim pearl necklace and a crockpot recipe, who often helped lead an old-fashioned “Ladies Ministry” with classes called “Kindred Hearts,” “Ladies of Today,” and “H.O.M.E.” (Helping Our Mothers Excel). Her book, covered in images of cupcakes, lingered on the trials of putting up floral wallpaper and learning to be patient.

In 2017, the average megachurch wife was around Terrie’s age, wrestling with approaching retirement, and lightly out of step with American culture. She was hardly the sexpot that dominated the marketing of the women in the highest rungs of megaministry, strutting across the mainstage, but audiences still seemed to want her to try.

[meandmybigmouth]

'Jezebel spirit': Pastor kicked off stage at Christian conference in Missouri

Aguest pastor was kicked off the stage at a Christian conference over the weekend after he criticized a sword-swallowing act and called transgender people demons.

"The Jezebel spirit opened our event," Mark Driscoll, founder and former pastor of the Mars Hill Church, said at the Stronger Men's Conference in Springfield, Missouri.

The conference, an annual event hosted by the James River Church, "exists to inspire and equip men to live out God’s vision for manhood to be the husbands, fathers, and leaders God has called them to be," according to a news release. It was held at the Great Southern Bank Arena on April 12 and 13.

All white! and All Asshole's!.

And they all want to carry it on!

[itsyourchoicedevotionals]

Living Water

“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.” John 19:28KJV

2018 We traveled to Luke AFB to visit our grandson, receiving training there. He invited us to go to church with him in Scottsdale AZ.

Mark Driscoll pastored Mars Hill Church, Seattle with 14,000 attendees. Leaving Mars Hill at God’s direction he studied a few years in Rome and Jerusalem. He returned stateside founding a church in Scottsdale. We attended his Good Friday funeral service there.

During Driscoll’s studies a guide took him through the ancient Roman toilets/latrines. A long rock shelf with various holes were the toilets used for toileting. Under the shelf was the collection area. What was behind the shelf brought questions from Driscoll. Answer— slaves stood in the trench behind the shelf. A wall separated them with an opening about a foot wide on the side facing the toilet holes. Slaves took a stick with a rough sponge on the end. They dipped the sponge in vinegar and wiped the backsides of each user. These exact same sponges and a small stick was a part of every Roman soldier’s gear.

Golgotha, the place of Christ’s crucifixion, was the scene of Roman soldier’s doing the dirty work for Pontus Pilate. They suspended the beaten, partially skinless and muscleless man, Jesus Christ about a foot higher than their height, upon that cross, low enough for people to spit upon Jesus and rail at Him, while He looked closely upon His tormentors. (This information Driscoll learned in his Rome and Jerusalem studies.) That cross, at just the right height to be reached with a small stick with the germ-laden, fecal-covered sponge dipped in vinegar.

There was a slight variation of the vinegar used. Matthew 27:34NLT said, “wine mixed with bitter gall, but when He had tasted it, He refused to drink it.” It was enough that Christ was defiled by the taste upon His lips. He refused any comfort from the “bitter gall,” a substance similar to today’s pain killer.

“If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10NIV Jesus told the woman at the well. The source of all life-giving water suffered such defilement for you and I. He could’ve drawn from His well of living water, instead of crying “I thirst.”

When Christ had called for the final defilement of the sponge, the moment He cried out “I thirst” Driscoll explained, Jesus did this for everyone who had been violated sexually, and abased beyond measure. I found myself totally wrecked, a sobbing mess. My Savior had taken into Himself this final defilement for you and me. Not because He had to, but because He wanted to take our defilement on our behalf.

The thought occurred to me, Jesus also did this for us to learn to “thirst” for His life-giving water. John 7:38NIV, Jesus said: “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Life deals everyone very harsh blows. In those harsh situations, we have choices to make. We can become bitter or better. The pain and agony can take us into bitter unforgiveness, anger, hatred, a desire for revenge, when we don’t guard our hearts and minds. Or better when we thirst for Christ’s living water. Those harsh circumstances are to create an insatiable thirst for Christ, making our hearts stalwart and worthy of the name, Christ-ian. We’re being molded into His image, “…with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…” 2Corinthians 3:18ESV.

Will we thirst for Him, and then pour out the life giving water on others? It’s your choice. You choose.

LET’S PRAY: LORD God, we thirst. Give us You living water in the name of Jesus Christ I pray.

by Debbie Veilleux Copyright 2024 You have my permission to reblog this devotional for others. Please keep my name with this devotional, as author. Thank you.

[fundieshaderoom]

Mark Driscoll calls out pastor John Lindell for allowing a male stripper to do a demonstration

Find video here on fundie snark

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Pastor Mark Driscoll has been booted off a church conference stage after calling out the event’s opening act for featuring a “strip-show-like” performance.

The incident occurred last week at the Stronger Men’s Conference, hosted by James River Church in Springfield, Missouri, where Driscoll was set to preach on, “How to be an Elijah and how to deal with Ahab and Jezebel.”

As he took to the stage, Driscoll explained that his voice was hoarse because he had been up all night, burdened and praying for the conference attendees....

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A gay Republican politician in Colorado was apparently shocked by a recent email sent out by state party head Dave Williams, which called LGBTQ+ people “evil” and “woke creeps,” Westword reports. Now the gay conservative is rejecting any endorsements from the state GOP following this incident.

Valdamar Archuleta, president of LGBTQ+ conservative group Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado and current candidate for the state’s First Congressional District, said, “It’s alienating a large group of people within the party. Not just LGBT people, but our friends, our allies, our families. This was a massive mistake. We need to work on unifying the party and growing the party, not isolating people with divisive messages like this.”

Archuleta said on X how he rejects the Colorado GOP endorsement following this email and posted a three-minute long video where he called the state GOP email “troubling” and said he has asked to be removed from their list of endorsees.

Archuleta himself, though, has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. He previously blamed LGBTQ+ individuals for the Club Q shooting and said that queer people are “groomers” – or child sex abusers – a negative stereotype that has been used to justify hatred and discrimination.

“If you’re really upset about being called a #groomer maybe you should step back and reevaluate your activity around children,” Archuleta wrote on Facebook just a week after the mass shooting. “At the very least for appearances sake.”

“The biggest threat to increasing violence towards the LGBT community are LBGT Activists and Organizations who make LGBT people look insane, unreasonable, and menacing,” he wrote several weeks later. “We will face more hate in the future directly due to these activists and organizations.”

Now, though, he’s saying that the state GOP went too far.

“That email was blatantly hateful,” he says now. “There’s really no condoning it in any way. We need new leadership, and we need to start looking for new leadership now.”

While Archuleta is shocked by the email – which had the subject “God Hates Pride” – this isn’t even the first time that the state party used this kind of rhetoric. Williams sent out a similar email last year that characterized the community as demons and degenerates, a word associated with the Third Reich. In 2020, he tried to push for a bill that would ban marriage equality in the state.

“We make no apologies for saying God hates Pride or Pride flags, as it’s an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority,” Williams said.

“Messages of hate, bigotry, and government control over people’s lives are not Republican or Christian,” Republican Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon said.

“Colorado Republicans who care about public safety, property taxes, reducing homelessness, and supporting the constitution have kids, grandkids, friends, neighbors, or they themselves are part of the LGBTQ+ community. How do messages of hate serve them and our communities?”

Laydon concludes, “If you want to support kids, quit telling them that they’re worthless for how God created them and encouraging them to kill themselves. Thanks, Dave Williams, for the reminder to actually study God’s incredible love for all people and for Coloradans, especially Republicans, to get huge Pride flags.”

The email continues by parroting the infamous “groomer” line, alleging that queer people want to hurt children. This has been widely debunked.

It concludes by sharing a video with a thumbnail saying “God Hates Flags” – a name riffing on the infamous Westboro Baptist Church slogan “God Hates Fags.” The video consists of Pastor Mark Driscoll saying that the pride flag represents “the demonic realm” and “human indecency.”

It is unknown what demonic realm he is referring to.

The party doubled down on social media, making a post on X where they call for all Pride flags to be burned.

They have also retweeted several other posts that call the LGBTQ+ community abominations and demonic.

The state GOP made headlines last month after telling constituents to take their kids out of public schools lest they be turned transgender.

The X account shared several posts from hate influencer Chaya Raichik, who goes by “Libs of TikTok” online. Her posts have resulted in death threats sent to LGBTQ+ individuals and bomb threats sent to schools across the country.

[protestantposting]

Two excellent podcasts on the modern western church. The first is a Christian perspective and the second is a former Christian perspective but both don't shy away from the trenches nor negate the good in the midst of problematic and weird church movements.

1. The rise and fall of Mars Hill

The 1st on evangelicalism, mega churches, and when a church is a cult of personality. Specifically focusing on Mars Hill and the pastor/demagogue Mark Driscoll. If you were evangelical in the 90s Mars Hill was cool and successful until... it wasn't.

2. Heaven bent

The second actually does a different deep dive each season specifically into charismatic churches and movements. Each season actually focuses on a different church/movement. The second season is particularly fascinating because it happened mid pandemic/2020 election and focuses on Bethel which had some interesting interactions with the election cycle and COVID. But the other seasons are no slouches either. They also have great audio of the weirder sounds in charismatic churches in an educational and not belittling way.

[materialistvampire]

Tbh I gotta say I feel kind of bad for Asian/Postcolonial Studies Professor Mark Driscoll for having to share a name with a sex pest megachurch pastor. Kind of sucks for him.

[thenotsolittlemisspeculiar]

Blue 💙

[ejw7]

Confira

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Payton Armstrong at MMFA:

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to address a group of extreme right-wing media “prophets” and pastors who have claimed that “demonic forces” are behind the popularity of the Harris campaign, declared that Trump is “anointed to be king,” and said that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz “go to churches that are synagogues of Satan” because they are Baptist and Lutheran. The 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting, scheduled for October 21 in North Carolina, is apparently being organized by Clay Clark, co-founder of the ReAwaken Tour, which holds events across the country that have featured QAnon influencers, pro-Trump “prophets,” Christian nationalists, and figures who have praised Hitler. Clark has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may have been replaced by a clone created by the Chinese government and that the U.S. government created or worsened Hurricane Helene through “weather manipulation.”

Clark revealed in a recent interview that Eric Trump had asked him to organize the event because “we need to get together the nonwackadoodles.” “That was the phrase Eric used, ‘nonwackadoodles,’” said Clark, “the serious faith leaders, the people that are actually committed to saving this country. And he said, ‘Clay, we need to get them together, my father needs to be able to address this community.’” He added that the event is “an invitation-only thing” and “we're vetting everybody very carefully.”

Clark claimed in an interview with Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec (who also stated during the interview that he will attend the event) that “of the faith leaders and the pastors that are committed to coming to this event — which is an invite-only, you can’t buy a ticket — so far, we have over 300 million YouTube subscribers represented in the audience, so that means we have some of the biggest, needle-moving pastors and faith leaders that are coming from all across America to hear directly from Donald J. Trump.” Although a list of attendees does not seem to be publicly available, Clark has suggested multiple pro-Trump “prophets” and outlets will be in attendance and even speaking alongside Trump. Promoting the event, Clark said that “some of America's leading pastors will be in attendance — people like Jonathan Cahn, Mark Driscoll, Robin Bullock. I mean, it's going to be incredible. Steve Shultz, ElijahStreams.” Clark also noted in a separate interview that “prophet” Amanda Grace would be in attendance.

[...] Since Donald Trump left office, he and his family and allies have increasingly engaged with and embraced extreme prophetic media, including figures who have asserted that Trump has been “anointed” by God. Clark even bragged last year that “Trump’s inner circle is embracing the prophets.” Members of Trump's “inner circle” also appeared at another event organized by Clark on October 18. The two-day event is also supposed to feature right-wing commentators who have pushed the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was a controlled or manipulated weather event.

Today, Donald Trump is set to address a cadre of far-right Christian Nationalists at the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting hosted by conspiracist dingbat and ReAwaken America Tour co-founder Clay Clark.