๐๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐๐ฅ๐-๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ '๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐๐ญ๐ฌ' ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ก๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ง ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ง. ๐ ๐๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐จ๐ฅ
In addition to symbols of white supremacy, many of the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 carried signs bearing religious messages, such as โJesus Savesโ and โIn God We Trustโ while others chanted โJesus is my savior and Trump is my president.โ In a video interview, one of those who breached the Senate floor describes holding a prayer to โconsecrate it to Jesusโ soon after entering.
Many white evangelical leaders have provided religious justification and undying support for Trumpโs presidency, including his most racially incendiary rhetoric and policies. But as a scholar of religion, I argue that a particular segment of white evangelicalism that my colleague Richard Flory and I call Independent Network Charismatic, or INC, has played a unique role in providing a spiritual justification for the movement to overturn the election which resulted in the storming of the Capitol.
INC Christianity is a group of high-profile independent leaders who are detached from any formal denomination and cooperate with one another in loose networks.
๐๐ซ๐๐ฒ๐๐ซ ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐๐ฌ
In the days and hours leading up to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 the group Jericho March organized marches around the Capitol and Supreme Court building praying for God to defeat the โdark and corruptโ forces that they claimed, without evidence, had stolen the election from Godโs anointed president โ Donald Trump.
Jericho March is a loose coalition of Christian nationalists formed after the 2020 presidential election with the goal of overturning its results. Leading up to and following the Capitol violence, their website stated: โWe are proud of the American system of governance established by our Founding Fathers and we will not let globalists, socialists, and communists destroy our beautiful nation by sidestepping our laws and suppressing the will of the American people through their fraudulent and illegal activities in this election.โ This statement as well as others were removed some time after the Capitol riot.
Jericho Marchโs main activity has been organizing prayer marches around Capitol buildings around the nation after the election, imitating the โbattle of Jerichoโ in the Bible. In this biblical battle God commanded the army of his chosen people, the nation of Israel, to blow trumpets and then march around the city walls until God brought the walls down and allowed Israel to invade and conquer the city. According to the Bible, this was the first battle that the nation won in its conquest of Canaan, the โpromised landโ that it occupied afterward.
Jericho Marchโs activities culminated in a large prayer rally on Dec. 12 in Washington, D.C., that included prayer marches and speeches on the mall by convicted and pardoned former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Trump-supporting founder of MyPillow Mike Lindell and far-right Oathkeepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes.
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