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Christian Leaders Denounce ReAwaken America Tour

The group Faithful America held a press call on Thursday that served as a platform for Christian leaders to speak out against the ongoing ReAwaken America megachurch tour. The tour, hosted by Clay Clark, General Michael Flynn , Eric Trump, and other notable far-right figures was denounced as an attempt to spread Christian Nationalism through conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

The group of faith leaders was moderated by Rev. Nathan Empsall of Faithful America and included Amanda Tyler from the Baptist Joint Committee, Rev. Adam Russell Taylor from Sojourners, and Pastor Doug Pagitt from Vote Common Good.

Faithful America describes itself as the largest online community of grassroots Christians that represents every major denomination in the United States. Their broad mission is to challenge White supremacy and Christian Nationalism, reclaim Christianity from the religious right, and renew the church’s prophetic role in building a more just society.

They have found a specific target in the ReAwaken America tour, which is currently approaching its one-year mark. This tour includes stops hosted by churches in more than ten cities across the country and has promoted numerous right-wing talking points ranging from the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, and QAnon conspiracy theories. Faithful America has mobilized local leaders at multiple stops in recent months, including in Canton, Ohio, and San Diego County, California.

As the ReAwaken America Tour reaches Salem, Oregon, on April 2, 2022, Faithful America’s mobile billboard is there to protest.

“We reject General Flynn’s hijacking of the gospel for political purposes. This tour is a dangerous and immoral political event in Jesus’ name that promotes misinformation, lies, and even outright violence, and has no place in the church of God,” said Empsall.

More than 13,000 people have signed Faithful America’s  petition calling on houses of worship nationally not to host the event. Additionally, more than 20,000 people – including the presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – also signed a prior statement from BJC’s Christians Against Christian Nationalism  initiative, which denounces the underlying ideology of the tour.

BJC has also compiled a full report on the role of Christian Nationalism in the January 6 insurrection. Tyler, the executive director of BJC, defined Christian Nationalism as “a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to merge American and Christian identities.” She pointed out that the markers of this ideology tend to be mythologizing America as a “Christian nation,” exaggerating American exceptionalism, and emphasizing God’s providential hand in American history and present politics. According to Tyler, Christian Nationalism “often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy,” which fundamentally poses challenges to pluralistic democracy and religious freedom.

Taylor described the ReAwaken tour as “a dangerous form of political malpractice and of theological heresy.” He pointed out that the tour has helped fuel the more than 440 bills enacted or proposed in 49 state legislatures that attempt to enact barriers for average citizens to vote based on the Big Lie, the verifiably false notion that Trump won the 2020 election. Taylor concluded that since the majority of white evangelicals believe in the Big Lie, “the Church, in particular, has the responsibility and the power to help to resist it and overcome it.”

Pagitt pointed out that it is important to not only focus on the outrageous forms of Christian Nationalism but also on the more mundane versions. This has led these Christian leaders to design two curriculums meant for church discussion groups. The first curriculum from Sojourners is meant to specifically address politically divided congregations, while the second curriculum from Christians Against Christian Nationalism is meant to facilitate broader discussions about how to identify Christian Nationalism and respond to threats to democracy at the community level.

Faithful America is also in the midst of publicly asking Roku and Paramount (the owner of Pluto TV) to remove the far-right One America News channel from their platforms due to its spreading of dangerous misinformation. It was announced earlier this week that DirecTV, one of OAN’s largest sources of revenue, would no longer be hosting the channel on its services. This campaign has drawn the ire of some Christian right leaders, such as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Empsall distilled many of the issues discussed throughout this call by asking a striking question: “When history looks back on the American Church today, do we want to be remembered the way that Deutsche Christen is remembered or the way the current Russian Orthodox Archbishop will be remembered – standing next to authoritarianism – or do we want to follow in our brother Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s footsteps?”

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The ReAwaken America Tour Is the Start of QAnon 2.0

The conspiracy theory that has gripped the conservative movement is evolving. but into what.

You always want to cover up the Evil Apple, okay?”

The early-morning sun in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, glints off the holographic stickers the vendor hands us as we fumble to remove our cell-phone cases. “They’re telling you, ‘You’re satanic, you’re Luciferian, you’re worshiping them.’ You’re bowing down to them right there. Do you see the Evil Apple? This is where it all started, guys.”

On this weekend in May, Christopher Key, who also goes by “Vaccine Police,” wears an off-white blazer over a faded red T-shirt cut low enough to reveal two New Age crystal necklaces resting on his tan skin. Also around his neck: something that looks from a distance like a plug-in bathroom air freshener. This device, he explains, creates an invisible four-foot bubble of purified air around the wearer.

The stickers, which he says neutralize our iPhones’ harmful and enervating frequencies, are free of charge. Key’s real product is Miracle Mineral Solution: a naturopathic all-purpose remedy that he says can eliminate all your medical troubles for good if you drink enough of it. “Chlorine dioxide!” he exclaims with an enormous smile as he swirls the mixture around in a Dixie cup. “This is the most amazing product in the world. Remember when President Trump said ‘Drink bleach ’? This is it!” The customers lean forward excitedly. One takes out her pocketbook.

The ReAwaken America tour — a multicity event hosted by a man named Clay Clark and Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn — features rows of merchandise booths that sell everything from Trump playing cards to self-published apocrypha to bedazzled gun-shaped purses. But no table of any sort receives more traffic than Key’s MMS operation. As I walk past the table on the second day, I overhear a woman ask Key whether he thinks the bleach would work if mixed surreptitiously into someone’s coffee. Her husband, despite her pleading, has received the COVID-19 vaccine. She does not want him to die.

By this point, I understand her concern. Over the course of this conference, no fewer than ten people who call themselves doctors tell us the science is clear: This woman’s husband and I have both made a terrible mistake. The COVID vaccine has rewritten our DNA and sterilized us. Every shot we receive decreases our immune systems by 50 percent. Even if we somehow avoid infection, graphene nanoparticles are assembling themselves in our bronchial tubes and preparing to choke us to death. And that’s not even to mention the horrors the deep state has in store for us when it emits its 5G frequencies and triggers the release of HIV and the Marburg virus into our ruined bodies.

“This is sacrificing children to Moloch,” declares Christiane Northrup ( who despite claiming to be a doctor does not have a current medical license ) without a hint of irony. “You need to understand that this is the religion of the demonic cult that has been running the planet since the time of Genesis. And their time is up!”

If this all sounds like crackpot ravings from the very edge of society, you would be only half-right. This event may have more tinfoil per capita than a Reynolds Wrap warehouse, but it is anything but fringe. The speaker roster includes New Age healers, conspiracy podcasters, and self-declared prophets as well as trusted members of Trump’s inner circle. Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist once described as swinging “ the biggest dick in D.C .,” speaks for half an hour on defeating the deep state. The two most infamous recipients of Trump’s last-minute presidential pardons are here: Roger Stone and Flynn, considered a scoundrel and a traitor in many corners of America but a persecuted hero here. Eric Trump is also in attendance — not exactly an A-lister but a Trump nonetheless. Halfway through the conference, Clark breathlessly announces that Donald Trump Jr. just signed on for an upcoming New York stop.

None of these men holds high office, but all of them have the ear of the man who controls a Republican Party in thrall to the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Under such circumstances, what could be more useful than a movement fueled by prophecy and paranoia, ready to help a man chosen by God to fight a battle against ancient forces of darkness? Or, to translate it into the demented vocabulary of QAnon , a deep-state cabal of child-murdering pedophiliac elites?

“If justice cannot take place in the Department of Justice and in the corrupt courts, then how can justice be served?” American Media Periscope founder John Michael Chambers asks the crowd, then answers his own question. “Gitmo!” he screams. “A new courtroom for war-crime trials at Guantánamo Bay. The stolen election will be exposed and then decertified.”

The crowd is on its feet, a roar filling the theater. “Freedom!” Chambers shouts. “It’s up to each and every one of us! Where we go one …”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the crowd completes the QAnon slogan: “We go all!”

It is a rare mask-off moment for an otherwise QAnon-free gathering. Despite the presence of QAnon luminaries such as Ann Vandersteel , Gene Ho , Scott McKay , and Mel K , and despite many additional guests with a history of appearances on Q-related podcasts, the only direct QAnon reference comes from Clark as he pushes back against allegations that ReAwaken America is a QAnon event.

Clark, who has appeared on multiple QAnon-affiliated podcasts , is nonetheless correct: The thing at the heart of ReAwaken America goes beyond QAnon. Here, disparate conspiracies knit themselves into a single, smothering narrative of good against evil. New prophets have stepped into the void left by the December 20, 2020, disappearance of Q, the movement’s founder, proclaiming they would rather drink bleach than receive a lifesaving vaccine in the name of Jesus.

Welcome to QAnon 2.0.

Every 15 minutes at ReAwaken America, the audience learns of yet another catastrophic threat to God, American values, and humanity itself. COVID as a DARPA-funded bioweapon, the vaccine as a population-control measure disguised as science, masks and lockdowns as long-game oppression designed to break your spirit. Heavenly vengeance against America for aborted fetuses and the existence of trans people. The Great Reset . Cancel culture. And, of course, the stolen election.

Some speakers bring glad tidings as well. A miracle COVID cure the doctors don’t want you to know about, perhaps, or investment advice guaranteed to make you money while the world falls apart. Above all else, ReAwaken America bombards attendees with prophetic guarantees of ultimate victory.

This grab-bag approach is not an accident for the Evangelically minded elements of the tour. “I hear all the time: ‘I came to see Eric’ or ‘I came to see General Flynn,’” tour facilitator Aaron Antis said on a podcast. “They did not come to meet Jesus. And that’s what ends up happening to these people.”

Nor is it a problem for secular speakers whose theories do not align with the rest of the tour. “I will talk to literally anybody,” Jason Bermas, a producer of the 9/11 conspiracy-theory cult classic Loose Change , tells me. “I think Elon Musk is a very, very dangerous person. Where else am I going to get the chance, in front of a bunch of people that may have a positive viewpoint of that man, to be able to show that type of information and open those types of eyes?”

Mike Rothschild, a journalist and QAnon expert, agrees that cross-radicalization allows everyone on the tour to find a wider audience. It also helps QAnon undergo a metamorphosis. “I think it’s a rebranding of the movement,” Rothschild says, noting that the Q brand has outlived its usefulness. “It makes them look like they’re part of that crazy movement of people who are waiting for JFK Jr. ”

The conspiracy formerly known as QAnon has proved wildly elastic, able to absorb the far right’s many conspiracy theories into one overarching whole. “It’s really a health-freedom/stolen-election/anti-cancel-culture thing,” Rothschild says. “And everybody believes in some aspect of that conspiracy even if they don’t believe in the whole thing.”

All of this has been facilitated by Clay Clark, who is not well known outside this strange community. Within it, he seems inescapable. At one point, he appears on the screen above the stage receiving a baptism. Clark takes off his shoes, then is in the ocean. He is tipping backward, baptized, saved. He emerges from the water happy, clapping. Fade to white.

Clark is a Tulsa businessman who boasts on every website he’s ever created of his 2007 title of “State of Oklahoma Young Entrepreneur of the Year .” He has founded several ventures including a DJ service, a wedding-photography outfit, a barbershop, and a business consultancy. He has written 16 books including Do Your Job: A Look Under the Hoodie , Podcast Domination 101 , and Fear Unmasked 2.0: Killing the Spirit of Fear, Explaining the Great Reset, and Giving You an Action Plan to Save America .

Clark did not believe in God until his son, born blind, miraculously regained his sight. Even after that, Clark saw God as an entity that was far away and disinterested. “I didn’t really believe that satanic, Luciferian people actually existed. And I didn’t really believe that there was a lot of power and authority in the name of Jesus Christ,” he has said.

Now he knows better, in part because of a 2013 prophecy by Kim Clement , a singer-songwriter who some believe speaks with the voice of God. The prophecy, which Clark heard for the first time in 2020, states, “There is a man by the name of Mr. Clark, and there is also another man by the name of Donald. You are both watching me say, ‘Could it be that God is speaking to me?’ Yes, He is!”

“He has an almost messianic view of himself,” Rothschild says. “It’s all very bound up in prophetic Christianity.” God’s plan began unfolding almost immediately. Clark found himself planning a ReAwaken America rally with Flynn. What started as a one-off anti-mask event in 2021 has become a sort of conspiratorial snowball, rolling from state to state and getting bigger with each stop.

Not everyone has enjoyed the ride, though. At the bar, I meet a couple who have had an incredibly disappointing VIP experience. The tickets, at $500 each, are supposed to come with a reserved seat, a duffel bag full of merch, a backstage pass, and dinner with Flynn. But upon arriving, they discover that Clark oversold the event. They wait over an hour while staff members scramble to find them and other VIPs proper seating. The duffel bag turns out to more closely resemble a reusable grocery bag, and no one has any details about dinner with the general. Exhausted and furious, the couple plant themselves at the bar, searching for a bright side. At least her money helped the speakers afford to do the research they do, she says, until the woman on the other side of me informs her the speakers do not get paid.

Her face falls. “A thousand dollars and they’re not getting any of the money?”

The sun is beginning to set over Myrtle Beach as hundreds of the ReAwakened make their way toward the ocean for the baptism. The weather is cool, but the predicted rain has failed to emerge. I overhear several people praise God for this miracle. “He wants His people to come home,” someone says.

As the clouds above grow pinker, the pastor instructs them to form a line. The first candidate slowly wades into the surf, two volunteers guiding her to the waiting pastor, who tilts her body back and submerges her in a cresting wave. She springs up, an expression of pure joy on her face, and hugs him.

The next candidate steps forward, then the next. A massive line has formed, and the exercise begins to take on an assembly-line quality. Step up, go out into the surf, feet up, lean back. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, congratulations. Have a nice day.

Family and friends stand to one side and record their loved ones receiving the sacrament. One of them is wearing a “Trumpinator” T-shirt.

The people on this beach — and at the conference — are a fairly even mix of men and women. They skew older; when Flynn asks all the grandparents to stand up, about three-quarters of the audience does so. They are, for the most part, white, and they tend to wear the genre of clothing found in every Target and Kohl’s across America. When a speaker asks who lives nearby, approximately half raise their hands. I suspect most people here live in the same kind of place, however far away it may be. A lot of my own family members live there too.

Behind me, volunteers join prophets named Amanda Grace and Manuel Johnson in laying hands on individuals who wish to receive prayer. A woman with curly graying hair collapses to her knees beneath their arms. They hold her gently as she cries the deep and ugly sobs of someone putting down a burden she has carried far too long. “She’s okay,” the person next to me says after taking a closer look. “She’s filled with the Holy Spirit.” A more secular explanation might involve feelings of togetherness and acceptance, the human touch. Whatever it is, there seems to be a real shortage of it.

“A lot of people I talked to this morning said they’re having some problem with their families when they share the truth with them,” Clark says to the crowd early the second day. “Can anyone relate to this?” Their applause suggests many of them could. He reads them a Bible verse he finds helpful, Matthew 10:34–39:

For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

“My summary,” he tells the crowd, smiling, “is ‘Deal with it!’”

“‘I’ve been losing my friends, losing my family over all this’ — I’ve heard all that,” the QAnon “Patriot Streetfighter” Scott McKay declares as he stalks the stage a few hours later, trademark tomahawk in hand. “You too?”

The audience murmurs assent.

“Let me explain something to you. The birth canal is only the entry point; it’s not your family. Look around you: Here’s your ascendant family. This is the one that counts!”

Soon after, a pastor tells the audience Satan will work through your family members to entice you to get the vaccine.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/michael-flynn-is-recruiting-an-army-of-god-in-growing-christian-nationalist-movement

Michael Flynn is recruiting an ‘Army of God’ in growing Christian nationalist movement

BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) — By the time the red, white and blue-colored microphone had been switched off, the crowd of 3,000 had listened to hours of invective and grievance.

“We’re under warfare,” one speaker told them. Another said she would “take a bullet for my nation,” while a third insisted, “They hate you because they hate Jesus.” Attendees were told now is the time to “put on the whole armor of God.” Then retired three-star Army general Michael Flynn , the tour’s biggest draw, invited people to be baptized.

Scores of people walked out of the speakers’ tent to three large metal tubs filled with water. While praise music played in the background, one conference-goer after another stepped in. Pastors then lowered them under the surface, welcoming them into their movement in the name of Jesus Christ. One woman wore a T-shirt that read “Army of God.”

READ MORE: Former Trump adviser Michael Flynn ‘at the center’ of new movement based on conspiracies and Christian nationalism

Flynn warned the crowd that they were in the midst of a “spiritual war” and a “political war” and urged people to get involved.

ReAwaken America was launched by Flynn, a former White House national security adviser, and Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark a few months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol failed to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Attendees and speakers still insist — against all evidence and dozens of court rulings — that Donald Trump rightfully won.

Since early last year, the ReAwaken America Tour has carried its message of a country under siege to tens of thousands of people in 15 cities and towns. The tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party.

In the version of America laid out at the ReAwaken tour, Christianity should be at the center of American life and institutions. Instead, it’s under attack, and attendees need to fight to restore the nation’s Christian roots. It’s a message repeated over and over at ReAwaken — one that upends the constitutional ideal of a pluralist democracy. But it’s a message that is taking hold.

A poll by the University of Maryland conducted in May found that 61% of Republicans support declaring the U.S. to be a Christian nation.

“Christian nationalism, really undermines and attacks foundational values in American democracy. And that is a promise of religious freedoms for all,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, which advocates for religious freedom.

She said the ReAwaken cause is “a partisan political cause, and the cause here is to spread misinformation, to perpetuate the big lie and to have a different result next time in the next election.” ___ This story is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” that includes the upcoming documentary “Michael Flynn’s Holy War,” premiering Oct. 18 on PBS and online. ___ ReAwaken acts as a petri dish for Christian nationalism and pushes the idea that there’s a battle underway between good and evil forces. Those who are considered evil include government officials and Democrats.

It’s “a pep rally on spiritual steroids” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin University in Michigan, who studies evangelicalism.

ReAwaken often appears in churches with speakers addressing attendees from the pulpit. The Batavia show was staged on the grounds of a church, after faith and community leaders in nearby Rochester told organizers they weren’t welcome.

Inside a revival tent set up outside, people sat in white folding chairs packed so tightly the rows between were nearly impassable. From the stage, speakers stirred up fear and hatred. Immigrants are rushing over the border “to take your place,” one said. Homosexuals and pedophiles are classified in the same category: sinful people who don’t honor God. Life-saving vaccines are creating “a damn genocide.”

“The enemy wants to muzzle you,” another speaker warned. “He wants to shut your mouth.” Clark, the Tour’s principal organizer and emcee, opened the Batavia show bellowing: “Good morning, New York! And good morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James!” The greeting was a reference to a letter James’ sent to Flynn and Clark warning them against violent or unlawful conduct.

“I want you to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly,” he said. “At this Reawaken America Tour, Jesus is King (and) President Donald J. Trump is our president.”

The AP and Frontline bought tickets for the Batavia event after Clark invited “Frontline” to attend one of the tour’s shows. Reporters spent two days listening to speakers and observing the events from inside. On the second day, security escorted a “Frontline” reporter from the grounds because, he was told, Flynn believed he intended to cover the event unfavorably. When an AP reporter began interviewing people attending the event at the end of the second day, she was also reported to security.

While smaller in scale, the ReAwaken shows are similar in tone to the rallies Trump holds. Grievance and contempt for government institutions are regular themes. ReAwaken speakers have included Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., Trump confidant Roger Stone, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has spread anti-vaccine misinformation.

For a tour stop scheduled later this month in Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano is listed as a speaker.

In Batavia, Greg Locke, a Tennessee pastor, and Eric Trump declared in back-to-back remarks that the FBI’s court-authorized search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for classified records showed how the U.S. government has been weaponized against its citizens.

“Third world Gestapo stuff,” said Eric Trump. After he finished speaking, a group gathered to pray over him.

Other speakers promoted bizarre theories. One claimed President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 because he threatened to expose a plot to enslave every man, woman and child in the U.S. Another said a Hebrew prophet foretold 2,500 years ago the exact date the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion.

There were frequent personal attacks on Democrats, with no remark apparently off limits. Clark questioned the gender of former first lady Michelle Obama. Locke called Democrats “baby-butchering mongrels.”

The volatile combination of politics, Christianity and conspiracy theory pushed at the ReAwaken tour could eventually tip into political violence, several political and religious scholars told AP.

Samuel Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma, has done numerous surveys measuring Christian nationalist ideology. In an August 2021 survey, about half of white Americans who most strongly identified with Christian nationalism said they believe things are getting so bad that “real patriots” may have to resort to violence.

“I think all of us believe that America is on the verge of ending,” Clark told AP. ___ Flynn is a constant presence at ReAwaken America events. He is painted as a martyr on the far right __ the retired general who paid a price for working for Trump. That status has made him the Tour’s star attraction. Offstage, people flock to Flynn to take photos, trade trinkets or tell him how much it means to them that he is there. He hops onstage frequently to speak or even bang a gong to welcome Eric Trump.

An AP/Frontline investigation published last month reported that Flynn has used public appearances to energize voters, political endorsements to build alliances, and a network of nonprofit groups — one of which has projected spending $50 million — to advance his movement.

The irony of Flynn’s aura as a populist warrior is glaring. He was the ultimate Washington insider before being fired by Trump in February 2017 for lying about contacts he had with Russians. Now, Flynn leads a crusade against the same government establishment that employed him for years and which gave him access to many of its deepest secrets.

“So now, he’s a spiritual general,” said Anthea Butler, a scholar of American religion and politics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Butler said that the way Flynn and ReAwaken join Christian nationalism to the idea of spiritual warfare is dangerous because it suggests there are “demonic” people in government, and Christians need to act to save the country. “If people are talking about spiritual warfare and are talking about taking up arms and stuff, then I think you should be very worried,” she said. Flynn’s battlefield experience, she added, enhances his credibility.

Who exactly the United States needs to be saved from is displayed on a huge monitor on the ReAwaken America stage. The show’s villains include former President Barack Obama and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, but the principal foe at the center of the monitor is less familiar. He’s an 84-year-old German economist and engineer named Klaus Schwab, who heads the World Economic Forum, a global think tank in Switzerland, that holds an annual gathering of the world’s business and political elites in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss ways of building a better future.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Schwab unveiled an initiative called The Great Reset that envisioned sweeping changes to how societies and economies work. Even though Schwab and The World Economic Forum have no policymaking power, ReAwaken America participants see his plan, which spoke of “greater government interference” and a “green economy,” as an assault on America’s foundations.

The other side of the giant monitor has photos of ReAwaken heroes: regulars including Flynn, Locke, MyPillow CEO and 2020 election denier Mike Lindell, and three doctors who became famous for their anti-vaccine views.

Katherine Stewart, author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” attended a March 2022 ReAwaken America show at a church in San Marcos, California. She said it was like entering a “parallel messaging universe.”

“The leaders of the ReAwaken America tour are really driving people into a fact-free echo chamber,” Stewart said. “They have been persuaded and manipulated into believing they’re doing what’s right for their country. But all of their good intentions are being harnessed in service of an agenda that’s dividing our country as never before and, frankly, leading to the potential destruction of our democracy. ”

The politics, anger and prayer were interspersed with a good dose of commerce and fundraising.

Ticket prices ran as high as $500 for VIP seating or $250 for general admission, though tickets were only sold by phone and sales agents were eager to bargain. An AP reporter bought two tickets to the Batavia show for less than $100. A retiree said he paid more than $700 on admission for two — one VIP ticket for himself plus a donation of $250 for a general admission ticket for someone who couldn’t afford it.

Trump ally Roger Stone asked for donations to his legal defense fund. A naturopath promoted her organic health and beauty line. The stage backdrop even carried ads for a company that buys and sells gold and silver and bills itself as “General Flynn’s Gold Buyer of Choice.”

In booths inside and outside the church, buyers could pick up a $3,300 vibrating platform that could purportedly ease back pain and increase sexual function, a $259 blanket sold to shield the user from 5G, and a “power pendant” that supposedly helps people absorb “the natural living frequencies to empower your body, mind and spirit.”

Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn, Jr., manned his father’s merchandise booth, where autographed copies of Flynn’s 2017 book, “The Field of Fight,” sold for $60.

Du Mez, who is writing a book on the overlap of consumerism and Christian identity, said such events are orchestrated to extract money from participants. They are invited to participate in the movement by pulling out their credit cards.

“The skeptical take is this is a scam. That’s not how it feels to the people who are giving their money,” she said. “People give it happily.”

Such events, she said, are “identity building and sustaining,” giving people a sense of belonging.

Speakers affirmed the message that inside the tent, they are all part of a community. One told attendees that they should “go ahead and take the hit” if they have to split with their loved ones over their views. At the ReAwaken tour, they were repeatedly assured, they are welcome and their beliefs will be validated.

Amanda Grace, a self-described prophetic minister, told the crowd that many of their loved ones “are still under the control of the rulers of the darkness of this world.”

“This is war, and you have to have a different mindset for that,” Grace said. “You pray for your family, you pray for your friends, you love them. But you have to understand that these rulers are after you. They’re out to destroy you and your line, and everything you’re going to birth forth through your line for the Kingdom of God.”

So when Flynn and others invited the crowd to be baptized at the end of the day, scores joined in to pray and participate.

A woman wearing a T-shirt that read “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” said she was being baptized for a third time because she wanted to speak in tongues, a gift that had just been described by a ReAwaken speaker as “the artillery bomb of the enemy.”

Past the baptismal troughs, people were invited to a circle for prayers. Pastors laid hands on them and cast demons out, while people wearing American flag shirts and QAnon hats, crowded around.

“You are free!” one pastor declared. “You are free! You are free!”

Meanwhile, Michael Flynn, accompanied by private security guards, got into his SUV and drove away.

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At far-right roadshow, Trump is God’s ‘anointed one,’ QAnon is king, and ‘everything you believe is right’

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Between rows of portable toilets, a line of strangers waited to be baptized in an aluminum horse trough. One by one, they emerged from water heated all day by the Nevada sun, united in purpose as new soldiers for Donald Trump.

Nearby, Christian rock blared from a large tent where pastors standing before the main stage prayed and laid hands on attendees of the ReAwaken America Tour, a far-right religious roadshow now in its third year.

Helmed by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — a supporter of the former president and a key figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election — and Clay Clark, an Oklahoma entrepreneur and podcaster, the whirlwind event melds the MAGA movement, election denial, QAnon conspiracy theories and doomsday prophecy.

1. A fan raises his fist while listening to a speaker. 2. Mike Lindell, also known as the My Pillow Guy. 3. Donald Trump Jr. speaks as a booking photo of his father is displayed on a screen.

The two-day church revival held in August just outside Las Vegas featured nearly 70 speakers who preached that vaccines are poisonous and will bring about the end of the world, that a cabal of global leaders is engaged in child sex trafficking and that the 2020 election was stolen.

Through it all was an apocalyptic drumbeat that the country will be destroyed if Trump doesn’t become president again. God wants him to win in 2024, speakers proclaimed to their audience, and as Christians they have been called upon to ensure he does.

A Times series on how election misinformation spreads in America

“We know the one in charge up above, and I can tell you that I believe that he has his hand now on Donald Trump, that no weapon formed against him shall prosper,” Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, told the crowd. “God is a part of this race. I’m telling you guys this. I feel it deep down inside.”

Thousands have attended ReAwaken America on its dozens of stops across the country. Clark began the tour in 2021 to protest COVID-19 public health restrictions, and with Flynn’s help it has gained a reputation for promoting Christian nationalist beliefs alongside right-wing conspiracy theories.

On Friday, the tour is scheduled to stop for the second time this year at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami, and Clark hinted that the former president may appear. In December, the tour heads to Tulare in the Central Valley, hometown of former California Rep. Devin Nunes, a Trump supporter who now serves as chief executive of his media company.

Over the last year, the tour has become increasingly focused on reelecting Trump. In North Las Vegas, several speakers referred to him as the “rightful president.” Self-described prophets spoke of Trump as God’s “anointed one,” and presenters told the crowd that his reelection is necessary to save the country from evil.

“Just as Jesus Christ our heavenly father saved me, I am absolutely convinced that he will deliver Donald Trump and save this nation in our greatest moment of peril,” former Trump political advisor Roger Stone told the crowd.

Rhetoric on the tour can veer toward the violent, invoking deliverance and final judgment. A crowd wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps and clothing emblazoned with the American flag roared with laughter when far-right radio personality Stew Peters called for the deaths of President Biden’s son Hunter and retired White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci.

1. A woman receives a prayer while a crowd listens to a speaker. 2. People pray during the Praise and Worship service. 3. An attendee gets baptized.

“Let’s be clear. Accountability is God’s job. But it’s not solely God’s job. No, it’s our job too,” Peters said. “When [Fauci] is convicted after a short and fast but thorough trial, he will hang up from a length of thick rope until he is dead. … When [Hunter Biden] is convicted … he will get … death!”

Association with such an event would once have been career-ending in politics. But the tour features a who’s who of Trump’s inner circle, a demonstration of how valuable Trump-world views the support of the far right in the 2024 election.

In addition to Stone and Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and his partner, Kimberly Guilfoyle, spoke at the North Las Vegas conference. So did Trump lawyer Alina Habba and former Defense Department staffer Kash Patel, who sits on the board of the Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the internet platform Truth Social.

In his keynote speech, Trump Jr. issued a dire warning about the election, telling the audience that they had to get involved to counter opposition from mainstream conservatives.

“If we don’t wake up and we don’t reset, it will also be the beginning of the end of everything that we know,” he said.

As moderate Republicans have become less excited about Trump, the importance of the far right to his reelection chances has grown, said Georgetown University government professor Clyde Wilcox.

Wilcox said conspiracy theories and the extreme elements of the Christian right have been a part of the Republican Party since at least the 1990s, but no mainstream politician has embraced them as Trump has.

“Trump didn’t just jump the shark, he jumped the mosasaur,” Wilcox said. “Trump really, really increased the visibility, the outreach [of the far right]. It’s become a personality cult for many of these people.”

Trump, who is leading polling for the Republican presidential nomination by a wide margin, has talked about bringing treason charges against the free press and has had dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He routinely reposts QAnon conspiracy theorists on his social media accounts.

Why the former president has faced little repercussion for his embrace of the far-right isn’t clear, said Rita Kirk, director of the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility at Southern Methodist University.

“They’re going to vote for Trump, in Trump’s words, [even] if he shoots somebody in downtown Manhattan, right?” she said of his most ardent supporters. “It doesn’t matter. They’re going to support him. And he knows that.”

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Throughout the ReAwaken conference, two life-sized paintings hung at the back of the stage. In one, Trump was pictured at the center, an American flag over his shoulder, his sons in the background. In another, Flynn, whom organizers call “America’s general,” was pictured in full military uniform, a bald eagle flying through a lightning storm behind him.

Additional portraits of the former president were for sale at a campaign merchandise booth that stretched along the back of the ReAwaken America tent, depicting Trump ripping open his suit to display a superhero costume or as a shirtless boxer wearing a title belt.

Speakers repeatedly referenced Trump’s campaign, his multiple felony charges and the mugshot taken of him in Atlanta, where he has been indicted on conspiracy charges in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“When they arrested Trump, the Lord said something very clear to me: ‘They also arrested who? Jesus. How did that turn out for them?’” said Bo Polny, a Newport Beach-based social media personality whose YouTube channel blends discussions of gold, cryptocurrency and the Bible. He dedicated his 15 minutes on stage to alleged prophecies about Trump.

“Touch not my anointed,” he said. “It is written in the Bible.”

Flynn told the audience that the ReAwaken America Tour will hold monthly events ahead of the 2024 election, using the language of war to describe efforts supporting Trump.

“These people don’t realize what they are up against. We will never quit, we will never surrender,” he said, gesturing to a screen displaying Trump’s mugshot.

Likening the presidential campaign to a righteous battle, speakers cautioned those present that they had been victimized by a “deep state” trying to control them, their health and their families.

“We all know what’s going on right now in this country,” Lara Trump said. “It’s not about Republican versus Democrat. It is good versus evil, and the good will win — and it has to win.”

ReAwaken America allows attendees to get up close to the far-right personalities they have come to trust. Selfie lines extended the length of the tent after speeches by Flynn, Stone and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has poured millions of dollars into efforts to advance discredited assertions of fraud in the 2020 election. As each speaker was introduced, screams of joy could be heard hundreds of feet away from the main stage.

Less-known speakers and right-wing media personalities spent time mingling in the crowd, giving hugs and signing hats.

Ian Smith, who gained attention for refusing to close his New Jersey gym during the pandemic lockdown, received pats on the back after leaving the stage. Seth Keshel, a former Army captain who travels the country claiming that election fraud is rampant, listened to many of the other speakers from the audience before and after his speech on getting involved in local elections. Micki Witthoeft, the mother of rioter Ashli Babbitt of California, who was killed by police inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was repeatedly stopped by attendees as she wound her way through the crowd. She was there to raise funds for Jan. 6 insurrection defendants.

Those who attended the tour said it was a safe space for them.

Linda Hoy, 62, of Henderson, Nev., said she wanted to “just spend a couple of days with like-minded, patriotic, God-fearing, Jesus Christ-loving people and to hear from the speakers about our health and actions that we can take to save our country from communism.”

Attendees could also browse through merchandise booths in a rambling bazaar, where T-shirts, dietary supplements, water purification systems, handwritten manifestos, art and fitness equipment were available for purchase. A company called Redemption Shield vowed its products would protect users from 5G cellular frequency bands.

Dr. Stella Immanuel, a proponent of the theory — heavily criticized by public health authorities — that the drug hydroxychloroquine cures COVID-19, manned a booth selling her supplements. Children’s books about Trump and the so-called deep state written by Patel were prominently displayed. Lindell greeted buyers at the MyPillow booth after his speech, which included a plea for donations to his legal defense fund. Facing multiple defamation suits in connection with his 2020 election claims, Lindell was reported last week to owe millions of dollars to attorneys who are seeking to withdraw from those cases .

Like at other stops, the tour struggled to find a location for the event, Clark said, noting that organizers spent $600,000 erecting the air-conditioned tent in a North Las Vegas park because they were rejected by venues in Las Vegas over fears of “reputational risk.” Tickets didn’t include the event name and were instead labeled as being for the “Fresh-Roasted Coffee Fest & Expo.” Attendees were given a discounted room rate at the Trump International Hotel on the Strip.

As in church, baskets were passed to collect offerings to help organizers offset the cost of the event.

One reason the tour has struggled to find venues is the group Faithful America has petitioned local officials not to issue permits to ReAwaken America organizers and urged businesses not to rent them space.

The Rev. Nathan Empsall, a critic of Christian nationalism who serves as the executive director of the organization, said his group arranged for mobile billboards to circle the Las Vegas event.

“Christian nationalism, and in particular, white Christian nationalism, is probably the biggest threat to both American democracy and the church today,” Empsall told The Times. “And the Reawaken America Tour is one of the clearest and most blatant examples of Christian nationalism.”

Empsall argued that the tour is about power and politics, not faith, and said Christians have an obligation to denounce what Clark and Flynn are doing.

Speakers “know that by attaching themselves to the thing people hold most dear — their faith, their genuine relationship to God — maybe they can make those folks hold them equally dearly [and] get to a point that to question Trump or Flynn or Stone or the dozen pastors on stage with them is to question God, when of course that’s not true,” Empsall said.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories flowed freely at the event.

One speaker warned that a global plan was in place to merge humans with machines and control them using artificial intelligence. Another urged people not to take any vaccines or medications except for the supplements she was selling at her booth.

“The No. 1 message I can share with you is you are right. Everything you believe is right,” far-right site Gateway Pundit contributor Joe Hoft told the crowd during his speech about the state of the country.

Maria Zeee, a self-described independent journalist from Australia, said that weather modification technology was being used to take over America, and that a cabal of world leaders would make it impossible to access money or to travel without being inoculated.

“That is the plan unless we stop these Luciferian maniacs,” Zeee said. “These people want you under their control or dead. You must understand this.”

Participants gasped and whispered to one another as they heard a recording of late South African preacher Kim Clement that presenters said prophesied Trump’s presidency before he was elected in 2016.

1. Attendees pray during a worship service at the ReAwaken Tour.

“There is a man by the name of Donald,” Clement said. “God said, ‘You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation. … I will open that door that you prayed about, and when it comes time for the election you will be elected.’”

Clement’s daughter, Donné Clement Petruska, called the audience “warriors of a new millennium.”

“You are those people he saw — the remnant that God would use to wake up and save this country,” Petruska said of her father. “And so it’s not just Donald Trump. Donald Trump is at the head taking the hits, but we are behind him.”

Wilcox, the government professor, said there is an element of the religious far-right that has embraced the idea of Trump as savior even though his actions may be antithetical to their beliefs.

“If everything is falling apart, if the danger is immense, then actually we can overlook his personal flaws because sometimes God raises up a strong man to do what’s needed. I mean, it’s the theology they’re creating for themselves there,” Wilcox said.

The night before most attendees arrived, at least 100 gathered at the tent for a Pastors for Trump meeting. The ReAwaken America Tour offers discount tickets for pastors.

“Right now in this free country, the ungodly are attacking President Trump for trying to protect us,” said Pastor John Bennett, a former chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party and former congressional candidate.

Oklahoma pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who helped create Pastors for Trump, said the group has organized more than 10,000 pastors across the United States ahead of the 2024 election to mobilize evangelicals.

“If they vote their value system, my friends, I guarantee you they will vote for Donald Trump in 2024,” Lahmeyer told the crowd.

Julie Green, who calls herself a prophet, told the gathered pastors they were in both a revolutionary and civil war.

“Right now we are under the greatest attack that we’ve ever been in,” Green said. “We’re under attack not only for our nation, we’re in attack in our bodies. We’re in attack in our minds. Our enemy is going out and he’s doing everything he possibly can. He is trying to destroy each and every one of you individually.”

Like many of the speakers, Green referred to Trump as the “rightful president” as she led her audience in a prayer.

“Not only has he been attacked, but we all have been attacked,” she said.

Trump and many of his supporters cast a dark picture of the world and seek the support of religious groups, said NYU history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is an expert on fascism, authoritarianism and threats to democracies. She said both are common methods of securing allegiance by authoritarian leaders, a group that she says includes Trump.

She called the ReAwaken America Tour a “radicalization event.”

“[Authoritarian leaders] get buy-in and allies from religious institutions; it’s really important, and they’re often the most impious people,” she said. “They have to create a sense of crisis, and then they present themselves as the saviors.”

Alex Newman, who runs a far-right website, used biblical passages to claim that the deep state and major political and social institutions are in a spiritual battle with God.

“They’re gonna keep stealing elections as long as we let them, and our nation is at war,” Newman told the crowd. “Forces from the pit of hell are working to destroy our country, our families, our churches, our freedoms, our Constitution, even humanity itself. And at this point, they’re saying so pretty openly.”

As they listened to the speakers, ReAwaken participants fanned themselves with handwritten prophecy screeds claiming that the end of the world is near. Sweat trickled from their hairlines.

The air conditioning had failed in the 106-degree heat. Still, the faithful remained.

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Sarah D. Wire is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times who covered government accountability, the Justice Department and national security with a focus on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and domestic extremism. She previously covered Congress for The Times. She contributed to the team that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the San Bernardino shooting and received the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Washington Correspondence in 2020.

Wally Skalij joined the Los Angeles Times as a staff photographer in 1997.

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Untangling Disinformation

The reawaken america tour unites conservative christians and conspiracy theorists.

Former Trump political adviser Roger Stone speaks during the ReAwaken America Tour held at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., on Oct. 21. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

Former Trump political adviser Roger Stone speaks during the ReAwaken America Tour held at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., on Oct. 21.

Since early last year, some of the most prolific spreaders of conspiracy theories have been barnstorming across the country alongside a stacked cast of pro-Trump speakers, preachers and self-proclaimed prophets.

Each stop of the ReAwaken America Tour is part conservative Christian revival, part QAnon expo and part political rally. It features big name stars in the MAGA galaxy, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Trump adviser Roger Stone and former President Donald Trump's son, Eric. There are meet and greets, a buffet and, lately, baptisms and the casting out of demons.

The show was conceived in the months after former national security adviser Michael Flynn received a pardon from Trump. Flynn connected with Clay Clark, an Oklahoma man who had been hosting local, anti-lockdown gatherings during the pandemic. The two put on their first event in Tulsa in April 2021. The most recent stop in Pennsylvania Amish country was their 16th show together.

Clay Clark speaks to attendees of the ReAwaken America Tour held at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., on Oct. 21. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

"Here, we go through two days of probably the best education you're ever going to get," Flynn told the audience.

Between stage calls, "America's General," as he's known in these circles, paced through the sports complex in a suit and red, white and blue sneakers. His partner, Clark, raced on and off stage with a clipboard and the unshakeable cheerfulness of his former career as a wedding DJ, to coordinate the speaking slots of the more than 70 presenters over two days. Clark is also a podcaster who is being sued for defamation by a former executive of Dominion Voting Systems over claims that aired on his show.

Clay Clark takes notes off stage during the ReAwaken America Tour. A former wedding DJ, Clark began holding anti-lockdown protests early in the pandemic, which morphed into the tour's current incarnation. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

"I don't take any income or salary from these events and I do that because I'm not trying to get rich, I'm not trying to make it as a firebrand. I'm trying to save this nation," Clark told the crowd between acts.

$500 handbags and $3,300 exercise equipment

Plenty of money does change hands though. Dietary supplements, fluoride-free toothpaste, patriotic coffee and children's books like "The Cat In The Maga Hat" are all on sale. Bedazzled purses in the shape of a gun or the Titanic (a metaphor for the country) cost $500.

Carson Massie was selling vibrating platforms you can stand on instead of exercising. "Ten minutes on this is equal to an hour at the gym," said Massie. The units go for $3,300 each, a steal compared to other models on the market, he said. Their stand sells about 150 on an average ReAwaken day.

After his speech, Roger Stone remained near the stage to pose for pictures with attendees. On either side of him were two people holding open large, clear garbage bags who collected cash donations toward Stone's legal and medical bills.

Top: MAGA themed goods are sold. Bottom left: Gina Paeth, founder & CEO of Redemption Shield, demonstrates how her product decreases radiation from everyday electronics. Bottom right: Sandy sells MAGA themed goods. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

But not everyone was there to sell a product. Attendees get free books, including a 2-pound tome about the nation's top infectious disease doctor and presidential adviser, Anthony Fauci, and a war led by "globalists" against Trump and freedom using facemasks and COVID-19.

"I sell nothing. I refuse donations. I know what I know could save a lot of lives because there's a scripture that says, my people perish for lack of knowledge," said Everett Triplett in a crisp, white cowboy hat and bolo tie.

Everett Triplett explains his prophecies at his booth during the ReAwaken America Tour. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

His booth is covered in enlarged copies of Bible pages bearing his hand-scrawled notes and colorful highlights. Triplett believes God has shown him that a massive nuclear attack on the United States is imminent, all of which is explained in a free, glossy booklet. He said he wondered about some of the working-class attendees he sees stocking up on T-shirts and precious metals.

"Passionate people are easily talked out of their money when it comes to the things they're passionate about. They're generous. And so all these T-shirts, political stuff that has on it, the content that makes them go, whoop, whoop, whoop, they like it. They spend money," said Triplett, who admits he's bought a thing or two.

COVID, Satan, pedophiles

In the very back of Triplett's free handout were his research recommendations. The list included Alex Jones' InfoWars, a John Birch Society speech and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious, century-old antisemitic hoax. Its themes of a secret, Jewish plot for "global domination" and specifically, preying on children, all echo in the conspiracy theories of today.

This is Mark Abrahams' second time at a ReAwaken tour stop. He says he's a big fan of one of the speakers, a British QAnon personality whose videos feature fictions about COVID-19, global currency upheaval and Satanic pedophiles.

Top: Donna Miller (left) and Ruth Hillary pray during the morning musical performance Bottom: Attendees respond to a call for group prayer. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

"When you come to these places. You feel at home. You really do feel like you're in and amongst good people and that's a big difference," said Abrahams.

Outside of events like the tour, Abrahams complained that there are no civil conversations anymore, just accusations of racism and homophobia. With his next breath he started to describe the need for vigilance on a hypothetical family trip with his grandchildren and his fears that his granddaughter would be assaulted by a transgender person.

"My granddaughter goes in and I see a masculine looking woman going into that bathroom. I'm stopping them. And if that person has not completed their transformation, I will physically finish it for them," said Abrahams.

Minutes later, he invoked the Golden Rule of treating others as you'd want to be treated. Asked how he squared that with his own violent threats, Abrahams said, "I square that with the Golden Rule because, if you know right from wrong, you're not a lady. You're not a woman. You're a man," and continued sharing his thoughts on transgender people.

In reality, transgender people have been murdered at record numbers in the last two years and face disproportionally high rates of assault and other forms of abuse.

Val Boland and Francine Fosdich converse during the ReAwaken America Tour held at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 22. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

In an interview later, Clay Clark, the organizer, said he doesn't agree with anyone who "endorses violence as a means to end disagreement." But pressed about the weekend's prominent strain of anti-trans and homophobic rhetoric, and what responsibility he assumes for any messages about evil, demons and pedophiles his audience may leave with, Clark finally offered this:

"I agree with what you just said. Yeah, I think you saw it in Nazi Germany. You put a star on people and you dehumanize them," said Clark. "I also think putting a mask on someone is dehumanizing."

Last year, Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had to publicly apologize for repeatedly making the same comparison, and said the remark was " offensive ." But at the ReAwaken tour, the analogy was commonplace.

God "doesn't need an election"

Despite repeated false claims from the speakers onstage that the 2020 election was stolen, most attendees said they plan to vote in next week's midterm elections. Speakers like Flynn urged them to add poll watching and continued political organizing to their schedules. "Local action equals national impact," Flynn has said throughout the tour.

From the same stage, earlier that day, Julie Green, an ally of Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, told the audience God had spoken to her and sent a prophecy.

"These are the days for you to control the governments of this earth," said Green to huge applause.

Left: Attendees respond as Julie Green preaches. Right: Green preaches during the ReAwaken America Tour held at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., on Friday, Oct. 21. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

She continued, "God said he can take this country back in unconventional ways. He doesn't need an election to do it."

Events like ReAwaken serve as a kind of worship service, said Anthea Butler, chair of the University of Pennsylvania's religious studies department,

"There are all the elements of Christian churches, except it's not in the church. Right? So all of those things that people get sociologically from church connection, validation, affirmation, all of those things are happening in these sorts of places," said Butler.

She traced the prophecies and charismatic preaching to a movement from the 1990s called the New Apostolic Reformation. Its leaders believe there are present-day apostles and prophets fighting evil forces. Add in election denial, vaccine and anti-government conspiracism and it's a very potent mix that Butler says the Republican Party has largely embraced.

"You've always had conspiracy theories in American religion," says Butler. "There's always been people who have thought about, 'what is going to happen in the end times' or 'when is the world going to come to an end.' The real question you want to ask is, why aren't they talking about that anymore?"

Deborah from New York City poses for a photo in her "good vibes jacket" during the ReAwaken America Tour held at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., on Oct. 21. Amanda Berg for NPR hide caption

ReAwaken America Tour to mix far-right politics, religion in Batavia this weekend

At the ReAwaken America Tour’s stop in Virginia Beach last month, emcee Clay Clark opened the event by asking a raucous crowd two questions.

“Ladies and gentlemen, how many of you out there agree that Jesus is King? How many of you believe that President Donald J. Trump is the president?” he said amid chants of “U.S.A.” from the audience.

That mix of religion, politics and conspiracy theories is what Western New Yorkers can likely expect during the tour’s stop at Cornerstone Church in Batavia Friday and Saturday.

Originally scheduled to be held in Rochester, the controversial, far-right roadshow has been denounced by area activists, faith leaders and even New York’s top law enforcement official.

Critics argue the event, which spreads misinformation on COVID-19 and the 2020 election, is harmful to public health and democracy, and could even lead to racial violence. Yet local conservatives, and the pastor hosting the event, say their perspective deserves space to be heard.

What is ReAwaken America?

The ReAwaken America Tour has visited 13 cities across 11 states over the last 16 months.

It’s organized by Clark, an Oklahoma-based podcaster who’s being sued over his election claims by a former Dominion Voting executive, and Michael Flynn, the ex-Trump administration national security advisor who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russia.

WBFO reached out to Clark and his Thrive Time Show podcast for comment, but did not hear back.

The events feature both fringe figures in Trump world and more prominent ones. Trump advisor Roger Stone, MyPillow CEO and election denier Mike Lindell, and even the former president's son, Eric, are slated to speak at the Batavia stop.

The events most prominently discuss conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 and the 2020 election. The general theory pushed is that a Satanic cabal led by founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab is rigging elections, and fabricated the pandemic to force dangerous vaccines on the world population.

The tour’s marketing pits the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset,” a post-COVID economic initiative, against far-right figures’ push for a “Great Awakening” of the American public.

The theories are fairly similar to ones put forth in the ever-evolving QAnon movement, said University at Buffalo associate professor of political science professor Jacob Neiheisel.

“There's something for everyone. If your focus area is one part of the conspiracy theory, you can buy into that and then call yourself a fellow traveler or QAnon believer. You don't have to buy everything,” Neiheisel said. “It's sort of the ala carte conspiracy theory.”

Still, religion, and Christianity specifically, seem to be the most core theme of the tour. Speakers often argue the U.S. is a Christian nation.

“This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles,” said pro-Trump pastor Mark Burns during the tour’s stop in Texas last year . “This nation was founded on the fact that Jesus is the Messiah.”

Neiheisel, who studies the Christian right, said the event fits into the label of Christian nationalism, the belief that the U.S. government should take active steps to remain a Christian state.

“There might be some debate about whether that's absolutely appropriate here, but it's this merger of faith and politics,” he said.

As for how the tour makes money, ReAwaken America does not list ticket prices. Instead, its website instructs attendees to request to be contacted by a customer service representative. Attendees can then “name [their] price,” according to Clark.

The tour also sells merchandise, like t-shirts criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, and promotes Clark’s legal defense fund and “business school,” as well as Lindell’s MyPillow products.

Concern that event will cause ‘racial violence’

This weekend’s event was to be held at the Rochester Main Street Armory, until the venue backed out last month following public backlash and indie pop-rock band Japanese Breakfast canceling their September show there.

Now, Batavia-area activists, as well as faith leaders , are raising concerns about the event coming to their town.

“The ReAwaken America tour is not what represents Batavia,” said Gregory Lebens-Higgins, a member of Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America, which has been protesting against the tour.

In addition to undermining public health and democracy, the event could put religious and ethnic minorities, as well as LGBTQ people, in danger, Lebens-Higgins said. He noted that Burns, one of the tour’s speakers, has called for parents and teachers who talk to children about LGBTQ issues to be executed for treason ; Burns is not slated to speak at the Batavia event, according to the tour’s itinerary.

“We must directly acknowledge what the ReAwaken America Tour represents, which is fascism. American fascists view white, Christian, heterosexual men as the rightful owners of the country,” Lebens-Higgins said. “Those that do not meet this narrow definition of true Americans are a threat.”

New York State Attorney General Letitia James appears to share those concerns. She sent a letter to Clark and Flynn Aug. 3, warning their event could spur “racially motivated violence.” It notes speakers on the tour often allude to the Great Replacement theory that’s been linked to the May 14 racist mass shooting at a Tops Market in Buffalo .

State Civil Rights Law empowers the attorney general to investigate acts of violence and threats based on race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, the letter read, adding that any person who violates this statute can be held liable for $5,000 for each violation.

“You are therefore instructed to take all necessary steps to ensure that the event complies fully with the requirements of New York’s civil rights laws and all other applicable state and federal statutes,” James wrote. “Your cooperation in ensuring a peaceful and law-abiding event will be greatly appreciated.”

In response, Clark posted a video from Cornerstone Church Thursday saying he had reserved a front-row seat for James.

“We haven’t heard back, but we invited her and we'll see if she wants to participate,” he said.

Genesee County DSA, which was started earlier this year and has about 15 to 20 members, is planning a “teach-in” event at Batavia’s Austin Park on Saturday. The group is advising parents to exercise caution if bringing children to the event, noting “safety concerns.”

Lebens-Higgins said there are concerns the ReAwaken America event will attract white supremacists and other extremist groups, like the Proud Boys, who have a Rochester chapter . WBFO reported in June that Western New York is home to several far-right, anti-government groups on a Southern Poverty Law Center watchlist .

Read and listen to WBFO's series "Extremism in WNY."

Lebens-Higgins said ReAwaken America organizers likely chose Batavia because “it felt like a safe location.” Trump won Genesee County in 2020 with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

However, Lebens-Higgins said Batavia is diverse and has a fairly large LGBTQ population.

“We know that we will have to continue working to provide a community that accepts all the individuals that live here, and to show the surrounding communities of Buffalo and Rochester that this isn't just some backwards, rural, conservative, hateful town,” he said.

Church undeterred by criticism

Paul Doyle, pastor of Cornerstone Church, said he’s met with concerned citizens and community leaders, and done over 20 media interviews regarding the ReAwaken America event.

“And I have not found anything to validate their concerns,” he said.

Doyle said he hasn’t heard of any issues at previous ReAwaken America stops, and so will move forward with hosting under a large tent at his nondenominational church’s 20-acre property.

Doyle said he was approached by Clark shortly after the Main Street Armory pulled out of hosting the event. However, he said there will be “no exchange of money” between Cornerstone and ReAwaken America.

Cornerstone Church is a tax-exempt 501c3, under the corporate name New Hope Ministries . Tax law prohibits such churches from engaging in political campaign activity, although there’s plenty of gray area and the IRS rarely enforces it .

“Even though I'm a pastor, I'm still an American citizen, and so is my congregation,” Doyle said, “and if they want to challenge my 501c3 status, then they can do that, but I don't think it's going to happen.”

Doyle said he won’t tolerate violence or racism at the event, and that local law enforcement will be present. He added the church will have ample parking, food trucks, refreshments and restrooms.

Overall, he said he and his church support the message of ReAwaken America.

“We’re Christians, I see a lot of conservative, Christian voices. And I knew a number of them and I liked what they're doing,” he said. “I just believe their voices should be heard. I was concerned that these types of events are being canceled.”

Nancie Orticelli, the leader of one of Western New York’s anti-government groups, the Constitutional Coalition of New York State, said she is unable to attend herself, but that conservatives in the area are excited about the event.

Many of them don’t feel represented in a liberal state like New York, Orticelli said, and so the ReAwaken America event will likely galvanize them to get involved in politics.

“It gets people involved instead of just taking the abuse from the government for so long,” she said.

To Orticelli, ReAwaken America promotes “faith, family and freedom.”

“I know I'm not a white supremacist, and I believe in those things,” she said. “I would think that that is a country-wide belief in America that our faith, our family, and our freedoms are key and essential to liberty in the United States.”

ReAwaken America says it will sell 3,500 tickets for the event. As of early Friday morning, its website said tickets were still available.

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Great Awakening

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 6, 2024 | Original: March 7, 2018

The Great Awakening was a religious revival that impacted the English colonies in America during the 1730s and 1740s. The movement came at a time when the idea of secular rationalism was being emphasized, and passion for religion had grown stale. Christian leaders often traveled from town to town, preaching about the gospel, emphasizing salvation from sins and promoting enthusiasm for Christianity. The result was a renewed dedication toward religion. Many historians believe the Great Awakening had a lasting impact on various Christian denominations and American culture at large.

First Great Awakening

In the 1700s, a European philosophical movement known as the Enlightenment , or the Age of Reason, was making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the American colonies . Enlightenment thinkers emphasized a scientific and logical view of the world, while downplaying religion.

In many ways, religion was becoming more formal and less personal during this time, which led to lower church attendance. Christians were feeling complacent with their methods of worship, and some were disillusioned with how wealth and rationalism were dominating culture. Many began to crave a return to religious piety.

Around this time, the 13 colonies were religiously divided. Most of New England belonged to congregational churches.

The Middle colonies were made up of Quakers , Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, the Dutch Reformed and Congregational followers.

Southern colonies were mostly members of the Anglican Church , but there were also many Baptists, Presbyterians and Quakers.

The stage was set for a renewal of faith, and in the late 1720s, a revival began to take root as preachers altered their messages and reemphasized concepts of Calvinism. (Calvinism is a theology that was introduced by John Calvin in the 16th century that stressed the importance of scripture, faith, predestination and the grace of God.)

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Jonathan Edwards

Most historians consider Jonathan Edwards, a Northampton Anglican minister, one of the chief fathers of the Great Awakening.

Edwards’ message centered on the idea that humans were sinners, God was an angry judge and individuals needed to ask for forgiveness. He also preached justification by faith alone.

In 1741, Edwards gave an infamous and emotional sermon, entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” News of the message spread quickly throughout the colonies.

Edwards was known for his passion and energy. He generally preached in his home parish, unlike other revival preachers who traveled throughout the colonies.

Edwards is credited for inspiring hundreds of conversions, which he documented in a book, “Narratives of Surprising Conversions.”

George Whitefield

George Whitefield, a minister from Britain, had a significant impact during the Great Awakening. Whitefield toured the colonies up and down the Atlantic coast, preaching his message. In one year, Whitefield covered 5,000 miles in America and preached more than 350 times.

His style was charismatic, theatrical and expressive. Whitefield would often shout the word of God and tremble during his sermons. People gathered by the thousands to hear him speak.

Whitefield preached to common people, slaves and Native Americans . No one was out of reach. Even Benjamin Franklin , a religious skeptic, was captivated by Whitefield’s sermons, and the two became friends.

Whitefield’s success convinced English colonists to join local churches and reenergized a once-waning Christian faith.

Other Leaders

Several other pastors and Christian leaders led the charge during the Great Awakening, including David Brainard, Samuel Davies, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Gilbert Tennent and others.

Although these leaders’ backgrounds differed, their messages served the same purpose: to awaken the Christian faith and return to a religion that was relevant to the people of the day.

Basic Themes of the Great Awakening

The Great Awakening brought various philosophies, ideas and doctrines to the forefront of Christian faith.

Some of the major themes included:

• All people are born sinners
• Sin without salvation will send a person to hell
• All people can be saved if they confess their sins to God, seek forgiveness and accept God’s grace
• All people can have a direct and emotional connection with God
• Religion shouldn’t be formal and institutionalized, but rather casual and personal

Old Lights vs. New Lights

Not everyone embraced the ideas of the Great Awakening. One of the leading voices of opposition was Charles Chauncy, a minister in Boston. Chauncy was especially critical of Whitefield’s preaching and instead supported a more traditional, formal style of religion.

By about 1742, debate over the Great Awakening had split the New England clergy and many colonists into two groups.

Preachers and followers who adopted the new ideas brought forth by the Great Awakening became known as “new lights.” Those who embraced the old-fashioned, traditional church ways were called “old lights.”

Second Great Awakening

The Great Awakening came to an end sometime during the 1740s.

In the 1790s, another religious revival, which became known as the Second Great Awakening, began in New England. This movement is typically regarded as less emotionally charged than the First Great Awakening. It led to the founding of several colleges, seminaries and mission societies.

A Third Great Awakening was said to span from the late 1850s to the early 20th century. Some scholars, however, disagree that this movement was ever a significant event.

Effects of the Great Awakening

The Great Awakening notably altered the religious climate in the American colonies. Ordinary people were encouraged to make a personal connection with God, instead of relying on a minister.

Newer denominations, such as Methodists and Baptists, grew quickly. While the movement unified the colonies and boosted church growth, experts say it also caused division among those who supported it and those who rejected it.

Many historians claim that the Great Awakening influenced the Revolutionary War by encouraging the notions of nationalism and individual rights.

The revival also led to the establishment of several renowned educational institutions, including Princeton, Rutgers, Brown and Dartmouth universities.

The Great Awakening unquestionably had a significant impact on Christianity . It reinvigorated religion in America at a time when it was steadily declining and introduced ideas that would penetrate into American culture for many years to come.

The Great Awakening, UShistory.org . The First Great Awakening, National Humanities Center . The Great Awakening Timeline, Christianity.com . The Great Awakening, Khan Academy .

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Founder of Revival Ministries International since 1980, a ministry that travels 46 weeks a year holding revival meetings in cities across North America and other nations around the world

Senior pastor and founder of The River at Tampa Bay church since Dec. 1996, 3,000 members

Founded the River Bible Institute in 1997

In ministry for over 31 years, started in Southern Africa before coming to America in Dec. 1987

Rodney Howard-Browne and The Great Awakening

By the 700 club, appearance date: october 26, 2010.

CBN.com – Rodney Howard-Browne and his wife Adonica met and married in 1981. Immediately they went into full-time ministry together throughout Southern Africa. God told them to, “Stir up the churches and tell them to get ready for the coming revival.”

In 1987, the door opened for them to go to America. Miraculously, plane tickets were provided for them and their three young children. The family only had $300 and their suitcases. From 1987 to the present, they traveled across the United States and the world spreading revival. Hundreds of people were dramatically touched and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Howard-Browne continued this work across America. He felt that God was calling him to teach the body of Christ by example and how to create an atmosphere in the Church so that God would be made welcome. On December 1, 1996, he founded a church in Tampa, FL, The River at Tampa Bay, which today has 3,000 members. In 1997, he started an accredited Bible school, the River Bible Institute. The next year, God gave Howard-Browne a new vision. In 1998, God gave Howard-Browne a dream about a vast soul-winning crusade in New York City. In the summer of 1999 Revival Ministries International rented Madison Square Gardens for six weeks for the purpose of soul-winning. From that event there were more than 48,000 recorded decisions of people who made Jesus the Lord of their lives. Since that time, there were several other Gospel events where hundreds of thousands of people were saved. In 2007, the concerted effort of the Great Awakening Tour across America and other nations began and has resulted in 1.1 million individuals receiving Jesus Christ in the U.S. Revival Ministries International has trained over 31,000 believers on how to share the Gospel effectively. The global soul count is more than four million.

According to Howard-Browne, this is the future. America needs a third Great Awakening to revive it – this is the nation’s only hope and it needs to be shaken right now. Christians need to be ignited by the Holy Spirit, abide with their First Love (God), go outside of the four walls of the Church, and share the reality of the power of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the New Age and other doctrines have crept into the Church. Christians need to stay with the simple truth of the Gospel. If it is not in the Bible, don’t look at it. Howard-Browne also says Christians need to detach themselves from the earth’s system. The Kingdom of Heaven advances regardless of who is in government, no matter what the state of the economy is, etc. Christians need to operate on the pure Word of God.

In the Great Awakening Tour, the morning meetings usually consist of evangelizing on the streets and the evening meetings are Holy Spirit empowering sessions. Howard-Browne says the purpose of the power is to be a witness, as illustrated in John 7:37. People need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and use it. Howard-Browne says in South Africa and Third World countries people can accept the power of the Holy Spirit because they are more used to seeing the supernatural firsthand.

The message of the Gospel and the Great Commission should be simple. The angels brought good tidings of the Savior and Good News. We need to live this message daily and not just at Christmastime. If a child can’t grasp the Gospel message, then we as Christians have made it too complicated. We shouldn’t wait to “feel led” to share Jesus with others. Howard-Browne says that’s why sharing the Gospel is called “The Great Commission,” not “the great suggestion.”

There are many good things that have come out of the revival. Since 2001, the crime rate has gone down by more than 50 percent in Tampa. Howard-Browne says it’s because of the Holy Spirit and what God is doing through The River at Tampa Bay. They have been sharing the Gospel and reaching out to their community.

Last year, for 50 days the ministry focused on South Africa. They broadcast by satellite from Capetown, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt. People responded from all over Africa. There were testimonies of people being touched by God. Dr. Howard-Browne says this can also happen in America.

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‘I Think All the Christians Get Slaughtered’: Inside the MAGA Road Show Barnstorming America

By Sam Kestenbaum

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The cast assembles on the megachurch stage, each taking their turn in a pool of light.

There are doomsaying prophets with curved shofars, aspiring politicians lamenting election fraud, and naturopathic physicians warning of demonic invasion. Mike Lindell steps forward and says evil forces are undoing the nation. Roger Stone gives an apocalyptic homily. Michael Flynn lobs T-shirts into the pews. Scott McKay, alias Patriot Streetfighter, gyrates to the sounds of AC/DC while chopping a tomahawk in the air. In time, the Trump brothers appear and Eric puts his dad on speaker phone.

Praise music floats in the air and the crowd rocks back and forth. At one moment, a woman drops to the floor — “Hallelujah, hallelujah” — and speaks in tongues.

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In Clark’s career, he has been a regional mogul and a self-help author; he oversaw a dog training company, a barbershop chain, and a photo business. He once ran for mayor. Now, he’s tapping into a mix of pandemic conspiracies, God-and-flag patriotism, Stop the Steal fervor, and spiritual supernaturalism — and reaping the benefits. He is not precisely a flame-breathing demagogue, but he is a capitalist who has found his product: culture-war spectacle.

Clark is the most American of all archetypes: the man-on-the-make. The fixer with the Rolodex. In Yiddish, the macher . Aspirational, a bit mercenary, ultimately effective. “Get-it-done-ers” is how he refers to himself and those around him: “I like the people who are always moving.” 

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Each stop on the tour now draws protests, of varying size, and the show is sometimes booted from venues — as it was in upstate New York this summer — leaving Clark scrambling. In Virginia, a lone van sent by the liberal clergy group Faithful America, which has been organizing against the tour since early this year, putters past the location with a rented billboard denouncing the speakers. (No one from that group is in attendance, citing safety concerns.) Reached by phone, Nathan Empsall, Faithful America’s director, says, “This tour is the face of unholy Christian Nationalism and they are bringing this deadly message to many churches.”

The voices of ReAwaken’s opponents don’t make it past the parking lot. This is the sort of place where Fox News hosts are lambasted as liberal propagandists, face masks of any sort are strictly forbidden, and anyone found with one might be theatrically escorted off site. “I won’t allow you to wear one for the same reason I won’t allow people to defecate on the stage,” Clark says. 

Born in 1980 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Clark and his family moved when he was a kid to Cokato, Minnesota, a one-stoplight town an hour outside Minneapolis. In a 2010 memoir, Make Your Life Epic, Clark described his family as humble churchgoers of modest means. His role models were friends who, unlike his parents, had bravely struck out on their own. By the time Clark was in high school he was selling candies and home-printed T-shirts out of his garage. When he began DJing dances — hyping sweaty gymnasium crowds and riffing on the microphone — he found his passion at the intersection of entertainment and enterprise. “I wanted to be a millionaire by the age of 30,” he wrote.

In 1999, Clark returned to Tulsa to attend the Pentecostal college Oral Roberts University. The school had strict codes of conduct, but Clark bristled against them. He continued to DJ parties, and courted his wife-to-be Vanessa, a cheerleader studying broadcast journalism. “He was an all-in or all-out guy,” Vanessa says. They married a year after meeting.

In 2000, Clark produced and recorded a parody rap song (doing a passable Eminem over the Real Slim Shady beat) in which he described his dislike of ORU life, cursing and skewering the lavish lifestyle of the school’s then-president, Richard Roberts. Thanks to Napster, the track was a viral hit on campus. Clark was asked to apologize or leave. (ORU representatives declined to comment.) Clark says at this point he packed his bags. “School was an epic, complete waste,” he says now.

Clark then floundered for a time, finding bits of work in Tulsa. When a friend introduced him to the self-help work of Napoleon Hill , the author of the 1937 bestseller Think and Grow Rich, he felt like he found his lodestar. He re-dedicated himself to his entertainment business, DJ Connection, which he revamped into a small mobile empire. “I learned about the ‘deal wheel,’” he later wrote of this time, “the process of taking a ‘hard no’ and turning it into a ‘yes.’”

By then, his DJ company alone was bringing in more than $1 million dollars a year, largely from wedding gigs. He opened a coaching outfit where he advised business owners and took a percentage of profits. A realty group and a barbershop chain followed. Local press lauded Clark as a scrappy millennial hustler in the Mark Zuckerberg mold. In interviews, Clark would recount a daily regimen of waking each morning at 3:00 a.m. to soak in the tub for three hours, typing to-do lists for the day ahead. “I am an enemy of average,” he told an interviewer, repeating a slogan he would also stencil on his office wall. He bombed around town wearing a customized jersey, “DJ CLAY” printed on the back.

Clark came under the tutelage of a local optometrist named Robert H. Zoellner, an entrepreneur who also ran a small constellation of businesses. Together, in 2014, Zoellner and Clark launched a website, Thrive15 , which offered short how-to business videos for a monthly subscription and then an AM talk show called ThriveTime where the two swapped finance advice and irreverent banter. 

In 2020, when Covid-19 began to spread, Clark saw that his businesses stood to take a hit. Clark had always fashioned himself an autodidact and proceeded to scour the murky corners of the web looking for answers. “I just obsessively deep-dived,” Clark says.

By this time, outré theories about the virus were proliferating and Clark drank from this deep well. A network of pandemic defiers — churches refusing to close, alt-health physicians hawking treatments, politicians grandstanding about the incursions on personal liberties — was coalescing. Depictions of the pandemic as part of a scam to control the population swirled about and Clark seized the idea that the official narrative about the virus was not to be believed.

He then pivoted his media operation towards the new conspiratorial theme.

Clark started small. In August 2020, he banded together with Zoellner and other local businessmen to sue the city of Tulsa over their mask mandate. They held a press conference at Clark’s compound and, speaking to reporters, argued that face masks posed an unlawful hazard. (The suit was dismissed five months later .) He also self-published a Covid-19 book titled Fear Unmasked: Discover the Truth about the Coronavirus Shutdown and spoke with upstart outlets like One American News and Newsmax to plug the work.

Clark voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020 and traveled to the capitol to speak on Jan. 5, 2021 at the invitation of the group known as the Black Robe Regiment . With Stop the Steal flags billowing behind him, he spoke to an assembly about how Covid-19 was a fraud and the sickness was nothing to be afraid of. Clark was there on Jan. 6 to hear Trump speak, but says he did not make it to the site of the Capitol breach itself. “I don’t know what really happened there,” he says. “It seems like some bad stuff.”

Back in Tulsa, Clark had begun holding churchy town hall gatherings in his office, bringing together the local business crowd with other like-minded conservatives, like Zoellner’s friend, ORU alum and Christian rocker Sean Feucht , who had launched his own anti-lockdown music show, and local pastor Jackson Lahmeyer , who was then running in the Republican primary. It was at one of these gatherings where Clark connected with Flynn, who had been impressed after hearing him speak on a podcast with QAnon booster Ann Vandersteel . “He could tell I was a knowledgeable guy,” Clark says. The two discussed what would become the ReAwaken tour. “I said to General Flynn, ‘Hey, you know, I felt God wants us to do a tour,’” Clark recalls. “And the general said, ‘Yeah, I know.’”

Clark’s vision for the show would gradually take on a more supernatural aura. Encouraged by his wife Vanessa and other friends, he began checking out a steady stream of prophecy-themed content — published by Pentecostal outlets like Charisma Media and Elijah Streams — where self-proclaimed oracles viewed current events through an otherworldly lens and heralded Trump as a divinely-ordained leader. 

One of the more celebrated of these self-styled Trump prophets was the late South African pastor Kim Clement , whose old clips are still revisited for new insights by the faithful. In one video , from 2013, Clement made a seemingly offhand mention of a “man by the name of Mr. Clark” and “a man by the name of Donald” and said, in part, “You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation.” Vague as it may sound, to Clark and those around him, the implications were clear. Clark integrated clips of the Clement prophecy into his promotional videos, grafting himself into a supernatural storyline, and invited several pastor-prophets to join his fledgling tour. “After that, God started opening all these doors for me,” he says.

The evening before the show kickoff in Virginia, Clark’s phone is ringing. One California woman, claiming to be a modern-day Biblical Esther, has been calling Clark persistently, hoping to get a slot on the ReAwaken stage. He finally answers and listens politely before turning her down. “It’s like a rock show or a rap concert,” he says after he hangs up. “Not every one gets to be the star of the night.”

When not on the road, the nerve center of the ReAwaken tour is Clark’s clubhouse-like headquarters in Tulsa, what he calls “Tulsa-rusalem.” His employees work here at a humming bank of computers and the office walls are lined with framed awards, newly-minted ReAwaken-branded hockey jerseys, and stenciled Bible quotes. (Clark opened a proper church on the property last year.) A blinking fluorescent sign reads: “Rise and Grind.”

Because Clark’s road show began as a flamboyant provocation in the heat of the pandemic, there was some question if the pageant would lose steam as mandates were lifted. Yet Covid-19 has proven to be just one plot point in a pliable story that Clark is successfully marketing to his audience, with new paranoias being stoked and new miraculous salves proffered with each month. “I really do believe we are approaching the end of America and I’m trying to stop that,” he says. “You just pick a side, do your research and pick a side.”

There are still some pesky plot holes, most glaringly being that Donald Trump, in fact, championed the vaccine that Clark decries as demonic. Yet Clark sits in numerous other contradiction: he’s a Pentecostal college dropout who owes his new popularity to the church; a business bro who has turned on his former idols, like Zuckerberg or Gates, as part of an evil cabal; and an assailant of all media whose success owes much to his own media savvy. ReAwaken is ostensibly agitating for a right-wing political takeover, but in private moments Clark can sound more fatalistic. “I don’t think America is savable,” he tells me. “I think all the Christians get slaughtered. I’ve read the whole Bible, I’ve read what happens.”

There are moments when it seems Clark may have bitten off more than he can chew. The shows bring in $300,000 on average, but he says that money normally goes straight into expenses such as security, rental fees, and reimbursing speakers. Clark looks to be betting on some hazy payoff down the line, but for now says he’s losing money. In February of 2022, Clark was sued by a former executive from Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. for defamation — “defendants have monetized a false election fraud narrative,” the complaint reads — and says that he is facing about $90,000 a month in the ongoing suit. (Clark has raised $77,000 towards his defense on one crowdfunding site, with an unmet goal of $1 million.) Other ReAwaken cast members recount their financial woes on stage, too. Flynn , who is looking at several million in legal fees of his own, regularly urges the crowd to support the greater cause by donating to speakers. “You have to decide who you’re going to support,” he says. “Put everything you’ve got into it.”

Internecine squabbles also break out, and the tour has seen some tragedy. The conspiracy crew can often turn their paranoid gaze on one another and Mark Taylor, a former firefighter and now prophecy-themed author has taken up the idea that Clark is, in fact, an Illuminati stooge. And in December 2021, after a handful of attendees got sick in Texas, preposterous rumors circulated that the crowd at the event had been poisoned by anthrax. Some weeks later, one speaker, the anti-vaccine podcast host Doug Kuzma, 61, died after testing positive for Covid-19. Clark maintains Covid isn’t fatal, the tests are a sham, and says Kuzma was just a sickly man. “If you have 5,000 people somewhere, someone is eventually going to get sick,” Clark says. 

Back at the Virginia megachurch, Clark and the staff stand inside the dim auditorium considering a promo image that is displayed on a glowing screen. Flynn, flanked by guards, hovers nearby. Early birds and vendors have begun arriving outside, yet Clark is still putting the finishing touches on this image, which he has been working on for months. He still keeps an early sketch in a battered journal nearby, and shows me with some pride. He says, “This is my art.”

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“Sweet, right?” he says. “It’s us versus them.”

Clark adjusts his glasses, gives a satisfied nod, then returns to work.

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Moscow Tours

Group Tours and Private Moscow Trips

Private Moscow tours welcome you to the crown of Eurasia, a city simply unrivaled in splendor and fame. On a guided city tour of Moscow, legendary landmarks will transform into tangible reality as you encounter St. Basil’s Cathedral of Red Square and Moscow Kremlin. Let the sheer size of the metropolis engulf you atop Sparrows Hill and Ostankino TV Tower, respectively among the highest spots in the city and world. Meet Stalin’s 7 Sisters and admire the world’s finest collection of Russian art at Tretyakov Gallery before wandering in silence through Cathedral of Christ the Savior. And the list goes on…

Our Moscow sightseeing tours are as varied as the sites themselves. Whether you’re searching for daylong Moscow private tours or wishing to combine discovery of Russia’s capital with a lengthier trip through the country, our private Moscow tours give you the advantage of flexibility, local insiders’ knowledge of the city layout and guided visits to each site.

Check out our current Private Moscow tours below!