{"id":2090,"date":"2021-01-12T17:14:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T17:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/how-self-proclaimed-christian-prophets-provided-religious-motivation-for-the-jan-6-events-at-the-us-capitol\/"},"modified":"2025-01-17T19:06:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T19:06:05","slug":"how-self-proclaimed-christian-prophets-provided-religious-motivation-for-the-jan-6-events-at-the-us-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/how-self-proclaimed-christian-prophets-provided-religious-motivation-for-the-jan-6-events-at-the-us-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"How Self-Proclaimed Christian ‘Prophets’ Provided Religious Motivation for the Jan. 6 Events at the US Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n January 6th, 2021 Washington D.C.\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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How Self-Proclaimed Christian ‘Prophets’ Provided Religious Motivation for the Jan. 6 Events at the US Capitol<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Brad Christerson<\/a><\/strong>\n \n January 12, 2021<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This article was originally published by The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to symbols of white supremacy<\/a>, many of the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 carried signs bearing religious messages<\/a>, such as \u201cJesus Saves\u201d and \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d while others chanted \u201cJesus is my savior and Trump is my president<\/a>.\u201d In a video interview, one of those who breached the Senate floor describes holding a prayer to \u201cconsecrate it to Jesus\u201d soon after entering.<\/p>\n

Many white evangelical leaders have provided religious justification<\/a> and undying support for Trump\u2019s presidency, including his most racially incendiary rhetoric and policies. But as a scholar of religion<\/a>, I argue that a particular segment of white evangelicalism that my colleague Richard Flory<\/a> and I call Independent Network Charismatic<\/a>, or INC, has played a unique role in providing a spiritual justification for the movement to overturn the election which resulted in the storming of the Capitol.<\/p>\n

INC Christianity is a group of high-profile independent leaders who are detached from any formal denomination and cooperate with one another in loose networks.<\/p>\n

Prayer marches<\/h2>\n

In the days and hours leading up to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 the group Jericho March organized marches<\/a> around the Capitol and Supreme Court building praying for God to defeat the \u201cdark and corrupt\u201d forces that they claimed, without evidence, had stolen the election from God\u2019s anointed president \u2013 Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Jericho March is a loose coalition of Christian nationalists formed after the 2020 presidential election with the goal of overturning its results. Leading up to and following the Capitol violence, their website stated<\/a>: \u201cWe are proud of the American system of governance established by our Founding Fathers and we will not let globalists, socialists, and communists destroy our beautiful nation by sidestepping our laws and suppressing the will of the American people through their fraudulent and illegal activities in this election.\u201d This statement as well as others were removed some time after the Capitol riot.<\/p>\n

Jericho March\u2019s main activity has been organizing prayer marches around Capitol buildings around the nation after the election, imitating the \u201cbattle of Jericho<\/a>\u201d in the Bible. In this biblical battle God commanded the army of his chosen people, the nation of Israel, to blow trumpets and then march around the city walls until God brought the walls down and allowed Israel to invade and conquer the city. According to the Bible, this was the first battle that the nation won in its conquest of Canaan, the \u201cpromised land\u201d that it occupied afterward.<\/p>\n

Jericho March\u2019s activities culminated in a large prayer rally on Dec. 12 in Washington, D.C., that included prayer marches and speeches<\/a> on the mall by convicted and pardoned former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn<\/a>, former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Trump-supporting founder of MyPillow Mike Lindell and far-right Oathkeepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes.<\/p>\n

Michael Flynn among other speakers at a Jericho March rally:<\/strong>
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