Influential pastors believe re-electing Trump is a win in the war of angels and demons

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP):

Thousands sang, cheered and prayed as multiple preachers declared Donald Trump to be God’s favoured candidate to defeat what one called the “forces of darkness”.

Headliners denounced Democrat Kamala Harris – Trump’s campaign rival – as influenced by demons and the spirit of the wicked biblical queen Jezebel.

Attendees stood and recited in unison a ‘Watchman Decree’, invoking a government that honours God and has “righteous” laws and “biblical” judicial rulings. They pledged to “take back and permanently control” positions of leadership in sectors such as government, business and culture.

“We break every curse against Donald Trump – we break every satanic incantation against his presidency,” declared the host preacher, Hank Kunneman, at the annual Opening the Heavens conference, held in mid-September at the Mid-America Center arena in Council Bluffs.

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The conference is one of several of its type around the country this election year, featuring exuberant worship and speeches by influential preachers. It represents a highly politicised wing of charismatic Christianity, a larger movement that emphasises spiritual gifts such as healings, prophecy and speaking in tongues.

Goals for the conference included getting out the vote for Trump and his allies, and mobilising believers to pray and take part in what’s proclaimed to be a literal spiritual war surrounding the election.

“Get your butt out there and vote. Get your voice and raise it!” declared Kunneman, who pastors Lord of Hosts Church in nearby Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, Brenda. “Let every devil fall. ... We push back any attempt to steal the executive office.”

The conference emerges from a movement that emphasises authoritative direction from leaders considered to be modern-day apostles and prophets. It also incorporated Christian nationalism, a fusion of American and Christian identity.

Critics view the movement with alarm, seeing it as anti-democratic and supporting a candidate with authoritarian ambitions and incendiary rhetoric. Many of its leaders rallied behind Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

“The attitude coming into 2024 is, ‘The demons are probably going to try to steal this election again, and so we need to do spiritual warfare in advance to prevent that,’” said Matthew Taylor, author of the new book on the movement, The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy.

“It’s very hard to have a pluralistic democracy,” Taylor said, when many distrust the electoral system.

Several leaders in this movement were present at rallies in Washington protesting Biden’s presidential victory before and on January 6, 2021, said Taylor.

Leaders weren’t among the Capitol rioters, but some issued decrees and prayers that the certification of Biden’s win be blocked and Trump returned for a second term.

Such ideology “is one of those golden threads” in the social media feeds of many participants of the January 6 rallies, said Taylor, Protestant scholar at the Baltimore-based Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies.

Headliners at the Council Bluffs conference repeatedly spoke of being in a true spiritual war, merging decrees of political victory and Christian revival.

The “favour of the Lord” is on Trump, said one preacher, Dutch Sheets. “America is going to be saved, and I believe this election is a part of it.”

His brother and fellow preacher, Tim Sheets, recounted seeing a vision of a warrior angel firing an arrow that landed in front of the White House, claiming the territory for God.

“We must move into battle for the Lord,” he said. “The drums of spiritual war are beating.”