By reality-based standards, Donald Trump’s presidency is very close to the rocks. According to Nate Silver’s model of approval poll averages, Trump only has an approval rating of 42.4 percent as of Wednesday night. Even at this early stage, this would be code-calling territory for any politician.
But those approval ratings would be even lower than that if not for the large number of white evangelicals who are still bowing before the Orange Calf. Depending on the source, anywhere from 73 to 78 percent of white evangelicals approve of how Trump is doing–which means Trump is holding onto nearly all of the white evangelicals who backed him in November. Well, on Memorial Day Weekend, some of Trump’s most fanatical evangelical supporters are due to descend on the Charlotte area.
Many of Trump’s earliest fundie supporters came from the New Apostolic Reformation, an overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that believes it can bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world under the leadership of so-called apostles and prophets. Just before Inauguration Day, several of them gathered to announce the formation of “POTUS Shield,” which intends to “storm heaven” and “raise up a shield of prayer and prophetic understanding” for Trump.
Recently, POTUS Shield announced plans for a “convocation” to take place over Memorial Day Weekend at Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina–based at what was once Jim Bakker’s Heritage USA, about 20 minutes south of Charlotte. Joyner is a member of POTUS Shield’s council, and has been one of Trump’s most rabid fundie supporters. Among other things, he believes that the opposition to Trump is driven by witchcraft and is backed by Satan himself. He would also have you believe that if you stand against Trump, you risk being “smacked” by God. In other words, he’s earned his place on this council.
But there’s a lot more lunacy where that came from. Alveda King, Martin Luther King’s rabidly pro-life niece, is a member of the council. So is Cindy Jacobs, who claimed birds fell dead after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and believes that Christians should get risk in order to make Jews jealous enough to convert. So is Lance Wallnau, who claims the tables are about to turn on the anti-Trump forces and their media-driven witchcraft. So is Lou Engle, the guy who got little kids to pray for “righteous judges” to overturn abortion in “Jesus Camp” and who leads the homophobic and anti-abortion “TheCall” rallies.
If POTUS Shield’s last convocation, held in March, is any indication, the crazy is going to be very strong in Charlotte over Memorial Day. The March convocation was held at Touch Heaven Ministries in Canfield, Ohio. That church’s pastor, Frank Amedia, is a member of the POTUS Shield council; he once refused to help Haitian earthquake victims if they practiced voodoo. That gathering saw Engle pray for the removal of pro-choice judges–either by way of conversion or death. In case you missed it, watch here.
And Amedia claimed that he knew Trump had been wiretapped. Never mind that the FBI and Republican-controlled committees in both chambers have called BS on it–God told Amedia that Trump’s wires really had been tapped. Watch here.
An indication of the kind of praying that may take place at this gathering comes from another council member, Mina Holmes. Recently, she traveled to Claremont School of Theology and prayed to break “liberal thinking” on that campus and others in Southern California. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsrk3Qpld8I
Yep, the crazy is definitely going to be very strong in my hometown over Memorial Day Weekend.
(featured image courtesy Amedia’s Facebook)
