The Accelerant of American Extreme Politics: Prophecy Belief

[Nevilledog]

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ReligioninPublic
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The Insurrection was just the tip of the spear of widespread support for extreme groups. We've overlooked a popular religious worldview - belief in prophecy - that accelerates extremism. In fact, only prophetic Christian Nationalists go to extremes.

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The Accelerant of American Extreme Politics: Prophecy Belief
By Paul A. Djupe, Denison University Just after the anniversary of the Insurrection at the Capitol, the Justice Department announced the formation of a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat th…
7:30 AM · Jan 20, 2022

https://religioninpublic.blog/2022/01/20/the-accelerant-of-american-extreme-politics-prophecy-belief/

Just after the anniversary of the Insurrection at the Capitol, the Justice Department announced the formation of a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat the rise of right-wing extremism in the US. Though extremism has not typically been asked in American opinion surveys, that has changed since the Insurrection as well. For instance, PRRI reported in November 2021 that 18 percent of Americans believed that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” That number was much higher among Republicans, especially those who trust Fox News or other far-right outlets. Moreover, these numbers appear to be climbing from early in 2021.

I suspect that these trends can be linked to two particular forms of religion, one we know well and one we know little about (quantitatively at least). Trump’s grievance politics have been long attached to the Christian nationalist cause – to take back America for Christians, restoring their perceived rightful place as the decision-makers (this is the one we know well). Christian nationalist attitudes about society and politics have closely matched Trump’s politics about police, race, immigration, guns, COVID, and other matters as Whitehead and Perry and others have documented. But that worldview has also been attached to approval of violence in a new paper out at Political Behavior by Armaly, Buckley, and Enders.

What I think is missing is the particular style of religion that is attached to the more virulent strain of Christian nationalism: those who believe in prophecy. Prophecy beliefs entail that God’s power and thoughts are channeled through human beings to, for instance, tell the future and heal people. Prophetic religion enables at least two things: absolute certainty and completely flattened organizational structures – anyone can lead. Take Clay Clark, a businessman now co-headlining the ReAwaken America tour with Michael Flynn, who revealed to Charisma News that “God is using [the tour] to wake up the world” (which you can watch for $17.76). The connections to various new and old prophets and prophecies run deep, but critically meant to Clark that he knew “exactly, 100% of God-ordained clarity, what I was supposed to do.” That level of certainty combined with a mission to take back America from the “demonic forces” pushing Trump’s impeachment who would strip Christians of their religious freedom if they regained control of the federal government, makes it clear that extreme measures would not be off the table.

I wrote about our measures of prophecy support in a previous post with Jason Adkins and Jake Neiheisel, with whom I gathered the data in March 2021. There we argued that, “If you want to understand religious politics on the right in 2021, you need to understand the role of prophecy.” We found that a majority of Americans believe God is in control of events on Earth, about 40 percent believe that God has given the power to heal by the laying on of hands, and that God reveals his plans to humans through prophecy. The one question that did not receive tremendous support (only 19% agreed) was: “God told prophets that Trump would win the election.” Still, belief in prophetic religion is very high – the mean for the scale of four items is .55 (range is 0-1) for religious Americans. And they are not just pentecostals or limited to evangelicals – there is widespread belief in prophecy across religious traditions.

*snip*

[Haggard Celine]

1. Sometimes I say this or that about the Antichrist and who it might be,

but I don't believe Satan is going to send his son to Earth and destroy our civilization. I was raised in the Baptist church and there was frequent talk about the Antichrist and the Tribulation and other elements of Biblical prophecy. The only type of prophecy that concerns me, though, is self-fulfilling prophecy. I think these prophetic Christians would commit all sorts of acts to hasten the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world. It won't happen on its own, so they'll feel they have to help it along. It's scary as hell to see people who are so dedicated to a cause that they'll do the most immoral things in order to help their cause along. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about it.

[orwell]

2. The great thing about "prophecy"...

...is that it can be whatever the charlatan wants it to be.

"God told me to do _______." Fill in the blank.

Nobody cares when the prophecy doesn't come true. It's just on to the next prophetic "vision."

Humans want to believe in supernatural order, in a cosmos ruled by chaos. Certainty is attractive, but always a chimera. The only underlying order is in physics, biology and mathematics which the average person can not see.

The "prophecy" tells us only one thing, the psychological state and belief structure of the "prophet" and the followers.

To a group that believes that a bearded man sits up in the clouds on a throne and controls all things, the bar is already set pretty low for the charismatic charlatan.

The unfortunate reality is that the real power, our corporate overlords, are more than happy to hide their influence to continue this reign of terror. Their god, mammon and power, preordains the current sorry state of planetary collapse.

And it doesn't take a prophet to see where this is headed...

[ck4829]

3. When I was growing up, I remember that evangelicals were calling Russia "Gog and Magog"

A big thing in the book of Revelations. I think Gog and Magog is supposed to wreck the Middle East and it will kick off the apocalypse.

It’s funny, because now they call Iran “Gog and Magog”

I’m sure they’ll switch it to China eventually.