Charlie Kirk took the stage to thunderous music and flashing fireworks and thanked God for Donald Trump’s victory in November’s presidential election during a speech that set the tone for a weekend of Jesus Christ at AmericaFest, Turning Point USA’s annual gathering ( TPUSA), which attracted 20,000 visitors. right-wing politicians, media figures and activists.
“We cannot take credit for what happened on November 5,” said Kirk, director of TPUSA. “Whoever deserves the glory is God Almighty.”
Kirk wrapped his speech on a similar note.
“Is God done with this country? Now I can say with confidence: no, God is not done with America yet.”
The third annual AmericaFest was a victory lap for TPUSA, the group that provided most of Trump’s ground game during a 2024 campaign that won him a second presidency. With its star-studded cast of Christian commentators, right-wing media superstars and a Sunday morning keynote address by Trump himself, AmericaFest showcased the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement’s vision for Christian power and its commitment to empowering more conservative evangelicals to mobilize in the Republican party. base.
This was evident from the first evening, when every speaker who followed Kirk on stage appealed to Christian doctrine.
Ben Carson, the national faith chairman of Trump’s 2024 campaign, lamented that the nation was drifting away from Christianity and declared that it is “time to get back to it.” Even Steve Bannon nodded at the idea that Trump’s presidency was ordained by God — and suggested it could be extended into what would be an unconstitutional third term. He concluded his remarks by shouting: “Trump 2028! MSNBC, fuck you,” and told the crowd, “Divine Providence is working through Donald Trump as an instrument.”
Related: ‘Mama bears are rising’: the right-wing Christian entrepreneur who aims to take over the local US government
And when an audience member asked Ben Shapiro how he, as a Jewish person, would feel if the Christian Bible were taught in public schools, the conservative commentator replied, “I think it’s great.” He called the Bible the “seminal document of Western civilization,” adding that he believes “all of America was built on Biblical values.”
Evangelicals have not always received Trump warmly. The divorced, serial philanderer who was found civilly liable for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll enraged conservative Christians when he made his first bid for the White House in 2015. But with the theological justification that he was an imperfect instrument for God’s will on earth, many flocked to the candidate — and evangelicals have been an important part of his base ever since.
The rest of the weekend was largely devoted to Christian power. Vendors promoted companies like Patriot Mobile (“America’s ONLY Christian Conservative wireless carrier”). Panelists led faith-based breakout sessions and defined the role of evangelicals in electoral politics. And there was Faith Night, the main stage event on Saturday evening, with a line of preachers and right-wing Christian influencers denouncing secularism and praying for an American revival led by Trump.
Although Christianity dominates religious belief in the U.S., with more than 65% of Americans identifying as Christian, presenters at the TPUSA event invoke longstanding, if unfounded, concerns, according to 2023 survey data from the Public Religion Research Institute about systematic Christian persecution in the United States. The US will promote policies that restrict LGBTQ+ rights and transfer political power to the church.
“For Christians in America, the race for freedom is more than a sprint — it’s a marathon,” said the narrator of a promotional video for the Pacific Justice Institute, an organization called a hate group by the Southern Policy Law Center for its role in it . advocating against LGBTQ+ inclusion and promoting practices such as conversion therapy. During the group’s 45-minute presentation, Pacific Justice Institute legislative adviser Janice Lorrah claimed that Joe Biden’s outgoing White House had “declared war on people of faith” and struck an optimistic tone about Trump’s campaign promise to to establish a task force dedicated to rooting out anti-religious practices. -Christian bias.
In another strategy session, TPUSA organizers focused on evangelical voter turnout and election strategy, talking about what worked and what didn’t during the 2024 campaign season — and how the group could continue to mobilize churches in party politics. Registering voters at churches was an easy way to engage evangelicals and increase Republican turnout because “you go to a place where you know you’re going to register conservatives,” said a panelist from Wisconsin.
However, some pastors the group tried to engage were concerned about risking their church’s tax-exempt status by participating in partisan elections — a practice that the IRS prohibits churches and other 501c3 nonprofits from participating.
During the session, David Rose, a pastor from Arizona, offered a prayer and spoke about the resistance of some churches to participate in electoral politics.
“I pray that you will raise up a remnant through Turning Point, God, as you have done through our faith coalitions,” Rose prayed. “And that there would be pastors across the land, Lord, who stand and say, ‘I can’t take this anymore,’ and they begin to speak the truth from their pulpits, and they don’t run in fear of the enemy . , of losing their 501c3.”
Presenters on the Turning Point Faith panel highlighted an ongoing effort by the organization to help pastors form 501c4 political organizations, parallel to their churches, to engage in partisan politics. On a large screen at the front of the conference room, attendees could scan a QR code, which sent them to a registration page titled “501c4 application” and a form to fill out with their name, phone number, church name, and the address of the church – plus an area where interested participants can take notes.
This push parallels efforts by right-wing Christian activists to abolish a law that bans churches and other 501c3 organizations from supporting and donating to political candidates. Without such restrictions on election activities, experts warn that churches — which are not required to file 990 forms disclosing financial information to the IRS — could become conduits for large sums of untraceable money in political campaigns.
Related: ‘Partisan Politics’: How Efforts to Overturn the Johnson Amendment Could Undermine Campaign Finance
Ending that law, known as the Johnson Amendment, was top of mind for Gene Bailey, the host of the Christian television program FlashPoint, who recorded live interviews from the Phoenix Convention Center during AmericaFest.
‘We look to see [the Johnson amendment]lost once and for all,” Bailey told the Guardian. “It should be resolved in court, rather than a new executive order.”
Bailey’s talk show, which promotes the political ideology that biblical Christianity should rule society and government, took a more marginal place within the conservative movement a decade ago.
But the old fringes of the evangelical world have moved fully into the mainstream.
The weekend highlighted the common cause that Catholics, Reformed Protestants and non-denominational charismatics – Christians who embrace prophetic visions, speak in tongues and have other direct experiences with the Holy Spirit – have found in the conservative movement.
“Historically, there has been a lot of infighting within the spaces,” says Tim Whitaker, host of the progressive Christian podcast The New Evangelicals and a prominent critic of Christian nationalism. Now, groups that “couldn’t be further apart in terms of theology [are] speaking under the same organizational umbrella”.
One group of Christians was not welcome: progressives and anyone whose theology strayed from Turning Point USA’s stern anti-trans and pro-Trump messages.
“I have made it my mission to drive wokeism from the American pulpit,” Lucas Miles, TPUSA’s senior strategic faith director, said Saturday during Faith Night. Miles disavowed not only contemporary Christian progressives, but also historical examples of Christian movements advocating for social change.
“[Since] progressive ideas crept in at the end of the 18th century,” says Miles. “It came with the social gospel, with a historic Jesus movement. Came in with liberation theology and black liberation theology.”
Meanwhile, Christian nationalist ideas such as the “Seven Mountains Mandate” – a call by right-wing figures in the charismatic movement for control over key “mountains” of society, including government and the media – found a home at AmericaFest.
“I’ve been preaching for years — I say there are seven mountains, seven major gates, that God wants you to be raised locally and nationally, to have a strong nation,” said pro-Trump leader Lance Wallnau. prophet” who gave a keynote speech on Saturday evening.
“Watch as God takes you through the two leaden gates of Babylon this year and you begin to plunder hell. Because we are a movement that cannot be stopped.”
