'Real peril': Expert says growing religious group seeks world domination with Trump's help

A powerful fringe Christian movement behind the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attacks believes former President Donald Trump will help them take over the world, a theologian reveals in his soon-to-be published book.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte spoke with Dr. Matthew Taylor about the dark implications of "The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy" about the rise of the New Apostolic Reformation, a group even evangelicals find extreme.

"There's real peril that some of our fellow Christians are posing to our democracy," Taylor told Marcotte. "The consequences are so dire."

The New Apostolic Reformation is a leadership network created by C. Peter Wagner, a charismatic seminary professor who, convinced he was an apostle, surrounded himself with would-be prophets obsessed with taking over society, Taylor told Marcotte.

"They embrace Christian supremacy, this idea that Christians are supposed to be in charge of society and are mandated by God to take over societies and transform them into conservative Christian utopias," he said.

"They want to create a new vanguard of Christian leadership that will take over every nation in the world. And they've especially targeted the United States right now."

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Trump became connected to the group in 2015 through televangelist and Florida megachurch pastor Paula White Kane, whom he asked to help mount his first presidential campaign, according to Taylor.

Because Kane's connections were with fringe Christian movements such as the New Apostolic Reformation, it was their members that became Trump's close advisers and helped him connect to more mainstream American evangelicals, the theologian said.

And when Trump lost the 2020 election, it was the New Apostolic Reformation that took action.

"They truly believed that God had willed Trump to win the 2020 election," said Taylor. "When Trump refused to concede, all these prophets and apostles decided that it was that their prophecies were not wrong, but that God was going to intervene in a miraculous way to reinstate Donald Trump."

The group mounted a "mass spiritual warfare campaign" against the "demons" they believed had stolen the election — and spurred a large swath of Christians to show up at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Taylor said.

Taylor argued that Trump's relationship with the fringe Christian group explains how a former reality television host was able to commandeer the Republican Party and hold onto power despite a lost election and a criminal conviction.

"Trump came as an outsider and brought with him this whole wave of fringe characters," said Taylor. "People like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone: People who were very much on the margins."

Taylor argued Trump has triggered "a tectonic shift" in U.S. religion and society, concluding, "It's reflected in the extremism we see every day in evangelical and Republican politics."