Surely you’ve heard of the “new prophets” in the rowdy world of charismatic Christianity?
In terms of hooks for news, these folks have everything.
We’re talking about lots of energy and egos, with the kind of on-camera talent that produces megachurches and social-media outbursts that go viral. There are also plenty of links to the powers that be around Donald Trump. This is “charisma” in every sense of that word.
Julia Duin has been sounding this horn here at GetReligion for years, long before the events surrounding January 6th caught the attention of Big Media. Here is a chunk of a 2018 post: “Religion News Service — Movie claims 'red tsunami' will vindicate Donald Trump in November.”
… (S)ecular America doesn’t get how vehemently many people believe that God orchestrated President Trump’s 2016 victory. And what’s more, many of those people believe God has mandated another victory for Trump in 2020.
You’ve not heard this? Folks, you’re not reading the right websites. …
It’s not so much evangelical Protestants who are pushing this idea, but a daughter movement made up of charismatics and Pentecostals (linked up with Liberty University film people). I’ve been amazed over the years how few religion reporters follow these folks, even though this demographic was instrumental in getting Trump elected. Plus, a growing percentage of world Christianity is Pentecostal/charismatic (see this classic major Pew Forum study). Visit Brazil, if you don’t believe me. And much of Africa.
You want more? How about this piece early in 2020: “About Todd Bentley and 2020 prophecies: How are reporters supposed to cover this stuff?”
Julia was back with more information and news hooks linked to the this new generation of self-proclaimed prophets (and the people who warned about getting tied up in politics) months later with this piece: “Who's covering this? Are charismatics and Pentecostals behind Trump's refusal to concede?”
Everyone remembers that viral “strike and strike and strike” rap from the Rev. Paula White-Cain. But there was more going on and, once again, Julia made a case for serious news coverage:
It was her fourth day of prayer meetings since Election Day to “decree” Trump’s coming victory. At one point, her son, Bradley Knight, said he will quit the ministry if Trump is not elected.
White, as many of you know, is Trump’s highest profile pastor, so we’re not talking about a minor personality here. She is arguably America’s most powerful female religious figure. She is — acting as the spiritual force behind Trump — a key figure who is refusing to concede the election to Biden.
In social media, people are talking about this like crazy. In the news?
Her first stab at praying Trump into a second term got treated as a joke by media who hadn’t a clue of what she was trying to do. They did listen to her words, which is why she’s quoted as accusing demons of rigging the election.
Yep, she did say that.
More? OK, here’s another pair of Duin posts here at GetReligion pointing to the need for ink on these people: “Jericho march in DC: Coming-out party for a movement journalists haven't really covered” and “It's civil war among American charismatics and Pentecostals, but few reporters are covering it.” Hold that thought, in terms of the “civil war” angle.
Later on, Julia was back with two more: “When covering the Trump prophets, listen up: 'Heavenly inauguration' is in the wings” and “Donald Trump enthroned with the angels: Why are media missing this story?”
In the midst of all of that, Duin paused to write a Religion Unplugged report that turned into that website’s No. 1 story of the year: “Charismatics Are At War With Each Other Over Failed Prophecies Of Trump Victory.”
Looking back on 2021, Bobby Ross Jr. noted — on Facebook — that Duin’s post is now nearing 100K clicks.
Julia will still be writing for GetReligion in 2022, even though she’s now spending lots of time writing religion-news features as a contributing editor for Newsweek. You may recall that her award-winning Washington Post Magazine work on another hot-button Pentecostal topic led to the book, “In the House of the Serpent Handler: A Story of Faith and Fleeting Fame in the Age of Social Media.”
[Update] A new “new prophets” story by Duin has just been posted at Newsweek: “For Christian Prophets Who Predicted Donald Trump's Reinstatement in 2021, No Apologies.” Some of these charismatic leaders have changed their tunes or altered their timelines. Others have surged straight ahead. Check out this passage:
Charlie Shamp, president of Destiny Encounters International in Moravian Falls, North Carolina, who prophesied last year that Trump's eventual victory would hinge on certain events in Pennsylvania, was in the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6. In a September 16 YouTube broadcast honoring the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, he obliquely predicted Biden's death in office. "I saw the flag of the United States begin to lower, and I saw Joe Biden's health diminish," he said.
"The administration that sits in the White House is under the judgment of God, and we are going to see the health of the man who sits in the White House begin to diminish. And I saw the American flag lowered to half-staff."
As if to press home the point, on December 19 he posted on Instagram photos from last March of Biden stumbling on the steps of Air Force One. He wrote: "I heard the Lord say, 'A greater fall is coming to Biden.'"
Meanwhile, let’s flash back to that Religion Unplugged report.
Think of the following as a “think piece” what floated over the holiday weekend and into this week. Here is the overture:
A day of reckoning has come for modern-day “prophets” in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement who falsely foretold a victory for President Trump in 2020.
One charismatic leader calls it a “rebuke from the Lord.”
A major speaker in the movement calls it “the largest scale deception I’ve seen in 49 years of following Jesus.”
And yet another pastor is blasting parts of the movement as being “sick.”
Privately and on social media, these prophets and their thousands of followers are slugging it out in an orgy of self-blame, recriminations and fantastical hopes that somehow before Jan. 20, God will bring about a victory for Trump.
Others who’ve apologized for getting it wrong have gotten accusations, curses and even death threats.
Jeremiah Johnson, a Charlotte, N.C.-based evangelist who in 2015 prophesied Trump would gain the White House a year later, and in 2019 prophesied Trump would win a second term, says his life was threatened after apologizing and saying on Facebook Jan. 7 he wished to “repent” for mistaken prophecy:
“Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. I have been labeled a coward, sellout, a traitor to the Holy Spirit, and cussed out at least 500 times. We have lost ministry partners every hour and counting.
In the post that got 1,900 comments, Johnson said:
“I fully expected to be called a false prophet etc., in some circles, but I could have never dreamed in my wildest imagination that so much satanic attack and witchcraft would come from charismatic/prophetic people,” he continued. “I have been flabbergasted at the barrage of continued conspiracy theories being sent every minute our way and the pure hatred being unleashed.
“To my great heartache, I’m convinced parts of the prophetic/charismatic movement are far SICKER than I could have ever dreamed of. I truthfully never realized how absolutely triggered and ballistic thousands and thousands of saints get about Donald Trump.”
Johnson is part of a modern-day movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) that believes that biblical-style apostles and prophets exist today and are meant to guide the church. Johnson has been a key figure in this movement and on Nov. 7, defiantly struck back at naysayers who voted for President-elect Joe Biden:
“While we wait until January to determine our next US President, observe the stunning blindness and hypocrisy in the body of Christ. Christians who voted for the shedding of innocent blood, the Equality Act, and anti-Israel legislation (ALL things God HATES) are now picking up stones to persecute prophets who supposedly missed it.”
Johnson’s recent mea culpa included no apology for that post.
CONTINUE READING: “Charismatics Are At War With Each Other Over Failed Prophecies Of Trump Victory” by Julia Duin at Religion Unplugged.