From “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power” by Brian Kaylor
Days before the 2022 midterm elections, I went to the ReAwaken America Tour event in the entertainment mecca of the Midwest. The tour, which I call RAT for short, is a traveling carnival of MAGA politics, Trumpian “prophecies,” election denialism, and COVID-19 conspiracies. I’d watched several iterations online, but I decided to go experience it in person. In between the singing of worship songs I recognized from church, I heard about how vaccines are bad, Trump actually won in 2020, and 5G networks are a plot of the new world order (please don’t ask me to explain that last one because I still don’t get it). In the nearby exhibits, I could even buy products from speakers, like a Trump-Cyrus gold coin from Wallnau, MyPillow products from Mike Lindell, shirts and hats praising Jesus and/or cursing Biden, artwork depicting Trump as a Revolutionary-era hero, and some sort of fabric to “protect” me from 5G radiation (again, I’m not sure how it works). It was convenient to get all Christmas shopping done in one spot.