How concerned should we be about conspiracy theorists counting our votes?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 11, 2024.

Growing up as an independent fundamentalist Baptist, the highlight of each year for our church was the weeklong revival meeting, where we began each night with songs that prepared our hearts for a sermon by a fiery evangelist who then gave an altar call to get us to commit our lives to the cause.

So, imagine if that same formula were applied to the 2024 election by a group of conspiracy theorists who openly admitted their plan was to be a “Trojan Horse” at polling stations in order to “make history this November.”

What might the worship look like? What would the sermon be about? What would the altar call be for? And how concerned should the rest of us be?

Unfortunately, we don’t have to imagine because that’s exactly what is happening at The Courage Tour, which is branded as a “revival in seven key states … marking the dawn of our nation’s Third Great Awakening.”

The Courage Tour has been organized by Lance Wallnau, an independent charismatic apostle who is popular in the New Apostolic Reformation and a promoter of the Seven Mountain Mandate call for Christians to dominate every part of society. According to Matthew Taylor, author of The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, Wallnau is “Donald Trump’s most effective spiritual propagandist.”

In addition to Wallnau, the Courage Tour also features speakers such as Lou Engle, Allen West, Marjorie Taylor Greene and many others. Meetings this year have targeted Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, with additional swing states slated in the coming months.

Promotional images from Courage Tour website

Call to worship

In a piece for the Washington Spectator, Anne Nelson described her experience at Michigan’s Courage Tour meeting: “At the outset, the Courage Tour looks like an updated version of an old-fashioned Elmer Gantry-style revival, complete with Bible verses, Christian rock and the promise of faith healing for sufferers of anything from arthritis to sciatica. There were no snakes in evidence in Michigan, but there was plenty of kinetic worship.”

“At the outset, the Courage Tour looks like an updated version of an old-fashioned Elmer Gantry-style revival.”

The worship, led by Catherine Mullins, included such songs as “We Kneel to King Jesus,” “The Devil Can’t Have My Family,” “Our God is Fighting,” “Sing Like the Battle is Over” and “All Hail, King Jesus.” They also sang the Elevation Worship song “Praise,” which includes the lyrics, “Praise is the water my enemies drown in.”

The worship was “reminiscent of a high-energy stadium rock concert, with fist-pumping vocals and pounding percussion,” Nelson said. “Younger people moved to the front and giddily jumped in time to the music; older folk swayed and grooved in place.”

Alice Herman attended the Courage Tour event in Wisconsin and reported similar observations: “By 9 a.m. on Monday, hundreds of worshipers who had gathered under a tent in Eau Claire, Wisc., were already on their feet. Praiseful music bumped from enormous speakers. The congregants had gathered in northwestern Wisconsin for the Courage Tour, a traveling tent revival featuring a lineup of charismatic preachers and self-styled prophets promising healing.”

The event Taylor attended began with 45 full minutes of worship music.

Promotional images from Courage Tour website.

The sermon

With hearts prepared to celebrate kingship, resistance to demons, a God who fights, victory and enemies drowning, the worshipers listened to the likes of Wallnau, who took the stage with the power and authority of a traveling evangelist.

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.