Given that white nationalists and Christian nationalists worked together on “Stop the Steal,” it is probably safe to assume that they are still working with each other and with Trump in pursuit of their shared objective: toppling American democracy.
The audience then “raised their hands – exactly as German fascists would have done in the 1930s at a Nazi rally,” as observed by religious extremism researcher Bruce Wilson.
Meanwhile, at the Doug Mastriano rally in PA… pic.twitter.com/P7qoSLF2oM
— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 (@NickKnudsenUS) September 19, 2022
“’As one!’, roared the crowd, sweeping their arms downward,” as reported by Wilson.
The man directing this spectacle was Lance Wallnau, an apostle in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).
The NAR is a politically connected and dangerously influential Christian theocratic movement that teaches dominionism, the belief that Christians have a mandate from God to control the world.
"We want nations!" Unabashed Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau preaches Seven Mountains Dominionism, a radical theology that advocates right-wing Christians taking control over all aspects of society. https://t.co/UeIcyaPMky pic.twitter.com/8vZiTs4lcH
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 1, 2022
Wallnau himself popularized what’s known as the “Seven Mountains” mandate, which specifically targets these seven aspects of society for Christian control: 1. business, 2. government, 3. family, 4. religion, 5. media, 6. education, and 7. entertainment.
While preaching at Sheets’s church, Wallnau invoked war imagery from the movie Gladiator as he instructed the congregation to raise their hands in the air and then abruptly drop them while shouting, “As one!” He explained that he had appropriated the battle cry from Gladiator.
As with the Gladiator/Wallnau salutes, some people equated these index-finger salutes with Nazi salutes.
Just compare: one is from a 1934 rally for Hilter in Frankfurt, Germany, and one is from September 17, 2022 rally for Donald Trump in Youngstown, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/tzX0ZH5Sh9
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) September 20, 2022