Lions of Judah Standifer
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an 9 24
Former President Donald Trump has more than his share of outspoken critics within Christianity, from the Rev. Raphael Warnock (a Democratic U.S. senator via Georgia) to devout Catholics like President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). His Democratic opponent in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, is a Baptist with a fondness for Hinduism (her mother was from India).
Yet Trump continues to be extremely popular within a certain area of Christianity: far-right evangelical Christian nationalists, who see a second Trump term as God's will. One of them is Joshua Standifer, founder of the group Lion of Judah.
In an article published on September 4, The Guardian's Alice Herman details Standifer's efforts to recruit Christian nationalists as election workers.
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"A Christian political operative has teamed up with charismatic preachers to enroll election skeptics as poll workers across the country, using a Donald Trump-aligned swing state tour to enlist support in the effort," Herman explains. "Joshua Standifer... describes the effort as a 'Trojan horse' strategy to get Christians in 'key positions of influence in government like election workers,' which will help them identify alleged voter fraud and serve as 'the first step on the path to victory this fall,' according to his website."
Standifer, Herman adds, "has been on the road with a traveling pro-Trump tent revival featuring self-styled prophets and Christian nationalist preachers that has made stops in key swing states, including Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin."
"The Lion of Judah’s election worker training program, which The Guardian has reviewed, features a series of modules titled 'Fight The Fraud: How to Become an Election Worker in 4 Easy Steps,'" Herman reports. "Standifer's project has so far largely flown under the radar."
But Matthew D. Taylor of the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies has been sounding the alarm about Standifer's efforts.
In a thread posted on X, formerly Twitter, Taylor warned, "Standifer's organization Lion of Judah represents an urgent & unrecognized hazard to our democracy this fall. It's targeting election workers. I was at this event on Monday. I talked to Standifer himself…. Lion of Judah poses as a Christian ministry aimed at assisting Christians to register as election workers. That might sound mostly innocuous-albeit strange-but you have to look at the context in which they're doing it & how they go about it."
Taylor tweeted video of Standifer speaking in Wisconsin, where he said, "What if we had Christians across America, in swing states like Wisconsin, that were actually the ones counting the votes? ... They don't see it coming."
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*Read The Guardian's full article at this link.
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A Christian Nationalist ‘Trojan Horse’ In The Election Room
By Kyle Mantyla | July 31, 2024 rww
In 2023, self-proclaimed Christian nationalist and unabashed Trump cultist Lance Wallnau announced his intention to travel the country ahead of the 2024 elections in order to break the “demonic strongholds” in swing states that are supposedly preventing Republicans from winning elections. That idea eventually merged with the revival Fire and Glory Tour that Wallnau was doing with fellow MAGA cultist Mario Murillo, resulting in plans to merge political rallies with Christian revival meetings in order to help former President Donald Trump return to the White House.
Dubbed “The Courage Tour,” Wallnau and Murillo have so far held events in Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan, consisting of Christian nationalist political organizing during the day and evening sessions focused on spiritual revival and miracle healing. The purpose of these events, as Wallnau explained earlier this year, is to prepare Christians to rule and reign when Jesus Christ returns by training them to “occupy territory now.”
The plan for training Christians to rule in the End Times by getting them politically involved today was on full display when the Courage Tour stopped in Wisconsin this week, and longtime political activist Joshua Standifer urged attendees to sign up to serve as election workers this November so that they can function as a “Trojan horse” for the Christian nationalist political movement.
Standifer leads an organization called The Lion Of Judah that believes “it’s time that Christians led by the Holy Spirit take back the mountain of Government and transform our nation.”
Talk of taking control of “the mountain of government” flows from Seven Mountains Dominionism, a radical theology associated with the New Apostolic Reformation that advocates having right-wing Christians control all aspects of society. Followers of Seven Mountains theology believe that they are to “do whatever is necessary” to take control of the seven main “mountains” that shape our culture—education, government, media, business, arts and entertainment, family, and religion—in order to implement the will of God throughout the nation and the world. Wallnau is a leading proponent of Seven Mountains Dominionism and the theology is at the center of his Courage Tour efforts.
During his remarks on Monday, Standifer urged the conservative Christians in the audience to become election workers, not just volunteers, because “when the polls start to close or chaos unfolds, they’re gonna kick the volunteers out” while right-wing Christians will remain behind to be “the ones counting the votes.”
“I promised you guys an action plan,” Standifer said. “We spent months calculating and creating, meeting with experts, something that we felt like could take Christians and put them in a place of influence. Just imagine: It’s election night. Chaos is happening. The polls are closing. The volunteers are getting kicked out, but what if we had Christians across America and in swing states like Wisconsin that were actually the ones counting the votes and making sure what’s happening?”
Standifer urged the audience to sign up for his “Fight The Fraud” campaign, which will teach them “how to become an election worker in four easy steps.”
“A lot of people don’t realize this, but in Wisconsin, you can get paid to be an election worker,” he announced. “On election night, what happens is when the polls start to close or chaos unfolds, they’re gonna kick the volunteers out. You are actually going to be a paid election worker. You’re going to be trained by your local municipality. I call this our Trojan Horse in; they don’t see it coming, but we’re going to flood election poll stations across the country with spirit-filled believers.”
The Trump-controlled Republican Party has also launched a major effort to put MAGA-minded election officials in place and recruit poll workers who could be primed to create chaos by Trump’s repeated insistence that the only way he can lose the election is that Democrats cheat. David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who heads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told the Associated Press that for the Republicans to recruit people “in a way that feeds your voters with the idea that the election is going to be stolen, that prepares them to be angry if their candidate loses — that can be very dangerous.”
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