Musician-politician Sean Feucht sponsored a series of events in Washington, D.C. over the 9/11 weekend that combined high-energy worship with dominionist theology and Christian nationalist politics.
In addition to a video address from former President Donald Trump, Feucht’s events featured personal appearances by Sen. Josh Hawley, R.-Mo., radio host and so-called Stop the Steal activist Eric Metaxas, New Apostolic Reformation leader Ché Ahn, and California pastor-politician Rob McCoy, a close ally of Christian nationalist political operative David Lane.
During much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Feucht has held large outdoor worship rallies around the country in what he says is an attempt to spark spiritual revival, which dominionist leaders say is a precursor to societal “transformation.” These "Let Us Worship" rallies began as a protest of pandemic-related restrictions on church gatherings.
Hawley, who has appeared with Feucht previously, spoke at Sunday evening’s event in the nation's capital and said he brought his kids “to see what a move of God looks like.” Hawley told the crowd that “We serve a king who is on the throne, and his kingdom is ever advancing,” before praying that God would “release the greatest revival in American history.” He and Feucht prayed that the U.S. Supreme Court will use an upcoming case to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Ahn, a leader in the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation and head of Harvest International Ministries based in Pasadena, California, spoke at Feucht’s events on Saturday and Sunday. He predicted that “the greatest revival in the history of the church” would be “birthed out of 'Let Us Worship.'” On Jan. 5, one day before the Capitol insurrection, Ahn appeared at a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., where he told the crowd that Trump would stay in power and that they would “rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”
Ahn actively promoted gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder in the failed attempt to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose pandemic-related restrictions on church gatherings were rolled back after Ahn took the issue to court. At Saturday’s rally, Ahn declared, “We are now in the battle for the soul of this nation,” adding, “Socialism, Marxism, is coming.” He said pastors will play an important role in leading resistance, because “we believe there is a higher authority than Stalin or Newsom or President Biden.”
“There is a higher authority,” Ahn said. “Jesus is Lord over the nations.”
At the Saturday evening rally, religious-right author and pundit Eric Metaxas repeatedly promoted Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that it was a “conspiracy theory” that President Joe Biden was elected. He cited Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address calling for a “new birth of freedom” in the U.S. after the Civil War. Metaxas said those words had been “prophetic” and apply to the revival stirring in the country today.
Metaxas told Feucht’s followers that God is the “only hope” of defeating the country’s enemies:
The way to honor those who died in the cause of freedom … we cannot honor them unless we deal with why they were killed. We have to stand up for freedom now, and we have to stand against the enemies of the freedom now. … We today have to stand and fight for freedom. And the enemies of freedom, whether they are atheists in the Communist Party in China or whether they are radical Islamists who hate us or the Taliban or people in this country who have bought into a woke Marxist ideology that is fundamentally anti-American, that will hurt the poor, and that is against the God who gave us the freedom that we have.
California pastor-politician Rob McCoy, who has falsely claimed that the election was "stolen" from Trump, also spoke Saturday evening, exhorting, “Church, awaken! It is time to take back the country and the world!”
Jay Koopman, an associate pastor at Ahn’s church, interrupted Sunday’s worship event with a call for people in the crowd who struggle with same-sex attraction to raise their hands so that people near them could surround and pray for them to be “set free.” Koopman also led an altar call, and Ahn made a pitch for money to support plans for "Let Us Worship" events around the country next year that they hope will draw 20,000 to 30,000 people each.
Excerpts from the Sept. 11, 2021 "Let Us Worship" rally at which former President Donald Trump's video was also shown:
Excerpts from Sen. Josh Hawley's appearance at the Sept. 12 "Let Us Worship" rally:
