Former Gov. Mike Huckabee will be joined by Trump-supporting dominionists Lance Wallnau, Dutch Sheets, and Alveda King for a multiday event at the National Constitution Center and 23rd Street Armory in Philadelphia Nov. 7-9.
“God has given us a Sovereign call to create a Holy Convocation (gathering) of leaders to come to Philadelphia, the birthplace of America, to REPENT of our turning from His leadership over our Nation and call on God to forgive us and reestablish and renew our commitment to God and the Sovereign leader of our Nation,” a promotional website for the event reads.
The gathering, dubbed “The Great Experiment,” is a fundraising event for the Capstone Legacy Foundation, whose mission is “to be a catalyst for revitalization in America and help Christians have the greatest impact possible through their giving.” Tickets for the entire event go for $750, which includes a private tour, reception, and dinner with Huckabee and Wallnau at the National Constitution Center on Thursday evening. Cheaper tickets are being sold for just a portion of the three days’ activities. Friday’s programming and Saturday’s free “solemn assembly” with Wallnau and King will be held at the 23rd Street Armory.
Huckabee, a well-known politician-turned-pundit who ran for president in 2008 and again in 2016, was among a group of religious right leaders who called for a national day of prayer for President Trump earlier this year. Huckabee reportedly credited Christian nationalist David Lane’s clergy organizing as “instrumental” to Trump’s election.
Lance Wallnau, a Trump-supporting promoter of Seven Mountains dominionism, recently talked about conducting a “Glorious Chaos” tour through swing states in 2020. Wallnau wrote a book before the 2016 elections declaring that Trump was “God’s Chaos Candidate.” Wallnau is on the council of POTUS Shield, a network of dominionist prayer warriors created on the night of Trump’s election to pray for him and to help bring about the “Prophetic Order of the United States.”
Dutch Sheets organized an event at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., last year at which participants prayed for God to unleash angel armies against Trump’s deep state enemies. Sheets teaches that the church—the ekklesia—is meant to be a governing body legislating God’s will on earth. Sheets portrayed the 2018 midterm elections as a continuation of the spiritual warfare that helped put Trump into office. He has focused specifically on the Supreme Court, calling on God to create multiple vacancies for Trump to fill.
Alveda King is an anti-abortion activist and frequent speaker at religious right events. She is the niece of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and once dismissed his late widow Coretta Scott King’s support for abortion rights and marriage equality by saying, “I’ve got his DNA. She doesn’t, she didn’t.” King is also a member of the POTUS Shield Council.
Also on the speakers’ list are two Pennsylvania-based activists, Abby Abildness and Peter Lillback.
Abildness is the leader of the Pennsylvania Apostolic Prayer Network. She leads “sacred challenge” tours of the state capitol building, which she said reveals the divine call on the state and its leaders. She Last year, Abildness described on a podcast interview how she had been led to work on “the government mountain” and how she is able to influence government leaders and legislators by praying with them to get revelation from God about what he wants to see in their legislation. The event page bio says, “Her focus is empowering global solutions by healing and restoring God-ordained destinies of people and nations.” Abildness and her husband run a group called Healing Tree International, which is "committed to bringing global solutions to heal and restore the God-ordained destiny of people and nations in collaboration with affiliate networks."
Lillback is president and professor of historical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary and is head of the Providence Forum, whose mission is “to defend and advance the Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding.” He is part of the Thursday night dinner and Friday programming. Lillback's 2010 book, “George Washington’s Sacred Fire,” got a huge boost when it was promoted by Glenn Beck, but it was characterized by professor and blogger John Rowe as “essentially a glorified self published book” that contained “much idle speculation, illogical arguments, and redundant prose.”
The National Constitution Center was created by the Constitution Heritage Act signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1988. It is run as a private nonprofit organization with a congressional charter to “disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.” It rents space for a variety of private events, including apparently fundraising dinners like this one.
