“Our D-Day is coming,” declared the ominous subject line of an email from former Rep. Allen West sent on behalf of the religious-right voter turnout operation My Faith Votes on June 6, the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy, France, during World War II.
My Faith Votes is one of the multimillion dollar political operations designed to get conservative Christians to embrace and vote according to the right-wing “biblical worldview” promoted by My Faith Votes and the Family Research Council. My Faith Votes CEO Jason Yates is connected with dominionist New Apostolic Reformation figures who have rallied around Trump in all three of his presidential election campaigns.
West, a retired lieutenant colonel, chaired the Texas Republican Party in 2020 and 2021 before launching an unsuccessful run for governor.The warfare rhetoric continued in West’s recent message:
Our cultural D-day is coming. It is time for us to hit the beaches and the drop zones. And to continue to fight for the principles and values that our faith is rooted in.
We cannot allow the evils that we see taking place in America to fundamentally change our nation’s Judeo-Christian faith heritage.
Today we must remember not just those men and women who served, but also remember that we have a call to service as well.
Our D-day is coming, and we need to be ready.
An email from West earlier this year used a similar military theme:
Here’s something you learn quickly in the military: when you’re retreating, you’re losing.
People of faith in America have been in retreat for far too long, and if we don’t take back the initiative now, it might be too late. …
If it wasn’t clear already, it should be now: we are not going to turn the tide in this spiritual battle by continuing to play defense and apologize for what we believe.
My Faith Votes has a comprehensive “2024 Battle Plan” to get Christians back on offense, starting with maximizing turnout at the ballot box this November.
Metaphorical and spiritual warfare rhetoric is not new for My Faith Votes or Yates, who took part in a “50 Day Fight” project leading up to the 2020 election. A video promoting that project portrayed the election as a “battle of good and evil” and “spiritual warfare at its highest.” It warned that “Satan has released his demons” and urged viewers to “go to war with us.” Among the “prayer points” suggested by the project were, “Grant our country a second miracle that President Trump would be re-elected.”
West also took part in 2020’s “50 Day Fight,” recording an interview with New Apostolic Reformation figure Doug Stringer, in which West suggested that Trump had been chosen by God to defend Christians under attack in the U.S. “We’re called to be soldiers of God,” he said. “We’re called to be warriors of his word.”
This month, in the same week as West’s bombastic appeal, My Faith Votes launched “Think Biblically,” a new video series designed to bring “Biblical clarity” to Christian voters “ahead of the November election.”
Like most religious-right groups, when My Faith Votes talks about Christians, they aren’t really talking about all Christians, especially not the millions of Christians who don’t share their politics or interpretation of scripture. Evidence of how narrowly My Faith Votes and its allies interpret what makes up a correct “biblical worldview” comes from pollster George Barna, a fellow at Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, who says that only 4 percent of Americans have a biblical worldview. That means most Christians, even most conservative white evangelical Christians, don’t make the grade. That’s what this series is designed to fix.
“Christians are in desperate need of Biblical clarity on issues that matter, now, before secularism fills the void Christians left in politics and culture,” says an announcement for the series, which is divided into six modules, purporting to explain how people should think and act “biblically” on the topics of worldview, justice, abortion, sexuality and gender, “socialism,” and politics. Opposing views on those topics, MFV asserts, are lies that come from Satan. “It’s time to let our faith guide our politics,” Yates repeats.
The module on justice contrasts “biblical justice” with “social justice”—aligning with a faction of right-wing evangelicals who have railed against churches that address social and racial justice issues. Social justice, says the module's featured speaker Voddie Bauchum, requires redistributing wealth and resources for equitable outcomes, something he says is “actually the opposite of what God’s justice requires.”
The module on sanctity of life declares that abortion is always murder; My Faith Votes teaches that life begins at the moment of conception and that abortion is not justifiable in cases of rape or incest. It asks people to consider what “lies that Satan has used to change Christians’ minds about the issue of life in the womb?” MFV urges Christians to “vote for the candidate who will protect life at every stage.”
The module on sexuality is narrated by Christopher Yuan. Like many “ex-gay” spokespeople, Yuan describes his life as a gay man as an unhappy one, including drug-dealing that led him to jail. “Understanding human sexuality through the lens of theological anthropology is crucial in how we are to live biblically,” says MFV’s study guide, which also asserts, “Secular culture emphasizes sexuality as a defining characteristic of one’s identity, but the Bible emphasizes that our identity is found in Christ alone.” MFV argues that Christians must continue to resist marriage equality.
The module on socialism focuses on the idea that taxation that supports government social spending is coercive, incentivizes godless behavior, and subsidizes “laziness” and “irresponsible” living. Yates calls it a “lie of the enemy” that government is the answer to poverty. Without using the terminology, MFV promotes the Christian Reconstructionist ideology that has been embraced by much of the religious right that the Bible makes care for the poor the job of churches and individuals, not the government. The study guide refers people to Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center articles on “biblical economic principles.”
The final module on politics tells viewers that it is “disloyal” for a Christian not to act as if their vote is a religious decision. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,” says Yates quoting from the biblical book of Psalms. The module warns that if Christians aren’t involved in politics, decisions will be made by people who believe God doesn’t exist and disregard “God’s truth.”
Among the efforts MFV has backed in the name of promoting its biblical worldview was a democracy-limiting ballot initiative promoted by Ohio Republicans and anti-abortion activists last year—one that was soundly rejected by voters. MFV worked hard to elect Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; they were less successful in their efforts to elect Republican senators in the 2021 Georgia runoff elections won by Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff.
In 2019, the Pentecostal media platform Charisma promoted an interview Yates did with Seven Mountains Dominionist Lance Wallnau, who called Trump “the perfect shepherd” for Christians who were worried about the “aggressive” and “belligerent” left. In 2018, Yates promoted an interview with “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, who urged Christians to vote in the midterm elections because, he said, Democrats were evil and depraved “God-haters.”
More recently, a May 27 MFV email said that Christians should be comforted by Bible verses about the world and the rulers of this age passing away: “As our society falls further into depravity, these verses should bring comfort to all who belong to Jesus because they remind us that darkness, wickedness, evil rulers, and this broken world have a limit. Even Satan understands his time is short (see Revelation 12:12).”
But that’s not a license to avoid politics and wait for God to step in, according to MFV. Honorary chairman Mike Huckabee wrote in a May 30 fundraising email, “My Faith Votes is in the midst of an extremely aggressive campaign to identify and mobilize Christians, and it’s inspiring to see.”
