AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
For many Americans, pandemic restrictions are a distant memory. But for some, those mandates affected them in ways that have hardened their faith and their politics. NPR's domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef has this report on Americans still reeling more than three years since most states lifted restrictions.
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SEAN FEUCHT: And here we are today, the army of God.
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ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: On a recent Saturday morning in front of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., hundreds of Christians were outside and amped up. They waved flags, among them, a white one with a green pine tree on it, the words appeal to heaven across the top. It's come to be a symbol of Christian nationalism, and some carried it on January 6 when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
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FEUCHT: But like King David today, we are ushering in the presence of God to the capital city.
YOUSEF: The man behind this gathering is Sean Feucht. He's an evangelical worship leader, musician and Trump loyalist. At the start of 2020, Feucht was not a well-known name, but COVID-19 changed that. That year, Feucht began breaking his state's COVID restrictions on religious gatherings with outdoor worship concerts, first in California but then nationwide.
Matthew Taylor met me at Feucht's recent event in D.C. He's with the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies. He says, today, Feucht is a millionaire and a celebrity that Christian lawmakers angle to stand with in photographs and that Feucht's ascent all rested on his timely use of a long-standing narrative of grievance among some evangelical Christians.
MATTHEW TAYLOR: There had been decades of distrust sown especially into conservative Christian communities, narratives of Christian persecution that then many leaders like Sean Feucht were able to activate in the midst of the COVID crisis.
YOUSEF: Now COVID restrictions are over. Feucht and other Christian nationalist leaders have enjoyed the kind of access to Trump and other high-office holders that was unimaginable a decade ago. And so the messaging has evolved from defending against a so-called tyrannical state to taking it over.
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FEUCHT: So I want you to just start doing this with me. Come on, right with me.
(Singing) Step by step. Step by step. Step by step. We're taking ground.
TAYLOR: The messaging over time became more and more nationalistic, more and more about, as Feucht would say, conquering spiritual territory.
YOUSEF: And Taylor says his research into January 6 has demonstrated the danger of this language of spiritual warfare. He says, he's found that some people who were part of Feucht's COVID-19 worship protests also participated in the Capitol riot.
TAYLOR: So while I would not say that this is an extreme event in its presentation, there is extremism lurking around the edges of it.
YOUSEF: The pandemic also ushered militant Christian nationalist messaging into other strains of Christianity. Sarah Riccardi-Swartz of Northeastern University studies orthodox Christian communities. She says, some of those churches defied state rules and stayed open during the pandemic. This brought in an unprecedented swell of American converts, including some who believe in spiritual warfare.
SARAH RICCARDI-SWARTZ: Often, these folks were already right-wing or conservative, and they just became more radicalized throughout the pandemic.
YOUSEF: Riccardi-Swartz and Taylor say the full effect of the pandemic on Christian communities in the U.S. is still not well understood. But for a small minority of American Christians, it has shifted them from claims of persecution to ambitions of taking over politics and culture, Odette Yousef, NPR news. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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