Understanding the political radicalization of Charismatic Christians, with Matthew D. Taylor

<p>This interview is with <a href="https://icjs.org/people/matthew-d-taylor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matthew D. Taylor,</a> who wrote and created a recent podcast series called "<a href="https://icjs.org/charismatic-revival-fury/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charismatic Revival Fury</a>." Taylor is the Protestant Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, in Baltimore.</p><p>We know about the Proud Boys, and the Big Lie, and former President Trump's role in spreading it and deceiving millions of Americans into believing the 2020 election was stolen from them.</p><p>But there was an element in the crowd spurred on to radical anti-democratic lawlessness by something more than politics. It was "revival fury."</p><p>That's the phrase created by Taylor, who has studied a sub-culture of American evangelicalism — called the New Apostolic Reformation — and mapped its 30-year history as well as its many links to the January 6 insurrection.</p><p>Taylor's extensive historical research provides a depth of context to a shocking revelation: the Trump White House itself was in touch with key NAR leaders in the weeks after the 2020 election and leading up to the attack on the Capitol.</p><p>In fact, one key NAR leader said "government leaders" asked him to conduct a tour of churches after the 2020 election to energize and mobilize Trump supporters to support the effort to overturn the election results. This NAR leader, Dutch Sheets, had already been part of a Trump White House outreach effort in 2019 led by Trump faith adviser Paula White Cain.</p><p>The Sheets tour turned into a whirlwind tour of seven swing states over a month's time, in which roughly two-dozen self-proclaimed prophets whipped large crowds into a frenzy of religious fervor mixed with apocalyptic and violent imagery of defeating demonic forces, which were attributed to Democrats and President Biden.</p><p>He calls it "charismatic revival fury" and has produced a podcast series by that name. Man