Mike Johnson is 'mainstreaming' a 'fringe set of charismatic evangelical' Christians: report

After the 2020 presidential election, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was among the far-right MAGA Republicans who tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in the White House despite the fact that he lost the election to now-President Joe Biden. Christian nationalists were among the Trump supporters who were in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, and according to religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor, Johnson has been "mainstreaming" evangelical election deniers.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on February 6, Taylor examines the House speaker's recent participation in the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance — an evangelical fundamentalist alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast.

The event, according to Taylor, exemplifies "the mainstreaming of the beliefs and values of a new set of insurgent Christian Right leaders — several of whom played major roles in bringing about the violent events of January 6."

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Taylor, a scholar at the Baltimore-based Institute for Islamic, Christian, & Jewish Studies and author of the forthcoming book "The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy," explains, "This past week, the speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line to the presidency, spent hours praying with the Christian leaders who did the most to encourage religious participation in what became the Capitol riot."

Taylor goes on to describe a "fringe set of charismatic evangelical Christian leadership networks known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)," who, he warns, "have become a vanguard among Christian elites supporting Donald Trump."

"You may not have heard of the faith leaders affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation," Taylor explains. "They aren't the A-list celebrities of the Religious Right, and the NAR isn't formally constituted as a denomination or organization in its own right. But they are some of the key brokers of today's evangelical alignment around Donald Trump. And in the chaotic season between the 2020 election and the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, NAR leaders were enormously influential mobilizers who convinced many right-wing Christians to turn out for the storming of the United States Capitol."

Taylor describes NAR as the "extreme end of the Christian nationalist spectrum" and a "Christian supremacist movement that is intent upon a spiritual takeover of society." And there was a strong NAR presence in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 as well as at the recent National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, according to the religious scholar.

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"NAR leaders shaped and cultivated that January 6th spirituality," Taylor warns. "Their presence and prominence at the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance represents the effort to transform that spirituality — sponsored and superintended by the speaker of the House himself — into a decorous garb that public officials can wear openly."

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Matthew D. Taylor's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.