After wildfires erupted in Los Angeles County earlier this 12 months, a workforce from the Division of Housing and City Growth descended on the wreckage. Led by HUD Secretary Scott Turner, the entourage walked by means of the rubble in Altadena, reassuring victims that the Trump administration had their again. At Turner’s request, a Christian-nationalist musician named Sean Feucht tagged alongside. “I can’t overemphasize how wonderful this chance is,” Feucht had posted on Instagram the day earlier than. “I’m bringing my guitar. We’re going to worship. We’re going to hope.”
Feucht has lately change into a MAGA famous person. He excursions the nation holding rallies that mix upbeat Christian-rock songs with sermons that tie in his right-wing political beliefs. Between praising President Donald Trump as God’s chosen one and suggesting that abortion supporters are “demons,” Feucht has repeatedly advocated for the fusion of Church and state. Throughout a efficiency in entrance of the Wisconsin statehouse in 2023, Feucht paused after a track to make a proclamation: “Yeah, we wish God in charge of authorities,” he mentioned. “We wish God writing the legal guidelines of the land.” He has held rallies in any respect 50 state capitols, spreading related theocratic messages.
Feucht didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. At instances, he has denied being a Christian nationalist, however it may be exhausting to take that perspective severely. Final 12 months, he overtly embraced the time period at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “That’s why we get referred to as, Effectively, you’re Christian nationalists. You need the dominion to be the federal government? Sure! You need God to return and overtake the federal government? Sure! You need Christians to be the one ones? Sure, we do,” Feucht mentioned. “We wish God to be in charge of every thing,” he continued. “We wish believers to be those writing the legal guidelines.”
Feucht has the ear of many high Republicans. After he held a prayer gathering on the Nationwide Mall every week earlier than the 2024 presidential election, Trump personally congratulated him for “the unimaginable job” he was doing defending “non secular liberty.” Feucht then attended Trump’s inauguration prayer service on the Nationwide Cathedral in January, the place he embraced Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth. The very subsequent week, he posted that Home Speaker Mike Johnson had invited him to carry a worship occasion within the Capitol. Then, in April, Feucht carried out on the White Home.
Given his rallies and political connections, Feucht is “perhaps the simplest evangelical determine on the far proper,” Matthew D. Taylor, the senior Christian scholar on the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Research, advised me. He’s a giant purpose Christian nationalism has extra buy now than at another level in current historical past. Based on a February ballot from the Public Faith Analysis Institute, a majority of Republicans assist or sympathize with Christian nationalism. They agreed with quite a lot of statements offered by PRRI, reminiscent of “If the U.S. strikes away from our Christian foundations, we is not going to have a rustic anymore.” Final month, the Enchantment to Heaven flag—a logo widespread amongst Christian nationalists—was noticed flying above a D.C. authorities constructing. Feucht is pushing to convey faith and authorities into even nearer alignment.
Feucht comes from a subset of evangelical Christianity often called the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR. As my colleague Stephanie McCrummen has written, “The motion has by no means been about insurance policies or adjustments to the regulation; it’s all the time been in regards to the bigger objective of dismantling the establishments of secular authorities to clear the way in which for the Kingdom. It’s about God’s complete victory.” Many NAR adherents consider within the “seven-mountain mandate,” a framework that seeks to transcend ending the separation between Church and state. The objective is to ultimately management the “seven mountains” of latest tradition: household, faith, schooling, media, arts and leisure, enterprise, and authorities. Feucht has endorsed the basic idea. “Why shouldn’t we be those main the way in which in all spheres of society?” he mentioned in a 2022 sermon. In a dialog that very same 12 months, Feucht referenced his need for Christian illustration in “the seven spheres of society.”
NAR has a number of high-profile leaders, however Feucht has been particularly adept at drawing outdoors consideration to the motion’s targets. After rising to prominence in the course of the early days of the coronavirus pandemic by throwing Christian-rock concert events in violation of lockdown orders, Feucht has constructed an enormous viewers of devotees. His fixed stream of worship occasions throughout the nation makes Christian nationalism extra accessible for the non secular lots, as does his prolific social-media presence (he has half one million followers between Instagram and X). Feucht is related to only about each faction of the trendy proper, even the grassroots fringe: On one event, he enlisted a member of the Proud Boys, the sometimes-violent far-right group, as a part of his safety element. (Feucht later claimed that he wasn’t accustomed to the group.)
With Feucht’s assist, a model of the seven-mountain mandate is coming true. The Trump administration is cracking down on “anti-Christian bias” within the federal authorities, and the president has employed numerous advisers who’re linked to Christian nationalism. Beneath stress from mother and father and lawmakers, colleges have banned lesson plans and library books associated to LGBTQ themes. Feucht will not be single-handedly chargeable for these wins for Christian nationalists, however his affect is plain. Feucht and Hegseth mentioned holding a prayer service contained in the Pentagon months earlier than the secretary of protection really did it. Or take into account Charlie Kirk, the MAGA energy dealer who helped run the Trump marketing campaign’s youth-vote operation, after which vetted potential White Home hires. In 2020, Feucht unsuccessfully ran for Congress and was endorsed by Kirk. Inside every week of the endorsement, Kirk invoked the seven-mountain mandate at CPAC, the conservative convention. With Trump, he mentioned, “lastly now we have a president that understands the seven mountains of cultural affect.”
However not every thing has been going nicely for Feucht. Final month, six staffers and volunteers who labored for Feucht printed a lengthy and detailed report accusing him of participating in monetary malfeasance. Feucht’s former staff declare that he withheld promised expense reimbursements from ministry volunteers, engaged in donor and payroll fraud, and embezzled nonprofit funds for private use. The allegations monitor with earlier reporting by Rolling Stone and Ministry Watch, the nonprofit Christian watchdog. Each have reported on opaque monetary dealings involving his nonprofits. Citing an absence of transparency and effectivity, Ministry Watch presently offers Sean Feucht Ministries a “Donor Confidence Rating” of 19 out of 100, and encourages potential donors to “withhold giving” to the group.
Feucht hasn’t been charged with any crimes stemming from the allegations, and has denied wrongdoing. “None of these allegations are true,” Feucht mentioned in a video he lately posted to YouTube. “We’re in nice standing with the IRS. We’re in nice standing with our accountants.” He later added, “We’re taking floor for Jesus, and we’re not apologizing for that.” It’s attainable Feucht’s viewers will take him at his phrase. The NAR motion is insular and unwavering in its worldview: Allegations are proof of persecution for achievement. Nonetheless, a big a part of Feucht’s energy is derived from his donors. Sooner or later, some individuals may get fed up with giving him cash. “He might lose traction on the follower degree,” Taylor mentioned.
To this point, that appears unlikely. Scandals can take down individuals, however concepts are extra resilient. Kirk has continued to advocate for Christian-nationalist positions; final 12 months, he argued that “the separation of Church and state is nowhere within the Structure.” (It’s, actually, within the Structure—proper there within the First Modification.) Even the previously staunchly secular world of tech is turning into extra open to Christian nationalism. In October, Elon Musk held a city corridor at Feucht’s former church in Pennsylvania, and has referred to as himself a “cultural Christian.” Marc Andreessen and different traders have backed a tech enclave in rural Kentucky intently affiliated with Christian nationalists. No matter what occurs to Feucht, most of the world’s strongest individuals appear to be inching nearer to what he desires.
