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QAA Podcast
The AI Powered Christian Dominionist Convention feat. Dr. Matthew Taylor (E375)
01:35:12
Jack LaRoche and first-time contributor Trey Grac…
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- [00:00]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Sa.
- [00:32]
Jake Rockatansky
If you're hearing this, well done. You found a way to connect to the Internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast, episode 375, the AI powered Christian Dominionist Convention. We are your hosts, Jake Rockatansky, Jack
- [00:47]
Jack LaRoche
LaRoche, Trey Grace and Travis View.
- [00:50]
Trey Grace
I'm standing next to my friend Trey early Sunday morning near the National Mall. Already it's hotter than I'd like and. And the way the crowd keeps pressing around me is not really helping matters. Clutched in my hand is a book, the Great Controversy, which my new charismatic companions have alternately claimed is going to enlighten me or steer me straight into hellfire with its heretical ideology. My buddy Trey is vibrating with excitement over his own copy of the book while fumbling with his phone to pull up the event tickets so we can get in. In spite of metro security, the ever present National Guard, a whole host of undercover cops and special freedom 250 security, not a single ticket gets checked. By the time we reach the metal detectors, the crowd around us has sung Amazing Grace at least four times. I sing along with most of them. Trey knows the words a lot better than me. In spite of the heat, I'm having the time of my life chatting with the assorted stars and stripes wearing crowd. And I suspect that Trey is. We enter the National Mall together, bellowing a howl of triumph. Welcome to Rededicate. 250. We are in for a day of fasting, song and prayer for the ol US of A. And hell. The crowd has informed us President Trump might even be showing up in person. Now the new goal is not to get shot, Jack.
- [02:16]
Jake Rockatansky
I don't know why, but this energy is giving me, you know the scene in World War Z where they've traveled to Israel and they're like kind of all waiting and like Israel figured it out and nobody else has. And everybody's singing because they got in and they don't realize that they're attracting this like horde of, you know, millions of zombies that's like crawling over the walls, like, as they sing, like, I don't know why, but as you were describing this, that's what I was envisioning.
- [02:43]
Trey Grace
Very similar, similar energy out there. People, when you least expect it, would just suddenly throw their hands up in the air and start proclaiming a prayer and everybody around them would join in.
- [02:55]
Jake Rockatansky
Wow.
- [02:55]
Trey Grace
It's like a millipede's legs. It goes in a wave.
- [02:59]
Travis View
It's called being ecstatic.
- [03:01]
Jake Rockatansky
It's like those enemies in Caelid in Elden Ring, you know, Jack was not talking about.
- [03:11]
Jack LaRoche
I'm really excited for this one because it is like an old fashioned field reporting episode. Like we used to do a lot more. We'd like go out to where people who have unusual beliefs were gathering and reporting back. And I was like, at first when I heard about them, I was a little skeptical. It's like sounding like maybe just an evangelical event. But as Jack continued to explain to me, he's like, no, it's actually perhaps an illustration of how much like Christian nationalism has wormed its way into the government and how it's sort of integrated into the agenda of our tech oligarchs. And yeah, Jack and Trey, who's a first appearance on this podcast. Thank you so much for, for joining us today.
- [03:49]
Travis View
Happy to be here.
- [03:50]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah, yeah, you, you, yeah, you, you discovered that. Yeah, there's just, it's already pretty weird on the surface for, for, like, for me at least. But when you dig even deeper, it. Even the weirder and more malicious, there
- [04:01]
Trey Grace
were a lot of very frantic, slightly insane text messages going in at all hours between Trey, Travis and myself as we kept digging into the research here. It was a good old fashioned murder board investigation. You know, Trey in particular had created this beautiful one showing the connections just. Y' all are in for a wild one.
- [04:23]
Dutch Sheets
An invitation to Bray.
- [04:26]
Trey Grace
In September of 2025, Turning Point USA's faith director, Lucas Miles published a furious manifesto in the guise of a book titled the Pagan Threat. While meant to ignite a fire throughout the fundamentalist Christian world, it instead transformed alarm bells already ringing in magic practitioner circles into a veritable siren. My long work in folklore circles has me enmeshed in a few pagan communities, so I tend to keep an eye on their chatter. And a number of websites and magazines published articles and about this particular book's release, as well as the worrying trend of Christian nationalist extremism influencing policy that stretched back to at least the first Trump administration. So it wasn't the biggest surprise to see the establishment of the White House's prayer initiative imaginatively dubbed America Praise, complete with its own section on the White House's website, coinciding with the release of Miles book to commemorate the occasion.
- [05:26]
Jake Rockatansky
President Trump said, America has always been a nation that believes in the power of prayer. We will never apologize for our faith. We will never surrender our God given rights. We will defend our liberties, our values, our sovereignty and our freedom. And with the help of the amazing faith communities across this land, we will truly make this the golden age of America. I'm trying to adjust my impression to match Trump's decaying sort of like. Cause the impression that I do is that's from two or three years ago. It's very different now and it's kind of like it's old hat if we're being honest. So this is my debut of new and improved Trump 2.0 impression.
- [06:18]
Jack LaRoche
No, no. You really got the eerie combination of bravado and decay that kind of like this uniquely Trumpian.
- [06:26]
Trey Grace
With each word you can just hear the life leaving him.
- [06:29]
Travis View
Jake I don't think it's Trump 2.0. I think it's Trump me.
- [06:38]
Trey Grace
Franklin Graham, president of the Samaritan's Purse, added this urgent homoerotic Our greatest battles
- [06:47]
Jack LaRoche
are fought on our knees and through America Praise, we can join together and ask God to guide and protect this land.
- [06:54]
Jake Rockatansky
I have heard that can be a battle, you know.
- [07:00]
Trey Grace
Rededicate 250 was meant to be the crown jewel of this America Praise Initiative. Freedom250.org advertised it this way.
- [07:11]
Jake Rockatansky
Freedom250 invites all Americans to come together in prayer and worship ahead of the nation's 250th birthday. On Sunday, May 17, 2026, the National Mall will be the scene of a historic gathering as Americans of background across the country prepare for the nation's 250th birthday with scripture, testimony, prayer, and a rededication of our country as one nation to God. From morning fellowship in front of the U.S. capitol to an evening filled with music anchored at the main stage on 12th Street, Rededicate 250 will be rooted in giving thanks for God's presence. I just like remember in third grade with my hand over my heart saying one nation under God and feeling like, kind of silly and everybody else was like, kind of silly and old. You know, it's like old. It's kind of tradition. We do it. But now like, nope, nope. Going right back. Rededicate250 will be rooted in giving thanks for God's presence in our national life throughout 250 years of American history and asking for his guidance for the next 250. Just the next 250 after that, folks, it's up to Satan.
- [08:20]
Jack LaRoche
Yes.
- [08:20]
Dutch Sheets
I don't know.
- [08:23]
Trey Grace
Well, you know, somebody's gotta step in. So after reading this, I knew I had to be there. But given recent current and ongoing events in D.C. i really didn't want to go alone. Thankfully, I knew someone willing to answer this call. Answering the call Trey Grace is a former religion and politics major with deep interest and knowledge about the intersection of the far right and Christian extremism. He also had a flexible enough schedule that he could sacrifice a whole day to listen into whatever the hell rededicate250 would turn out to be key. And he was kind of excited about it.
- [09:05]
Jake Rockatansky
Also key.
- [09:05]
Trey Grace
When I contacted him, he had not heard of America 250. In fact, the only people I knew who were aware of it were people who worked in dc. It seemed that their messaging had not actually escaped the city at all, despite the Freedom From Religion Foundations, several FOIA requests that, as of this recording, still have not been filled. So nevertheless, after doing what limited research he could do on the event, considering how little there was available at the time, Trey agreed that it looked like a Christian nationalist event of interest. So I told him all about America Praise. If you search online for America Praise, chances are you are not going to see the White House initiative. Instead, you'll find americaprase.org even now/reedicate 250. The earliest search results tend to be the work of author and former New Mexican pastor Brian Alarid. Ahead of the event. I inflicted psychic damage on both myself and Trey by having us read Alered's two books, both titled When People what Happens When Ordinary People Pray to an Extraordinary God, and By Name, how to Pray for People and Lead Them to Jesus. Somehow those titles do actually fit on the front of the book.
- [10:23]
Jake Rockatansky
I'm still a little tripped up on. On the. On the second one here. What Happens when Ordinary People Pray to an Extraordinary God? So there. This implies that there are some gods that aren't extraordinary.
- [10:36]
Trey Grace
Yes. And those gods would be the God that is not his particular brand of Christianity.
- [10:41]
Jake Rockatansky
Mmm. Oh, okay. I see.
- [10:43]
Trey Grace
He also reveals in the second book, By Name, he is a firm believer that some people can really be witches that are worshiping gods that are not his God. So I do think that he believes there are less than extraordinary gods out there, too.
- [10:59]
Jake Rockatansky
So he's still kind of doing like, the whole, like, Greek mythology thing where there are, like, multiple gods up in the sky. They're swirling around, he's got one that he likes, but, you know, that's neither here nor there. Other people, other people also have gods that they like that he might, you know, not agree with, I guess.
- [11:15]
Travis View
Well, it's important to note that even when you encounter a witch, if you pray for them hard enough, they can long enough. And long enough they can show up at one of your services years later, unrecognizable, to thank you for the impact you had on their life in saving them from witchcraft. This is a chapter in his book.
- [11:33]
Jake Rockatansky
Kind of like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump. You know, he sort of shows up. He sort of shows up a changed man. I mean, really, you know, he's got the aluminum legs, he's married, he's got, you know, he's, he's gotten a hair haircut. I mean, really is like a completely different person.
- [11:48]
Trey Grace
Yeah, part of the unrecognizability was definitely the change in her makeup.
- [11:53]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
- [11:55]
Trey Grace
These books are part memoir, part guide and all authoritarian theocratic technocracy drivel. Alred has been given a mission by God to have every person on earth be personally prayed for by name so that they can hear the message of Jesus. The best way to achieve this goal, explained by Peter Thiel's buddy Rick Warren in his forge to by name, is with the use of today's technology, a through line within the book and the way it encourages a reliance on apps that is mirrored in the heavy push of apps like Halo and the positive view of AI held by those currently in power. This blending of AI based technology and religion will be a theme throughout both americaprase.com and rededicate250 in general, but more on that later. This ambitious goal also involves everyone being able to hear Jesus's message in what he refers to as their heart language, that is through the use of teal backed Bible and prayer translation apps, eventually resulting in the conversion to this charismatic flavor of Christian faith, Ideally by Pentecost 2033, the 2000 ish anniversary of Christ death and resurrection. But there's another thing notable about this heart language that Trey has to say regarding translations.
- [13:17]
Travis View
The Bible was not written in English. The Bible was written originally in Hebrew. Jesus spoke in Aramaic and all of that was translated into Greek. Everybody has a different interpretation of this. That is why there are so many versions of the Bible and translations as is. But whatever you're going through, it's going to be a translation of a translation, possibly of a translation for all of the scripture that I pulled up. I did use the new revised standard updated edition. That's been my preferred going back to my days as a religion major.
- [13:51]
Trey Grace
For consistency's sake, imagine translating this already two or three times and then running it through an AI translation service and imagine what you're going to get.
- [14:03]
Jake Rockatansky
This is by the way, how the world ends and why in Book of Eli Denzel Washington has to carry the last the last Bible to be translated.
- [14:14]
Trey Grace
So all of what I said above is just outright stated by Alarid as having been ordered for him to do by God. The following quote is from his book by name.
- [14:26]
Jack LaRoche
On May 13, 2020, I received a phone call from my friend Mark Green. He is the chief investment officer at Hobby Lobby. I believe the Bible movement and the prayer movement need to come together at some point, mart said in his signature upbeat tone. But first, Mart continued, I believe the prayer movements need to come together. What do you think could unite all the different prayer movements? I didn't need to think long about my answer. It was only one thing on my mind lately. Maybe the vision of praying for all people in First Timothy 2:1:6 could bring together different movements and denominations to accomplish something greater than any of us could on our own. I presented our vision to Scott Beck and Jeff Frey at Glue Glue. Is that.
- [15:05]
Trey Grace
Yeah, it's another Bible app.
- [15:09]
Jack LaRoche
Scott and Jeff are technology gurus, and they love the idea. So basically, Scott said, you want to pray for 8 billion people who live in 200 different countries and speak 6,000 languages and somehow learn their names and pray for them by name. That's, like the largest data project in history. I know it's crazy, Scott, but this was God's idea, not mine. Scott flashed a smile, and his eyes glinted with excitement. All right, I'm in. We're building momentum. God was opening doors. People were jumping in, and the engine was warming up. A few days later, I received a call from Ashley Wilson and Dr. Billy Wilson, the president of Oral Roberts University and chairman of Empowered 21. It was this call that kicked this vision into fifth gear. God has given Empower 21 a vision that every person on earth would have an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit by Pentecost 2033. Dr. Wilson said, oh, boy. Boy. So not. Not just. Yeah, there's a. There's a deadline, too. So, like, they pray for every person within 13 years, all 8 billion people,
- [16:10]
Trey Grace
all personally being prayed for. And this is not a faith project. This is a data project.
- [16:16]
Jack LaRoche
That's interesting.
- [16:17]
Jake Rockatansky
So fucked. You know, I accidentally sort of subscribed to Hallow.
- [16:21]
Trey Grace
Accidentally do that.
- [16:23]
Jake Rockatansky
Cause I saw. I saw a. It was like a commercial or it was like a, you know, like a targeted Instagram ad or something. And it was Mark Wahlberg being like, hey, hey. He was like, I know it sounds kind of crazy, but would you sit down and pray with me for a second? And I was like, what the fuck is this? I was like. I was like, what? And it was like, hallow. And I was like, I gotta see this. I was like, you know, I couldn't sleep. It was like 2:30 in the morning or something. I was like, I gotta see what this is. And then all of like, the good content, because they've got like regular Christians or whatever, but then they've got big time Christians like Mark Wahlberg and Chris Pratt. And I was like, they've really got these big movie stars, like, talking about Jesus on an app. I was like, you know, back in the day, this would have been a sign that your career, like, wasn't going very well. You know what I mean?
- [17:10]
Trey Grace
Well, Jim Caviezel is on there, right?
- [17:13]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, Caviezel's on there. I saw. So I signed up for the free trials. I signed up for the free trial so that I could watch the videos. And it is so funny. Chris Pratt's like, hey there. I know it sounds kind of strange, but I was kind of wondering if, like, you'd want to talk about Jesus with me. And I'm like, this is the guy from Parks and Recs who's like, oh, I'm the dumbest guy here. But who, like, then became the Marvel movie star. And the whole thing was so bizarre. And then I forgot that I signed up for the free trial. And a couple days later, I got charged for the yearly subscription because they don't let you do it by months. So it was like, you have to pay for the year. And I tried to argue it with the Google Play Store, and they were like, no, you have to stick with this. So maybe we'll do an episode about Hallow or something to get some kind of value out of it.
- [17:58]
Trey Grace
Yeah, we gotta. We gotta connect on that because there's some. There's some funky stuff.
- [18:03]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, let's do. We'll do a sequel to this episode.
- [18:06]
Travis View
I haven't signed up for Hallow, but I have signed up for prey.com, which we'll get to here shortly. Yeah, the week after I signed up. I'm sure this is just a coincidence and not them trying to push a specific type of political messaging. But every morning Bible verse had to do with construction of a palace and a house. Know, it was just really weird.
- [18:27]
Trey Grace
Yeah, those emails are a little haunting. I'm enjoying getting them, though.
- [18:32]
Jake Rockatansky
It's like, specifically ballrooms in the eyes of God, A ballroom. A ballroom can be a temple.
- [18:39]
Trey Grace
So Allera's messaging goals aligned closely enough with what was posted on the White House website that I was extremely taken aback when Trey discovered that the actual website for the America Praise initiative outside of the page on The White house site was americaprase.com rather than.org so I called Alered's organization and asked them if there was a connection between the two. A very nice woman named Carletta Bradley
- [19:10]
Jake Rockatansky
explained, there is no connection. I'm not sure what happened. We had both.org and.com, came to my attention three months ago and I've been looking into it. I was really shocked. We are a really small group. It's really only myself, Brian Mercy and a few contractors. We're trying to consider whether or not to chase it down and see what happened with Godaddy or if this is just a situation where, glory be to God, it's a good thing. Until it's not. We're worried it's going to go in a direction that we don't like.
- [19:37]
Trey Grace
So archive.org shows no sign of Alarid's organization having previously owned the dot com site. The closest thing to a website it did show was a form that said the site may be for sale, and that form goes back to around 2019. All of that having been said, there are very few scrapes of the site to begin with. So this leaves us with two websites to focus Rededicate250, freedom250.org and americaprase.com youm'd think we'd be talking about freedom250.com, but another quick phone call confirmed that that website is owned by a former eyeglass salesman in Massachusetts who is very annoyed that people keep calling him about freedom250.org events. As annoying as all of this is, websites and top level domains do play a critical role in this story. Freedom250.org is not related to America250.org America 250 was a bipartisan project initiated in 2016. It had no place in second term Trump's America. What bipartisan coalition would approve of a UFC fight on the White House lawn or Trump's Quarter Quell version of the Hunger Games? For all of this and More, Trump needed Freedom 250, which confused a lot of corporations that had already donated to America 250 because Freedom 250 just went down that list and solicited donations from every single person or corporation who donated to America 250 already. If you're a bit confused, don't worry. So is Trump. He actually confused the two in his speech announcing the Freedom 250 initiative.
- [21:25]
Jake Rockatansky
Of course, it's like we're proud to announce our brand new movie, the Matrix.
- [21:34]
Dutch Sheets
To help carry out these exciting plans, we have created a new public private partnership. It's called Freedom250. Working with states, companies and organizations across the country, we will renew the patriotism, pride and pioneering spirit of America and lay the groundwork for the next 250 years of independence and freedom. This will be a time like you've never had in your lives. America 250. Thank you. I love you all.
- [22:05]
Jack LaRoche
God, you know, this is the one thing he's got, is supposed to be a master of branding. It's kind of like even that's decaying in his decline.
- [22:13]
Trey Grace
Yeah, all of him just seems to be decaying a bit right now.
- [22:17]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, he's. I think he's right. I have never seen a time like this in my life, so.
- [22:22]
Trey Grace
Historian Heather Cox Richardson noted the following.
- [22:26]
Jack LaRoche
Congress has appropriated $150 million for the department of the Interior to distribute to organizations for celebrations of the 250th. Of that money, America250 has been allocated $50 million. And Freedom250 has been allocated $100 million. Although as of February, America250 has received only $25 million. Freedom250 has also solicited donations in exchange for access to Trump. According to Carissa Waddick of USA Today, sponsors include ExxonMobil, MasterCard, Deloitte, Palantir and IndyCar. Donors can also request anonymity. So I think it's really great. Yeah, so. So it's like even like Palantir can straight up, like donate under name. There's a highly controversial, I would say evil organization. But if you want to be even more evil, if you want to be even more under the table, you can be totally anonymous.
- [23:18]
Trey Grace
Yeah, it's just totally. No rails on this right now. And to further emphasize this split, an April 20 Wall Street Journal article further explained the situation.
- [23:32]
Jake Rockatansky
Planning for the birthday split into two camps late last year. One is a bipartisan commission created by Congress in 2016 that is supported by the America250 group and has been accused by former executives of wastefulness. The other is a new Trump aligned group called Freedom 250 that its critics say is designating a birthday for America more suited to MAGA fans. America 250 has defended its spending and Freedom 250 says it is creating a party for all Americans. The two groups are now competing for a remaining slice of $150 million in federal funding that Congress appropriated for the semi quincentennial as part of last summer's quote, One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But that has yet to be doled out. When Congress appropriated the $150 million, only one group, America 250 was planning celebrations for the semi quincentennial. But the Interior Department is in charge of distributing the money and a representative indicated the remaining funds would largely go to the new Trump packed Freedom250. So he just stole the. He basically was just like create a name of something that's kind of like it and take all the money that was given to the before the. Before my group was made.
- [24:40]
Dutch Sheets
Yeah.
- [24:41]
Jake Rockatansky
Fantastic. Great. America 250 so far has received $25 million of that funding source and is hoping for an additional 25 million this year. Meanwhile, most of the people in the country are struggling to pay their rent. I added that last part.
- [24:59]
Trey Grace
I mean that last part should be added. But to summarize all of this, America 250 is essentially dead. Right now Freedom 250 is banking on the name recognition that America 250 had and hoping no one will notice that it is a MAGA Free for all. This also helps explain the recent announcement of bans at the Great American State Fair. Backing out. Former GOP Rep Adam Kissinger succinctly put
- [25:27]
Jack LaRoche
it here's the deal for those confused America 250 is the bipartisan celebration committee. Freedom 250 is a trump organization celebrating him masquerading as a celebration of America. The concert was Freedom 250, hence the cancellations.
- [25:41]
Trey Grace
So I hope that all makes sense.
- [25:43]
Jake Rockatansky
Well, I understand. Yes, I understand now.
- [25:46]
Trey Grace
AmericaPrase.com, the White House affiliated site, has a large banner advertising freedom250.org on its landing page. More amusingly, it's still advertising rededicate 252 weeks after the actual event, saying that you should register by clicking here. The site is copyrighted by prey.com, home of the nightmare inducing AI Bible stories, and all of its partners, along with the teal backed Catholic prayer spyware app that has Jake sucked in Hallow, the NAR affiliated Intercessors for America, Chae An's Harvest International Ministry, the aforementioned AI Bible slop, the ambitious James Bondian Cross on the Moon Coalition, the Southern Baptist Convention, and of course Jack Posobiek.
- [26:37]
Jake Rockatansky
Although the event so wait, wait wait wait wait. So these are the people that are funding the New America 250 celebration?
- [26:44]
Trey Grace
These are some of them. And these are the backers for prey.com, which in turn is the owner of americaprays.com got it.
- [26:53]
Jake Rockatansky
Got it. Cross on the Moon guy to Praise Subscription service website to 250 years America. We did it.
- [27:02]
Trey Grace
Yes. And the cross on the moon is what it sounds like. They want to build a massive cross on the moon so that they can preach Christianity through the whole universe. That is their goal.
- [27:15]
Travis View
They have an AI video of a rendering of a lunar lander landing on the moon and then a cross coming up from it. I highly Recommend you take 30 seconds and watch it.
- [27:24]
Trey Grace
100. The site is amazing. And they have funding, they have government backed. You know, they have gotten different senators and whatnot to sign on to this particular project.
- [27:36]
Jake Rockatansky
See, they think it's gonna get aliens into Christ and stuff, but really it's like, you know how sometimes it's. And it's sad. You're driving on a freeway and you sort of see like a memorial kind of like on the side of the road where somebody passed. That's what people are gonna think about Earth. They're gonna see that crossing on the moon and they're gonna go, oof. Yeah. Oh man, something bad must have happened there.
- [27:57]
Trey Grace
And what's bad happening there is happening right now. So although Rededicate 250 was linked to the White House, there was next to no coverage of it. In stark contrast to the chatter leading up to January 6th. No protests were planned as far as Trey and I could tell, and no speaker list was posted until May 9, roughly a week before the event itself and well after the May 1 press registration deadline had passed. Trump's campaign did not even advertise the event until a single text went out on Wednesday, giving next to no time for people to get their travel plans in place for the Sunday event. This turned out to not necessarily be a difficult thing for people who really wanted to make it, as a lot of the attendants we talked to appeared to have been bused in teal powered apostles. So once that speaker list was available, it was a who's who of extremism. The alleged Christian nationalist Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, enthusiastic crypto bro, Senator Tim Scott, the thoroughly alien pilled Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Bible literalist Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who gives Louisiana a reputation that scrim would be downright ashamed of. More interesting still were the faith leaders. Popular talk show host and former VeggieTales writer Eric Metaxas, televangelist list and frequent Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress. That striking faith advisor to the White House, Paula White, Chancellor of Liberty University. Jonathan Falwell, senior leader of the International House of Prayer. The other IHOP Blue angle Apostle Guillermo Maldonado Apostle, you might be asking, was this a new Apostolic Reformation event?
- [29:50]
Jake Rockatansky
I'm hearing all these names and I'm imagining them in kind of like the floating discs in the Star wars government.
- [30:00]
Trey Grace
It's a little like that. I'm kind of imagining it as a pick your fighter.
- [30:04]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're in front of like, kind of like a nicely animated like pixel 2D background of a. I don't know, like the back maybe like the kitchen of a church.
- [30:19]
Travis View
Just the absolute worst. Blunt rotation.
- [30:23]
Jake Rockatansky
Oh my God, can you imagine? I think I'd be fine.
- [30:28]
Trey Grace
No, no. When I used to find these people,
- [30:31]
Jake Rockatansky
I think going to like, he, like Hebrew school for, you know, most of my adolescence and childhood, I think kind of protects me from that kind of stuff. Like when I go into churches, I feel nothing. Like I'm just, I'm kind of fascinated that so many people like have been into this for so long that we haven't gotten bored of Jesus and move on to something different.
- [30:51]
Trey Grace
But I mean, the Raelians did move on to something different and you saw how that went for them.
- [30:56]
Jake Rockatansky
Well, I mean, certain, there are certain people who have moved on to something different, like the Heaven's Gate people, but like, you know, but for the most part, people are like, it's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus plus one, plus two, plus three, plus four.
- [31:08]
Trey Grace
Yeah. I mean, these people, I think that they might get to you not in the way of like religious fear, but I think that they would harsh your vibe in a very particular kind of way. And we'll see. Like, as this episode goes, goes on, let's see how the blunt rotations look.
- [31:25]
Jake Rockatansky
Okay. Okay.
- [31:26]
Trey Grace
So speaking of the new apostolic Reformation, remember Brian Allured of AmericaPrase.org, that particular pastor who has the rap name of White Chocolate? He is also a global leader of Empower 21. According to Empower 21's website, Empowered 21
- [31:46]
Jack LaRoche
is a global relational network that aims to help shape the future of the Spirit Empowered movement throughout the world by focusing on crucial issues facing the movement and connecting generations for intergenerational blessing in impartation.
- [31:59]
Trey Grace
Empower 21 stated vision should also sound
- [32:02]
Jack LaRoche
very familiar by now that every person on Earth would have an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit by Pentecost 2033.
- [32:13]
Trey Grace
You know, all of this authentic encounter with Jesus Christ just keeps making me think that they just want to kill everyone, that the only way that we're going to have an authentic encounter is if we're Just dead and then we'll actually see him. But anyway, in addition to being one of Empower 21's global leaders, Alred is also chair of their Global Prayer alliance, along with the quote unquote prophetic advisor Arlene Westerhoof and surprise Cindy Jacobs of January 6th fame. Jacobs is also the lady who deeply influenced the New Apostolic Reformation leader. See Peter Wagner's views on spiritual warfare. Earlier this week we interviewed Dr. Matthew Taylor about Rededicate 250 and the connection of the participants to the new apostolic reformation. Dr. Matthew Taylor is a religious studies scholar and leading public expert on Christian nationalism, Christian extremism, and the charismatic movements shaping contemporary American politics. He holds a PhD from Georgetown University and an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary. His work focuses especially on the new Apostolic Reformation spiritual warfare rhetoric and the religious network surrounding the current administration. Now, I'm sure you all remember the old adage that there's Q and there are anons, but there's no QAnon. Now, Trey had the brilliant idea to put this into perspective with the NAR because the NAR is a similar beast. It's most easily described as a loose affiliation of churches led by apostles and prophets. But there is no main headquarters. Here's how Dr. Taylor explained the connection between the rhetoric of the NAR and QAnon.
- [33:57]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
They'll say things like, yeah, there's no such thing as the nar or there was never an organization that you. And that's not false, right? Like, there never was an organization. Yeah. I will say the leaders in this world relationally are very interconnected, though. And once you start kind of watching them, you see all the kind of overlap. And I think it's interesting you point to kind of the QAnon culture. Actually, some of the NAR people have gotten really into QAnon historically. So I mean, one of the prophets is this guy Johnny Enlow. He went really deep into QAnon. Very Trumpy. So he believes in these kind of modern prophecies, considers himself a prophet. But then he also believes in QAnon. Right. And will sometimes bring up these different QAnon prophecies. So those worlds, I wouldn't say they overlap perfectly, but they definitely overlap.
- [34:40]
Dutch Sheets
So something.
- [34:41]
Trey Grace
So there's no main headquarters, unless you count empowered 21, given the leadership includes the likes of Chae On, Cindy Jacobs, Mark Green, who is the Hobby Lobby family and the founder of the Museum of the Bible. Billy Wilson, the Global Chair of Empowered 21, is the President of Oral Roberts University and was appointed to that position By March, Samuel Rodriguez is a member of the White House Faith Office and was the first speaker at Rededicate 250. So given the ties between Empowered 21, Rededicate 250 and Freedom 250. Yeah, Trey and I and everyone else we spoke to believe that Rededicate250 was a full blown White House endorsed new apostolic reformation event. Event. In addition to this, nearly all of the Corporate sponsors of Freedom 250 and Rededicate 250 have deep financial ties to Peter Thiel and Palantir, Deloitte, MasterCard, Exeger, ExxonMobil, IndyCar, John Deere and of course Lockheed Martin. This includes prey.com, which in 2024, quote, partnered on AI applications for faith based nonprofits given the challenges of translating its content into multiple languages. When we asked Dr. Taylor about the teal connection, he offered this insight.
- [36:10]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Peter Thiel has become very involved in this stuff. Peter Thiel, he's hard to place on any kind of, in any kind of movement or spectrum of spirituality. He kind of inhabits this strange kind of gay, evangelical, Catholic adjacent, Antichrist obsessed vision of Christianity. But a lot of these, I mean, like in the, in the 24 campaign when Elon Musk was becoming more and more of a proxy for Trump and Vance, he actually went and preached and. Or he didn't preach. He spoke and did a big event at a big charismatic church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That is actually the church that Sean Foyt, who's a very important NAR worship leader, who led a big event the night before rededicate 250. Shawn Foyt came out of that church, from what I understand. I think he actually brokered and set up that, that thing for Elon Musk. Musk. So Elon Musk, not known as a deep spiritual thinker, but here he is hanging out at an independent charismatic NAR church and doing a big event there as part of the campaign in a swing state. Right. So, no, I think what has happened is that Silicon Valley has realized that there's some real cultural capital in Christian nationalist churches. And this is not new.
- [37:19]
Jack LaRoche
Right.
- [37:19]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Billionaires for a long time have found the religious right to be a set of very useful allies to have people like Peter Thiel seem to be waking up to something. The oil barons discovered long ago that these folks, because they are kind of culturally aligned with a lot of the other causes that these folks already support, they can become a very useful voting bloc to be leveraged. And so there's this effort to kind of Cultivate these folks. I think for some of the Silicon Valley folks, seemingly even for Peter Thiel, there's also this genuine interest, interest in religion. But it's a weird kind of interest in religion. I mean, for Peter Thiel, he wants to go around the world doing lectures on how Greta Thunberg is the Antichrist. Right. But even that is kind of self serving.
- [38:04]
Dutch Sheets
Right.
- [38:04]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Because what are the markers of the Antichrist in his rhetoric? Well, anyone who wants to regulate AI is the Antichrist. Like, huh, that's awfully self serving.
- [38:12]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, it's like, who's going to be easier to fuck over? The people that are like, hey, look, we're just trying to figure out how to fucking feed ourselves and can you make the rent a little bit, bit cheaper. And then there's like the, the other group that's like, we are waiting for the man from the sky to come down and take us into the eternal, you know, place of happiness. It's like, of course, of course they're going to be easier to fuck over.
- [38:37]
Trey Grace
And speaking of self serving, remember that we're also now labeling people who are anti data centers as terrorists.
- [38:46]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically you're both a terrorist and you're demoted. You're a puppet of Satan.
- [38:51]
Trey Grace
Yeah, the demons and the terrorists, they're hanging out together now. Prey.com also has strong nar ties. Dr. Jim Garlow is a known apostle within the new Apostolic Reformation. Chae Ahn, current write in candidate for governor of California, is a frequent streamer on prey.com and was literally mentored by Peter Wagner. Rick Warren, current member of the Council on Foreign Relations, was also mentored by Wagner himself. Steven Furtick frequently announces prophetic activations at his Elevation Church where the members can then become apostles themselves. All of this is on pray.com, the America Praise and therefore Freedom 250 and White House affiliate, along with far right figures such as Lorenzo Sewell, who was the speaker at the 2026 inauguration, who then made headlines for launching a meme coin immediately after and the fundamentalist GoFundMe equivalent, give, send, go. In all honesty, prey.com has so many connections to the NAR, the far right and CREC that we could fill an entire episode dedicated just to that bullshit. But first, let's get to rededicate 250.
- [40:03]
Travis View
The road to prayer Town Sunday dawned hot and early for two former Southerners. We were still both planning to be miserable given the heat and humidity. I did my best to pull off a generic MAGA passing look, but was worried I was so generic that I stood out. Next time, I vowed, I'll wear something more aggressively patriotic. The selfie I took from my car caused Jack to remark that I no longer looked kind. We met at the Metro station, and it was clear from many other passengers that we weren't the only ones headed for the National Mall. There were ladies in red, white and blue shirts, hats and jewelry. A few men had flag tattoos and haircut short, short and tight. The cars were crawling with Metro security, weaving their way between the George Washington University graduates and full regalia. Because, of course, there were other events happening on the Mall that day. One douchey graduate we chatted with was finishing up his master's degree in artificial intelligence. Here's hoping that the AI bubble doesn't pop next week, I guess. After a short bathroom and sunscreen break, we left the Metro and were immediately accosted by someone handing out copies of the Great Controversy. We took one. I don't know about Jack, but I haven't read it yet. We got several other handouts heading toward the Mall, some of which were literally just audiobook versions of the Great Controversy. At this point, we were also extremely aware of just how thick the police and National Guard presence was. But we made it to the Freedom Truck so we could get our best. Prageru education from Freedom250 and brought to you by Prageru.
- [41:29]
Jake Rockatansky
Introducing the Freedom Truck, a mobile museum. Go back in time and experience the dawn of America with artifacts of the revolution. From the first settlements to the first cries of liberty.
- [41:47]
Dutch Sheets
Let it begin here.
- [41:49]
Jake Rockatansky
From the shot heard round the world
- [41:54]
Travis View
to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
- [41:57]
Jake Rockatansky
From the battles of the revolution to
- [41:59]
Travis View
the establishment of the Constitution, from 13 colonies from sea to shining seas.
- [42:06]
Jake Rockatansky
Experience America's 250th year like never before,
- [42:10]
Travis View
through an immersive journey that shows how patriots defied a king and forged a
- [42:16]
Jake Rockatansky
nation that changed the world.
- [42:23]
Travis View
Now open.
- [42:24]
Jake Rockatansky
Maybe we don't know, because everything they showed was AI. Assassin's Creed 3 looked better than that.
- [42:32]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah, a lot of garbage. AI founding fathers, like, like, really stiff moving mouths and stuff. It. Yeah, I don't know. It's like. It's really shocking the degree to which the right has completely embraced AI image. Images, like, they don't fucking have to deal with, like, you know. You know, people who actually create visual media anymore.
- [42:52]
Jake Rockatansky
I think Dennis Prage is, like the closest thing that we have to a real Jabba the Hutt.
- [42:57]
Travis View
Well, I think it's interesting that even the visual of the truck at the Beginning of that ad was AI generated. They couldn't even pull out a camera to shoot the truck itself. They had to AI generate it because, of course.
- [43:12]
Trey Grace
And it's particularly funny because there's so many good, like, Revolutionary War reenactors out there too, and there's people who make their livings impersonating the Founding Fathers for school events. But nah, let's just AI generate everything.
- [43:27]
Travis View
The Freedom Truck was everything we wanted it to be and more. The promised historical artifacts were just pictures with QR codes that you could scan to learn more about them. AI generated George Washington told us all about Valley Forge. There was a large screen that allowed you to take a very poorly designed quiz to see whether you were a patriot or a traitor during the revolution. Of particular note was the inclusion of Louisa May Alcott in the section of Famous American Heroes, given how easy it is to find in depth articles about the fact that Alcott was in all likelihood a trans man. Happy pride, everybody. The most entertaining exhibit was one where you could sign your name on the Declaration of Independence, which of course, we both did, with marks that utterly dwarfed that of John Hancock. There was supposed to be a stylus, but we couldn't find it and used our fingers. Then we stood in line for an hour waiting for admission, making friends with the patriots around us and listening to several shofars being blown. One person we chatted with was a middle school teacher in Massachusetts who quit her job due to the students increasing reliance on AI even while she derided students using it. She also admitted it could write better than she could. So she just gave up. I wonder how she'd feel about TEAL funding this venture. The lady behind us ran a terrier rescue and lived in Georgia. She had learned about the event only the day before and had flown in just for it. She also heard a rumor that Trump himself was going to be there. This rumor spread rapidly through the endless lines. We talked with people from all over Massachusetts, Maine, Nashville, Lubbock, and Atlanta. Some made a vacation out of it, but most couldn't afford that. Most were just there for the event and flying back that very night because the hotels were too rich for their blood. I do want to say this very clearly. While I'm sure everyone we spoke to would have been upset to hear our true intentions for this podcast, no one in line was anything but nice to us. I call it micro nice Macro mean, given the fact that we were literally at a Christian nationalist event. People sang and I remembered more verses of Amazing Grace than I thought. It's like riding a bike no one ever asked to see tickets. Forbidden items like chairs and outside food were brought in for the event. Event security had early on had told us that the recorder jack brought for the event wouldn't be allowed in as it could fall under surveillance equipment.
- [45:36]
Dutch Sheets
Nope.
- [45:36]
Travis View
We got through without a second glance. Only one person we saw in the line got any pushback from security, and that was for trying to get ahead in the line to use the bathroom. The beefy boy wearing a too small polo would not have any other. We got in with no issues, and the day really got started.
- [45:50]
Trey Grace
Yeah, I think that there was a person who literally had a big plastic bag full of Shafars and was giving them out to people to blow.
- [45:58]
Jack LaRoche
Oh, yeah.
- [46:00]
Trey Grace
So that blowing was a common occurrence throughout the day.
- [46:03]
Jake Rockatansky
Nice. You know, this was sort of my experience as well at almost all of the QAnon events and alien events that we went to. For the most part, people were, you know, really nice. I felt bad taking advantage of them and secretly recording them and trying to sort of engage with their pillaredness. I mean, really, there was a handful of times, I think we were scared, and that was once with the proud boys Travis at the Save the Children March and then the trucker convoy. I was a little scared at. Oh, I was scared during COVID Yeah,
- [46:35]
Trey Grace
I was at the 912 march back in the day, and everybody there was pretty darn nice, too.
- [46:39]
Jack LaRoche
Mm.
- [46:40]
Jake Rockatansky
I'm sure there were lots of Nazis who were very nice. Yeah, very nice people. You know, when you met them out at the street. I think that's a really interesting thing. You said Trey. Is that micro. Micro nice macro mean.
- [46:53]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah. I had similar experience. I feel like. Yeah, it's like I was, like. I never felt like I had. Was ever in a threatening situation with the sole exception of when Jim Watkins threatened to punch me in the face. Other than that, it's been. Yeah, like the general people who attend these events are like. While they're there, obviously, I feel like they. Their broader agenda, I think, is pretty wretched. But interpersonally, you know, they're not that bad.
- [47:15]
Jake Rockatansky
Samuel Rodriguez.
- [47:17]
Travis View
First up was Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, a name I've seen several times while doing research for this. He's a global leader for Empowered 21. He blurbed and was name dropped in Brian Allred's by name and is a signatory of the Christianity in the Age of AI an appeal for wise leadership Letter to Donald Trump, which reads in
- [47:37]
Jake Rockatansky
part, amidst everything else you are achieving, you are the AI President having ascended again. To the presidency. Exactly. As this technology has reached its own ascendancy. As people of faith, we believe you are the world's leader. Now by divine providence, to also guide AI as people of faith, we believe we should rapidly. You know what, what this feels like to me? You know the. In Toy Story, the aliens that live in the claw machine? That's like, what this feels like. That's like what this feels like to me.
- [48:14]
Trey Grace
You're doing a better pastor voice than Tim Scott does. So you have that going for you.
- [48:19]
Jake Rockatansky
I was born in a different body. As a people of faith, we believe we should rapidly develop powerful AI tools that help cure diseases and solve practical problems. But not autonomous. Smarter than human machines that nobody knows how to control. To be clear, we are not encouraging the United States. And our friends. And our friends. Who's he talking about? To do anything but win the AI race. There is no alternative. We must win. And then. Does he actually, like, name his website?
- [48:54]
Travis View
Yeah, there are several signatories there. I haven't done research into all of them yet, but if we feel this is something worth pursuing further, I am happy to take point on some of that. He's clearly someone with ties to both artificial intelligence and the new Apostolic Reformation, which made what he had to say on Sunday particularly interesting.
- [49:13]
Dutch Sheets
Author of the Truth. With conviction and clarity, we ask you to help us remember that our rights come from you and not from man. That what makes us exceptional is embedded in the following Algorithm of Liberty. It's God over man and man over government.
- [49:32]
Jake Rockatansky
I mean, got him.
- [49:33]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah. I mean, Algorithm of Liberty is, I don't know, pretty, pretty ominous.
- [49:38]
Travis View
Thank you. When we heard that at the event, I almost packed up and left because I was like, I could write an episode on this.
- [49:44]
Jake Rockatansky
The Algorithm of Liberty.
- [49:46]
Travis View
Those three words just spoke volumes to me. But we stayed for longer.
- [49:51]
Trey Grace
Yeah, it was like a dog hearing that. The dinner bell just rang, just all of a sudden. Wait, what?
- [49:57]
Jake Rockatansky
Oh, God.
- [49:57]
Travis View
But he did have something else in his speech again. He was the first speaker. This is the opening event.
- [50:03]
Dutch Sheets
Oh, my God. So finally we recognize that there is a battle in America. Yet the battle is not primarily between the donkey and the elephant. The battle is between the serpent and the lamb. And your word reminds us in Colossians 2:15 that the lamb already defeated the serpent.
- [50:30]
Travis View
The algorithm of Liberty is God over man and man over government. A clarion call for a God driven government. No need for the separation of church and state. That immediately raised my hackles. Even though I hadn't found the AI letter to Trump at that point, anytime I hear tech bro Theobro crossover talk, I get very curious. It's especially interesting when Sammy Rodriguez is called a friend by Brian Alarid and in an organization with someone that wants to use artificial intelligence and technology to do the most outlandish data event of all time and pray for everyone by name and give them a bible in their heart language. There doesn't seem to be much in the phrase the algorithm of Liberty Online aside from references to that speech. But when I looked for God over man, man over government, I did get a hit.
- [51:23]
Jake Rockatansky
He really wants to make America, in
- [51:26]
Dutch Sheets
his terms, great again.
- [51:28]
Jake Rockatansky
He really wants to reinforce the values that made it exceptional. God over man, man over government, that powerful value that rights are given by
- [51:38]
Dutch Sheets
God,
- [51:40]
Jake Rockatansky
limit the government. The more government grows, the more man's personal liberties are cast aside and our dependency becomes ungovernment and not on our own God given abilities.
- [51:52]
Travis View
That's from a 2017 piece titled Trump's marriage to Melania, an immigrant Shows he's not a white supremacist, where Sammy also
- [52:00]
Jake Rockatansky
says, intellectually speaking from a logical continuum, he can't have a child who's from an immigrant mother and be anti immigrant.
- [52:09]
Travis View
He added, speaking of the couple's 11 year old son, Baron.
- [52:12]
Jake Rockatansky
So it's just intellectually naive, right?
- [52:17]
Dutch Sheets
Hey, man. Now he's.
- [52:19]
Jake Rockatansky
Now he's kind of getting into like, sort of like strung out McConaughey territory.
- [52:24]
Travis View
He's the first speaker and it sets a tone for this white nationalist Christian prayer event. It's a multicultural white nationalist Christian prayer event. And again, there's a clear martial throughline with his other comment. With the battle in America not being primarily between the donkey and the elephant, signaling that that battle is also going to on. He's just trying to downplay it on a day of prayer and worship, since this was not a political event.
- [52:50]
Trey Grace
Definitely not political.
- [52:53]
Dutch Sheets
Eric Metaxas.
- [52:56]
Travis View
Oh, the Veggie Tales writer and children's book author. You know, the one who's not in charge of the FBI. The crowd was particularly impressed by this monologue straight out of a late night writer's room.
- [53:06]
Dutch Sheets
They burned parts of the city, including the White House, which at that time, if you can believe it, did not yet have a ballroom. Yes. It's hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man, to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand. It's extraordinary. We only had to wait 200 years.
- [53:35]
Jake Rockatansky
Wow.
- [53:35]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah.
- [53:36]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Yeah.
- [53:36]
Jack LaRoche
I mean, yeah. And he brought forth a savior who would bring a ballroom to the White House?
- [53:42]
Jake Rockatansky
This is insane. Can you imagine going home and being like, I believe in Christ and be like. And they. And they brought a ballroom. I just can't imagine somebody being satisfied with that.
- [53:53]
Trey Grace
The best part of the Metaxas speech was that that was the only part of it that got a really strong reaction from the audience. He tried to get audience interaction throughout the rest, but it was just kind of dead after he walked out on St. But then he hit the ballroom point and the crowd went wild.
- [54:12]
Jake Rockatansky
Cause that's what's happening right now, that's the current season of the show is like getting the ballroom up. You know, it's like a wall. It's like the wall, but now it's even more local and more narcissistic. And yeah, it's. Of course they're like, oh, the ballroom. We know about that fight. We know about that plot point.
- [54:30]
Travis View
Well, and it's also interesting because now, finally, this past weekend, we've gotten more details about what this ballroom needs to have, like all great ballrooms throughout history. A Dr. On the roof, naturally.
- [54:41]
Jake Rockatansky
Drone port on the roof.
- [54:43]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Yep.
- [54:43]
Trey Grace
Yeah. How else are you gonna get the fun little drone displays, you know?
- [54:47]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, Like. Ah, yes. The Apostle Paul spoke of a great ballroom at the top of mighty metal birds with slings and arrows for come and go as they please. It's spoken of. It's.
- [55:04]
Travis View
It is written, I'll point out. And this. This was something that we'll get into a little bit later. But that. That's more of a prophet, not an apostle thing, Jake.
- [55:14]
Jake Rockatansky
Well, we all know I get my Christianities and, you know, Peter's and Paul's confused every now and again.
- [55:21]
Travis View
Metaxas also started his talk by highlighting the importance of Christopher Columbus and the Cape Henry settlers in their first act in the New world, being prayer. If I had spent three months on a boat, even as a religious as I am right now, I would probably be praying too. For some reason, though, he left out the fact that their lasting impact on the new World was genocide.
- [55:39]
Trey Grace
You know, who needs to focus on that? That's a bummer.
- [55:42]
Jake Rockatansky
Exactly. Nobody wants to be a bummer.
- [55:44]
Travis View
Bishop Kelvin Coberis Koberis was the first black speaker of the day, and mostly a breath of fresh air in the Southern black community. Koberis has drawn a lot of comparison to Rollo Goodlove from the boondocks. Essentially a preacher who is forever chasing after tragedy in order to better his own name. He has openly spoken a lot about how since he started hanging out with Trump. God has blessed him with an abundance of cash. Also of note, he waited 12 whole hours to denounce a Trump Truth Social post depicting the Obamas as literal monkeys until it was already deleted. All of that said, he did highlight that America did have racism once upon a time.
- [56:18]
Dutch Sheets
A people shaped by promise and scarred by sin, a nation conceived in liberty yet compromised by cruelty. During the abolition era, courageous voices rose to confront that controversy contradiction. We cannot rewrite the past, but we must learn from it. Ignoring history only invites repetition. Remembering it demands responsibility. The danger today is not that we forget entirely, but we remember selectively. If we are to move forward, we must be honest about where we've been. Let us face facts, faithfully teach truth, fully refuse to repeat what we refuse to confront. And so we come to this moment and a call for renewed reference and national rededication. Not a shallow slogan, not a political posture, but a genuine turning back to the belief that we are accountable to something higher than ourselves. To rededicate America to God is not to claim perfection. It is to confess dependence.
- [57:24]
Travis View
Basically a straight shot of espresso given some of the other speakers we got that day. Yeah, I'll also compare his talk to Senator Tim Scott. Senator Scott espoused the standard GOP MAGA party line of Martin Luther King had a dream and now there's no more racism.
- [57:42]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Yay.
- [57:42]
Dutch Sheets
The civil rights movement succeeded not simply because of lobbying in the halls of Congress. It succeeded because the church found itself on its knees before a gracious, loving, amazing God.
- [58:00]
Jake Rockatansky
I don't know about that.
- [58:01]
Travis View
Well, don't worry, because we don't need the Voting Rights Act. That's why Tim Scott says the current state of affairs is not Jim Crow 2.0. Racism is over and we can all stop protesting now, something Senator Scott and other speakers I think, need to be reminded of. Context matters, as any student of relig would stress, and as my professors often did, he misquotes Martin Luther King Jr's I have a Dream speech, proudly specifically referencing his use of AMOS5.24 but let
- [58:32]
Jack LaRoche
justice roll down like water in righteousness, like an ever flowing stream.
- [58:36]
Jake Rockatansky
And he said ever failing stream.
- [58:39]
Travis View
He said ever failing stream in the speech? Yep. He leaves out the immediate context in both that speech and the chapter of the Bible from which it comes. MLK proceeded to with we cannot be
- [58:49]
Dutch Sheets
satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of that dignity by signs stating for whites only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
- [59:41]
Travis View
For a near lethal dose of irony, here's what the verses immediately preceding Amos 5:24 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light. As if someone fled from a lion and was met by a bear, or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light and gloom with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the offerings of well being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs, I will not listen to the melody of your harps, but let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an egg ever flowing stream the cherry picking of scriptural quotations has long been a personal pet peeve of mine and was on my mind a lot while reading Brian Alered's books. If you're willing to take what they say with total confidence, it sounds great. But as soon as you peel back even one layer and look a little bit deeper, things immediately fall apart. There's a particularly brutal chapter in Alered's first book, When People Pray, that stands out to me. My apologies as this was hard to read and is hard to talk about given the sad subject matter. To summarize, his daughter Chloe had just been hospitalized with stroke like symptoms, crippling nerve pain and complete amnesia like shadows on the wall.
- [61:09]
Jack LaRoche
I remembered a nightmare I had years before Chloe was born. In the dream, Mercy and I had a beautiful daughter who died of a rare disease at the age of 12. I prayed when I woke up, God, if you're going to give us a daughter just to take her away, I don't want to have her. As my fury mounted, I opened my mouth wide, wide in a silent scream and broke into uncontrollable tears. I fell to my face on the floor and prayed once more. Jesus, please promise me that Chloe is not going to die. I don't care how long it takes for her to recover and learn to walk again. Just don't take my baby girl from me. I listened with my head on the floor and my soul broken. And I heard a voice, not a voice like thunder, but a gentle whisper in my heart start 24. 7 prayer prayer and I'll take care of Chloe. It was two days after my night long conversation with God on the hospital floor. Chloe, who was never supposed to stand again, was walking across the room on her own two feet. I gawked as her memory started to come back and her left side's functions returned to normal. We decided to take her home against the wishes of her doctors. I wish I could say the story ended there and we all lived happily ever after. But you know, 25 minutes later, Chloe was screaming in pain as we pulled into our garage. Well, yeah, it's a real horror story.
- [62:27]
Jake Rockatansky
Jesus Christ. And what about all the families, you know, what about all the families who pray for their kids to be okay and they're not? You know what I mean?
- [62:36]
Trey Grace
It's like they should have started. 24. 7 Prayer Duh.
- [62:39]
Jake Rockatansky
Quick. Subscribe to Hallow the yearly sub, not the monthly one.
- [62:43]
Trey Grace
Listen to Chris Pratt. He'll heal you.
- [62:45]
Jake Rockatansky
Listen to Chris Pratt. Not only will your daughter walk, but she'll fly.
- [62:48]
Travis View
Actually, amongst this medical drama and possible child neglect, Brian also quotes Hebrews 11. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. I added verse 32 at the beginning there, which he left out specifically because Jephthah was the one who obtained promises from God in Judges 11, 30, 32, and 34, 35. Jephthah does go on to sacrifice his daughter to the Lord. This is the kind of biblical justification these people will cite, and they hope you don't put in the effort of looking anything up.
- [63:35]
Jake Rockatansky
Can you guys kind of give me like the Cliff Notes? Basically? Like, as somebody who's just, you know, really kind of an amateur in, in terms of understanding the Bible, what's. What's the significance here?
- [63:45]
Travis View
The significance here is that Brian Allred is quoting a prophet and a. I'd have to look up specifically what Jephthah is. I think he was one of the Hebrew Judges, one of the Israeli Judges. He is specifically citing Jephthah, a man whose faith in God was so strong that he sacrificed his own daughter after telling the Lord, I will sacrifice whatever comes out of my house to you if you grant me this victory. And so when Brian's daughter is in the hospital suffering and he makes a bargain with God and pulls his daughter out, he's kind of going along that same route, or at least that's how it reads to me.
- [64:23]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, like most of these right wing idiots, they never somehow are able to see that they're the exact kind of person that they're condemning or you know, warning you or trying to stop you from being or whatever. It's, it really never fails.
- [64:40]
Travis View
Lou Angle the most interesting speaker in many ways was NAR Apostle Lou Engel, deemed a nice Louisiana boy by online commentators on the stream after the fact, who took the stage immediately after Donald Trump's video video message. As a side note, not only did Donald Trump not take the stage himself@rededicate 250, his recorded video message was simply the same verses of scripture that he read during the Museum of the Bibles America reads the Bible readathon the week before. Second Chronicles 7:1122.
- [65:10]
Jake Rockatansky
And here's a pre recorded video.
- [65:14]
Travis View
Here's your reaction.
- [65:16]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, here's your savior. You were whispering amongst yourselves that maybe I would be here or maybe I would record you a specific message for this event. But actually no, you're part of a
- [65:30]
Dutch Sheets
group recording that I made.
- [65:32]
Jake Rockatansky
In fact, I don't even know that this event is taking place.
- [65:36]
Travis View
2nd Chronicles 7 verses 11 through 22 is about building the house of the Lord and the King's house. These people were expecting Trump to show up and they got. Eclipses show the worst of all video forms.
- [65:49]
Jake Rockatansky
Great.
- [65:49]
Travis View
Lou took the stage with the least surprising surprise guest speaker for an event of this nature. None other than Nar Prophet Dutch Sheets, the prolific writer with over 23 books about his particularly intense beliefs. Immediately upon stepping on stage, Apostle Lou
- [66:04]
Dutch Sheets
proclaimed, what we just heard is a clarion call from our president for a covenant renewal and outpouring. But if we don't humble ourselves and pray, he actually read the curses of this covenant. Brothers and sisters, this is a hinge of history moment.
- [66:30]
Jake Rockatansky
He's like in the right corner.
- [66:34]
Dutch Sheets
Jesus Christ.
- [66:36]
Jake Rockatansky
Then it's like, like he really sounds like that. He's, he's calling a cageman match.
- [66:42]
Travis View
Lou Engel said that Rededicate 250 was the culmination of 26 years of work ever since the call prayer rallies that Lou himself started. Coincidentally or not, it is also 26 years since the Seven Mountain mandate was created and prophesied by Lance Waldow, who was also present there in the crowd that day, but didn't take the stage himself. But Engel stressed this event was different than any other that he's led because it was specifically called for by President Trump, thus implying to me a full endorsement of the new apostolic Reformation by the full American government. He also directly compared President Trump to the kings of Israel. Dr. Matthew Taylor, when we interviewed him, had this to say about that.
- [67:26]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
The new abstract Reformation folks have been doing this kind of event for decades. I mean, the first one that I'm aware of was right as kind of the NAR was starting to congeal in the year 2000, right before the 2000 presidential election, and they were very much supporting George W. Bush. They held a big event called the Call. It was on the National Mall, very similar to Rededicate 250, right? Kind of integrating kind of the national symbols and geography of the National Mall with this kind of spiritual warfare paradigm. And they had tens, probably even hundreds of thousands of people at that event. And it was led by a guy named Lou Engel, who happened to take the stage at rededicate 250. And he was doing. He's been doing these big events. They've been called the Call or the Return. I mean, he's had a bunch of different versions of it over the years, but it's kind of a trailer traveling roadshow of this kind of mass revival, spiritual warfare prophecy events that they. And they often have done them on the National Mall. So this is. It's not new that you would see a bunch of NAR people taking a stage in front of thousands or tens of thousands of people on the National Mall declaring some very controversial things. That's very much in there in the vein of what they do. What disturbed me was that this is the first time we've seen it have White House signature sanction and government sponsorship. And that very much fits their narrative of what they've been driving at for the last 25 years of doing these events is their goal is not merely a spiritual renewal of America. Their goal is a takeover of American politics and American culture with the backing and assistance of the US Government in order to enact their ideal Christian nation.
- [68:58]
Travis View
The first, the call in 2000 had to quote from Dr. Taylor's book, the Violent Take it by ford course, between 300,000 and half a million teenagers and 20 somethings fervently worshiping Jesus on the National Mall with the Capitol building silhouetted behind the stage. Estimates put rededicate 250at around 5,000 people by the time England Sheets took the stage. Why then was this event the culmination? Given the variance in crowd size, I'll let Lou Engel say it himself, but
- [69:25]
Dutch Sheets
this solemn assembly is different than any other solemn assembly. Assembly for the President of the United States has called this day biblically speaking, it was. When the kings of Israel called solemn assemblies and the people responded, God shifted the nation and poured out his spirit. I believe we're in that moment right now, and what you do echoes in eternity.
- [69:57]
Jack LaRoche
Now, would you actually describe this particular assembly as solemn?
- [70:02]
Travis View
Well, it's interesting you mention that, because that is exactly how it's referred to in the passage from Amos that we quoted a couple of minutes ago. So our translations match up there, Lou and I, I guess. But again, if I'm reading this right, I hate. I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
- [70:23]
Jake Rockatansky
I feel like we're always in a moment that's kind of was foretold in the Bible. You know, people have been saying this.
- [70:30]
Trey Grace
I mean, ever since I was a kid, they've been saying that, like, the Bible code has foretold this and foretold that, that Nostradamus's predictions, you know, it's always been something.
- [70:40]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah. I guess my question is, has there ever been a time when, you know, super religious people were like, hey, we're living in a. No, not Bible time right now, actually. Like, there's, like, what we're seeing right now. Bible actually. Like, we're kind of in our charted territory. Bible's got nothing to say on this. I feel like ever since, you know, I kind of found out what it was, people are like, oh, well, this relates to the Bible. Oh, in this period right here, this is when, you know, Job did this or whatever.
- [71:08]
Trey Grace
There is that meme online right now that says none of these words appear in the Bible.
- [71:14]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, it's true.
- [71:15]
Travis View
Lou Engel seems to be of the opinion that the White House has officially sponsored the new apostolic reformation. And this should worry all of us. He went on and continued, and I
- [71:26]
Dutch Sheets
want you to declare a dream that I had that the president was elected. And on this mall, there was a great gathering as far as you could see. And this people began chanting, revival, revival, revival. Would you begin to chant revival, revival. God, Revival, revival, revival.
- [71:49]
Jack LaRoche
Boy, it's genuinely terrifying.
- [71:51]
Travis View
And the crowd began to chant, revival, revival. And thus was Lou Engel's dream and prophecy fulfilled.
- [71:59]
Jake Rockatansky
Historically, these are the people with, like, torches and pitchforks, like, outside of a
- [72:04]
Trey Grace
place, you know, but they're saying revival. How could this be a badge thing?
- [72:07]
Dutch Sheets
Revival.
- [72:10]
Jake Rockatansky
Like who?
- [72:12]
Trey Grace
Like, is this the episode that breaks you, Jake?
- [72:15]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, I mean, it's just like. Well, this guy in particular, because he sounds like he's. He sounds like he's the leader of the sort of like Torches and Pitchforks crew in like a 1960s, like, you know, like monster movie. Yeah, I guess they've always been trying to do this right, and they finally found a guy melted and enough and malleable enough that they could finally push it through. I mean, we are closer, I think, at least in my lifetime, it feels like we are closer than ever to the Jenga Tower sort of toppling. And I don't know, I think if Julian were here, he would probably say we've always been this. And any illusion of straying from it has been well orchestrated. But from my perspective, I don't know, it's just. It is worrying that Trump seems to. I don't know, maybe he thinks he is securing himself a spot on the plane to heaven.
- [73:17]
Trey Grace
I do agree with your Julian perception to a degree, but I think that it's a lot more out in the open when you have people like, would this make Lou Engel a prophet? Since his prophecy has now come to pass, like with him being as open as he is and as endorsed as he now is, I think that does put it a lot more out there for everybody to see, even if it has been going on for much longer.
- [73:46]
Jake Rockatansky
It's like an open mic night. If the rapper who's like before he's really won the crowd over is like, put your hands in the air, you know, I mean, like, is it really a prophecy if he told, you know, if he told the crowd to it, do, do it?
- [73:58]
Travis View
I guess it depends.
- [73:59]
Jake Rockatansky
Or is it a self serving.
- [74:00]
Travis View
Yeah, I guess it depends. If the prophecy was a while ago, then, you know, he, he prophesied that he would do this and the crowd would chant after him. And so you know, him just getting up and prompting them to chant Revival. Revival is, you know, just a step along the way. But the prophecy itself was the dream. But again, he, he does not claim the title of prophet for himself. He just claims he's an apostle.
- [74:25]
Trey Grace
And to be fair, you know, Trey and I did witness and did join in some prior revival chants to those revival chants. The revival chants were happening a lot throughout the day.
- [74:37]
Travis View
Now, speaking of prophets, right behind him, kind of the Flavor Flav to the Chuck D that was Lou Engel. Dutch Sheets took the mic to close out this Segment.
- [74:48]
Dutch Sheets
Lord, we just conclude this session by saying you are extending your hand of mercy to this nation. Millions of prayers have been prayed today, and in the past 30, 40 years, you have accepted those prayers. And we say today is breakthrough day. Today is Reconnection day. Today is recovenant day. Today is the day that the outpouring of your spirit begins in our nation. We declare a new beginning for America in the mighty name of Jesus.
- [75:22]
Travis View
And so we're clear, in spiritual warfare terms, these men are generals. You can find articles referencing them as such. You can find social media posts addressing them as such. They are speaking to their army, they are giving orders. And there's a line from Dr. Taylor's podcast, Charismatic Revival Fury, which is all about the new apostolic reformation and the impact they had on January 6th. I encourage anybody out there to listen to it. If you haven't heard it, this line has been lodged in my brain, bouncing around ever since I first heard it.
- [75:57]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
This is the fundamental disconnect within their strategic spiritual warfare worldview. If you imagine yourself to be on the side of the angels, you can never be in the wrong.
- [76:08]
Travis View
When we spoke to him, he also pointed out that the same concept now applies to being on the side the of of Trump. This is also something he echoed in that same podcast, is that it creates
- [76:18]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
a very simple Manichaean world. There is good and there is evil, and we know we're on the side of good. So anyone who opposes us must de facto be evil and guided by demons. So these folks love Trump and they also see that he's unpopular and that his policy ideas are opposed by most Americans. So, of course, worse, this means we just need more spiritual warfare.
- [76:43]
Travis View
So to wrap up, we have a loosely connected group of religious leaders responsible for stoking much of the fervor around January 6th, even if they'll claim to be appalled by the violence that happened that day that are now all but sanctioned by the United States government and their prophesied heaven mandated leader, Donald J. Trump. And we are heading into midterm election season, and I'm sure that they will have prophecies about that, that and what's to come.
- [77:11]
Jack LaRoche
Yeah, well, we'll see. If God ordained for Republicans to lose control of Congress, which is typically what happens to the ruling party in the midterms.
- [77:21]
Jake Rockatansky
Well, that's the. But that's the best part about, you know, like he just said, being on the side of the angels, you're never wrong. You know, like I was asking earlier, like, what about all the families, like, whose children like do die after days of prayer. Even, you know, the most religious people, it's like, well, that was God ordained too. God wanted the child to die. So if your child is saved, it was saved by God. If your child is killed, it was killed by God. If you kill somebody, you're killing in the name of God.
- [77:50]
Trey Grace
You're starting to understand it, Jake. And if your child dies, that's something that happened for a reason. And that reason is largely to teach you a lesson that you need to learn and grow from.
- [78:01]
Jake Rockatansky
One thing I'm sort of failing to connect on is like why they're embracing AI. And so to me that would seem so counterintuitive given all of the fear around false idols and especially fear of technology. And you know, to me it would seem that AI is like a way easier place for like demons to sort of creep in. Right.
- [78:25]
Trey Grace
Like some of it is because of the data collection aspect of it. So, you know, the data collection would allow them to get everybody's name so that they can be prayed for for. It's helping them proselytize more easily.
- [78:38]
Travis View
Streamlining and I think something else, and this is a half formed thought, but something I'm trying to flesh out as we go. I don't think it's, you know, the old deus ex machina thing. I think it's deus via machina. I think they are trying to summon God with the help of the machine, not find God in the machine.
- [78:58]
Jake Rockatansky
Why did that. Why did that terrify me on a. On a level that I can't quite describe? Subscribe.
- [79:03]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
You're welcome.
- [79:04]
Trey Grace
Yeah, that's definitely something we'll be talking about more in future episodes of this show.
- [79:09]
Travis View
There were other interesting tidbits from other speakers we could linger on throughout the speeches. There was more shofar blowing similar to the Jericho marches in January 6th. Robert Jeffress Many times emphasized how nobody throws a better party than Donald Trump. Apostle Maldonado, while altogether boring, reiterated how many miracles were happening today. Gentas and Franklin tried to turn a coy tale about Elon Musk's grandparents into a parable. Hebrew scripture was quoted frequently and Zionist dog whistle sounded often. Jesus Christ was quoted three times in case there was any doubt about the event itself. Throughout all of it, a woman stood roughly 3 yards in front of us with an appeal to heaven flag much like that flown by the Alito family and speaker of the House Mike Johnson draped around her shoulders. All throughout, others approached her with compliments to her choice of garments. This flag has a particularly interesting history if you're not familiar with it, this
- [80:03]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
flag, if you've seen it, it's a white flag, has a green pine tree at the center and the phrase unappeal to heaven across the top. It actually is a flag that comes out of the Revolutionary War. It was commissioned by George Washington to fly over the Massachusetts Navy during the Revolutionary War. I mean, the Massachusetts Navy was like four ships, so it was not, like, widely used, but it was a p. It was a symbol from the Revolutionary War, and it exists in history textbooks, or maybe Revolutionary War buffs might be familiar with it. But in 2013, one of these NAR apostles and prophets, a guy named Dutch Sheets, found out about this flag, and he believed that when he discovered it, he received a prophecy that this appeal to heaven flag was a symbol of a spiritual revolution that needed to take place. This is at the beginning of the second Obama administration. Right. And Dutch Sheets, hated Obama, thought he was a Muslim, thought he was demonic. And so. Right. In the same way that the Revolutionary War was for liberation from tyranny, well, now we need liberation from this liberal tyranny that has taken over. And so he kind of starts one of these spiritual warfare campaigns with the Appeal to heaven Flag is kind of a core symbol of this campaign to do spiritual warfare, to fulfill the prophecy and have the United States have a spiritual revolution. And he writes a whole book, An Appeal to Heaven, that comes out in 2015. And all this stuff kind of hits the marketplace right around the same time that Donald Trump is entering US politics in 2015. And so it becomes wedded to Trump almost kind of implicitly.
- [81:38]
Jack LaRoche
Right.
- [81:38]
Dr. Matthew Taylor
Because all the NER folks are supporting Trump. They believe we need a spiritual revolution. Well, Donald Trump must be the enactor of that spiritual revolution. And I wrote a whole book on January 6th. You can see dozens of appeal to heaven flags all over January 6th. Mike Johnson flies an appeal to heaven flag outside of his congressional election office. It was given to him by an NAR Pastor, Sam Alito, flew one over his summer house. He claimed it was just his wife who did it in the summer of 23. So this is kind of. I think there was a study in. I think it was in 2025 that found at least a dozen congressional offices with these appeal to heaven flags flying outside of them now. So it's become this kind of secret handshake of Christian nationalism, a way to kind of signal that you're aligned with this kind of spiritual warfare paradigm of Christian nationalism. But then when these politicians get called on it and, like, what are you doing with this Christian nationalism? Oh, I'm just an American history buff. I just love maritime history, right? It's like, oh, everyone just happens to be into Revolutionary War maritime history all at the same time.
- [82:42]
Jake Rockatansky
I guess people are like, all of our beliefs are like, more unpopular than ever. And we're actively like, losing friends and family members by continuing to, to talk about these things at lunches, dinners, you know, just hanging out. And they were like, I know what's going on. It's not me that's out of touch. It's that Donald Trump is here to signify, like, the next coming of Jesus Christ.
- [83:05]
Travis View
No, no, it's the kids who are wrong.
- [83:07]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah. My goodness. We've got to figure this out, folks. We have got to build cities for these folks where they think that this can be happening. I'm workshopping the idea, but it's some kind of like a, like, kind of like a Christian Disneyland that's like going 24 7. Kind of like Disney's Coutinho. These, like, these weird, what they call story living communities that they're building out in the middle of the desert with like fake lagoons and stuff. I'm dead serious. You can look it up. This could be a really good way maybe to sort of shuffle these people into some kind of reality where they're very happy. Cause if they think they're in, in heaven, it'll kind of be like the village, you know, if they think they're in heaven, why would they ever leave? You know what I mean? Like, if you're like, hey, beyond that tree line or beyond this man made oasis, like, that's where hell is. Like, the rest of the world is like, gone to shit like the rapture happened. But here at Disney's Coutinho, you're with all of your friends and family. This is heaven.
- [84:11]
Trey Grace
Jake, are you saying that we should round these people up and put them into camps?
- [84:16]
Jake Rockatansky
No, not at all.
- [84:17]
Trey Grace
I don't know.
- [84:20]
Jake Rockatansky
They're free to leave whenever they want. They're free to go. It's just.
- [84:24]
Trey Grace
And they're free to stay there, they're free to work there. They're free to be safe.
- [84:28]
Jake Rockatansky
They're free to go whenever they want. They should just know that there's gonna be a lot of sign on their way out. There's gonna be a lot of signage about what the rest of the world looks like once you leave the gates. I'm just saying, careful, do not enter demons ahead. You know, it'll be kind of like the messages that People leave for each other in dark souls.
- [84:49]
Trey Grace
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. There's a person who dresses up like Obama and another who dresses up like Biden who just kind of patrol the edges of the camp.
- [84:59]
Jake Rockatansky
They wait in the woods. Oh, my God. I think we're onto something here.
- [85:02]
Travis View
And if you see Hillary, run.
- [85:05]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
- [85:07]
Trey Grace
She'll eat your brain. She'll eat your liver. You know, nobody knows what she's up
- [85:10]
Jake Rockatansky
to because it doesn't seem like these folks are slowing down. Although I guess I. Yeah, it is.
- [85:16]
Travis View
Is.
- [85:16]
Jake Rockatansky
It is really troubling.
- [85:18]
Trey Grace
They were not slowing down at the crowd there. They were very enthusiastic. They were very earnest in their beliefs. And the fact that there was this call to arms that very much seemed to energize the crowd, you know, is something that should give people pause, especially because, you know, we noted that there was probably about 5,000 people there in the crowd out, you know, one of the times, and it was a place that was. The permit that they put out was saying that they were expecting around 15,000 people total. So although there were only about 5,000 or so people there, it was streamed online, and it was being streamed online and being watched by people all over the globe. So the physical attendance doesn't necessarily reflect what the actual viewing was, was, and the effect that comes from it across the globe. And I think that's something important that we need to keep in mind.
- [86:15]
Jake Rockatansky
Well, I mean, one of the clips we were just listening to, I swear to God, I could hear a guy in the background, like, you know, before the speaker sentence ended, going like, yeah, just like, sounded like my nephew, like, getting into the Fast and Furious, like, arcade machine.
- [86:32]
Trey Grace
You know, look, an exorcism needs to happen now and then.
- [86:36]
Jake Rockatansky
Just unbridled, like you said. It's like a general calling their troops to war. And this is so much more powerful than digital soldiers because these kind of spiritual soldiers, they've been around for centuries. And these are the people willing to do the most heinous things in the name of what they believe to be justice and righteousness.
- [86:58]
Travis View
Because if you imagine yourself to be on the side of the angels, you can never be in the wrong.
- [87:05]
Trey Grace
Preach it.
- [87:06]
Jake Rockatansky
Preach it. That's like the. You reminded me of the quote at the end of Futurama when Bender meets God and he's like, oftentimes when you've done the right thing, no one's sure you've done anything at all. Or, like, something like, it's something along those lines. I might not be getting the Quote. Right. But it's true. It is very frightening. And I think it's something that is very sobering on a podcast with lots of laughs and lots of, you know, breakdowns and, you know, Chuck, at how insane all of this stuff is. You know, sometimes it's worth remembering that we gotta stay frosty because, yeah, I don't know, doesn't feel like things are slowing down. And it certainly doesn't feel like anybody is really standing in any kind of reasonable opposition to, you know, this either.
- [87:55]
Trey Grace
Well, let's check in with the opposition.
- [87:57]
Jake Rockatansky
Great.
- [87:57]
Trey Grace
Trey and I stumbled our way outside of the mall. The sun glared down at us from above. Above. As we made our way down the street, sweat pouring down our burning skin, I spotted them standing apart from the picnicking patriots that lined the street there. They were protesters. They were the only protesters I had seen this close to the event. Although later I saw that there were more at the opposite end of the mall. They seemed like a fine crowd, though they were a very small one. About seven, six people in total. One wore a sandwich board proclaiming that Doug Wilson was the Antichrist and that we needed to research Pete Hegseth's church. We gathered with them around a massive Magnum tractor that was set up ahead of the Freedom250 sponsored Great American State Fair. As we chatted about how the protests had gone that day and answered their questions about Rededicate 250. No, there was no free water. Yes, all of the water cost over $10 apiece. A policeman approached us. He wore a bulletproof vest outside of his uniform and had a Malinois on a leash. When he got within a yard of our group, he explained that he didn't want any trouble. He was just curious about the tractor. He cracked a joke about Magnum. The protesters seemed to be on good and possibly even first name basis with him. Trey and I parted ways with the protesters after promising to show up at Hegseth's church sometime this summer. They protest outside of it each Sunday and headed to Comet Ping pong for our well deserved beer and pizza. It had been a very long day as we chatted over one of the best meals I've had in my life. In the background, children played ping pong
- [89:43]
Jake Rockatansky
while others whisked away in a basement that didn't exist. Wow, guys, incredible report.
- [89:52]
Trey Grace
It was a long ass day, man.
- [89:55]
Jake Rockatansky
I bet it was hot too.
- [89:56]
Trey Grace
You know, Trey and I were very close. We got a lot closer being bonded with the sweat pouring off of our skin, being forced close together by the crowd.
- [90:08]
Jake Rockatansky
Oh, My. What kind of food did they have? What sort of like food trucks were kind of like parked outside.
- [90:14]
Trey Grace
There was a single food truck and they. They actually had smash burgers, fried chicken. The French fries they had were frozen French fries that they had bought in bulk from Costco. They had a very large kiddie pool full of ice that they were keeping the drinks in.
- [90:32]
Jake Rockatansky
Okay.
- [90:33]
Trey Grace
And they actually did have a very good supply of food and a very good supply of drinks. They didn't run out of either. But everything was extremely expensive. And there was zero water stations. So they did have an ambulance set up. And I was shocked that we didn't see anybody go down from heat stroke because with the National Mall, zero shade, zero cooling stations.
- [90:52]
Jake Rockatansky
Right. Well, that's. I mean, one of the benefits of it being kind of a God sort of themed thing is like you pour the, you know, you park the ambulance up there and it's sort of, you know, you're not really thinking about the science of hydration. Right. It's kind of. You show up and it's in God's hands. You know, the ambulance is there, but at that point, it's sort of. It's sort of up to the big guy, you know.
- [91:12]
Trey Grace
Yeah. There were about 12 buses that people appeared to be bused in from, and the nearest food truck was about three blocks away. So it was. It was a dire situation for anybody who doesn't drink absurd amounts of water like both Trey and I, I believed got way too much sun that day. And that was with the purchase and reapplication of sunscreen throughout.
- [91:37]
Jake Rockatansky
Yeah, well, I'm glad, I'm glad you guys made it. Made it there and back safely and. Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun. Sounds like something I would have a great time at.
- [91:46]
Trey Grace
Join us for the next one.
- [91:49]
Jake Rockatansky
My voice will be hoarse from. From singing.
- [91:53]
Jack LaRoche
Special thanks to Dr. Matthew Taylor for speaking with us about the new Apostolic Reformation. He's another one of these scholars that an ideal world would with focus on a very obscure subject that's really not relevant to anyone except people with particular academic interests, but is unfortunately very, very relevant in our world today. Please check out his substack, Matthew D. Taylor's reckonings, his podcast Charismatic Revival Fury in his book the Violent Take it by Force the Christian movement that is threatening our democracy. I'll include links in the show notes.
- [92:25]
Jake Rockatansky
Thanks for listening to another episode of the QAA podcast podcast. For everything else, we've got a website, qaapodcast.com. we're actually working on some new merch Coming up so I will have more to talk about soon. Summer, Summer, Summertime. Getting ready. Gonna be fun. Listener until next week. May the deep dish bless you and
- [92:45]
Travis View
keep you and pray for you by name.
- [92:48]
Jake Rockatansky
Yes. Out of a large, large database, harvested over thousands and thousands of websites. May the deep dish bless your data and harvest it.
- [93:06]
Travis View
We have auto keyed content based on your preferences.
- [93:10]
Dutch Sheets
I bet a lot of people pray to you, huh?
- [93:12]
Jake Rockatansky
Yes, but there are so many asking so much. After a while, you just sort of tune it out.
- [93:18]
Dutch Sheets
You know, I was God once.
- [93:20]
Jake Rockatansky
Yes, I saw you were doing well until everyone died.
- [93:24]
Jack LaRoche
It was awful.
- [93:25]
Dutch Sheets
I tried helping them. I tried not helping them. But in the end, I couldn't do them any good. Do you think what I did was wrong?
- [93:33]
Jake Rockatansky
Right and wrong are just words. What matters is what you do.
- [93:37]
Dutch Sheets
Yeah, I know. That's why I asked if what I did.
- [93:41]
Jake Rockatansky
Forget it, Bender. Being God isn't easy.
- [93:44]
Dutch Sheets
If you do too much, people get dependent.
- [93:47]
Jake Rockatansky
And if you do nothing, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch, like a safecracker or a pickpocket or
- [93:54]
Dutch Sheets
a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money.
- [93:56]
Jake Rockatansky
Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing. When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
- [94:05]
Dutch Sheets
Does that mean you wouldn't send me back to Earth even if I prayed to you?
- [94:09]
Jake Rockatansky
Earth? Which way is that?
- [94:11]
Dutch Sheets
I don't know.
- [94:13]
Jake Rockatansky
Well, so long. Remember what we talked about, Bender?
- [94:31]
Trey Grace
It's a miracle.
- [94:34]
Dutch Sheets
Guys, you never believe what happened. First I warned God, then I met God.
- [94:39]
Jake Rockatansky
We climbed a mountain and locked up some monks.
- [94:41]
Dutch Sheets
Oh, no, the monks. We forgot to let them out of the laundry room. Ah, do we have to?
- [94:46]
Jake Rockatansky
I mean, they're monks. I'm sure their God will let them out. Or at least give them more shoes to eat.
- [94:51]
Dutch Sheets
Fat chance. You can't count on God for Jack. He pretty much told me so himself. Now, come on. If we don't save those monks, no one will.
- [95:06]
Jake Rockatansky
When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.