As the American vice-president J. D. Vance courts Christian right-wing supporters on his summer holiday in Britain, academics in the US are examining how charismatic Christian nationalists moved into power around the White House, and what this says about the direction of US society. Ruth Peacock reports
Charismatics are enjoying a particular access to political power in the United States, with ideas of anointed leaders, Christian nationalism and God-given power swirling around the White House.
The phenomenon has led to in-depth research by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) into why and how this has happened.
It found that 31 per cent of all American churchgoers had experienced three or more charismatic events at religious services, such as speaking in tongues or healing, with a far higher rate of 66 per cent among black Protestants. It also found that 45 per cent of American Christians accept prophecy — the ability to predict the future — and prophets, who are given this information.
Much of the global Christian growth is among new charismatic movements, but being a charismatic is also an “add on” to membership of an established denomination, including the Catholic church.
Over the summer, PRRI brought together three leading academics who are researching this phenomenon, for a discussion in a webinar.
They shared the view that much of the conversation to date had been on the growing influence of white evangelicals on Republicanism, right-wing ideology and Donald Trump. But Dr Leah Payne, of Portland Seminary in Oregon, told the webinar that it is more accurate to understand this as the influence of charismatics.
Charismatic Christianity is known for effervescent worship, hands-in-the-air singing and praise, a fundamentalist approach to the Bible, belief in demonic powers and out-of-the-ordinary spiritual experiences.
Dr Dara Delgado, from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, said this could be seen in images and stories from events in the corridors of power, such as worship in the White House, prayer events at the Capitol, public displays of speaking in tongues and prophesying, laying hands on the president, and talk of waging spiritual warfare against evil powers.
She could see its influence in subtle ways, for example in the way biblical passages were used by the Department of Homeland Security, to embolden the right wing and to empower charismatic Christians, who understood the language of warfare and power.
Dr Paul Djupe, a political scientist at Denison University, Ohio, also saw signs in the language of politics, when — for example — leaders were lauded as being appointed by God.
He said charismatic ideas had swept through American religion and politics. He charted the growing influence of charismatics around the presidency from the televangelists in the 1980s, one of whom, Pat Robertson, ran for nomination as president in 1988. But his Pentecostal fervour was treated with caution by leading evangelical Jerry Falwell. And the rise of the “moral majority”, supporting the televangelists, was tainted by lurid scandals.
But now, Dr Djupe said, “they have come roaring back” and are the fastest-growing religious group in the world today. He believes “evangelicalism is in the process of being captured by charismatic ideas”, and to understand Christian conservatism, it was important to understand the charismatic worldview.
Dr Djupe referred to Christian nationalist movements including Seven Mountain Mandate, a movement originating in charismatic circles in the 1970s, whose members believed they had a message from God that there should be a Christian takeover of seven key “mountains” or spheres of influence in society: religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business.
One of its current members is Paula White-Caine, Trump’s spiritual adviser. Most of its leaders are within the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement, which he described as a network of leaders that share a religious worldview and goals of Christian dominion in society.
Dr Payne said it was important to study charismatics from a political perspective, in large part because when the growth of evangelical Christianity was referred to frequently in reporting of the US and the world. “We are talking about charismatic Christians in almost every case,” she said.
They tended, she added, to be younger and more racially diverse, and had a different idea of the body politic than previous evangelical generations. For example: “This conception of democracy as a theological good, that you would get from a Baptist dominant strain of evangelicalism — the charismatics do not have that same theological value for democracy. We need to understand things like the Seven Mountains Mandate and the NAR, which are, I think, proof of the ascent of charismatics.”
The charismatics were able to “nuzzle up very closely to the systems that are moving the needle in this country”, according to Dr Delgado.
She had written a paper, with Dr Payne, on charismatic experiences within black Christian movements and she stressed that charismatic Christianity did not necessarily lead to conservative political ideology.
Dr Delgado explained that charismatic expression was at first repressed among black churches, by members who wanted to separate themselves from a form of worship considered a vestige of slave religion. But now, black Christians were more likely to have experience of charismatic signs than white Christians.
She said: “We need to remember that the charismatic movement came to us on the heels of the civil rights movement”, and when people take on this kind of charismatic identity, “it’s a way of them becoming much more American, much more mainstream”. However, black charismatics were wrestling with the politics associated with white dominion-related ideology and finding different ways of expressing their faith.
Black women, she said, “hold on to some of these charismatic ideas but are also very much politically astute and right now they are blatantly quiet. They are deliberately being silent, and they are making a decision to now work outside of the system to do something a little bit more grassroots”.
The language of dominion, the Christian supremacy and domination of society, was “returning to a language around colonisation and capture” and she was curious to see how NAR “shows up in spaces that are historically marginalised”, using the same scripture, prayer and songs about the kingdom of God and coming out with two different outcomes.
In conclusion, the webinar made clear that charismatic Christianity was no longer peripheral but central to understanding American religion and politics. Its practices had spread across denominational lines, its theology informs key political narratives, and its networks, especially through social media, energise right-wing activism.
Panellists agreed that charismatic influence was profound but needed studying further and that future research should consider how its ideas had spread and the implications of charismatic ascendancy for black, Hispanic, and white communities.
There needed to be closer examination of how charismatic ideas shaped politics inside and outside the United States, including Zionism, Israel and the theology of the end times, considering the place of the US in this story and the responsibility charismatics felt towards their nation.
