Swimming with Leviathan - Part 1

My three day experience at the TPUSA Pastor Summit

Jumping in the Deep End

In mid-August, I participated in the first-ever pastors summit hosted by Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA Faith.

My goal was to connect with pastors that align with TPUSA to discern their motivation for attending, the nature of their relationship with TPUSA, and how they reconcile American Christian Nationalism with their view of the scripture.

After checking in at the beautiful Coronado Loewes resort, I found my way to the registration table where a dozen banners announcing the TPUSA Faith Pastors Conference assured me I was in the right place.

I was greeted by a cheerful group of college-aged women that facilitated the check-in process. (In my experience, most of the TPUSA staff is highly energetic, earnest, kind college-aged men and women.)

Upon obtaining my nametag, I transitioned to the main ballroom where Sean Feucht was opening the summit in worship.

It was announced that this gathering of over four hundred pastors was here to worship, stand for truth and take our country back for God.

It was time to swim with Leviathan.

The Big Idea

The throughline of the event was taking government power to secure a future for our families and for the church.

The argument is that God established three institutions, the government, the church, and the family. For the last fifty years, pastors have focused on the family and the church, abandoning government to the progressive left, who are working to use government to destroy the family and the church.

Therefore, pastors must fight to take government power to protect the church and family.

This point was vividly illustrated by one of Charlie Kirk’s favorite lines:

"Theological disputes are important, but if we don’t get liberty, we will be debating about them in prison." - Charlie Kirk

Issue Set

During the three-day event over twenty-five speakers presented in rapid-fire succession (no breaks other than lunch) and were loosely organized by topic. I cover the primary issues below.

Abortion

Multiple pro-life speakers presented abortion as a genocide, often using inflammatory language (e.g. slaughter, butcher, torn limb-from-limb).

"Love thy neighbor as thyself - if you love your neighbor, you don't watch them be dismembered, dragged away to death, slaughtered. The slaughter is all around us." - Lila Rose

These speakers called pastors to publicly condemn abortion as murder and/or genocide.

Ironically, the majority of the anti-abortion speakers used Exodus as a core text but failed to mention the 10th plague in their retelling of the story.

School Choice / Turning Point Christian Academy

Almost all the speakers mentioned something about public schooling, often derisively referring to it as 'government education.' Many argued that the 'woke Marxists' have taken over the school boards and teachers’ unions and are teaching children to hate God, hate their country, and hate themselves.

Some of the speakers argued that pastors should rally their people to take over the local school boards, and others argued that we ought to devote our efforts to starting a Turning Point Christian Academy.

David Barton attributed America’s moral decay to the failure of pastors to influence public schooling, sharing

“The cesspool of America is coming out of the schools. The Church has been focused so much on family they forgot about the country... so the Left took control while we slept.”

Pastor Rick Brown of Kingdom X Consulting argues that the fight for public schools is a fight against evil

“While we are on earth, we will join together and destroy the devil. We will fight for the schools, the county supervisors.”

Sean Ellingson, husband of Lynsi Ellingson, owner of In-N-Out Burger also cast doubt on private Christian schools around the country stating

"These Christian schools are cowardly... not standing for truth... so check out Turning Point Christian Academy."

Dr. Hutz Hertzberg, Chief Education officer of Turning Point Christian Academy and the previous principal of Wayne Grudem's Christian Heritage Academy noted that public schools are

"Promoting the sexualization of our kids and grooming them. They promote CRT and vaccine mandates. These kids are sexually groomed and emotionally abused."

Dr. Hertzberg then argued that the best solution is for pastors to partner with Turning Point to launch a Turning Point Christian Academy on their campus, not as a school, but as an 'education ministry.' 

Dr. Hertzberg argued that

"This hybrid model takes the "best of private education and the best of homeschooling."

He also stated that because it is a ministry, not a school, it would avoid "a lot of government regulation.”

‘Religious Liberty’ and Covid-19

Almost every speaker made reference to ‘government overreach’ into the church, citing Covid-19 restrictions such as prohibiting large gatherings, use of face masks, and social distancing. 

There were a lot of self-congratulatory stories highlighting their refusal to “shut down” or “bow down to the government.” 

Denying Covid-19 restrictions was portrayed as allegiance to God over the government because God wants the church to gather.

The “Kingdom of God” and “The Church” were presented as a large, gathered assembly on Sunday morning. To my recollection, there was no mention of Acts 2 style house gatherings.

One of the clearest examples of this phenomenon came from Pastor Raul Ries who, while giving an impassioned gospel presentation, through tears said

“We (would not) close the doors of the church in 2020… I will not close the doors to the Kingdom of God.”

Taking Government Power

A key argument of the event is that Christians need to take government power to protect the church and family. When the government is in the hands of non-Christians, it works to destroy the church and the family.

This idea was reinforced in a few ways.

First, they argued that America is a Christian Nation. No nation on the earth has blessed the world as much as America, and it is because we are Christian. 

The strangest argument was made by Rob McCoy who argues that 

“The (Greek) word that is translated as church is ecclesia… Tyndale rightly translates Ecclesia as assembly…. “Aristotle said ecclesia means the public square.”  

“The ecclesia is the public square, and the church abandoned it.”

Honestly, I am not sure how to connect these dots, but McCoy was arguing that the New Testament authors understood the church to be synonymous with the ‘public square’ which, he implies, is the government.

McCoy summed up his perspective, stating

“The Lord is a Nationalist. Look at the tower of Babel.”

Recurring Themes

As the various issues were discussed, a few popular themes emerged.

Defiant Courage

Audience members were often lauded for their courage in disobeying government restrictions related to Covid (no facemasks, distancing, hosting large gatherings) advocating for specific conservative candidates from the pulpit (contrary to the ‘Johnson Amendment’), and for standing their ground on abortion and school choice in the face of ‘cancel culture.’

David Barton, stated in a defiant tone:

The Johnson amendment is technically not legal. We have been working with ADF to try to get pastors sued to test it.

The theme of defiant courage also served as a means of reinforcing the "us/them” rhetoric that seasoned many of the presentations. In speaking of the benefits of Covid-19, Victor Marx, a former marine stated

“Look at us. We found out who’s who in the zoo.”

He followed this statement up with stories of pastors that had “failed” to stand up to the government. Some of whom were pastors that he once respected, but now openly resists

“I publicly called out pastors on social media. I have questioned a few guys I once respected… I’ve taken their books off my bookshelf”

He then openly joked about physically assaulting a man who had multiple affairs in the context of a pastoral counseling session.

Militant Rhetoric

To complement the courage theme, militant language was often invoked, much to the praise of this congregation of pastors.  

“God raises up leaders to defend the body of Christ.” - Rob McCoy 

"Prepare yourself for the coming attack. We are more than conquerors." - Rob McCoy

“Aborted babies are slaughtered… tortured… destroyed… ripped limb from limb… and the butcher is still operating in D.C.”- Lila Rose

“The U.S. Navy is the standard of righteousness in the world.” - Bob McEwan

In a panel with Charlie Kirk, Pastor Rick Brown stated

“God is a god of war. The devil got into the schools, the FBI, the CDC… the wicked STOLE the gold from the Golden State.

When asked what encouragement he would give to the room full of embattled pastors, Michael O’Fallon, founder of Sovereign Nations, rebuked the crowd

“We need men with chests... You are standing by while the bride of Christ is being raped. It is time to stand.” 

Church Growth

The majority of the pastors that presented shared their recent successes in light of their stances in 2020. Most intimated that in 2020, a large number of people left their congregation because of their political stance. However, because they took a stand for truth, their church attendance and budget have grown exponentially.

In a session called “Jesus First,” Pastor Luke Barnett shared that in the summer of 2020, Charlie Kirk asked if he could host a Turning Point rally at Dream City. He agreed. Then discovered that President Trump would be in attendance. Pastor Luke shared that his entire Worship team gave him an ultimatum… cancel the event or we resign.

To which a few dozen pastors in the room shouted “BYE!”

Pastor Barnett shared that because he gave his word to Charlie, he could not, in good conscience, cancel the event.

He then shared that 30% of the staff left along with 40% of his congregation due to his decision to host a large rally featuring President Trump in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. But, he gladly shared that

“(this is our) biggest season of growth ever…we are winning conservative people to Christ… We are winning big business people… We'd not be in the position we are in today…. God’s ways are not our ways.” 

Gary Hamrick, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Chapel, in Virginia stated

“When you stand for truth you either get revival or riot. We’ve had more baptisms, double the budget in the last 2 years. (It is a) revival!”

Jurgen Matthesius, Lead Pastor of Awaken Church in Southern California shared a similar sentiment:

“We kept meeting in 2020 and suicides went down, people got saved (saying) ‘thank God your church doors were open!’ 

“We didn’t mask, we didn’t distance because we are a people that says, ‘God has said’ and we are NOT the people that say ‘Has god said?’

He wrapped up this segment with the unfiltered proclamation:

“We (Awaken Church) take a pro-trump stance.” 

American History 

The influence of the Christian Clergy on America’s founding, growth, and power was invoked as a model for modern-day pastors.

Bob McEwan claimed that the founders intended for Christians to influence the legislative body, citing Benjamin Franklin’s call for there to be prayers in the assembly.

David Barton, the fast-talking, humorous, self-educated historian argued that America has been uniquely blessed by God because of the influence of Christianity. He argued that

“No other nation in history has blessed the world like America has.” 

The proof?

“96% of the worlds inventions are from America” he said, followed by “I believe in American exceptionalism… we are different, we are the exception not the rule.”

He went on to argue that America was made great because it was influenced by pastors.   He claimed

“It was the pulpit that shaped the declaration of independence.”

Potpourri

One of my favorite Jeopardy categories is potpourri, a bunch of unrelated questions that do not fit into the other categories. I am including here a potpourri of quotes without comment. Enjoy!

“The lawyer in Cali is a Soros plant who was one of the architects of the shutdown.” - Robert Tyler 

“We are not gonna wear masks or distance and we are fighting. We want to uncover the evidence for the lockdown. There is no evidence!” - Robert Tyler

“Monkeypox comes from disobeying medical codes in the Bible.”- David Barton

“CRT says that the serpent was right, God was the demon, the division of labor was the original sin. The quest of CRT is to get back into the garden and make men god.” -James Lyndsay, Atheist Philosopher

“Being small doesn’t glorify God.” - Victor Marx

“Sometimes God calls us to violence. Jesus flipped tables.” - Victor Marx

“I’m not nice. If you look at the fruit of the Spirit, nice ain’t in there.” - Victor Marx

“CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) is a Marxist revolutionary organization - Michael O’Fallon"

“The lampstand (of God’s truth) is now moved, and in the hands of Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and Dennis Praeger” - Jurgen Matthesius

“What is CRT? It is the sharpest weapon against the church.” -Rob McCoy

Rob McCoy to James Lyndsay “You make the complex simple.”

“God said not to covet… which is socialism.”- Bob McEwan

“Shutdowns are a threat to the gospel. So, we fight to defend the gospel. If we shut down, we can’t spread the gospel.” - Robert Tyler

“We are losing the country y’all.” - Robert Tyler

“Lawlessness abounds… the most basic law, that we are made male and female (is being broken) … it is the sign of the end times.” - Robert Tyler

Up Next: Part II - A theological, ecclesiological, and cultural analysis of this gathering.