“We Are Going to Rally an Army”: Christian Zionists and Far-Right Zealots Are Actually Trying to Take Over Colleges

It’s not entirely new for Right-wing Christian leaders to lead rallies against Palestine-solidarity demonstrators. Pastor Russell Johnson, leader of the Pursuit Church in the Pacific Northwest who has has compared Palestine solidarity demonstrators to Nazis, and preaches End Times theology, marched with StandWithUs — which equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism — at the Univ. of Washington in November in a counter protest to students who were demanding a cease-fire.

But as Israeli forces descend on Rafah, where more than 1 million Gazans have taken refuge since October 7, Right-wing Christian leaders appear to be getting bolder. Flying across the country to confront students, calling on supporters to rally an army for Israel, claiming Columbia, USC and other university campuses ​“for God,” and scaling the fences surrounding university students while members of the crowd yell ​“Go to Gaza” appears to be an unprecedented phenomena for these Blue-state campuses

Sean Feucht, a leading Christian Nationalist leader who has said he wants ​“God to be in control of everything” and “[Christian] believers to be writing the laws,” led hundreds in the United March for Israel on Wednesday at the University of Southern California (USC) where police dressed in riot gear had dismantled an encampment four-days earlier. 

Describing the march as a stand against antisemitism, Feucht platformed fellow Christian Nationalist leaders Che Ahn, Lou Engle, Johnson and others. Ahn, who religious studies scholar Matthew D. Taylor calls a Christian supremacist and one of the most important religious leaders in California, insinuated his desire for the eventual conversion of Muslims and Jews to Christianity.

Ahn and Engle are both leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a decentralized movement at the cutting edge of the Christian Right largely connected to ​“Dominionism” — the idea that Christians should take over government, businesses, media and educational institutions — all areas of society. The NAR also comprises a significant portion of tens of millions of Christian Zionists across the globe who’s interpretation of the Bible instructs them to stand unequivocally with Israel and its far-Right government, though NAR leaders often target Jews to convert to Christianity.

In attendance at the USC march was NAR-affiliated group Latinos Exiting the Democratic Party (LEXIT) who have ties to the Proud Boys and Patriot Mobile, a Christian group intent on converting Jews that ironically has been flying a ​“Jewish Lives Matter” banner over Columbia, USC and other campuses. ​“An Appeal to Heaven” flag, associated with Christian Nationalists at the Capitol Insurrection and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, appeared at both the USC march and another march of the same name at Columbia University on April 25, which was also led by Feucht along with Russell Johnson and Christian Nationalist radio host Eric Metaxas.

Infused into these marches are the entrenched anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim theologies that undergird much of Christian Zionist theology. Both the USC and Columbia marches began with Johnson reaffirming God’s ​“unconditional promise” of the ​“land of Canaan” to the Jewish people, exclusively, a common weaponization of the bible to deny Palestinians any claim to the land their ancestors have called home for centuries. Taylor argues that Christian Nationalists often use a narrative of solidarity with Israel as moral cover for their anti-Muslim agendas.

After Johnson, who also used the phrase ​“terrorist occupation” to describe the Columbia camp, addressed the crowd at Columbia, Feucht reasserted his opposition to ​“rising antisemitism” on college campuses. The irony is Feucht is an avid preacher of End Times theology—when Jews and anyone who does not accept Jesus as Messiah will be damned. But Feucht’s contradictory stance is common among Christian Zionists. He will in the same breath both condemn antisemitism and tell his social media audience of hundreds of thousands that growing anti-Jewish sentiment, and even Iran’s historic attack on Israel, are positive signs (notably of the coming End Times).

Feucht doubled down on his End Times hopes at Columbia. He began the march announcing that ​“a bunch of faith-filled warriors” were going to march around Columbia’s campus to ​“stand with Israel until the last day,” a clear reference to the End Times. At the end of the march, he reiterated that standing up for Jews is an ​“End Times issue we gotta get right.”

These Christian Nationalists (or what some scholars would refer to as ​“Christian Globalists” because of their intent for Christianity to rule on earth) in addition to J6er, Proud Boys and other far-Right marchers are in line with a powerful Right-wing coalition planning to ​“take the reigns of government” and concentrate power in the executive branch should Trump or similar candidate win The White House in 2024. 

This plan, described in detail in a 900-page manifesto called Project 2025, spells out how Christian Nationalists and their allies are more than just bigots.

They are using the premise of a spiritual war to pave the road for the United States to become the authoritarian country they so jubilantly pray for — and intimidating students protesting the violence in Gaza and trying to claim campuses for their own brand of Christianity is their latest battleground.