Thousands of Christians condemn the upcoming ReAwaken America tour where former national security adviser Michael Flynn will be among the speakers along with tour organizer Clay Clark.
The ReAwaken America tour is a conservative conference that travels across the United States, featuring several conservative speakers who are supporters of former President Donald Trump. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a civil rights organization, describes the tour as a "controversial far-right" conference that features "prominent QAnon influencers, anti-vaxx activists, election fraud conspiracy theorists, Christian pastors, political candidates and elected officials."
The upcoming tour is expected to be held throughout next weekend on May 12-13 at Trump National Doral Miami in Miami, Florida. The event will feature Clark, who is described by ADL as a "far-right conspiracy theorist" and Flynn.
Faithful America, a large online community of progressive Christians, launched an online petition seeking 30,000 signatures to show its rejection of the "far-right" tour and its "hateful political agenda." The group gathered 25,946 signatures as of Friday morning.
"Each ReAwaken America event is a toxic, two-day parade of right-wing preachers, MAGA celebrities, and QAnon conspiracy theorists mixing baptisms and praise music with Donald Trump's Big Lie and deadly COVID-19 misinformation to audiences of thousands, all in Jesus's name," Faithful America said in a statement released along with the petition.
A report produced last year by the Associated Press and PBS mentioned that Flynn touts Christianity as the basis of American life and institutions, but envisions the religion through a conservative lens that shows abortion as illegal and that the concepts of LGBTQ+ rights and systemic racism don't have a place in schools.
The former Trump adviser reportedly attended events that gathered anti-vaxxers, election deniers, GOP members, and those involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, including the Proud Boys, a far-right group. On Thursday, the group's former leader Enrique Tarrio was found guilty of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding in connection with the Capitol riot in which Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building to try to stop a Joe Biden victory.
Faithful America warned that attendees of the ReAwaken America event include pastors with "close ties" to the Proud Boys as well as "false-prophet" speakers who were involved in the Capitol attack.
"From defending January 6 to telling the audience they're 'Team Jesus' against 'Team Satan,' all of their rhetoric risks inciting another round of political violence under the Christian flag," said Faithful America.
The group continued: "This is a clear example of Christian nationalism: the merging of religious and national identities to seize power for conservative Christians at any cost, overturning elections and building the very kind of oppressive theocracy that Jesus opposed. But here's what the Christian-nationalist leaders don't want you to know: Their violent, anti-democracy movement's biggest opponents are Christians, too."
Before the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Flynn was one of Trump supporters who claimed that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" from Biden. He was also supportive of the QAnon conspiracy theory, repeating and praising the related "where we go one we go all" slogan.
Newsweek reached out by email to Clay Clark for comment.
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