SAN MARCOSSAN MARCOS — Eric Trump, Roger Stone, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and other right-wing figures spoke at a conservative conference held at a San Marcos church this weekend, while other local faith leaders protested the event, calling it an anti-democratic movement that distorts Christianity.
The Reawaken America conference, organized by Flynn and Thrivetime Show podcast host Clay Clark, was held at Awaken Church in San Marcos as part of a national tour. Other Awaken church locations made headlines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the county issued cease-and-desist notices ordering them to stop holding unmasked indoor services.
That defiance fit with the message of the two-day event, where speakers railed against mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccines in a program featuring elements of a trade show, political rally and fire-and-brimstone evangelical tent revival.
While not an actual campaign rally for his father, who has not announced a re-election bid, Trump boasted about the former president’s accomplishments and spoke about elections.
“We have to fight for religion, we have to fight for God, we have to fight for the nuclear family, which has been destroyed,” said Eric Trump, who spoke for about 40 minutes Friday afternoon to a packed crowd in the megachurch, while others watched the livestream from afar.
As the conference continued Saturday, Rev. Beth Johnson, pastor of the Palomar Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and an interdenominational group of several other local pastors gathered a few miles away in Vista. They said the conference promotes a Christian nationalist ideology that weds discrimination and militarism with a warped view of Christian faith.
“The Reawaken tour is a stunning example of Christian nationalism on full display,” Johnson said. “While claiming to be Christian, claiming to follow Jesus and inspired by the holy spirit, Christian nationalism distorts the Christian faith into an unrecognizable ideology of hate.”
Flynn, who pleaded guilty to felony counts of lying to the FBI about Russian election interference and was subsequently pardoned by Trump, repeated claims of election fraud and said their political opponents were not incompetent or stupid, but evil.
The younger Trump also aired voter fraud allegations, playing to the largely sympathetic crowd.
“You’ve got the greatest fraud that ever happened in America,” he said. “Does anybody believe this was a legitimate election?”
More than 50 lawsuits and numerous election investigations and recounts found no evidence of widespread fraud. Clay, the Reawaken tour organizer, is facing a defamation lawsuit by a former Dominion Voting Systems executive whom Clark accused of rigging voting machines in the 2020 election.
Trump also reprised familiar refrains from his father’s 2016 campaign. The crowd chanted “Lock her up” after Trump, the scion of a real estate dynasty, wondered aloud how Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, could afford to purchase a $25-million Florida house a mile from his. Fact-checks by numerous media outlets revealed that Pelosi did not purchase the luxury home.
Saturday’s lineup featured California political candidates, alternative health practitioners and darkly messianic religious speakers, whose messages ranged from a recommendation to avoid COVID-19 by eating organic meat and leafy greens, to the onition: “Do not be surprised if the Angel of Death shows up in Washington.”
Rev. Meg Decker, Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Escondido, said the mashup of political intrigue with calls to arms in an impending spiritual war corrupts the Christian values of tolerance and charity.
“What I see as I look at the Reawaken America campaign is what we in the traditional church would call blasphemy,” she told reporters at the ecumenical gathering in Vista.
The tour is headed to Oregon next month.
