A sold out ReAwaken America Tour event raised eye brows after video clips from the event, which took place at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, went viral. In one clip, the over 3,500 in attendance can be seen chanting “Let’s go Brandon” from the pews.
The event hosted by Clay Clark of the ThriveTimeShow Podcast featured pastors Greg Locke and Artur Pawlowski, as well as evangelist Nick Vujicic, “Let Us Worship” leader Sean Feucht, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and Trump’s former security advisor General Michael Flynn, who was pardon by the 45th President of the United States.
PatriotTakes tweeted the clip of the crowd chanting “Let’s go Brandon.” The saying, which originated at a NASCAR event when a reporter mistook what the fans were chanting while interviewing driver Brandon Brown, is a coded phrase for “F**k Joe Biden.”
In another clip, a different angle of moment shows that the chant was not spontaneous, but rather led from the stage. “People over there. Come on now, people in the front row,” someone said from the stage while pointing the mic at the crowd.
More than 6,500 people have commented on PatriotTakes’ tweet, many of which calling for the church’s tax exempt status.
“That church should lose its tax exempt status. Not saying that for all churches but this one has violated the rules,” one person wrote. Another said, “Wasn’t there something about separation of Church & State in the Constitution? Does this violate that? Politics from the pulpit?”
Another clip from the event shows General Flynn’s speech. Flynn, who identifies as Catholic, told those in attendance, “There’s something shaking — the ground underneath us is shaking. And it’s shaking because there is a time [when] you have to believe that God Almighty is involved in this country, because this is it. This is the last place on Earth.”
“This is the shining city on a hill. [America] is the city on the hill. The city on the hill was mentioned in Matthew [5:14]. Then a guy by the name of [John] Winthrop mentioned it again in 1630 before the country was formed,” Flynn continued. “And he also coined the phrase New England, ‘Where going to go to this New England,’ this new world he was talking about. He talked to the people there about this thing called the city on a hill. And then Ronald Reagan, a couple hundred years later, again, talked about it as the shining city on the hill.”
“They’re talking about the United States of America. They’re talking about the United States of America, because when Matthew mentions it in the Bible, he wasn’t talking about the physical ground that he was on. He was talking about something in the distance,” Flynn said. “So if we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God, right?”
“All of us together working together. I don’t care what your ecumenical service is or what you are. We have to believe that this is a moment in time that this is good versus evil,” Flynn concluded.
Feucht thanked General Flynn for his support in a posted picture of the two, declaring that “there’s a remnant rising across America!” Earlier this month, Feucht posted a tweet including the phrase “Let’s go Brandon” alongside a photo of current gas prices as compared to one year ago.
ChurchLeaders reached out to pastor Todd Coconato, President of the Religious Liberties Coalition and founder of Remnant News, who spoke at the event but was not there for the crowd’s chants or Flynn’s speech.
When asked what he thought about people in a church chanting “Let’s go Brandon,” Coconato said, “I would advise Christians and Christian leaders to probably stay away from saying that chant, as it isn’t something that is edifying, but I think it’s an expression of the frustration of the current administration and that is understandable when many are dealing with serious frustrations with the current administration and its policies.”
“Many of the people in attendance are not believers, but are seeking,” Cocoanto said, sharing that there have been around 2,000 salvations since the tour started.
“Although some may be offended by the chant, in my view, people should be way more offended by the murder of the innocent and many far more egregious things that are currently happening in our society,” Coconato concluded.
In response to these events, editor-in-chief of Outreach Magazine Ed Stetzer said, “The gospel neither needs profane chants nor does it need to be the one mandated religion. Instead, we need God’s people joining Jesus on mission, not a bizarre display mixing the faith with such foolishness.”