While not absolutely necessary, I do recommend you read my prior posts in this blog series before reading this article:
- Part 1: Introduction.
- Part 2: My History with Religion.
- Part 3: How Christian Nationalism Grew Into Project 2025.
- Part 4 – Beyond the Veil: Exposing NAR to the Light of Day.
By now, if you’ve read the previous posts in this series (see above), you have a good idea of what Christian Nationalism is and can now identify some of its major proponents. I will, at the end of this series, take some time to create a Christian nationalism Rogue Gallery for quick use in the future, but this series still has some life in it, so until then, read on.
Did everyone catch the above video clip when it happened, or at least have you heard about what Trump had to say in the clip i.e., that he doesn’t really need any votes this election? That if “his Christians” vote in this election, they won’t have to vote again, because he will have “fixed things” so well, voting won’t be necessary? Watch Video-1 above if you need to refresh your memory.
Trump was headlining a Turning Point USA[i] event called the Turning Point Believers Summit[ii]. This speech by Trump was a real head-scratcher. What the hell was he talking about? What did he mean that in 4 years elections would be “fixed” and the audience wouldn’t have to vote anymore? If this eerily sounds like a threat to the 2024 election, that’s because it is! He knows that it is looking a lot like he’s going to lose the 2024 vote, so he is heading down a familiar path by attacking the election process itself. I’m reminded of Scrooge McDuck, who would always knock the chess board off the table whenever Donald started to win.
We know this play by Trump. We also know that he cannot mess with our elections by himself. So, who is backing Trump’s efforts to thwart the 2024 election?
Who’s Backing Trump?
Here’s a group you may not have heard of before. They are a secretive organization of wealthy Christians. They are working to purge more than 1,000,000 voters from the rolls in critical battleground states and mobilize Republican voters to back Trump.[iii] Their organization is named, “Ziklag.”
By the way, some of the following information I include about Ziklag comes from a video by Democracy Now!. If you have the time, I highly recommend it.
Okay, I will admit that when I read the name, I immediately thought, “Hmm. Ziklag? Is that related to ‘Ziek Heil’ somehow?” LOL! As it turns out, it isn’t. It’s not a German name, it’s Hebrew. Ziklag is a biblical reference, the name of a biblical city associated with the time of David. Apparently when David was on the run from King Saul, a Philistine King told David, “Need a place to hide out? Here, have a city,” and gave David the city named Ziklag. David apparently holed up there during a time of crisis.
Modern-day members of Ziklag find a lot of symbolism in the name as it was a place where David gathered his followers and operated during a volatile time in his life. They see themselves in the same boat as David, no doubt feeling put upon by all the godless democrats out there, like me.
Ziklag describes themselves as a “private, confidential, invitation-only community.”[iv] Ken Eldred[v], a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, founded it. According to Bill Dallas[vi], the group’s former director, Eldred originally wanted to name the group, “David’s Mighty Men,” referring to David’s loyal followers in the bible. However, some female members of the group had a problem with this, LOL! Ya think? So, after finding a reference to the city in some chronicles of David’s exploits, they opted for Ziklag instead.
Ziklag’s Plan
We, meaning everyone who supports democracy in the USA, are so fortunate that watchdog organizations ProPublica[vii] and Documented[viii] have both received “thousands of Ziklag’s internal files,”[ix] giving us an insight into the group and what they are planning.
The documents show that Ziklag has divided its 2024 activities into 3 different operations:
- Steeplechase. This operation is focused on working with church groups to get out the vote.
- Watchtower. This operation is geared towards mobilizing activities against transgender rights.
- Checkmate. This operation is focused on funding so-called “election integrity groups.” Yeah, right. You can see this laid out in one of Ziklag’s internal videos, below (Video-2).
ProPublica reports that the Ziklag’s mission is to “take dominion over 7 spheres of public life.” There’s that word again: “dominion.” Every time I hear or read this word, my Christian Nationalist radar starts pinging! Ziklag refers to these 7 spheres as “mountains.” I’m guessing they mean these are mountains they have to climb. Let’s have a look at these seven “mountains”:
- Business
- Science and Technology
- Government
- Education
- Arts and media
- Family
- Church
Andy Kroll, a journalist for ProPublica, has been investigating Ziklag for some time and has written a wonderful report together with Nick Surgery from Documented, about their findings. You can read that report here.
They describe Ziklag as a secretive organization of wealthy, conservative, Christians who have a vision for our country. This vision is divided into two prongs. One prong is to get heavily involved in the 2024 elections in the way described above e.g., mobilizing churches and pastors; knocking people off of voting rolls; demonizing trans-people to motivate conservative voters. The other prong is focused on the future. Here, Kroll tells us, Ziklag is looking at the 20 or 30-year horizon, and their goal is “nothing less than moving the country toward a state of Christian Nationalism.”[x]
The future this group envisions matches everything we know about Christian Nationalists i.e., ensuring everyone has a biblical worldview, and that everyone adheres to so-called “biblical truth,” shaping and influencing every part of American culture per those 7 mountains described above and in their documents. If you don’t see this as Christian Jihad, I don’t know what to tell you. Their plan for all of us living in this country is put succinctly into a simple phrase told to Andy Kroll by one of the members. He said, the plan is “Christian supremacy.” There you go.
In one of the Ziklag briefing videos obtained by ProPublica, we find a familiar face (if you read Part 4 in this series): Lance Wallnau[xi]. In this video, Lance Wallnau tells us how Ziklag is going to deliver swing states by using anti-trans messaging to motivate conservative voters who might be exhausted with Trump.
Lance Wallnau, Kroll reminds us, is one of the most important right-wing evangelists we’ve never heard of. He is the one who popularized Trump as a “modern-day Cyrus.” Cyrus is a reference to Cyrus the Great, a biblical figure (of course) responsible for allowing the Jews to return home after their exile by the Babylonians. It is a term used these days by evangelists to describe political figures who are so-called imperfect men, maybe even irreligious men, but who are still perceived to be acting in ways that align with God’s purposes, usually in terms of supporting Israel or religious causes. This is how they see Trump. He is going to deliver the country to their cause. Wallnau remains a bridge between Trump and Christian Nationalism.
Kroll goes on to mention some other players in Ziklag. For instance, the Green Family. This is the family behind Hobby Lobby. The Green Family had an impact on trying to strike down the ObamaCare law during Obama’s presidency; the Uihlein family. This is the billionaire “office supply” family from the Midwest, who are major donors to these causes and to Donald Trump; and the Waller family. This family owns the Jockey apparel company (I may have to rethink my next underwear purchase!).
Who Are Some Other Trump Supporters?
These are some of the families capable of endlessly funding their favorite causes of which Ziklag, pushing for massive political and cultural changes to our country, is at the top of the list.
Andy Kroll tells us that the 3 Ziklag operations identified above, Steeplechase, Watchtower, and Checkmate, are like a wrap-around 360-degree approach to influencing the 2024 election. There is some concern that evangelists may not turn out for Trump in 2024 the way they did previously. Operation Steeplechase is there to get pastors to push their congregations to ignore their fatigue and vote for Trump anyway.
Operation Watchtower is there to go after transgender people. They believe that demonizing trans people and trans healthcare will allow them to deliver swing states for Trump.
Operation Checkmate, Kroll tells us, is one of the more interesting operations. This is because this operation is not just focused on mobilizing voters in state elections, they are attempting to mobilize voters in key counties e.g., Maricopa County in Arizona, Fulton County in Georgia and other battleground counties in the country. Through this operation, Ziklag is putting money into their effort to knock 1,000,000 voters off the rolls!
Here, Kroll tells us, we see a fusion of Christian Nationalism and Christan Right with the election denialism and election integrity efforts that grew out of the last election. He says there was not much evidence of this fusion before Ziklag’s internal documents got delivered to them. But, now we know!
Can Operation Checkmate Succeed?
Can something like Operation Checkmate actually succeed at knocking voters off of voter rolls? Kroll reminds us that “a little bit of money goes a long ways when you are trying to get people off of the eligibility list” This is what Kroll says the election experts told him and fellow investigative journalist Nick Surgey. Kroll says that Ziklag is putting something like a million dollars into something called Eagle AI. Huh?
Eagle AI (pronounced “Eagle Eye) is an artificial intelligence company that has an AI application that “makes it easier to challenge the eligibility of voters en masse.” Instead of doing this one at a time, you’re doing it by the hundreds, then by the thousands. The election experts told Kroll that tens of millions of dollars aren’t needed to do what they want. Using Eagle AI, a mere $800K or a million dollars will get them what you want.
So, the sad answer to the above question, “Can Operation Checkmate Succeed,” is, unfortunately, “Yes, it could!” Kroll says if we are talking about margins of voters in Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, these are places where the margins are just a few thousand, a few ten thousand voters.
What DO Election Officials Think About This?
Andy Kroll tells us that there are two different camps within election officials. One camp is the hard-working country and state officials who do a difficult job and since the 2016 election at least, are under a lot of pressure. And they are feeling that pressure. All they want to do is to run a free and fair election. These people told Andy and Nick that applications like Eagle AI and groups like True the Vote[xii] (TTV) which generate mass challenges to voter rolls, are making an already difficult job that much worse. It is putting much more stress on these folks, and they are feeling it.
The other camp of election officials are those that have bought into the election integrity claims. They have bought into Trump’s bullshit election denials. These people are encouraging mass challenges to voter rolls. They are and will, in the next election, create chaos, sow confusion, etc. We may see voters in places where these officials are funning things who don’t know they have been removed from the rolls.
[i] Turning Point USA is a national non-profit organization that states its mission is “to embolden the conservative base through grassroots activism and provide voters with the necessary resources to elect true conservative leaders.” [Perplexity, an AI search engine].
[ii] “Turning Point Believer’s Summit” is a 3-day event taking place July 26-28, 2024 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The summit is described as “a call for believers to rise in unity and biblical truth with an unshakeable faith” and aims to empower attendees to “live out their faith boldly and counteract the prevailing ‘woke’ narratives with grace, truth, and conviction, rooted in the Gospel.” [Perplexity, an AI search tool]
[iii] YouTube video titled, “Ziklag Exposed: Secretive Christian Nationalist Network Tries to Purge Voters in Battleground States,” by Democracy Now!.
[iv] [Perplexity, an AI Search tool].
[v] Ken Eldred is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and the founder of Ziklag. He previously founded an organization called United In Purpose, which aimed to get more Christians active in civic affairs. He wanted to create a donor network for Christians similar to the Koch brothers’ network
[vi] Bill Dallas was the former director of United for Purpose. He has spoken publicly about Ziklag in various interviews. He has a background that includes time in prison, where he deepened his religious faith. After prison, he became involved in Christian media and networking
[vii] ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom dedicated to producing investigative journalism in the public interest. Their goal is to expose abuses of power and betrayals of public trust by government, business, and other institutions. [Perplexity, an AI search tool]
[viii] Documented is an investigative watchdog and journalism project focused on holding powerful interests accountable, particularly those that undermine democracy. They investigate how corporations manipulate public policy, especially in areas related to the environment and democracy. [Perplexity, an AI search tool]
[ix] YouTube video titled, “Ziklag Exposed: Secretive Christian Nationalist Network Tries to Purge Voters in Battleground States,” by Democracy Now!.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Lance Wallnau is an American preacher associated with the New Apostolic Reformation and the Seven Mountain Mandate. He has been referred to as the “father of American Dominionism”.
[xii] True the Vote is a conservative vote-monitoring organization based in Houston, Texas, founded by Catherine Engelbrecht. Its stated objective is stopping voter fraud. The organization supports voter ID laws and trains volunteers to be election monitors. Since 2020, True the Vote has become known for promoting unproven claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. [Perplexity, an AI search tool]
0 Comments