Over the weekend, Charisma publisher Steve Strang posted a podcast conversation with Ray Moore, a South Carolina Republican who ran for lieutenant governor in 2014 on a platform of replacing public schools with an education system run by “churches, families, and private associations.” The two discussed what they described as a demonic “deep state” that is undercutting President Trump and the Constitution.
The “deep state” terminology has become popular among right-wing Trump supporters to describe leakers from within the White House, executive agencies or intelligence community who provide the media with information the Trump administration would rather keep secret.
In their interview, Moore described the deep state as “the hard left, the globalists, and those who are not friendly to traditional and Christian values that are sort of embedded in the layer of the government down from the senior level. These are the civil service people, some are political appointees, the media, and they work in the government.”
Moore said that the deep state is not sympathetic to Trump or loyal to the Constitution and represents something more sinister – “principalities and powers,” “demonic and Satanic forces” and “fallen angels.”
During the campaign, Strang and Charisma promoted the voices of “prophets” who declared that Donald Trump was anointed by God. In a blog post promoting the recent podcast, Strang described Moore as having been “heavily involved with the Trump campaign” in South Carolina.
“We’ve got a man in the government who is a friend of God’s in a unique way in modern American history,” said Moore, while Strang declared Trump’s election a miracle. He said that a video that circulated before the first presidential debate asking people to pray for Trump was ultimately shared 250,000 times.
On the podcast, Strang and Moore marveled at what Strang called the “amazing” level of access that conservative Christians have in the White House. They spoke approvingly about the weekly Bible studies that members of Trump’s Cabinet are having, which are led by a man who teaches that social welfare programs are unconstitutional and that the prayers of non-Christians are worthless and go unanswered.
The two ended their podcast by praying for Trump’s safety and for his presidency. Strang asked God to “put a hedge of protection” around Trump: “I believe that you’ve raised up this man to try to shift the direction of our country from becoming more and more ungodly.”
Moore prayed against “forces of evil in high places,” saying:
Lord we come against, in the strong name of Jesus, the deep state. We know many of these people do not share a love of Christ, they don’t share even a love of the Constitution or traditional morality. And we ask you Lord to overthrow their designs, the ones they might be plotting, we pray they will be exposed….
Moore said God gave us a “miracle” in November and asked for another miracle now: a spirit-filled revival that will “sweep across our land” and lead to another Great Awakening.
