A group of Christian nationalists committed to “re-dedicating (re-marrying) the nation back to God” gathered Wednesday in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for an “Re-Covenanting Ceremony & Gala Dinner Reception” featuring the likes of Glenn Beck, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, pseudo-historian David Barton, and others.
Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the day in 1607 when English settlers landed at Cape Henry, Virginia, erected a cross, and “dedicated the new world to God,” organizers insisted that the event was not intended to “promote any political figure or party, but rather to bring the nation as a whole back to God through prayers, repentance and proclamation.”
Many speakers at the event, of course, had different objectives, judging by the fact that the first two speakers spent a good portion of their remarks attacking drag performers, transgender individuals and the Biden administration.
The very first speaker was Craig Johnson, a conservative commentator who bills himself as “The Hatchet Man” and railed against “demon-possessed people” who are reading “homosexual pornography” to school children.
“It took several generations for the universities to devolve culturally, to where many, not all, but most are today: dens of iniquity doing to our young people for evil what used to be done for our young people for good,” Johnson said. “In godly culture—America, the good—we used to read scripture to children in school and lead them in prayer. In today’s culture—America, the not-so-good—school prayer was abolished in most schools over 60 years ago—my whole lifetime—and replaced with a big, burly transvestite man in a dress, sitting in the seat where the word of God was once showered down upon our children. Now ungodliness infects our youth with evil, and they call it a woke culture. These demon-possessed people use cute little picture books for the kindergartners, but they read outright homosexual pornography to middle schoolers and high schoolers. Every teacher, every principal, every public leader that allows this is a yielded servant to what St. Paul calls the daemonium: demonic entities.”
Father James Altman, a radical right-wing priest who was removed from his ministry in 2021 after making a series of controversial statements, lived up to his reputation as he hurled viciously transphobic attacks on Biden administration officials and others.
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Altman asked. “Certainly not some mentally ill tranny freak show of a four star admiral in Biden’s cabinet. Why don’t the bishops at this Catholic Church say that? That’s why they hate me, because I do and they don’t and they know it!”
“If God is for us who can be against us?” he continued. “Certainly not the mentally ill—and they are mentally ill!—not the mentally ill tranny freak show man in Biden’s Department of Energy, who stole women’s luggage at the airport. … Do not take offense when I call out the freaks in their freak show. It’s not my opinion. Almighty God said it, ‘A woman shall not wear a man’s garment nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing, for anyone who does such a thing is an abomination to the Lord your God.’ So, we should crush like the vermin that they are—and they are—every filthy school board member or teacher who tries to shove their mentally ill tranny freak show down the throats of our precious children.”
Later in the program, right-wing activist Zoe Warren, who is currently running to be chair of the South Carolina GOP, sought to repent on behalf of “government,” declaring that this nation has become so wicked that “we deserve for our women to be raped and our children to be ripped apart.”
“Government is God’s idea,” Warren asserted. “The essence of repentance is just agreement with God.”
“What I want us to do right now is recognize that we deserve God’s judgment,” he added. “We deserve to be destroyed. We deserve for our children be to be taken captive. We deserve for our lands to be snatched from us. We deserve for our women to be raped and our children to be ripped apart.”
“Forgive us, Lord, because we have sinned,” Warren proclaimed. “Bless us, oh Lord. Raise up mighty warriors to govern in America. Raise up mighty warriors to judge in America. Who better than the the just, oh Lord? The heathen? Be it not so, Lord. Do not let the heathen rule over us.”
Among the sponsors of the event was the Virginia Christian Alliance, which managed to secure a “certificate of recognition” from Gov. Glenn Youngkin recognizing the “pastors, governmental leaders, and others from the Commonwealth and around the Nation” who had gathered for this event “to rededicate this land according to the 1607 Jamestown Covenant of Land Dedication.”
First Landing Day
WHEREAS, on April 26, 1607, settlers from England landed on the shores of Virginia and within days erected a wooden cross at Cape Henry to recognize the strength that their faith had provided them in their journey and would sustain them in their new endeavor; and
WHEREAS, on April 29, 1607, the colonists took communion, knelt, and dedicated this land to God; and
WHEREAS, the founders of our country were great men and women from many religious denominations, races, and cultures, who came here from all over the world to establish a country “with liberty and justice for all,” and the Christian faith is an integral part of this rich heritage in Virginia; and
WHEREAS, the Declaration of Independence conveys the profound belief of our founders that all men are created equal under a governance established upon the existence of the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – rights not derived from government, but from our Creator; and
WHEREAS, George Washington, in his first Inaugural Address, noted that, “the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected to remain on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained;” and
WHEREAS, on March 3, 1865, the United States Congress passed an act to place our historical, national motto, “In God We Trust,” on all gold and silver coins serving as a constant reminder that our nation’s political and economic fortunes were tied to its spiritual faith; and
WHEREAS, today, April 26, 2023, the Virginia Christian Alliance, along with pastors, governmental leaders, and others from the Commonwealth and around the Nation, gather to rededicate this land according to the 1607 Jamestown Covenant of Land Dedication;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Glenn Youngkin, do hereby recognize April 29, 2023, as FIRST LANDING DAY in the COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of our citizens.
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