As the Christian church loses credibility worldwide due to egregious politicking, Christian supremacists across the nation are tripping over themselves with excitement about a more positive story line they see: Revival.
Although every other metric shows the church in America in numerical decline, these pumped-up Pollyannas see things differently.
“A Christian revival across the country!” the Fox News host celebrates as the screen displays the revival stats stock market style. “Bible sales increasing over 40% since 2022, religion app downloads surging nearly 80%! That increase since 2019. And Christian music Spotify streams up 50% from 2019.”
“JUST IN: Stunning data reveals Christianity is SURGING in the United States,” Eric Daugherty of Florida Voice News announced with a red police car revolving light emoji. “What an amazing sight to see.”
“A Christian revival is under way,” TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet rejoiced.
“Reports show a surge in Christianity, affirming the visible revival happening across the United States,” Live Action president and founder Lila Rose added. “Incredible news.”
“Harvest is ripe!” Megan Basham of the Daily Wire declared.
And Christian nationalist worship leader Sean Feucht concluded, “What we’ve been saying for years is now factually undeniable. A wave of revival is sweeping across America.”
In contrast, religion statistician Ryan Burge posted on social media today a definitive rebuttal: “There is no empirical evidence of a religious revival happening in America.”
‘Revive us again!’
White evangelicals have been talking about God sending revival someday down the road for decades.
Every year, the independent Baptist church of my youth hosted a week of revival meetings with fundamentalism’s finest evangelists, booked presumably with the Holy Spirit years in advance. During the week, we’d knock on doors in hopes to save our non-Christian neighbors and invite them to our revival. If you were lucky, you could get the Michael Jordan evangelist of the fundamental Baptists, Tom Farrell.
Tom Farrell preaching (screencap)
The night would begin with energetic hymns about the harvest, accompanied by the piano and organ that prepared the hearts for the sermon. Just before the evangelist would get up to speak, a women’s duet would sing a song about someone showing up to church in order to get saved, but not being able to because the rapture happened the day before. With Y2K looming and the Clinton administration in charge, everyone was on the edge of their pews.
Farrell was a fiery preacher who warned every night of the flames of hell that were lurking nearby. He’d share horror stories of teenagers who wouldn’t get saved or dedicate their lives to God during one of his revival meetings and who would get in a car accident on their way home and die.
One of his stories I remember clear as day was about a man who was taken to the Emergency Room with burns so severe that he had blue flames glowing in his skin as the doctor had to peel off his flesh. As the man shook uncontrollably, he screamed, “I’m in hell! I’m in hell!” But according to Farrell, the doctor turned to the nurses and said, “Ladies, what you’re seeing on this table is nothing compared to what hell will be like!”
Flags on the National Mall for Sean Feucht’s “Kingdom to the Capitol” worship tour. (BNG photo by Rick Pidcock)
‘Revival or bust’
Thirty years later, white evangelicals were still praying for a future revival as recently as this past October. At a Christian nationalist “Let Us Worship” gathering on the National Mall that featured a “One Nation Under God” banner over the stage, Sen. Josh Hawley proclaimed, “What this nation needs above all is revival.”
Remember, he’s the guy who pumped his fist in the air as he protested the certification of Joe Biden as president on January 6. Clearly, the legal election of a Democrat to the White House was not a sign of revival to him then.
“What they meant by ‘revival’ was actually just political power for the Republicans.”
While that gathering on the National Mall was billed as worship for the purpose of inspiring revival, it was clear to those paying attention what they meant by “revival” was actually just political power for the Republicans. Feucht joined Hawley on stage, hinted at his desire for Hawley to run for president someday, explicitly called for Congress to be taken over by the GOP, and then prayed that God would “raise up a million more like (Hawley) at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level. Raise up bold men and women for Jesus that are going to stand on the truth of your word.”
Feucht also spent that weekend promoting his new children’s book titled The Kingdom to the Capitol Adventures of The Glory Bus, about his worship tour bus. The artwork looked like it was taken completely from the Pixar movie Cars. And Feucht’s worship bus had the words “Revival or Bust” written on the back. The book tells the story that led up to that night and climaxes with the declaration, “God loves America so much and wants its leaders to know his love for them. God wants America to be righteous and obey his laws.”
The book concludes: “Sean and his amazing team traveled to every state capitol and worshipped Jesus with tens of thousands of other Christians. This is only the beginning of revival in America!”
Promotional images from Courage Tour website.
A ‘trojan horse’ revival
Hawley and Feucht weren’t the only authoritarian Christians with revival on their minds. According to Rolling Stone, Lance Wallnau “unveiled a new collaboration with Turning Point USA that aims to get ‘civically enlightened’ pastors to turn out their faithful for the ‘America First agenda.’”
The partnership became known as “The Courage Tour,” which I reported on for Baptist News Global in August 2024, was “branded as a ‘revival in seven key states … marking the dawn of our nation’s Third Great Awakening.’”
Just like the revival services of old, each tour stop included door knocking and opened with a time of worship that warmed the hearts of those in attendance for a fiery sermon. But rather than warning about hell, the Courage Tour sermons warned about a potential new Biden or Harris administration. And rather than calling people to walk the aisle to get saved, the Courage Tour invited people to commit their lives to the GOP by signing up for their app, getting out the vote and volunteering to work the polls.
Lion of Judah’s founder Joshua Caleb Standifer told the attendees, “I call this our Trojan Horse then. They don’t see it coming, but we’re going to flood election poll stations across the country with Spirit-filled believers.”
The turning point of revival
Perhaps the turning point of revival in the minds of Christian nationalists was the 2024 election, when the GOP won control over virtually the entire federal government. But they seem to believe it’s been building since then to a climax at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service.
“It’s only now that I’m beginning to realize what was going on all these years that I spent with Charlie,” TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said during the service. “We called them campus tours. Now I know they were really tent revivals complete with a tent.”
“We called them campus tours. Now I know they were really tent revivals complete with a tent.”
“Who feels the Holy Spirit in the house tonight?” conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked. “Who can feel that revival happening right now?”
He continued, “Who’s seen the full churches, the full parking lots? Who knows somebody now who’s a Satanist or an agnostic, who’s now looking at Charlie’s life in this revival moment in our country and going, ‘Maybe I got it all wrong, maybe I do need Christ at the center of my life?’”
“I challenge the ministers out there to talk about what the Bible says and not what the leftists say and get on board of the revival that is coming,” former Trump official Ben Carson added. “We are not going to be able to stop it. You see evidence of it right here in this stadium.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth proclaimed, “Charlie started a political movement but unleashed a spiritual revival.”
Vice President JD Vance yelled, “We have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk!”
President Donald Trump embraces Erika Kirk after he posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 14 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Erica Kirk herself said: “After Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence. We didn’t see rioting. We didn’t see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival.”
And then President Donald Trump himself, who has no life experience with evangelical revivalism, capped it off by reminiscing, “This is like an old-time revival, isn’t it? An old-time revival.”
According to conservatives, revival is no longer a prayer for the future. It’s here. Now. And Fox News is tracking it like it’s the stock market.
At last week’s Dove Awards, the Christian artist known as Jelly Roll won Song of the Year for “Hard Fought Hallelujah.” When he stood up to give his acceptance speech, he said: “The world is hearing about Jesus like they haven’t in decades right now. There is a revival happening in the United States of America where you can’t go on a corner and not hear about Jesus right now.”
On one hand, I agree with him. Jesus is being talked about on every corner right now. But what are people hearing about Jesus? To white conservatives, the stories we’re seeing in the news about what the government is doing in our streets is the revival they’ve always wanted.
Perhaps Trump was onto something when he admitted at the White House this week for Charlie Kirk’s birthday celebration: “He didn’t necessarily love those enemies so much. You know, I heard, ‘He loved his enemies,’ and I said, ‘Wait a minute. Is that the same Charlie that I knew? I’m not sure.’ But I didn’t want to get into it.”
He knows white evangelicals don’t get it. He knows they’re being dishonest.
Because the “revival” they’re seeing today looks nothing like forgiving enemies and loving neighbors. It’s about rounding up nonwhite people, zip-tying them and celebrating or being silent in the face of their disappearance.
There is a revival happening. It’s a revival of white supremacy.
Rick Pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.
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