In the latest example of a failed Republican candidate for Congress turned worship warrior, Bunni Pounds is heeding the Trump administration’s call to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary by pretending we’re a theocracy.
After graduating from Dallas Baptist University with a degree in political science, Pounds eventually started Bunni Pounds and Associates, a Republican fundraising firm. But she lost in the 2018 Republican primaries in a bid to represent Texas’ 5th Congressional District. So now she’s fantasizing about living out the story of ancient Israel in modern-day United States.
Ezra reading the Law, fresco from Dura-Europos synagogue, 303 B.C. – 256 A.D., with a fragment of the Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls as background image. (Public domain via Wikipedia)
Drawing inspiration from the Hebrew prophet Ezra reading the Scriptures publicly in the book of Nehemiah, Pounds has organized an event called “America Reads the Bible.” It’s a weeklong reading of the entire Bible — King James Version — scheduled for April 19 to 25.
“For generations, the biblical story of Nehemiah has echoed as a call to rebuild, not just walls, but hearts,” Pounds proclaims in a promo video. “A scribe named Ezra, burdened by God, reawakened the people to their identity and calling through a national reading of God’s law. Soon after, Nehemiah rallied the nation to fully rebuild their defenses in just 52 days.”
So what does that have to do with 21st-century United States politics? She proposes this answer: “Today, America faces its own moment of decision — a culture adrift, leadership gaps across every sphere, families fractured, faith forgotten.”
That’s kind of odd to hear, given how Christian nationalists claimed these issues were supposedly solved after the 2024 election and massive revival they believe has begun in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Apparently, the revival got reset for the midterms.
Pounds extols her vision: “In 2026, as America marks 250 years old, a new nation of leaders will rise, Ezras for our time, calling the nation back to its foundation.”
Centering the conquest narratives
While adults playing ancient Israelite cosplay may appear extreme, the seeds get planted in white evangelical children’s church. The Sunday school lessons often depict the exciting stories of the Israelites escaping Egypt and then conquering their Canaanite neighbors in order to take the land for themselves.
“In their limited understanding of Christianity, the only true people of God today are conservative Republicans.”
Song lyrics explore such stories as the 12 spies entering Canaan, with the 10 spies who didn’t want to move forward with genocide being called bad and the two spies who wanted to commit genocide being labeled good. God requires total obedience, which means total genocide of women, children and babies, the “pro-life” teachers claim. Then many children’s songs depict battles, at the end of which the enemy often meets a violent death.
They don’t offer any reflection on how ancient empire dynamics shaped the story of Israel, of how ancient people wrote stories or how we’re a modern Democracy rather than an ancient theocracy. Instead, these evangelicals present the stories as inerrant Scripture that cannot be questioned, revealing a God who is the same today as Yahweh was depicted back then, and then calling today’s white evangelical children to enlist as happy, obedient soldiers who grow up to fight the Democrats.
In their limited understanding of Christianity, the only true people of God today are conservative Republicans, most of whom are white. Then when the entire Bible and the Great Commission get interpreted through the Canaanite conquest paradigm, the cause of Christian nationalism becomes their rallying cry.
The Sermon on the Mount? That’s for another dispensation, for the afterlife, or simply meant to be interpreted spiritually.
The Fruit of the Spirit? That’s simply how you’re supposed to relate to other Christians who agree with you on virtually everything.
What matters is that conservative Christian Republicans are the army of God, nobody can stand in their way, the land is theirs to take and plunder, and the rest of us must bend the knee or be completely eradicated.
A fragment of a painted limestone relief dating to about 1400 B.C. from Thebes in Egypt depicts defeated Canaanites. (Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The lineup of Ezras
With 500 Bible readers enlisted to participate in the upcoming Scripture-a-thon, there are far too many to name. But some of them are paired with specific Scriptures in ways that are beyond poetic.
According to Ministry Watch: “Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan’s Purse, … will read the story of the Good Samaritan. Leaders from Prison Fellowship will read from the Book of Exodus. Mike Huckabee, ambassador to Israel, will read from the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis, which includes a passage about Israel often cited by Christian Zionists: ‘I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.’ … Leaders from Turning Point USA, whose co-founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated last year, will read the Book of Job.”
The readers include politicians like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in Texas public schools, and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who claims God wrote the U.S. Constitution.
Other readers include Canaanite conquest cosplayers we’ve been covering over the past few years. For example, Eric Metaxas made headlines for declaring at the climax of the 2020 Washington, D.C., Jericho March, “We’re going to end by blowing some shofars and blowing your minds!”
Organizers from “A Million Women,” including Jonathan Cahn, will read. At their event on the National Mall in October 2024, Cahn had a literal stone “altar of Ishtar” set up in front of the U.S. Capitol while yelling, “Get out of this country! Get out of the world! Get out of the church! Get out of our lives! Get out of our children! Get out from this land in the name of Yeshua, Jesus, the Lamb of God!” Then Lou Engle added, “We’re going to release the roar!” And suddenly, more than a quarter-million people were screaming, blowing shofars and bawling their eyes out as dozens of leaders took mallets and smashed the altar into rubble for eight minutes straight while singing, “He shall reign!”
Other Ezras include representatives from “Her Voice MVMNT” and evangelist Ross Johnston. You may remember them for when they teamed up last year for worship warfare in Seattle. At that event, the worship leaders had everyone pick up imaginary rocks and then roar while pretending to throw the rocks at the LGBTQ “Goliaths” who were protesting their event. One person at the mic yelled, “You want to throw down with me? Let’s go!” Then it devolved into Seattle police flinging women around, kneeing protesters in the back and shoving their faces into the dirt.
Actor Kevin Sorbo also is in the lineup. He live-tweeted the January 6 insurrection, claiming, “It’s happening” and “History is being made.” He’s also a sponsor for the Christian nationalist TruPlay games, in which white evangelical kids pretend to be ancient Israelites shooting rocks at animals and people wearing turbans.
Another Ezra is Frank Pavone, who I wrote about while covering JD Vance’s rad trad Catholicism. Pavone once laid an aborted fetus on an altar in support of Trump.
And then there’s Paula White Cain, the head of the White House Faith Office, who encouraged the women in her church to “Go get the porn.” She continued in her sermon to Christian wives, “If he likes to watch porn, watch porn with him!” One wonders what part of the Bible she’ll be paired to read.
Preachers include everyone from charismatics like Michael Brown and Lance Wallnau to The Gospel Coalition’s own Matt Chandler.
The uncool parts of the Bible
“We’re trying to have really cool people read parts of the Bible that people think are uncool,” Pounds said. “And we want to inspire them that every word of God is precious and that we can’t just cut out these sections of Scripture and not interact with it.”
Given that they’re platforming people who think God inspired the U.S. Constitution in a way that was based on the book of Deuteronomy, and who run around blowing shofars, smashing literal stone altars and marching around capitols, they aren’t the least bit concerned about the genocidal nature of the books biblical scholars call the Deuteronomistic history, which includes Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.
But rather than offering any kind of pause toward the impulses of genocide, they fuel it by centering their entire understanding of Scripture and modern U.S. politics on a literal inerrantist interpretation of these books. And they think we won’t notice because they’re having these passages read by such “cool people” as Kevin Sorbo and John Cooper of the band Skillet.
Christian nationalist worship and revival
We keep seeing the themes of worship and revival paired together. At the Charlie Kirk memorial service, the most prominent white evangelical worship leaders in the industry led the most popular songs and declared revival had arrived.
Sean Feucht has teamed up with the federal government for a series of worship events called the “Roots of Revival Tour.”
We’re having a “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving” on the National Mall in May, which the Trump administration says is for “rededicating our country as one nation under God.”
And similarly, the America Reads the Bible event will include worship as the culmination of each hour. It will be led by Leeland Mooring, Danny Gokey, Kim Walker-Smith, Marty Goetz, Phil King, Meredith Andrews and others.
When cosplay becomes reality
In my upcoming book, I demonstrate how these Christian nationalist worship and revival events strengthen the power of those at the top, dehumanize those below and wage war against those who won’t submit.
“These Christian nationalist worship and revival events strengthen the power of those at the top, dehumanize those below and wage war against those who won’t submit.”
The question is: At what point do they put down their TruPlay video game controllers, stop playing cosplay and start picking up actual weapons against us?
I argue they’ve already started doing this. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, as of November 2025, the USAID shutdowns already had caused more than 600,000 deaths, two-thirds of which were children. In Iran, we’ve dropped bombs on schoolgirls. And the administration has murdered multiple U.S. citizens through the recklessness of ICE.
But wherever that transition from cosplay to real violence happens, we need to start taking these Scripture and song revival events as more than mere expressions of innocent worship. They’re being inspired by the most violent texts of the Bible and openly admitting they hope their supposedly cool Bible readers will make people think those “uncool” parts are precious.
Bunni Pounds may want to brand the event as “reconnect(ing) leaders and citizens with the transformative power of Scripture.” But her choice of readers reveals there’s more going on here.
They’re rebuilding hearts toward the possibility of embracing theocratic violence. As Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote in his book American Crusade, “Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet.”
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 is the author of a forthcoming book, Weapons of Worship: How the Songs of Evangelicalism Form the Soundtrack of Extremism. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.