In Video Full of Lies, Minnesota Pastor Urges Trump to “Enact Martial Law”

If you want a glimpse of how some MAGA cultist pastors are responding to last week’s Capitol siege, here’s Pastor Darryl Knappen of Minnesota’s Cornerstone Church spreading dangerous lie after dangerous lie after dangerous lie in a video released over the weekend.

I’m not posting the entire transcript because it’s 13 minutes of drivel, but in it, he says:

That Donald Trump must “enact martial law and the Insurrection Act, perhaps both in the next few days” (i.e. using the military against citizens).
That we are “seeing the deep state begin to fight back against this president.”
That there was election fraud that “leads all the way back to Barack Obama using agents in Italy and other nations as well.”
That Obama must therefore be “arrested and tried.”
That Mike Pence “will also be arrested for treason.”
That the entire mainstream media is “lying to you.”
That George Soros is funding the “armed camp” of Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
That he was seriously considering wearing his “black robe today and open it up and show my AR-15 underneath it.”

This is what Christian Nationalism looks like. This is why there were Christians (with “Jesus” banners and crosses) at the siege. This is what happens when right-wing extremism breaks your brain to the point where you wrongly believe you’re being persecuted without evidence.

Knappen, by the way, sued the state in August over its COVID restrictions because he claimed he had a religious right to ignore social distancing and face mask mandates. He foolishly thinks Christianity makes you immune to the virus and that the restrictions somehow affected him more than everyone else, even though the rules were applied fairly.

This is what happens when your religion overrides common sense. You become susceptible to the worst ideologies.