Demons Were Behind the Women's March?

When millions of women demonstrate in marches around the world, what really drives them? A thirst for equality and justice? Disgust over misogyny? A pressing need to have their voices heard by political leaders? According to several commentators from the Religious Right, it's demons!

In a January 23rd video shared at Facebook, Wallnau shared a clip of a flaming vehicle that he claimed was set on fire on Inauguration Day. "This is your brain on liberal, progressive campus and community organizing," he told listeners. At the -21.11 mark, he claimed that inauguration unrest was a "spiritual manifestation" of "the spirit of witchcraft", which was allegedly at work through the Women's March on Washington. He then mocked Women's March protesters as divided and hypocritical, ignoring the actual motivations behind the Women's March. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

"This is a spiritual manifestation on the inauguration, and notice, this never happened during the Obama administration, not because of the problem with Trump, but because it's the unmasking of the nature of the progressive spirit and its anarchy and its desire to control and intimidate and manipulate.

By the way, any manipulation, intimidation, and control -- those three words are the spirit of witchcraft. Witchcraft is the spirit of Jezebel, so it makes sense to me that there'd be half a million women that would show up the next day, and they don't even know what they're there for. I mean, some of them cried one thing, some of them cried another, but the only thing that they were agreed on was Madonna's goofball statement on blowing up the White House. And some women, of course, were incensed over a comment Trump made a decade ago before he got married. But what's weird is they weren't incensed about Hillary covering up her husband or going on the assault with women that her husband had been involved with and how she destroyed them. So, there's an element of hypocrisy that reveals a root of lawlessness that is the essence of what I'm talking about."

Rick Joyner, co-founder of MorningStar Ministries, was also aghast at the Women's March, blaming it on infernal forces. In a January 23rd video shared on Facebook, Rick Joyner called the Women's March "one of the most blatant manifestations of the Jezebel spirit ever". He called the participants' rage "unattractive" and recoiled at their brazen language, insisting that the marches were not a representation of American women. At the -7:00 mark, he attributed the march to the Jezebel demon, who feels threatened by President Trump. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

"Why was there such a rage? I think it's because that Jezebel spirit is about to be thrown down in America, and I think much of the world, and it knows its time is short ... I think Trump is a real serious threat to the general Jezebel spirit, I mean, just the way he's attacked the political correct spirit."

The Jezebel demon has been a recurring theme among New Apostolic Reformation commentators with regard to the march. In a commentary piece at Charisma News, Landon Schott was so horrified that the Women's March featured profanity, pro-choice messages, and "anti-purity" content that he concluded the demon Jezebel was at work.

"Then I witnessed celebrities cursing our government and nation, promoting abortion institutions. They carried signs that read, "If Mary (Magdalene) had had an abortion, we wouldn't be in this mess!" I continued to see an anti-God, anti-purity, anti-Christ spirit emerge from the heart of this march. I watched a celebrity curse profanity over our nation and demand the right to have abortions. This wasn't about equal pay; this was about the advancement of an anti-Christ spirit. As I watched, I was grieved, and up in my spirit came, "This is the Jezebel spirit!""

Televangelist and dehydrated bucket food enthusiast Jim Bakker also claimed that infernal forces were present during the march. During the January 30th edition of The Jim Bakker Show, Bakker described his time at the Trump inauguration in glowing terms, calling it "supernatural". By contrast, during the January 31st edition, Bakker's guest Billye Brim described the women at Women's March as "driven by demons". At the 3:52 mark, Bakker described an evil spirit in the lobby of his hotel, allegedly brought to town by the marchers. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

BAKKER: We went downstairs, and there in that lobby that a few hours before was presence of God was suddenly the most evil spirit I have ever felt. On the big screen -- and I'm not saying Fox News is anointed -- but Fox News was no longer on. They might come for me if I tell you who was on. Somebody else.

BRIM: Liberal media.

BAKKER: One of the other sides was on, and all the places where all the generals of God had been sitting was women, women, women in pink, women with ... cat ears. I studied a little bit of that, and I couldn't tell you what all that means 'cause it's dirty. It's filthy dirty.

Oh, the irony. Bakker and his friends were less offended by Trump's "grab them by the p***y" comment than by pussy hats used to express outrage over said comments.

Even E. W. Jackson brought up demons in the same breath as the Women's March. During the January 23rd edition of Urban Family Talk, Jackson denied that the Women's March on Washington and its sister marches represented American women. He then went on to attribute the D.C. march to demons using the "powers and principalities" language of Ephesians 6:12. At the 6:59 mark, he told listeners that America was the site of a spiritual battle with demons. (Hat tip Right Wing Watch.)

"Our country is really now divided, not as the leftists would have you think, divided [by] gender identity versus those who don't recognize it, and you know, the LGBT movement versus those who don't want same-sex marriage, and the women who want freedom versus those who are engaged in a war on women. That's not what's going on. Folks, America is in the middle of a pitched spiritual battle ... We are in the middle of the equivalent of a spiritual civil war. That’s what’s happening in America right now, and the people represented by those who went to Washington, D.C. to protest are on the godless side in this war. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, so what we’ve got to do now is put on the whole armor of God to be able to stand against the wiles, the stratagems, the strategies, the tricks of the devil."

Do these commentators honestly believe that demons were at work at the Women's Marches, or are they merely trying to convince their followers? Either way, attributing the marches to demons shuts down any possibility of rational thought or conversation. If Religious Right followers believe that the marches were the handiwork of infernal forces, they'll be too fearful to think about the issues discussed at those marches. If fundamentalists believe marchers to be angry, lewd harpies who serve the Jezebel spirit, they won't listen to what the marchers have to say. Once again, fear and superstition prevent members of the Religious Right from cultivating reason or empathy.

To read additional commentary, visit the following links.

Feministe: Quick hit: The Women’s March on Washington was driven by demons.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Wingnut: Women’s March was ‘ Driven by Demons’