“According to a federal criminal complaint, Couy Griffin, an Otero County, New Mexico commissioner and founder of Cowboys for Trump, was arrested in Washington. D.C. on January 17 and now faces a single charge of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority. Federal authorities said Griffin entered a restricted section of the U.S. Capitol during the deadly pro-Trump incursion on January 6, 2021, and led rioters in prayer.
“In a Facebook post on the Cowboys for Trump page, Griffin later said he planned to return to the U.S. Capitol on January 20 for a possible “2nd Amendment rally” that would include “blood running out of that building,” the affidavit says.
“At a January 14 Otero County meeting, Griffin told other officials that he planned on taking a rifle and a revolver when he returned to Washington, according to the affidavit.”
(Tim Stelloh. “Cowboys for Trump founder arrested after allegedly leading Capitol rioters in prayer.” NBC News. January 17, 2021.)
NBC News reported that a Cowboys for Trump videographer told authorities that after he and Griffin saw the group push past security barriers, they scaled the Capitol building’s wall before making their way to an outside deck.
There, Griffin used a bullhorn to lead the group in prayer, the document states. Yes, "prayer."
In a video cited by the affidavit, Griffin also told the crowd that it was a “great day for America” and that “people are showing that they’ve had enough.”
“People are ready for fair and legal elections, or this what you’re going to get,” he said, according to the affidavit.
Additional information about Griffin’s arrest was not detailed in the document, and it wasn't clear whether he had retained a lawyer. A message left with Cowboys for Trump was not immediately returned on January 17.
In an interview with police, Griffin said he had gotten “caught up” with the crowd and that authorities never asked him to leave, according to the affidavit. He told authorities he left the area peacefully and hoped there could be a change in leadership “without a single shot being fired.” He added that there's “no option that’s off the table for the sake of freedom,” the affidavit says.
Cowboys for Trump proports support for “our sitting President Donald J. Trump and his Make America Great Again policies.” The group reportedly believes securing the border, protecting the Second Amendment, and protecting the lives of the unborn are “the most vital and key aspects in America's Greatness.” They believe that the liberal progressive agenda is “drastically moving us away from the identifying principles that make us proud to be American.”
The Cowboys for Trump website claims …
“Cowboys for Trump has developed a great relationship with a great President. In 2019, C4T founder Couy Griffin spoke with the President on three different occasions. The first of which was on February 25th after a 170 mile horseback ride in which Couy led a group of 13 into our nations Capitol. The President called Couy at the end of the trip where the topic of discussion was forest health in the Lincoln National Forest located in Otero County,New Mexico. It was a very productive conversation that has led to greater efforts in Forest Management.
“On September 12th of 2019 Couy Griffin, also a County Commissioner in Otero County, was invited into the White House to sit at the desk with the President and further speak about issues affecting his home state of New Mexico. Griffin accredits this to being the greatest honor of his life to sit at the desk with the greatest President in American history.”
(“Cowboys For Trump.”cowboysfortrump.org. 2021.)
Yet, on January 14 Griffin told the County Board of Commissioners …
“I’m gonna leave either tonight or tomorrow. I’ve got a .357 Henry Big Boy rifle lever action that I’ve got in the trunk of my car and I’ve got a .357 single action revolver, the Colt Ruger Vaquero that I’ll have underneath the front seat on my right side and I will embrace my Second Amendment.”
Religious groups getting “caught up” in Trump's insurrection? Trespassing on Federal property and leading prayers for the rioters? These actions to refuse the results of the 2020 Election and hold Congress captive are about as unholy and anti-Christian as it gets.
Exit polls in 2020 showed that 75% of white Evangelicals voted for Trump, compared with 81% four years ago. The group, which makes up almost one in five of the US electorate, carries significant weight and was credited with being a major factor in Trump’s 2016 victory. The slip of six percent is significant, yet the overwhelming majority of Evangelicals still support Trump's chaotic presidency.
Donald Trump inspires misguided religious fervor. He does so with full knowledge of the consequences. And, he does so for purely personal and political gains. Christians who follow his insanity do so for the same reasons. Violence is their means to war on the infidels' opposition.
With supreme hypocrisy, Trump has ham-stringed religion. His administration’s narrow understanding of religion and public policy – one that privileges the concerns of a select group of conservative White Christians, mostly evangelical and who by no means represent all of America’s faithful, is terribly destructive to the honest faith communities in America.
A commonly held but misleading perception in U.S. public discourse is that the Trump administration’s policies have been largely favorable to faith communities. However, like much of the results of his presidency, Trump's approach to Christians weakens rather than strengthens them. His toxic policies filled with vulgarity, incivility, and inexplicable cruelty have negatively affected American culture and its churches.
Christian values are ignored when a president separates families and cages children at the border. Also, a Christian leader does not fail to protect Americans from the coronavirus pandemic – an ineptitude that has contributed to almost 400,000 deaths, which are disproportionately of Black people and other people of color.
This president, who claims he defends the sanctity of life, clearly shows he values electoral politics over American lives. Not to mention, he lies, lies, and lies while continuing to deny he lost the 2020 election. Trump authored the January 6 uprising in Washington D.C. with the most egregious falsehood in presidential history.
The Center For American Progress reports that Trump doesn't represent the Christian majority in the United States. Instead, his so-called support of Christianity centers on what he claims to do for White Evangelicals …
“To understand the needs and concerns of all American faith communities, it is important to first understand the religious diversity of the nation. While 3 in 4 Americans identify with a religious tradition, only 15 percent identify as White Evangelicals, according to the 2019 American Values Atlas Survey.
“Yet this small proportion of the population tends to garner a disproportionate share of attention concerning religion in the public discourse on national politics. Their concerns certainly dominate how the Trump administration’s impact on faith communities is perceived at large.”
(Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Maggie Siddiqi, and Samantha Behar. “How the Trump Administration Has Harmed Faith Communities.” Center For American Progress. September 21, 2020)
The research also shows that Trump administration has ushered in an alarming uptick in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes, and its policies have contributed to a climate conducive to White nationalism. At the same time, the administration has turned its back on religious minorities in China and on refugees fleeing religious persecution around the world.
Now, people like Couy Griffin – a rabid supporter of Trump's religious meanderings – weaponize a narrow set of conservative Christian beliefs in order to harm others. Feeding on the president's phony support of religion – including his photo op with a bible, his pro-life Supreme Court selections, and his self-proclaimed declaration of being “The Chosen One” – many faith leaders sell their souls for his political favor.
These “Christians” in cahoots with Trump now support a violent, armed takeover of democracy – a Jesus Jihad at the Capitol to kidnap Congress. Good old Cowboy Griffin, mixing forest management with Trump's f-upped vision of God and country, is out for blood. He's praying with fellow anarchists, blessing their twisted insurrection to “Stop the Steal” and to annihilate those heathen, non-believing Democrats who, if not stopped, will take their guns and their precious ideals of rightful predestination.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to forgive the trespasses of those religious kooks who are actively involved in Making America Great Again. At first, I thought maybe they just didn't see the real Donald Trump, but now I understand they do “see” him – they adore him and love his true agenda – White nationalist politics based on privilege, force, and a complete lack of support for separation of Church and State. Their religion is championed by a bigoted leader who thinks he is a god and who gladly serves their common beliefs … a leader who … God knows … condones the overthrow of the democracy of the United States of America.
More than any other time
in my life of nearly 70 years, I feel the country is in desperate
need of deliverance from evil. For thine, our Father – not
Donald Trump's … and certainly not Cowboy Griffins's – is the
power and the glory forever. Amen.
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