“You’ll be able to’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one lady,” the justice stated in a 2020 speech. “Till very lately that’s what the overwhelming majority of People thought. Now it’s thought of bigotry,” he stated, some extent he had made strongly in his dissent to the ruling.
The non secular leaders solid Mr. Trump as one other of their heroes. A number of weeks earlier than the 2020 election, at a Las Vegas megachurch prayer service for his second time period, a pastor from the group offered Mr. Trump with an “Attraction to Heaven” flag from the stage. When he misplaced, Mr. Sheets and a group of others shaped an on the spot, advert hoc non secular arm of the “Cease the Steal” marketing campaign, blitzing swing state megachurches, broadcasting the providers at every cease and drawing a whole bunch of 1000’s of viewers.
On Jan. 6, the “Attraction to Heaven” flag was distinguished: on the Washington Monument, the place throngs gathered to listen to President Trump ship a speech contesting the election outcomes, and later above the offended mob that surrounded the Capitol. The flag was seen above clashes with regulation enforcement on the constructing’s west terrace, as rioters breached police strains beneath the scaffolding arrange for President Biden’s inauguration, and at last, contained in the constructing.
By that day, students say, the flag had turn out to be widespread sufficient to typically be utilized by a couple of different teams, together with militia members. However most frequently, they stated, it’s tied on to Mr. Sheets, his contemporaries and adherents and their imaginative and prescient for a extra Christian America.
Final October, quickly after the flag was final documented on the Alito seashore dwelling, Mr. Sheets devoted a prayer session to the courtroom, this time sounding triumphant. He cited the Dobbs resolution, overturning the federal proper to abortion, by which the bulk resolution had been written by Justice Alito.
“We have now reached one other section within the strategy of shifting the Supreme Court docket,” he introduced. By way of the justices, he stated, “God’s intent for establishments of presidency can now be fulfilled.”
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
