The Minnesota Shooting Suspect’s Background Suggests Deep Ties to Christian Nationalism

The alleged shooter also said in one of the sermons, “God is going to raise up apostles and prophets in America.” It’s that language in particular, experts tell WIRED, that connects him to the world of charismatic Christianity.

“Everything that I’ve seen indicates that he’s charismatic,” says Matthew Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore and author of The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy. “The supernatural, talking about the gifts of the holy spirit, while using a very pentecostal style of discourse in his preaching.”

Abortion in the independent charismatic Christian movement is often characterized as a demonic practice. Police say the car that the alleged shooter abandoned contained a lengthy hit list of Democratic lawmakers, abortion providers, and outspoken abortion advocates in the state. Charismatic Christians often talk about abortion in terms of “child sacrifice to demons,” says Taylor.

“I don’t think it’s hard to see how someone could get radicalized around that language,” he alleges.

The alleged shooter’s now-deleted Facebook profile also showed that he had “liked” a page for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy organization known for its hardline stances against abortion and LGBTQ rights. “This signals at least a right-wing anti-abortion conviction,” says Taylor.

David Carlson, who has known the alleged shooter since fourth grade and described the 57-year-old as his best friend, told reporters that the alleged shooter was a Trump supporter, “very conservative,” and would be offended if anyone suggested otherwise. (In the aftermath of the shooting, however, far-right influencers, including people like Elon Musk, sought to blame leftists and the Deep State.)

It’s likely, according to Taylor, that the alleged shooter’s theological ideas were rooted in his time at the Christ for the Nations Institute, a charismatic Bible college in Dallas, Texas, he claimed to spend some time at, according to a biography on the archived Revoformation website. Taylor claims that a number of prominent figures in the independent charismatic Christian movement have deep ties to or attended the institute.

Dutch Sheets, an NAR pastor who popularized the “Appeal to Heaven” flag waved by Christian nationalists and rioters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, graduated from the institute in 1978 and worked as an adjunct professor there in the late 1980s and early 1990s; he later briefly returned as an instructor in 2012. Cindy Jacobs, an avid supporter of Trump who has been described as one of the most influential prophets in America, settled in Dallas in the 1980s, and according to Taylor, was regularly on the institute’s campus lecturing or guest-teaching. The suspected shooter was enrolled at the Institute from 1988 to 1990, which means he could have overlapped with some of those figures.

When WIRED contacted the Institute, they directed our query to a statement saying it “unequivocally rejects, denounces, and condemns any and all forms of violence and extremism, be it politically, racially, religiously or otherwise motivated.” The statement also said that they were “aghast and horrified” that an alumnus of an Institute was a suspect in the Minnesota shootings. “This is not who we are. This is not what we teach.” Jacobs and Sheets did not respond to requests for comment.