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The suspect in the deadly Minnesota political shootings has ties to a charismatic Christian movement that focuses on "spiritual warfare" and speaks of those with differing views as "possessed by demons," according to an article at The Atlantic. Raw Story reports on The Atlantic's findings under the headline "
The Minnesota assassination suspect had a history of participation in religious groups that speak of a kind of "political warfare" and warned of "demon-possessed politicians."
Family and friends have spoken out about Vance Boelter, the Minnesota man who turned himself in to police in the shootings of four people, killing two, The Atlantic reported on Tuesday. Among the things they've learned: he had contact with "a charismatic Christian movement whose leaders speak of spiritual warfare, an army of God, and demon-possessed politicians, and which has already proved, during the January 6 insurrection, its ability to mobilize followers to act."
Reporter Stephanie McCrummen found that Boelter attended a Dallas, Texas, Bible College named Christ for the Nations Institute. The college confirmed that Boelter graduated in 1990. It is described as "a prominent training institution for charismatic Christians," according to the report.
The late James Gordon Lindsay was a central figure in the movement's rise to prominence. He helped it grow roots in several denominations, especially those in the Pentecostal and Evangelical traditions. Burris writes:
Pentecostal evangelist James Gordon Lindsay helped found the institute in 1970. Lindsay comes out of the revivalist movement, the New Order of the Latter Rain, which began as a protest movement in Canada, wrote L. Thomas Holdcroft for the Fall 1980 edition of the Society of Pentecostal Studies.
Post World War II followers "believed that an outpouring of the Holy Spirit was underway, raising up new apostles and prophets and a global End Times army to battle Satanic forces and establish God’s kingdom on Earth."
It was a philosophy rejected by the main Pentecostal church but was embraced and promoted by the Christ for the Nations group. That ultimately became the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, which broadcasts its beliefs in "megachurches, global networks of apostles and prophets, and a media ecosystem of online ministries, books, and podcasts, becoming a grassroots engine of the Christian Right."
Burris describes the type of curriculum Boelter would have discovered at Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI):
While at the school, the report said he would have been exposed to leaders who view the world as a physical battleground for a spiritual battle between God and Satan.
"He would have been told that actual demonic forces can take hold of culture, political leaders, and entire territories, and thwart God’s kingdom," the report said. Boelter would have been instructed to consider himself a "spiritual warrior."
In the piece, McCrummen found courses offered at the school, such as "Prayer and the Supernatural." The class description says, "The Bible is clear that angels and demons are real. This course will cover a wide range of how the Bible and prayer contend against demonic forces. The World is in an era of serious warfare and the Body of Christ must remember that Jesus has already won this war. As in any warfare, the military must know their opponent and how to 'war a good warfare.'"
McCrummen quoted the school founder’s slogan that “Every Christian should pray at least one violent prayer a day.”
In the wake of the shooting, the Christ for the Nations Institute put out a statement saying, "We thought it important to clarify this issue" about the founder's quote. They claim that “violent prayer" means "that a Christian’s prayer-life should be intense, fervent, and passionate, not passive and lukewarm..."
The statement also said about the shooter that they were "aghast and horrified," noting, "This is not who we are."
Boelter's spiritual education is addressed in an article titled "On the Christian Education of Dr. Vance Boelter," by Jeff Sharlet, who wrote on the day of the shootings:
In 2024, at the Christ for the Nations Institute, I met a student at the Institute, a pleasant young man who wanted to pursue music ministry. I asked him about “violent prayer.” It was necessary, he said, to remind yourself every day that “the culture”—the rest of us, the unsaved—are the enemy. He clarified: “Not you, in particular,” he said. “Just, you know, the culture.” He wasn’t a killer.
Around 2, 3 this morning, somebody in Minnesota was.
I stopped by at Christ for the Nations Institute because I was in Dallas to speak at a very different church, First Unitarian, which has a 60-year history of fighting for reproductive rights and through volunteers continues to help people seeking abortions make their way to other states. It’s stepped up for trans rights, too. For my talk, the church hired off-duty cops as security. Because a church on the front lines of struggle for so long knows something about the violent prayers of others.
As it happens, Vance Boelter was involved in reproductive rights, too. According to Wired, he was the former president of “Revoformation Ministries,” and as a missionary in Congo—or, possibly, an aspiring oilman, or both—apparently preached a sermon in 2023 against churches that don’t fight abortion. “God,” Boelter wrote in his sermon, “will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.”
The hit list said to be Boelter’s included along with the names of Democratic politicians those of abortion providers and pro-choice activists; the addresses of Planned Parenthood clinics. Boelter joins the theological tradition of murder for “life,” heir to the so-called “Army of God,” a long list of killers, bombers, kidnappers, poisoners, and arsonists whose names need no recitation.
Perhaps the most disarming description of Boelter's mindset came in this paragraph from The Atlantic piece, where Stephanie McCrummen writes:
Reporting so far describes Boelter, the 57-year-old man now facing murder charges, as a married father of five who worked in the food industry for decades, managed a gas station in St. Paul and a 7-Eleven in Minneapolis, and recently began working for funeral-service companies as he struggled financially. (According to one report, Boelter worked for a transport service that picked up corpses from assisted-living facilities and delivered them to funeral homes.) At the same time, Boelter had an active, even grandiose, spiritual life long before he allegedly carried out what authorities describe as a “political assassination” and texted his family afterward, “Dad went to war last night.”
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