Questions remain about the Minnesota rampage. Anti-abortion extremism may shed light

Investigators are still examining possible motives for the killing of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and the shooting of another legislator and his wife. In a press conference on Monday, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson described the rampage as a “rare” political assassination. Much of the public discourse has focused on whether the suspect, Vance Luther Boelter, is from the political right or the political left. But people close to Boelter have said he did not discuss politics.

Instead, some scholars who focus on the far right and anti-abortion violence say it may be more insightful to examine Boelter’s religious background and views on abortion. Among the evidence that investigators are examining are notebooks belonging to Boelter containing detailed notes on dozens of other presumed targets that included Democratic public officials and abortion rights supporters. Scholars say it is reasonable to consider the rampage in Minnesota within the well-established pattern of anti-abortion violence that has taken place over many decades in the U.S., and its ties to conservative Evangelical Christian movements.

“They … have this idea that you, as devout Christians, need to do something to stop [abortion] — not just to oppose it, but to eliminate it,” said Carol Mason, chair of the humanities at the University of Kentucky. “And this goes back to a kind of ‘leaderless resistance’ that the militia movement named in the late ’80s, and that the anti-abortion movement has practiced for a long time.”

Researchers who have looked at Boelter’s apparent connection with a fast-growing strand of Evangelical Christianity say that it may shed some light. This movement, referred to as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), frequently invokes the terminology and imagery of war when discussing political and spiritual enemies, including those who support abortion rights.

“It’s reasonable to be concerned in the present that this movement we call the New Apostolic Reformation, is priming the pump for anti-abortion and other kinds of violence in our society now,” said Fred Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates. “There’s been a decided uptick in the rhetoric and vision of violence in the United States from apostolic leaders for some time.”

Clarkson said within NAR circles, abortion is spoken of as a “demonic enterprise,” and that institutions and individuals that permit or support it are considered enemies.

“The question is, at what point does the rhetoric meet the reality?” he said. “At what point do individuals or perhaps organized groups, perhaps large groups, begin to take action against the ‘enemies of God’ and the ‘demonic forces’?”

Boelter spoke about abortion, modern-day prophets and apostles

Close associates of Boelter, as well as speeches he made at Christian gatherings while living in Africa two years ago, portray a man whose worldview was fundamentally shaped by his religious beliefs. He was deeply opposed to abortion, and railed against churches that don’t share that view.

“Many churches in America didn’t listen to Jesus. They’re divided. This little group here, this little group here, this little group here,” he said during one of those sermons, pausing frequently as an interpreter translated his words into French. “And the enemy, the devil, comes through and rips everything apart. The churches are so messed up, they don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches.”

At another point in the same sermon, Boelter spoke about his belief that the various churches in the U.S. would, one day, unite.

“God is going to raise up apostles and prophets in America to correct his church,” he said.

“Nobody talks like that unless you’re a part of the NAR,” said Clarkson. “Nobody’s talking about God sending apostles and prophets to correct the church in America unless you’re somehow influenced by NAR. That’s strong evidence.”

Clarkson also said it’s noteworthy that Boelter graduated from the Christ for the Nations Institute in Texas. CFNI is rooted in Pentecostalism and adheres to conservative teachings about gender, marriage and sexual identity. Clarkson said the institute also promoted religious doctrines that were considered unusual at the time of its founding, in 1970.

“One of them was the idea that all of the Christian denominations and doctrines of traditional Christianity — Catholicism and Pentecostalism and even much of evangelicalism — were wrong,” he said. It was also distinct in its belief in modern-day prophets and apostles.

“And the apostles and prophets have direct communications with God. He talks with them. They talk with Him,” Clarkson said. “So that was a pretty radical thing.”

Clarkson said the CFNI’s teachings became the “tap root” of the NAR community today, which similarly upholds modern-day prophets and apostles within the network.

The CFNI has issued a statement condemning the violence in Minnesota.

“We are absolutely aghast and horrified that a CFNI alumnus is the suspect,” the statement reads, in part. “This is not who we are. This is not what we teach. This is not what we model.”

‘Dad went to war last night’

According to an investigator’s affidavit filed in relation to the federal complaint against Boelter, he allegedly sent a group text message to his wife and other family members in the hours after the rampage occurred. It read, “Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody.”

Language invoking “war” and “battles” are deeply embedded in the culture of the NAR, particularly when it comes to discussion of social and political positions that they disagree with, said Clarkson. He said this stems from the NAR’s pursuit of “dominion” — a term that refers to the aspiration to take control over every aspect of society and impose Old Testament Biblical law. The movement’s emphasis on the Old Testament is significant, Clarkson said, because in it, major figures are warriors. Though nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults describe themselves as Christian, NAR leaders frequently couch their struggle for political domination in similar terms, as waging battle against the currents of larger society.

“They don’t see that as metaphorical or something that only happens in the heavens, [or] in the ‘spirit world’ in some way,” Clarkson said. “But rather, it’s going to involve Christians of the right sort of taking power to create the kingdom of God, and to take what they call ‘dominion’ over society.”

Although the NAR community is decentralized and doctrinally diverse, leading figures within it consistently deploy dehumanizing and inflammatory rhetoric when it comes to abortion. In a doctrinal publication issued on the topic, NAR apostle Lou Engle articulated that position.

“We think that abortion is a simple solution to a social problem, but what we don’t know is that it is actually fueling the demonic realm over a whole culture,” he wrote. “… Sacrificing of babies is fueling the demonization of our nation. Without God’s mercy through interceding and acting to stop abortion, a day of reckoning is coming to the U.S.”

Dehumanizing narratives about abortion are now mainstream 

While narratives that describe abortion as “ritual child sacrifice” that empowers demons are consistent across the NAR, they are not limited to that movement.

“As someone who has studied the anti-abortion movement for a long time, you don’t have to be part of a fringe Christian network to have seen and heard images and stories about abortion as a matter of demonic child sacrifice,” said Mason, whose scholarship has focused on the rise of the right since the 1960s and anti-abortion violence. “Those images have been floating around for a long, long time and they are now being deployed, I think, in more and more venues and higher volumes.”

Mason said that this has been the result of decades of rhetorical shifts that even incorporated anti-Semitic myths about “blood libel.” She says this rhetoric has evolved into a radicalized, anti-abortion ideology among many conservative Christians in the U.S.

“Abortion used to be seen as a sin, like adultery or blasphemy. But over time, it became not just a sin, it became evil. And to some it became the worst evil,” she said. “Until people were convinced that abortion is not simply a matter of terminating a pregnancy, but is actually a full scale genocidal industry meant to serve an evil satanic global cabal whose mission it is to wipe out Christian civilization.”

Mason said there is evident frustration being felt within the far right that, since the Dobbs decision, estimates of abortion actually went up. The movement that had long seen the overturning Roe v. Wade as an important step toward achieving the elimination of elective abortion has been contending with a more complicated result. This has increased concern over escalating rhetoric and the possibility that individual actors will feel compelled to take matters into their own hands.

“That apocalyptic narrative says that we’re in a battle between good Christian forces and evil demonic forces and that we must do something now, lest we deal with the wrath of God,” said Mason. “And so there’s a sense of urgency that comes with this.”