Christian activists are using Instagram to recruit and become influencers in the process

Many of these Christian nationalist militia groups also call themselves “guerrillas” rather than militias, meaning their “enemy” is the government rather than the civilians. Although Jon Lewis, a researcher at the George Washington University Extremism Program, was shocked by the branding of publicly accelerator or Christian nationalist content on Instagram, he expressed doubts about the real threat to armed groups. “They did off-grid guerrilla training, filmed videos for their Instagram account, and then went back to their mom’s basement,” he said. “I’m not sure how many of these 16-year-olds were ready for a real guerrilla campaign against the U.S. military.”

This new movement of Christian Nationalist Militia Online is a growing cross-border movement between gun culture and Christian nationalism, a trade union that best reflects, the popularity of Christian “Guntuber” Lucas Botkin and the company he founded “T-Rex Arms”. In this subculture Venn diagram, cultural war rhetoric is paired with weapons with counsel to protect Christian and traditional family values.

“Guns help push religion, and religion helps push guns,” Lewis said. “You get these networks full of this kind of rhetoric and when you combine it with offline mobilization and weapon training, it’s not great.”

Instagram is already home to a large and established gun enthusiast, tactical equipment brands and gun influencer community and brings potential recruitment opportunities to this emerging paramilitary movement. It is not uncommon for gun enthusiast groups to gather in the woods for air gun training or hunting on weekends. What makes this sport different from the more legitimate “sports” organizations is their emphasis on recruitment and the fact that they mask their faces in the images, Paul said. “Then, they are trying to push for a clear Christian ideology.” (Cable tried to contact several accounts in this ecosystem; some initially agreed to interviews, and then increasingly suspected that the reporter was “the Federal Reserve.”)

Given that President Donald Trump took office in January and piled up his administration with Christian nationalists, it is unclear yet the new crop that the new Donald paramilitary extremists think they are preparing for or striving for is unclear.

Since the advent of modern militia movements in the late 1980s, paramilitary activities have usually been waxed and abated by any party in which any party ruled. During democratic governments, higher levels of paramilitary activity are often observed, as movement leaders may evoke perceptions of government over-censorship or imminent gun control, as well as conspiracy theories about the upcoming “New World Order.” (For this purpose, the Killed Evil sold a T-shirt with the slogan “Christ World Order.”) In the first Trump administration, this pattern broke down, aroused by the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and anti-government sentiment as militias surged.

The group in this new guard knows their political views by sharing the content types of Instagram stories, which were removed 24 hours later: for example, a screenshot of a post by white nationalist Jared Taylor about immigration, a post about a decline in birth rate or an anti-Muslim meme. As for their broader mission, these radical influencers are often preparing for the “apocalypse,” but they tend to say, although it’s not always clear what that means. Some have taken an accelerating approach, preparing for what they see as a response to “degenerate” and political decline. A statement released in July, along with a Roman bust, depicting a picture of Ares, a Greek god of war in Tivoli, Italy, “there is no more political solution.” “Some hills deserve to die for your child, if not for yourself.” For others, the mission may be more about the primitive battle between good and evil, and the “great battle.”

One account posted “If you don’t train, you will die,” and a photo of a man wearing a skull mask and a spear. “Get together with friends, family or alone. Whatever you are going to do, make sure you are not responsible.”