Chris Jennings

influencers and preachers, which is just, it's exciting stuff.

And congregations that talk a lot about prophecy grow at a time when a lot of American churches are shrinking.

And this goes back to the 70s and 80s.

People are excited about prophecy, about knowing what's coming.

And it can be much more engaging than some of the other elements of traditional Protestant theology.

And

It has increasingly plugged into or been coupled with a certain type of politics.

QAnon is a great example of a sort of prophetic framework being latched onto contemporary political characters.

Well, I mean, I think precisely what the feds have done in the intervening three decades.

Waco came so closely after Ruby Ridge and the same mistakes were made.

But since then, it's actually quite hard for zealous anti-government types to trigger a conflict with the federal government.

They'll just wait you out.

I mean, the occupation in Oregon at the Malheur incident.

wildlife refuge with the Bundy family and some of their compatriots.

During COVID lockdowns, there were some demonstrations in Michigan where not even just standing on your own land, but people would storm a statehouse with guns in hand and the feds just won't fight back.

And that seems to be frustrating as it might be to some, seems to be the right strategy, which is that you just cannot

play the part that has been assigned to you in this prophetic narrative of an evil government that's coming to kill you.

Well, yes.

I mean, of course, after the death of Rene Good and Alex Preddy, the analogies to the Weaver family came fast.

I think that there is a lot to that analogy, but the cases are, to my mind, extremely different because—