A military evangelical fused the War on Terror with spiritual warfare against Satan.

Evidence

A devout evangelical, Boykin pursued his assignment zealously. And he wasn’t afraid to talk about it. He was a frequent speaker at conservative Christian events, especially at Baptist and Pentecostal churches, and he nearly always appeared in uniform. A “circuit rider for the religious right,” he worked in tandem with the Faith Force Multiplier, a group whose manifesto advocated applying military principles to evangelism. Boykin depicted the War on Terror as “an enduring battle against Satan” and assured fellow Christians that God had placed President Bush in power, “that radical Muslims hate America,” and that the military was “recruiting a spiritual army” to defeat its enemy. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 516

Categorization

• XREF: Boykin as ‘circuit rider for the religious right’ is a concrete instance of how militarism and faith fused in a single figure — key evidence for the reader’s central claim about militant masculinity organizing religious identity. — connects to: Evangelical churches fuse patriotic and military ritual with Christian worship to sacralize the nation — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 36; A prominent Southern Baptist leader called the rioters’ Christianity satanic — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 130
• SEED: Angle: how a uniformed military evangelist preaching spiritual war at Baptist churches normalized the fusion of American power and apocalyptic faith for congregations — the channel between pentagon and pew.