An email from Frank Amedia, founder of the “POTUS Shield” (H/T Right Wing Watch):
Dear Beloved Potus Shield Watchman & Warrior:
…Last evening, Lorilee and I were honored to attend a very small and intimate dinner meeting with Vice President Pence and his wife Karen. They are keenly aware of the work of Potus Shield and asked us to thank each of you on behalf of them and their children, President Trump and his family, and the nation for our relentless commitment to be a shield and weapon of spiritual force. We are committed to continue with our divine mandate in 2018 as we position ourselves in the front lines of intercession, activation, reformation, and transformation; knowing that we are called for such a time as this for our nation and the Kingdom!
We have scheduled Potus Shield Heartland America from March 20 – 22. This is a national convocation. Our host venue is at Morningside, Branson Missouri, with Jim and Lori Baker [sic]. They will be taping much of the conference. We wish to do some individual interviews with some of you, and we are arranging a live stream with Potus and VP offices.
Photos of the event have been published by Pence on social media – it looks like there were two tables for eight people each. According to his Tweet about the event:
Karen & I were honored to host faith leaders for dinner at the Naval Observatory to review what @POTUS has done to protect life & people of faith & to thank them for everything they do for their communities.
It’s not clear how broad the guest list was, but based on previous statements from the White House, “faith leaders” may well refer to a group composed exclusively of figures from the evangelical Christian Right.
Only one of the guests photographed is immediately familiar to me: Michael Youssef, an Egyptian-born convert from Islam who has a ministry focusing on evangelising the Middle East, and whose recent books include End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi: Unlocking the Mystery of Revelation and the Antichrist (2016) and Jesus, Jihad and Peace: What Bible Prophecy Says about World Events Today (2015 – with cover blurbs from Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee). Youssef was recently part of a US evangelical delegation to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi; perhaps he had some tips for Pence, who is making his own visit to the country shortly.
Amedia claims to have gifts of prophecy and healing, and last year there was some amusement when he claimed to have saved Hawaii from the same tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. His POTUS Shield describes itself as “a council of prelates that is assembling to raise up a spiritual shield” of protection for Donald Trump, whom it believes has a “breaker anointing” to “usher in a new era” (more on this kind of thing here). Members of the POTUS Shield Council currently include neo-Pentecostal Christian Right leaders such as Cindy Jacobs, Lou Engle, William “Jerry” Boykin, Rick Joyner, Bob Whitaker (CEO of Whitaker House Publishing), and Lance Wallnau. There also used to be an international dimension, in the form of a Nigerian evangelist named Mosey Modugba (var Mosy Modugba) – he is no longer listed, although Amedia is currently attending an event with him in Abia State. (1)
Amedia makes regular appearances on Bakker’s TV show. Bakker has been gradually rebuilding his reputation since his 1987 disgrace, and a livestream linking him to “Potus and VP offices” thus would be quite a boost – both for Bakker himself, and for the various religious conspiracy theorists he promotes on his show.
Footnote
1. Modugba is also involved with the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem. According to a 2015 report about that year’s Feast of Tabernacles event in Jerusalem:
Also in attendance was Rev. Mosy Madugba of Nigeria, head of a network of Christian ministers, who said his close ties to Nigerian leaders helped change the country’s traditional pro-Palestinian stance at the U.N. In recent years, Nigeria has abstained from supporting U.N. resolutions supporting Palestinian statehood.
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