STATE How Texas GOP activists are planning to take ‘spiritual jurisdiction’ over Legislature

Throngs of Republican grassroots activists poured into the Texas Capitol on buses from around the state Tuesday, ready to send a message to state lawmakers: The building is not the government’s, but God’s.

“Today, Lord, we take charge and authority over the 89th legislative session,” Pastor Brandon Burden said as he stood on the Capitol’s south steps. “Because Lord, we, the ecclesia, which are the people of God that are called by the name of Jesus and covered in the blood of the Lamb, have been given spiritual jurisdiction over the affairs of men.”

Burden was praying over several state lawmakers who had assembled in a circle, their heads bowed, including state Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress, chair of the House Republican Caucus.

In addition to being the “lead pastor/prophet” at Frisco’s KingdomLife Church, Burden is the founder of Daniel Nation, a group whose mission is to “transform nations by restoring the true worship of God in civil government” and “removing Jezebel’s influence in society.”

His prayer was among many that took place at the Capitol that day, ending in an ecstatic worship service co-led by Fort Worth Republican Rep. Nate Schatzline in a hearing room.

Their public displays of religious dedication were indications of the state Republican Party’s embrace of a new class of evangelical conservatives whose goalposts continue to move further right, pulling once-fringe ideas into the mainstream. On Tuesday, the chair of the Republican Party of Texas gave one of the clearest signs yet of his organization’s commitment to infusing Christian values in public life.

“There’s no separation between church and state,” Texas GOP Chair Abraham George said, to roaring applause from the crowd. “We don’t want the government in our churches, but we should be in the government.”

His comments reflected a belief increasingly popular among evangelicals that the Founding Fathers intended to make the U.S. a Christian nation, an interpretation that historians have dismissed as contrary to the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the amendment’s Establishment Clause reads.

George and the droves of activists in red shirts were ostensibly at the Capitol to urge Texas lawmakers to vote for the party’s chosen candidate for House speaker, Republican Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, and to promise retribution for those who did not.

When 36 Texas House Republicans defied the grassroots activists to elect Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, as speaker later that day, relying on the support of nearly all House Democratic members, it made clear the yawning gap between the organization that hosts the Republican Party’s biennial convention and the elected officials who identify as Republicans.

And Burrows’ election could also be seen as an outright loss for the state GOP, which spent more than $160,000 in December to oppose Burrows, a conservative Republican from West Texas who is aligned with what is now considered the “establishment” wing of the party. Much, if not all, of that spending was made possible by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, two Christian nationalist oil billionaires from West Texas whose political action committee, the Texas Conservative Project, donated $250,000 to the Texas Republican Party in December, according to campaign finance filings with the Texas Ethics Commission.

But while the GOP grassroots’ campaign to have Cook elected as speaker failed, the Christian groups who helped mobilize activists to the Capitol made clear that they were only more motivated to continue their advocacy.

“We’re here today to take back territory,” Pastor Richard Vega said in a worship service held in the Capitol after the speaker’s vote. “What happened today might be God’s plan because maybe he needs his church to wake up, maybe he needs his churches to activate.”

Speaking after him, another pastor compared Austin to Nineveh, a city associated with wickedness in the Old Testament.

My God Votes, another advocacy group, has announced that worship services will continue weekly in the Capitol. The initiative begun last session and expanded to the Oklahoma Legislature in February.

While evangelicals have aligned with the Republican Party for decades and have sought influence in public life, the direct involvement of churches such as Mercy Culture, which co-led Tuesday’s service in the Capitol, is new, said Christian extremism expert Matthew Taylor.

“You have churches like Mercy Culture that have really dived into politics, local and state politics, in a way that I think you’d be hard-pressed to find at many churches years ago,” Taylor told the American-Statesman.

Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, is a pastor at Mercy Culture.

Since Tuesday, other signs have emerged of elected officials’ dedication to infusing Christian values in government. Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday night wrote on social media that he supports putting posters of the Ten Commandments in public schools; Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the Senate, has already vowed to pass a bill to that effect.

But there are counterweights to the efforts of groups like Daniel Nation. Before Burden’s prayer, progressive advocacy group Texas Impact urged lawmakers to uphold religious tolerance in a news conference on the Capitol steps.

Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Democrat from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, said he was honored to take the oath of office on a Quran. He highlighted a verse that “guides (him) to work for the common good and to serve my community with humility and compassion.”

“As the 89th legislative starts, I will continue to collaborate with various faith traditions to ensure all religions in the state of Texas are celebrated, protected and respected,” he told the crowd.

Former Rep. Jonathan Stickland later disparaged Bhojani as a “Christian-hating heathen” for being sworn into office on the Islamic founding text.

“I too follow the words of Jesus,” Bhojani responded on X. “He is mentioned 25 times in the Quran as a Prophet of God. It is due to those teachings and my faith that I’m compassionate toward the hateful and ignorant. Peace and blessings to you.”