Ziklag...Christian Oligarchs Who Helped Trump Win Targeted the "least among us"
The Cynicism of Christian Supremacy
What do Hobby Lobby, Jockey International, and Uline Office equipment have in common? Ziklag!!
Ziklag: A Home for Christian Supremacist Oligarchs
We are going to play a game of “connect the dots” again today. The game will be called ZIKLAG! How does Christian Supremacy connect to the Trump election victory in 2024? And what does demonizing transgender people have to do with this project? These are some major dots we need to connect to understand what Christian Supremacy looks like.
Starting with “what is Ziklag?” we can go to ProPublica investigative reporter, Andy Kroll, who broke a story on this issue a year ago. In a “Democracy Now” podcast, Kroll identified Ziklag like this:
Ziklag is a secretive network of ultrawealthy Christians, conservative Christians, who have this two-part goal, two-part vision for this country. One is to get heavily involved in the 2024 elections… mobilizing pastors, knocking people off the voting rolls, demonizing trans people to motivate conservative voters.
Kroll goes on to say,
Then, looking toward the 20- and 30-year horizon, Ziklag’s goal is nothing less than moving the country toward a state of Christian Supremacy, having “biblical worldviews” and “biblical truth” shaping, every part of American culture, the seven mountains…. So, this really is a vision for Christian supremacy.
Politics is a cynical business by nature and design. Even the most virtuous and well-intended person who is involved in politics will, at one time or another, find themselves compromised, contradicting themselves, or committing lies. It just goes with the territory.
However, when those espousing Christianity become involved in the political arena as Ziklag Christian Supremacists have, there is a level of expectation that rises above the typical or ordinary. Having the title “Christian” assumes that there is a level of integrity, ethics, or a higher standard that goes along with that participation.
In theory, those who are Christians believe that their participation in politics will “sanctify” the dirty process somehow. This has been true throughout history. In truth, the opposite is true as we shall see. When Christians try to sanctify politics, it is Christian faith that becomes tainted and corrupted by the pursuit of raw power. There is nothing in the teachings of Jesus that encourages followers to pursue political power. It was one of the three temptations of Jesus which he refused to accept. The results are always, without exception, devastating for the Christian message.
Inside Ziklag
Let me introduce you to a private and secretive Christian organization that bills itself as Christian Nationalist (really, Supremacist) and played a major role in the election of Donald Trump in 2024.
Ziklag is a Christian dominionist organization named after the biblical city of Ziklag. In the Bible, Ziklag was a town in the Negev region, southwest of Judah. It was given to David by King Achish of Gath as a place of refuge when David was fleeing from King Saul. Ziklag became David's base for raiding the surrounding areas.
By the way, you cannot find a website for this private organization. Most of its 125 members do not admit to their association with Ziklag.
Ziklag is exclusively for individuals with a net worth over $25 million as well as faith-based interests. The organization's goal is to "take dominion over the Seven Mountains" of society. As Kroll pointed out, this is a 20-to-30-year project. They are playing a long-game.
Another way to describe it is Ziklag is a Christian Supremacist Oligarchy made up of some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States, who believe they have a divine mandate to take “dominion” over all of society, government and culture. To do so, they use their vast finanical resources and cynical political methods that undermine democracy but also undermines the very faith they claim to represent.
An Old Playbook Re-emerges
For many decades, I watched as right-wing conservatives in the Republican party used the wedge issue of abortion to inflame voter passion to get out the vote. Over time it was a monolith that drove evangelicals into the arms of the Republican party. To be a Christian and Democrat was singularly interpreted to mean you were a fake Christian. How could you be a Democrat, who believes in the right to “murder unborn babies?”
It was one of the most cynical political ploys if ever there was one. Republican politicians were interested in gaining power, and evangelicals were interested in making America Christian again. The merger of these two goals has resulted in what we see today in the Republican-Christian Nationalist political party. The Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that has allowed dark money to funnel into politics unchecked has given rise to groups like Ziklag that now interfere in the political process…despite being a non-profit organization which forbids them to do so.
In the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the new driver and motivation for this cynical political process became transgender rights. If you have wondered why suddenly in the past two or three years, there has been an outcry against transgender people, who make up less than 1% of the population (see chart below), then look to Ziklag among other groups, who have used it to enrage and motivate evangelical voters in 2024 to come out for Donald Trump.
I’ll come back to the transgender issue but let us dive into who makes up this secretive group that had such a major influence on the 2024 election.
Meet the Christian Supremacist Oligarchs
After the 2016 election of Donald Trump, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ken Eldred created Ziklag. It was registered in 2018 as a 501(c)(3) organization. Today it is under CEO Julie Nimmons.
A quick visit to Julie’s LinkedIn account shows that she has been a successful sport industry entrepreneur, business coach, and member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. No where does she mention her leadership of the Ziklag group…it is missing from action. Other descriptions of her also omit her leadership of this ultra-secretive Christian Nationalist oligarchy.
As mentioned, the criterion for membership into Ziklag is having a high value net worth over $125 million. Ziklag reportedly only has 125 members so it is an exclusive group of very wealthy Christian Supremacists or oligarchs. The membership of Ziklag is private and secretive, but in a July 2024 report by ProPublica which had acquired internal notes, documents and emails from the organization, some of the major benefactors of that organization were revealed.
Hobby Lobby and the Green Family: Most notable and not surprising among Ziklag members is David Green, former CEO of Hobby Lobby. Green has made no secret of his company’s evangelical moorings. Green took a public stance against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) because of its inclusion of a provision mandating that companies include the "morning-after pill" in their health coverage. He sued the federal government in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., overturning the mandate to provide that medication. Hobby Lobby, which is estimated to be worth $8 billion, also funded the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. which became embroiled in a smuggling scandal involving priceless Middle Eastern artifacts which were looted from Iraq. Hobby Lobby returned 5,500 artifacts and paid a $3 million fine.
Jockey International and the Waller Family: Debra Waller has led the family-owned apparel company Jockey International Inc. since 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer. An advocate for adoptive families, Waller established Jockey Being Family, a charity focused on supporting families after they have adopted a child. Since 2005, the organization has contributed $11 million in support of post-adoption initiatives.
Like most large companies, there is controversy. During the 2009 economic recession, the business she oversaw as a board member had gambled in the mortgage market and then taken a huge government handout of almost $2 billion, and has not paid the American people back, according to Pro Publica. Additionally, the company she owns has had a history of benefiting from overseas production by underpaid and sometimes, child-labor.
Uhline Office Equipment and Uilein Family: Dick and Liz Uihlein of Illinois are the largest contributor to groups spreading election falsehoods from 2020. Their online sales empire selling boxes (yes, boring boxes) the Uihleins, reported around $18 million in income in 2002 which rocketed fortyfold, to $712 million, in 2018. Thanks to the pandemic-induced online shopping surge, Uline has grown even more since.
The funding of the Uihlein family for conservative extreme causes goes back several generations. Edgar Uihlein Jr., Dick’s father, was on the National Finance Committee of the John Birch Society as learned from a document from 1963. Edgar Uihlein Jr. supported politicians who embraced segregation. In early 1962, he sponsored a speech that brought to Chicago a former U.S. Army general named Edwin Walker. Walker toured the country attacking supposed communist conspiracies and civil rights, while celebrating the Southern defeat of Reconstruction, which he labeled “the tyranny within our own white race.”
In one of the only interviews he’s ever given, Dick Uihlein told National Review in 2018 that he got his politics from his father. Uihlein recalled, “My father would talk about the importance of capitalism and the evils of socialism.” Dick said that same year, “my father shared many of the same values that I have, conservative values.” Those conservative values extend well beyond economics and include anti-abortion, anti-same sex marriage and anti-transgender rights. The Uihlein’s found a cozy home in Ziklag.
The Ziklag Prophet of Christian Supremacy - Lance Wallnau
These three families are only a sample of the dozens of wealthy Christian Supremacists that make up the core of Ziklag. However, the energy that makes this organization accelerate politically, billing itself as a charity, is none other than the New Apostolic Reformation prophet, Lance Wallnau. Wallnau serves as a bridge between Donald Trump and Christian Supremacist groups such as Ziklag.
One of the earliest evangelical supporters of Trump in 2015, Wallnau continued his support after Trump’s defeat in 2020 by fueling the election denial movement. And it was Wallnau who popularized decades old dominionist ideas by rebranding them the “Seven Mountain Mandate.” Once a fringe idea, it has now seeped into every corner of evangelicalism, and even the White House.
Viewing the 2024 election as spiritual warfare, Wallnau along with newly appointed operations manager of Ziklag, Drew Hiss, laid out on Wallnau’s podcast, a three-fold strategy to win re-election for Donald Trump. Those three strategies shown in the graphic from Ziklag documents, are called Operation Watchtower (pursue parental rights messages), Operation Steeplechase (get Christians to vote) and Operation Checkmate (support election integrity efforts, otherwise known as purging voter rolls.)
Christians Target the Powerless
This is perhaps the most cynical plan for political power that has ever been devised by those calling themselves Christians. It is cynical because at its core is a rejection of the gospel message itself. This is not a plan to obtain political power on behalf of the marginalized, powerless, downtrodden or economically dispossessed. This is a plan to demonize groups of people who Jesus called to love and affirm in their humanity. Namely, transgender people.
Under Operation Watchtower Wallnau explained, in a members-only video, that transgender policy was a “wedge issue” that could be decisive in turning out voters tired of hearing about Trump. It is the same wedge issue strategy that was successfully used for abortion. Now it is being turned on a small and voiceless group of people who are no threat to anyone. Transgender people!
The left had won the battle over the “homosexual issue,” Wallnau said. “But on transgenderism, there’s a problem and they know it.” He continued: “They’re gonna wanna talk about Trump, Trump, Trump. … Meanwhile, if we talk about ‘It’s not about Trump. It’s about parents and their children, and the state is a threat,’” that could be the “target on the forehead of Goliath.”
The ProPublica report described the parental rights strategy like this:
The Ziklag files describe tactics the group plans to use around parental rights — policies that make it easier for parents to control what’s taught in public schools — to turn out conservative voters. In a fundraising video, the group says it plans to underwrite a “messaging and data lab” focused on parental rights that will supply “winning messaging to all our partner groups to create unified focus among all on the right.” The goal, the video says, is to make parental rights “the difference-maker in the 2024 election.”
According to Wallnau, Ziklag also plans to fund ballot initiatives in seven key states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Montana, Nevada and Ohio — that take aim at the transgender community by seeking to ban “genital mutilation.” The seven states targeted are either presidential battlegrounds or have competitive U.S. Senate races.
Read the code: parental rights are really anti-transgender rights. The objection to transgender rights was not based on any notion of “deeply held religious beliefs.” It was simply a cruel and cynical strategy to win votes. In Iowa, my home state, it is no coincidence that the state legislature passed SF 418 which stripped civil rights protections from transgendered people in that state despite thousands who protested on the Capital grounds.
Never mind that transgender people are less than 1% of the population, have posed no threat to women or children, and only want to be treated as human beings regardless of what gender identity they choose for themselves. They were targeted, castigated, falsely maligned and stripped of basic freedoms and human rights, and are now used as a punching bag in a crass vote-getting machine.
Did I mention how incredibly cynical this is? This represents the “Kingdom of God?” This reflects the teachings of Jesus? The gospel message has been decimated by the political machinations of those seeking raw political power under the guise of religion.
This is a preview of what Christian Supremacy will look like in the United States. It has no anchor in any ethical system other than gaining power. Any “moral message” only serves to increase the likelihood of electoral victory and gaining power. Power not to help those in need, but power to dominate and raise their brand to ultimate political status and privilege. In doing so, they will demonize who they wish, punish those who they label “evil,” and kill democracy in the process. Never mind the consequences, all is in the name of Jesus…what cynicism.
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I thought we were commanded to follow the teachings of Jesus to be a Christian...? Silly me! 😵💫
For these people and most of the rest of the MAGA movement, "Christian" is simply the box they check off. Far more nonbelievers follow the teachings of Jesus than do these dominionist charlatans.