Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

by Kurt Andersen

After the movement made news because of its links to national Republicans during the 2012 election cycle, Wagner wrote an essay in Charisma News about the criticism that his group has an “excessive fixation on Satan and demonic spirits. This is purely a judgment call, and it may only mean that we cast out more demons than they do. So what?” As for a theocracy, Wagner says, “There’s nobody that I know—there may be some fringe people—who would even advocate a theocracy.” Fringe people—as opposed to one member of Wagner’s own Council of Prophetic Elders who, according to Charisma, “received word that a witch had applied for a job as chaplain of [Alaska’s] prison system. ‘As we continued to pray against the spirit of witchcraft, her incense altar caught on fire, her car engine blew up, she went blind in her left eye, and she was diagnosed with cancer.’ ”