Makeshift Messiahs

Makeshift Messiahs: How the American Right Manufactures Political Messiahs
What happens when a democracy stops holding leaders accountable and a faith tradition stops worshiping God—and begins worshiping power?
In December 2023, Rev. Jason Carson Wilson watched 15,000 young people raise their hands in worship at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference. But they weren't worshiping God. They were being trained to treat political leaders as messiahs—hands raised, eyes closed, swaying to patriotic music mixed with Christian worship songs, some speaking in tongues. Charlie Kirk told them they were warriors in a holy war, that God had chosen them for this moment, that supporting Trump wasn't just politics—it was obedience to a divine mandate.
Then, in September 2025, Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Within hours, the machinery of sanctification went into overdrive. Within days, he was called a martyr. Within weeks, legislation was introduced for a national day of remembrance. What Wilson had been documenting as a dangerous pattern became an immediate crisis.
Makeshift Messiahs exposes the systematic, repeatable process the American Right has developed to transform political leaders into religious figures—a machinery that threatens both democracy and authentic faith. Tracing the pattern from Ronald Reagan's decades-long canonization through Donald Trump's real-time deification to Charlie Kirk's instant martyrdom, Wilson reveals how this apparatus operates through five distinct stages: identification, elevation, sanctification, protection, and replication.
This isn't conspiracy theory. It's documented pattern. And it's accelerating.
Wilson maps the infrastructure in meticulous detail: the media ecosystems that amplify the message, the think tank networks that provide intellectual cover, the religious right's political apparatus that sanctifies the leaders, and the donor class that funds the entire operation. He shows how they work together to create a permission structure where criticism becomes persecution, scandal becomes enemy attack, and political leaders become untouchable.
The book's case studies reveal the evolution of the machinery. Reagan's transformation took decades and required careful orchestration through initiatives like the Reagan Legacy Project. Trump's sanctification happened in real time through theological frameworks like the "Cyrus narrative"—the biblical justification that positioned him as God's imperfect instrument. Kirk's martyrdom was instantaneous, weaponized within hours to radicalize a generation of young people already primed to worship political power.
Drawing on his work as a Black gay minister, forensic psychiatric chaplain, public theologian, and journalist who has published over 80 essays interrogating faith and power since January 2023, Wilson combines rigorous theological analysis with investigative journalism. Rooted in Black liberation theology, womanist theology, and queer theology, he brings both scholarly precision and prophetic witness to this urgent examination.
Makeshift Messiahs shows why January 6 wasn't an aberration but a preview. The mob that stormed the Capitol carried Christian flags, prayed in the Senate chamber, and chanted Trump's name because they believed he had been ordained by God. That wasn't spontaneous. It was the logical endpoint of decades of machinery teaching people that opposing God's anointed leaders is spiritual rebellion—and that violence in service of those leaders is holy.
The window for resistance is closing. This is both a warning and a roadmap for what comes next.
For readers of:
Tim Alberta's The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
Anne Nelson's Shadow Network
Sarah Posner's Unholy
Katherine Stewart's The Power Worshippers