Christian Nationalism & The Political Assassination in Minnesota

The polit­i­cal assas­si­na­tion in Min­neso­ta has exposed the vio­lent poten­tial of reli­gious extrem­ism fused with polit­i­cal ide­ol­o­gy in the form of Chris­t­ian nation­al­ism. On June 17, 2025, the Glob­al Project Against Hate and Extrem­ism report­ed that Vance Luther Boel­ter’s mur­der of Min­neso­ta House Speak­er Melis­sa Hort­man and attempt­ed killing of Sen. John Hoff­man revealed dis­turb­ing con­nec­tions to the New Apos­tolic Ref­or­ma­tion move­ment and grad­u­ates of Christ for the Nations Insti­tute who pro­mote Chris­t­ian theo­crat­ic rule through spir­i­tu­al war­fare. The arti­cle begins:

Vance Luther Boelter’s cap­ture after mur­der­ing Min­neso­ta House Speak­er Melis­sa Hort­man reveals dis­turb­ing ties between rad­i­cal Chris­t­ian nation­al­ism and America’s surge in polit­i­cal blood­shed. At 57, Boel­ter alleged­ly mas­quer­ad­ed as law enforce­ment, exe­cut­ing Hort­man and her hus­band in their home after shoot­ing and wound­ing Sen. John Hoff­man and his wife some 90 min­utes ear­li­er. The crimes hap­pened in the ear­ly hours of June 14, after days of polit­i­cal unrest in America’s streets due to ICE protests, and just hours before Trump’s $45 mil­lion mil­i­tary parade show­cas­ing the lethal­i­ty of the U.S. Army. Boel­ter, described by friends as a fan of far-right con­spir­a­cy the­o­rist Alex Jones, a Trump vot­er and a con­ser­v­a­tive, was raised Luther­an before under­go­ing a reli­gious epiphany in his teens. He preached in a pub­lic park, friends report­ed, spread­ing the word of Jesus in small town Min­neso­ta. His faith deep­ened, and Boel­ter claims to have been ordained at a now-defunct Catholic col­lege after earn­ing a degree in inter­na­tion­al rela­tions from St. Cloud Uni­ver­si­ty. Boel­ter con­tin­ued his spir­i­tu­al edu­ca­tion at Christ for the Nations Insti­tute — a non­de­nom­i­na­tion­al, charis­mat­ic Dal­las Bible col­lege that has long nur­tured Chris­t­ian lead­ers who act as “agents of good” through­out the world, as the insti­tute said in a state­ment.

Read more: https://globalextremism.org/post/radicalization-and-assassination/

Key Points

• Boel­ter’s alma mater Christ for the Nations Insti­tute has pro­duced grad­u­ates linked to Jan­u­ary 6th insur­rec­tion, includ­ing Dutch Sheets who coor­di­nat­ed “Stop the Steal” ral­lies and Cindy Jacobs who orga­nized the “Jeri­cho March.”
• The tar­get­ed law­mak­ers cham­pi­oned repro­duc­tive rights in Min­neso­ta’s leg­is­la­ture, reflect­ing Boel­ter’s belief that abor­tion rep­re­sents demon­ic forces requir­ing spir­i­tu­al war­fare, with inves­ti­ga­tors find­ing a hit list of addi­tion­al targets.
• Boel­ter’s trans­for­ma­tion from mis­sion­ary preach­er to alleged assas­sin demon­strates Chris­t­ian nation­al­is­m’s rad­i­cal­iz­ing pow­er, fueled by New Apos­tolic Ref­or­ma­tion the­ol­o­gy that views polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion as spir­i­tu­al enemies.
• The mur­ders coin­cid­ed with over 400 aca­d­e­mics, includ­ing 28 Nobel Prize win­ners, sign­ing an updat­ed Anti-Fas­cist Intel­lec­tu­als let­ter warn­ing about glob­al fas­cis­m’s resur­gence and its hall­marks of lead­er­ship wor­ship and vio­lence glorification.

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.