OMEGA KINGDOM MINISTRIES TIMELINE
2016: OKM, an Indiana based ministry, was founded by Russ Wagner as a part of a larger network of house churches in the Home Congregations Worldwide (HCW).
2017: OKM and HCW began using public service broadcasts on YouTube to infuse QAnon conspiracy theories with readings from the Bible. YouTube videos featured Russ Wagner.
2017: Former firefighter and neo-Charismatic prophet Mark Taylor published The Trump Prophecies, declaring that Donald Trump was appointed by God to be President. He claimed God showed him in a vision that Trump would be elected. Mark Taylor later became advisor to HCW and OKM.
2017: The QAnon movement began with the first “Q” drop. Q posted a series of conspiracy theories about President Trump fighting the deep state and a Satanic cabal of pedophiles and cannibal-eating babies in the Democratic party.
2018: OKM co-leader, Col. Kevin Bushey, has unsuccessful run for Maine House of Representatives, District 151.
2020: OKM began to archive YouTube videos on sermons, training (boot camp), and messaging. Hardcore spiritual warfare and militarized language (“kingdom warcraft”) increase in the lead-up to 2020 Presidential election. Col. Kevin Bushey uses apocalyptic language in his videos (“Spiritual Intelligence Reports”) to describe the alleged threat brought by Democrats if they won the White House. According to Bushey, believers must “prepare for battle.” Bushey lost his second election run for state representative in Maine.
2020: Q drops declined significantly during 2020. The last Q post was in December 2020.
2021 (January 3): Kevin Bushey, a few days before January 6 insurrection, broadcasted a training video in which he emphasized spiritual warfare, revealed he was an election denier, and said that Biden was not the real president. Bushey went on to say that the public would find out who the real president was when we show up in Washington, DC.
2021: In the wake of Trump’s defeat, Russ Wagner broadcasted a series of videos warning of Extinction Level Events that he interpreted from the Book of Revelation. In one video he promoted doomsday planning for “Christian Preppers.”
2021: There were no Q drops in 2021. Q appeared to have vanished, but QAnon remained a force.
2022: Russ Wagner continued the theme of survivalism and Christian prepper planning with videos on how Preppers prepare and store food.
2023: OKM and Russ Wagner appeared to be in a wait and watch mode. Wagner announced that OKM live stream services would cease as they made budget cuts.
2024: OKM live streamed services was replaced with OKM Café, which was now hosted by John Schaenzer. Wagner took a step back in broadcasting. OKM faced budget challenges.
FOUNDER/GROUP HISTORY
Omega Kingdom Ministries (OKM) is part of a network on independent house churches called Home Congregations Worldwide (HCW). OKM was founded in 2016 by Russ Wagner [Image at right] as an online ministry that connects to various home congregations of “ekklesia” providing workshops, training, livestream church services, and messaging that fuses neo-Charismatic Christianity with QAnon conspiracy beliefs. It has no official doctrine, ordained clergy, or buildings and does not consider itself a church.
According to his self-published bio, Wagner left professional ministry in church planting at a traditional denomination after thirty years and began meeting in a house church. For the next n nineteen years he was involved in training and coaching believers to begin home congregations. In addition to founding OKM and being part of the Leadership Team at Omega Kingdom Ministry, Wagner has the title of Official Trainer of Home Congregations leaders for Strike Force of Prayer and the Brigade Captain for the State of Indiana.
According to the Strike Force of Prayer website (2023), its mission statement declares that “We are an Army of God committed to restoring America to our God Covenant! We are unified in learning, growing and strengthening as spiritual warriors.” The website features a photo of men in military-style camo arm-in-arm alongside the caption “An Army of God working together and supporting one another on shared goals, strategies, and purpose.” At the bottom of the webpage, there is another photo of what is clearly active military kneeling together in front of two American flags and rifle staged upright topped with a helmet, representing a fallen soldier. The caption alongside the photo implores visitors to the site to “Become a Strike Force Spiritual Warrior.” The militarized language, images, and war framing of the organization’s mission is unmistakable. This militarization of religion as spiritual (and sometimes literal) warfare is seen throughout OKM’s messaging. Christ is portrayed as a kind of Commander-in-Chief” or supreme commander (Rothschild 2020).
Live stream services are offered on Sundays featuring Wagner and Kevin Bushey, [Image at right] a retired Army colonel who espouses extreme QAnon ideas, anti-deep state conspiracy rhetoric, and racist images. While Wagner manages most of the more traditional preaching, Bushey is the principal interpreter who fuses Q drops with Bible passages and decodes QAnon conspiracy theories.
Bushey provides what OKM calls “Spiritual Intelligence Reports” where he promotes unfounded conspiracies about the Covid 19 vaccines claiming that it is a deep state plan (“plandemic”) to control and subjugate the population and to sterilize women. Bushey is an election denier in the most extreme manner, repeatedly claiming that Trump was the true president, demonizing Democrats and liberals, and inveighing that dark forces were at work to subvert the 2020 election. Bushey is unapologetically a man who filters everything through a military lens.
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS
OKM has no official doctrines, but it is clear from studying the videos that the leaders believe we are near the Endtime. The deep state represents Satanic of “Luciferian” forces pushing us toward moral depravity, worldwide destruction and the apocalypse. In this dark context, Trump is seen as a savior or messianic figure who will fight and defeat the deep state and make America great again.
In 2017, Mark Taylor, a former firefighter turned prophet, published a book entitled The Trump Prophecies. Taylor claimed to have received a vision that Trump would be elected in 2016. Moreover, Tayor claimed that Trump was “appointed” by God to help save the country. Taylor became a celebrated figure in the pro-Trump MAGA community and was at the forefront of the new wave of prophets in a sector of the neo-Charismatic movement who saw Trump as having a divine appointment and mission. In this same year, Mark Taylor became an advisor and mentor to Home Congregations Worldwide and OKM. Wagner has referred to Taylor as their “supreme commander for the department of spiritual warfare.” OKM’s ministry is grounded in Taylor’s prophecies and Wagner has stated that if it wasn’t for Taylor, he would never have started his ministry (Argentino 2020).
Wagner has employed a strategic series of videos under the title “Equipping the Ekklesia,” imploring members to take the “OKM Boot Camp” training online. In this vein, he envisions equipping the soldiers of Christ with the necessary spiritual armament to defeat the enemy. There is a consistent theme of battle, warfare, combat, and conquest that cannot be overstated. At the same time, members are admonished not to listen to mainstream media because it is all “fake news.” The OKM messaging is one of a subversive network of home-grown, anti-government, spiritual warriors utilizing their own peculiar mixture of conspiracy theories and religious revolt. Bushey states in one video in 2022, “I think we are actually in the beginning of World War III.”
It is believed that QAnon is the key to prophetic events predicted in the Bible. Trump and QAnon are the vessels through which God will destroy Satan, the Illuminati, liberals, Democrats, Socialists, and the one-world government though “kingdom warcraft” (Rothschild 2020).
After the electoral defeat of Donald Trump in 2020, Wagner broadcasted a series of videos warning of “Extinction level Events” that he interprets from the Book of Revelation. In one video, he promotes doomsday planning for “Christian Preppers.” He draws on themes of survivalism with prepper videos on how to prepare and store food.
In line with QAnon conspiracy theories about the deep state, OKM teaches the Seven Mountains of Societal Influence, also referred to as the Seven Mountain Mandate, which is a program that promotes Christian Dominionism. Dominionism is a belief that the world is a battleground for good and evil and God’s people must establish Christian dominance over the seven culture-shaping institutions of activity: government, business, media, arts and entertainment, education, family, and religion. It effectively advocates a social transformation through religious capture and control. Dominionism dovetails with Oanon’s goal to dismantle a society controlled by the deep state with the objective to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth (Argentino 2020)
ORGANIZATION/LEADERSHIP
OKM and a network of house churches comprise a loose alliance with the HCW organized for the purpose of training believers to start their own ekklesia. [Image at right] OKM does not have a 501c3 tax exempt status as do most churches because they believe that such a filing would amount to surrender to the state as a “government approved” compromise. OKM sees those churches that acquiesce as a sign of abandoning the mission to save America and forfeiting their Christian duty to the evil deep state. The tax-exempt status also prevents religious organizations from endorsing political candidates, something OKM does routinely in promoting Donald Trump and other MAGA candidates for office. So OKM must rely on donations, tithes, and gifts to remain afloat. Until 2023, there was very little solicitation for funds as it appeared the OKM had sufficient funds to operate. But since that time, Wagner has appeared in videos making more pleas for money.
Beginning in 2023, another leading figure emerges in the “Equipping the Ekklesia” videos and is featured more prominently. His name is Thomas Pierce. Pierce’s role expands as Wagner’s role seems to diminish somewhat. Wagner appears less in OKM videos and there are also more packaged presentations with recorded readings from the bible under a series called “Disciplines for the Inner Life.” Wagner seems to be stepping back from being the principal face of OKM, at least in the videos. Wagner has announced that the OKM live stream services will cease as they make budget cuts.
Despite all the attention paid to the cultish aspects of QAnon’s appeal (Amarasingam et al 2023), OKM’s viewership is quite small. OKM has fewer than 4,000 subscribers on YouTube and none of the services posted on its channel has more than 5,000 viewers (Rothschild 2020).
ISSUES/CHALLENGES
A major issue for OKM and QAnon followers is the chronic failure of Q prophecies (LaFrance 2020). JFK Jr. didn’t survive the plane crash in 1999, and he certainly didn’t return on October 17 for a Trump rally to help the former president fight back against a globally active cabal of satanic pedophile elites. Hillary Clinton was not arrested. High profile elites have not been killed or sent to Guantanamo. A hundred thousand sealed indictments were not released, and the predicted Golden Age has not been realized (Amarasingam and Argentino 2020).
Of course, the failure of prophecy has a rich body of research literature on this topic (for an overview, see Dawson 2011). Research clearly shows that religious movements often survive failed prophecy and that they have a number of interpretive rationales to explain them away. Researchers identify four key modes of rationalization to failed prophecy: 1) Spiritualization (the group claims it did occur but only true believers can see it), 2) Test of Faith (the group claims the prophecy was a test to weed out the unworthy); 3) Human Error (the prophecy wasn’t wrong but followers misread the signs); and 4) Blame Others (the group never stated the prophecy was going to happen, that was the interpretation of outsiders). Some scholars even argue that prophecy “never fails” in the eyes of believers (Melton 1985; Tumminia 1998, 2005; Tumminia and Swatos 2011).
According to Amarasignam and Argentino (2020), QAnon Telegram chats revealed that the response to the failure of the prophecy that JFK Jr. would return fell into the categories of “human error” and “blaming others.” Regarding the latter failed prophecy, QAnon believers claimed that the JFK Jr. conspiracy theory was actually a deep state plot designed to discredit QAnon and the good work they were doing (Amarasignam and Argentino 2020).
Another major issue or challenge is the future of QAnon and OKM. This was addressed more recently by Wright and Wright (2023). They note that even after the defeat of Trump in the 2020 presidential election, the former president positioned himself as a “resistance fighter” for the 2024 presidential bid. He continued to claim that 2020 election was stolen and expanded his claims about the subversive actions of the deep state to silence him. By continuing to play to this conspiracy narrative, it is possible that the movement will not only withstand the election loss but be fueled by the perceived plot of a sophisticated, widely coordinated collusion effort by the Deep State (Waldman 2021; see also Bromley and Richardson 2023; Tangherlini et al 2023). Indeed, Trump is GOP’s overwhelming choice for the party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential election, despite facing dozens of criminal indictments and charges. As with a majority of white evangelicals (Cox 2021), OKM continues to support and endorse Trump for the 2024 election. Kevin Bushey is the most vocal pro-Trump voice in the OKM videos, methodically applying QAnon conspiracy theories to each Trump post or statement made in his 2024 campaign. The future of OKM may rest on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. If Trump loses, it is likely that the organization will continue to embrace some QAnon conspiracies, but it will also likely turn to more of an emphasis on signs of the apocalypse and the Endtime. The defeat of Trump will only be seen as more evidence of Satan’s handiwork and moral decline.
IMAGES
Image #1: OKM founder Russ Wagner.
Image #2: Kevin Bushey.
Image #3: OKM logo.
REFERENCES
Amarasingam, Amarnath and Marc-Andre Argentino. 2020. “QAnon’s predictions haven’t come true: So how does the movement survive the failure of prophecy? Religion Dispatches, October 28. Accessed at https://religiondispatches.org/qanons-predictions-havent-come-true-so-how-does-the-movement-survive-the-failure-of-prophecy/ on 27 April 2024.
Amarasingam, Amarnath, Marc-Andre Argentino, Dakota Johnson, and Sharday Mosurinjohn. 2023. “Categorizing QAnon: Is This a New Religious Movement?” Pp.271-90 in The Social Science of QAnon, edited by Monica K. Miller. New York: Cambridge.
Argentino, Marc-Andre. 2020. “The Church of QAnon: Will conspiracy theories form the basis of a new religious movement? The Conversation, May18. Accessed at https://theconversation.com/the-church-of-qanon-will-conspiracy-theoriesform-the-basis-of-a-new-religious-movement-137859 on 27 April 2024.
Bromley, David G. and James T. Richardson. 2023. “The QAnon Conspiracy Narrative: Understanding the Social Construction of Danger.” Pp.159-175 in The Social Science of QAnon, edited by Monica K. Miller. New York: Cambridge.
Cox, Daniel. 2021. “After the ballots are counted: Conspiracies, political violence, and American exceptionalism.” The Survey of American Life, February 11. Accessed online at https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/after-the-ballots-are-counted-conspiracies-political-violence-and-american-exceptionalism/# on 27 April 2024.
Dawson, Lorne. 2011 “Prophetic Failure in Millennial Movements.” Pp.150-70 in The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism, edited by Catherine Wessinger. New York: Oxford.
LaFrance, Adrienne. 2020. “The prophecies of Q: American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.” The Atlantic, May 13. Accessed at www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/ on 27 April 2024.
Melton, J. Gordon. 1985. “Spiritualization and Reaffirmation: What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails.” American Studies 26:17-29.
Rothschild, Mike. 2020. “Inside the first church of QAnon, where Jesus helps fight the deep state.” Daily Dot, May 29. Accessed from https://www.dailydot.com/debug/qanon-church-omega-kingdom-ministries/ on 27 April 2024.
Strike Force of Prayer website. 2023. Accessed from https://strikeforceofprayer.com/ on 27 April 2024.
Tangherlini, Timothy R., Shadi Shahsavari, Pavan Holur, and Vwaini Roychowdhury. 2023. “QAnon, Folklore, and Conspiratorial Consensus: A Case Study in the Computational Analysis of Conspiracy Theory Narratives.” Pp.234-51 in.), The Social Science of QAnon, edited by Monica K. Miller. New York: Cambridge.
Tumminia, Dianna G. 2005. When Prophecy Never Fails. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tumminia, Dianna G. 1998. “How Prophecy Never Fails: Interpretive Reason in a Flying Saucer Group.” Sociology of Religion 59:157-70.
Tumminia, Dianna G. and William H. Swatos, Jr., eds., How Prophecy Lives. Leiden: Brill.
Waldman, Paul. 2021. “QAnon is mortally wounded. But the right’s conspiracy theories will never die.” The Washington Post, January 20. Accessed from www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/20/qanon-is-mortally-woundedrights-conspiracy-theories-will-never-die/ on 27 April 2024.
Wright, Jared M. and Stuart A. Wright. 2023. “The Future of QAnon: Emergent Patterns of Social Movement Adaptation and Change.” Pp. 291-307 in The Social Science of QAnon, edited by Monica K. Miller. New York: Cambridge.
Publication Date:
2 May 2024
