Melissa Hortman
It’s been over a week now since I first heard the news on MPR that four people had been shot in their homes near a golf course in Brooklyn Park where my son once lived. My first thought was that I was glad my son was no longer living there. A little while later I learned that this was not a random act of violence, but rather political violence targeting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. Gradually the details came in. The lawmakers were Democratic lawmakers, former Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and State Senator John Hoffman and their spouses. And then came the tragic news that Hortman and her husband had been killed. As I drove to pick up a friend to attend the “No Kings” protest downtown, I listened to the news reports of warnings not to attend the protests out of an abundance of caution, with the shooter still at large, as well as the voices of protest leaders saying the tragic events of the morning only strengthened their resolve. In the first few moments of the protest we observed a moment of silence for Hortman and her husband, and for the recovery of Hoffman and his wife. The entire rally felt like a strange mix of grief and rebellious revelry.
As the identification and eventual arrest of the suspected shooter became known, the tragic events took on an even more ominous tone. The suspect, Vance Boelter, is a far-right Christian nationalist extremist who had preached against abortion and gay rights. He was schooled in his religious beliefs at the Christ for Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas[i] and was aligned with a charismatic Christian movement whose leaders, in the words of The Atlantic columnist Stephanie McCrummen, “speak of spiritual warfare, an army of God, and demon-possessed politicians.”[ii]
In Boelter’s car, found at the Hortman’s residence, were “No Kings” flyers” and a list of about seventy political officials and reproductive rights organizations that Boelter also apparently intended to target. Among these were 45 Democratic lawmakers, including Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Representatives Ilhan Ohmar and Angie Craig, several other state lawmakers, as well as Planned Parenthood clinics and providers and philanthropists who support pro-choice causes. The list suggests that Boelter may have regarded himself as a self-appointed warrior in God’s army, determined to destroy those he regarded as “demon-possessed politicians” among others.
Melissa Hortman was a widely respected lawmaker in Minnesota. She was known for her support of women’s and LGBTQ and BIPOC rights, reproductive rights, clean energy, and free school meals for all, but mostly for being the kind of lawmaker who looked to find common ground. In her acceptance speech as Speaker of the House in 2019 she said that while she knew there would be conflict, it was important to meet that conflict “with humility and humor.” And she did. But she was killed by someone who is part of a growing movement that believes that conflict is to be met with the obliteration of opposing views, whether through packing the courts, gerrymandering, firings, arrests, censorship, intimidation, or political violence.
When I first heard of Christian Nationalism, I dismissed it as a fringe group. Even when Mike Johnson, a Christian Nationalist, was elected as Speaker of the House, I still thought the sect he represented was rather minor in the larger scheme of things. I didn’t realize its widespread connections with MAGA or its association with political violence. Yes, I’d seen the gun-toting Christmas photo of a far-right politician.[iii] Yes, I’d seen the violent attempt to overthrow the government on January 6th. But again, I saw these as far-right, mega MAGA and fringe QAnon conspiracy individuals. Tragically, it took the assassination of Melissa Hortman for me to sit up and truly take notice.
I have only begun to educate myself, but have at the very least learned this is no fringe movement. The intertwining of Christian Evangelicals with Republican politics began nearly fifty years ago, causing a split within Evangelical churches between those who center political agendas in their worship and programming and those who focus on the Gospel and eschew political agendas. When Trump came onto the political scene, those churches for whom evangelizing meant aligning their mission with politics soon latched onto Trump. Wide swaths of Evangelical churches became deeply intertwined with MAGA, regarding it as saving the country from the liberal cultural shift that supported GLBTQ and abortion rights, what they mistakenly dubbed Critical Race Theory, the liberal academy, gun control legislation, feminism.
This alignment with MAGA became even stronger at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic when state and local governments began requiring houses of worship to shut down temporarily out of concern for public health, feeding into the conspiracy theories that Christian churches were under attack by the liberal left. When Trump lost the election in 2020 it was further proof. As one Evangelical reported to journalist and fellow Evangelical Tim Alberta, “. . . an attack on Trump . . . was indeed an attack on Christianity, and the 2020 election was “stolen as part of a ‘demonic plot’ against Christian America.”[iv]
This group is no fringe. In the 2024 election, white Christian Evangelicals made up about 30% of the voting public, with 82% of them voting for Trump.[v] Of this group, a significant proportion would consider themselves Christian nationalists,[vi] and for some what was at one time considered a spiritual battle for the future of Christianity in America has become an actual battle. Perhaps no one is more emblematic of this than Greg Locke and his Global Vision Bible Church with attendance of over two million in person and online. Locke’s online presence is filled with guns and paramilitary gear, and he has claimed that “Christians had the biblical authority to take America back ‘by force.’”[vii] All of this is a far cry from the Christianity in which I was raised of “Blessed are the peacemakers” and loving one’s enemies.[viii] Yet, this sentiment has become widespread among Christian nationalists, who more and more have become mainstream.[ix]
Alberta witnessed this evolution of Evangelicals over the past couple of years. As he wrote, “Something was happening on the religious right, something more menacing and extreme than anything that preceded it. This was no longer about winning elections and preserving the culture. This was about destroying enemies and dominating the country by any means necessary.”[x] This has had tragic and deadly consequences. As scholar Keri Ladner has noted, “. . . when so-called prophets and apostles consistently blur the lines between the kingdom of God and America’s civil government when they talk about spiritual warfare, there will be people who take those lessons literally and act on them. The Minnesota assassin may have been one of them.”[xi]
What lesson do I draw from this? How do I respond to a greater awareness of the increasingly insidious nature of a growing movement that believes in the right, indeed the obligation, to “take back America” by any means necessary? Some have counseled me to silence, but beyond my initial sense of dread, my impulse has been to redouble my efforts to inform and to resist in ways that honor principles and practices of nonviolence; to “turn the other cheek,” which theologian Walter Wink suggests is a rebellious act that “robs the oppressor of the power to humiliate. . . . saying in effect, ‘Try again. . . I deny you the power to humiliate me.’”[xii] Further, in accordance with my feminist ethic, such resistance requires me to refuse to humiliate in return.[xiii] It is my genuine hope and belief that through such efforts of millions, we can turn the tide.[xiv]
Sources
Alberta, Tim. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. NY: Harper, 2023.
Bartlett, Elizabeth Ann. Rebellious Feminism: Camus’s Ethic of Rebellion and Feminist Thought. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Fish, Noah. “From Gratitude to Grief, couple morns loss of dedicated lawmaker. Duluth News Tribune. 6/23/2025, U8-9.
How Many Americans Are Christian Nationalists, Really? | Sojourners
How Trump and Harris fared with faith voters in 2024 – Baptist News Global
Ladner, Keri. “We Should Not Be Shocked That the Alleged Minnesota Shooter’s Christian School Is Connected to Political Violence. Religion Dispatches, June 17, 2025. We Should Not Be Shocked That the Alleged Minnesota Shooter’s Christian School Is Connected to Political Violence | Religion Dispatches
McCrummen, Stephanie. “The Minnesota Suspect’s Radical Spiritual World.” The Atlantic, June 17, 2005. The Minnesota Suspect’s Radical Spiritual World - The Atlantic
Minnesota lawmaker shootings: Who was on Vance Boelter's hit list? | FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul
Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.
[i] Following the arrest of Boelter the school issued a statement saying, “This is not who we are. This is not what we teach. This is not what we model. We have been training Christian servant leaders for 55 years and they have been agents of good, not evil,” however the school’s leader, Gordon Lindsay, has been a central figure in the development of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), and with shaping the formation of the most violent forms of White supremacism. See A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation | Religion Dispatches and We Should Not Be Shocked That the Alleged Minnesota Shooter’s Christian School Is Connected to Political Violence | Religion Dispatches for more information.
[ii] McCrummen.
[iii] Lauren Boebert on X: "The Boeberts have your six, @RepThomasMassie! (No spare ammo for you, though) https://t.co/EnDYuXaHDF" / X
[iv] Alberta, 154.
[v] How Trump and Harris fared with faith voters in 2024 – Baptist News Global
[vi] Estimates vary – from between 6% to 30% of the population. How Many Americans Are Christian Nationalists, Really? | Sojourners
[vii] Alberta, 227.
[viii] Matthew 5:9 and Matthew 5: 43-48. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. . . “
[ix] Self-declared Christian nationalists Marjorie Taylor Greene and Loren Boebert have risen in national prominence. Russel Vought, Greg Hegseth, and Mike Johnson all have identified as Christian nationalists.
[x] Alberta, 258.
[xi] We Should Not Be Shocked That the Alleged Minnesota Shooter’s Christian School Is Connected to Political Violence | Religion Dispatches
[xii] Wink, 176. The reference is to Matthew 5:39: “. . . if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also . . .” Wink argues that to hit someone on the right cheek, for a right-handed person, would be a backhand slap – an insult, a way to chide an inferior. A normal response would be to recoil in submission. To turn the other cheek then is to refuse to be degraded and to insist on one’s dignity and equality. My thanks to Rev. Kathryn Nelson for first bringing Wink’s analysis to my attention.
[xiii] See my Rebellious Feminism, section on “Solidarity as Refusal to Oppress,” 104-110.
[xiv] Author’s Note: Melissa and Mark Hortman’s children wrote: “Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear. The best way to honor our parents’ memory is to do something.” They offered the following suggestions on how to best honor the memory of their parents: Plant a tree. Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail. Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do. Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it. Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone. Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something. Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.