Dissecting the dark heart of Kari Lake's evangelical jihad

Kari Lake did not hold a campaign event on Sunday in Phoenix. She held a revival meeting.

An old-timey crusade.

That’s because Lake is not now (and perhaps never has been) a politician.

She is a preacher. An evangelist of equivocation. A minister of misrepresentation. The high priestess of prevarication.

The very worst thing that could happen to Lake these days would be for her groundless and gratuitous attempt to overturn the Arizona governor’s election to … succeed.

Kari Lake is the wolf in sheep's clothing

The salary of Arizona’s chief executive is $95,000, ranking near the bottom of the 50 states.

Meantime, as has been reported numerous times in the past week or so, Lake, who was defeated by Katie Hobbs, has collected more than $2.5 million since the election.

She has done so not by waging a political campaign but by preaching the gospel of conspiracy, the dogma of disinformation.

She is all hellfire and brimstone, a technique not borrowed from righteous pastors of good will and ministerial humility, but from shady, self-serving televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker. Preachers whose gullible flock has not quite grasped the message in Matthew 7:15, which reads, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.”

My favorite among such self-righteous con artists might be Louisiana minister Jesse Duplantis, who said that God told him he needed a private jet.

She has learned how to win by losing

From the beginning, Kari Lake’s gubernatorial campaign had the feel of a jihad. There were no opponents, only enemies, some of them within her own party, like when she said at a campaign rally, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans here do we? Well, get the hell out!”

Lake was the pastor of paranoia even before her loss to Hobbs.

Now, she preaches that Arizona must be “saved” and that she, apparently, is the savior.

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Since losing her campaign for Arizona governor, Lake has been pitching her false conspiracy theories and the ludicrously frivolous lawsuit she has filed claiming a stolen election, endlessly appearing on right-wing media and begging online for donations.

She has learned how to win (at least financially) by losing.

Donations don’t flow to a situation that has been resolved. Crisis – real or imagined – draws the checks. A priest I knew used to say it is not God who fills the collection baskets, but Satan.

A rallying cry to 'save' Arizona, but not a goal

Every evangelist, every failed politician, needs to convince the audience that the devil is out there, plotting against them, and only he (or she) – with the congregation’s generous support, of course – can defeat that malignant spirit.

With that in mind, Lake brought her ministerial minstrel show, featuring conspiracy evangelizers like Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers, home to Arizona on Sunday, spreading her dark message at her “Save Arizona” rally at Orange Tree golf club in Scottsdale.

After getting beat and launching her crusade Lake said, “God is on our side. We are truly fighting pure evil right now.”

That’s not a politician talking, it’s a cleric.

Saving Arizona is only a rallying cry, a call to arms. It’s not the goal. The goal is to maintain the impression that Arizona needs to be saved, and that Lake is the only person who can do so. With the help of generous congregants, of course.God help them.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake is not a politician. She's on an evangelical jihad