We learned recently that Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito flew an upside-down America flag in front of his home, a flag carried by January 6 insurrectionists to protest the 2024 election. He blamed his wife.
Now we learn that Justice Alito flew another seditious flag in front of his vacation home. It’s called “Appeal to Heaven,” and it’s closely tied to white Christian nationalism.
Justice Alito’s arrogance and disregard for judicial ethics is staggering. He has a lifetime appointment on a Court with a 6-3 conservative majority. He thinks he is above the law.
Sarah Posner wrote on the MSNBC site:
News that an Appeal to Heaven flag was seen flying outside the beach house of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito marks the second report in the space of a week that a symbol used by Jan. 6 insurrectionists was seen outside one of his residences. According to the report from The New York Times, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the flag was photographed flying at the home on multiple occasions between July and September 2023. Alito has remained silent about how and why the flag came to be flying at his property, but the more one knows about the background of the flag, the more chilling its presence at his house becomes.
This flag, which bears the words “Appeal to Heaven” and an image of a green pine tree, is an unmistakable emblem for an influential segment of Christian nationalists who claim the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, contrary to God’s will, and that believers’ spiritual warfare is essential to restoring God’s anointed leader to his rightful office. It was one of numerous Christian nationalist flags and other iconography carried by Trump supporters Jan. 6 and at the Jericho March, a series of prayer rallies that were like jet fuel for the insurrection. The Jericho March featured right-wing evangelical and Catholic speakers alongside militants such as conspiracist Alex Jones, Trump’s disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Oathkeepers founder Stewart Rhodes, now serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
After years as a historical relic, in 2015 the flag was popularized by Dutch Sheets, an influential figure in the New Apostolic Reformation.
The Appeal to Heaven flag originated in Revolutionary times as a call to take up arms against unjust rulers who ignored the pleas of their citizens. But after years as a historical relic, in 2015 the flag was popularized by Dutch Sheets, an influential figure in the New Apostolic Reformation. The NAR’s founder, C. Peter Wagner, drew on existing strands and trends in charismatic Christianity to create a powerful network of self-proclaimed apostles and prophets who claimed to be leading a revolution in Christianity. NAR’s adherents, as religion scholar and MSNBC columnist Anthea Butler has written, believe “the government should be run by Christians in order to cleanse the world for Christ’s coming.” They promote spiritual warfare, including spiritual “mappings” to identify demonic forces in communities, and “power encounters” like exorcisms “to cleanse not only people, but cities and communities.” They envision not only a Christian nation, but also a new Christianity at the head of it.
Sheets is a prominent “prophet” in the world of the NAR. He claims to receive dreams and visions from God about world events, including the 2020 election and its aftermath. According to the Times, in his 2015 book Sheets maintained that God had “resurrected” the Appeal to Heaven flag and urged his readers to “Wave it outwardly: wear it inwardly. Appeal to heaven daily for a spiritual revolution that will knock out the Goliaths of our day.” Sheets made multiple appearances in Christian media after the 2020 election, claiming that the election was stolen and that demonic forces were behind this supposed fraud. Christian nationalist support for Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results was suffused with themes of spiritual battles against mighty, seemingly unbeatable forces. The Jericho March’s overriding message was that the participants were brave warriors against forces of “corruption,” whose prayers were going to cause the “walls” of the “deep state” to fall, like the walls of Jericho in the Bible.
Matthew D. Taylor, Protestant scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, and the author of a forthcoming book about the New Apostolic Reformation, told me that Sheets “believes he has a special anointing on his life, and a special anointing to bring the American government into alignment with his interpretation of Christianity, including, especially, the Supreme Court.” Sheets has claimed, for example, that his “apostolic decrees” helped swing the 2000 election to George W. Bush and that he prophesied changes at the Supreme Court after the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist (who were replaced by Alito and John Roberts, respectively).
“Christian supremacists,” as Taylor describes Sheets and his allies, “would like to see the Supreme Court rule according to his interpretation of the Bible, that the law of God would become the supreme law of the land.” The court’s 2015 decision legalizing marriage equality dismayed Sheets, like many on the right, and he took a particular interest in the 2016 election. “They are praying for total changeover in American culture to restore America to its original covenantal purposes and covenantal arrangement with God,” Taylor said. “Abortion and same-sex marriage are seen as impediments to this.” While Sheets claims to be calling for a spiritual revolution, Taylor said, the Appeal to Heaven flag nonetheless signals “an implied threat of violence.”
After Sheets’ book, the flag’s use skyrocketed in evangelical communities connected to the NAR. It even received a boost from former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who said Sheets gave her one of her own. In 2020, the flag increasingly became highly associated with Trump and then the insurrection. Taylor said neo-Nazi and other extremist groups have since adopted it, as well.
According to Taylor, the flag’s use and significance spread like wildfire in some evangelical communities, even as other Americans were unaware of its popularity or meaning. But Alito is not just an ordinary citizen; he’s one of the nine most powerful jurists in the country. The leading proponent of the flag has very specifically taken an interest in the actions of the high court, and we already know from previous reporting that Alito is cozy enough with some evangelical activists to dine with them.
Legitimate questions need to be answered about who else had access to the justice. And Americans cannot be kept in the dark about how this radical antidemocratic symbol came to fly outside his house. The public particularly needs to know before the court decides, in the coming weeks, Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution for Jan. 6. If Alito acquired the flag on his own and chose to fly it, the public needs to know why. The flag’s proponents want a Christian supremacist revolution against the government. Does Alito?
it has always interested me that the idea of symbolism has been one of the forces of oligarchy. Banners were always a part of European royalty, and the use of these symbols to identify military groups on the battlefield had practical as well as emotional value.
in this country, various symbols have been used for various causes. St Andrew’s Cross was chosen as Virginia’s battle flag in the Civil War, a symbol that essentially reached out to religion to justify martial activity. Another more plain symbol was chosen for the flag of the confederacy, but the re-invention of the war led to the identification of the south with this already altered symbol with white supremacy and it’s persistence in the movement to reject integration as the Civil Rights movement. It persists today as a symbol for the Trump Reich (he said it, I didn’t).
The upside down flag has been used to indicate distress for years. Now the Trump Reich is bringing in other symbols. These include these two flags as are mentioned above, but reach out to symbolic words and phrases as well. “Let’s Go Brandon” and “Woke” are examples of symbolic words created by a closed media circle that is literally and deliberately designed to keep the faithful intact.
This is why moderation has a difficult time fighting tyranny. Moderation depends on logical thinking, extremist thinking depends on simplistic appeals.
“. . . extremist thinking depends on simplistic appeals”
Not just simplistic but overtly emotional and/or intuitive appeals-those that tug at the audience’s heart strings.
With a Supreme Court justice with a, God complex, the cases being ruled won’t be based off of the facts presented or the testimonies, but, based off of the, personal, preferences of the, individual, Supreme Court justices, and, with, most of the seats being filled by, conservatives, there will be, NO more rights, that were, originally, GUARANTEED, to “we the, people” anymore, making the U.S., the land of the, ENSLAVED.
“. . . and, with, most of the seats being filled by, conservatives. . . ,”
No, they are not “conservatives”. They are regressive, reactionary xtian revanchists. We do an injustice in referring to them as conservative.
You are right, Duane
Where I live “Have a blessed day” is as common as “Goodbye,” and I have seen both of the Christian Nationalist flags in front of a few homes here in Matt Gaetz’s home district. The flags are not common, but they are usually on a few of the big homes that are owned by successful entrepreneurs like builders.
same where I live
I find that “blessed day” thing so annoying. I realize people are being nice when they say it but it still annoys me.
May all the gods bless you and yours, Flerp.
–Enlightened Master Bob, Omnitheists International.
I agree entirely, Flerp!
When someone says it to me, I mentally note that it’s the last time I’ll ever talk to that person.
What bugs me is the assumption that I agree with them, of course. It’s frankly offensive.
There is an article in The Onion noting that Ra won the Westminster God Show. A surprise upset there, I think, but he has (or had) his supporters.
Leonard Leo also has been flying that flag above his home on Mount Desert Island, near Acadia National Park. Leo is of course a toxically wealthy private citizen and is free to do as he chooses at home without consequence; his minions not so much.
I too, should be free to do as I choose in my life, free of Leo’s constraints. Hasn’t that been the basic premise of our country?
When people tell you who they are…
Is doing more, of what has yet to bring meaningful change, an example of “logical thinking”? Does repeating the state approved symbolic words and phrases (democracy, rule of law, civil “rights”) free the people from the appointed masters ? If books, essays, proclamations, or lectures haven’t undermined the appointed dictators to date, will more of the same, bring meaningful change? Is a score based avatar (State Degree) a symbol or banner of identity? Is the kettle black?
As long as Republicans control the House and Democrats to not have a super majority in the Senate, Alito is above the law. The only way to get rid of him is if both Houses of Congress impeach him.
Alito is 74 so he could be around for another 10 to 20 years since his job comes with the best free health care in the world. He may even be around past 100, sitting on the bench.
The Supine Court has devolved into an umpiring crew that calls strikes on pitches that are way outside of the plate.
Anywhere else, these umps would be suspended for fixing games.
It ought to be lost on no one here that Clarence Thomas declared that Brown was wrongly decided in the decision that stripped Black South Carolinians of their voting rights (Alito, of course, was in concurrence). Poor Clarence! He thinks his wealthy White supremacist friends like him for himself, not for what he can do for them. If he were my student, I’d suggest he look for better friends, not ones who just want to use him.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/clarence-thomas-criticizes-supreme-court-brown-v-board-of-education-decision
Thomas knows what people think of him. He’s proud of being hated.
He is not as deluded as many seem to think.