Extremist Christian nationalist pastor headed to New Hampshire
Rev. William Cook hopes to recruit area pastors to get more involved in local politics with a MAGA-inspired message of election denial, COVID conspiracy, and government tyranny.
An outspoken Christian nationalist pastor who rejects the separation of church and state and urges like-minded religious leaders to get more involved in politics is bringing his MAGA-inspired message of election denial, COVID conspiracy, and government tyranny to New Hampshire.
Rev. William Cook is the founder and CEO of America’s Black Robe Regiment, which takes its name from stories of Colonial-era clergymen who mobilized their congregations to join the American Revolution. His mission is to develop a national network of local chapters with at least two politically active Christian nationalist pastors in every political jurisdiction in America. Cook claims 700 pastors have joined the organization.
Cook’s first New Hampshire recruit was Stephen Baberadt, the pastor at Living Hope Church of Manchester and a public school music teacher, who now leads the America’s Black Robe Regiment state chapter. Baberadt is organizing a public forum in Concord for Cook to promote America’s Black Robe Regiment to area pastors, civic leaders, and “freedom-fighting Americans.” Revolutionary Pulpits: The Last Hope of a Dying Republic will be held at the Grappone Conference Center on Thursday, October 10 at 7 p.m.
‘We're not playing this game of separation of church and state anymore’
Cook’s version of Christian nationalism—the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that its government should embody that Christian heritage—blends cherry-picked stories of the American Revolution with dominion theology and MAGA-inspired conspiracy theories.
Cook rejects the separation of church and state. On a podcast with Matt Shea, the former Washington state legislator who was found to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism by a House-commissioned investigation, Cook said, “The idea that there's separation of church and state . . . is absurd. It's absurd, it is a fraud, and it is tyranny. It is time that every person, every pastor who loves liberty, who loves religious freedom, stands up and says 'No,' we aren't doing it anymore. We're not playing this game of separation of church and state anymore.”
At an event sponsored by the First Landing 1607 Project, which is dedicated to bringing the nation “back to its original roots,” Cook delivered a dark, conspiratorial message of government tyranny. “Your government has been usurped by imposters, your churches shut down by tyrants asserting authority they do not have, your people have been murdered in hospitals using ventilators and kidney-destroying Remdesivir, and they are still being murdered with Covid shots and boosters.”
The Haymarket, Virginia pastor asserts that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by the Chinese government. He believes that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was a government-led psyop and signaled the start of a war with the intention of “exterminating American Christendom.”
"There was cheating on a scale that really amounts to an international crime and an act of war, particularly by the Chinese, who were at the forefront of this whole operation and led it,’” he told ReAwaken America Tour organizer Clay Clark. “So anybody that's not calling out election fraud right now, there's probably a pretty good chance if they're a public official that they were in on it."
Cook told an audience in Spokane, Washington that he had received a message from God that “death is about to execute a no-knock warrant” on the FBI agents who were arresting the insurrectionists. "He’s going to invade your domicile—this body—and take you out of it . . . and when God’s finished with you, he will send you to your eternal destination, eternal Hell.”
A growing national presence
VICE reports that Cook’s first attempt at creating a Black Robe Regiment group began in 2012 with the Black Robe Regiment of Virginia. The attempt to organize pastors from his home state never gained much traction, but with the MAGA-fueled rise of Christian nationalism, Cook rebranded the group as America’s Black Robe Regiment and began to attract a following.
It was in December 2020 that Cook first gained national prominence when he donned an Oath Keepers T-shirt and joined a who’s who of rightwing extremists—including former Gen Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes—to address the Jericho March prayer rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Speaking to the crowd that had gathered to support Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election, Cook said, “Today, pastors are dutifully complying with mask-wearing mandates [and] shutting their doors. . . . Why are we complying with tyranny?“
Cook subsequently joined the ReAwaken America Tour, a series of extreme right, Christian nationalist rallies launched in 2021 by Flynn and Clark that promoted a smorgasbord of conspiracy theories, COVID misinformation, election denial, QAnon, and end-of-time prophecies.
In July 2022, Cook hosted a conference to recruit new members that was held in conjunction with a ReAwaken America Tour rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Cook claims 150 pastors signed the group’s Gideon 300 Pledge at the end of the session and joined America’s Black Robe Regiment. New Hampshire’s Stephen Baberadt was among that group and was on stage the next day as Flynn “commissioned” the new members.
Baberadt also joined Cook on the stage when the ReAwaken America Tour made a stop in Manheim, Pennsylvania (where Cook mistakenly introduced him as “Ken Baberadt”). “I want to challenge all of the pastors to rise up, to rise up,’ Baberadt told the audience. “And if there’s anybody here that’s from New Hampshire, and you know a pastor that’s preaching what’s being up here, tell them to get in touch with me because I’m looking for them.”
Recruiting Granite State pastors
Baberadt has been meeting with far-right organizations around the state to promote America’s Black Robe Regiment. Last year, he hosted an event at his church for the Constitution Party of New Hampshire, which has nominated anti-abortion activist Randall Terry to be its presidential candidate.
In his talk, Baberadt referenced the Seven Mountain Mandate, a dominionist doctrine that calls on Christians to dominate and transform seven spheres of societal influence: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. “We're called to shine our light on the seven mountains of influence. . . .” Baberadt said. “If we don't shine our light, darkness will rule.”
Baberadt told the state leaders of America’s Black Robe Regiment that he had spoken outside the State House in Concord on six occasions. In one of those talks, an event hosted by the Christian nationalist-led We The People NH, Baberadt implored pastors to enter the political arena. “Things are happening, trust me they are happening, and there will be a great awakening and a great shakening. . . .” he said. “I'm here to tell you that we need to take back America. Truth and justice are gospel issues, and pastors must rise up and lead.”
