New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?

Thousands of people hungry for an experience of God and longing to be free of their demons crowded into a large tent for a mass deliverance service.

Some fell to the ground and lay still, others screamed as the pastor commanded their dark spirits to come out in Jesus' name. Some just held each other with what seemed relief and release. Afterwards around 20 were baptised in a horse trough filled with water.

This is the Global Vision Church near Nashville in Tennessee, headed by Pastor Greg Locke. He is a charismatic and controversial figure who is tapping into a long tradition of Pentecostal revival in the United States, an apocalyptic spirit that is animating the rise of a new Christian right.

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God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.

It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes. That's been amplified by a backlash against what they saw as government overreach during the Covid pandemic.

"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Christian flags at US Capitol riot
Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.

But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.

Supporters of President Donald Trump pray outside the US Capitol on 6 January
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Image caption,
Prayers outside the US Capitol during the January 2021 attack
The sight of rioters carrying crosses and Christian flags, and even praying together, exposed just how much religious and political identities had begun to merge on the right - bonded by a belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

There were also pastors at the Capitol that day, and some continue to preach that message.

Ken Peters is one of them. He's denounced the violence, but still defends what he sees as a patriotic mission.

He says God has "a special plan for this country" that he'd felt was threatened by the prospect of Trump's election loss.

Peters' Patriot Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, a building with a cross in the front yard and a US-style flag painted onto the roof, is one of a growing number of non-denominational start-up congregations that say they want to take back the country for God.

They feel threatened by immigration and are alarmed by the increased acceptance of different gender identities and sexual orientations that they believe are unbiblical.

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Peters promotes political candidates from the pulpit, blurring the lines between church and state.

"If God can overturn Roe versus Wade, he can do anything," he told his congregation in a spirited message recently, celebrating the end of federal abortion rights as an act of God.

He wants the government to ban same-sex marriage because marriage between a man and a woman is "in the Bible". He says "Christians are going to have to get feisty" because the left is winning. "I'm just putting up a last-ditch effort to try to keep our country as Christian as possible."