In 2001, Arlyn Valvick was selected by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation to be a farmer representative.
Last year, Arlyn Valvick presented at a conference about soil and water conservation in farming.
But there’s no mention anywhere of Arlyn Valvick being a minister for any church or other religious organization.
Arlyn Valvick sometimes goes to the St. Paul Lutheran Church of Lakota, Iowa. Out of the total population of 267 residents in Lakota, Iowa, there are perhaps 20 adults who regularly attend that church. The pastor there is Chad Duffy, though, not Arlyn Valvick.
It looks a lot like Arlyn Valvick is a farmer who wanted to become a minister, but couldn’t find work being a minister after he became ordained.
Being a farmer is great, of course, but it’s not the same thing as being a minister.
So why is Arlyn Valvick included in Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition?
There are plenty of people from the Valvick family that attend St. Paul Lutheran Church in Lakota. Jordan Valvick is a board member there. Annette Valvick goes to the church sometimes too. The Trump campaign calls Annette Valvick a “faith leader” because she’s a “small group leader” at the St. Paul Lutheran Church of Lakota. Can you imagine what being a small group leader in a church with so few people is like?
Still, the Trump campaign has celebrated the endorsements of Annette and Arlyn Valvick, along with Jordan Valvick, as members of his Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.
All voters matter.
Still, when three of the members of Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition come from one family at one tiny church, and not one of them is pastor of that church, that tells you something about the puffery behind the production of the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.
The 2024 Trump campaign lists Arlyn Valvick as an “ordained minister” in Kossuth County, Iowa.
To refer to Valvick as an “ordained minister” when other members of the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition are just referred to as ministers, seems rather odd.
The implication is that Arlyn Valvick went through the process of ordination, but then was unable to get a job actually working as a minister.
That interpretation is supported by the fact that the only place online that refers to Arlyn Valvick as a minister, or as ordained in any way, is the Trump for President campaign.
A recent issue of the Swea City Herald Press mentions how Arlyn Valvick attended the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s state Government conference in Des Moines back in 1999. The paper never talks about Valvick ever working as a minister, though.
There is a lot of theoretical talk about Christian Nationalism, but a new Donald Trump’s Army of God: Christian Nationalism in the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition, provides an analysis of Christian Nationalism that is grounded in what Christian Nationalists actually say and do.
The book is based exclusively on information about the 317 members of the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.
You wouldn’t think Iowa would be the source of stories of Nazi propaganda, murder, suicide, terrorism, money laundering and business fraud, Ancient prophecies of eternal torture, monsters and magic spells, faith healing and guns, and a growing Christian Nationalist appetite for global genocidal war. Defying expectations, that’s just what the authors found.
The Iowa Faith Leader Coalition is a radical political organization that violates American law
Let’s learn more about the extremist Christian Nationalists who are members of Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.