The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “terrorist” as “an advocate or practitioner of terrorism as a means of coercion”. The dictionary defines “terrorism” as “the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.”

A more specific definition of terrorism comes the American Heritage Dictionary, which describes terrorism as “The use of violence or the threat of violence, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political goals.”

David Leach has advocated for the use of violence and the threat of violence in the pursuit of political goals. Leach has also collaborated with and even celebrated with many others who have used violence to achieve their political goals.

David Leach has never been the pastor of any church. If he has been a faith leader, it has been in his role as a leader of the Army Of God.

Leach has described himself as the Secretary General of the Army of God. That’s certainly a position of leadership.

"I Am A Terrorist”

To call the Army Of God a terrorist organization isn’t controversial. Clayton Waagner, a member of the Army Of God who was charged with bank robbery, possession of a bomb, carjacking, and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon during a prison escape admitted, "They’re right. I am a terrorist.”

Waagner was also charged with threatening 42 abortion clinic employees. Waagner had a plan to murder multiple abortion providers while driving across the country, but his plan failed when a car that he had stolen broke down along the way.

Waagner also committed terrorism when he sent packages of fake anthrax to over 500 abortion providers across the United States in 2001, in the wake of actual anthrax attacks, along with the note: “You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. From the Army of God, Virginia Dare Chapter.”

Waagner was convicted of 51 crimes, including threatening the use of weapons of mass destruction.

David Leach was in communication with Clayton Waagner while Waagner was in prison. In one letter to Leach, Waagner discussed the possibility of the two developing a “Combat Information Center” that would share "data on every abortion mill in the country: address, phone number, hours of operation, names of staff and photos. The type of intelligence that would be useful to a field warrior”.

Perpetrators of Terrorism

The Department of Homeland Security designated the Army Of God as a Perpetrator of Terrorism in its 2014 report, Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States, 1970-2013, listing the group right above the white supremacist Aryan Nations and Aryan Republican Army.

The Army Of God was not an organization of idle radical theory. The central purpose of the group was to take violent action to force abortion clinics to close. The organization’s ultimate goal was to force an end to legal abortion in the United States through acts of violence and the threat of violence.

According to the Global Terrorism Database, the Army of God murdered three Americans, and injured ninety other Americans during the 1980s and 1990s.

A few years later, Stephen John Jordi was arrested for attempting another terrorist attack in the name of the Army Of God. According to an FBI report:

“Jordi had openly discussed his intentions to attack abortion clinics, had expressed solidarity with anti-abortion extremists, and had associated with individuals from the anti-abortion extremist group Army of God. Jordi set out potential targets and a specific time frame for the attacks, and had cased and videotaped numerous Miami-area abortion clinics. He had also purchased several items to carry out the attack, including containers of gasoline and propane, flares, starting fluid, and a silencer purchased from an FBI source. Jordi was indicted on November 15, 2003, for attempting to damage and destroy property used in interstate commerce, distribution of information relating to the manufacture or use of explosive or destructive devices, and possession of a firearm that was not registered to him. On July 8, 2004, a federal judge in Miami sentenced Jordi to five years in prison.”

David Leach was not the pastor of the Army Of God, but he spent a great deal of time preaching in enthusiastic praise of the organization’s violence.

The Righteous Wrath Of The Rescue Platoon

Among the many pro-violence materials published by David Leach was the novel Rescue Platoon. The story is set in the near future (from the perspective of the time when it was written). It begins with the execution of Paul Hill, a real life Christian reverend who was executed for the murder of Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Barrett and Dr. John Britton.

A Signed Endorsement Of Political Murder

In the 1990s, before the trial of Army Of God associate Michael Griffin for the murder of Dr. David Gunn, Leach joined 32 others associated with the Army Of God in signing a statement justifying anti-abortion terrorism. The statement declares that murder should be legal so long as the motive of the murder is to prevent abortion from taking place. It reads:

“We, the undersigned, declare the justice of taking all godly action necessary to defend innocent human life including the use of force. We proclaim that whenever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child. We assert that if Michael Griffin did in fact kill David Gunn, his use of lethal force was justifiable provided it was carried out for the purpose of defending the lives of unborn children. Therefore, he ought to be acquitted of the charges against him.”

Although Leach was never convicted of any crime himself, he helped coordinate the communications and activities of the Army Of God. Leach celebrated and justified the actions of the Army of God in publications that resulted in support for the terrorist organization. According to Countering Violent Extremism, a report from the East West Institute, Leach’s Prayer and Action Weekly newsletter “reported on and encouraged acts of violence”, serving as a conduit for terrorist coordination amongst approximately 200 members of the Army of God.

Leach repeatedly met in prison with members of Army Of God who had been convicted and were serving time for murder, assault, and terrorist conspiracy, in order to coordinate the Army Of God’s continuing campaign of terror. Testifying before the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence of the Committee on Homeland Security in the United States House of Representatives on behalf of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in 2015, Brian Levin revealed that there were consequences for David Leach’s maintenance of communications between imprisoned members of the Army Of God and associated conspirators who were still planning their own violent attacks.

“Alleged Army of God member Shelley Shannon firebombed clinics and shot a physician. She nonetheless, still communicated with Reverend Paul Hill during her incarceration, before he murdered two people outside a Pensacola, Florida clinic.”

One terrorist attack by the Army Of God was followed by another, with Dave Leach communicating between imprisoned Army Of God members and future attackers. The Southern Poverty Law Center, for example, explains how “in the early 1990s, Leach's newsletter had serialized the prison diaries of convicted clinic bomber John Brockhoeft, edited by Shelly Shannon”.

John Brockhoeft had already bombed one clinic, and Shelly Shannon would go on to violently attack other clinics herself, while David Leach, the self-described Secretary General of the Army Of God, sat in the middle, spreading the attackers’ propaganda in order to inspire new violence.

Brockhoeft admitted to setting fire to a Planned Parenthood family health center, placing a pipe bomb at that health center when it opened again, setting fire to a second women’s health center, and planning to bomb the Pensacola Ladies Center.

“It’s not murder. It’s justifiable homicide,” Brockhoeft said of his actions.

In his prison diaries, Brockhoeft warned, “I am full of the fury of Yahweh and I am weary of holding it in.” Quoting the Book of Numbers in the Christian Bible, John Brockhoeft wrote that “the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.”

Brockhoeft issued the threat of a coming violent judgment, and not just in the abstract hands of the Christian god, but at the human hands of the Christian members of the Army of God through a “people’s ascension to public authority.” Brockhoeft’s document, as edited by Shannon and published by David Leach, warns:

“If you repent now, and our people’s ascension to public authority is brought about without the Lord’s physical return, then we will be able to show you the same mercy shown the woman caught in adultery. But if you wait until this changing of the guard appears imminent, and only then make a show of ‘repentance’ to save your own skin, it will be too late. Too late.”

Brockhoeft’s purpose, he wrote, was not just to engage in violent attacks himself, but to inspire further acts of terrorism. “I asked the Lord to use my example to motivate another anti-abortionist to attack.”

Shelly Shannon became one of those who followed John Brockhoeft’s terrorist example. After being introduced to Brockhoeft by Leach, Shannon was indicted in the attempted murder of a doctor in Wichita, Kansas, as well as “arson, interference with commerce by force, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering... injecting butyric acid, a noxious, foul-smelling substance, into the walls of clinics in Reno, Nevada, and Chico, California, and using napalm in the firebombing of a Sacramento clinic”.

Shannon was found guilty in 1993. David Leach then visited her in prison.

The Army Of God Manual was found buried in Shannon’s back yard after she was arrested for shooting Dr. George Tiller with a gun. Scott Roeder, another Army of God member who had been in contact with David Leach, successfully murdered Dr. Tiller in a later terrorist attack and was convicted of the crime. On October 1, 2010, David Leach released a video declaring that “Scott Roeder’s action was justified.”

David Leach published the Army Of God Manual on his web site. The Army Of God Manual includes instructions about how to build explosive weapons in order to destroy abortion clinics. The final words are the following biblical threat of violence: “Whosoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed [Gen: 9-6]… we are forced to take up arms against you.”

In 2017, Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of the Trust Women Foundation, testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee that on at least one of David Leach’s visits to Scott Roeder, Leach discussed future violence against medical professionals working at abortion clinics. Burkhart’s testimony included the following statement:

“After anti-choice activists learned of my plans to open our clinic in Wichita, the harassment and intimidation began. After purchasing the clinic building, David Leach, affiliated with the Army Of God (an extremist anti-choice group), had a 45-minute phone conversation (recorded by prison officials) with Scott Roeder, the man who murdered Dr. Tiller. In that conversation, Leach expressed that by opening the clinic I had put a target on my back, and Scott Roeder agreed. They insinuated that someone might murder me as well.”

It’s difficult to know all of the details of Dave Leach’s involvement in the planning of specific terrorist attacks by the Army Of God. It is clear, however, that Leach did the following:

• Communicated and collaborated on projects with members of the Army Of God both before and after they conducted terrorist attacks

• Publicly celebrated the terrorist attacks by members of the Army Of God

• Published materials that were designed to be used specifically by members of the Army Of God, enabling them to conduct terrorist attacks against targets in the United States

• Published materials written by Christian terrorists justifying their terrorism

• Published propaganda advocating for a nationwide violent revolution by the Army Of God to overthrow the government of the United States of America and replace it with a new, Christian-controlled anti-abortion government and an independent nation of Texas

• Discussed the possibility of future terrorism by the Army Of God with other members of the Army of God

Why is the Trump campaign proudly listing David Leach as a “pastor” in Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition?

David Leach is not a pastor.

David Leach has been a leader in a movement of Christian terrorists that used extreme and sometimes lethal violence to try to gain political control for their religious point of view.

Information about David Leach’s history of advocating terrorism against targets within the United States can be found quite easily. In the year 2000, HBO released a documentary about the terrorism of the Army Of God, including references to Leach’s involvement with the organization.

There are two possibilities:

1. The Trump campaign was so lazy that it didn’t even bother to check who David Leach was before Trump bragged about Leach’s endorsement, and so, Donald Trump and his campaign don’t about Leach’s terrorist history

2. Donald Trump and his campaign know who David Leach is and are happy to work with someone who has been the leader of a known terrorist organization

Is Donald Trump too lazy to confront terrorism in the United States, or is Donald Trump willing to collaborate with the leaders of terrorist organizations?

Neither possibility reflects well on Donald Trump.