I SPY LANC: An Appeal to Heaven Flag
Who in Lancaster PA connects with the Pine Tree flag?
Welcome to I SPY LANC, a Lancaster Examiner series1 where I’ll show you Dominionist symbols, phrases, leaders, organizations or activity in Lancaster County, PA — and, in turn, local readers are encouraged to send tips and screen captures with their own sightings to be added to the list below. Together, over time, let’s increase awareness and build knowledge around local Dominionist movements.2
KEY UPDATES: This piece was originally published on May 24, 2024 with five local examples of the Appeal to Heaven flag.
June 11, 2024: Updated to include five additional details/examples: Kurt Weaver’s FB post, three commenters on Weaver’s post and an example of a physical flag on Dayspring Christian Academy’s campus.
June 26, 2024: Updated to include photo of NAR Apostle Abby Abildness, Sen Scott Martin, Sen Cris Dush, Rep Dave Zimmerman, Rep Stephanie Borowicz and Elizabethtown’s Lori Longenecker, Sharon Ogilvie and Wendy Ober.
July 15, 2024: Updated to include LancCo M4L Chapter’s posting on FB.
Appeal to Heaven / Pine Tree Flag
This week’s New York Times’ piece, Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home, provides our jumping point. Justice Alito joins the ranks of House Speaker Mike Johnson and “Supreme Court Architect” Leonard Leo as noteworthy national figures with connections to the Pine Tree flag.
Here, now, I SPY so very many examples of the Appeal to Heaven / Pine Tree flag right here in Lancaster County, PA:
Lancaster County elected officials Senator Scott Martin and Representative Dave Zimmerman.
Also from Lancaster: Sharon Ogilvie who, according to LancasterOnline, is Rep. Tom Jones’ legislative aide, an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in July and “as recently as 2022, Ogilvie led the Elizabethtown chapter of FreePA.” A 2022 LancasterOnline article states that Ogilvie is also a member of Lifegate church. Lifegate’s website includes Ogilvie and her spouse on its Leadership Team.
Lori Longenecker serves on Elizabethtown’s GOP committee and Wendy Ober, a former member of now-defunct FreePA, was listed on the same committee in 2022.
Significant non-Lancastrians include NAR Apostle (and Lancaster native) Abby Abildness, Representative Stephanie Borowicz and Senator Cris Dush.
Sean Kitchen (@pennslinger) seems to have captured images of Abildness and some of the others on the same day.
(Image below captured by Paul Weaver of Paul Weaver Photography. Follow Weaver on Instagram.)
Lifegate Ministries: LifeGate - as well as its leader Pastor Don Lamb and associate Calvin Greiner - are deeply enmeshed with PA Senator Doug Mastriano. Lifegate posted an image of An Appeal to Heaven flag on June 13, 2024.
Kurt Weaver: Weaver “is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Pennsylvania Family Institute” and a “graduate of Lancaster Bible College.” Interestingly absent from his PA Family bio, Weaver served as Pastor at Crossway Church from 2006-2017 - a role that seems to connect his name to the C.J. Mahaney / Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) child sex abuse and subsequent coverup scandals, eventually leading to Crossway’s name being removed from SGM’s website in 2019. Read more about that story here. It is worth noting that PA Family’s Randall Wenger is also a longtime member of Crossway Church.
Weaver shared an image of An Appeal to Heaven 1968 stamp on May 31, 2024. “Not sure what all the fuss is about. It’s been used throughout our history. Here’s a 1968 stamp.”
Noteworthy commenters on Kurt Weaver’s May 31, 2024 FB post:
Vaughn Martin: Vaughn Martin is the son of LifeGate Church’s Dr. Enos Daniel Martin.
Sandy Abel: Abel is the owner/CEO of MicroFacture and sits on the board of Dayspring Christian Academy.
Sarah Samek: Sarah is the spouse of Pennsylvania Family Institute’s Chief of Staff, Jeremy Samek.
Jake Kail: “After eight years as senior leader of Threshold Church, [Kail] now ministers full time with Jake Kail Ministries. His ministry is often marked by encounters with God, healing, and deliverance from demonic oppression.”
It’s worth noting that Kail is the brother of PA State Rep Josh Kail.
Kail has shared imagery of an Appeal to Heaven flag and the language associated with it on social media as far back as July 4, 2015 and as recently as July 4, 2023. (Video capture of 3 screen captures. 13 seconds.)
Gateway House of Prayer: GHOP “exists to honor Jesus and transform our region through 24/7 worship and prayer [emphasis mine]” and is part of the same local campus as Ephrata Community Church, HarvestNet International, Thrive Counseling Services and more.
Gateway displays an Appeal to Heaven flag in their Ephrata-based house of worship. Gateway Director, Bonita Keener, shares “an encouragement” that references the flag, Dutch Sheets and WallBuilders. (Video capture of eleven screenshots. 46 seconds.)
City Gate Columbia: City Gate is Lancaster’s very own *mini-chain* of 24/7 houses of prayer with six locations: Columbia, Duncannon, Ephrata, Lancaster, Lititz and New Holland. City Gate was founded by Kim Zimmerman who previously partnered with Bonita Keener with the now (seemingly) defunct nonprofit, Lancaster Transformed: Street By Street. Zimmerman is affiliated with DOVE USA.
An Appeal to Heaven flag can be seen displayed in City Gate Columbia in this screen capture from their Facebook account dated 09/22/2019.
Rachel Wilson Snyder: Snyder is Moms for Liberty’s Lancaster County Chapter Chair and is a resident in and parent of children in the Warwick School District. One of Snyder’s children notably reported a book over “LGBTQ+ concerns” at a school board meeting on October 3, 2023.
Snyder updated her Facebook cover photo to an Appeal to Heaven flag on November 28, 2020 and that images remains as her forward facing cover image today.
Lancaster County Chapter of Mom’s for Liberty: LancCo’s M4L added An Appeal to Heaven flag to their Facebook page on July 14, 2024, the day after the assassination attempt on President Trump.
Other noteworthy Mom’s for Liberty connections include Emily Zimmerman, School Board President at Warwick School District and Emily Kreps, Legal Assistant/Systems Manager at Pennsylvania Family Institute and M4L Dauphin County Chapter Chair.
Dayspring Christian Academy: Dayspring is a private Christian school located in Lancaster, PA. While it originated in downtown Lancaster City due to its relationship with the Lord’s House of Prayer, Dayspring is now located in Hempfield, PA.
Lord’s House of Prayer Pastor Matt Kroll featured heavily in my previous post, Threats Stemming From Lancaster Public Library's Drag Queen Story Hour Remain Unsolved.
Dayspring framed their Fall 2016 issue of AWAKEN magazine around “An Appeal to Heaven.” (Video capture of five screenshots. 23 seconds. Read the entire issue here.)
After my initial publication of this piece, a Mountville PA based trusted tipster shares the following image of an Appeal to Heaven flag displayed inside Dayspring Christian Academy’s auditorium on June 8th, 2024. The flag was not displayed there when I last visited the school in the May 2022.
To be clear: I am simply and quite literally showing you where I observe occurrences of an Appeal to Heaven flag in connection to Lancaster, PA and encouraging you to learn more about the significance of those connections.
Your turn! Grab your magnifying glasses, lists of key word searches and get to work! If you know or find any occurrences of an Appeal to Heaven Flag in Lancaster County that I missed, please reach out here or at LancPAExaminer@gmail.com!
Additional Resources on the Appeal to Heaven / Pine Tree Flag
Complete list of resources can be found on my Google Drive sheet.
The Key to Mike Johnson’s Christian Extremism Hangs Outside His Office, 11/10/2023, Rolling Stone, Bradley Onishi, Matthew D. Taylor.
Dominionists’ Battle Flag Flown Over Justice Alito’s Beach House, 05/23/2024, Right Wing Watch, Peter Montgomery.
Justice Alito Let’s His Appeal to Heaven Flag Fly, 05/23/2024, Straight White American Jesus, Dr. Matthew Taylor, Annika Brockschmidt, Andrew Seidel, Rev. Angela Denker.
Supreme Court Architect Flew the Same ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag as Alito, 05/23/2024, Rolling Stone, Ryan Bort, Tessa Stuart, Andrew Perez.
The Christian Nationalist Danger Behind the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag, 05/23/2024, New York Magazine, Sarah Jones.
First It Was an Insurrection Flag, 05/23/2024, Religion Dispatches, Annika Brockschmidt.
Justice Alito’s display of Christo-Fascist Allegiance, 05/24/2024, Background Briefing with Ian Masters, Frederick Clarkson.
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Justice Alito., 6/11/2024, Mother Jones, Kiera Butler.
My Substack is still akin to throwing pasta at a wall to see what sticks. I SPY LANC series dependent on the response and its utility.
This account receives traction from within and well outside of Lancaster County. For non-locals, perhaps it provides a roadmap for local work or an illustration of what might be occurring in your community. Additionally, I am aware that most Substack followers did not follow me on Twitter. Welcome! And thank you for your patience as I refine my approach at sharing these hyper-local stories.