Known as Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), they are taking on everything from the White House to false coronavirus prophecies. The group presents itself as an alternative to the coterie of Pentecostal and charismatic leaders who have surrounded and advised Trump ever since his 2016 election.

“One of the things we have reacted to is Trump’s rhetoric,” says Micael Grenholm, a Swedish pastor who edits PCPJ’s web site and blog. “Thankfully, he has not started a war. We have criticized his belittling of women, indigenous people, defense of extreme economic inequalities and dishonesty and lying that characterize his administration.

“We have said we were Pentecostal and charismatic and wanted to be guided by the Holy Spirit and while we wish for peace in the world, we did not have peace with how he was acting.”

Pentecostals and charismatics belong to an evangelical sub-group that believes that the supernatural “gifts of the Holy Spirit” are operative today. Of those who are active in politics, the best-known is televangelist Paula White, who says she led President Donald Trump to the Lord before his 2016 presidential run and is known for her fiery sermons on everything from prosperity to “satanic pregnancies.”

But she has been years ahead of her white counterparts on race issues. Earlier this year, White was named as adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

“Paula was a no one in denominational Pentecostal circles for a long time,” says Erica Ramirez, the Texas-born academic who is the president of PCPJ and director of research at Auburn Seminary in Manhattan. “Just like the election of Trump changed the game in national politics, the elevation of Paula has changed the game in Pentecostalism and evangelicals.”

Trump’s religious cabinet has plenty of detractors, but none were from the same theological camp until the PCPJ — whose members also lay claim to spiritual gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues — emerged a few years ago.

Although the group was founded back in 2001, it took on new life after Trump arrived at the White House and PCPJ leaders will wryly admit that Trump’s election has hugely benefited them. Pentecostals have earned a reputation for conservative politics and – here in the United States – have acted as mirror images of Trump’s policies. In Brazil, Pentecostals supported one of their own – right winger Jair Bolsonaro – for his successful 2018 run for the presidency.

But worldwide, PCPJ leaders say, Pentecostalism is more focused on racial justice, immigration, peace, gender equality, creation care and economic justice. The last two winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and surgeon Denis Mukwege, were both African Pentecostals.

The challenge is bringing these two camps together. Pentecostalism has been the world’s fastest-growing form of Christianity for decades and in places like Brazil, it’s taken over Catholicism as the dominant form of spirituality. Globally, it’s gone from six percent of world Christianity in the 1970s to at least 20 percent today – and some estimates are higher.

The PCPJ has a mailing list of 7,000 and a chorus of fans on the group’s web site and Facebook page as its leaders take on theologically questionable pronouncements from prominent Pentecostals and blue-sky meanderings such Jerry Falwell Jr’s statement that coronavirus is actually a North Korean bioweapon.