Jenny Donnelly, Portland-based “prophet,” prosperity gospel proponent and co-founder of The Collective is heading into a big weekend in Washington D.C. with an event she has been promoting for about a year – “A Million Women March: An Esther Call to the Mall.”
It’s something she and her followers nationwide have been planning during their monthly Zoom calls for as long as Donnelly and her mentor Lou Engle have been promoting the event. But during the Oct. 1 call she also took a little time to give Folake Kellogg, Cashmere’s Collective pastor and “prophetess” a shout out.
She praised Kellogg for striking a blow against the enemy in the culture wars – by taking over storytime at her local library.
“She signed up her church for every available spot,” Donnelly said. “I think for a year, is that right Folake?”
“Yes,” Kellogg replied.
But Amanda Brack, a spokesperson for NCW Libraries, which operates all public libraries in North Central Washington, said that’s not the case.
“At NCW Libraries, Storytime is a specialized program led by trained library staff. NCW Libraries has never offered a sign-up list for members of the public to lead Storytime programming in our branches,” she wrote in an email.
Brack said occasionally library staff will reach out to and collaborate with established community partners for special themed storytimes designed “to meet specific learning outcomes.” For example, they’ve invited local firefighters, police, and park rangers to lead storytime sessions.
However, the library does not partner with Kellogg’s church, or any church for that matter.
“NCW Libraries does not partner with local church or faith-based organizations on Storytime programs,” Brack wrote. “We do not have a partnership with the organization The Collective. All library programs and events are non-sectarian in nature.”
The only other libraries in Cashmere belong to the Cashmere School District.
Cashmere Schools Superintendent Glenn Johnson also said neither Kellogg or anyone else from The Collective signed up to read books in the district.
Neither Donnelly or Kellogg responded to my questions about this matter, nor my request for an explanation of their claim.
Lou Engle, Matchmaker of Prophets – and His Vision of “A Million Women” on the Mall Oct. 12
Lou Engle rose to prominence in the Promise Keepers movement of the 90s, and then founded “TheCall” in 2000. It became influential force within American evangelical Christianity and the brand he established became one known for protesting, fasting and praying against same-sex marriage and for an end to abortion.
He’s also considered an “apostle” of the New Apostolic Reformation (or NAR), and it was Engle who brought Kellogg and Donnelly together. According to Kellogg, she had a dream about Engle and a “blond haired woman” who she took to be Donnelly.
Kellogg explained what she took to be a prophetic dream that preceded her introduction to Engle on a Facebook livestream interview with Adnan Maqsood on a network called Vision in June. It wasn’t long before her dream came true and she met Engle, who in turn introduced her to Donnelly.
If you want to learn more about the NAR, you can watch my full interview with Dr. Matthew D. Taylor, a religious studies scholar and author, on my YouTube channel.
Here’s part one:
Kellogg went back on the Vision network this week in the lead up to Engle and Donnelly’s “Million Women March” this weekend. And she shared the stage with former Washington state legislator and domestic terrorist Matt Shea while doing so.
But Shea is no stranger to Kellogg and Donnelly. He has interviewed Donnelly on his conspiracy theory podcast called “Patriot Radio” before and this spring Donnelly and Kellogg visited his church called “On Fire Ministries” in the Spokane Valley, where Donnelly spoke.
It’s unclear if Shea is going to be in DC this weekend, but Folake, Donnelly and Engle are already there, gearing up for the big day.
On Wednesday, Donnelly did a special livestream from our nation’s capital. Kellogg and other lieutenants were also there in the background, and offered their own prayers for the success of the event.
How the event is to be judged remains to be seen. Engle’s original “prophecy” was that there would be a million women, or “Esthers” on the Mall in DC on Oct. 12, which is also the Jewish holiday of Yom Kipper.
However a few months ago Donnelly started to downplay the numbers, saying they’re not the most important thing to focus on. Time will tell how Donnelly and Engle will judge the success or failure of their event, but it will be easy enough to see if they are joined by 999,998 other women tomorrow.
They’ll be livestreaming the entire event.
And while I would like to be there in person, I will be tuning into the livestream and have a colleague who will be there in person sending me photos. That reporter is named Alice Herman with The Guardian and she reached out to me this week to ask if she could use some of my research on Donnelly, Kellogg and their “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” astroturf movement in an article she’s writing on the march.
That article will be out this weekend and I will include a link to it in my follow-up coverage of tomorrow’s event.
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