> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # When Abdul El-Sayed Met Tommy - URL: https://erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io/when-abdul-el-sayed-met-tommy/ - Published: 2026-10-19T19:04:51.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-19T19:29:21.000Z - Description: A close reading of a Michigan Marine Todd - Author: Erin Vanderhoof ## On Saturday, a man named Tommy took the mic at a town hall to ask US Senate candidate Adbul El-Sayed an inflammatory question: "Do you denounce the Muslim Brotherhood?" El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for an open seat in Michigan, dressed Tommy down respectfully but forcefully, and a video of the exchange went viral. It's a classic debate video, the type that might go on YouTube with "DESTROYS" in the title. Though I do love mild public humiliation, I was drawn to the exchange because of a few of Tommy's more subtle comments about free will and the proper role of religion in law. Tommy said he follows Christian doctrine in his own life, which leads El-Sayed to ask if Tommy thinks that El-Sayed must also follow Christian doctrine. No, Tommy says, "because we have free will." El-Sayed continues the questioning until Tommy admits that he wouldn't disavow attempts to read any religious doctrine into American law. It's a convoluted line of questioning, but El-Sayed stops when knows he has his answer. This probably isn't someone who is going to vote for a Muslim candidate regardless of their opinion about the Muslim Brotherhood. > This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. > > — [Abdul El-Sayed (@abdulelsayed.bsky.social)](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lrlmw63dqlhqacs6pbu6ffzn?ref%5Fsrc=embed&ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io) [2026-10-18T01:17:17.355Z](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lrlmw63dqlhqacs6pbu6ffzn/post/3my4gocauzs2x?ref%5Fsrc=embed&ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io) Marisa Kabas, who writes the great newsletter [The Handbasket](https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/tommy-teepell-abdul-el-sayed-viral-video-town-hall-josh-hawley?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io), was the first to uncover something that seems obvious in hindsight. "Tommy" isn't some random Michigan citizen, he is Thomas Teepell, a member of a Louisiana Christian political dynasty. His father, Timmy Teepell, is best known for burnishing Bobby Jindal's religious bonafides during his time as governor and legal work on behalf of the notorious Homeschool Legal Defense. According to the Guardian, Tommy Teepell is a former staffer for right-wing Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. With that knowledge, it's clear that the younger Teepell arrived looking for a "[Marine Todd](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/marine-todd?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io)" situation. Maybe he hoped debating El-Sayed would strike a blow for the Christian faith? Instead, El-Sayed began a Socratic dialogue about the Constitution, leading the crowd to cheer at his history lesson. Defeated, Teepell skulks away, clutching a shearling jacket to his chest. For anyone with a traditional theological education, Teepell's two responses—a reference to free will with no defense of religious liberty—coming one after the other can seem like a mindfuck. Belief in free will to choose or reject Christ (a position usually called Arminianism in the US context) historically comes along with an emphasis on freedom of conscience, the right enshrined in the First Amendment. Obviously, Tommy is engaging in something slightly different. I thought I might chime in on this story—on this new newsletter I'm calling Erin Vanderhoof's Weird America, for now at least—because it illuminates something I've been obsessed with for the last few years: Southern religious culture's drift away from "religious liberty" and towards explicit Christian Nationalism. (No time to define that morass of a term, but the Public Religion Research Insitute does a great job explaining and tracking it; read their most recent report about it [here](https://prri.org/research/mapping-christian-nationalism-across-the-50-states-insights-from-prris-2025-american-values-atlas/?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io).) In the potted history of American Christianity you might get from a textbook—I'm a big fan of Mark Noll's [*A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/%5F/lRb0wQEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjyxvPk3MaXAxUdM1kFHZZfF2YQ7%5FIDegQIEBAC&ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io)—Baptists were the original fans of "religious liberty," and in the modern era, the Southern Baptist Convention even calls their lobbying wing [the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission](https://erlc.com/?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io). The US House's current speaker, Mike Johnson, is a Louisiana Baptist of this variety. For the most part, Johnson squares the circle, giving lip service to religious liberty while admitting his faith pushes him to specific policy outcomes. But reading up on the Teepell family in [Religion News Service](https://religionnews.com/2024/07/08/the-washington-insiders-helping-sean-feucht-spread-christian-nationalism-in-congress/?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io), I saw a moment of distinct divergence. Tommy has attended revivals held by Sean Feucht, a neo-charismatic worship leader who first made headlines outside of Christian circles in 2020 for [his Let Us Worship COVID-19 protest rallies](https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/worship-leader-sean-feucht-mismanaged-millions-in-ministry-funds-former-associates-say/?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io). In 2024, Teepell told Feucht that one of those rallies had served as his conversion experience. Before, he was a member of a frat at LSU, "being a weed addict, sleeping around," according to [a YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW5rjfdsc6M&ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io) of their conversation at Feucht's Washington, DC ministry Camp Elah. At a rally, Teepell felt God protect him from the weather. It was raining, but "not a single drop had touched" him. He was slain in the spirit, got the gift of tongues, and was saved. He went back to school to quit his frat. (He also notes he switched his major from political science to marketing because he "didn't do good in a couple classes because of my political views." If you're the teaching assistant who failed his gun control essay, please contact me!) These amusingly low-stakes testimonies are par for the course for American evangelicalism all the way back to the 18th century. But now, the political valence is different. Participating in this type of conversion doesn't make a person devote their lives to ministry. It pushes them into politics, and in Teepell's case, makes them the type of person who compulsively reenacts the atheist professor scene in [*God's Not Dead*](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gods%5Fnot%5Fdead?ref=erin-vanderhoofs-weird-america.ghost.io)*.* When I started learning about this turn in American religion, I was confused because the historical connection between Arminianism and freedom of conscience is *deeply* ingrained in me. (That said, I am a loosey-goosey Calvinist, a story for a different time.) But as an especially mystical offshoot of Pentecostalism has worked its way into non-denominational churches across the country, more American evangelicals have embraced "spiritual warfare" as a motivation for their politics. So what is "spiritual warfare" and how does it help someone give lip service to free will while jettisoning the constitutional amendment that protects conscience? This is something I hope to return to again and again as I build this newsletter up, but the answer is "Demons." In this theology, you have free will to reject Christ, but only a person being stalked, influenced, or inhabited by a demon would even want to do that.