Questions for Gabe Rench and Davis Younts Regarding Their Relationship with Michael Cassidy
Michael Cassidy, the Navy Reserve instructor pilot and failed Mississippi state congressional candidate who traveled nearly a thousand miles to Iowa to behead a hastily constructed Baphomet statue in the state Capitol, has a first-degree connection to Doug Wilson’s Moscow, Idaho, Christ Church and its media ecosystem. Gabe Rench, an associate of Wilson, a Christ Church member, and himself a failed local politician who also has been previously arrested for public political action, announced on Facebook that he is friends with Cassidy, and that media appearances would be coordinated through his agency, Pengo Media.
The connection between Cassidy and Rench likely runs through Cassidy’s attorney, Davis Younts, who has been represented by Pengo Media since at least 2022. Cassidy was grounded by the Navy during his 2022 campaign, he claims because the Navy was “investigating him to see if he was in violation of the Department of Defense directive about political activity as a reservist,” through statements he made against DEI initiatives in a campaign video. Coincidentally, Younts is a former JAG defense attorney who, in his private practice, still specializes in Uniform Code of Military Justice cases. He also brands himself as a defender of Christian service members facing religious persecution, through his work with the Stand With Warriors organization. Younts is a regular figure in the postmillennial theonomy circuit, having made appearances on Rench’s podcast, CrossPolitic, at the Fight Laugh Feast conference1, and Apologia church’s Reformcon 2022.
Lastly, after Cassidy beheaded the statue, a “Christ is Lord” sticker was placed on the remnants that the Satanic Temple had turned into an altar. These stickers are sold by Wilson’s Canon Press. It would seem that every action against the Baphomet idol has a connection to Moscow. Wilson himself weighed in today, through a blog post, where he stated that Christians who defend the Satanic Temple’s right to place idols on public ground “are honoring and fighting for the real Satan” (see my Scriptural rebuke to this stance).
The speed with which Cassidy retained Younts and issued a statement to The Sentinel, a right-wing news site that Younts has contributed to, raises questions about whether the act was premeditated and whether it was coordinated through Younts. The speed with which Cassidy was taken on by Pengo Media, the persistent presence of Moscow affiliation in anti-idol actions, that Rench is no stranger to premeditated public political theater, and that he has admitted to a prior relationship with Cassidy raises questions of how much prior knowledge of the incident he may have had.
So, I ask Davis Younts and Gabe Rench:
How did you come to know Michael Cassidy?
Did you have any prior knowledge that he was going to travel from Mississippi to Iowa and deface the satanic idol?
Full disclosure: the podcast Younts appeared on at Fight Laugh Feast is hosted by Greg Moore, whom I am related to by marriage.