On Jan. 21, 2026, the Make Heaven Crowded Tour stopped at Harvest Church in Riverside, California as part of its Los Angeles-area run. According to the tour’s official description, the event aimed to serve as “a gospel centered gathering calling people to repentance, faith and bold obedience to Jesus.”
More than 6,000 people registered to attend, and thousands ultimately filled the venue. To accommodate the turnout, organizers created four overflow spaces across various gymnasiums and outside seating areas. For those who were unable to attend in person, the event was livestreamed on Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) Facebook account, reportedly drawing close to 10,000 viewers.
Outside the church, however, a different scene unfolded. Over a hundred protestors gathered with signs criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Make America Great Again (MAGA) and TPUSA more broadly. They confronted attendees as they entered, chanting “shame!” in an attempt to discourage participation.
Despite the size and energy of the protest, many inside the event appeared unable — or unwilling — to connect the demonstrator’s messages of love and unity to TPUSA’s divisive politics or history. This disconnect raised an unsettling question: how many attendees were genuinely aligned with TPUSA’s values and how many came simply to see Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk? The fact that protestors’ efforts fell short due to a lack of awareness among the TPUSA crowd underscored the message the protestors aimed to send.
From inside, the event felt much like a conventional Sunday service, but more on the Mega Church side, where it feels more like a performance than an actual place of worship. The speaker lineup for this stop included pastors Greg Laurie and Lucas Miles, “Girls Gone Bible” podcasters Angela Halili and Arielle Reitsama, street evangelist Bryce Crawford and TPUSA CEO Erika Kirk.
Yet unlike a typical church service, it was difficult to focus on what was being said in the sermons knowing Harvest Church’s controversies. Especially the lawsuits involving lead pastor Greg Laurie and former Harvest pastor Paul Havsgaard. Havsgaard faces multiple sexual assault allegations with one plaintiff in a lawsuit, alleging that while Havsgaard operated Harvest Homes in Romania, he “savagely molested and terrorized scores of Romanian children, including Plaintiff, a child in his custody and care.”
Although Laurie and Harvest Church deny wrongdoing of the situation, featuring a leader entangled in abuse and trafficking allegations sends a deeply troubling message. For a tour claiming to reconnect the younger generation with faith, platforming someone tied to such accusations is profoundly contradictory. At best, it reflects poor judgement; at worst, it signals a disregard for survivor accountability and youth safety.
Another tension lingered through the event: TPUSA’s striking duality. In religious settings, the organization projects warmth and spiritual reassurance, stating, “God loves you. He’s here for you. He has a plan for you.” Yet in political contexts, that compassion often gives way to rhetoric marked by hostility towards ideological opponents.
Prior to his death, conservative political activist Charlie Kirk made statements that sharply contradicted the organization’s professed message of universal Christian love. He once claimed that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people.” and warned that “large dedicated Islamic areas are a threat to America.” Exclusionary rhetoric such as this sits uneasily beside a mission supposedly grounded in faith and unity.
The tension extends beyond race and religion to gender politics as well. Kirk had previously mocked feminist ideas such as when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged, he hopped on his show and stated “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.” That sentiment resurfaced in subtler form during the event itself: while most speakers addressed the audience freely, “Girls Gone Bible” hosts Halili and Reitsama spoke only through pre-approved, moderator-led questions, their segment framed and filtered in a way that none of the other male speakers were.
This echoed a remark shared by one protestor outside: “men created religion because women are able to create life.” To me, this is a critique of religion as a tool for controlling what men cannot biologically claim. Though Halili and Reitsama are vocal conservative advocates, their carefully managed presence suggested a lingering impulse to control women’s voices — even when they clearly align with the movement’s ideology.
In the end, the “Make Heaven Crowded Tour” functions not only as a religious gathering, but as a carefully staged media performance — one that repackaged political ideology through the aesthetics of worship and moral urgency. By framing its message in the language of faith, while distancing itself from its political history, TPUSA cultivates emotional loyalty without accountability. Between the protests outside, the controversies tied to Harvest Church, and TPUSA’s history of inflammatory rhetoric, it is questionable whether the event truly is about saving souls or shaping the next generation of voters.
