Before Fort Lewis College senior Jonah Flynn became president of the newly formed FLC Turning Point USA chapter, he described himself as a liberal-leaning atheist who would never become like his intolerant Republican father.
Flynn, a senior studying philosophy and Spanish, gained local and national attention after the Associated Students of Fort Lewis College initially denied his request to start a Turning Point chapter at an Oct. 29 meeting. Outcry from conservative students and community members led to an emergency Nov. 7 meeting, where the decision was reversed.
Since then, the 25-year-old has appeared in numerous news outlets, including CBS and Fox News, where he spoke on a panel alongside alt-right political activist Jack Posobiec.
Flynn said he has been heckled on campus and that some friendships have become strained as a result of his association with the group. Still, he said he has “thick skin” and remains proud of the chapter’s presence at FLC.
The death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at a Utah Valley University event on Sept. 10 motivated Flynn to launch the group on campus, he said.
Flynn was born in Connecticut but grew up in Texas with his mother and father – now separated – and four brothers and three sisters. He is the third-oldest.
His family was Catholic “only in title,” he said. He found his way to faith – specifically Christianity – later in life.
Flynn said he enjoyed growing up in a large family and praised his mother for her kindness, spirituality and character.
He had harsher words for his father, from whom he is now estranged. He described his father as “crazy” and “one of those annoying Republican people who’s kind of a bigot and thinks liberals are dumb.”
“He was kind of a simpleton, in a way,” Flynn said. “He wasn’t a very thoughtful person. I would like to think that what I’m doing differently is that I’m being thoughtful and thoughtfully engaging with the ideas of the other side.”
Though he supports Republican candidates and said he would run as a Republican if he pursued politics, Flynn rejects strict party labels.
“I voted for Trump, and I think he’s a great president, but am I a Republican? Absolutely not,” he said. “Like, do I love Ted Cruz? (Expletive) no. I think somebody should totally take his position, and he should just go away forever – somewhere else. You know, people like that – those kinds of typical Boomer Republican politicians – are so not what I identify with, at all.”
Flynn said he rejects the two-party system.
Flynn dropped out of high school before serving three years in the Army as an indirect fire infantryman. While stationed in Anchorage, Alaska, he met his wife, Sheyenne, to whom he has been married for two years.
Flynn said Sheyenne’s influence – and his military education benefits – led him to pursue higher education at FLC, where the two now study together.
He initially aspired to become a teacher but has since shifted his focus toward politics or law enforcement.
“The longer I thought about being a teacher, the more I realized I don’t really believe in the public school system,” he said. “... When I was in school, I wasn’t being challenged. I was just miserable.”
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When he met Sheyenne, Flynn described himself as a “liberal-leaning” atheist who sympathized with the Black Lives Matter movement and opposed police brutality, patriarchy and what he called “toxic masculinity.”
He said he was searching for his own beliefs after being raised in a Republican, Catholic household.
“One thing leads to another, and you just start to deconstruct everything,” Flynn said of the time he leaned liberal and was nonreligious. “But then at the end of it, you sort of realize that you just deconstructed everything and now there’s nothing left. Like, you got to build something at some point. And when you deconstruct all of those fundamental kinds of ideas in society – like God, gender, this and that – you end up with nothing good. So, I started to move back and build up my ideas about the world from scratch.”
Flynn said he and Sheyenne discovered religion and conservatism together, and that he now aligns with most – though not all – of Turning Point’s tenets.
“My personal beliefs and values are more gospel-based than (Turning Point or) Republican Party-based,” he said. “They center around the Christ message, and they center around what’s good for America and what’s good for our people and our neighborhoods, and not necessarily (what’s good for) the people of the whole entire world,” he said. “I’m definitely an ‘America first’ person. America first all the way – maybe even America only, for the time being.”
Flynn said he now believes the Black Lives Matter movement was a “scam,” and many of the donations given in the name of the movement were misused – including by the founders. He said police violence against Black people is not disproportionate.
He said there are only two genders – man and woman – corresponding with a person’s sex assigned at birth. He called abortion a “demonic” practice that should be “shunned” and supports immigration control as a way of “preserving American culture.”
Accepting diverse gender identities, he said, is a pathway to eroding fundamental belief systems. He opposes legislation allowing individuals to be addressed by the name and pronouns with which they identify.
“If you can give up on something so fundamental (as) gender ... that just totally erodes what it means for something to be true, and your concept of truth is just going to be utterly trashed,“ he said. ”It’s like, if you could believe that, and you can accept that, you could just believe anything.”
Flynn – who is white – said identifying as a gender other than the one assigned at birth is akin to him “identifying as Black” or a young person “saying they’re 60 years old.”
Flynn said criticism of his affiliation with Turning Point has been difficult at times – especially when it comes from friends – but he’s been able to bounce back.
His friend and classmate Caleb Martin called him “a contrarian who enjoys difficult conversations.” The two met three years ago in a U.S. government class.
Martin said he respects Flynn’s ability to explain his beliefs but acknowledged they’ve had their share of arguments.
“I’ve come to disagree with him plenty, and we argue all the time, but we’ll always have a conversation about it, and that conversation always feels very rigorous,” he said.
Flynn rejects the idea that his views – or the existence of a Turning Point chapter on campus – could cause harm.
“This idea is dangerous, that speech is violence,” he said. “What do you mean by ‘violence?’ Like, who exactly is being physically harmed? Could I kill somebody with my words? No. I just think that’s pretty wild.”
Research published in November found a strong link between verbal prejudice and support for political violence.
Flynn said there’s “a very good chance of some serious violent conflict” occurring soon as a result of the discourse surrounding the group, adding, “people on (my) side would decisively win it” because “they tend to be people with more guns and stronger bodies.”
“What I would rather happen though is that we could just talk it out and be friends and love each other,” he said.
Flynn said he hopes to be seen as humble, gentle and a “warrior for the gospel.” He said he wants Turning Point’s presence to inspire courage across political lines.
“Courage is the first virtue,” he said. “You can’t have any of the rest without the courage. … Hopefully, people can be courageous and stand up for what they do. Otherwise, they’ll just be bystanders and then they’ll be guilty of whatever crimes occur in front of them, and that’s horrific.”
epond@durangoherald.com
