Christian Dominionism is Fascism

* The Tea Party is only the most famous example of "Christian Dominionism".
* "Christian Dominionism" as False Christianity [link].
* Theocracy taking hold in Vallejo: Christian Dominionism [link], Human Rights abuse in Vallejo, "the City of God" [link]

The New Apostolic Reformation (Christian Dominionism) is a cult which worships the dictates of an appointed "Apostle" who claims to speak for an invisible "god" and who worships capitalism (the love of money).
Elsewhere in the United States of America, this ideology of religious Fascists, called "Dominionists" by the media, have taken control of various jurisdictions, including entire States... Where ever they rule, they impose their vision, including:
* providing indoctrination at Privatized and Public Prisons, where inmates become re-educated as "good Christians" in exchange for better treatment, meanwhile the same Dominionist-ruled prisons are documented as torturing Muslims and Civil-Rights Activists!!!
* Support terrorism against non-Christian governments around the world by allowing the jurisdictional government under their control to wholly participate in fascist clandestine operations in alliance with Christian terrorists around the world...
* Destroying Freedoms such as obtaining organic medicine from Cannabis, same-sex marriage, disrupting legitimate civil disobedience, and a hell of alot more!

A clandestine "New Apostolic Reformation" political party calling themselves "The Family" are the core group governing the believers in the "Dominion" ideology, and "The Family" literally believes the anti-Christ is alive, that they have personally trained him, and they will establish "His" rule in order to Bring Forward the Helter-Skelter to fulfill the "2000 year old prophecy" supposedly contained in the Bible which ends with the 2nd arrival of "Heavenly Lord Master Messiah Jesus Blood-of-God Christ", sitting on a throne with the Holy Three of the Trinity, and legions of winged people equipped like Roman soldiers, all on a cloud, in orbit, somewhere beyond Jupiter or Earth's moon [this is what they sincerely believe]...

"The Nehemiah Plan, excerpt"
posted 2013-08-12 by Bruce Wilson [youtube.com/watch?v=ds_a3j-BMk0]:
PA Candidate Max Myers, "supernatural theocratic leadership"
posted 2013-03-19 by Bruce Wilson [youtube.com/watch?v=IGeg1qLb7kQ]:


Their ideology includes the following set of Old Testament Laws: 
(All quotes from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible)
* (Labor Rights) Exodus 21:20-21 "And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money." 
* (Women's Rights) Deuteronomy 22:20-1 "If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house." 
* (Human Rights) Leviticus 25:44-45 "Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property." 
* (International Law) Deuteronomy 7:1-2 "When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations . . . then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

Christian Dominionism as an ideology of tyranny -
As evidence by the Christian Dominionist's loyalty to the law against homosexuality as contained in the Book of Leviticus, what other laws do they also claim loyalty to? Dr Laura Schlesinger, during her nationally syndicated and Christian-oriented radio show, said that according to Leviticus 18:22 homosexuality is an abomination, and cannot be tolerated under any circumstance (for the record, Laura is of the orthodox Jewish faith). The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura, written by James M. Kauffman, Professor Emeritus of the Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at the University of Virginia: 

Dear Dr. Laura: Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
 1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans (colored), but not Canadians (white). Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
 2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
 3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
 4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
 5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
 6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there "degrees" of abomination?
 7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God, if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
 8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
 9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football, if I wear gloves?
 10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14).
 I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help.
 Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
 Your adoring fan, James M. Kauffman

Pastor Robert Jeffress: "Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)" is preparing people for the Anti-Christ (2014-01) [link]

"Christian Dominionist" organizations are comparable to political action organizations.
"IRS Cautions Churches About Rules On Politics From The Pulpit"
2012-06-04  by Stephen D. Foster Jr. [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/04/p/]
For a few years now, right-wing leaning church leaders have consistently stepped over the line to become deeply involved in politics. They have heavily criticized President Obama and have made every effort to inject religion into policy, all while remaining tax-exempt organizations. And finally, the IRS may have had enough.
According to KWTX 10 News: [begin excerpt] IRS regional manager Peter Lorenzetti told pastors attending the Faith Leaders Summit meeting in Washington that activities that could result in loss of tax-exempt status include endorsing or opposing candidates, campaigning for them or making contributions to their campaigns. [end excerpt]
There is a loophole for pastors to exploit, however. As long as they claim to be acting in the capacity of a private citizen, pastors can do all of the above with impunity. They can also hand out voter guides that “educate” about issues.
I think most of us would agree that churches and their leaders have stuck their noses into political matters long enough. And their interference has been quite devastating to the country. The Catholic Church in particular has been very vocal in the political realm, opposing everything from contraception, to Planned Parenthood, to same-sex marriage and health care. And the Catholic Church has done this all while pulling in a whopping $2.9 billion in taxpayer money. And the Church doesn’t pay one dime in taxes. So while the crazy right-wing priests of the Church complain about government policy, and criticize President Obama while touting conservatism, they’re literally rolling in billions of dollars of tax-free federal cash.
It’s not just the Catholic Church though. Many other churches have also pushed their way into politics, all while waving their tax-exempt status in our faces.One LDS Church leader solicited funding for Mitt Romney, which is a violation of the law. Some church leaders have even managed to use the church to hide their assets. For instance, Rev. John Hagee reorganized his TV station (Global Evangelism Television) as a church (Grace Church of San Antonio Churches) to shelter those records, after the San AntonioExpress-News revealed his income exceeded $1 million in 2001. All of his assets, including an 8,000-or-so acre ranch, are now sheltered in the Cornerstone Church. In other words, Hagee hides his millions in assets in his church and escapes taxation on his own personal wealth and property. Undoubtedly other so called “men of God” have done this. So why not revoke the tax exempt status of mega-churches? They already make millions and get involved in politics, so why not tax them?
Right-wing preachers around the country have made it clear that they intend to lobby heavily in support of Republicans and conservative policies this year. Perhaps if Americans lobby the IRS long and hard enough, right-wing church leaders will lose their status, and be held liable for their actions and words. ‘Tax The Churches’ should be the next great chant Americans cry out this political season.


"How Christian Dominionists Combat Reality"
2012-03-05 by Justin Rosario [addictinginfo.org/2012/03/05/the-march-of-christian-dominionism-3-how-christian-dominionists-combat-reality/]:
So how is the Christian Dominionist movement different than the regular old Religious Right? On the surface they seem pretty much identical: both pursue social politics, both proclaim that family values are of prime importance, both encourage divisive bigotry of one form or another and both raise millions by appealing to the baser instincts of their followers. It is not easy to discern where they separate because Dominionists are not very vocal about their deeper plans for the country with outsiders.
The Religious Right is many things, but they do not actively work towards the destruction and replacement of the government with a Theocracy. Of course, this is exactly what Christian Dominionists want and the Religious Right is complicit in their drive to obtain it. These last two sentences might seem to be actively at odds with one another. They are not. The Religious Right is more than willing to make nice with groups they would ordinarily despise to further their agenda. One need look no further than the pro-Israel stance of the GOP for evidence of this. The vigor with which the Right defends Israel is a wonder to behold until you realize that the whole point of supporting Israel is so that the Israelis can rebuild the temple of Solomon and fulfill one of the key requirements of the end time prophecies. By the way, these prophecies also clearly state that most of the Jewish race will be exterminated at that time. I’m guessing the Religious Right doesn’t discuss that part too much with the Israelis.
In any event, Christian Dominionism is very much like the dreaded threat of “creeping Sharia” that has so many on the Right supposedly scared silly. A way of life that is antithetical to a secular democracy is slowly being enacted throughout the country. We shouldn’t even give a second glance to the “threat” of Sharia in this country when a much clearer and more present danger is among us. This is not to say that there aren’t people who would love to see Sharia law implemented in the United States. There certainly are. They simply don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making it happen. Even in the dreaded Dearborn, Michigan. These religious fanatics do, however, make an excellent boogeyman for all manner of unscrupulous people. To the Dominionist, it is a way of forcing people to make a false “choice”: Will you allow Sharia to overrun the country or will you embrace God’s Law like all good Christians do?
This is, of course, ridiculous. One simply needs only embrace the Constitution to ward off the eeeeevils of Sharia. That doesn’t work well for Christian Dominionists for reasons that should be self-evident at this point. The Constitution explicitly states that religion and government are not to be mixed, and so it has become a Crusade among Dominionists to rewrite history. This is, perhaps, the single most dangerous aspect of their agenda, the wholesale erasure and replacement of reality and history with a more, shall we say, divine interpretation.
There are a number of reasons history and, to an almost equal extent, science are a threat to the “Christian” future. History tells us who we are and where we came from. George Orwell was entirely too aware of the need tyrants have to control over this information. In his seminal work, “1984,” Orwell called the apparatus put in place to accomplish this task the “Ministry of Truth.” They were in charge of making sure “history” reflected whatever current day agenda was in effect. With a push of a button, a war that had been raging for years with one enemy becomes a war that had been raging for all that same time with a completely different one. The State must be infallible.
In the same fashion, after centuries of understanding the First Amendment, specifically the Establishment Clause, of the Constitution in a very specific manner based on the words and intent of the founding Fathers, there are now questions. Despite numerous examples of most of the Fathers being Deists (not ascribing to a particular organized religion or even, necessarily, a supernatural force) or even actively derisive of Christianity, Dominionists insist that not only was the country founded on Judeo-Christian principles but that the Constitution is expressly a religious document despite it not containing a single word to that effect.
Once sufficient doubt is cast upon the secular nature of our country’s founding document, everything and anything becomes malleable. Please note that I use the word “sufficient” instead of “legitimate.” “Legitimate” would mean that there is a real debate over the facts. There is not. We have handwritten letters that explicitly state the original intent (there’s a reason Texas is trying to remove Jefferson from history text books) and they leave no room for doubt about their intent towards government and religion. But this is beside the point. Dominionists are more than happy to tell their flock whatever they want, secure in the knowledge that they will not question. To question is to lack faith. Ignorance is strength.
This is the genius of politicized religion. Once a person is a true “believer,” regardless of whether they actually believe or are too terrified of expulsion to admit they do not, they will consequently accept any lie they are fed. This serves the dual purpose of making any claim about how the country should be run seem perfectly normal and also of further isolating the flock: Of course the United States should be run according to Biblical law, the Constitution was divinely inspired, and who could possibly doubt that? Anyone that says otherwise is a liar and probably an atheist Communist Marxist unpatriotic traitor. It doesn’t matter how much evidence they provide or how solid their argument. They MUST be lying.
This artificial schizophrenia extends to the realm of science as well. I say “artificial schizophrenia” because, in the phantasmagorical world of the Dominionist, everyday life is completely divorced from empirical reality. Miracles and prayer will solve all problems and if your particular problem is not solved in this way, the fault lies with your lack of faith. Again, some of the less religiously inclined are snickering that all religious people think this way. Don’t make me hit you with a rolled up newspaper! Those thoroughly ensnared in the corrupt mythology of Dominionism have no choice but to believe that every aspect of their life is being directly controlled. Cause and effect are as illusory as free will.
Now is when the massive assaults on science and education come into play. I’ve written about this before as well (Why do conservatives hate science so much? Or “How I learned not to learn and trust my beer gut instead” [http://www.addictinginfo.org/questions/“why-do-conservatives-hate-science-so-much”-or-“how-i-learned-not-to-learn-and-trust-my-beer-gut-instead-”/]) but it bears a re-examination in the light of Dominionism. Science is the natural enemy of Fundamentalism and, by extension, Dominionism. Science encourages critical thinking and free inquiry, concepts that are pure anathema to a totalitarian religious philosophy. Science also reduces mankind from a divine creature, put on the earth to rule, to a not exactly random result of natural processes. We’re still the top of the food chain but only due to our unique and innate intellect, not because we were “meant” to be.
Without the divine origins of man, Dominionism loses much of its self-granted authority. If the Bible is not literally true, then religion becomes merely a guide for living a moral life and not the source of all morality and knowledge as Dominionists claim. To combat this, there has been a war waged against science in general and public education in specific for decades.
As I’ve said before, an uneducated population is far easier to manipulate and control. It’s hard to think of how to make the world a better place when you don’t know HOW to think. When you’ve been raised to believe that there is ALWAYS a Biblical answer to every question, it becomes so easy to dismiss actual experts and only listen to the side that says what you want to hear. It doesn’t matter that the religious argument can provide no solid evidence or facts, you don’t know how to judge for yourself anyway. This is the point of the Right Wing’s war on education and it’s all about defunding schools and colleges.
The Right wants to divert tax dollars to for-profit charter schools that have not proven to be any more effective than public schools (and that are far less accountable). Not only does this starve public schools of vital funds, but it enables the Right to complain how terrible public education is. It’s an awesome racket: make schools dysfunctional by underpaying teachers and ensuring the schools are run down and then use this dysfunction as proof that public education is unworkable.
The assault on colleges is different. The goal here is to raise tuitions so high that the choice is either to not go at all or spend the next 20 years paying off loans. Why do you think Republicans howled in pain when Obama did away with subsidized loans and cut out the extremely unnecessary middle man? It was a one-two punch for the Right. Not only did banks lose billions in revenue they did nothing to earn, it made school loans less painful for those who need it the most. Notice that this was not important enough to make any real news. Most of you reading this didn’t even know it was part of the Health Care Reform package. Obama tacked it on so the GOP couldn’t block it. Yet, you know all about Anthony Weiner’s weiner. This should tell you something about the state of the country.
So, to wit: make public schools function as poorly as possible, especially in low income areas. Make college too expensive for most to obtain a degree and then use the resulting failure to justify further cuts and convince people that home schooling is the best option. When you break the system of public education, the public will look elsewhere to educate their children and home schooling is the “answer.”
Home schooling is a rapidly expanding movement among the Religious Right. And it is a huge part of their war on science and history. Over one million children are currently being educated outside of the public school system; many of them being indoctrinated into the world of religious fanaticism. Do I sound alarmist? How does an entire generation raised to believe “God said it. I believe it. That settles it” sound to you? Does that sound like a group of people capable of objectively assessing the challenges facing the country and the world? Do you think they will be capable of overcoming their conditioning to embrace any solution that is not fully “Christian?” Neither do I.
This kind of parallel education has reached frightening heights as (former) candidates like Michele Bachmann, and maybe-maybe-not-but-who-can-really-tell-if-she’s-running Sarah Palin spit out gems like ““The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States,” and “He who warned uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh by ringing those bells…” on a regular basis. Mike Huckabee, another powerful voice in conservative politics even has his own cartoon series for home schooled children. In it, a group of plucky time travelling kids can be found saying “What we see and hear isn’t always the same as what we read in books or see on TV. So what? We know the truth and that’s good enough for us!”
God said it. I believe it. That settles it!
So we have an “army” of Christian Soldiers whose main weapons will be pure ignorance, rigid, uncritical thought and blind obedience. Dominionists have built an entire culture that is separated from the rest of the world by a shield of dogma. They know how to insinuate themselves into the government at some of the highest positions and they know how to influence elections to their benefit. They have massive financial backing from both their followers as well as corporations that may not be interested in Dominionists’ social agenda but are very supportive of their economic goals.
But how will you know if a particular policy from the GOP is simple conservative greed or something darker and more sinister? How will you recognize the Dominionist agenda? That’s the question I will attempt to answer in last part of this series of liberal slander: How Dominionists are trying to undermine our country Or “So THAT’S why the GOP’s been doing that!!” [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/11/the-march-of-christian-dominionism-4-how-dominionists-are-trying-to-undermine-our-country/].



"The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare"
2011-08-24 from "National Public Radio" [npr.org/2011/08/24/139781021/the-evangelicals-engaged-in-spiritual-warfare]:
An emerging Christian movement that seeks to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus, is becoming more of a presence in American politics. The leaders are considered apostles and prophets, gifted by God for this role.
The international "apostolic and prophetic" movement has been dubbed by its leading American architect, C. Peter Wagner, as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Although the movement is larger than the network organized by Wagner — and not all members describe themselves as part of Wagner's NAR — the so-called apostles and prophets of the movement have identifiable ideology that separates them from other evangelicals.
Two ministries in the movement planned and orchestrated Texas Gov. Rick Perry's recent prayer rally, where apostles and prophets from around the nation spoke or appeared onstage. The event was patterned after The Call, held at locations around the globe and led by Lou Engle, who has served in the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders of the NAR. Other NAR apostles endorsed Perry's event, including two who lead a 50-state "prayer warrior" network. Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan pastor who anointed Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church in 2005, while praying for Jesus to protect her from the spirit of witchcraft, is also part of this movement.
On Wednesday's Fresh Air, Rachel Tabachnick, who researches the political impact of the religious right, joins Terry Gross for a discussion about the growing movement and its influence and connections in the political world.
Tabachnick says the movement currently works with a variety of politicians and has a presence in all 50 states. It also has very strong opinions about the direction it wants the country to take. For the past several years, she says, the NAR has run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the "seven mountains of culture" from demonic influence. The "mountains" are arts and entertainment; business; family; government; media; religion; and education.
"They teach quite literally that these 'mountains' have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society," says Tabachnick. "And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. ... The apostles teach what's called 'strategic level spiritual warfare' [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we're accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they're doing that's quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups."

Rick Perry's Rally -
The organizers of Perry's rally were from ministries founded by two apostles/prophets of the movement — The Call, and the International House of Prayer founded by Mike Bickle. Bickle, who led part of Perry's event, has claimed that Oprah Winfrey is a precursor of the Antichrist, and Engle has claimed that gay people are controlled by "demonic spirits." Both have served on the Council of Prophetic Elders initiated by Wagner.
"Lou Engle [has spoken] at length about how one of his sons has started an International House of Prayer in the Castro district of San Francisco and that his son is now expelling demons from homosexuals, and supposedly then this cures them of their homosexuality," says Tabachnick. "He has also held [prayer rallies] around the world."
One of Engle's previous rallies took place in Uganda in May 2010, shortly after an anti-homosexuality bill had been proposed.
"Various people got on the stage [at his rally] and promoted the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda, which is a very draconian bill that would allow for executions for certain offenses, and would also allow for people who don't report homosexual history to be jailed," she says. "The apostles have had a long history in Uganda, and some of them have had close relationships with both political and religious leaders there. In fact, an apostle in Uganda takes credit for promoting the anti-homosexuality bill and was recognized by the parliament in Uganda when the bill was introduced."
Engle has another rally planned in November in Detroit. The purpose of the prayer rally, says Tabachnick, is to "fight the demonic spirit of Islam."
"In other words, [they want] to conduct spiritual warfare against the spiritual demons which they claim hold Muslims in bondage and keep them from converting," she says. "Of course, this is expressed in terms of love. They say 'We don't hate Muslims. We love Muslims. But we hate that they are in spiritual bondage and don't convert to Christianity.' "

A 'Different' Evangelicalism -
Tabachnick, who has been researching and writing about the apostles for a decade, says her own religious background has helped her with her research. She grew up as a Southern Baptist and converted to Judaism as an adult.
"Having the Southern Baptist background and growing up in the Deep South has helped me to be able to do this research and has also helped me realize something that might not be apparent to some other people looking at the movement," she says. "This is quite radically different than the evangelicalism of my youth. The things that we've been talking about are not representative of evangelicalism. They're not representative of conservative evangelicalism. So I think that's important to keep in mind. This is a movement that's growing in popularity, and one of the ways they've been able to do that [is because] they're not very identifiable to most people. They're just presented as nondenominational or just Christian — but it is an identifiable movement now with an identifiable ideology."

Interview Highlights -
Rachel Tabachnick is an independent researcher and a contributor to Talk To Action. She is also the co-founder of the blog NARWatch.
-
On the issues of the international "apostolic and prophetic" movement:
"[Their issues are] anti-abortion, anti-gay rights — but they also have ... the belief that government should not be involved in social safety nets, that the country is becoming socialist, if not communist ... — all of what we've come to call 'Tea Party issues' of very small government. In the case of the apostles, they believe this because they believe that a large government that handles the safety net is taking away what is the domain of the church and of Christianity."
-
On dominionism:
"Dominionism is simply that Christians of this belief system must take control over the various institutions of society and government. Some things that make this group unique is that they have some unusual concepts of what they call spiritual warfare that have not been seen before in other groups. Spiritual warfare is a common term in evangelicalism and in Christianity, but they have some unique approaches and some unique spins on this that distinguish them from other groups."
-
On Thomas Muthee's video series :
"The process [in these videos] is that the people come together, repent, pray together, expel the demons from their community — which they describe in terms of witches and witchcraft — and then the community undergoes a transformation in which there can be miraculous healing, the growth of very large vegetables [and] the end of corruption and crime. What was totally missed by the press was that Muthee was an international leader in the [NAR] movement at the time and recognized because of his role in this series of videos."
-
On the topics at Rick Perry's rally:
"The major topics at these events [are] anti-abortion, anti-gay rights and the conversion of Jews in order to advance the end times. And this was very visible at Perry's events as these apostles led all of these different prayers and repentance ceremonies at [his rally]."

Other articles about "Domionism" by "National Public Radio" -
* "The Books And Beliefs Shaping Michele Bachmann" [npr.org/2011/08/09/139084313/the-books-and-beliefs-shaping-michele-bachmann]
* "Rick Perry's Religious Revival Sparks A Holy War" [npr.org/2011/08/05/138995325/rick-perrys-religious-revival-sparks-a-holy-war]
* "A Refuge For Powerful Lawmakers" [npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130070569]
* "Finding The Root Of Anti-Gay Sentiment In Uganda" [npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129422524]
* "Ousted Evangelical Reflects On Faith, Future" [npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128776382]
* "When Right-Wing Extremism Moves Mainstream" [npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124906766]
* "The Secret Political Reach Of 'The Family'" [npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120746516]

Nasty Nazi Zaniness!


"Council for National Policy" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy]

[http://65.175.91.69/Reformation_net/default.htm]
What is the Coalition on Revival?
The Coalition on Revival is a network of evangelical leaders from many major denominational and theological perspectives who share a vision for and commitment to revival, renewal, and reformation of the Church and society and to further discussion and implementation of a Biblical and Christian worldview.  COR's vision is to see Christians everywhere doing all they can in the power of the Holy Spirit to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ in every aspect of life and worldview area. COR's mission is "to help the Church rebuild civilization on the principles of the Bible so God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven."  We are committed implementing this Biblical worldview in every way God gives us opportunity.
People of Anabaptist, Arminian, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Wesleyan denominational backgrounds are represented among COR’s leaders. Pre-, a-, and post-millennialists are cooperating with each other, sharing the exciting task of getting God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven insofar as that is possible between now and whenever Christ comes back to Earth. Charismatics and non-charismatics, covenant and dispensationalist theologians, have joined arm in arm in prayer and hard work to develop and implement the Biblical worldview through revival, renewal, and reformation in the Christian Church and the American culture. 
 COR’s vision is to see Christians everywhere doing all they can in the power of the Holy Spirit to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), which essentially means a biblical-Christian worldview. To that end we have developed a series of worldview documents that set forth what we believe are the fundamental and essential points of the total Christian worldview and society. The COR worldview documents state what we believe are the biblical principles for all worldview areas of human life including theology, evangelism, discipleship, law, civil governments, economics, education, family, medicine, psychology and counseling, arts and media, business and professions, and science and technology. We believe that these Biblical and Christian worldview documents state where the entire Church must stand and what action it must take to accomplish its task in this new millennium.
COR has, in the past, brought together large groups of Christian leaders to produce a series of foundational documents to guide the Church in its return to historic orthodoxy. These documents include: The Manifesto for the Christian Church, the 42 Articles on Historic Christian Doctrine, the 25 Articles of Affirmation and Denial on the Kingdom of God, and a comprehensive series of 17 Christian Worldview Documents that outline the Biblical and  Christian worldview in areas of life and thought. All these documents are in turn based on the historic view of the Bible stated in The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, created by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, which COR's director, Dr. Jay Grimstead, helped found and of which he was executive director in the early years. In addition, COR has organized a massive theological study and debate proposed to culminate in a global Church Council during the early years of the new millennium.

 Our Perspective
Wherever God's people, His willingly obedient subjects, are obeying Him in every aspect of their lives, there is where the King's Kingdom is being brought forth in this world in time and space to implement His Biblical worldview.
It is inconceivable that it could be logical or that it could ever please the King to have His willing subjects bring their spiritual, theological, and ecclesiastical lives under His dominion without also bringing their families, finances, education, legal matters, professional life, voting choices, involvement in the arts and sciences, recreation, and physical health all under the King's dominion; this in essence is living out the Christian and Biblical worldview.
The Kingdom of God increases, advances, and becomes measurable in this space-time world in every sphere of life, as more and more individuals become truly regenerated, converted, discipled, and trained in Christian biblical worldview to let their Christianity and their commitment to the King's laws and values be expressed through the various facets and relationships of their lives.
Wherever and whenever and to whatever degree Christians are making a united stand in their societal groupings for the concerns of their King Jesus, and are operating according to His Kingdom's principles, exactly at that point is the Kingdom of God in existence on this earth and the Christian Worldview being lived out. When enough serious Christians thus influence, penetrate, and permeate the various societal structures, and when those Christians are connected together in a common fellowship and commitment around their common Lord, that is when and where the  Kingdom of God can be said to be advancing through society during this age. The COR Christian worldview documents are a good foundation and directive for this Kingdom effort.
        
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 Twenty-Four Year Plan
 Invitation Brochure

Christian Foundation
  Documents

 Biblical Inerrancy    (Signatories)
 42 Worldview Essentials
The Kingdom of God
 Manifesto for the Church

 Christian Worldview Documents
Worldview Law
Worldview Government
Worldview Social/Political
Worldview Education
Worldview Discipleship
Worldview Medicine
Worldview Psychol/Counseling
Worldview Science/Technology
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Worldview Christian Unity
Worldview Family
Worldview Poor/Hurting
Worldview Pastoral Renewal
Worldview Colleges/Universities

Other Resources
 Neo-Orthodox Falsehoods
 Leader's Questions

 Also see our daughter organization:
The International Church Council Project


2012-03-07 "How the Fundamentalist Mind Compels Conservative Christians to Force Their Beliefs on You; Good people are willing to subvert the U.S. Constitution and even violate human decency in their quest for converts" by Valerie Tarico from "AlterNet"
[http://www.alternet.org/belief/154460/how_the_fundamentalist_mind_compels_conservative_christians_to_force_their_beliefs_on_you?page=entire]
Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington and the founder of Wisdom Commons. She is the author of "Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light" and "Deas and Other Imaginings." Her articles can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.
---
Many evangelicals wear their religion on T-shirts and around their necks and on car bumpers and eye-blacks. They hand out tracts on college campuses and stage revival meetings on military bases. They use weddings and funerals to preach come-to-Jesus sermons. In their resolve to spread the good news that Jesus saves, some also do things that are more morally dubious.
In Tucson, nice young couples cultivate relationships with lonely college students without disclosing that they are paid to engage in “friendship missions.” [http://www.friendshipevangelism.org/ministry.html]
In Seattle, volunteers woo first- and second-graders to afterschool Good News Clubs that the children are incapable of distinguishing from school-sponsored activities [http://augreaterseattle.org/GNC/index.html]. In Muslim countries, Christian missionaries skirt laws that ban proselytizing by pretending to be mere aid workers, putting genuinely secular aid workers at risk. In the U.S. military, soldiers bully other soldiers into prayer meetings or the Passion of the Christ [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-06-airforce-lawsuit_x.htm] and then send bizarrely profane emails to people who try to stop them [http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/mrff_mail_reports/hatemail_report.pdf].
Perhaps the most devastating consequence of evangelical zeal in recent decades has been millions of unnecessary deaths in Africa. Many evangelicals saw the HIV epidemic as an opportunity.
“AIDS has created an evangelism opportunity for the body of Christ unlike any in history,” said Ken Isaacs of Samaritan’s Purse [http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/pdf/pepfar.pdf]. Another group that pursued HIV dollars has its mission built right into its name: Community Health Evangelism. Christian ideology ultimately redirected billions of U. S. aid dollars away from science-based results-oriented interventions such as contraceptive access and safe-sex education and into programs that espoused traditional Christian values: monogamy, evangelism, and compassionate after-the-fact care for the sick [http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/pdf/pepfar.pdf].
I spent over 20 years of my life as an evangelical Christian, and during that time these behaviors seemed benign, even laudable to me. Today, as a psychologist who creates resources for former fundamentalists, I find them disturbing. Even so, I am sympathetic to the moral conundrum fundamentalism can cause for genuinely decent people. After I watched the documentary Jesus Camp, a friend commented, “Wasn’t that horrifying?” I had to confess that it seemed kind of, well, normal -- and that I could relate to the woman running the camp.
To explain why Christians will sometimes violate their own commitment to compassion or truth in the search for converts, it helps to consider the psychology of fundamentalist religion.
Religion has a set of superpowers—ways it shapes or controls human thinking and behavior. Chief among these is the fact that religions take charge of our moral reasoning and emotions, giving divine sanction to some behaviors and forbidding others [http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-literary-mind/200911/the-four-moral-emotions]. Because there are many kinds of “good,” all of us make moral decisions by weighing values against each other. For example, most parents place a value on not hurting their children and yet get them immunized because long-term health trumps short-term pain. Religion can alter the way we stack those competing values, adding emotional weight to some, removing it from others.  
The relationship between religion and morality is complicated. Religion claims credit for our moral instincts [http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/marc-hauser]. It channels them via specific prescriptions and prohibitions. It offers explanations for why some things feel right and others feel so wrong and why we find the wrong ones tempting [http://www.sciencecodex.com/morality_research_sheds_light_on_the_origins_of_religion]. It engages us in stories and rituals that bring moral questions to the fore in day-to-day life. It embeds us in a community that encourages moral conformity and increases altruism toward insiders [http://www.edge.org/discourse/moral_religion.html#haidt]. It creates the sense that someone is always watching over our shoulder [http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~ara/Manuscripts/Shariff_Norenzayan.pdf].
When religious edicts align with the quest for love and truth, religion’s power can encourage us to be more compassionate, kind, humble or act with integrity. But religions also assert moral obligations that have little to do with love or truth, harm or wellbeing. Consider, for example, sacramental rituals, pilgrimages, circumcision, veiling, vows of silence or rituals of purity [http://www.mendeley.com/research/disgust-and-the-moralization-of-purity/]. Some demands of piety have little human or planetary cost. But other times, divine edict compels adherents to do harm in the service of a higher cause that to outsiders simply doesn’t exist. The Aztec and Inca practice of human sacrifice to appease gods was one of these. To outsiders it was a horrifying moral violation; to insiders more analogous to a community vaccination; the young men and women who were sacrificed gave their lives for a greater good—the wellbeing of the whole society.
Since religions add to an adherent’s bucket of moral obligations, they can create moral dilemmas or tradeoffs where none would otherwise exist. Should I spend my days studying Torah or working to feed my children? Should I drive my daughter to the hospital even though it’s Friday? Should I give the little I can spare to the poor or to the nuns? Should I wander with a beggar bowl or help my father tend the fields so my sisters can go to school? Should I encourage my poor African parishioners to wear condoms to prevent HIV or tell them to entrust God with their family planning?
Sometimes the tradeoffs are a matter of life or death, as when Saudi girls may have been forced to remain in their burning school rather than flee unveiled. Or consider the case of a young Arizona mother who had to choose between her own death and the abortion of a 12-week fetus her church deemed a person. She chose to live so she could continue raising the children who waited for her at home. But her bishop, who saw the abortion as premeditated murder, excommunicated a nun who helped her, claiming the more moral path was to allow the death of both woman and fetus as God’s will [http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Media/church-excommunicates-nun-authorized-emergency-abortion-save-mothers/story?id=10799745].
Evangelical Protestants who believe the Bible is the literally perfect word of God take as one of their highest mandates a verse they call the Great Commission. I have seen it emblazoned in letters two feet high on the wall of a megachurch: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  (Matthew 28:19, NIV). The word evangel means good news, and the name evangelical identifies Christians whose beliefs center on spreading what they think is the best news ever to reach the human race: that Jesus died for our sins and anyone who believes can be saved from hell. (One of my deep secrets as an evangelical teenager was how much I hated trying to sell other people on the Four Spiritual Laws that laid out the plan of salvation.)
Follow me, says the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel, and I will make you fishers of men. For evangelical Christians, fishing for souls is an obligation that can trump all others. What good does it do to feed the hungry or tend the sick if you leave their souls to eternal torture? Catholic Christians typically believe that good works are of value in their own right. Universalist Christians believe that the death of Jesus on the cross ultimately redeemed all of creation. Modernist Christians believe the Bible is a human document and that the life of Jesus is more important than his death. Evangelical Christians believe they have a moral obligation to proselytize.
Beliefs have consequences, and one consequence of evangelical belief is that decent people end up doing ugly things in order to recruit converts and save souls. It is because they care about being good that they do harm. In the much quoted words of Steven Weinberg, “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” The mechanism by which this happens is that religion creates a narrative in which the evil serves a higher good.
A new book by Mikey Weinstein, No Snowflake in an Avalanche [http://www.amazon.com/Snowflake-Avalanche-Michael-Mikey-Weinstein/dp/0983925534], offers a window into how corrosive the Great Commission can be. It chronicles a harrowing decade in, what is to Weinstein, a fight to the death for religious freedom. You may be familiar with fragments of the story. When fundamentalist Christians at the Air Force Academy began goading and harassing Weinstein’s cadet son, Curtis, they awoke a grizzly bear.
Weinstein assumed at first that the harassment was an anomaly and would be addressed quickly. Alas. The more pressure he applied using his own standing as an Academy graduate and former Reagan administration attorney, the more he uncovered an entrenched network of fundamentalist Christians that ranged from cadets to chaplaincy to brass, and that pressured all others to convert: Clubbish Bible-believing cadets bullied Catholics, Muslims, Jews, nontheists and even mainline Protestants (who, after all, weren’t real Christians to them). Evangelical chaplains brazenly told supporters they were missionaries on the public dime and the armed services was their mission field. Righteous officers pulled rank and pressured subordinates to participate in Bible studies and prayer meetings –and covered up abuses. Middle Easterners complained that America’s troops were Christian crusaders, and outside organizations fanned the flames by providing tracts and Bibles so that combat soldiers could work on converting Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
Livid about violations against the U.S. Constitution and livid about the personal violations and added dangers being endured by America’s soldiers because of the crusade mentality, Weinstein formed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) [http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/]. Since then, thousands of phone calls, letters and emails have poured in from all arms of the services--not only from the academies but from men and women whose lives are on the line in war zones. The MRFF has fought like a cornered lion on their behalf—fierce, muscular and unpredictable—leaving fundamentalist perpetrators convinced that Weinstein and his colleagues are agents of Satan.
As exposure after exposure has demonstrated, the evangelizers are legally in the wrong. They also are in violation of well-established moral and ethical principles including, often, humanity’s most central moral principle, the Golden Rule [http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~mohrj/courses/2007.winter/csc490/notes/ethics.html]. They would be outraged if adherents of other religions solicited their children or exploited their collegial relationships in the quest for converts. So why don’t they give it up? They can’t. Their beliefs require that they push as hard as they can to implement their understanding of God’s will.
In recent years, evangelicals have expanded their outreach in the military, public grade schools, "faith-based” community services and international aid programs, leveraging existing structures and secular funding streams when possible to support their work. To qualify for grants or gain access to public facilities, they argue that they are social service providers, not missionaries. From a personnel standpoint they argue that they are churches, exempt from civil rights laws. America’s Supreme Court has been remarkably willing to let them speak out of both sides of their mouths, which means this trend will continue [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/supreme-court-offers-victory-to-world-vision-in-religious-discrimination-lawsuit/]. Evangelical organizations like Officers Christian Fellowship, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Prison Fellowship Ministries and World Vision will proselytize as much as they are allowed to, diverting as many public dollars as they can, because that is what their reading of the Bible demands.
Inside and outside of Christianity, vigorous debate is challenging the pillars of fundamentalist belief, like the idea that the Bible is literally perfect or that Jesus was the ultimate human sacrifice. But the evangelical quest for converts will be constrained only by whatever moral limits the rest of us set.


2012-02-27 "The March of Christian Dominionism 1: What Is Christian Dominionism?"
by Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/02/27/christian-dominionism/]:

No. It’s not. And it never was.
Or “Welcome to the Theocratic States of America”
Thirty years from now, a protestor stands alone on a corner. She is visibly pregnant. Her sign, written in blood red marker, says “I’m carrying my rapist’s baby! Thanks a lot, Jesus!” She has only been there for five minutes but has been called “slut” and “whore” by several passersby. One elderly woman stops long enough to tell her she deserved to be raped for not loving Jesus enough. Others look at her with sad eyes but quickly avert their gaze lest one of their neighbors notice.
Finally the police arrive to take the woman into custody. She has not spoken a word. She has no bullhorn. She has not accosted a single person on the street. Yet she is still arrested by men who barely contain their contempt for her. She has broken no laws that we would recognize but still, she is roughly handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser. Of course, they take great care not to harm the baby she is carrying; the bruises she’ll have later won’t be anywhere near life-threatening. In this, she is lucky to be pregnant; others do not fare as well.
She is not read her rights because she has none. She is a blasphemer against the Lord and has been stripped of all legal protections. Her pregnancy will ensure that she survives long enough to perhaps repent and beg forgiveness. If not, she will be stoned to death in a public square by devout followers. Her child will be raised by the State to be a patriotic, loyal and, above all, God fearing citizen.
Welcome to the Theocratic States of America.
This may seem like a scenario out of a bad science fiction film but you would be wrong. This is what the world should be according to Christian Dominionism.
What is Christian Dominionism? It’s exactly what it sounds like: a world dominated by Christianity. Not just under the control of Christianity but completely and utterly dominated by it. According to Dominionists, every aspect of our lives is subject to the strictures of the Bible. Our personal lives and social lives must be lived in accordance with the word of God. Economics, politics, science, the arts and the law are all to be placed under the auspices of Christianity. It is, in essence, exactly what people claim Sharia law is. Minus Islam.
Such a system is, by its very nature, a totalitarian one. There can be no freedom of expression. There can be no free press. There can be no freedoms of any kind except the freedom to obey the Word. This is a very appealing concept to those interested in power for its own sake. Such a concentration of power would be free of morality, ethics, decency or accountability of any kind. The ability to shape the world at will is very alluring and the perversion of religion is a powerful tool to reach that goal.
At the same time, to those without power or hope, the idea of surrendering to such total control is more than a soothing balm; it is something to be craved. The world remains cold and indifferent to the struggles and pain we all go through. Self-direction can be hard and messy. Deciding what is right and what is wrong by relying on your own moral compass can be exhausting. In an environment where a steady diet of pious, theocratic messaging can make it seem a virtue to let someone else tell you how to live and what to believe it is easy to surrender control. At that point, the absolute moral certainty of Dominionists becomes an anesthetic for the confusion and doubt of the everyday world. Is it any wonder the desperate seek it like an oasis in the desert?
Let us clear up two possible misconceptions; while I am an atheist, this article is not an “ATTACK ON CHRISTIANITY!!” as many on the Right, and no small amount on the Left, will claim. This is NOT about religion at all, that is, beyond its use as a means to an end. Dominionists do not care about the teachings of Jesus. They care about the control those teachings will provide over the desperate, the lost and the wounded. Their cries of persecution by evil liberal God-hating heathens like me are camouflage. By wrapping themselves in the trappings of piety, they deflect, successfully if you allow it, any direct critique of their agenda.
This creates an obstacle on both ends of the political spectrum. First, while Dominionists are always found among conservatives, not all conservatives are even remotely Dominionists. The problem is that many on the Right use religion in much the same way: as a prop to claim a moral high ground they have laughably failed to reach. This makes it difficult for Right Wing opportunists to separate themselves from the Christian Dominionism movement. In fact, it is nigh impossible to reveal Dominionists for the power hungry hypocrites they are without leaving themselves open to the very same charge. How does the wolf in sheep’s clothing denounce the other wolf hunting the same flock and stay hidden?
On the other hand, the Left does what is ALWAYS does: refuse to make judgments. Oh sure, they’ll cluck their tongues and shake their heads but they won’t meet the threat because they are afraid of being accused of secularism or not being “tolerant” of diverse viewpoints. Excuse me, but that is load of bull puckey! Should we “tolerate” the Taliban? Or Eugenicists?[i] Better yet, WHY should we “tolerate” a group that seeks to install a theocracy where democracy now flourishes? It is madness to think otherwise but that is exactly what liberals do. Terrified of offending someone, somewhere, many stand impotently by and wring their hands when faced with anything that falsely cloaks itself in piety.
Of course, we’re not ALL afraid of our shadow. Some of us are proud to be filthy liberal scum and we don’t give a sack of beans about hurting someone’s feelings. Sometimes it really is OK to yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. Particularly when the theater really is on fire!
The other most likely misconception is that this is a full on assault against the Right. Well, yes and no. Don’t get me wrong, I despise the Right Wing of this country and take pretty much every opportunity to knock the GOP as the greedy, selfish, corporate whores that they are, but this is less about the conservative movement than it is about a specific subset of it. You could write an entire book about how much  you hate Catholics or Mormons and still not have anything negative to say about Christianity itself. In fact, Christians do this all the time. Dominionists, however, naturally gravitate to the Right because, among other things, that is where the anger and fear is. Christian Dominionism relies heavily on these two emotions to attract, shape and, ultimately, control their followers.
You may be thinking that such a small, radical group (and they are a small group in comparison to the overall conservative movement) would be marginalized and ineffective. Not a threat at all. Yet, somehow, in 2004, seven of the Bush White House’s interns were students from Patrick Henry College. Sound like a small number? It sure does! Until you consider the total number of interns was 100 and they can be picked from any of the thousands of colleges in the country. Also consider that Patrick Henry College accepts less than 100 students per year and specifically caters to homeschooled evangelicals. Suddenly, seven percent seems to be a remarkably high number for a college you’ve never heard of with such an incredibly small student body. Just to make you more uneasy, over twenty conservative Congressmen have had one or more Patrick Henry interns on their staff. And here’s the icing on the spooky cake: Patrick Henry College was only founded in 2000! So many interns attached to high powered conservatives is quite the achievement in so short a time.
In the same vein, caucuses are flooded with the furthest of the Far Right Wing ideologues. This forces would-be Republican candidates to veer wildly to the Right, usually on social issues, in order to even be nominated. This, in turn, drags the entire GOP to the right, not always willingly. We’ve seen a sharply accelerated version of this with the Tea Party but Dominionists have been at it much longer. You may recall the days when Jerry Falwell and his so-called “Moral Majority” exerted a tremendous amount of influence despite being, in reality, a small, widely dispersed group that merely made a lot of noise.
This is how a small, but highly organized and extremely well-funded, group of fringe radicals can control the entire process. Put the right pressure on the right spot at the right time and you elect Congressmen and women who do not believe in science and wholeheartedly support turning the country into one nation under a very specific God.
This concludes our short introduction to the concept of Christian Dominionism. Next we will examine how they capture and hold their followers in my next pack of filthy liberal lies: The March of Christian Dominionism 2: Where Did It Come From and How Does It Work? Or “It’s NOT a cult! My beloved leader and all of his followers tell me so!”


2012-02-29 "The March of Christian Dominionism 2: Where Did It Come From and How Does It Work?" by Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/02/29/the-cult-of-christian-dominionism-or-its-not-a-cult-my-beloved-leader-and-all-of-his-followers-tell-me-so/]:
Or “It’s NOT a cult! My beloved leader and all of his followers tell me so!”
Now that you’ve read “The March of Christian Dominionism 1″ and have a basic understanding of what Christian Dominionism is, let’s take a look at its history and methodology.
Dominionism is an offshoot of Christian Reconstruction, a radical philosophy made famous by R.J. Rushdoony early last century. Reconstruction calls for the replacement of man’s law with Biblical law with all that it entails. Rushdoony was a great believer in the death penalty for blasphemy (such as my poor, hypothetical rape victim from the first piece of this series), homosexuality, infidelity and other transgressions that would make an al Qaeda fanatic feel right at home. He popularized the concept that America was originally a Christian nation founded explicitly on Judeo-Christian principles and that we have strayed from that original, righteous path. Hence, the needed “reconstruction” of America.
Reconstructionism (and, by extension, Dominionism) is a postmillennial theology. Postmillennialists believe that the way must be paved for the return of Christ by building the Kingdom on Earth, here and now. By way of comparison, Premillennialists believe that Christ will return and take the faithful up into heaven, regardless of the state of the world or even believe that the worse things are, the sooner he will return (this does not lend itself well to a political philosophy of making the world a better place). Postmillennialists view this as a somewhat lazy way to get into heaven and believe they are mandated, by God, to take possession of the Earth and implement Biblical law in order to fulfill the prophecy of the end times. This seems particularly odd to me since being successful in this endeavor SHOULD mean that the Earth is a paradise (according to a very narrow and disturbing worldview). Where, then, does Armageddon fit in? God looks down, sees the world being run according his rules just the way he likes it and says, “Good job! Now I’m going to destroy it!”? But then, I’m just an ignorant atheist, so who cares what I think?
Moving forward from Rushdoony to the 1960s, Francis Schaeffer picked up the torch. While not a theocrat in the same way Rushdoony and Dominionists are, Schaeffer was very much invested in the “America as Christian nation” concept even as he shied away from equating faith with patriotism. It was fairly clear to him (as it is to liberals) that attaching one to the other denigrates both. He was, however, one of first evangelicals to make a concerted assault on legalized abortion. He set the stage for the Dominionists’ take on secular law: “It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God’s Law it abrogates its authority” Sound familiar? It’s a religious version of “nullification” in which the law can be ignored but only when it was written by a Democrat.
As the movement solidified into a cohesive philosophy, Reconstructionist found that Premillennialists were beginning to embrace the idea of dominionism (obviously for different reasons but still…) and so they began to work together. This partnership was formalized with the establishment of the Coalition on Revival (COR). Formed in 1984, COR spent two years working out a literal blueprint of how life is to be lived under proper Christian guidance [http://65.175.91.69/Reformation_net/default.htm]. Think of it as a Christian version of Sharia law (and that is exactly what it is). It dictates rules for law, government, education, science (no evolution, of course and Noah’s Flood was real), family – even rules for helping the poor and disabled.
Over the following years a number of “schools” have been set up to teach this singular worldview, and how to hide it from those who might recognize it for the extremism that it is. It’s not just a way to live; it teaches one how to think. Seminars are regularly held for activists to learn the proper way to disseminate these teachings among future political leaders to great effect. Tom Delay stood up before a crowd attending a “Worldview Weekend” in 2003 and said the following: “Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world. Only Christianity.” These are the people that are infesting and corrupting the GOP.
This is a bare bones history of the movement; there are many more important figures in the rise of the Dominionist movement such as Tim Lahaye, author of the fantastically popular and seriously disturbing Left Behind series. Lahaye is also a founding member of the highly secretive Council for National Policy, an organization that I only recommend you read up on if you don’t mind losing sleep for a few weeks. Or months. Another leading figure in the movement is widely cited “historian” David Barton. David Barton is a favorite of Glenn Beck’s and a frequent guest on Fox which, frankly, should tell you everything you need to know about his credentials. I strongly encourage you to read more about this troubling philosophy. Chris Hedges’ American Fascists and Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming are an excellent start. Have some antacid on hand. You’ve been duly warned.

Fear and Anger lead to the Dark Side of Religion -
Despite being ostensibly “Christian,” Dominionists act more like a cult then a church. I know there are some irreligious people out there snickering that “all religions are a cult.” Stop that!! Don’t make the mistake of lumping Dominionists in with regular church-goers. They are radically different. They prey (pun very much intended) upon those who have little to lose or are lacking in a strong sense of self or have simply fallen into despair.
Just like a “traditional” cult, these “churches” teach their followers how to gain the trust of others by forging a bond (sometimes real, sometimes false) over a shared tragedy or hardship. This trust is then used to pull the mark into the social circle of the church. As time passes, church activities, picnics, concerts, meetings, etc. become all consuming. Coincidentally (but not really), previous social contacts are severed and atrophy. This is how a cult isolates the convert.
Once the isolation sets in, demands are made of the convert: You must stop listening to rock ‘n’ roll. No, you mustn’t read Stephen King’s books. Yes, you can go to the movies but only those that are church sanctioned, other films are degenerate. Sure, you can go to your friends’ wedding but your friend isn’t “saved” like we are and that would disappoint us. You don’t want to disappoint us do you? We’re your family! You mustn’t EVER disappoint your family!
It’s a bit more complicated than this but you get the gist. The convert is separated from friends and relatives. Perhaps not physically but certainly emotionally. This creates a psychological dependence while providing a constant threat of being expelled from the new “family.” For the kind of people that are susceptible to this kind of manipulation, expulsion from what they consider a safe harbor from the cold harshness of the real world is tantamount to a death sentence. In reality, it’s nowhere nearly that terrible but you wouldn’t know it from the blind obedience such a threat instills in these poor bastards.
But fear of expulsion only takes you so far. In order to form a cohesive group that will think and act as one (specifically, by following orders without question) there must be an external pressure. For Christian Dominionists, this pressure takes the form of a vast conspiracy arrayed against them.
Stop me if this sounds familiar: “Homosexuals are destroying this country! Radical, Godless liberals are assaulting Christianity! If we don’t stop these Socialists they will round you up and put you into camps just like the Nazis!” If you need more of this, just turn on Fox, go to a Tea Party rally or listen to AM talk radio. It will become very clear, very quickly, that to the Right, there is a literal war going on and the Left is, literally, trying to destroy them, the country and everything that is good and decent in the world.
We have met the enemy and they are completely made up.
This siege mentality is incredibly dangerous to democracy. The threat of invasion or attack can weaken the knees of even the staunchest Liberal and the need for revenge can be all-consuming. One needs to look no further than the months and years after 9/11. In response to this attack we curtailed our civil liberties, decimated the Constitution, quashed legal (and perfectly legitimate) dissention, invaded two countries, pissed away our moral high ground, angered the entire planet… the list goes on and on and on. All in response to the threat of a few hundred or thousand religious fanatics hiding in caves (and one very comfortable compound but he’s dead, so back to just the caves again). If we were willing to go that far to counter a threat from that small of a group, how far do you think Dominionists can get their followers to go to combat the shadowy forces of a vast secular, gay conspiracy?
While fear binds them together, anger is the force that drives them. A constant thread of violence and warfare runs throughout the movement. They are not just Christians but “Christian Soldiers” in battle against Satan and his minions, Liberals. These “soldiers” are inundated with images of the Apocalypse and how the sinners will be destroyed even as they themselves are saved from the horrors to be unleashed. Anyone that opposes the “will of God” is an enemy. Suspiciously, the “will of God” is strikingly similar to the will of the Right Wing and, even more suspiciously, extremely dissimilar to what the Bible actually says.
But that doesn’t matter. Dominionists MUST have an enemy to focus on to motivate the troops. For the moment, it’s homosexuals, abortion and Sharia law. In 2004, there was a massive effort by the Religious Right to paint gay marriage as THE defining issue of the election and it worked. During a time of war and an economic downturn, millions of conservative voters were somehow convinced that the terrible threat of gay marriage was far more important than the bungling job Bush and the Republican Congress were doing. Where was this idea planted? Christian Dominionist churches (as well as plenty of other, non-Dominionist but still conservative ones).
This may sound like a big old conspiracy but what would you call it when pastors from all over the country have a monthly teleconference to discuss strategies and issues of a decidedly political nature? Not sure? Ask Tony Perkins and his Family Research Council. They’re one of many Religious Right Wing groups that organize churches nationwide and essentially hand them marching orders. The politicization of houses of worship is a deeply disturbing trend. It is in these sanctuaries that people are most vulnerable and the most easily swayed. Millions are organized to support whatever agenda a select few at the top have crafted. The irony that the Gospels of Jesus are used to rally the unwitting faithful to oppose aid to the sick and the poor and to further the goal of Dominionism is lost only on these abused worshipers. Despite the restrictions supposedly placed on churches by the IRS, these bastions of Right Wing politics preach a very specific message of how the congregation should vote. Their growing numbers and fervor make them a powerful voice in politics.
And Bush’s “Faith Based Initiative” gave these groups quite the boost.
Imagine a lobbying group that had unrestricted access to the President and his staff, played a key role in crafting policy, and received billions of taxpayers’ dollars to further their work of undermining the framework of democracy. Your blood would boil if just a regular lobbying group, say Big Oil, engaged in such borderline illegal activities. Now imagine that it was a group that is expressly separated by the very Constitution the President is sworn to uphold from intermingling too closely with the government. That was life under the Bush administration and the damage continues to unfold today.
Supposedly, the Faith Based Initiative was to provide billions to religious organizations in order to help the homeless and hungry. In reality, it funneled all of that taxpayer money to sympathetic churches that were then empowered to spread the Good Word about religious conservatism. How do we know this? Because one of the more vocal critics of this scheme was the late Jerry Falwell. Oddly enough, Falwell seemed to be one of the few conservatives aware of the fact that the Presidency might not always BE occupied by a Dominionist. What happens when a centrist or, God forbid, an actual liberal takes office? That money won’t go to just good and decent Christian churches, but might end up in the hands of Jews and Muslims! This very real concern (Obama did exactly this when he took office) gives the lie to the philanthropic conceit of the original program. If the true goal is to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, who cares what religion takes up the task? But, of course, that was never the intent. The Bush Administration, (deeply steeped in Dominionism or did you think their Crusade against Islam was a coincidence?), abused its power to erode the barriers between Church and State and fatten the purse of the Dominionist movement at the same time.
Since then, Dominionists have lost their hold on the White House, so they have turned their focus towards Congress and the State legislatures. Now, conservatives are ANGRY! Republicans are OUTRAGED! The supposedly “grassroots” Tea Party is FURIOUS! Why? GAY MARRIAGE and ABORTION and SHARIA LAW!!! Just as in 2004, a flailing economy and two wars (and two half-wars) just aren’t as important as stopping these supposed engines of social destruction. Yes, these issues took a back seat to the economy for the 2010 elections but what did the newly triumphant GOP House majority tackle once it took power? Did they immediately focus on the economy and create millions of jobs? No. They attacked gay and reproductive rights and held hearings on encroaching Sharia.
the Religious Right has lapped it up. Their anger at these sinful activities is undiminished. Gays want to make their children into sex slaves. Abortionists want to wipe out black people. Never mind that 60 years ago, these were the same people declaring that mixed race marriages were the devil’s work, now THEY are the defenders of the black race against the depredations of secular liberals. Consistency is not a strong point for Dominionists and it doesn’t need to be. As long as they keep their flock angry and afraid, there is no limit to the lies they can sell. A prime example of this is, again, none other than Jerry Falwell who, during the Civil Rights movement, often championed the cause of George “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever” Wallace. After 1970, when blatant racism became a liability, Falwell dropped his public bigotry. Instead of standing up and announcing his “change of heart”, however Falwell quietly had copies of his old speeches destroyed. He moved forward as if he had never supported the Segregation movement. Down the memory hole it went and the Religious Right played right along with the lie.
Fear and Anger, the very core of the Dominionism movement. Is it any wonder they are impossible to engage in rational debate or compromise? We’ll look at this parallel world where science is bad, women are obedient, the Founding Fathers were all Christian and home is where the school is in my next frothing liberal lament: The March of Christian Dominionism 3: How Christian Dominionism Combats Reality or “Take your stinking evolution off my kids you damn, dirty liberal!”


2012-03-05 "The March of Christian Dominionism 3: How Christian Dominionists Combat Reality"
by Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/05/the-march-of-christian-dominionism-3-how-christian-dominionists-combat-reality/]:
Or “Take your stinking evolution off my kids you damn, dirty liberal!”
So how is the Christian Dominionist movement different than the regular old Religious Right? On the surface they seem pretty much identical: both pursue social politics, both proclaim that family values are of prime importance, both encourage divisive bigotry of one form or another and both raise millions by appealing to the baser instincts of their followers. It is not easy to discern where they separate because Dominionists are not very vocal about their deeper plans for the country with outsiders.
The Religious Right is many things, but they do not actively work towards the destruction and replacement of the government with a Theocracy. Of course, this is exactly what Christian Dominionists want and the Religious Right is complicit in their drive to obtain it. These last two sentences might seem to be actively at odds with one another. They are not. The Religious Right is more than willing to make nice with groups they would ordinarily despise to further their agenda. One need look no further than the pro-Israel stance of the GOP for evidence of this. The vigor with which the Right defends Israel is a wonder to behold until you realize that the whole point of supporting Israel is so that the Israelis can rebuild the temple of Solomon and fulfill one of the key requirements of the end time prophecies. By the way, these prophecies also clearly state that most of the Jewish race will be exterminated at that time. I’m guessing the Religious Right doesn’t discuss that part too much with the Israelis.
In any event, Christian Dominionism is very much like the dreaded threat of “creeping Sharia” that has so many on the Right supposedly scared silly. A way of life that is antithetical to a secular democracy is slowly being enacted throughout the country. We shouldn’t even give a second glance to the “threat” of Sharia in this country when a much clearer and more present danger is among us. This is not to say that there aren’t people who would love to see Sharia law implemented in the United States. There certainly are. They simply don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making it happen. Even in the dreaded Dearborn, Michigan. These religious fanatics do, however, make an excellent boogeyman for all manner of unscrupulous people. To the Dominionist, it is a way of forcing people to make a false “choice”: Will you allow Sharia to overrun the country or will you embrace God’s Law like all good Christians do?
This is, of course, ridiculous. One simply needs only embrace the Constitution to ward off the eeeeevils of Sharia. That doesn’t work well for Christian Dominionists for reasons that should be self-evident at this point. The Constitution explicitly states that religion and government are not to be mixed, and so it has become a Crusade among Dominionists to rewrite history. This is, perhaps, the single most dangerous aspect of their agenda, the wholesale erasure and replacement of reality and history with a more, shall we say, divine interpretation.
There are a number of reasons history and, to an almost equal extent, science are a threat to the “Christian” future. History tells us who we are and where we came from. George Orwell was entirely too aware of the need tyrants have to control over this information. In his seminal work, “1984,” Orwell called the apparatus put in place to accomplish this task the “Ministry of Truth.” They were in charge of making sure “history” reflected whatever current day agenda was in effect. With a push of a button, a war that had been raging for years with one enemy becomes a war that had been raging for all that same time with a completely different one. The State must be infallible.
In the same fashion, after centuries of understanding the First Amendment, specifically the Establishment Clause, of the Constitution in a very specific manner based on the words and intent of the founding Fathers, there are now questions. Despite numerous examples of most of the Fathers being Deists (not ascribing to a particular organized religion or even, necessarily, a supernatural force) or even actively derisive of Christianity, Dominionists insist that not only was the country founded on Judeo-Christian principles but that the Constitution is expressly a religious document despite it not containing a single word to that effect.
Once sufficient doubt is cast upon the secular nature of our country’s founding document, everything and anything becomes malleable. Please note that I use the word “sufficient” instead of “legitimate.” “Legitimate” would mean that there is a real debate over the facts. There is not. We have handwritten letters that explicitly state the original intent (there’s a reason Texas is trying to remove Jefferson from history text books) and they leave no room for doubt about their intent towards government and religion. But this is beside the point. Dominionists are more than happy to tell their flock whatever they want, secure in the knowledge that they will not question. To question is to lack faith. Ignorance is strength.
This is the genius of politicized religion. Once a person is a true “believer,” regardless of whether they actually believe or are too terrified of expulsion to admit they do not, they will consequently accept any lie they are fed. This serves the dual purpose of making any claim about how the country should be run seem perfectly normal and also of further isolating the flock: Of course the United States should be run according to Biblical law, the Constitution was divinely inspired, and who could possibly doubt that? Anyone that says otherwise is a liar and probably an atheist Communist Marxist unpatriotic traitor. It doesn’t matter how much evidence they provide or how solid their argument. They MUST be lying.
This artificial schizophrenia extends to the realm of science as well. I say “artificial schizophrenia” because, in the phantasmagorical world of the Dominionist, everyday life is completely divorced from empirical reality. Miracles and prayer will solve all problems and if your particular problem is not solved in this way, the fault lies with your lack of faith. Again, some of the less religiously inclined are snickering that all religious people think this way. Don’t make me hit you with a rolled up newspaper! Those thoroughly ensnared in the corrupt mythology of Dominionism have no choice but to believe that every aspect of their life is being directly controlled. Cause and effect are as illusory as free will.
Now is when the massive assaults on science and education come into play. I’ve written about this before as well (Why do conservatives hate science so much? Or “How I learned not to learn and trust my beer gut instead” [http://www.addictinginfo.org/questions/“why-do-conservatives-hate-science-so-much”-or-“how-i-learned-not-to-learn-and-trust-my-beer-gut-instead-”/]) but it bears a re-examination in the light of Dominionism. Science is the natural enemy of Fundamentalism and, by extension, Dominionism. Science encourages critical thinking and free inquiry, concepts that are pure anathema to a totalitarian religious philosophy. Science also reduces mankind from a divine creature, put on the earth to rule, to a not exactly random result of natural processes. We’re still the top of the food chain but only due to our unique and innate intellect, not because we were “meant” to be.
Without the divine origins of man, Dominionism loses much of its self-granted authority. If the Bible is not literally true, then religion becomes merely a guide for living a moral life and not the source of all morality and knowledge as Dominionists claim. To combat this, there has been a war waged against science in general and public education in specific for decades.
As I’ve said before, an uneducated population is far easier to manipulate and control. It’s hard to think of how to make the world a better place when you don’t know HOW to think. When you’ve been raised to believe that there is ALWAYS a Biblical answer to every question, it becomes so easy to dismiss actual experts and only listen to the side that says what you want to hear. It doesn’t matter that the religious argument can provide no solid evidence or facts, you don’t know how to judge for yourself anyway. This is the point of the Right Wing’s war on education and it’s all about defunding schools and colleges.
The Right wants to divert tax dollars to for-profit charter schools that have not proven to be any more effective than public schools (and that are far less accountable). Not only does this starve public schools of vital funds, but it enables the Right to complain how terrible public education is. It’s an awesome racket: make schools dysfunctional by underpaying teachers and ensuring the schools are run down and then use this dysfunction as proof that public education is unworkable.
The assault on colleges is different. The goal here is to raise tuitions so high that the choice is either to not go at all or spend the next 20 years paying off loans. Why do you think Republicans howled in pain when Obama did away with subsidized loans and cut out the extremely unnecessary middle man? It was a one-two punch for the Right. Not only did banks lose billions in revenue they did nothing to earn, it made school loans less painful for those who need it the most. Notice that this was not important enough to make any real news. Most of you reading this didn’t even know it was part of the Health Care Reform package. Obama tacked it on so the GOP couldn’t block it. Yet, you know all about Anthony Weiner’s weiner. This should tell you something about the state of the country.
So, to wit: make public schools function as poorly as possible, especially in low income areas. Make college too expensive for most to obtain a degree and then use the resulting failure to justify further cuts and convince people that home schooling is the best option. When you break the system of public education, the public will look elsewhere to educate their children and home schooling is the “answer.”
Home schooling is a rapidly expanding movement among the Religious Right. And it is a huge part of their war on science and history. Over one million children are currently being educated outside of the public school system; many of them being indoctrinated into the world of religious fanaticism. Do I sound alarmist? How does an entire generation raised to believe “God said it. I believe it. That settles it” sound to you? Does that sound like a group of people capable of objectively assessing the challenges facing the country and the world? Do you think they will be capable of overcoming their conditioning to embrace any solution that is not fully “Christian?” Neither do I.
This kind of parallel education has reached frightening heights as (former) candidates like Michele Bachmann, and maybe-maybe-not-but-who-can-really-tell-if-she’s-running Sarah Palin spit out gems like ““The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States,” and “He who warned uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh by ringing those bells…” on a regular basis. Mike Huckabee, another powerful voice in conservative politics even has his own cartoon series for home schooled children. In it, a group of plucky time travelling kids can be found saying “What we see and hear isn’t always the same as what we read in books or see on TV. So what? We know the truth and that’s good enough for us!”
God said it. I believe it. That settles it!
So we have an “army” of Christian Soldiers whose main weapons will be pure ignorance, rigid, uncritical thought and blind obedience. Dominionists have built an entire culture that is separated from the rest of the world by a shield of dogma. They know how to insinuate themselves into the government at some of the highest positions and they know how to influence elections to their benefit. They have massive financial backing from both their followers as well as corporations that may not be interested in Dominionists’ social agenda but are very supportive of their economic goals.
But how will you know if a particular policy from the GOP is simple conservative greed or something darker and more sinister? How will you recognize the Dominionist agenda? That’s the question I will attempt to answer in last part of this series of liberal slander: How Dominionists are trying to undermine our country Or “So THAT’S why the GOP’s been doing that!!”


2012-03-11 "The March of Christian Dominionism 4: How Dominionists Are Trying To Undermine Our Country"
by Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/11/the-march-of-christian-dominionism-4-how-dominionists-are-trying-to-undermine-our-country/]:
Or “So THAT’S why the GOP has been doing that!!”
We know what Christian Dominionism is (if you don’t, go back and read parts one, two and three. No skipping!). We know what they want and we know why they want it. Now the question becomes: how are they doing it and what are the signs of their influence in politics?
Again, we find there to be some overlap between your standard Right Wing, anti-government rhetoric and the goals of Christian Dominionists. But some of it is purely a creature of religious zealotry.
There are many fronts to the Dominionist attack on our way of life; one of them is the ongoing assault on the social safety nets that have been in place for decades. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are under constant threat of being extinguished so we’ll start there:
Social Security: Technically, the Right hates Social Security because it’s “Big Government” and costs too much money. That is, of course, garbage. The amount of money and resources consumed by our bloated military dwarfs SS but that’s never an issue. No. The “problem” with Social Security is that it represents the country pulling together (the “social”) to ensure that no one is left to die in poverty and hunger (the “security”). This reliance on others goes against the Right’s creed of “personal responsibility” which is code for “everyone for themselves.”
The Dominionists, however, have a slightly different take on SS. This collective pooling of resources for the betterment of all means that fewer people have to turn to them for their needs. Thus, Social Security deprives religious organizations of power in the form of less desperate people. Privatization is a good way to end it (and make Wall St. untold billions in profit in the process) but for Dominionists, the goal is simply to make it go away altogether.
Medicare and Medicaid: The objection to these stunningly popular and useful programs is similar to the objections against Social Security but the attack against them is far more insidious.
Instead of dismantling the entire program the goal is vouchers. But why vouchers? The GOP seems to be quite taken with them. They want them for Medicare, Medicaid and schools. This is a clear sign of Dominionist influence on the GOP because vouchers are an end run around the Establishment clause of the First Amendment.
The Establishment Clause forbids government money to be used to by an organization to evangelize as part of the disbursement of those funds. In other words, if you take government money to feed the hungry, you cannot promote your religion while doing so. Also, under no circumstances, can you withhold services based on your religious beliefs. So if the Westboro Baptist Church took government money to shelter the homeless, they could not turn away a homosexual.
Vouchers, on the other hand, eliminate this prickly proselytization problem. The legal argument goes like this: Since the money is not coming directly from the government, all bets are off. By giving the voucher to the “consumer,” the choice of where to spend that money is solely up to them. The Establishment Clause does not apply. In this scenario, a church can turn away any “undesirables” while still providing services. In addition, they can also pressure the sick, the elderly and the desperate to embrace their particular worldview. These groups are already susceptible to manipulation and vouchers leave them all the more vulnerable to the depredations of Dominionists.
School vouchers are even more easily abused as the schools will be free to teach Creationism and the Christian Dominionist worldview. Your tax dollars ALREADY get abused this way illegally as many schools corrupt the regular curriculum with religion until someone reports it. Imagine how widespread it would be if it was legal to teach our children that the world is only 6000 years old?
Grants work the same way. The government gives money to an umbrella organization, say, the Salvation Army, (a group that will no longer employee homosexuals) due to their “charity” work, and the organization disperses the money to smaller groups. Those groups are now free of the Establishment Clause to push their religious agenda, all the while using tax payer dollars.
When you hear the word “voucher” or “grant” in any discussion of entitlements or schools, what you are really witnessing is the Religious Right attempting to bypass the Constitution. If you take away one thing from this article, let it be that.
But the Dominionists’ agenda goes far beyond just undermining the social safety net or subverting it for their own purposes. Dominionists are hard at work undermining the very concept of America as a democracy.
Tax cuts & deregulation: Totalitarian regimes exist with an extreme concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a very select few. Christian Dominionism is no different. To the Dominionist, there can be no such thing as democracy. The masses cannot be allowed self-rule; only those “chosen” by God (i.e., the Aristocracy) are worthy enough to divine “His” intent.
And exactly what is “His” intent? Why, that the rich should get richer, of course! “God” hates taxes on the wealthy and massive corporationd. This is why Big Business so readily gets into bed with Dominionists. They are very aware of the desire of Dominionism to concentrate all the wealth and power of the United States at the top of the economic food chain. In the schizophrenic world of the Dominionist, pollution is no big deal and natural resources are self-replenishing, even oil. Any toxins leaked into the environment are no difficulty to the faithful because “God” smiles upon those engines of enterprise, corporations. Therefore, government regulation is not just unnecessary; it’s against the will of “God.” Of course, the fact that deregulation only benefits an extremely small group of people while causing untold misery for the rest is just a coincidence and is probably punishment for our blasphemous ways.
When you hear a religious leader proclaiming that the government is seeking to punish others through taxes and regulation, that’s a Dominionist speaking.
Have you ever wondered why it is that Republicans, who seem to utterly despise the Government, seek to be in charge of it by any immoral, unethical and borderline illegal means necessary? Have you noticed how, when they ARE in charge, they do everything they claim to be against? Run up deficits. Explode the national debt. Massively expand government. And then complain about all of those things when a Democrat takes the White house? There’s a very clear pattern of deliberate sabotage of the country by the Right. Part of it is simple cronyism. When your political philosophy is “less regulation” you do not put an unfriendly expert in charge of the regulatory agency of a particular industry, you put in an industry friend who will do what you want; Specifically, not regulate. Later, when the corruption is exposed and the damage is done, for instance, FEMA leaving thousands stranded for days in a football stadium after a hurricane, you can point to the utter failure and proudly state that “Government IS the problem!” This is, essentially, the same tactic used against public schools. Break the system, use the resulting failure as proof that the system doesn’t work, rinse, repeat until you can privatize everything.
Part of it may be cronyism, but the main part objective is to tarnish the concept “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
When the Right is in control of the country they do everything they can to make the government look bad. When they’re in the minority, the chant of “Government is bad” is nonstop. No expense is spared, no boundary is left uncrossed, no taboo is considered too great in their quest to convince the populace that their Government is the worst thing to ever happen to them. But what’s the endgame? For a Dominionist, the goal is not to eradicate Government outright but to first subvert it and infect it with religious extremism. As the rot of extremism permeates and becomes the norm, it will become easier and easier to erect the Theocracy that is the ultimate goal.
When you hear a politician demand a smaller government and more “freedom” while simultaneously demanding that the government legislate who you can marry, what kind of sex you can have, who you can have sex with and what kinds of services your doctor can offer, they are not describing “freedom” as you and I understand it. They are describing “freedom” from sin and vice, or, in other words, the “freedom” to not be tempted by supposedly immoral behavior by making that behavior illegal. The louder the call for “freedom” while the greater the demand that restrictions be placed on your personal life, the clearer it is that a Dominionist is speaking.
The final aspect of Dominionist behavior that we will be taking a look at is the misogyny inherent in the movement. It’s never been more apparent that the Religious Right has some serious issues with women. The Religious Right is attacking Planned Parenthood, which provides affordable health care to millions of women across the country. They consistently blame the victim in cases of rape (although this is not strictly a Right Wing phenomena, they are the most vocal about it). They have started to speak, openly, about how women should not be allowed to vote because they are “too emotional”. This is 1950’s code for “too stupid.” The Religious Right wants to ban all contraception, taking away all reproductive options for women. Including the pill. Some have even gone so far as to enact laws that would place women that miscarry under criminal suspicion unless they can prove it was a natural occurrence. Women are already being held against their will if they so much as hint that they want to terminate a pregnancy.
The flood of anti-woman sentiment that has spilled across the country is unprecedented in my life time. It also makes no sense unless you look at it from a religious angle. Women have proven themselves just as capable as men in the workplace, in politics, in the military and in the classroom. Despite the setbacks of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, women have easily earned a seat at the table and have made no small contribution to the country.
Yet they are under attack. Why?
It’s about control. Dominionism is always about control and in Extremist Chistianity, just as in Extremist Islam, the woman MUST submit to the man. It’s the “natural order” of things. A woman must dress modestly. A woman must defer to a man’s judgment. A woman should remain in the home, raising the children. To do otherwise is to challenge the male-dominated establishment.
Partly, the need to exert authority over women stems from the overwhelming insecurities of the Dominionist movement. Remember, the entire movement is built on the concept that they are under attack from all sides by enemies who would destroy them in a heartbeat. The role they have cast for themselves is one of perpetual victimhood and powerlessness. This is not a sustainable role for a man to be in that is engulfed by the machismo paradigm[i]. You know what I’m talking about: I am a man! Master of my castle! I wear the pants in my family! I am the provider! Grrrr! Arrrggg! Blah, blah, blah.
How could such a walking stereotype NOT be threatened by a strong woman? Or even a mildly assertive one? And so, these manly men of the Christian Dominionist movement lord over (pun much intended) “their” women and try to reduce them to the cardboard cutout that was June Cleaver.
To this end, women are denied reproductive rights wherever and whenever possible under the guise of “protecting the unborn.” Somehow, though, all contraceptives are evil in the eyes of the Dominionist, even the ones that prevent fertilization, thus, exposing the lie of their opposition. A woman that has control over when she gets pregnant is free to live her life as she pleases. Unthinkable to the extremist.
Says Janice Crouse, of the anti-choice Concerned Women for America: “…Radical feminists accurately see abortion as a woman’s ultimate weapon in the battle to escape the control of men. The issue is of power, of having the power to call the shots. With abortion as an option, a woman can escape pregnancy...” (emphasis mine)
Could that be any more clear?
When you hear a politician rail against abortion mills and the decay of morals among women, you’re hearing a Dominionist tell you that a woman must be put in her place.
If this series of articles has done anything for you, it should have helped you understand just what it is that is going on in this country and why. There IS a method to the madness of the GOP. It is not just conservative politics that are driving us to ruin, but a concerted effort from a group of deeply disturbed fanatics. Will they succeed in instituting Biblical law? Of course not, but they will do incalculable damage in the meantime. They will squander billions of dollars in tax payer money and resources and ruin the lives of millions with their radical agenda. For that alone, they need to be understood and stopped.




2011-10-17 "Election-year goals of Christian group questioned" from "Associated Press" newswire
AP writer Alan Scher Zagier contributed to this story.
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In the 1940s, an argument erupted among a group of American Christians far from the mainstream.
Pentecostals, the spirit-filled worshippers known mostly for speaking in tongues, were at a crossroads, divided over the extent of God's modern-day miracles. If God made apostles and prophets during the New Testament era, did he still create them today?
Most Pentecostals said no, and went on to build the movement's major denominations.
A minority disagreed _ and amazingly, their obscure view is now in the crosshairs of a presidential race. Some critics, fearing these little-known Christians want to control the U.S. government, suspect that Republican Rick Perry is their candidate.
The Texas governor opened the door to the discussion with a prayer rally he hosted in August, a week before he announced his run for president. Organizers of the Houston event, such as Lou Engle, leader of The Call prayer marathons, and Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, had for several years been under the watch of mostly liberal writers alarmed by the preachers' rhetoric.
The end of the world is an intense focus of many of the religious leaders involved in the rally. Engle has said that the tornado that leveled Joplin, Mo., last May was evidence of God's judgment on the country over abortion. Bickle views acceptance of same-sex marriage as a sign of the end times.
These preachers believe demons have taken hold of specific geographic areas, including the nation's capital. They also promote a philosophy of public engagement known as the "seven mountains," which urges Christians to gain influence in business, government, family, church, education, media and the arts as a way to spread righteousness and bring about God's kingdom on earth. The language seems close to dominionism, the belief that Christians have a God-given mandate to run the world.
Ever since Perry gave the leaders a broader platform, religion scholars and activists have been debating whether these church leaders represent a real threat, an apocalyptic vanguard maneuvering to establish a Christian government. The task of measuring their influence is complicated by the preachers' wide range of teaching and practice, and by the many different expressions of dominionism under various names.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow warned that dominionists want to prepare the world for Jesus' return by "infiltration and taking over politics and government." Michelle Goldberg, author of "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," wrote at The Daily Beast, "We have not seen this sort of thing at the highest levels of the Republican Party before."
Randall Stephens, a professor at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass., who researches Pentecostals and politics, called warnings of a conservative Christian plot an overreaction. "I think this is a rabbit hole people fall down and it has a whiff of conspiracy," Stephens said.
Anthea Butler, who has written extensively about dominionism with author Sarah Posner on the liberal website ReligionDispatches.org, considers the outlook troubling and worth examining, but cautioned against overstating its strength.
"I don't know if `threat' is the right word. I think `problem' is the better word," said Butler, a religion scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.
Perry has never said anything that would directly link him to dominionism. However, he fueled speculation about his views at the rally by quoting from Joel 2, a Bible book the preachers favor, which tells of a prayer assembly of spiritual warriors as the world ends. On stage with the governor was Alice Patterson, author of "Bridging the Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform A Nation," who believes there is a "demonic structure behind the Democratic Party."
Robert Black, a Perry campaign spokesman, said the GOP governor is an evangelical who attends Lake Hills Church in Austin. In a recent appearance at Liberty University, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Perry explained that he had turned to God in a time of need _ a personal testimony common for born-again Christians.
"Gov. Perry believes that Americans of all faiths should be active in dictating the course of our country," Black wrote in an e-mail. "He supports our republican form of democracy and trusts the American people to decide who should lead it."
Critics have also questioned whether Michele Bachmann's religious and political views have crossed a line into dominionism. In a 2006 appearance in Minnesota, the year she was first elected to Congress, she prayed, "We are in the last days" and called separation of church and state "a myth." In the 1980s, Bachmann was a law student at Oral Roberts University, a Pentecostal school which emphasized the biblical basis of U.S. law. However, that approach is shared among a range of conservative Christians and is not the definitive marker of someone who thinks only Christians should govern.
Many evangelical leaders are incensed by the discussion. The allegation that Christians are plotting to build a theocracy has dogged Christian conservatives since the 1970s and `80s, when evangelicals stunned both Democrats and Republicans by emerging from political hibernation to regain their voice in public life.
Chuck Colson, the Watergate figure and founder of the Prison Fellowship ministries, said labels such as "dominionist" are epithets meant to discredit all Christian activists. David French, senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, wrote an article in the National Review with the mocking headline, "I'm a Dominionist? I had no idea."
However, many religion scholars argue that some watered-down dominionist principles have long influenced conservative Christian activists, who hope to shape society according to a biblical worldview. (A true dominionist not only wants Christians to shape the world, but also run it.)
Bruce Barron, a Christian scholar and author of the 1992 book "Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agendas of Dominion Theology," wrote that many early leaders of the Christian right said they had been influenced by the social analysis of Rousas John Rushdoony, who believed the nation was in a moral and cultural crisis and advocated replacing democracy with biblical law, mostly from the Old Testament. This way of thinking is known as Christian Reconstructionism.
By the late 1980s, many evangelical leaders felt that dominionist ideas had gained so much attention that they could no longer simply dismiss the teaching as fringe, Barron wrote. Among the critiques was a February 1987 cover story in Christianity Today, the prominent evangelical magazine founded by the Rev. Billy Graham, which quoted scholars saying that ignoring the stream of thinking is no longer an option. "They haven't been taken seriously enough," one scholar told the magazine.
More recently, C. Peter Wagner, an expert in church growth, has become a lightning rod for critics of dominionism, largely because of the extensive research of Talk2Action.org, a liberal investigative site, and one of its writers, Rachel Tabachnik.
Wagner is a former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif., who had noted the rapid spread of independent Pentecostal churches. In 1974, he dubbed the trend the New Apostolic Reformation, and eventually became a leader among these churches. He is now considered an apostle along with his wife Doris, who specializes in healing.
Wagner sharpened the Pentecostal focus on spiritual warfare, through books with titles such as, "Breaking Strangleholds in Your City (Prayer Warriors)." He trains people to use intense direct prayer and other strategies to fight demonic control of specific cities or regions. In addition, he promotes the "seven mountains" philosophy of placing Christians in positions of influence, but insists it is no stealth plan for a Christian-only government. Wagner said that most of the church leaders he works with believe that both major parties are under demonic influence _ not just the Democrats _ although some individual politicians are "kingdom-minded." Church members are deeply frustrated about politicians promising to outlaw abortion and address other social issues, but never fulfilling this pledge, Wagner said.
"There's nobody that I know _ there may be some fringe people _ who would even advocate a theocracy," Wagner said in a phone interview from Colorado Springs, Colo., where his ministries are based. "We honor those who have other kinds of faith."
Bickle, interviewed in Kansas City, Mo., said he knows Wagner but is not affiliated with him. Bickle called the apostle "a humble guy" who does not know Perry and would not advocate Christian control of society.
"He's got a team of loosely connected people - maybe 100 ministries - it's a small number. They are `quote' telling people to go influence society. But some of their guys under them are using these hostile terms, like `taking over society,'" said Bickle, who said he is not a dominionist.
"We want to influence things in our own microscopic way," Bickle said. "I wish we did have influence, but it's so minute."
Mel Robeck, a specialist in Pentecostalism at Fuller Theological Seminary, cautioned against concluding too much from the preachers at Perry's event. Robeck is a minister with the Assemblies of God, one of the largest Pentecostal groups, which posts a 13-page theological statement on its website explaining why the denomination does not believe in contemporary apostles and prophets.
Robeck viewed the prayer rally as standard GOP outreach to religious conservatives who form the core of the Republican Party and sees Wagner as repackaging old, marginal ideas to create a new movement. Days after the Texas governor held the prayer marathon, the American Family Association, which financed the event, emailed participants asking for help registering conservative Christians ahead of the 2012 election.
"To see potential political leaders courting these people _ what they're really doing is looking for the votes that they think these folks can deliver," Robeck said. "I don't know of any politician that can afford to miss any kind of church vote and they know that church leaders can often influence people."


2011-10-08 "Burning Mormon Scripture? Rick Perry’s “Mormon Problem” Gets Bigger" by B. E. Wilson
[http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/08/burning-mormon-scripture-rick-perrys-mormon-problem-gets-bigger/]
Beyond Rick Perry’s high-profile Friday endorsement from Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress, who openly calls Mormonism a “cult”, Perry has worked closely with the charismatic evangelical tendency known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which dominated Perry’s August 6th presidential campaign launch event, The Response, and whose top leaders advise burning Books of Mormon [http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/14/192516/418].
On Friday, October 7th 2011, Texas Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress introduced Rick Perry’s speech at the 2011 Family Research Council Voter Values Summit and endorsed presidential hopeful Perry (a key endorsement for Perry’s campaign according to the LA Times.) Perry’s presidential campaign specifically approved of the choice of Jeffress to introduce Perry’s speech at the event [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65467.html].
On the same day, pastor Jeffress attacked Mormonism, the faith of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney [http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/blunt-talk-about-mormonism-at-the-values-voter-summit/?hp%E2%80%9D]. As Jeffress stated in an interview with American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer, “We need to understand, it [Mormonism] is not Christianity, it is not a branch of Christianity, it is a cult”.
The Perry campaign, now in damage control mode, has responded with a statement that “The governor does not believe Mormonism is a cult.” But Perry’s ties to overtly anti-Mormon tendencies include his alliance with the rapidly growing movement on the charismatic evangelical right known as the New Apostolic Reformation, whose leading figure C. Peter Wagner has also labeled Mormonism a cult and whose top leaders (Wagner included) advise burning books of Mormon.
On September 28th, 2009, as described in an August 3, 2011 story in the Texas Observer, members of C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation blessed Governor Perry, in a private ceremony at the governor’s office in the Texas State House. On August 6th 2011, standing alongside Wagner apostle Alice Patterson (who has endorsed a book attacking Martin Luther King, Jr. [http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/10/5/185950/939/]), Rick Perry addressed (link to video of full Perry speech) tens of thousands assembled at Houston’s Reliant Stadium for The Response.
Within C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation, whose apostles overwhelmingly dominated Rick Perry’s August 6th, 2011 The Response prayer rally that served as Perry’s de facto presidential campaign launch event [http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/16/144354/102/], Mormonism is not only branded a cult; it is also doctrine within Wagner’s branch of the NAR movement that Books of Mormon, which according to Wagner “bring honor to the spirits of darkness”, should be doused with gasoline and burned.
There is no question as to the facts; repeatedly in their in-print books [http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/14/192516/418], Wagner and his top NAR movement leaders (including Cindy Jacobs, Ed Silvoso and Chuck Pierce) have detailed the need for believers to burn, smash, flush down toilets or otherwise destroy allegedly evil and idolatrous objects including Books of Mormon, statues of Catholic saints and rosary beads, and native art, such as ceremonial masks and totem poles.
Lists of items slated for destruction by Wagner’s movement include those associated with Mormonism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hinduism, eastern religions, Christian Science, native religions, and Baha’i. The movement also targets, for destruction, objects associated with the Catholic faith including statues of Catholic saints, crucifixes, and rosary beads.
At an October 2008 movement gathering in Argentina, top NAR apostle and prophet Cindy Jacobs told (link to video of Jacobs at event [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DakDS_7Z3bM#t=54s]) her audience at the conference, held by Peter Wagner’s close NAR movement Ed Silvoso,
“Pastors, sanctify your people! You go and you tell ‘em, if you have any idols in their homes we’re gonna to burn ‘em! If you have any witchcraft items in your homes, you bring ‘em Sunday and we’re gonna burn ‘em! We’re not gonna have witchcraft in this church!”
[below: screenshot from page 38 of C. Peter Wagner's book Hard-Core Idolatry: Facing The Facts (1999, Wagner Institute of Practical Ministry), which details objects to be burned]
[video, below: following 1:42 in this video, from a lecture C. Peter Wagner gave for his Wagner Leadership Institute course AP825, on the New Apostolic Reformation, Wagner describes Mormonism as a "cult" and "cultic".]

In the video above, while describing the sector of Christianity from which the NAR has emerged, Wagner shows a chart of world Christianity as defined in the World Christian Encyclopedia, by David Barrett. Wagner states,
“You have the Protestant and this is sometime called evangelical as well. This is where the Pentecostals and the Assemblies of God would be in one of David Barrett’s mega-blocks. And then you have the marginal Christians, which I tend to leave out because this is the Jehovah’s witnesses and the Mormons and that kind of cult, what we think is cultic, but he includes it in the whole thing.”
For more information and perspectives on the New Apostolic Reformation, see two recent full length segments of Terry Gross’ Fresh Air NPR show (1 [http://www.npr.org/2011/08/24/139781021/the-evangelicals-engaged-in-spiritual-warfare], 2 [http://www.npr.org/2011/10/03/140946482/apostolic-leader-weighs-religions-role-in-politics]), and also this collection of articles by author and researcher Rachel Tabachnick [http://www.talk2action.org/user/Rachel%20Tabachnick/stories].


2011-10-06 "Rick Perry's African-American Outreach Guru Endorsed Vicious Attack on MLK" by Bruce Wilson
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/rick-perrys-africanameric_b_997899.html]
[image, right: screen shot from page 81 of Willie Wooten's 2005 book Breaking The Curse Off Black America]
In 2005, Justice at The Gate ministry head Alice Patterson endorsed a 2005 book, by her fellow apostle Willie Wooten [http://nppnblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/city-impact-detroit-mi-breaking-curse.html], which blamed Martin Luther King, Jr. for an alleged 40-year curse on African Americans and provided, as documentation of King's alleged misdeeds, a website link to writing posted at a white supremacist, Holocaust denial website that calls for repeal of the 19th Amendment. [http://web.archive.org/web/20050219121207/http://christianparty.net/mlk.htm] [http://web.archive.org/web/20050401034651/http://christianparty.net/holocaust.htm] [http://web.archive.org/web/20050321033042/http://christianparty.net/19th.htm]
Since 2002 Alice Patterson, working closely with Houston pastor and civil rights leader C.L. Jackson, and history revisionist David Barton, has brought a stirring message to African Americans: the Republican Party is on their side and always has been.
In her 2010 book Bridging The Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation, Patterson claimed that such efforts have helped to boost Rick Perry's take of the black vote in Texas, from the Republican national average of 9 percent, up to 16 percent for Perry, who in 2004 praised Patterson, Jackson, and Barton in an official governor's speech [http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/10415/].
On August 6th, 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry stood onstage alongside C. Peter Wagner's ICA apostle Alice Patterson and pastor C.L. Jackson, while Perry gave his speech (video of Perry speech [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gyQjWDjRs4]) at The Response prayer event.
C. Peter Wagner, whose apostles dominated the event [http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/16/144354/102/], which served as Perry's de facto presidential campaign kickoff, told Fresh Air host Terry Gross, in an NPR interview aired October 3, 2011, that Alice Patterson had organized The Response, per Rick Perry's direct request [http://www.npr.org/2011/10/03/140946482/apostolic-leader-weighs-religions-role-in-politics].
If Rick Perry wins the Republican presidential nomination, Alice Patterson is positioned to play a key role in working to convince African Americans to vote for Perry, and her efforts would build upon aggressive efforts, by Wagner's ICA apostles, and leaders in the wider New Apostolic Reformation movement, to claim the mantle of "social justice" and the legacy Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement.

QUOTES -
"It is my belief that the leadership, who spearheaded the civil rights movement, released ungodliness into the land and now we see the fruit of it as a curse upon our land!" - Willie Wooten, author of Breaking The Curse Off Black America [2005, Lumen-us Publications] [http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Curse-off-Black-America/dp/097036119X]

"Apostle Willie F. Wooten from New Orleans, your friendship and leadership are dear to me. I honor and appreciate you." - Alice Patterson, from Bridging The Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation [emphasis in original], page 257

[below: quote from writing by Dr. Ed Fields, on web page linked to on page 81 of Wooten's book Breaking The Curse Off Black America]
"Martin Luther King was affiliated with 60 Communist Fronts. He openly incited violence under the banner of "non-violence". King led a bizarre sex life which included acts of shocking perversion... a cowardly, spineless Congress voted to make King's birthday a national holiday. This is the outrage of the century! Until now we had holidays honoring Jesus Christ, Christopher Columbus and George Washington. We must not allow Marxist liberals to elevate King to their level. The King holiday must be repealed!" - Writing by Dr. Ed Fields,. specifically cited in Wooten's book Breaking The Curse Off Black America (page 81), as posted on the www.christianparty.net website, under the title "ABOLISH THE KING HOLIDAY" [http://web.archive.org/web/20050219121207/http://christianparty.net/mlk.htm]

[below: quote from editorial introduction to writings attacking Martin Luther King, Jr., on web page linked to on page 81 of Wooten's book]
"None of the following articles make the obvious connection between the jewish control of the American "mainstream media" and an intentional effort to denigrate Martin Luther by promoting a black criminal with the phony name of "Martin Luther King" " - editorial introduction to writings on web page (posted at www.christianparty.net) referenced by Willie Wooten, on page 81 of Breaking the Curse Off Black America [http://web.archive.org/web/20050219121207/http://christianparty.net/mlk.htm]

[below: endorsement of Willie Wooten's book Breaking the Curse Off Black America, from Alice Patterson]
"One of the most powerful books I've ever read was penned recently by my friend, Apostle Willie Wooten from New Orleans, LA. It's called, Breaking the Curse Off Black America. God has given Apostle Wooten divine revelation... Apostle Wooten lays a Biblical foundation as he defines a curse then matches statistics to each characteristic. God showed him when the curse came in and why and how to break it... I encourage you to order the book from his church's website and pass it on to others who need to read this very important revelation. You can order his book at www.gideonchristianfellowship.org or by calling his church at (504) 947-4857. " - Endorsement of Wooten's book, by Alice Patterson, in August 2, 2005 post advertising a Detroit pastors event with C.L. Jackson and David Barton, titled "Breaking The Curse Off Black America". [http://nppnblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/city-impact-detroit-mi-breaking-curse.html]

[below: endorsements of Alice Patterson and her book Bridging The Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation, by Willie Wooten]
"RACE RELATIONS AND HIDDEN BLACK HISTORY are brought to light in this book by my good friend, Alice Patterson. She presents a thorough, incisive, serious, and compelling story about how God dealt with her concerning racism, repentance, and reconciliation. Alice's heartfelt story reveals the principles she learned, the evil structures she discovered, and God-given strategies to dismantle the structures." - Willie F. Wooten, Author of Breaking The Curse Off Black America, from the back cover of Alice Patterson's book Bridging The Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation [2010, Transformational Publications, a division of Harvest Evangelism, Inc.]

"In this book, my good friend, Alice Patterson, the granddaughter of a deceased Ku Klux Klan member, presents a thorough, incisive, serious, and compelling story about how God dealt with her concerning racism. Alice tells the heartfelt story of the principles she learned, the evil structures she discovered, and reveals the God-given strategies to dismantle the structures. This book touches on race relations, politics, hidden Black history, and most of all, repentance and reconciliation. A wealth of information can be learned from this rich and interesting study." - Willie F. Wooten endorsement of Alice Patterson's Bridging The Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation, as posted on Patterson's Justice at The Gate ministry website [http://www.justiceatthegate.org/]
Willie Wooten is not a peripheral figure in Alice Patterson's ethnic outreach program. Until a few weeks ago, Alice Patterson's Justice At The Gates ministry website was selling CDs and DVDs with footage from a massive March 12-13, 2007 "African American Pastors' and Leaders' VIP Summit" event in Austin, TX attended, by some accounts, by hundreds of pastors and headlined, according to the description from Patterson's website, by Patterson, Wooten, former Secretary of Education Rod Paige, Governor Rick Perry, Dr. James Leininger, and others.
Rick Perry's official Texas Governor's website features a speech Perry gave at the 2007 Austin rally [http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/9407/]. As described on Patterson's website, Wooten and Patterson were the third and fourth speakers at the event:
"Apostle Willie Wooten recounted how God called a small church in New Orleans to impact the Louisiana Legislature. Alice Patterson shared about her family history with the Ku Klux Klan, repented and asked God to heal hearts and break bondages. Every speaker delivered a fresh word under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. From the opening prayers to the worship to information about policy and political issues, God's blessing was upon the entire meeting"
Currently under heavy attack for allegedly racist ties, presidential hopeful Rick Perry can point to his aggressive promotion of African-Americans to Texas government, his friendship with a least one significant civil rights leader (C.L. Jackson), and his close association with the ethnic and racial outreach effort led by Alice Patterson, former Texas state GOP chair Susan Weddington, C.L. Jackson, and David Barton--built around theatrical events featuring Alice Patterson's emotional public repentance for her grandfather's participation in the Ku Klux Klan.
While some media outlets have tried to depict her personal history as a stigma for Rick Perry, Alice Patterson's repentance for racism resonates both with secular American culture and with a deep evangelical tradition of repentance and redemption that resonates across racial, ethnic, and cultural lines.
In mythic America, citizens can always pick up the pieces, and start anew; in evangelical culture, even the most depraved of sinners, who sincerely repent, are forgiven and redeemed. The worse the sin, the greater the triumphal redemption.
Patterson's outreach events to African American pastors, not only in Texas but reaching at least as far afield as Detroit, seem so far to have proven successful. But these events are designed around evangelizing techniques, developed by leaders in C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation, commonly referred to under the title "Identificational Repentance and Reconciliation", that drag a host of divisive and offensive theological concepts in tow, including the idea that entire "people groups", including ethnic and racial groups, can (and usually do) carry collective "generational curses" incurred by alleged ancestral misdeeds.
For example, following Rick Perry's The Response prayer event, leading Wagner prophet and ICA apostle Cindy Jacobs claimed [http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jacobs-response-broke-curse-native-american-cannibals] that the event had lifted an ancient, ancestral curse over parts of Texas incurred because of Native American cannibalism and violence (video of Jacobs, making claim [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsTiOzpSeU].)
One of the major professional bodies in Peter Wagner's NAR is the International Coalition of Apostles, which Wagner headed from its 2001 launch into the year 2010. While Wagner's European-American ICA apostles seldom seem to delve into the vilification of racial and ethnic groups, non-white ICA apostles can be found venturing astonishing attacks, including ICA apostle Kim Daniels' suggestion, made on page 98 of Daniels' 2002 book From A Mess To A Miracle (2002, Creation House Press, a part of Strang Communications Company) that Africans are unusually prone to sex with demons (see here, for quote [http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/5/105539/4398].)
In a related vein, Barbara Robinson Smith, who serves under the "apostolic covering" of ICA apostles Jacquie Tyre and Venessa Battle, claims, in her book Breaking Racism at The Root (2007, Xulon Press), that the continent of Africa is collectively cursed because of, as described in the Bible, the Egyptian pharaoh's enslavement of the ancient Israelites.


2011-09-30 "It 'could come back to haunt him': Rick Perry's alleged ties to 'demon seeing' and KKK-linked religious leader could derail campaign" from "Daily Mail" newspaper
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043435/Rick-Perrys-alleged-ties-demon-seeing-KKK-linked-religious-leader-derail-campaign.html]
Rick Perry's possible link to a religious 'apostle' known for incendiary remarks may have a serious impact on his 2012 White House bid.
Alice Patterson helped organize a religious rally - dubbed 'The Response' - last month, and was even embraced by Gov Perry on stage.
But Patterson, who serves as ‘an apostle’ with the New Apostolic Reformation, and her beliefs may cost the 2012 presidential hopeful.
Mrs Patterson, whose grandfather was in the Ku Klux Klan, now focuses on ‘racial healing.'
In her 2010 book, Bridging the Racial & Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation, Mrs Patterson ripped gays and former president George W Bush for appointing 'an open homosexual to high office.'
She was referring to Scott Evertz, who served on the White House Office of National AIDS policy under Mr Bush.
In another excerpt from her book, she wrote: 'Lord, Father, what is the demonic structure behind the Democratic Party?'
Forrest Wilder, a journalist for the Texas Observer who attended the The Response, told the Enquirer that Gov Perry’s connection with Mrs Patterson and her group could be more intimate than some may think.
Mr Wilder said: 'Not only did Perry embrace Patterson, he mentioned that they’ve often prayed together.'
He added: 'His relationship with them could come back to haunt him.'
Rachel Tabachnik, a journalists and expert on the New Apostalic Reformation told the Enquirer: 'Gov Perry’s public embrace of the movement is unprecedented and a decision that could backfire.’
It would not be the first time a religious figure stirred the pot on the campaign trail.
President Obama's 2008 campaign was nearly shattered after the rants of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright hit the airwaves.
Rev Wright argued in one sermon that the 9/11 attacks were evidence that 'America’s chickens are coming home to roost' before saying 'not God Bless America! God Damn America!'
President Obama later cut all ties to the radical reverend.
A political insider told the Enquirer: 'Wright almost destroyed Obama’s chances, and Patterson could do the same for Perry.'




2011-10-14 "Oklahoma Republican Thinks Gays Out to Kill Her" by Paul Canning
[http://www.care2.com/causes/oklahoma-republican-thinks-gays-out-to-kill-her.html]
Infamous Oklahoma Republican state legislator Sally Kern now says she fears LGBT human rights campaigners may kill her over her homophobic views.
Earlier this year Kern claimed that homosexuality has killed more people in the US than terrorism [http://www.care2.com/causes/rep-sally-kern-gays-more-of-a-threat-than-terrorism.html]. For that, she got a standing ovation from fellow Republicans in Oklahoma [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080311_1_A9_hUnde16804].
She also thinks that “women usually don’t want to work as hard as a man.” [http://www.care2.com/causes/oklahoma-representative-women-dont-want-to-work-as-hard-as-men.html]
She has blamed gay marriage and President Obama’s official acknowledgment of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month for the economic crisis [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20090702_12_0_hrimgs503529].
She claims that ‘several city councils across the country have been taken over by gay people.’ [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20090702_12_0_hrimgs503529]
Now, she claims to feel “physical fear” when she reads emails criticizing her views.
She claims to have received death threats that caused her to hire a bodyguard [http://web.archive.org/web/20080412082101/http://www.cwfa.org/articles/14871/CFI/misc/index.htm]. But the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation officer who reviewed Kern’s emails said, “I wouldn’t characterize them as death threats.”
Appearing on the conservative religious radio show WallBuilders Live to sell her book ‘The Stoning of Sally Kern’, she told hosts David Barton and Rick Green that “fear gripped my whole body” when LGBT people complained about her comparing them to terrorists and telling fellow Republicans that the “homosexual agenda is destroying this nation.”
Apparently Mr and Mrs Kern “asked ourselves the question, are we willing to even lose our lives over this?”
rightwingwatch.org posted the audio of her saying [http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/barton-kern-stoke-fears-gays-and-lesbians-threaten-lives-critics]:
“I have to be honest with you Rick, when I was sitting there in my car that day and when she told me that those emails were coming from homosexuals, honestly, fear gripped by whole body, because I was very aware of the homosexual lobbyists and the power that they have. And people say, ‘oh you’re so brave, so heroic,’ but I’m not, I’m just a sinner saved by grace and I was gripped with fear that day. I just said, ‘Lord, what have I done?’
“Honestly, and I mentioned this in the book, the Saturday night when my husband and I sit down and really talked about this and prayed about it, when we asked ourselves the question, are we willing to even lose our lives over this? I can’t tell you, Rick, how liberating that was, it really was."
Speaking last month to Peter LaBarbera (aka ‘Porno Pete‘ [http://www.care2.com/causes/joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/12/porno-pete-anthem.html]) of the hate group (according to the Southern Poverty Law Center) Americans for Truth, Kern said:
“You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS?
“In the last 20 years, 15 to 20 years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat?
“And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean."
She added: “It’s [homosexuality] more dangerous [than terrorism], and yes I think that it’s also more dangerous because it will tear down the moral fibre of this nation.”


2011-10-18 "Tennessee Commission Gives Family Planning Contract to Religious Health Group" by Robin M.
[http://www.care2.com/causes/tennessee-family-planning-contract.html]
If you want low cost birth control around the Memphis area, you had better be willing to put up with a little proselytizing while you get it. The Shelby County commission has voted 9 to 4 to take their Title X funding away from Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region and instead give it to Christ Community Health Services, a Christian religious health care organization that “will provide high-quality health care to the underserved in the context of distinctively Christian service.”
So what will change for those who need contraception? First of all, Emergency Contraception will no longer be available on site due to “religious objections,” despite the fact that EC is not an abortifacient. They will instead offer it through a “third party,” which will delay the amount of time it will take for a woman to get the medication, making it much more likely she will miss the window of the few days that the preventative drug can work.
Also new to former Planned Parenthood patients? The sermons that may accompany their health screenings and birth control pickups. One Christ Community patient testified at the commission that, “[S]he received a plastic box of birth control pills that she held up before the audience. She said Christ Community provides high-quality medical services, but that they sometimes come with a ‘sermon.’ She said that she had once been told: ‘If only my relationships with people and God were right, I would have fewer health problems.’” [http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/oct/17/shelby-county-commission-votes-family-planning-con/]
And of course, you can forget any sort of referral if you do decide you want an abortion, or even a follow up with a clinic that is associated with abortions. Christ Community Health Services’ lead physician made it clear that “staffers will not direct patients to abortion clinics or make formal referrals to providers who terminate pregnancies.”
But don’t worry. They said they’ll still love you and will see you if you come back for a follow up after having one. Just be ready for a little more preaching.


2011-10-17 "Cindy Jacobs: "We're on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade" by God Discussion Reporter
[http://www.goddiscussion.com/82970/cindy-jacobs-were-on-the-verge-of-overturning-roe-v-wade/]
Cindy Jacobs, "apostle" and "prophet" of Generals International says, "We're on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade."
Jacobs has excitedly announced "Reformation Day" where "thousands of people" will participate in intercessory prayer hosted live on the Internet. She and other New Apostolic Reformation / 7 Mountains Dominionist leaders, such as Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Sam Rodriguez and C. Peter Wagner, will be "giving the word of the Lord" and preparing the nation for the 2012 elections.
According to the Reformation Day web page [http://www.generals.org/reformationday], "… recent weather reports of hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes are signs that the earth is groaning for the revelation of the Sons of God."
"I believe if we ever needed intercession, it is right now," proclaimed Jacobs, urging people to cry out to God. "Help us turn our nations to righteousness. [...] Can you imagine thousands of people, through the miracle of technology, will be interceding together to bring a reformation to Biblical values — pro-life, pro-Biblical defense of marriage, we are so excited! We believe here in the United States, we are on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade."


Reformation Day 2011 from Generals International on Vimeo.

2011-10-11 "Jim Wallis to Religion Reporters: Stop Stereotyping Evangelicals" by Napp Nazworth from "The Christian Post"
[http://www.christianpost.com/news/jim-wallis-to-religion-reporters-stop-stereotyping-evangelicals-57788/]
Jim Wallis, President of Sojourners, urged religion reporters to stop stereotyping evangelicals in an op-ed for The Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/defining-%3Ca%20href='/topics/evangelicals/'%20class='topicLine'%3Eevangelicals%3C/a%3E-in_b_987893.html].
A group of activists and bloggers responded with an open letter to Wallis claiming that his charge is “unfair and unsubstantiated.” [http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2011/10/wallis-letter-october-2011.pdf]
“Millions of evangelicals are neither conservative Republicans, part of the Religious Right, nor members of the tea party, and they don't believe that Christian 'Dominionists' or any other religious group, should take over America – despite what a rash of recent articles and commentaries have said,” Wallis wrote in his Sept. 29 editorial for The Huffington Post.
Some liberal news publications have tried to advance the notion that politically conservative Christians are influenced by “dominionist” theology which seeks to impose an Old Testament “theocracy” onto the American public. The charge has been widely rebuked by conservatives.
With Wallis' article, and a USA Today editorial by religion reporter Mark Pinsky [http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-09-18/evangelical-christians-republicans/50457192/1], which Wallis cited in his article, voices from the left side of the political spectrum have now also debunked the claims.
A profile of presidential candidate Michele Bachmann by Ryan Lizza for The New Yorker brought the issue to the fore [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/15/110815fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all]. In that article, Lizza erroneously attributes Christian Reconstructionsim, or what he calls “dominionism,” to influential evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer.
As with many evangelicals of her generation, Bachmann was influenced by Shaeffer's work. Bachmann, by extension, must be a “dominionist,” Lizza concludes.
“We have the most theocratic Republican field in American history,” Michelle Goldberg wrote in an Aug. 24 column for The Daily Beast, a liberal website [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/14/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perry-s-dangerous-religious-bond.html]. Goldberg used Lizza's article to support her claims.
The belief that Christian Republican candidates are “closet theocrats” influenced by “reconstructionist” theology is common in the liberal blogosphere. Due to lack of empirical evidence or scholarly research on the topic, the mainstream press has largely ignored the claims.
“I'm as left wing a Democrat as they come, and I have lived among and reported on evangelicals for nearly 20 years. Let me tell you, this sensational, misleading mishegas [Yiddish for 'craziness'] has got to stop,” Pinsky wrote.
A group of liberal bloggers and activists have written an open letter to Wallis condemning his op-ed and his praise for Pinsky's words.
“You may recognize some of us as people who have written in recent years about such tendencies in modern Christian evangelicalism as dominionism, apocalyptic demonization, Christian Reconstructionism, and the New Apostolic Reformation. We see these forces as playing a significant role in our religious and political lives,” the letter states.
“These exclusionary Christian movements and tendencies are real, overlapping, and significant in evangelicalism specifically and in our political and electoral culture at large. We invite our readers to consider that there are aspects to these movements and tendencies that are profoundly problematic, and we invite you to consider that as well.”
Neither Lizza nor Goldberg signed the letter. At least three of the signers work for American's United for Separation of Church and State, which appears to be the main group behind the letter.
In a blog post introducing the letter, Rob Boston, Senior Policy Analyst for American's United, repeated the false claim that “Christian Reconstructionists like the late Rousas John Rushdoony laid the intellectual groundwork for today’s Religious Right.” [http://blog.au.org/2011/10/06/special-delivery-fourteen-writers-remind-jim-wallis-that-the-religious-right-is-a-real-problem/]
There has been no response from Wallis on the Sojourner's website. Wallis was traveling on Monday and unavailable to provide a response to The Christian Post.


2011-09-22 "Dominion Denial: Methinks Chuck Colson Doth Protest Too Much"
[http://blog.au.org/2011/09/22/dominion-denial-methinks-chuck-colson-doth-protest-too-much/]
Do Religious Right zealots want to take “dominion” in America and govern according to their version of biblical law?
Of course they do. But all of a sudden, leaders of the movement say they don’t. Stung by a series of articles exposing the dominionist agenda, they are desperately trying to rebrand themselves as moderates.
Take Chuck Colson, for example.
In a Sept. 7 column [http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/17786], Colson heatedly denied that he and his camp want a fundamentalist Christian theocracy.
“Now, there are such things as Christian theocrats, usually called ‘theonomists,’ but they’re a tiny fringe,” he wrote. “The people being labeled ‘theocrats’ and ‘Dominionists’ by the press today don’t want the United States governed by a Christian equivalent of sharia law. Like, Dr. [Martin Luther] King, they simply believe that their religious positions and moral convictions don’t disqualify them from the public square.”
A week later, Colson returned to the topic [http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/17834]. He accused progressives of playing “six degrees of separation” with Religious Right leaders. Just because raging Christian Reconstructionist theocrat Rousas J. Rushdoony influenced Religious Right guru Francis Schaeffer who in turn influenced everyone in the modern-day Religious Right doesn’t mean, Colson says, that they all are Rushdoony-style theocrats.
“The people playing this game,” Colson asserted, “must appreciate how unfair this is…. Yet, they play on. Instead of engaging us on the level of ideas, they impugn our motives. Instead of asking us what we really think, they find some obscure crank and then draw lines linking us to him or her.”
Colson, of course, is partly right. Guilt by association is wrong. But when he claims that he and his fellow Religious Right leaders are not dominionists, he’s merely covering his tracks.
Colson knows that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the politicization of churches [http://blog.au.org/2011/08/25/prostituting-the-pulpit-religious-right-wants-churches-to-get-partisan-but-most-americans-don’t/] and support the separation of church and state [http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2011/09/constitution-mandates.html]. If he and his cronies are too candid about their agenda, Americans are certain to reject it.
But that doesn’t mean Colson isn’t a dominionist. In friendly settings, he has freely admitted it.
In June 2007, Colson addressed the pastors conference of the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination dominated by fundamentalists. (The speech was reported at EthicsDaily.com [http://www.ethicsdaily.com/colson-warns-southern-baptists-about-islam-atheism-cms-9040].)
“What is our purpose in life?” Colson asked. “It is to restore the fallen culture to the glory of God. It’s to take command and dominion over every aspect of life, whether it’s music, science, law, politics, communities, families – to bring Christianity to bear in every single area of life.”
Hmmm. “Take command and dominion over every aspect of life.”
Now, forgive me for taking Colson’s own words seriously, but that sounds like dominionism to me.
And Colson is no “obscure crank.” He’s the reigning elder statesman of the Religious Right, a major player whose books, columns and training programs have widespread influence in the movement.
Other Religious Right leaders have used similar theocratic language.
I don’t think all of them want to impose a Rushdoony-style theocracy on America. Frankly, too many of them have strayed to favor the death penalty for acts of adultery and homosexuality.
I do think they want to tear down the wall of separation between church and state so they can fund religious schools and other ministries with taxpayer dollars, pervade public schools with their religious perspective, ban all abortions, deny basic civil rights to the LGBT community and festoon courthouses and other public buildings with the symbols of their faith.
That may not be the definition of full-blown theocracy, but it’s too close to it for my tastes. Sorry, Chuck. We aren’t mischaracterizing your agenda. We’re exposing it.
And one more thing, Chuck: You’re no Martin Luther King. Dr. King worked to expand civil rights for all Americans. He didn’t try to impose a sectarian agenda that denied basic liberties to others. Stop comparing your movement to his. It’s offensive.


2011-09-21 "Billionaire Bishop Charged With Bilking Brazil's Pentacostals, Sending Money to US" by Eric Ehrmann
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-ehrmann/edir-macedo_b_973562.html]
Tagging her "Dynamite Dilma," Newsweek is giving Americans a closer look at the first woman leader to open a session of the UN General Assembly on the cover of their latest edition. But back in Brazil she's setting off political pyrotechnics with a tough anti-corruption campaign that could mean hard time for leaders of faith-based groups who preach the evils of government while sticking the hand of god into the cookie jar.
After a long investigation by the federal police Brazil's attorney general is finally litigating the big fraud and racketeering case against the self-anointed Pentecostal Bishop Edir Macedo, founder and leader of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). With a net worth estimated at $2 billion and a cathedral and palatial home in Miami, Bishop Macedo's fortune equals that of Manhattan real estate tycoon Donald Trump.
The billionaire bishop wields considerable political influence through his 90 percent ownership of Rede Record, one of the largest privately held media organizations in the Americas. According to Brazilian and English websites Rede Record reaches over 170 nations on five continents and maintains an affiliate relationship with Atlanta-based CNN International. While families struggle to pay high fees to cable TV operators content offered by TV Record penetrates 77% of Brazilian households as an open channel, free to all. Bishop Macedo is Brazil's most popular televangelist.
Baptized a Roman Catholic, Macedo worked for the national lottery before founding his church in 1976, inspired by the teachings of Canadian Pentacostal Bishop Bob Macelester. He then developed his personal brand of preaching called "prosperity theology" which gained him favor with the US-backed military junta because it countered the Catholic doctrines of liberation theology that were popular among Brazil's militant left.
Bishop Macedo, former congressman Bishop João Batista Ramos da Silva and two other senior churchmen must now prove that they are innocent of forming a quadrilha, the Brazilian equivalent of a RICO rap. They are charged with conspiracy, money laundering, tax evasion, capital flight to US and other offshore banks and defrauding UCKG members.
Bishop Ramos da Silva was apprehended by authorities at the Brasília airport accompanying seven suitcases containing 10 million reals in cash. Veja magazine has reported that the found money represented tithes made by economically disadvantaged UCKG members to support church projects they were told would increase their personal wealth.
Because it involves an Apostolic Pentecostal denomination operating in a nation where the Roman Catholic church is the official religion the case of the billionaire bishop presents a strong test for the fabric of Brazil's constitutional republic and the politics of social inclusion implemented by Dilma and former president Lula.
As a frequent public critic of Roman Catholics and Afro-Brazilian religions Bishop Macedo has molded his 8 million Apostolic followers into a spiritual army who seek to convert or exclude -- not include -- people who do not hold their beliefs. They are crusading for the same theocratic agenda proffered by the predominantly Caucasian American New Apostolic Reformation movement that is backing Texas republican governor Rick Perry in his bid to unseat president Barack Obama in the 2012 US election.
The visceral, theocratic stage presence of Macedo and Perry hearkens back to the windup and pitch pioneered by former Major League Baseball star and Apostolic evangelist Billy Sunday, who dazzled Americans during Prohibition, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.
Brazil's 12 million followers of the US-guided Assemblies of God church also support the key messages voiced by Macedo and Perry, notably downsizing government infrastructure, crushing organized labor, replacing public education with fundamentalist religious schooling, chastising gays are sinners and denying women the right to choose. A corruption scandal involving an Assemblies of God pastor recently resulted in dozens of arrests and caused the resignation of the minister for tourism from Dilma's cabinet.
The most contentious anti-Catholic act committed by Bishop Macedo's church featured Bishop Sergio von Helde captured by the scientific miracle of television beating on and cursing a statue of Brazil's patron saint Our Lady Aparecida, on the national holiday honoring her. Bishop Macedo issued a generic apology, then counter-attacked, blaming Rede Globo, his main competitor in the open channel TV market for exploiting the event to boost its market share.
The Aparecida affair, reminiscent of Templars who were burned at the stake for spitting on the image of Jesus after losing control of the Holy Land, touched off a national conversation in Brazil speculating on whether the billionaire bishop is an agent of Freemasonry that continues to be fueled by mainstream and online media.
Amping up the conspiratorial tone of the coverage, the Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/13/brazil-church-embezzling-millions-poor] has even reported that Bishop Macedo, who praises John D. Rockefeller and other "robber barons" in his sermons, has received funding from Rockefeller interests. Portugal, which colonized Brazil was the only European nation to not ban the Templars and Freemasonry after the pullback from the Holy Land and the Inquisition. Like the Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, the Templars and Freemasonry have factions and agendas that cut both ways. But in Macedo's case, regardless of his side-beliefs, his methods are an impediment to inter-faith dialogue in Brazil and represent extremism in a global economy facing unstable institutions.
As the world's largest Roman Catholic nation, Brazil is well placed to provide a candidate who could be selected as the next Pope. But if justice in the case against Bishop Macedo and his quadrilha is not definitive and he maneuvers out of charges or makes deals with prosecutors -- as he has done in the past -- he could rebound with a coalition of followers who seek to damage Brazil's reputation in Catholic circles world-wide. His ability to provide media coverage to favored politicians and NGOs could cause problems for Dilma's tenuous coalition in the run up to the 2014 presidential vote.
If one accepts the concept of manufactured faith, Bishop Macedo and his mystical theocratic visions are transforming Brazil's Pentecostals into a religion on steroids. Ironically, his $200 million replica of The Temple of Solomon that was used by the Templars in Jerusalem has drawn praise from some Jewish groups in the US and is scheduled to open in São Paulo before Brazil hosts the 2014 World Cup, during the heat of the next presidential election campaign.


2011-08-25 "Rachel Tabachnick talks dominionism on Fresh Air (and why you should be paying attention)" by Alan Bean
[http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/rachel-tabachnick-talks-dominionism-on-fresh-air-and-why-you-should-be-paying-attention/]
Are Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann part of a movement determined to forcibly Christianize every aspect of American culture?
If so, why does a blog dedicated to ending mass incarceration care one way or the other?
If Rachel Tabachnick is anything to go by, the answer to the first question is ‘yes’. Tabachnick knows more about the dominionist strain within contemporary evangelicalism than just about anybody and you simply must check out her recent interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Air. [https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=139781021])
I am still thinking through my answer to the “so what” question (and will have more to say on the subject as my thinking clarifies); but the rough outline of an answer came to me yesterday when a reporter asked me why Louisiana (unlike Texas and Mississippi) has done nothing to reform its criminal justice system.
The avuncular visage of Burl Cain sprang to mind. Cain is slowly transforming the Angola prison plantation into a spiritual rehabilitation center. Inmates (90% of them in for life) are repeatedly invited to get right with Jesus. Life becomes a whole lot easier if they take the offer.
Then I thought of Ann Richards, the progressive Texas Governor who, during her ill-fated re-election campaign against George W. Bush, told the voters that she wanted to build more prisons so folks with addiction issues could get rehabilitated.
Burl Cain and his Louisiana fan club want to lock up more people every year so earnest evangelists can have a captive audience.
Friends of Justice works in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, three states that are gradually backing away from the punitive consensus that has controlled the American judicial system for more than three decades. Texas was embarrassed into rethinking mass incarceration through a series of scandals: Tulia (the bizarre drug bust that gave birth to Friends of Justice), Hearne (the American Violet story), the Dallas Sheetrock scandal, the Houston crime lab, the Texas Youth Commission fiasco, an incredible string of DNA exonerations in Dallas County and Governor Perry’s botched attempt to silence the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Thanks to a series of modest reforms, the Texas prison population has now plateaued in the 160,000 range (it was 40,000 in 1980) and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.
Mississippi experienced a 3.5% drop in its prison population in a single year by deciding that inmates must only serve 25% of sentences before being eligible for parole (it had been 85%).
The old “lock ‘em up” mentality is beginning to soften even in the state that boasts the highest incarceration rate in the free world. Folks in Louisiana want to lock up as many people as possible out of a misdirected sense of compassion. After all, isn’t it better to find Jesus in jail than to live an unregenerate life in the free world? We don’t hate criminals in Louisiana; we just want what’s best for them.
This is precisely the kind of theocratic logic that politicians like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann have embraced. They want to Christianize the nation (by force if necessary) the way Burl Cain has Christianized the Angola plantation. And if the liberals presently controlling Hollywood, the recording industry, the public school system, the evening news and the political life of the nation don’t want to be Christianized, that’s just too bad. Michelle, Sarah, Rick et al are God’s anointed apostles. At Angola, to oppose Burl Cain is to oppose God; the New Apostolic Reformation wants to extend this kind of thinking to every aspect of our national life.
Do the politicians currently feeding at the trough of radical religion really believe that the eclectic vitality of a diverse nation can be homogenized by the blood of the Lamb? Maybe not. But they want to push the political envelope as far in that direction as the public will allow. In these strange times, it’s smart politics.
If you think I’m overstating the case, please read Ms. Tabachnick’s conversation with Terry Gross.

The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare
August 24, 2011 - TERRY GROSS, host:
This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross.
An emerging Christian movement that seeks to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus is establishing a presence in American politics. The leaders are considered apostles and prophets, gifted by God for this role.
The International Apostolic and Prophetic Movement was named the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, by its leading architect, C. Peter Wagner. My guest, Rachel Tabachnick, has been researching and writing about this movement. She says although the movement is larger than the network of apostles organized by Wagner, and not all those connected with the movement describe themselves as part of Wagner’s NAR, the apostles and prophets of the movement have an identifiable ideology that separates them from other Evangelicals.
Two ministries in the movement, The Call, led by Lou Engle, and the International House of Prayer, led by Mike Bickle, helped organize Rick Perry’s recent prayer rally, where apostles and prophets from around the nation spoke or appeared on stage.
The Kenyan pastor who anointed Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church in 2005 while praying for Jesus to protect her from the spirit of witchcraft is also part of this movement.
My guest, Rachel Tabachnick, researches the impact of the religious right and end-time narratives on American politics. She writes for the website Talk To Action.
Rachel Tabachnick, welcome to FRESH AIR. For people who haven’t heard about the New Apostolic Reformation, and I’d say that’s the majority of the people, overwhelmingly, what are some of the basic beliefs or goals of this group?

Ms. RACHEL TABACHNICK: I would say the basic belief began with the idea of dominionism, and dominionism is simply that Christians of this belief system must take control over all the various institutions of society and government. They have some unusual concepts of what they call spiritual warfare that have not been seen before in other groups.
Spiritual warfare is a common term in Evangelicalism and in Christianity, but they have some unique approaches and unique spins on this that distinguish them from other groups.

GROSS: And that literally have to do with casting demons out of people and religious and…

Ms. TABACHNICK: They use this in terms of evangelizing. So whereas we might be accustomed with the idea of saving souls, of missionaries or evangelical work to save individual souls; they believe that they can, through this demon warfare, take control over entire communities, or perhaps nations or people groups, an ethnic group, a religious group and so forth, because they believe that they are doing spiritual warfare at this higher level against these demonic principalities, what they call demonic principalities.

GROSS: So I’ve been reading about the New Apostolic Reformation. Tell me if you think that I’ve gotten this right at all. My understanding is that they are a group that believes in the end times, that there will be a second coming of Christ, that certain things need to be accomplished on Earth before he comes, and that it’s their job – it’s the job of the apostles to listen to what Jesus is telling them so that they can get the world ready for his second coming. Yes?

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes, what this group believes is that they must re-organize Protestant Christianity under their leadership. So instead of having all of these different denominations in Protestantism, they would unify the church, the Protestant Church, into one body under the leadership of their apostles.
And then the other thing that distinguishes them is this idea that in order to do this, they must take control over society and government and that they will do this in large part through this warfare that they are conducting with demons.

GROSS: So how does this new movement, the New Apostolic Reformation, connect to American politics?

Ms. TABACHNICK: This is a very political movement. In fact, I would call it a religio-political movement in that it has networked across the United States in something that looks like a hybrid between a religious denomination and a political party.
For example, they have what are called prayer warrior networks in all 50 states, and they have very strong opinions about the direction they want the country to take. They teach what is called dominionism. And the idea of dominionism, or dominion theology, is that all areas of society and government should come under the control of God through these apostles and prophets, and that all of these areas of society should represent Christian and biblical values.
They have interesting campaigns. One that’s been very successful for the last few years is called the Seven Mountains campaign. And what this means is they teach that they are reclaiming the seven mountains of culture and society. And those mountains are arts and entertainment, business, education, family, government, media and religion.
And business is considered to be one of the most important mountains to reclaim control because this is the way that they finance the other mountains.

GROSS: So when they want to, like, reclaim government or politics, what does that mean?

Ms. TABACHNICK: They teach, quite literally, that these mountains have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society. And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth.

GROSS: And what are some of the major issues that they think are important?

Ms. TABACHNICK: Well, the typical religious right hot-button issues, if you will, anti-abortion, anti-gay rights – but they also have a laissez-faire market ideology, the belief that government should not be involved in social safety nets, that the country is becoming socialist, if not communist – so a Tea Party mentality.

GROSS: And I think that they also advocate – tell me if I’m wrong here – the privatization of schools – the school system.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes. All of the typical, you know, what we’ve come to call Tea Party issues of very small government. And in the case of the apostles, they believe this because they believe that a large government or government that handles the safety net is taking away what is the domain of the church and of Christianity.

GROSS: And what kind of authority do they want in government?

Ms. TABACHNICK: They want the authority to align government with what they believe is the kingdom of God, with biblical values in their interpretation.
Let me back up and say something about dominionism. Dominionism is very different than having strong beliefs or even having very strong beliefs about one’s Evangelical values. Dominionism is very controversial inside of the conservative and Evangelical world. It’s a specific theology that states that somehow God lost control of the Earth when Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden and that humans must help God regain control of the Earth. And the way that they do this is by taking dominion over society and government.
The apostles and prophets have an interesting twist on this. They’re not the only dominionist movement out there. Some people may be familiar with Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism. This is a different brand of dominionism.
And the apostles teach what’s called strategic-level spiritual warfare with the idea being that the reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan.
And so they teach that not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we’re accustomed to hearing about, they teach that they will go into a geographic region or to a people-group and conduct these spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population or the demonic control over the entire population. And this is what they’re doing that’s quite different than other conservative Evangelical or fundamentalist groups of the past.

GROSS: My guest is Rachel Tabachnick. She writes about the impact of the religious right and end-time narratives on American politics. She has written about the New Apostolic Reformation for the website Talk To Action. We’ll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
(Soundbite of music)
GROSS: Let me re-introduce you. For our listeners just tuning in, my guest is Rachel Tabachnick. She’s a researcher and writer who focuses on the impact of the religious right on politics and of end-times narratives on politics.
So one of the reasons why the New Apostolic Reformation is of interest now is because several of the apostles from that movement were connected to the recent Rick Perry rally in Texas, the prayer rally, which was called The Response. A couple of apostles helped organize the rally. Several others endorsed it. So what is Rick Perry’s connection to the New Apostolic Reformation?

Ms. TABACHNICK: Well, looking at the event, not only were there apostles who endorsed it and participated in it, but although the event was funded, it was sponsored by the American Family Association, it was organized and led throughout by people from the New Apostolic Reformation.
And this included numerous leading apostles who were seen all through the event. The coordinators and people who led each section were from an event called The Call and which is associated with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.
So actually the event, from beginning to end, was a new apostolic event. And the major topics at these events, there are three major topics that you see as they take this event around the world, and that is usually anti-abortion, anti-gay rights and the conversion of Jews in order to advance the end times. And this was very visible at Perry’s event, as these apostles led all of these different prayers and repentance ceremonies at The Response.

FLATOW: You refer to the importance of Messianic Judaism in the end-times narrative that the apostles subscribe to, and you could hear that if you knew what to listen for at the Rick Perry rally when Rabbi Marty Waldman spoke and was introduced by Don Finto. And in introducing him, Finto said Waldman is the son of Holocaust survivors, but he’s come to acknowledge his own messiah. What does that mean?

Ms. TABACHNICK: Marty Waldman is a quite-well-known messianic rabbi in Texas. And by messianic, we mean Jews who have converted to Christianity, but they retain aspects – they retain a Jewish identity. So they may even retain many aspects of Jewish practice.

GROSS: This is a group that’s known in the vernacular as Jews for Jesus.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Jews for Jesus is only one group. I would argue that the network that the apostles have right now supporting messianic Jews dwarfs Jews for Jesus. It’s a much more extensive network.
And what was interesting about this was that apostle Don Finto, who introduced the prayer and introduced Marty Waldman, is an elder statesman in the movement who spent the last more than a decade working to encourage churches to support messianic ministries.
And the reason is that they believe that messianic Jews have a much better chance of converting Israeli Jews or Jews in various locations around the world than Christian Evangelicals. And so what they’re doing is promoting internationally, through all types of events and in magazines in the movement, promoting the idea that churches should, financially and in other ways, support messianic ministries in order to advance the conversion of Jews to Christianity and bring about the end times and the return of Jesus to the Earth.

GROSS: Yeah, how does the conversion of Jews to Christianity bring about the end times?

Ms. TABACHNICK: This is a different end-time narrative than what many people may have been familiar with that comes out of fundamentalism where the believers are raptured prior to the horrors of the end time and the rule of the Antichrist.
And this, the believers remain on Earth, and that’s one thing that makes it quite different. But another difference is what is holding Jesus back from coming to Earth is that there has to be a tipping point where a certain number of Jews in Israel reach out and call for Jesus to come as their messiah. And so that’s what they were referring to at this Rick Perry event.
Both Don Finto and Marty Waldman, who were there, are involved in a network of apostles in this movement that have set up messianic training centers around the world, in places where there are significant Jewish populations.

GROSS: So I don’t really know what to make of this, the fact that two people spoke in kind of covert language about the importance of Jews converting to Christianity and recognizing Jesus as their savoir so that Christ can return back to Earth in his second coming, the fact that that was expressed at a Rick Perry rally. I have no idea whether any of that reflects Rick Perry’s own views or not.

Ms. TABACHNICK: I don’t think there’s any way to know what Perry believes personally. What I can tell you is that this is a part of a larger package of themes that we saw throughout the entire event.
The basic idea of this event, as all The Call events, like this was patterned after, is the idea that in preparation for the end times, barriers will be broken down, and those barriers will come down between denominations in Protestantism, between generations, racial groups, and everyone will come together for the end times as what they call one new man.
So the idea is that you were doing all of these activities all around the country, interesting ceremonies, reconciliation ceremonies, to break down these barriers to bring everybody together under the banner of Jesus for the end times.
So a significant component of that is that the resistance of Jews to conversion is blocking this utopian period in the end times, the millennial in the end times, when there will not be poverty and death and corruption, environmental degradation, all of those things will disappear under the rule of Jesus.

GROSS: Are there other things that were said at the Rick Perry that would need to have some background to actually understand because it is a kind of a separate language, do you know what I mean? Like you wouldn’t really understand it unless you knew the context.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes, all through the event. The three major themes were the same as we’ve seen in The Call events around the world: One, anti-abortion, which was expressed with the terms shedding of innocent blood; two, anti-gay rights, which was expressed in repenting of sexual immorality; and then third the theme of converting Jews.
Also, if you were watching the event, you would have noticed that it was very much about personal repentance and what they called corporate repentance of the entire country. And this – but the idea of repentance is that they are repenting of being tolerant of sin. So they are repenting of being tolerant of abortion and repenting of being tolerant of what they call sexual perversion.

GROSS: So we don’t really know what Rick Perry’s own beliefs are on these issues, but we do know that when he spoke at his prayer rally, he was surrounded on each side by two of the apostles. Tell us a little bit about those apostles.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Well, one is an apostle, Alice Patterson. The other is a well-known African-American pastor, C.L. Jackson. Alice Patterson wrote a book, published last year, when she describes the journey that they have been with Perry since 2002.
And in this book, she explains that the Democratic Party is controlled by a demonic structure, and their mission was to travel around the state and to explain to African-American leaders why they should not be in the Democratic Party.
And on this journey with them was – and now I’m talking about Alice Patterson and C.L. Jackson, Perry personally – but as they went around the state since 2002, they had with them David Barton.
And David Barton is well-known for his histories in which he claims that the founding fathers had no intention of separation of church and state. One of his early books was called “The Myth of Separation.”
And he has a history in which he credits Democrats with being the source of racism throughout American history and conservative Evangelicals as being the source of fighting against slavery and for civil rights.
So they traveled around Texas. So this – delivering this message to African-American churches. So the fact that Alice Patterson and C.L. Jackson were standing with Perry was indeed politically significant.

GROSS: Rachel Tabachnick will be back in the second half of the show. She’s been writing about the New Apostolic Reformation for the website Talk To Action. I’m Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
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GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. We’re talking about an emerging evangelical movement that seeks to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus. The movement, dubbed the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, is establishing a presence in American politics. Two ministries in the movement, The Call, led by Lou Engle, and the International House of Prayer, led by Mike Bickle, helped organize Rick Perry’s recent prayer rally.
My guest Rachel Tabachnick has been writing about the New Apostolic Reformation for the website Talk To Action.
One of the people you may recognize who’s connected to the movement is Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan pastor who anointed Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church in 2005, while praying for Jesus to protect her from the spirit of witchcraft. A video of that went viral during the 2008 presidential campaign. I asked Tabachnick about Muthee’s connection to the NAR.

Ms. TABACHNICK: The New Apostolic Reformation has another campaign that’s been very successful and this is called Transformations. Transformation is the buzzword for bringing communities into dominion or gaining dominion over culture and government in a community. And the movement has put out transformation videos since 1999.
Thomas Muthee, who was what’s called anointing Sarah Palin in that grainy video, was a star of the first transformation movie. And what these movies did, they show vignettes of communities or locations around the globe which they believe have been transformed through the supernatural move of God. And the process is that they, the people in the community come together, repent, pray together, expel the demons from their community – which they describe in terms of witches and witchcraft – and then that the community undergoes a transformation in which there can be miraculous healing, the growth of very large vegetables and agricultural products, the end of corruption and crime.
What was totally missed by the press was the fact that Muthee was an international leader in the movement at the time and recognized because of his role in this series of videos. And people became quite fixated on the witchcraft part of it as opposed to looking at who Muthee was and understanding his role in a larger movement.
And then the other point I would make is that although this is a movement that has mostly organized independent charismatics – so that means charismatics who are not in a denomination – there are also Pentecostal churches, churches that are in denominations, that have embraced the very distinct ideology of the movement. And one of those churches is Wasilla Assembly of God where Sarah Palin attended for over 20 years, and leaders of the movement have been there frequently to speak. So who knows what Sarah Palin personally believes but she certainly had quite a bit of exposure to the movement.

GROSS: Now you write about this group that it looks multicultural because they’re reaching out to Native Americans, to African-Americans, Asian-American, Latinos. There are women apostles as well as men apostles, and they stress racial reconciliation. But you say they stress racial reconciliation while literally demonizing all other religions and belief systems. What do you mean?

Ms. TABACHNICK: One example would be in the transformation movies. In these vignettes, the participants do what’s called spiritual warfare and spiritual mapping in some of the movies. And this is an activity to isolate where the demons are and then to start doing what they call strategic level spiritual warfare against those demons.
Let me explain this concept of strategic level spiritual warfare. They teach that there are three levels of spiritual warfare. The first is ground level warfare, which is expulsion of demons exorcism, if you will, of demons from individuals. This is nothing new. We’ve seen this for centuries. They have a little – a controversial twist to it because they teach that born-again Christians can harbor these demons.
Then they have a second level called occult level spiritual warfare. This they say is fighting freemasonry, Eastern religions and witchcraft. Then there’s the third level, strategic level spiritual warfare, which is removing these principalities they call them, the most powerful demons that hold in spiritual bondage entire populations. And this might be a community, a geographic area, what they call a people group, an ethnic group or a religious group. They literally name these demons and then go on these excursions to fight these demons.

GROSS: So let me see if I understand this. Does that mean that these prayer groups are trying to exorcise mosques and get the demons out of mosques so that Muslims can convert to Christianity?

Ms. TABACHNICK: They see the demon as holding sway over a large area, so over not just the mosque but the entire people group. Let me give you a specific example about this and this is something that’s coming up this November. Several groups have come together for another The Call event which will be in Detroit on November 11th. And the purpose of this one is to fight the demonic spirit of Islam.
Now I was listening to a recording. They’re in preparation for this and this has been going on all throughout the year. And one of the leading apostles, and one who endorsed Perry’s event, was speaking in a conference call to a group, and they placed these recordings online, and explaining to them the way that they were preparing for The Call Detroit. And one of the things that they’re doing is they’re literally going and putting a stake in the ground with a verse from Jeremiah at every Masonic lodge in the state. They have a ceremony to fight the demons and then they put the stake in the ground.
This is the type of ceremony that’s been taking place all over the country. In all 50 states, ceremonies, which they call divorcing Baal – Baal being what the Israelites worshiped when they abandoned God in the Old Testament.

GROSS: So the event is in Detroit which is very near Dearborn, Michigan, which has I think the – or one of the largest populations of Muslims in the United States.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: Is that significant?

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes, that’s very significant. The purpose of that event is to fight the spirit of Islam. In other words, to conduct spiritual warfare against the demons which they claim hold Muslims in bondage and keep them from converting. Now, of course, this is expressed in terms of love. They say we don’t hate Muslims. We love Muslims but we hate that they are in spiritual bondage and don’t convert to Christianity.

GROSS: So do you think that the people at the rally intend to go to mosques or directly address Muslims in any way? Like I don’t know how much you know about what the plan is.

Ms. TABACHNICK: I don’t know of specific plans. I can give you examples from the past. In 2008, just before the election, they held one of The Call events in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. This was an event in support of Prop 8.

GROSS: Which was meant to make gay marriage illegal.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Correct. And so in the promotional material put out about the event, Lou Engle talked about that they had to come together and pray because this would unleash a spirit more demonic than Islam, was his words. And prior to that event they did have people who came into conflict with people in gay communities, because they did have people going out in the streets and evangelizing and so forth and there were some conflicts prior to that event.

And also I might add, by the end of that event which was another daylong event Lou Engle was calling for martyrs to the cause from the stage. So I am concerned about the ramifications of the event in Detroit.

GROSS: So when you say this event is intended to be spiritual warfare against the intent of Islam, are the organizers of this event publicly saying that?

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes. And in fact another person who has been there preparing for this event is Retired Lieutenant General William Boykin who is now part of the Oak Initiative. He does not announce himself as an apostle but he’s a part of this Oak Initiative which includes many of the leading apostles. And he has been going to Michigan and speaking about the nine principles of warfare. One of these principles is offense instead of defense, and he is advising people that they have to act to prevent mosques from being built before they are actually constructed.

GROSS: My guest is Rachel Tabachnick. She writes about the impact of the religious right and end time narratives on American politics. We’ll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
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GROSS: Now let me move on to Mike Bickle. He is the leader of what is known as the International House of Prayer and he was one of the organizers of Rick Perry prayer rally. And he is also semi-famous now for having described Oprah Winfrey as a forerunner of the harlot movement. He says she is winsome, kind, reasonable. She is utterly deceived. A classy woman, a cool woman but she has a spirit of deception and is one of the forerunners to the harlot movement. Just a brief translation of what you think he means by that.

Ms. TABACHNICK: He’s talking about the end times. And in the end times narrative there is what is called the Great Harlot or the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon, and this is a demonic figure in the end times. Throughout Protestant history this has sometimes been described as being the Roman Catholic Church. But it represents the apostate religion of the end time.
I might add Mike Bickle is one of the major thinkers in the movement. And his embrace of this particular type of ideology, which goes back to the 1940s and 1950s in something called the Latter Rain Movement, but his embrace of this ideology predates the coalescing of the New Apostolic Reformation. Mike Bickle was part of what was referred to by others as the Kansas City Prophets at Metro Christian Fellowship in the 1980s and 1990s. And his embrace of this ideology was very controversial, even among other independent charismatics at that time.

GROSS: Now Mike Bickle has what he calls the God School. And on his website he has the literature from the God School which you can read or watch videos of, and I just want to quote some of that. This is from the chapter “The Harlot Babylon: The One World Religion.” He says an angel gave John one of the most significant prophecies related to the end times.
John saw a Harlot that will have two global networks. First, it will be a worldwide religious network of great tolerance that will bring together the major world religions into one unified network including Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etcetera, teaching that every road will lead to God and that everybody is good.
Second, it will be a global economic network. In the middle of the final seven years of this age the Antichrist’s plan is to replace the harlot religion of tolerance with Antichrist worship. This new worldwide religion will be very strict without any toleration. All who refuse to worship the Antichrist will be killed. Satan’s purpose for the harlot religious system will be to weaken the convictions of the people of the major world religions to prepare them for Antichrist worship.
So if I understand him correctly, what he’s saying here is that it’s the Antichrist, who’s responsible for some people’s belief that all the world religions are good but that’s just the Antichrist’s deception.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes. And what they’re saying is you cannot tolerate tolerance and that you cannot tolerate religious pluralism. The narrative that he’s describing there has been a common narrative to American fundamentalism for over 100 years. But there’s one major difference in what Bickle is teaching there. In the fundamentalist narrative all of this happens – the seven years of Antichrist rule happens after the believers have been taken from the earth in the Rapture.
What Mike Bickle is teaching and – to this movement is that no, the believers will remain and they have to be ready to fight and they have to be ready to be martyrs. Now this is a very different end time narrative that creates a very different activism. If you are going to still be around and you have to fight that’s very different than believing that you will be raptured and you’ll just be watching from the grandstands of heaven.
Also Mike Bickle’s International House of Prayer is a very youth-oriented operation and what they’re doing is teaching youths that this will likely happen in their lifetime and that they must be prepared to be martyrs.

GROSS: Now we were talking about how demons figure very prominently in the New Apostolic Reformation. Lou Engle who is one of the apostles and was one of the organizers of the Rick Perry rally, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think he said that gays are possessed of demonic spirits.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Right. And in fact, in another The Call event Lou Engle spoke at length about how one of his sons has started an International House of Prayer in the Castro district of San Francisco, and that his son is now expelling demons from homosexuals, and supposedly then this cures them of their homosexuality.

GROSS: Tell us a little bit more about Lou Engle. And again, he’s also organizing the event on November 11th in Detroit.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Lou Engle has held these The Call events around the world. In fact he held one in 2008 in Jerusalem which coincided with the Global Day of Prayer. The Global Day of Prayer is also initiative of the New Apostolic Reformation movement.
Lou Engle also took The Call event to Uganda in May of 2010, where various people got on the stage and promoted the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, which is still pending. It’s a very draconian bill that would allow for execution of certain offenses and would also allow for people who don’t report homosexual activity to be jailed.
The apostles have a long history in Uganda and have – and some of them have had close relationships with both political and religious leaders there. And in fact, an apostle in the movement in Uganda takes credit for promoting the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and was recognized by the Parliament of Uganda when the bill was introduced.

GROSS: Can I just end this interview on a kind of personal note, personal on your behalf? You said that you spent the first half of your life as a Southern Baptist and the second half as a Jew.
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GROSS: So…

Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes.

GROSS: What changed?

Ms. TABACHNICK: I got married.

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GROSS: Oh, OK. OK.

Ms. TABACHNICK: But having that background, having the Southern Baptist background and growing up in the Deep South, has helped me to be able to do this research. And it’s also helped me to realize something that might not be apparent to some other people looking at the movement, that this is quite radically different than the evangelicalism of my youth. And the things that we’ve been talking about are not representative of evangelicalism. They’re not representative of conservative evangelicalism. So I think that’s important to keep in mind.
This is a movement that is growing in popularity and I think one of the ways they have been able to do that is they’re not very identifiable to most people. They’re just presented as nondenominational or just Christian. But it is an identifiable movement now with an identifiable ideology.

GROSS: Well, I want to thank you so much for talking with us.

Ms. TABACHNICK: Thank you, Terry.

GROSS: Rachel Tabachnick has been writing about the New Apostolic Reformation for the website Talk To Action. You’ll find links to her recent articles on our website, freshair.npr.org.
We invited several people affiliated with the NAR to join us on FRESH AIR, but they were unable to do anything in time for today’s broadcast. Mike Bickle has agreed to join us at a future time. We hope to schedule that soon.
Coming up, rock critic Ken Tucker reviews John Doe’s new album.
This is FRESH AIR.