Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany to Speak at Dominionist Event

2011 --- "Beyond Alarmism and Denial in the Dominionism Debate
[...]
No doubt both the AFA and Perry’s political team, as well as the group assembled [ http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/4828/the_real_story_behind_rick_perry%27s_secret_meetings_with_pastors ] by televangelist James Robison last September and more recently in June, were making those sorts of calculations.
P - Aside from the political context, which is important for understanding that Perry was not solely taking marching orders from the NAR, I also think it’s crucial to grasp the scope of how these various neo-Pentecostal movements interact with each other, both theologically and politically. When I cover a conference or other event, I’ve found speakers affiliated with the NAR (take, for example, IHOP’s Mike Bickle, or The Call’s [ http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/654/%E2%80%9Cthe_call%E2%80%9D_warns_of_antichrist_legislation_in_california_and_beyond ] Lou Engle [ http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/2836/engle_supports_%E2%80%9Cprincipled_stand%E2%80%9D_of_ugandan_anti-gay_bill_promoters ], or the prophesiers Dutch Sheets and Chuck Pierce) alongside people more strongly affiliated with other movements, like Word of Faith or other strands of neo-Pentecostalism that don't really have a label. These various neo-Pentecostal movements don’t exist in a vacuum.
P - As you point out, Wagner didn’t invent the idea of modern-day prophets and apostles or spiritual warfare or any of the gifts of the holy spirit that he drew on. There are a lot of ideas, strategies, and so forth that are shared and cross-pollinated, and are in the ether, so to speak, at conferences and gatherings. "

By Peter Montgomery | July 15, 2022 2:14 pm


Promotional material for "Reforming California"

Kayleigh McEnany, a White House press secretary under former President Donald Trump, is scheduled to speak .. https://revivecal.org/events/ .. Saturday at an event hosted by Ché Ahn .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/che-ahn/ , a California-based pastor and leader of the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation. “Reforming California: Taking a Stand for Life, Liberty & Family” will also feature dominionist Dutch Sheets.

McEnany’s appearance with Ahn and Sheets reflects the degree to which Pentecostal dominionists achieved unprecedented access to power during the Trump administration.

“A battle is raging for the soul of America,” declares a promotional video .. https://youtu.be/cQlSvaXfGBM .. for the event, which repeats right-wing complaints about LGBTQ issues being taught in public schools.

NAR leaders seek to “transform” entire nations through spiritual revival and political activism to bring government policies into alignment with their biblical worldview. “Reforming California” is being sponsored by Revive California, one of the political organizations affiliated with Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry. In 2020, he launched .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dominionist-che-ahn-launches-political-group-to-elect-anti-choice-anti-equality-leaders/ .. 1RACE4LIFE, a group that asks people to pledge to vote for only anti-abortion and anti-marriage-equality candidates. Revive California’s website includes a five-step vision that defines reformation this way: “Activate every believer to vote biblically, and learn how to run for local, state or national office.”

Ahn was an energetic supporter of Trump and the former president’s false claims to have won the 2020 presidential election. Before the election, Ahn described .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dominionist-che-ahn-launches-political-group-to-elect-anti-choice-anti-equality-leaders/ .. it as a crucial moment in the battle for the soul of America.

[INSERT: For God and country. For our children. For Freedom and a stand
against evil. And most of all a 2012 stand for evangelical fearmongering

Chuck Norris]

On the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters hoping to derail the peaceful transfer of power, Ahn spoke at a rally .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/christian-nationalism-and-threats-of-violence-at-pro-trump-rally-on-eve-of-electoral-college-certification/ .. in D.C. where Christian nationalism and conspiracy theories mingled with threats of violence. Ahn told the crowd .. https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1351278346420809732?s=20&t=nv7Viye8twywIc9lg1097A .. they would “change history,” adding, “I believe that this week we’re going to throw Jezebel out and Jehu’s gonna rise up, and we’re gonna rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Sheets, another NAR leader who has long taught .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dominionists-in-search-of-warriors-more-from-frc-cindy-jacobs-2012-kickoff-rally/ .. that the church—the ekklesia—is meant to be a governing body legislating God’s will on Earth, was also a big Trump booster. In 2018, he and other NAR leaders gathered 1,300 prayer warriors .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/prophets-gather-at-trumps-washington-hotel-to-unleash-angel-armies-on-his-deep-state-enemies/ .. at Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel to call on God to remove pro-choice Supreme Court justices and destroy Trump’s enemies. The following year, Sheets helped Trump aide Paula White launch .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/paula-white-battles-demonic-forces-while-launching-new-prayer-initiative-to-reelect-trump/ .. the One Voice Prayer Movement, a thinly disguised campaign operation .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/paula-whites-one-voice-prayer-movement-a-thinly-disguised-political-operation-for-trump/ .. to maintain strong evangelical support for Trump.

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Sheets waged “spiritual warfare” against what he called a demonic plot to steal the election from Trump. During one prayer session he declared .. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pro-trump-prayer-warriors-declared-in-wee-hours-that-valkyrie-will-fall-and-trump-will-stay-in-office/ , “As Christ’s ekklesia on the Earth, we have been delegated his supreme authority to declare into the spiritual realm what is lawful and what is unlawful, forbidden, and allowed. … We decree the next four years of Donald John Trump’s presidency will see the fruit of God’s divine reset in America.”

Revive California’s advisory board .. https://revivecal.org/advisors/ .. includes other leaders associated with NAR and dominionist Pentecostalism. Among the advisory board members: Bill Johnson, the longtime leader of the controversial Northern California megachurch Bethel, which has international reach through its School of Supernatural Ministry and its music label; Shannon Grove, the minority leader of the California state Senate; Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; religious-right activists and husband-and-wife pair Jim Garlow and Rosemary Garlow; Dran Reese, president of The Salt & Light Council, which encourages and equips conservative churches to get more involved in politics; Tony Kim, the U.S. director of Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry; and others.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/former-white-house-press-secretary-kayleigh-mcenany-to-speak-at-dominionist-event/

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The Radical Theology That Could Make Religious Freedom a Thing of the Past

Even devout Christians should fear these influential leaders' refusal to separate church and state.

by David R. Brockman
June 2, 2016, 10:57 AM, CDT


Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick addresses the 2016 Republican Party of Texas convention in Dallas. Patrick Michels

All links

Though it’s seldom mentioned by name, it’s one of the major forces in Texas politics today: dominion theology, or dominionism. What began as a fringe evangelical sect in the 1970s has seen its influence mushroom — so much so that sociologist Sara Diamond has called .. http://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Warfare-Politics-Christian-Right/dp/0896083616/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 .. dominionism “the central unifying ideology for the Christian Right.” (Italics hers.) That’s especially true here in Texas, where dominionist beliefs have, over the last decade, become part and parcel of right-wing politics at the highest levels of government.

So, what is it? Dominionism fundamentally opposes America’s venerable tradition of church-state separation — in fact, dominionists deny the Founders ever intended that separation in the first place. According to Frederick Clarkson, senior fellow for religious liberty at the non-profit social justice think tank Political Research Associates, dominionists believe that Christians “have a biblical mandate to control all earthly institutions — including government — until the second coming of Jesus.” And that should worry all Texans — Christians and non-Christians alike.

Dominionism comes in “soft” and “hard” varieties .. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v19n3/clarkson_dominionism.html . “Hard” dominionism (sometimes called Christian Reconstructionism), as Clarkson describes it, explicitly seeks to replace secular government, and the U.S. Constitution, with a system based on Old Testament law.

The father of hard dominionism, the late Presbyterian theologian R.J. Rushdoony, called for his followers .. http://www.forerunner.com/revolution/rush.html .. to “take back government … and put it in the hands of Christians.”

Rushdoony’s legacy has been carried on by his son-in-law, Tyler-based economist Gary North, an unapologetic theocrat .. http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/pdf/the_failure_of_american_baptist_culture.pdf .. who in 1982 called for Christians to “get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.” (North, founder of the Institute for Christian Economics .. http://www.reformed-theology.org/ice/ , did not respond to my request for comment.)

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Perhaps the most powerful dominionist in Texas politics is Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Patrick said that elected officials
must look to Scripture when they make policy, “because every problem we have in America has a solution in the Bible.”
--

Mainstream Texas political figures don’t go quite that far. Instead they trade in “soft” dominionism. While soft dominionists do not advocate .. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v19n3/clarkson_dominionism.html .. replacing the Constitution with biblical law, they do believe that Christians need to regain the control over political and cultural institutions that they (supposedly) lost after the Founding period.

Top Texas political figures have had links to dominionism for years. In 2011, the Observer covered then-Governor Rick Perry’s ties to a branch of the movement, the New Apostolic Reformation. Since then, the relationship between dominionism and right-wing politics has become even cozier.

Case in point: Ted Cruz. Although Cruz is too politically savvy to openly endorse dominionism, key figures on his team are explicit dominionists.

The most important may be his father, evangelist Rafael Cruz, a frequent surrogate .. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/rafael-cruz-ted-cruz-campaign-god-sign .. for Cruz on the political stage.

Cruz père espouses Seven Mountains Dominionism, which holds that Christians must take control of seven “mountains,” or areas of life: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. Speaking at the Texas GOP Convention in Dallas in May, Rafael Cruz claimed that God inspired the Founders to produce the Constitution, and declared that “biblical values” have made America the greatest country on earth. He encouraged Christian pastors to run for public office at every level, and called upon all Christians to exercise their “sacred responsibility” to vote for candidates who uphold biblical values.

As for what Thomas Jefferson famously called America’s “wall of separation .. https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html .. between Church & State,” Cruz claimed in a 2016 sermon .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeytBEmYEoE ..

[Insert from supplied link ...]

that it was meant to be a “one-way wall” — preventing government from interfering in religion but allowing the Church to exercise dominion over government. (I have to wonder whether a “one-way wall” is really a wall at all.…)


Texas senator and failed GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz at North Texas’ Prestonwood Baptist Church, where pastor Jack Graham told Cruz, “The Lord
seems to be elevating you and giving you favor.” Christopher Hooks

Another Seven Mountains Dominionist .. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-and-david-barton-launch-misleading-effort-pressure-pastor-preach-conservative-iss .. active in Cruz’s failed presidential bid was David Barton, who managed one of Cruz’s super PACs. On a 2011 radio program Barton said that Christians need to “be able to influence and control” the “mountains” in order to “establish God’s kingdom.” An amateur historian, outspoken Christian Americanist, and long-time Texas GOP activist, Barton runs WallBuilders, an Aledo group that seeks to .. http://www.wallbuilders.com/ABTOverview.asp .. “exert a direct and positive influence in government” and to assist public officials in developing “policies which reflect Biblical values.” (Barton also played a key role in incorporating Christian Americanism .. https://www.texasobserver.org/heres-the-fringe-theology-kids-are-learning-in-texas-schools/ .. into the Texas curriculum standards.)

Perhaps the most powerful dominionist in Texas politics is Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. In a 2012 sermon and again at the 2015 Texas Tribune Festival .. http://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/16/video-dan-patrick-at-the-texas-tribune-festival/ , he said that the United States was founded on the Bible. Patrick has also made it clear he believes the Bible should determine public policy. In 2014, Patrick said that elected officials must look to Scripture when they make policy, “because every problem we have in America has a solution in the Bible.” (Where the Bible addresses problems like greenhouse gas emissions or cybersecurity, I’m at a loss to explain, even with 20 years of biblical study behind me.) His call for a “biblically-based” policy mindset “doesn’t mean we want a theocracy,” he insisted. “But it does mean we can’t walk away from what we believe.” For Patrick, not “walking away” seems to mean basing policy on his own religious beliefs — as he showed when he opposed .. http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/State-leaders-celebrate-ten-years-without-6101014.php .. same-sex marriage on biblical grounds. (Patrick also did not respond to my request for comment.)


Steve Hotze Christopher Hooks

Another dominionist active in Texas politics is conservative firebrand-slash-medical-doctor Steven Hotze. Hotze is linked to Gary DeMar, a dominionist writer and lecturer. DeMar has called for the United States to be governed by Old Testament law, including instituting the death penalty .. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/gary-demar .. for gay/lesbian sex. As recently as 2013, Hotze was an officer of DeMar’s dominionist think tank American Vision; its mission is “to Restore America to its Biblical Foundation.”

[•The Atlantic’s David Frum on Republicans’ (factually incorrect) calls for due process:
P - In case you have forgotten, President Due Process urged police to bang arrested suspects’ heads against
car doors. President Due Process urged the death penalty for people who invoke the Whistleblower statute.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=152883307]

Hotze also heads the influential (and hate-group certified) Conservative Republicans of Texas (CRT). In a promotional video .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3thhEPbxprc ..

[insert..]

,
Hotze explains that CRT “is committed to electing Republicans” who will “defend the constitutional liberties that arose from the Christian heritage of our Founding Fathers.” (Hotze did not respond to my requests for comment.)

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Government officials have a duty to uphold the Constitution, not to enact their personal religious convictions.
They are obliged to serve all of the people, not just members of the officials’ own religious community.
--

In short, dominionism has risen from an obscure fringe movement to the highest reaches of government here in Texas. No doubt Rushdoony would be pleased. The rest of us, however, have good reason to be troubled.

The dominionist goal of having Christianity shape law and policy amounts to the very governmental establishment of religion that the First Amendment explicitly prohibits .. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment . It would also appear to violate the Texas Bill of Rights .. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CN/htm/CN.1.htm , which states that “no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship.”

Of course, dominionists insist that none of this matters, because the Founders intended to create a “Christian nation.”

Even if some of the Founders did mean for Christianity to be normative for law and policy, the question today is: Which Christianity? Christians disagree sharply on a whole host of issues, and dominionists simply don’t speak for many Texas Christians. For example, Hotze’s CRT supports capital punishment .. http://www.crtpac.com/conservative-republicans-vs-liberals/ .. and wants to eliminate entitlement programs, and would deny marriage to same-sex couples, while Patrick would deny .. https://www.texasobserver.org/conservative-texas-steve-hotze-gay-nazis/ .. Texans reproductive choice and transgender people access to appropriate public restrooms. Those positions directly oppose the gospel as many Christians, myself included, understand it. And in seeking to make law and policy conform to the Bible, dominionists don’t speak for the growing number .. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ .. of non-Christians and religious “nones” — those who are religiously unaffiliated, including atheists and agnostics.

[Actually polls suggest Americans are slowly being weaned from religion,...
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168803602]

To be clear, I’m not saying that religion has no place in the public square. Far from it: religious persons have just as much right as anyone else to advocate laws and policies that line up with their beliefs and values. Government officials, however, are in a different position. No, they don’t have to “walk away from what they believe,” as Patrick puts it. Their religious beliefs can inform their personal morality in office — don’t lie, don’t steal, and so on — and give them comfort and hope or motivate them to serve others. But they can’t make policy based on those beliefs. Government officials have a duty to uphold the Constitution, not to enact their personal religious convictions. They are obliged .. http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/12-Rules-Report.pdf .. to serve all of the people, not just members of the officials’ own religious community.

Ironically, for all their talk about what those Founders intended, it seems that dominionists have failed to heed the wisdom of two of the most prominent, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Madison warned .. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0163 .. that when government prefers one religion over others, religion suffers. A government that can make Christianity the official religion, he observed, can just as easily prefer one form of Christianity over others — for instance, Catholicism over evangelicalism.

For his part, Jefferson appealed to history .. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0082 . Whenever government officials “have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible” (my emphasis), he wrote, they have ended up creating “false religions.”

Christians who seek political domination would do well to heed those wise words.

David R. Brockman, Ph.D., a religious studies scholar and Christian theologian, is a nonresident scholar in the Religion and Public Policy Program at Rice University's Baker Institute. He also teaches at Brite Divinity School, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University. He is the author of Dialectical Democracy through Christian Thought: Individualism, Relationalism, and American Politics.

https://www.texasobserver.org/dominion-theology/