A huge business, the buying for blessings, older even than prostitution though not nearly as real, much more dangerous to the freedom of spirit on which the USA was founded, and maybe even more expensive than FEMA.
The preachers et al have a lot in common with the mullahs of Islam.
The weird, frightening movement .. the whole thing brings these creatures to mind ..
July 29, 2009--Eat your heart out, Godzilla. A massive menace from the sea seems poised to invade Japan anew this summer, experts predict.
In 2005 Japanese waters were inundated with swarms of Nomura's jellyfish--like the pair seen above cruising off the coast of Fukui Prefecture in November 2007. The giants clogged fishing nets and poisoned potential catches with their toxic stings, costing coastal fishers billions of yen.
Scientists have since been racing to unlock the mysteries of this giant jellyfish species in an attempt to forecast invasions and prevent damages.
This June researchers at Hiroshima University made some of the first surveys of the jellyfish's spawning grounds off the Chinese coast. The team found a huge new brood lurking in the waters, prompting experts to warn that another giant jellyfish invasion may be on the horizon.
New Apostolic Reformation: The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare
Texas Gov. Rick Perry prays at The Response, his call to prayer for a nation in crisis, on Aug. 6 in Houston. The event was organized, in part, by members of the New Apostolic Reformation. David J. Phillip/AP
Transcript Fresh Air from WHYY 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 beliefs 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 religions 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, they're 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 - of 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 makes what they're doing quite different than other conservative evangelical or fundamentalist groups of the past.
(Break)
GROSS: 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.
GROSS: 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.
GROSS: I see.
Ms. TABACHNICK: 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: And how does that - 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.
In 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 savior 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 rally that you 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 call 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 two 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, not 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.
(Break)
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-Americans, 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 a 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 day-long 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.
(Break)
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 the Rick Perry prayer rally. And he is also semi-famous now for having described Oprah Winfrey as a forerunner of the harlot movement. He said 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 youth 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've said that you spent the first half of your life as a Southern Baptist and the second half as a Jew.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GROSS: So...
Ms. TABACHNICK: Yes.
GROSS: What changed?
Ms. TABACHNICK: I got married.
(Soundbite of laughter)
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.
At a gathering of uncommitted social and evangelical conservatives at the Hill Country spread of mega-donor James Leininger [ http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/james-leininger/who-perry-supporter-james-leininger/ ], Perry spent several hours patiently answering queries on a range of issues, from his stand on immigration reform to the depth of his commitment to oppose abortion, people who were in attendance told The Texas Tribune.
During one exchange, Perry was asked — politely but directly — to assure the group that nothing embarrassing in his personal life would emerge during the 2012 presidential campaign.
With first lady Anita Perry at his side, the governor said that would not happen.
“I can assure you that there is nothing in my life that will embarrass you if you decide to support me for president,” Perry said, according to one of the participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Should he win the 2012 nomination, Perry also promised to select a vice presidential running mate who is opposed to abortion, the participant said.
Campaign spokesman Mark Miner said he was not aware of the specific questions asked at the meeting but noted that Perry is accustomed to scrutiny.
"The governor takes questions at many events he goes to and he answers them appropriately and honestly. He gets questions whether it's public meetings or private meetings," Miner said. "I'm sure any questions asked there have been asked somewhere else."
The gathering inside a rectangular tent on Leininger’s Hill Country estate was part of Perry's full-court press for support from evangelical voters, who make up an oversize chunk of the GOP electorate. About 150 to 200 social conservatives from around the country attended the event, people who were there said, and included some of the top names in the Christian conservative movement: radio host James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Richard Viguerie, a writer and elder statesman of the social conservative movement; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Representatives of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List also attended.
Perkins confirmed to the Tribune that he attended but said he could not share details of the gathering. He said there will be other meetings like it with other candidates.
“It was an off-the-record, private meeting. It was informational, [for] people that had not met him before,” Perkins said. “It was the first in a series of meetings that are going to take place with some of the candidates that have requested to meet with social conservative leaders.”
Perkins also said Perry would participate in a straw poll at the 2012 Values Voter Summit [ http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/ ]. While the Texas governor is not the only candidate courting social conservatives, Perkins said Perry knows their language and is clearly comfortable talking to them.
“He speaks with ease on these issues. It’s very natural for him," Perkins said. "He’s not reading a campaign speech."
Participants who spoke to the Tribune said access was tightly controlled. IDs were checked upon entering Leininger's property, and participants were issued credentials at the beginning of the event Friday; they had to give them back after the event ended that evening. They went through the same routine the next day.
Perry's top strategist, Dave Carney, attended the gathering and briefly spoke, but participants said the event did not have the feel of a choreographed campaign event. They described the mood as low-key and relaxed, even though many were eager to question the the GOP's new front-runner.
Perry spent about six hours at the event on Friday and another two hours the next day before heading to Iowa for a brief campaign swing, sources said.
"What's this guy do good? Retail," one of the participants said. "You do retail with 150 people from the faith-based, cultural universe, press the flesh, take pictures. Whoever's idea it was, it was brilliant."
Perry was asked to give his detailed views and thoughts on a variety of personal questions and hot-button social issues, including his recent back surgery [ http://www.texastribune.org/texas-people/rick-perry/perrys-surgery-included-experimental-stem-cell-the/ ], immigration, gay marriage, hate crimes, the extent of his anti-abortion views and the controversy over his 2007 executive order mandating that girls get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease and the leading cause of cervical cancer (the Legislature overturned the order).
Anita Perry also faced questions, the source said. One questioner wanted to know if the first lady shared her husband's conservative views on gay marriage and abortion. She assured the participants that she did.
"It was respectful but purposeful," the participant told the Tribune. "The questions were direct."
While job creation is the chief campaign message, winning evangelical voters is a major part of Perry's nomination strategy. Polls show they make up some 40 percent of the electorate in some states, and social conservatives are expected to play a huge role [ http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/07/03/iowa-poll-likely-gop-caucusgoers-are-educated-religious/ ] in the outcome of the race in first-test Iowa, where Perry is giving native daughter Michele Bachmann a run for her money. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained minister, won the Iowa caucuses in 2008.
Perkins, the Family Research Council president, said religious conservatives will increasingly become comfortable with the Texas governor once they get to know him and examine his record in detail.
"I think he has the answers that are satisfactory when those issues are brought up," Perkins said. "I think he is addressing them with the leaders in that community and as that information disseminates, I think he will be fine.”
Contributors reap rewards Of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s top 50 campaign donors, many received prestigious appointments to Texas boards or saw their specific economic interests benefit from state action: Note: Robert Mosbacher died Jan. 24, 2010; Sources: Texans for Justice, Texas state records, Post analysis. Graphic by Carol Leonnig and Laura Stanton/The Washington Post. Published on September 3, 2011, 10:27 p.m. [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/contributors-reap-rewards/2011/09/03/gIQAkVQH0J_graphic.html ]
By Carol D. Leonnig, Published: September 1[, 2011]
Texas business legends Peter Holt, owner of the San Antonio Spurs, and Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, an auto and real estate magnate and former sports team owner, are typical of the large campaign donors who helped Perry raise more cash than any Texas governor. Together, these two men with diverse business interests personally donated more than $936,000 to Perry’s campaigns, in a state that does not limit the amount individuals can donate to local politicians.
He also will have to deal with mounting criticism that his administration has rewarded large donors with favors that have enhanced their personal and business interests. Public interest groups contend that the linkage is too strong to be explained by the business-friendly climate that Perry has worked hard to create.
“Perry has taken it to a whole new level,” said Public Citizen [ http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183 ]’s director in Texas, Tom Smith. “Time after time, there’s often a direct link between Perry’s decisions and payments to his campaign coffers.”
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor alone does not make the decisions that helped certain businesses. Independent state officials and commissions are often involved, he said.
“These issues have been looked into before, and there’s never been any wrongdoing substantiated,” Miner said. “These are political accusations.”
The Washington Post looked at Perry’s top 50 donors, who collectively gave more than $21 million, and found that 34 received some benefit from Perry’s administration or the state, including grants, contracts and appointments. The donor list was compiled by the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice.
Twenty-three donors won Perry’s appointment to state boards, often the boards of regents at the University of Texas or Texas A&M.
Roughly one in three of the top Perry donors had business interests that secured grants, tax subsidies or project approvals under his administration, the Post review found. Five donors gained both an appointment and a state boost to their specific company or interests.
Holt, who owns the nation’s largest Caterpillar dealership, urged Perry to lure a Caterpillar manufacturing plant to Texas, and a company official told reporters in an interview last year that such a plant would help the dealership get equipment. Perry’s office agreed in 2008 to award an $8.5 million incentive grant for a proposed new Caterpillar factory promising 1,714 jobs.
Holt said in an e-mail that the plant’s move to Texas would not directly benefit his dealership.
McCombs is leading a push to bring a Formula One racing stadium to Austin; under Perry, the state has pledged $25 million in project subsidies. McCombs said that the funding help comes from a special-event fund controlled not by Perry but by the Republican state comptroller.
“Every single business I’m involved with, we have added jobs here in Texas,” McCombs said, explaining his pitch to other business people considering donating to Perry. “In your lifetime, you couldn’t have a better opportunity to have a president who understands the importance of a job.”
McCombs said Perry’s donors may appear to have benefited from state action, but the governor does not single them out for favor.
“There’s no question he is a business-friendly governor,” he said. “But I don’t think there is any direct connection.”
Perry’s largest single individual donor, who has given more than $2.5 million, is Bob Perry (no relation to the governor), the founder of a large home-building company.
In 2003, Perry Homes helped persuade the governor and Republican lawmakers to create the Texas Residential Construction Commission. One of the commission’s goals was to limit lawsuits by home buyers complaining of shoddy construction.
Bob Perry donated $100,000 to the governor as the commission was being formed. A top official of the firm, John Krugh, the general counsel, was named to the panel by the governor.
Bob Perry’s spokesman, Anthony Holm, said Perry supported the governor before the commission was created, and the appointment was not related to the donation.
“John Krugh is an industry expert, and it’s perfectly expected an industry expert would be appointed to oversee this legislatively created body,” Holm said.
In 2005, the governor tapped the Texas Enterprise Fund — an economic development fund he created — for its largest grant to date: $50 million to a joint research venture between Texas A&M University and a fledgling biotech company, Lexicon, that promised to create 1,616 jobs. Lexicon got $35 million of the grant.
The company’s investors included a Texas congressman and two others who were among Perry’s top donors.
One was Robert McNair, an investor and former energy executive, who has given $330,000 to Perry. McNair controlled 9.3 percent of Lexicon’s stock at the time of the state grant.
Recently, Lexicon backed off on its jobs promise. The Texas media reported last year that Perry had renegotiated the deal with Lexicon so that Texas A&M took responsibility for creating more of the promised jobs over a longer time period.
McNair said in an interview that he never asked for the grant and learned about it from a news article.
“As far as I know, they got what they got on their merits, and good for them,” he said. McNair, who also invests in horse racing, said he remembers calling Perry’s office only once: to recommend two experts he knew to the state racing commission.
Perry’s second-largest donor, billionaire Harold C. Simmons, contributed $1.1 million. Simmons had worked for six years to open a radioactive-waste facility in West Texas.
In 2008, Perry’s political appointees on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality overruled scientists and staff objections to grant a license for the dump that Simmons’s company, Waste Control Specialists, wanted to build. According to local news reports, three agency staffers resigned in protest.
Perry’s campaign spokesman said agencies made their decisions based on the public interest. Perry’s critics disagree.
Martin Frost, a retired Democratic congressman from Texas and who served as a caucus leader, said the high incidence of donors reported to have received favorable treatment in state decisions raises questions. “You can’t explain this away as a coincidence,” he said.
Staff writer Karen Tumulty and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Inside the death chamber in Huntsville, the switch used to turn on the microphone for the witness room during executions. Pat Sullivan/Associated Press
Clockwise, from top left, Kelsey Patterson, Robert Thompson, Cameron Todd Willingham, Napoleon Beazley, Leonard Rojas and Humberto Leal. All were executed. Texas Department of Criminal Justice
By BRANDI GRISSOM Published: September 1, 2011
As Gov. Rick Perry touts his tough-on-crime policies on the national political stage, the case of Cameron Todd Willingham will continue to be scrutinized. Scientists have raised questions about whether Mr. Willingham set the blaze that killed his three daughters and led to his 2004 execution.
But Mr. Willingham’s execution is not the only controversial one the governor has presided over. During nearly 11 years in office, Mr. Perry has overseen more than 230 executions — by far the most of any recent governor in the United States — and has rarely used his power to grant clemency. He has granted 31 death row commutations; most of those (28) were the result of a 2005 United States Supreme Court decision banning capital punishment for minors.
Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for the governor, said the governor could grant clemency only when the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles — whose members Mr. Perry appoints — recommended that action. He has disagreed with the board only three times when it recommended clemency in death penalty cases, she said.
“The governor takes his clemency authority very seriously and considers the total facts of every case before making a decision,” she said. (Independent of the board, the governor may grant a one-time 30-day reprieve delaying an execution; Mr. Perry has issued one such reprieve.)
To his critics, his parsimonious use of clemency is notable because of continuing concerns about the ability of prisoners facing capital charges in Texas to retain quality legal representation, the execution of those who were minors when they committed their crimes, the ability of some prisoners to understand their punishment intellectually and the international ramifications of executing foreign nationals.
Kelsey Patterson was sentenced to death for the September 1992 shooting deaths of Louis Oates and Dorothy Harris in Palestine.
Testimony showed that without provocation, Mr. Patterson walked up to Mr. Oates, 63, the owner of Oates Oil, and shot him. He shot Ms. Harris, 41, when she came out to see what was going on. Mr. Patterson then went to a friend’s home nearby, stripped down to his socks and waited in the street for the police to arrive.
Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist and popular prosecution expert witness who earned the label Dr. Death because he rarely found defendants mentally unfit to face the death penalty, told jurors that Mr. Patterson was sane at the time of the murders. At trial, Mr. Patterson testified at length about devices the military had planted in his head.
From prison, he sent incoherent letters to the courts, including a 2004 letter to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in which he wrote that he wanted to “conduct my legal work needed to stop the execution murder assaults injury execution date murder machines grave graveyard murder ... ”
Shortly before his execution on May 18, 2004, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that Mr. Perry grant clemency, which Mr. Perry rejected. He worried that if he commuted the sentence, Mr. Patterson might be released on parole. Mr. Patterson’s last statement was a final testimony to his mental condition: “Statement to what? State what? I am not guilty of the charge of capital murder. Steal me and my family’s money. My truth will always be my truth. There is no kin and no friend; no fear what you do to me. No kin to you undertaker.”
Juveniles
Napoleon Beazley was convicted of shooting John Luttig, 63, in Tyler during a 1994 carjacking. Mr. Beazley, 17 at the time, was driving around with two friends, a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun when they spotted Mr. Luttig driving a Mercedes and followed him to his home. Mr. Beazley, the trial record showed, shot Mr. Luttig in the head and stole the car, which he backed into a retaining wall and then abandoned.
A jury sentenced Mr. Beazley — a former high school class president and the son of a city councilman — to death in 1995.
The Supreme Court did not bar the execution of juveniles until 2005, but by the early 2000s, many states had prohibited the practice. As Mr. Beazley’s May 28, 2002, execution date approached, 18 Texas legislators wrote to Mr. Perry, asking him to grant clemency. Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, the trial judge who later had to sign Mr. Beazley’s execution warrant, also asked the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison. The requests were denied.
“To delay his punishment is to delay justice,” Mr. Perry told reporters at the time.
In a final statement, Mr. Beazley, 25, wrote that he was not the same person who had committed the murder. “I’m sorry that it was something in me that caused all of this to happen to begin with,” he wrote. “Tonight we tell the world that there are no second chances in the eyes of justice.”
Not the Shooter
Robert Lee Thompson did not fire the bullet that resulted in his 2009 execution. Mr. Thompson and his accomplice, Sammy Butler, robbed a Houston convenience store in 1996. Mr. Thompson shot one of the clerks four times. The man survived.
Mr. Butler shot the other clerk, Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, who died. During Mr. Butler’s trial, prosecutors could not prove that Mr. Butler intended to kill Mr. Mohammed. He received a life sentence and is eligible for parole in 2036.
Jurors, however, assessed the death penalty against Mr. Thompson in 1998. Mr. Thompson had also been charged — but not convicted — in several other aggravated robberies, including three that involved murders.
The courts rejected the argument that Mr. Thompson should not receive a harsher sentence than his accomplice, but the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a rare clemency recommendation and advised that the sentence be commuted to life in prison.
“After reviewing all of the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed,” Mr. Perry said in a statement, “I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment.”
Mr. Thompson was executed on Nov. 19, 2009.
Questionable Counsel
Leonard Uresti Rojas was convicted in 1996 of shooting to death his common-law wife and his brother. The appellate lawyer appointed to handle Mr. Rojas’s case was inexperienced, on probation with the state bar and suffered from mental illness, according to court documents. He had been disciplined for not adequately serving his clients and was serving three probated sentences from the bar while he was working on Mr. Rojas’s case. He missed crucial deadlines for filing appeals on Mr. Rojas’s behalf, effectively eliminating any chance he might have had for relief.
Shortly before his scheduled execution, new lawyers took on Mr. Rojas’s case. They appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and asked Mr. Perry for a reprieve.
The pleas failed, and Mr. Rojas was executed on Dec. 4, 2002.
In a dissenting opinion published after the execution, Tom Price, an appeals court justice, scathingly rebuked the court’s decision. Death penalty appeals, he wrote, should not be left to lawyers with disciplinary problems and no experience.
“He neglected his duties,” Mr. Price wrote. “It is hard to imagine that there was no one more able or better qualified.”
Rick Perry, who's currently getting bracketed by Mitt Romney on the topic of immigration and asked about it [ http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2012-presidential-election/s/ ] on the trail in New Hampshire today, apparently chatted by phone this afternoon with nationally-known Arizona immigration hard-liner Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Arpaio tweeted at around 5 p.m. Eastern time, "Just received phone call at my house from TX. Gov. Rick Perry. Had a great conversation especially about immigration and other matters."
Arpaio, who also tweeted two weeks ago that he's been contacted by the Romney and Michele Bachmann camps, has been a nationally controversial for awhile (including, most recently, an issue involving actor [ http://www.nationalledger.com/pop-culture-news/seagal-denies-puppy-killing-re-207276.shtml (another story on that below)] Steven Seagal) for a range of issues, as well as allegations of racial profiling.
Perry is currently being hit from Romney on immigration, an attack the former Massachusetts governor and faltering frontrunner is attempting to lob from the right. It's an issue, as we noted the other day, that is potentially complicated for the Texas governor, who has a business-centric donor base in his home state that views it differently than, say, some early-state Republican activists.
A Perry spokesman didn't respond to an email about Arpaio's tweet.
You'd better show Steven Seagal a photo of a dead puppy if you expect him to apologize
by Sean O'Neal September 2, 2011
Never one to go quietly, Steven Seagal is fighting back [ http://omg.yahoo.com/news/arpaio-seagal-deny-dog-killing-claim-during-raid/71265 ] against recent allegations [ http://www.avclub.com/articles/steven-seagal-accused-of-killing-a-puppy-and-hundr,61146/ ] that he had a hand in killing the family dog of an Arizona man while filming a segment for his Steven Seagal: Lawman reality show. As you may recall, during a totally routine raid on the home of cockfighting suspect Jesus Llovera, Seagal captained a SWAT tank to lead dozens of officers in riot gear as they first set off explosives as a distraction, then knocked down Llovera’s fence and a surrounding wall, blew out the windows in his house, swarmed his family living room, and killed the approximately 100 or so chickens they found on the property.
Caught in the fray, according to Llovera, was his family's 11-month-old puppy, which Llovera claims was shot by police. After being presented with a notice outlining those events, as well as Llovera’s intention to file a lawsuit for the damages, and demand for a written apology from Seagal to his children for the death of their puppy, both Seagal and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio—the star of his own mental TV show, one where he's a maverick detective who's the spitting image of James Garner—have responded that the claim is “without merit,” with Seagal adding that he is “outraged.”
Still, Arpaio and Seagal haven’t actually disputed anything related to the excessiveness of the raid or the resulting property damage—only the dog-slaughter charge, to which Arpaio responded, “If my deputies—or posse man Seagal for that matter—had done something so awful like shooting a family dog, then where are the photos to prove it?” Of course, Llovera’s attorney pointed out that the letter does not explicitly accuse Seagal of personally shooting his dog, only that he wants an apology for orchestrating the events that led to his dog being killed in the ensuing destruction, all so Seagal’s reality TV show would have a properly exciting Arizona episode. But yeah, if Llovera really wanted that apology, why didn’t he think to take a photo of his murdered, bleeding puppy? That’s Arpaio’s posse man he’s slandering!
With his well-cut suits, passion for Bentleys, and dynamic, accessible style of preaching, he quickly climbed the list of the nation’s most powerful religious leaders.
He built his ministry, which stretches to Kenya and other countries, on a strong message of conservative Christianity that included promises of prosperity and attacks on homosexuality.
But life inside Bishop Long’s home had been crumbling. And on Sunday, members of his dwindling congregation heard news they had been bracing for.
Their charismatic bishop, who in May settled with five young men who accused him of sexual coercion and who has fought a series of other legal battles, said he was temporarily stepping away from the pulpit to try to save his marriage.
The announcement came after his wife, Vanessa Long, 53, filed for divorce Thursday. Friday, she recanted after “prayerful reflection” but later in the day changed her mind and said she did intend to end their marriage of 21 years. They have four children.
“Vanessa and I are working together in seeking God’s will in our current circumstances,” Bishop Long, 58, said in a statement issued by the church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church [ http://www.newbirth.org/ ].
During services on Sunday, he told congregants that he was still their senior pastor and would continue to provide spiritual direction, but that he needed time to take care of “some family business.” Members attending services pledged support and said they would stay until his return.
“He needs to be with his family,” said Marilyn Arnold, a business manager. “It’s hard on his family. When he comes back, we’ll be here.”
But not everyone remains a believer. Valencia Miller, a property manager in Lithonia, said she left the church after the young men who accused the bishop of sexual impropriety came forward.
“A lot of us left. I mean, a lot,” she said in an interview Sunday.
Like others, she hopes that Bishop Long turns this temporary break into a permanent one.
“The church needs a cleansing,” she said. “I’m real disappointed. He was a man we all looked up to.”
Bishop Long took over the congregation in 1987 when it had a few hundred members. He built a following of 25,000, according to the church’s Web site, and reached millions more on TV.
Just after Easter, Bishop Long settled a lawsuit in which young men claimed that the pastor offered gifts, trips, and emotional and spiritual guidance that eventually led to sexual relations. One of the young men, Maurice Robinson, said in court records that his relationship with Bishop Long began when he was 15 and that on a trip to New Zealand the two engaged in sexual acts.
Bishop Long initially vowed to fight the charges, proclaiming his innocence and comparing himself to David who fought Goliath.
“I have five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet,” he said when the charges were revealed.
Details of the settlement were to be kept secret, but people with knowledge of the case have put it at several million dollars paid over a period of years.
Some of the men have since spoken out, so lawyers for the church have tried to get part of the money returned, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
There have been other legal battles. Ten former members who attended church investment seminars are suing him, claiming he coerced them into investment deals that cost them their retirement savings. He recently reached a settlement in a lawsuit over a $2 million bank loan, much of which went unpaid after a real estate deal that went bad.
In 2007, Bishop Long was one of a half-dozen ministers whose tax-exempt status was investigated by a Senate committee.
Support for Bishop Long continues to shrink. Just before the sexual coercion settlement was announced, the Rev. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., left the church.
On Sunday, a small group of antigay, religious protesters stood outside the church urging Bishop Long to step down permanently. They said they planned to return every month until he left.
“He has a serious moral character flaw,” said Isaac Richmond, 73, the minister at the Church of Human Development in Memphis. “It’s a moral question and he’s a religious figure. We don’t want that image as a role model for young men in the African-American community.”
The Rev. Timothy McDonald, a Baptist minister in Atlanta and chairman of the group African-American Ministers in Action, said that attendance at the church had dropped to 4,000 from about 8,000 at one point this year. Still, he said, it remains a powerful force. “Even on his bad days, if he gets 4,000 or 5,000, he’s still larger than 94 or 95 percent of most churches,” he said.
Frank Cook, a contract administrator who has been a member for 20 years, is not going anywhere. “It’s all about restoring, forgiving and loving,” he said in an interview on Sunday. “We love Bishop Long and we’re going to keep coming.”
"Beyond Alarmism and Denial in the Dominionism Debate" [...] "Sarah: Yes, I agree, and I do remember that conversation we had in 2008 about Muthee laying hands on Palin. Muthee is a demon-chaser, someone who casts out demons and hunts witches and so forth. I think in other countries, such as in Nigeria, that is particularly true, where witch hunting, particularly of children, is really scary, and in Uganda, where the hunting and persecution of sexual minorities is driven at least in part by the view that homosexuality is caused by satanic spirits. And even here in the states, casting out of demons can be a scary business. (I remember a story Carlton Pearson [ http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/professorsdesk/1517/conservative-preacher-turned-progressive-leader_carlton_pearson_finds_a_new_home,_ministry_in_chicago_ ], who knows this world well, told me about Ted Haggard, with whom he attended Oral Roberts University: that Haggard’s father was a demon exorciser, which has always sort of haunted me, given Haggard’s obviously repressed sexuality.) "
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.”
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.
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.)
-- 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.
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.
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
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 ..
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, 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.)
-- 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.
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.
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