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I'm going to have to draw the line here. And, that's in reaction to a piece from, of all people, Greg Sargent - whom I regard as perhaps the @washingtonpost's top regular political columnist.
A text search shows the words "Christian","evangelical","fundamentalist" are absent... https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1354827509506973697
A text search shows the words "Christian","evangelical","fundamentalist" are absent... https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1354827509506973697
Consider the context - back on January 6th, protestors gathered in small groups on the Mall, and called upon their deity to consecrate what they were about to do. Then, in a howling mob, attacked the Capitol Building. Once inside the House chamber, they consecrated it to Jesus.
Now, let's walk it back a couple of years. In early 2017, I thought to myself, "OK, this is gonna be kind of predictable, but I'm going to look into the radical evangelicals flooding into the new Trump Administration."
See, I knew that would happen. It was transactional...
See, I knew that would happen. It was transactional...
4) Trump cut a deal w/the evangelicals, along the lines of "vote me in, and I'll let your people do whatever the hell they want to do in my administration."
And it was so. In early 2017 I wrote this: https://twocare.org/pence-sessions-pompeo-price-sponsored-antigay-anti-islam-creationist-bible-study-network/
And it was so. In early 2017 I wrote this: https://twocare.org/pence-sessions-pompeo-price-sponsored-antigay-anti-islam-creationist-bible-study-network/
5) I was, to my knowledge, the 1st to write about this phenomenon, Ralph Drollinger's in-house theocratic bible study for Trump's cabinet.
Over the next few years, covering Drollinger's thingy become quite a media cottage industry. Predictably, none of the pieces mentioned mine
Over the next few years, covering Drollinger's thingy become quite a media cottage industry. Predictably, none of the pieces mentioned mine
6) Early on, the @washingtonpost exposed a memo from the Council for National Policy to the new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. @C_Stroop did, by far, the best job unpacking this ( https://cstroop.com/2017/02/16/the-council-for-national-policy-wants-betsy-devos-to-christianize-public-schools-cnp-education-reform-report/ ) but there was more, and worse...
7) I cross referenced all the names on the memo to DeVos, and a significant number of them had served, or were serving, on the board of something called the "Coalition on Revival", which still exists and is both extremely obscure but also quite influential...
8) Back in the early Reagan years, various appendages of the Christian right effort to remake America were emerging. One key effort was the Coalition on Revival, which brought together a wide front of fundamentalists, evangelicals and charismatics to map out, in great detail...
9) ...a vision for the "Christian" transformation of America, across all sectors of society. Intellectually shepherding this process was Rousas J. Rushdoony and his merry band of Christian Reconstructionist ideologues. Rushdoony had written a huge tome for the complete "biblical"
10) ...transformation of societies & nations, his "The Institutes of Biblical Law".
Many in the horde who stormed the US Capitol would have been (probably quite unaware) under Rushdoony's ideological sway. And there was another major influence in play as well...
Many in the horde who stormed the US Capitol would have been (probably quite unaware) under Rushdoony's ideological sway. And there was another major influence in play as well...
11) One of the odd things to covering the Christian right is the way pieces one might have written years, even decades ago, can suddenly become pressingly relevant again.
This is because coverage of the Christian right has been so thin, and patchy, so a very old piece might be..
This is because coverage of the Christian right has been so thin, and patchy, so a very old piece might be..
12) ..just about the only thing ever written on a particular aspect of the movement.
Covering the planned January 6th rally (which became a coup attempt) journalist Bob Smietana, writing for Christianity Today, noted the planned "Jericho March": https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/january/jericho-march-dc-election-overturn-trump-biden-congress.html
Covering the planned January 6th rally (which became a coup attempt) journalist Bob Smietana, writing for Christianity Today, noted the planned "Jericho March": https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/january/jericho-march-dc-election-overturn-trump-biden-congress.html
13) Smietana did not attempt to contextualize this - where, Christian tradition, did this "Jericho March" come from? What about the shofars?
Without getting bogged down in endless details., what you to know is that these rituals are quite new, and associated with...
Without getting bogged down in endless details., what you to know is that these rituals are quite new, and associated with...
14) ..a radical, hyper-charismatic new strain of Christianity that has swept not just America but *the entire globe* since the late 1970s. It looks a bit like traditional Pentecostalism but it's not.
Top scholars who study this movement, technically known as the "3rd Wave"...
Top scholars who study this movement, technically known as the "3rd Wave"...
15) (short for "3rd Wave of the Holy Spirit") have said, and I quote, that this movement has "no connection" to traditional Christianity.
The 3rd Wave is as radically different from traditional Christianity as was (and is) the Church of the Latter Days Saints (the Mormon Church.
The 3rd Wave is as radically different from traditional Christianity as was (and is) the Church of the Latter Days Saints (the Mormon Church.
16) Indeed, there are many similarities & parallels. One big difference, though - the Mormon faith sprang almost full blown from the imaginative visions of one man, Joseph Smith. By contrast, the 3rd Wave was created by entrepreneurs, technocrats, sociologists, anthropologists...
17) ..and other trained professionals, cobbled together from various bits and pieces chosen for their ability to be maximally catchy. The 3rd Wave (this is my hypothesis, BTW) was constructed to be maximally infectious. It's heavily imbued with music, ritual, faith healing...
18) ...and coercive technologies for social control developed in cults. As a movement, it resembles an inchoate super-cult formed of many intersecting local cults organized around churches & mega-churches. It's adherents infiltrate traditional churches to spread it's ideas...
19) Like #COVID19, it's *very* catchy.
A definitive academic reference work for global Christianity, laid down 2 decades ago, is "World Christian Trends AD30 - AD2200"
According to this work, by the year 2000 there were 295 million Third Wave Christians globally...
A definitive academic reference work for global Christianity, laid down 2 decades ago, is "World Christian Trends AD30 - AD2200"
According to this work, by the year 2000 there were 295 million Third Wave Christians globally...
20) 2 decades later, the 3rd Wave is *much* bigger. Many of the #GOP politicians you might associate w/the Christian right are either in it or pander to it.
In the late 90s, leaders in the 3rd Wave began to organize their movement, starting to give it the very rough framework...
In the late 90s, leaders in the 3rd Wave began to organize their movement, starting to give it the very rough framework...
21) ..of a global church. They called it the "New Apostolic Reformation". The idea was that it was to be as radical, or even more radical, than the Protestant Reformation, and would trace its authority through NAR "apostles" who each would possess as much or even more authority..
22) ..as was wielded by Jesus' original 12 apostles.
And there were prophets, too, who talked directly to god & got specific teachings and instructions.
One key figure who helped pull this whole NAR thing together was an evangelist named C. Peter Wagner, who started out his..
And there were prophets, too, who talked directly to god & got specific teachings and instructions.
One key figure who helped pull this whole NAR thing together was an evangelist named C. Peter Wagner, who started out his..
23) ..career on a quite traditional road, as a Congregationalist (if you don't know what this is, think of the classic New England white church with a single spire.) Wagner went to S. America to evangelize, and thoroughly sucked at it. But he was *very* smart & got interested...
24) ...in the very question, what was the most effective way to spread the faith? Christians who study this know that the big breakaway success stories of the last few hundred years have been 1) the Mormon Church and 2) (even bigger) Pentecostalism.
25) So Wagner set about identifying the various elements which could supercharge Christian evangelism. And he allied himself with other Christian intellectuals with a similar tinkering, inventor's mentality.
The end product is the 3rd Wave, whose prophets can literally receive
The end product is the 3rd Wave, whose prophets can literally receive
26) ..teachings, straight from god, that *can be added to the bible, as new scripture*.
Now, imagine wielding that power as *a political weapon*.
Because that's exactly how the NAR uses it.
Now, imagine wielding that power as *a political weapon*.
Because that's exactly how the NAR uses it.
27) OK, catching my breath for a moment. I seem to be emitting something like a chapter of the book I've long needed to write. I guess this Twitter machine is for me a good motivational form...
28) Back in 2012, I found audio from an appearance C. Peter Wagner made in 2006 at a West Coast NAR church. He stated this doctrine directly - NAR prophets can receive new teachings that can add to scripture, though these cannot *contradict* scripture. http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/5/15/75358/1807/Front_Page/We_Can_Add_New_Teachings_To_The_Bible_Says_New_Apostolic_Reformation_Leader_Peter_Wagner
29) Notably, Wagner also states, flatly, that there is *nothing* in the Bible about abortion. Look in your Strong's Concordance, he told his audience, you won't find it.
BUT, he told them, *our prophets tell us it's wrong*.
And, I know just who one of those prophets is.
BUT, he told them, *our prophets tell us it's wrong*.
And, I know just who one of those prophets is.
30) His name is Lou Engle. He came to public notice back in 2006, for his appearance in the video documentary "Jesus Camp", where he was seen indoctrinating kids at the summer camp, exhorting them to fight for "righteous [anti-abortion] judges".
31) As it happens, Lou Engle is one of the very prophets who got the message, straight from god, that abortion is wrong. He even lid that all out in a written doctrine, the "Doctrine of the Shedding of Innocent Blood". The shedding of innocent blood *requires* more blood...
32) ...to be spilled as punishment, or payback - so teaches Lou Engle, prophet of god. He draws a direct analogy to the Civil War - slavery was a sin, and it required the wholesale spilling of blood as a consequence.
So, how do you think people in Wagner's & Engle's movement...
So, how do you think people in Wagner's & Engle's movement...
33) ..might regard politicians who support legal abortion?
I have no indication whatsoever that the producers of "Jesus Camp" had the faintest inkling of who Lou Engle *really* was, nor did anybody with any size megaphone anywhere (except people in the NAR, of course.)
I have no indication whatsoever that the producers of "Jesus Camp" had the faintest inkling of who Lou Engle *really* was, nor did anybody with any size megaphone anywhere (except people in the NAR, of course.)
34) So, looping back around to the January 6th rally that preceded the coup attempt...
As I said, there were two main tendencies at work - one, very diffuse but *very* pervasive were the ideas of Rushdoony & his Christian Reconstructionists.
Now, remember that memo, from...
As I said, there were two main tendencies at work - one, very diffuse but *very* pervasive were the ideas of Rushdoony & his Christian Reconstructionists.
Now, remember that memo, from...
35) ..the Council for National Policy to Betsy DeVos (exposed by the Washington Post)?
Well, I cross referenced the names from the CNP committee that sent DeVos the memo, and quite a few of them were associated with the "Coalition on Revival" the true significance of which was..
Well, I cross referenced the names from the CNP committee that sent DeVos the memo, and quite a few of them were associated with the "Coalition on Revival" the true significance of which was..
36) ..that it *spread the theocratic & theonomic (biblical law) ideas of Rushdoony & his gang among the many factions of conservative Christianity*.
We know this, in part, because one of the top leaders in COR, a highly entertaining raconteur of a man named Colonel V. Doner...
We know this, in part, because one of the top leaders in COR, a highly entertaining raconteur of a man named Colonel V. Doner...
37) ..would later write a book deeply critical of the NAR, which he seemed to think was going off the rails, in which Doner described his participation in, and experience of, COR. He didn't mince words - Rushdoony & his Reconstructionists had run the show. The ideas were theirs.
38) That book was "Christian Jihad: Neo-Fundamentalists and the Polarization of America". https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Jihad-Neo-Fundamentalists-Polarization-America/dp/0984685251
39) Now, the book is a great read, and Doner is a hoot (I had about an hour phone chat with him back in '012) but I suspect he may also still be in the Christian Reconstructionist tendency.
COR very efficiently spread CR ideas widely among fundamentalists and evangelicals...
COR very efficiently spread CR ideas widely among fundamentalists and evangelicals...
40) ...so that, now, even though almost nobody will admit to being a Christian Reconstructionist, CR's ideas are now ubiquitous on the Christian right.
One key group that COR spread CR ideas to were the charismatics. C. Peter Wagner (a new convert to charismania) & other...
One key group that COR spread CR ideas to were the charismatics. C. Peter Wagner (a new convert to charismania) & other...
41) ..charismatic leaders were at COR, and Wagner would later write that his NAR movement traced many ideas from Rushdoony.
Back in the 90s, a researcher & journalist named Frederick Clarkson noticed that Christian Reconstructionist ideas were spreading to charismatics...
Back in the 90s, a researcher & journalist named Frederick Clarkson noticed that Christian Reconstructionist ideas were spreading to charismatics...
42) Remember what I said about quite old articles, on the Christian right, suddenly becoming *very* relevant again?
Well, here's one of those - see the subsection of this long 1994 article, towards the end, titled "No longer without Sheep": https://www.politicalresearch.org/1994/03/01/christian-reconstructionismtheocratic-dominionism-gains-influence
Well, here's one of those - see the subsection of this long 1994 article, towards the end, titled "No longer without Sheep": https://www.politicalresearch.org/1994/03/01/christian-reconstructionismtheocratic-dominionism-gains-influence
43) The Christian Recontructionists saw (and see) themselves as shepherds. They are the intellectuals providing the ideas to spark a mass movement.
They were always numerically tiny, but no matter - they now have "sheep", millions in fact, weaned on CR-derived visions of...
They were always numerically tiny, but no matter - they now have "sheep", millions in fact, weaned on CR-derived visions of...
44) ...Christian Nationalism.
Now, for the wonkishly-inclined reader, here's a 2011 continuation of Frederick Clarkson's line of thought, from the website Fred & I co-founded in 2005:
"The Rise of Charismatic Dominionism (Updated)": http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/8/15/9328/35473/Front_Page/The_Rise_of_Charismatic_Dominionism_Updated_
Now, for the wonkishly-inclined reader, here's a 2011 continuation of Frederick Clarkson's line of thought, from the website Fred & I co-founded in 2005:
"The Rise of Charismatic Dominionism (Updated)": http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/8/15/9328/35473/Front_Page/The_Rise_of_Charismatic_Dominionism_Updated_
45) But to add some real-world spice to this, consider:
One of the most colorful entrances of the NAR, and its brand of Charismatic Dominionism into US national politics was when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his VP running mate in the 2008 election.
You see, Palin was....
One of the most colorful entrances of the NAR, and its brand of Charismatic Dominionism into US national politics was when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his VP running mate in the 2008 election.
You see, Palin was....
46) ...borned-agained, as a young teen, at an Alaska church that served as the beachhead for the NAR's invasion of Alaska: the Wasilla Assembly of God.
Now, "Assemblies of God" are churches in one of the major Pentecostal denominations. But, as I suggested, one of the...
Now, "Assemblies of God" are churches in one of the major Pentecostal denominations. But, as I suggested, one of the...
47) ..major vectors for the spread of the NAR & its ideas & practices is through the infiltration of existing churches.
Wagner & his crowd, for all their magical woo ideas, are surprisingly organizationally & technologically cutting edge.
You wouldn't think that, of a movement
Wagner & his crowd, for all their magical woo ideas, are surprisingly organizationally & technologically cutting edge.
You wouldn't think that, of a movement
48) ...that seeks to cast out geographic "territorial spirits" to literally cause the magic manifestation of earthly utopias, or tries to literally raise the dead.
But, I've got footage of C. Peter Wagner giving a lecture, at a big South Korean church in 1993.
Most people...
But, I've got footage of C. Peter Wagner giving a lecture, at a big South Korean church in 1993.
Most people...
49) ..rightly or wrongly, consider the idea Wagner was promoting - that the early 1990s downturn in the Japanese stock market happened because the new Japanese emperor had intercourse with a demon spirit who might have been a succubus - clearly be insane. But watch the footage..
50) ..from my 2009 Talk To Action story on this: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/7/25/92152/3919/Front_Page/Jack_Hayford_Backs_Odd_Theory_Sex_With_a_Demon_Drove_Down_Japanese_Stock_Market
At the very start of the footage, you'll see somebody in the audience transcribing Wagner's talk, on an *extremely early* laptop that doesn't even seem to have a rollerball or a trackpad.
At the very start of the footage, you'll see somebody in the audience transcribing Wagner's talk, on an *extremely early* laptop that doesn't even seem to have a rollerball or a trackpad.
51) That's not an anomaly, it's characteristic - Charismatic Dominionism often can be found using cutting edge technology to push its agenda, regardless of the wildly a-rational nature of its ideas & practices.
To give you an example - during the 2016, one evangelical...
To give you an example - during the 2016, one evangelical...
52) ..voter mobilization nonprofit dubiously obtained a database with information on about 200 million potential US voters, and used cutting edge algorithmic, psychographic software to microtarget potential Christian Trump voters in its GOTV drive.
Guess who was funding this?..
Guess who was funding this?..
53) ..funding "United in Prayer" was one of Wagner's NAR "apostles" in the business world, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur named Ken Eldred who had made $ billions manufacturing computer widgets, cables, and so on.
54) An earlier Eldred philanthropic project was the funding of a series of pseudo-documentaries that purported to show how believers could, through doing "Spiritual Mapping" & then driving out identified "geographic" demon spirits...
55)..and killing or neutralizing people associated with those demon spirits, could cause the magical manifestation of mini-utopias on Earth - people would lose their drug & alcohol addictions, crime would end, polluted lakes & rivers would magically become pristine...
56) ...and (needless to say) everybody would become a born-again charismatic Christian.
A guy named George Otis, Jr. produced these pseudo-documentaries that were marketed under the "Transformation" name, and there are at least 1/2 dozen now that, legend has it, have been...
A guy named George Otis, Jr. produced these pseudo-documentaries that were marketed under the "Transformation" name, and there are at least 1/2 dozen now that, legend has it, have been...
57) ..viewed by hundreds of millions of Christian across the globe (they've been dubbed into most, or all, major languages.)
One viewer of these was Sarah Palin, who as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, took one of the "Transformations" videos out from the Wasilla public library...
One viewer of these was Sarah Palin, who as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, took one of the "Transformations" videos out from the Wasilla public library...
58) That fact was uncovered by an AP reporter (who clearly had no clue what it meant), but a Charisma magazine story out a bit early spelled it out all too well - while in her early 20s, under the guidance of an Alaska native woman named Mary Glazier who, as it happened, was both
59) ..a dues-paying (yeah, they had a dues-paying org.) NAR apostle and also an esteemed NAR prophet (I don't think the prophets had to pay yearly dues) attempted to pray an accused witch (who in reality was a gay AK prison guard) to death.
60) There was a profusion of other evidence tying Palin quite firmly to the NAR movement, and me and my colleagues wrote *extensively* about that from late 2008 into 2010, but almost nobody in secular media with any size megaphone had even an inkling that the NAR even existed...
61) ..but those few who might have had an inkling (and probably should have known better) attacked our work and attached their reputations to the unsupported claim that Palin was a traditional Pentecostal (when, in fact, her AK churches were revolving doors for the interrelated..
62) ..3rd Wave and New Apostolic Reformation movements. Another thing - traditional Pentecostalism *does not* claim that believers can develop the power to re-animate ("raise from the dead") three-day old corpses.
The curious aspect of this was that tenured academics, notable..
The curious aspect of this was that tenured academics, notable..
63) ..sociologists & anthropologists who cited no observational evidence whatsoever, were making these evidence-free declarations.
Of course, the truth came out anyway, but a bit too late to impact the election, and to give you an idea of how close this brush w/"president Palin
Of course, the truth came out anyway, but a bit too late to impact the election, and to give you an idea of how close this brush w/"president Palin
64) ..was, in Fall 2008 one of Mary Glazier's Alaska friends, a lesser, local NAR prophet, prophesied that the McCain/Palin ticket would win in 2008 but then, following a tragic, unexpected death, Palin would ascend to an even higher office.
(cue ominous drum beat)
(cue ominous drum beat)
65) To make a long story even longer, in 2011 the NAR again become salient to national politics with the presidential candidacy of Texas governor Rick Perry, whose campaign was launched by a rally that packed a jaw-dropping profusion of NAR apostles and prophets onto the stage.
66) My colleague who had been writing, with me, on Palin & the NAR starting in late '08 coached one enterprising Texas journalist who picked up the Perry/NAR story and ran with it - https://www.texasobserver.org/rick-perrys-army-of-god/ - and then managed to get the WHYY/"Fresh Air" public radio show to do...
67) a segment featuring her explaining the NAR movement : https://www.npr.org/2011/08/24/139781021/the-evangelicals-engaged-in-spiritual-warfare
That, in turn, led to an unbelievable breakthrough when C. Peter Wagner himself asked host Terry Gross if he could tell his side of the story...
That, in turn, led to an unbelievable breakthrough when C. Peter Wagner himself asked host Terry Gross if he could tell his side of the story...
68) And, I'll tell you - I've heard some jaw-dropping "Fresh Air" episodes (Gross' interview of Kiss frontman Gene Simmons comes to mind) but for raw surrealism, nothing, *nothing* beats the Terry Gross interview of Wagner in which he both claims Sarah Palin as part of his NAR...
69) ..but also discusses his theory concerning the emperor and the succubus. It's a must-listen:
https://www.npr.org/2011/10/03/140946482/apostolic-leader-weighs-religions-role-in-politics
Now, this was a full 10 years ago, and most journalists to this day don't know about the NAR but...
https://www.npr.org/2011/10/03/140946482/apostolic-leader-weighs-religions-role-in-politics
Now, this was a full 10 years ago, and most journalists to this day don't know about the NAR but...
70) ..Palin & Perry are hardly the only significant examples of NAR intrusion into national, and presidential, politics.
Going back a bit earlier, the NAR helped give America 8 years of George W. Bush...
Going back a bit earlier, the NAR helped give America 8 years of George W. Bush...
71) But, I think I'll wrap this up for now and get onto that story tomorrow, with part 2.
Besides more prominent intrusions of the NAR into recent US politics, I'll also cover a range of related topics including the organic relationship between the NAR & the QAnon movement...
Besides more prominent intrusions of the NAR into recent US politics, I'll also cover a range of related topics including the organic relationship between the NAR & the QAnon movement...
72) Thanks for reading all of this. See you tomorrow.
