The Dominionists: Christian Fanatics Who Want To Save The World By Destroying It

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Meet Lou Engle: The Apostolic Elder

A religious extremist from a dangerous cult, now being invited regularly to Republican Party events.  Oilwellian and I assembled this quick and dirty video montage, just to give you a sense of this con-man and his church of hate, overflowing with incredible levels of Christian demagoguery. revivalist chicanery, and raw political ambition.  But he's merely a taste of what underlies the core beliefs of Sarah Palin and millions of others who invest in these Pentecostal snake oil salesmen.  Unfortunately, they aren't merely a curiosity anymore. They are getting too close to power for that.  They are now officially scary. 

The Purpose of This Primer

As with many of my primers, my goal is not to provide a definitive resource. Rather, I want to provide starting points for others to travel. It is always my hope that one guide leads to another, and it to another, and so on, until perhaps someone can find and reveal some truth.

Christian reformations of all kinds, especially Dominionism and its variants, are a complex subject, but the more we know about them, the easier they are to track, and prevent from gaining any more power in our political system than they already have.

Starting from Lou Engle, I want to build this primer as a road map of where you can find the best info about these dangerous movements, and what we must do to guard against their ruinous influence in our politics. It's not an easy task, and this is merely a start. I plan to enlist friends like @karoli, who has a great deal of knowledge about these Christian movements, and others who I hope will come forward to help.

Please review these links and articles, and post to the comments anything you feel should be included. Please check back often for changes.

Back Story

The Rachel Maddow show has been one of the only mainstream programs to give more than passing mention of a growing threat to America and Democracy: The so-called "Dominionist"  movement(s), which overlap and intersect with "Apostolics"  such as Elder. While just a few years ago, this Pentecostal charlatan was one of hundreds of preachers running around screaming End Times rhetoric, he has now emerged as a leading figure with formidable ties to the Republican Party.

Engle's "Call to Conscience" revivalist-like ministry (and movement) gave rise to "The Call,"  prayer meetings led by Engle's ministry, but joined  by other Christian pastors in the US. The meetings request prayer and fasting by Christians in protest to legislation such as same-sex marriage, and healthcare reform.

While the term "Dominionism" is the subject of some controversy, it has been widely used, and serves to neatly label and group a broad range of similar Christian belief systems and groups with one umbrella term that codifies a majority of their views, politics, and activities.  I apologize to the the students of Christian theology who might object to this broad brush, but there are just too many aspects of this issue for any dozen posts of this type. Some kind of condensing is required to make these issues even marginally comprehensible to most of the citizens who are threatened by these Christian Zealots.

Backgrounders

"Gay Exorcist" Cindy Jacobs To Share Stage With Virginia GOP AG Ken Cuccinelli (Alternet)

Maddow observed, “A lot of conservative politicians admit they want to repeal health reform, but it takes a brave new Virginia style conservative politician to say they want to repeal health reform while appearing at an event with a faith healer — repeal and replace indeed.”
 

Theocracywatch.org — introduction

Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party

In its generic sense, dominionism is a very broad political tendency within the Christian Right. It ranges from soft to hard versions in terms of its theocratic impulse.

Soft Dominionists are Christian nationalists. They believe that Biblically-defined immorality and sin breed chaos and anarchy. They fear that America's greatness as God's chosen land has been undermined by liberal secular humanists, feminists, and homosexuals.
Hard Dominionists believe all of this, but they want the United States to be a Christian theocracy. For them the Constitution and Bill of Rights are merely addendums to Old Testament Biblical law.
http://www.theocracywatch.org/

— More —

War on Secular Society (Theocracy Watch)

"We need to find ways to win the war" Karl Rove

President Bush's chief political strategist, and deputy chief of staff told a gathering of the Family Research Council in March, 2002. The Family Research Council is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations of the theocratic right today. Rove wasn't talking about the war on terrorism. He was talking about the war on secular society. 

What is Dominionism? Palin, the Christian Right, & Theocracy (Theocracy Watch)

Key Players in Dominionism and Related Movements

C. Peter Wagner (Wikipedia) — Former missionary, Founder of Global Harvest. Lives in Colorado Springs, where  his organization has made extensive inroads into the US. Airforce Academy

Lou Engle  — The Call is a series of prayer meetings led by Rev. Lou Engle's ministry Call for Conscience along with other Christian pastors in the US. The meetings request prayer and fasting by Christians in protest to legislation such as same-sex marriage, and healthcare reform.

Rick Joyner  — Rick Joyner heads MorningStar Ministries (also known as MorningStar Publications and Ministries), which he cofounded with his wife Julie Joyner in 1985. Supporters consider him to be a prophet and / or apostle. Critics consider Joyner to be unsound and dangerous.

Todd Bentley   — a Canadian Christian evangelist. He was the key figure of the Lakeland Revival.

Sen. Sam Brownback — Senior United States Senator from the U.S. state of Kansas. He has announced that he will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2010 and has filed papers to run for Governor of Kansas in the 2010 election

Becky Fischer  —)  a Pentecostal children's pastor best known for her role in the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp.

Tim LaHaye — American evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker. He is best-known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins. He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.LaHaye believes that the Illuminati is secretly engineering world affairs.

The Apostolic Organizations

Watch Dogs and Monitoring Organizations

  • Talk2action.org — Probably the most dedicated and concise of the groups tracking these people and their plans
     
  • Theocracywatch.org — raises awareness about the pervasive role of the Religious Right in the U.S. government. It disseminates information through its website,speakers bureau, powerpoint presentations, CDs. Also conducts interviews with the media.
  • Apologeticsindex.org  —- The Apologetics Index (apologeticsindex.org) 'family of web sites' provides 40,870+ pages of research resources on religious cults, sects, new religious movements, alternative religions, apologetics-, anticult-, and countercult organizations, doctrines, religious practices and world views.
  • Southern Poverty Law Center —  a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.
  • Americans United for Separation of Church and State —(AU) is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.
  • People For the American Way — Our vision is a vibrantly diverse democratic society in which everyone is treated equally under the law, given the freedom and opportunity to pursue their dreams, and encouraged to participate in our nation’s civic and political life. Our America respects diversity, nurtures creativity and combats hatred and bigotry.

Videos

 

Definitions & Key Terms

  • Dominionism — tendency among some conservative politically-active Christians, especially in the United States, to seek influence or control over secular civil government through political action—aiming either at a nation governed by Christians, or a nation governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law.
  • Christian_Reconstructionism — A religious and theological movement within Protestant Christianity that calls for Christians to put their faith into action in all areas of life.
  • Latter Rain Movement — also known as the New Order or New Order of the Latter Rain, was a post-World War II movement within Pentecostal Christianity
  • Charismatic movement — beliefs typical of those held by Pentecostal Christians by those within the historic denomination.
  • Pentecostalism — s a charismatic renewal movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit

Further Reading

   Reading Lists

So How Nutty Is The Tenther Movement? Here’s Their Wish List

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The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The list below is the entire contents of a section added to Wikipedia, snuck into the Federal Funding section.  As you probably know, any person or group that can learn the basic rules, and document what can pass the very slim tests for a verifiable source can—and often does—game the Wikipedia review and editing process all the time.

Hence, a Tea Party-type Tenther group like The Tenth Amendment Center, gets to fluidly itemize all the state actors and actions predicated on overturning any social program they don't like, or creating gun rights which they do like, based on one or more of their self-serving interpretations of any given10th amendment clause, principle, precedent or dictate.

This sort of section-addition is rarely meant to educate. It's merely a form of infowar propaganda meant to lend the impression of weight to the actions, so that the impressionable will be seduced into thinking they are well founded, credible, and nearing legislative action. In most cases, they're little more than the rhetorical chatter from perpetual local-election noise machines that, in one form or another, have been spamming state legislative processes for decades. Unfortunately, the reckless Republican party and its Tea Party movement cousin have given rise to new and more dangerous (and potentially enactable) variant of these ideas, and they are what is mostly recapped in this list.

I don't mind their data being there, assuming even the most basic facts can be validated. But I do mind it being placed there with no-cross referencing to the background, core issues, viability, and known or potential implications of such proposals.

I also resent the fact that, knowing the overall impact Wikipedia has, that liberal experts and scholars aren't regularly looking at such things and challenging them—openly.  Full disclosure: This knowledge reputation problem has always troubled me about WikiPedia, and it's something I've invested a lot of time thinking about a solution for.

If you know anything about some of these issues, the wording in each action is almost comical. Yet the Tea Party movement-types just eat this stuff up, and regurgitate each action as if they were the most important issues facing America in the 21st century, and a crucial development if they are to continue enjoying what they've been told are their "freedoms."

Note:The wording below is verbatim as it appeared in Wikipedia. Note the word "bipartisan" in the opening paragraph. A few moments looking at their website should dispel that notion quickly.

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

State Sovereignty Resolutions and Nullification Acts

The Tenth Amendment Center, an organization seeking to promote the concept of state sovereignty, has gathered information on various actions taken by state legislatures in protest to federal actions. The organization is bipartisan. The movement has quietly gained support in a number of states.

    * State Sovereignty Resolutions ("10th Amendment Resolutions") – During 2009, "state sovereignty resolutions" or "10th Amendment Resolutions" were introduced in the legislatures of 37 states; in seven states the resolutions passed (Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee). As of April 2010[update], resolutions were introduced or reintroduced into the legislatures of 19 states; the resolution has passed in five states (Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming).[4] [5]

    * State Sovereignty Bills ("10th Amendment Bills") – As of March 2010[update], in five states (Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma) Tenth Amendment supporters have introduced "State Sovereignty Bills" (one step beyond the Resolution stage discussed above), which would mandate action against what the state legislature perceives as unconstitutional federal legislation; none have made it past the introductory stage.[6]

    * Firearms Freedom Act Legislation and Federal Gun Laws Nullification – As of April 2010[update], resolutions have been introduced in the legislatures of 27 states that would "declare[] that any firearms made and retained in-state are beyond the authority of Congress under its constitutional power to regulate commerce among the states". During 2009 the legislation passed in Montana and Tennessee and during 2010 the legislation passed in Arizona, Idaho, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.[7] South Carolina has taken the issue one step further: in 2010 a bill was introduced which would effectively nullify all gun registration laws within the state.[8]

    * Medical Marijuana Laws – As of March 2010[update], 14 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have passed legislation which permit the use of medicinal marijuana.[9] California has a proposed November 2010 constitutional amendment which would go one step further, and legalize marijuana use by persons over age 21 for any purpose whatsoever.[10] The Obama Administration announced in October 2009 that it advised federal prosecutors not to target medicinal marijuana users, or their suppliers, in states that have passed such laws.[11]

    * REAL ID Act – As of March 2010[update], 25 states (beginning with Maine in 2007) have passed legislation and/or resolutions which opposed this legislation. Though the legislation is still on the books, its implementation has been delayed on several occasions and is currently not being enforced.[12]

    * National Health Care Nullification – As of March 2010[update], 30 states have introduced legislation which would declare certain provisions of any proposed national health care bill to be null and void within the state; the legislation passed in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and Virginia.[13] Such provisions include mandatory participation in such a system as well as preserving the right of a patient to pay a health care professional for treatment (and for the professional to accept it) outside of a single-payer system. Arizona's legislation passed as a proposed constitutional amendment, to be submitted to the voters in 2010.[14] On February 1, 2010, the Virginia Senate took a stand against a key provision of a proposed federal health care overhaul, passing legislation declaring that Virginia residents cannot be forced to buy health insurance. On March 17, 2010, the Governor of Idaho signed a bill requiring the Attorney General to sue the Federal Government if Idaho residents are required to buy health insurance.[15]

    * "Bring the Guard Home" – As of March 2010[update], seven states have introduced legislation which would permit the Governor of the state to recall any National Guard troops from overseas deployments (such as in Iraq and Afghanistan); the bills failed in Maryland and New Mexico.[16]

    * Constitutional Tender – As of March 2010[update], seven states have introduced legislation which would seek to nullify federal legal tender laws in the state by authorizing payment in gold and silver or a paper note backed 100% by gold or silver; the legislation failed in Colorado and Montana.[17]

    * "Cap-and-trade" Nullification – As of March 2010[update], four states have introduced legislation which would nullify any proposed federal emissions regulation under the "cap and trade" model); none have advanced beyond the introductory stage.[18]

    * State Sovereignty and Federal Tax Funds Acts – As of March 2010[update], three states have introduced legislation which would require businesses (and in some cases, individuals) to remit their Federal tax payments to the state Treasurer (or equivalent body) for deposit into an escrow fund. If the state Legislature determined that a portion of the federal budget was not constitutional, or if the federal government imposed penalties or sanctions upon the state for creating the fund, then the money would be withheld.) None have advanced beyond the introductory stage[19]

    * "Sheriffs First" Legislation – As of March 2010[update], three states have introduced legislation which would make it a crime for any federal agent to make an arrest, search, or seizure within the state without getting the advanced, written permission of the sheriff of the county in which the event would take place); none have advanced beyond the introductory stage.[20]

    * "Federal Land" Legislation – As of February 2010[update], Utah has introduced legislation to allow the use of Eminent domain on federal land. Rep. Christopher Herrod has introduced the bill in a state where the Federal Government controls over 60% of the land. The effort has the full support of Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who would have to defend the law. The proposal includes setting aside $3 million for legal defense.[21]

    * "Nullification of Federal Intrastate Commerce Regulation" – As of March 2010[update], four states have introduced legislation which would nullify federal regulation of commerce and activities which are solely within the boundaries of a state and which do not cross state lines. The Virginia legislation has passed one house.[22]
Source: WikiPedia/10th_Amendment

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