Dominionism: It's Alarming and it's Growing. "Even mainline Christians are alarmed by this movement."

(Excerpts)  They claim that they are God's prophets and apostles.  They claim that they have supernatural powers, can heal the sick and cast out demons.  They march around through neighborhoods, blanketing the community with prayer.  They claim that they can control hurricanes and natural disasters.  And they claim that they are charged with transforming the entire world to their "kingdom."

Meet the Christian dominionists.

For months now, we have been talking about Christian dominionism on the God Discussion podcast with author and expert Leah Burton, who is a frequent guest co-host on the show. Burton, who serves as a board member on the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has been telling us about the dominionists' "7 Mountains Mandate," which envisions taking over the world so that souls can be "harvested" and Jesus Christ can come back and rule his "kingdom."

In an unusual move, leaders of Christian dominionism will be taking phone calls during a live webcast on October 4, offering us a chance to hear firsthand what's on their minds.  We've been noticing that this type of extremism is becoming less secretive, but it is still not totally in the open.  For those not familiar with Seven Mountain Theology and its infiltration into our society, we thought we'd touch on some highlights.

A Brief Overview of Christian Dominionism.

 

The exact titles of these seven mountains of culture that the dominionists want to rule seems to shift from time to time.  According to an announcement about the development of a "Christian Intelligence Service" that would consist of an "army of watchmen" reporting un-Christianlike activities to their leaders, they include:

1. Spiritual and Moral spheres;
2. Government and Politics;
3. Media;
4. Economy;
5. Social Issues;
6. Environment; and
7. Education.

The Christian dominionists tend to use warlike language, claiming that they are spiritual warriors engaged in a battle to reclaim God's kingdom.  Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, atheists, humanists, and even mainline Christians who don't subscribe to their theology are not welcome in the kingdom that they envision.  In fact, these people will need to be "displaced."
  
"Supernatural" seems to be a buzzword, and they claim that with their God-given  powers, they will perform the same kinds of miracles as Jesus.  Their leaders self identify as prophets and apostles.  Citing the book of  Genesis, they believe that they are mandated by God to take over the world and dominate it.

1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Sheer Nuttery? They've invaded our politics, our schools, our military.

At first glance, these Christian dominionists appear to be an oddball fringe group with delusions of grandeur.  It's easy to dismiss their influence as conspiracy theory until you start paying attention.  We've been noticing that right wing political pundits such as Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee have openly endorsed the dominionist theology, calling for prayer and action over the "7 Mountains."

… we call on all faithful Christians to join us in the fight to defend life, protect and revitalize marriage, and preserve religious liberty and the rights of conscience.  We must work tireless in all the “seven spheres of cultural influence:” (1) the home, (2) the church, (3) civil government / law / military, (4) business / technology, (5) education, (6) media, and finally (7) arts / entertainment / professional sports.

Kyle, for the People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, has been chronicling the merger of the Christian dominionists with the right.  He shows the sheer number of groups, such as Focus on the Family, the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and the Alliance Defense Fund, that appear to be aligned with the goals of Christian dominionist theology.  While many supporting members of these groups may be unaware of Christian dominionism, they are unwittingly promoting it by following the voting mandates and "action alerts" dictated by their group leaders.

These dominionists are promoting "Christian nationalism" through their "historian," David Barton.  It's our opinion that revisions to the Texas schoolbooks, the ongoing "teach Creationism in schools" debates, the endless claims that there is no wall of separation between church and state, the drumbeat against gay rights and women's reproductive choice, the Family at C Street,  and so forth are products of Christian dominionism.
 
It is alarming that Congresspeople have openly joined up with Lou Engle, a proponent of dominionism, in so-called "PrayerCasts."  It's alarming that public officials have endorsed and/or participated in the blatantly dominionist May Day rally.  But perhaps more disturbing is the dominionst influence in the armed forces.  Our military is filled with evangelical Christians who are trying to convert service members into their cause. Mikey Weinstein, founder and director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, described this movement:

What we're fighting here is a subset of evangelical Christianity that goes by a long name: pre-millennial dispensational reconstructionist dominionist fundamentalist evangelical Christianity. There's an organization for officers called the Officers Christian Fellowship, and for the enlisted folks called the Christian Military Fellowship. The first goal is a 'spiritually transformed' U.S. military. The second goal is [to be] ambassadors for Christ in uniform—by the way, if you check the last 2,000 years, that hasn't worked out too well. Thirdly, [they are] empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Even mainline Christians are alarmed by this movement.  When Janet Porter's Faith2Action radio show was dumped by the VCY America network due to her promotion of Seven Mountains dominionist theology at a May Day prayer rally, the network interviewed Sarah Leslie and posted an explanation:

Sarah Leslie is an author and researcher, a member of the board of directors of Discernment Ministries and also a member of the Discernment Research Group.

In response to the May Day event held this past Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial, Ingrid and Sarah brought to listener attention a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. This title was coined by C. Peter Wagner during the 1990’s.

Featuring teachers such as Dutch Sheets, Chuck Pierce, and false "prophetesses" Cindy Jacobs and Stacey Campbell, the New Apostolic Reformation is centered around a theology of dominionism. It teaches that Christians can take down demonic spirits in order to take back territories and institutions for Christ. The movement is post-millennial believing that Jesus will not return until Christians take over the 7 Mountains. These “mountains” are institutions like the media, entertainment, the economy, etc. In other words, their eschatology requires that instead of reaching people with the gospel one heart at a time, they believe they are to conquer the earth one demonic spirit at a time and make the earth perfect so that Jesus can return.   Source