[...][T]he American left, the secular mainstream, and many secular Republicans (certainly conservative but not thrilled with the idea of Christian theocracy or the teaching of Young-Earth Creationism in public schools), have missed, and still do to this day, the disproportionate influence conservative evangelicals exert in American politics and culture.

And in specific, immediate terms they've missed the political impact of Christian Zionism, misinterpreted the Tea Party movement - which is more influenced by the Christian right than typically acknowledged, and failed to notice the rise of a parallel phenomenon that looks and behaves very differently from the Tea Party but holds many of the same political views and is quietly organizing in major US cities and integrating its efforts with the work of local city police departments.

Nearly two and a half years to the day, I wrote an early article detailing Rick Warren's connections with Paul Yonggi Cho nee David Yonggi Cho--a figure who is practically at Ground Zero regarding the continued perpetuation and promotion of what has been termed "Latter Rain", evolved into "Joel's Army", and is known now as the "New Apostolic Reformation".

This early post has gained sudden relevance now with Rick Warren now being chosen as the pastor to give the inauguration prayer on 20 January.

This is also rather unfortunate, as it turns out that Rick Warren's connections to "Elijah's Army" go farther than trading tips with Cho on megachurch growth...far deeper.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

Quite possibly one of the earliest warning signs of the level of Rick Warren's ongoing embrace of NAR groups dates from the famous Talk to Action series on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" game--a game which had connections to Saddleback via the international church director (later forced to step down from both Left Behind Games' board and Saddleback's board due to the controversy).

As it turns out, the initial article hints at Warren actually using a variant of what is known now as the "Seven Mountains" Strategy--a literal NAR playbook on how to essentially set up a Joel's Army "fifth column" to take over the very foundations of modern society:

A key aspect of dominionist thought is a conviction that the Scripture gives the church a mandate to take dominion over this world socially and culturally before the return of Jesus Christ. Mr. Warren's global plan is a strategy to realize a dominionist vision of churches, states, and corporations forming partnerships to bring about a new world order to make way for Christ's return by establishing a literal, physical kingdom of God on earth. In order to build this earthly kingdom, Mr. Warren plans marketplace ministries - business ventures with a veneer of missionary compassion that slip into a country in order to transform it systematically through the governmental, corporate, and social sectors. And that is why Mr. Warren calls himself a "stealth evangelist" - because he wishes to cloak his dominionist agenda, which is the establishment of an earthly kingdom that reflects his skewed vision of Christianity.

According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval.

It literally did not hit me until sections of the "Seven Mountains" Strategy publicised in the "Transformations" videos were analysed: the "P.E.A.C.E. Plan" (which Warren loves to promote as the great cure-all for whatever ails the world) would seem to be simply a kinder, gentler--or, more likely, simply rebranded--version of "Seven Mountains", complete with some of the specific "targets" being identical (including government, the church, and businesses).

In fact, here it is right from Rick Warren's mouth:

What are the problems that are so big in this world that don't seem solvable? The UN has failed at them. America has failed at them. Business has failed at them. Governments have failed at them. I came to the conclusion that there are several big problems--the global Goliaths.

Number one is spiritual emptiness. Most people don't know that they're not an accident. That they were made by God and for God, they were made for a purpose, this life is not all there is, they're made to last forever. This life is preparation for the next. Jesus came to earth so that their past can be forgiven, they have a purpose for living, and a home in heaven.

The second biggest problem is egocentric leadership. Poor leadership is the cause of poverty and disease and illiteracy. They tried to solve these problems without the church which is the only thing big enough. The only thing growing faster than the AIDS pandemic is the church.

I went to the scriptures and I said, "God, what is the plan?" That is where I came up with this PEACE plan, the antidote to these global giants.

P - Plant a church or partner with a church if there is one there. It always starts with a church... in, through, and to the church.
E - Equip servant leaders.
A - Assist the poor.
C - Care for the sick.
E - Educate the next generation.

It's the five things Jesus did when he was here on earth. The first thing he did was he planted a church. The second thing he did was equip leaders. He spent three years training these disciples. The third thing he did was he cared for the poor. In fact, in his very first sermon, he says, "I am here to preach the good news to the poor." He cared for the poor. Fourth, he healed the sick. One-third of his ministry was a health ministry. The fifth thing is he taught. Particularly he cared about the next generation.

So for the last two years, underground, stealth, we have been working on this PEACE Plan. We've been developing a prototype of it in 47 countries. We won't let anybody do the PEACE plan by themselves. You have to do it in a team, in community.

There are 2.1 billion people who claim to be followers of Christ. If you just mobilize half of them that would be a billion people. That would be quite a force.

Quite literally, Thomas Muthee covered the same points in his now-infamous speech at Wasilla A/G:

In a moment, I'll be asking you that we pray for Sarah, and I'll tell you the reason why. When we talk about transformation of a community, we are talking about God invading seven areas in our society. Let me repeat that one more time. When we talk about transformation of a society, a community, it's where we see God's Kingdom infiltrate, influence seven areas in our society.

Number one is the spiritual aspect of our society. Mainly, the church for a long has just concentrated on that dimension, whereby we simply want people saved, we want them to go to heaven, we want them delivered, and that's it. But I'll tell you something: if all we do is come to the church and get people saved and then they go, I don't think much will happen in our society.

So the second area whereby God wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It is high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity, running the economics of our nations. That's what we are waiting for. That's part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the Israelites, you know, that's how they won. And that's how they are, even today. When we will see that, you know, the talk transport us in the lands. We see, you know, the bankers. We see the people holding the paths. They are believers. We will not have the kind of corruption that we are hearing in our societies.

So we go to the third area, it's in the area of politics. Tell your neighbor, "politics." Do you know what I discovered? This is funny. The people who actually split churches, they have the gift of politics, but they are exercising it in the wrong place. That's what I came to know. There are people who are wired to politics because God wants to take the political, you know, dimension of our societies. And those people should be prayed for. That's why I was, you know, I was so glad to see Sarah here. We should pray for her, we should back her up. And, you know, come the day of voting, we should be there, not just praying, we should be there. And I'm saying this because that's what I'm telling our church. I'm telling them that we need this in Parliament. In here is what you call Congressmen, you know, you know, the, the Governors, we need the bretheren right inside there. Is anybody hearing me?

You know, because who will change the laws of the lands? The problem is do we just pray, but we do nothing about it. If the believers had not done something in this country, your president would not be in office today. Yes or no? Am I right?

Number three, or number four, it's the area of education. We need believers who are educationists. If we had them, today we would not be talking about the Ten Commandments being kicked out of the church, I mean out of our schools. They would still be there. One of the things that you, you know, I would love you to know, I'm a child of revival of the Seventies, and that revival swept through the schools. They are open to preaching, you know, open. Open. Wide open. You go to any school, there is what we call Christian Union. Christian Union is nothing more but a bunch of kids that are born again, spirit-filled, tongue-talking, devil-casting. Is anybody hearing me? All over the country! Is anybody hearing me?

We need God taking over our education system! Otherwise, we, if we have God in our schools, we will not have kids being taught, you know, how to worship Buddha, how to worship Mohammed, we will not have in the curriculum witchcraft and sorcery. Is anybody hearing me?

The other area is in the area of media. We need believers in the media. We need God taking over the media in our lands. Otherwise we will not have all the junk coming out of, you know, coming out of the media. And not only that, we need God t__— [period of silence in video]. Why can't we have our living church in Hollywood? Guess what will happen. If we have a living church right in Hollywood, we would not have all the kind of pornography that we are having. Is anybody hearing me?

And the last area is in the area of government. Hello? We need believers there. We need men and women of integrity. You know, as the Secretaries of State. We need them right there. People that are born again, spirit filled, people who know God, and people who are serious with God.

It's also notable that Warren has a strong emphasis on what he terms "Stealth evangelism"--which can be more properly termed "bait and switch" evangelism, and is a hallmark of both coercive religious groups (who tend to use deceptive methods of recruitment) and particularly NAR-linked neopentecostal dominionist groups. (The "Alpha Course", a bait-and-switch recruitment campaign developed by a CoE church steeplejacked by a Vineyard-linked "Cuckoo church", is a particularly popular method--people get pulled in by dinner dates and are eventually pressured to go to weekend "retreats" where particularly hard-sell conversion tactics are used (such as Matt Taibbi rather famously described re a John Hagee "Deliverance Weekend"). It is also notable that the "Alpha Course" has been officially endorsed by Saddleback Church.)

As it turns out, I'm not alone in noticing the Joel's Army linkage--Let Us Reason (an anti-dominionist Christian apologetics site that is very aggressive at monitoring and warning against the NAR targeting evangelical churches) has also noticed this strong similarity:

1. The term "transformation" is used to describe a planned, intentional "Second Reformation" (also called "New Apostolic Reformation"). An early proposal for a "second Protestant reformation" appeared in The Emerging Order (1979) by New Ager Jeremy Rifkin, who called for a re-definition of Genesis 1 to create a stewardship mandate for a dominion over the earth. Rick Warren, of purpose-driven fame, positively referenced Rifkin's proposal for this new Reformation. Just this year Warren launched what he calls the "Second Reformation." Other evangelical leaders calling for this new reformation include Ralph Neighbour, Bill Hamon, Luis Bush, C. Peter Wagner, Jim Rutz, Robert Schuller, Donald Miller and many others.

2) This "transformation" is not personal but is applied corporately to groups and entities. One example is: "Social transformation was defined as seeking positive change in the whole of human life materially, socially and spiritually, by recovering our true identity as human beings created in the image of God and discovering our true vocation as productive stewards, faithfully caring for our world and its people."

3) This "transformation" is to be accomplished by a "mission" strategy of doing "whatever it takes" to launch political, social, and cultural reforms on a global scale. A philosophy of "the end justifies the means" has been embraced to accomplish these colossal goals.

4) Extremely sophisticated psycho-social marketing techniques are employed to facilitate this "transformation."

5) State-of-the-art statistical measurement and assessment methods evaluate this "transformation," judging "effectiveness" by pre-set, man-made criteria.

6) A plethora of intricate spiritual activities with new names, new techniques, new methodologies, and new doctrines purportedly cause "transformation" to take place in the heavenlies and then on earth. These include strategic-level spiritual warfare, identificational repentance, prayer evangelism, on-site praying, spiritual mapping, prayer walks, labyrinths, spiritual formation, and a host of other newly-concocted doctrines with corresponding activities. (The reader is challenged to find any of these in the Bible.)

7) A re-alignment of church hierarchical structures, not unlike network marketing, is said to be essential for "transformation" to take place.

8) These new authority and accountability structures must be superimposed between believers and God. The model is touted as a return to the early New Testament model, in which churches met in homes. In reality it is a data-driven model with a top-down hierarchy of authority and control. It is variously called cell church, G12, shepherding, House2House, etc.

9) This "transformation" dialectically thrives on a diet of constant change which is accelerating rapidly. Continuous change in the church is pointed to as "revival," despite the fact that it utilizes business marketing methods such as Total Quality Management.

10) The claim is made that submitting to and participating in this radical and comprehensive "transformation" is necessary to fulfill the Great Commission. Thus "transformation" has been inextricably linked to the modern missions movement.

11) This "transformation" is said to be incomplete until the Bride of Christ is perfected on earth and "God's kingdom is seen on earth as it is in heaven.

12) Therefore, believers are told they are co-creators and co-redeemers, renewing the earth through their various "transformative" activities.

(The original article at Let Us Reason has extensive footnotes and documentation. In a pattern that is all too common in research of New Apostolic Reformation groups and those tied to them, the vast majority of detailed info on practices tends to be from--ironically--conservative Christians highly opposed to dominionism. Yes, they do exist. :3)

For that matter, it can be argued that Warren's talk of a "Second Reformation" is itself a bit of a NAR dogwhistle--neopentecostal dominionists, and particularly NAR neopente-dominionists, *do* see themselves as a second reformation, or as a "Third Wave" of pentecostalism (which they see in and of itself as a "Second Reformation"). The actual term "Second Reformation" itself has also shown up in Joel's Army circles proper on occasion.

At least one site has directly compared the tactics of Warren and NAR-linked groups such as Youth With A Mission and C. Peter Wagner's various orgs:

Rick Warren and many other postmodern types of ministries have approached evangelism from a new paradigm. This model has changed from using the Word of God, to building relationships and becoming friends and then eventually Christianizing them, not to a real conversion in Christ, but to the tune of a different gospel, even a different (view of ) Christ altogether. I have seen this happening as the major emphasis on evangelism has changed through the efforts of the International Congress on World Evangelization and the Lausanne Covenant. YWAM has been using this same model for years through the input of C. Peter Wagner and Fuller Theological Seminary where Rick Warren was involved.

The similarity has also been noted in at least one discussion forum focusing on coercive religious groups, this time with ex-Wagnerites discussing the similarities with Warren's program:

I agree with Richard about Wagners crazy unbiblical doctrine but his Fifteen Health Factors for American Churches sound lile they are straight from the Porpose Drive Life

Then again, looking at who trained Warren in the first place...the apple might well not be falling all that far from the tree, and there turns out to be a very good reason for the NAR dogwhistles.

The relationship between Warren and "Mr. Joel's Army"

In fact, as it turns out, Rick Warren was personally mentored by none other than C. Peter Wagner himself--Wagner being, in essence, "Mr. Joel's Army" (as both the person who coined the phrase and has led the rebranding of NAR groups since to things like "Elijah's Army" and so forth once the "Joel's Army" brand got to be too well known in apologetics circles).

Not only was Warren mentored by him, but apparently still praises the dickens out of Wagner and looks up to him as a role model in his book "The Purpose Driven Church":

4. Dr. C.Peter Wagner. This man has also been cited as a successful leader by Rick Warren. You have noticed his name above. Who is Wagner and what does he believe? He is the professor of Fuller Theological Seminary, School of World Mission, Pasadena California. He believes in Dominion Theology, Kingdom Now, which is the premise that the Kingdom of God is already here! Wagner's spiritual warfare book, "Territorial Spirits," is a compilation of the writing of such people as Paul (David) Yonggi Cho, Larry Lea, Jack Hayford and others who accept the neo-dominionist doctrines.
. . .
On p. 127: he mentions favourably C.Peter Wagner, an apostate teacher...

In case you were curious, yes, this would be the same C. Peter Wagner who has literally accused non-NAR churches of being demon possessed for wishing to maintain their orthodoxy.

And it appears that Rick Warren was quite the good little student:

Saddleback Church promotes and endorses C. Peter Wagners book "Your Spiritual Gifts can help your church grow" here on saddlebacks website as part of there SHAPE class 301
here http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/ministry/images/discoverytool.pdf

Warren did his D.MIN. in 1993 under Peter Wagner at Fuller NEW CHURCHES FOR A NEW GENERATION: CHURCH PLANTING TO REACH BABY BOOMERS. A CASE STUDY: THE SADDLEBACK VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH (California). In it he wrote "We must establish new churches to reach this new generation of Americans. It will require new churches that understand the Baby Boom mindset and are intentionally designed to meet their needs, tastes, and interests."

Ministry Advantage at Fuller features articles from various "Christian leaders" Warren is listed among others like Ted Haggard, Jack Hayford, Bill Hybels, Peter Wagner, John Wimber etc. (http://www.fuller.edu/cll/ce/ma_writers.html)

All this means Fuller sees him as being in agreement with these men and what they are teaching. Peter Wagner who taught at Fuller optimized his vision of church growth with executing a new Church government, ie. new apostles and prophets laying a new foundation for today (ICA).

Yes, you read that right--Wagner and Warren do rather extensively cross-promote each other, and also include a number of other partners in crime (including John Wimber, who we'll get into in a moment).

According to the FACTnet thread earlier, Warren actually cites C. Peter Wagner no less than eight separate times in the disseratation in question--NOT exactly a good sign.

Let Us Reason (always a reliable source for reporting on what is going on with NAR leaders) notes the relationship goes so deep that Warren is involved in several Wagner-operated groups including a megachurch association and Mission America:

All this means Fuller sees him as being in agreement with these men and what they are teaching. Peter Wagner who taught at Fuller optimized his vision of church growth with executing a new Church government, ie. new apostles and prophets laying a new foundation for today (ICA).

Peter Wagner, is the Founder and President of the American Society For Church Growth (ASCG). Rick Warren is a member of the American Society For Church Growth (ASCG) which is located at Fuller Theological Seminary. http://www.ascg.org/links.htm Saddleback Valley Community Church.

Rick Warren, Founding Pastor (ASCG member at large) is found alongside many names which includes Global Harvest Ministries of C. Peter Wagner, Founder, President (the ASCG Founding President); The World Prayer Center C. Peter Wagner, Co-founder.

"Saddleback Community Church senior pastor Rick Warren is on Mission America's Facilitation Committee [http://www.missionamerica.org/leaders.html 1997].

A person does not become part of a board unless they are in agreement with the doctrines and philosophy of ministry of those who are part of the board.

And as for Mission America's philosophy? It's pretty much a pure Joel's Army group. This becomes rather apparent by looking at the membership list for Mission America, which is a veritable "who's who" of the New Apostolic Reformation...and which prominently includes Warren.

More proof of Mission America's status as a de-facto Joel's Army org comes from the Board of Directors--with only about two or three exceptions, every member is linked to or a leader of a group tied to the NAR. Some of these include orgs like Campus Crusade for Christ, Aglow International, and International Foursquare (itself an "Assemblies daughter" and the earliest known)--all of which have been linked with the "stealth candidacy" of Sarah Palin.

And, it would appear, the linkages don't stop with Cho *or* Wagner.

Still more NAR relations

One name that Warren has also been repeatedly mentioned in association with is John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard denomination (and this is using the term loosely; both it and its "parent", Calvary Chapel, tend to promote themselves as "church organisations", do denominational membership via signing of statement of faith and payment of a yearly membership fee, and in general straddle the line between a denomination proper and a parachurch).

Vineyard, as it turns out, shows up quite frequently when one does research on the NAR--in no small part because multiple Vineyard churches have been linked to it, including the Toronto Airport Fellowship (the site of a Joel's Army/Third Wave "revival" in the 80s), and partly because Vineyard churches have been particularly enthusiastic about exporting NAR-style dominionism to other denominations.

One particular tool that Vineyard has used to export NAR theology outside the neopentecostal dominionist set--with a disturbing amount of success--is via the "Alpha Course". As it turns out, "Alpha" http://www.understandthetimes.org/c15.shtml">had its origins via the steeplejacking of a CoE church by a Vineyard-associated cell church:

Although Nicky Gumbel's Alpha course was founded at Holy Trinity Brompton in 1991, the effectiveness of the course was not realized until a few years later after the "Toronto Blessing" was transported to England from Canada in May of 1994. It was then that Church leaders of Holy Trinity Brompton received a dose of the "blessing" through Eli Mumford who had just returned from Toronto.

On May 24, 1994, Elli Mumford met with several leaders of Holy Trinity Brompton. As Mumford prayed at this meet­ing, the "transferable blessing" from the Toronto Airport Vineyard was manifest. Sandy Millar, the highly regarded vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, decided that Elli would preach the following Sunday morning. After giving her testi­mony about her 'Toronto experience,' Elli asked the congregation to stand while she prayed the Lord would bless and give them all He had. Immediately people began to laugh hysterically, weep, shake, jerk, bark and roar.

Apparently both Wimber *and* Warren co-taught the same courses at Fuller:

3. John Wimber. Now deceased, John Wimber has been used as a model by Warren: From Dave Hunt's "Seduction of Christianity" p. 174: "...these men are creating a powerful New Age "paradigm shift" that is changing the way thousands of pastors and future pastors view Christianity and the Bible. In his latest Signs and Wonders Lecture Notes, John Wimber writes:

At the time of the preparation of this manual, Dr. C. Peter Wagner and I have been teaching MC510 for three years. It has been one of the most invigorating and exciting adventures of our lives.

At this date, January, 1985, we have had in excess of 700 students take the course at Fuller Seminary School of World Missions. The results have been astounding. Better than 90 percent of the students have indicated a paradigm shift in which they are now ministering in an altered worldview.

And again--despite Vineyard being one of the neopentecostal dominionist denominations most clearly linked to the NAR--Warren again held up Wimber as a role model when the latter died:

Warren commenting on John Wimbers death: "I will remember John Wimber as a man who truly loved Jesus more than anything else. I always enjoyed our conversations because that love for Christ produced an uncommon passion in his life that was contagious. I will miss that. A hundred years from today, people will still be singing "Spirit Song" because it verbalizes that deep love for Jesus." http://www.crvineyard.org/WhoAreThesePeople/History/WIMBER2.htm

It's good to be respectful and encouraging when there is a loss like this, however, to be so flattering brings to question what he really believes about the Vineyard movement that launched the prophet and apostle movement and the Toronto disaster, along with so many other aberrations. John Wimber's connection with Peter Wagner is well established; Wagner is now in the saddle with the prophet/ apostle movement that began with Wimber.

And, as has been noted, Warren actually promotes the "Alpha Course", specifically as a tool of "bait and switch":

Rick Warren has also endorsed Alpha course, which is something that goes well with his seeker friendly model. Alpha course is supposed to be a evangelistic outreach, but it is an offshoot of the Toronto blessing. "It's great to see how Alpha has been used to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ, who wouldn't normally come to church. This resource is very complementary to helping seekers connect with The Purpose Driven Life" (http://www.resourcefoundation.org/Current/Alpha/endors.shtml)

And this is *still* not the end of the Vineyard connections--in "The Purpose-Driven Life", he directly quotes from a major NAR preacher in C. Peter Wagner's network:

He quotes in The Purpose Driven life on p.108 a seemingly innocuous statement of Floyd McClung - who is involved with the 3rd wave Movement and now pastors Mike Bickle's church (one of the prophets that was in the Vineyard under the Kansas City prophets -now is affiliated as a prophet with Peter Wagner's Apostolic Movement).

And, as amazing as it sounds, we're still not done--there are indications of a relationship with Campus Crusade for Christ to boot, with a book endorsement by Bill Bright of CCfC for "Purpose Driven Church" (which would make at least the THIRD direct endorsement and/or contribution by NAR-linked groups).

Needless to say, this all adds up to Rick Warren being--contrary to the popular opinion promoted in the media--not the "innocuous evangelical", but quite possibly being involved in a branch of dominionism that has had well over sixty years to practice breeding in stealth.

Let's just say that I am not terribly happy regarding Barack Obama's recent choice for inauguration pastor--none other than Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, one of the largest megachurches in the US.

There are many reasons why I'm particularly displeased at this choice, but suffice it to say that--despite the media spin of Warren and his "Purpose Driven Life" spiel being the "kinder, gentler face of the Religious Right"--once one scratches beneath the touchy-feely surface, one finds...well, to quote The Who, "Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss..."

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the real Rick Warren

For starters, Warren--in the typical nature of dominionists having a "public face" and a "private face"--has said some things to his "friendlies" audience that definitely put the private face in the "old school dominionist" vein, and in fact including some statements that would seem more at home at a "Watchmen At The Walls" event or a Fred Phelps rally than the "welcoming evangelical" he portrays himself as in public.

A recent article in BeliefNet reveals some of the "private face" of Warren. Among other things:

Most Likely to Infuriate Liberals:

* Gay marriage is morally equivalent to allowing brothers and sisters to marry.

* He opposes torture but didn't try to convince President Bush to change course because "I never had the opportunity."

* A possibly veiled slap at Islam: "He could have made us all puppets. ... He could have put us on strings and we'd pray five times a day and we'd have no choice."

* "Abortion reduction" efforts are mostly a "charade."

* His historical argument that "social gospel" Protestantism was "just Marxism in Christian clothing" and that "the mainline [Protestants] died."

Yes, you're reading this right. Warren not only has called most of mainstream Protestant Christianity flat out Marxist (which in dominionist-speak, is actually a closet method of calling them practicing devil worshippers; Communism and Marxism are directly equated to Satan worship in these circles and have been since at least the late 1920s) but literally equated same-sex marriage to incest.

Not only this, but Warren has also promoted a common bogosity that is promoted in dominionist circles in efforts to prevent expansion of hate crimes protection to LGBT people--namely, the (completely and utterly false) claim that adding sexual orientation or gender identification to hate crimes statues would essentially criminalise Christianity as a whole:

Oh , I do. For 5,000 years, marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion – this is not a Christian issue. Buddhist, Muslims, Jews – historically, marriage is a man and a woman. And the reason I supported Proposition 8, is really a free speech issue. Because first the court overrode the will of the people, but second there were all kinds of threats that if that did not pass then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn't think homosexuality was the most natural way for relationships, and that would be hate speech. We should have freedom of speech, ok? And you should be able to have freedom of speech to make your position and I should be able to have freedom of speech to make my position, and can't we do this in a civil way.

This, of course, is aside from other fun things in the interview--like (and I wish I were making this up) a claiming the economy is in the tank because people aren't being evangelicals (as if thrift and saving money were purely a Christian trait, much less a dominionist one!).

This is, I will note, far from the first time Warren's fuzzy mask has slipped.

In a television interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Warren literally advocated--rather than the Christlike example of turning the other cheek--outright Biblically ordained assassination of world leaders in language that paralleled Pat Robertson's infamous calls for the assassination of Hugo Chavez:

HANNITY: Can you talk to rogue dictators? Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, wants to wipe Israel off the map, is seeking nuclear weapons.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: I think we need to take him out.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil, or something righteous?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe...

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

HANNITY: I'm just gotten, thanks to my wife, who you know, you know, been reading the Old Testament. Because as a good Catholic growing up, I studied more the New Testament.

WARREN: Just ignored that part.

HANNITY: I ignored the Old Testament. But what about King David? What about the -- all the battles, all the conflict, you know, going back--you know, Abraham -- Adam and Eve and their children, going forward?

WARREN: The point is, there are some things worth dying for. There's no doubt about that. And I would die for my family. I would die for my freedom. I would die for this country.

HANNITY: If somebody broke into your house, you would be justified to kill them?

WARREN: I would be justified to protect my family. Absolutely.

HANNITY: And if it took killing them?

WARREN: Absolutely.

HANNITY: But it's not murder at that point?

WARREN: No. Murder is not self-defense.

There are also indications that Warren's tactics may in and of themselves be potentially coercive. Not only does Warren heavily rely on "stealth evangelism"--essentially "bait and switch for Jesus"--but explicitly implements a multilevel method of recruitment and indoctrination that makes it impossible to know what you are getting into fully:
One is the baseball diamond, used to explain the flow of church ministry in a person's life. Vast crowds attend church, but they reach first base, Membership, only by completing Class 101 and signing a covenant of commitment to Christ and the church. Second base is Maturity, reached through another class (201) featuring a covenant of commitment to a daily quiet time, tithing, and a small group. Third base is Ministry, in which members commit to serving actively in the church. They are interviewed and placed in one of dozens of thriving church ministries. Home base is Mission, in which Christians commit to the cause of evangelism. At the center of the diamond is Magnification, which stands for worship. How can one reach maturity before committing to mission or ministry? Chalk it up to the Baptist penchant for alliteration. Purpose-Driven churches make worship the starting point--it's where unchurched people experience the church and decide to commit. It's also the end, since everything centers on glorifying God.
In addition to refusing to be up-front (itself considered a danger sign), apaprently membership in cell groups and tithing are mandatory once one is considered a "full" church member; this is also a setup known in most coercive religious groups that use a "cell" structure. One particularly infamous non-"Bible-based" coercive religious group that uses this model is none other than the Church of Scientology--the various "operating thetan" levels (including the (in)famous OT VII "all your problems are the result of Evil Galactic Overlord Xenu chucking a mess of aliens into Kilahuea and Las Palmas 73 million years ago--after making them watch bad movies and drugging them up then placing them on space jets with strong resemblances to DC-9s) are in exactly this same regimented setup.

This is disturbing enough...but we're really just scratching the surface, unfortunately.

Rick Warren's links to Joel's Army promoters

Warren, unfortunately, has even more nefarious linkage--he has been associated not once, but twice with known promoters of Joel's Army theology, and in particular an individual strongly linked to the spread of Joel's Army/New Apostolic Reformation theology throughout the Assemblies of God (and in particular what is now known as the "Third Wave").

The first definitive linkage found with Warren and Joel's Army promoters is with early promotional linkages between Saddleback Church's media director and Left Behind Games--a company which produced what amounted to a Joel's Army strategy RPG based on the "Left Behind" novels by Tim LaHaye et al. (The "Left Behind" books, themselves, are in fact a fictionalisation of Joel's Army/NAR endtime theology--specifically regarding what have been referred to as the "Tribulation Saints", post-Rapture convertees to NAR theology who are joined at the end of time by the rest of "Joel's Army" to destroy everyone else on the planet.)

Astonishingly--until a Talk to Action series exposed the game and its content for the world to see--the initial plan, as suggested by Saddleback Church's international director, was to promote the game in churches to children as young as six:

Time magazine has described Mr. Warren as one of the nation's most influential Evangelical Christian leaders. He describes himself as a "stealth evangelist" and describes his training programs as "a stealth movement, that's flying beneath the radar, that's changing literally hundreds, even thousands of churches around the world." He claims that he has sold tens of millions of copies of The Purpose Driven Life by developing a worldwide network of pastors.

The international director of Mr. Warren's Purpose Driven Church, Mark Carver, is a former investment banker who serves on the Advisory Board of the corporation created in October 2001 to develop and market this game. The creators plan to market their game using the same network marketing techniques that Mr. Warren used to turn The Purpose Driven Life into a commercial success. For example, they plan to distribute their merchandise through pastoral networks, especially mega-churches.

Fortunately, wind was caught of this, and the plot publicised--and (in part as a method of damage control) Carver ultimately resigned both positions.

This same article also notes that Warren has in fact adapted some of the concepts in the so-called "Seven Mountains" strategy (which ongoing research by the New Apostolic Reformation Research Team has found may ultimately originate from Campus Crusade for Christ and/or Youth With A Mission--both coercive parachurch groups known to promote Joel's Army theology and with very close connections, in the case of YWAM literally as a frontgroup, to Joel's Army interests in the Assemblies):

His dominionist theology is apparent in this ministry. A key aspect of dominionist thought is a conviction that the Scripture gives the church a mandate to take dominion over this world socially and culturally before the return of Jesus Christ. Mr. Warren's global plan is a strategy to realize a dominionist vision of churches, states, and corporations forming partnerships to bring about a new world order to make way for Christ's return by establishing a literal, physical kingdom of God on earth. In order to build this earthly kingdom, Mr. Warren plans marketplace ministries - business ventures with a veneer of missionary compassion that slip into a country in order to transform it systematically through the governmental, corporate, and social sectors. And that is why Mr. Warren calls himself a "stealth evangelist" - because he wishes to cloak his dominionist agenda, which is the establishment of an earthly kingdom that reflects his skewed vision of Christianity.

According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval.

As disturbing as this is, even more worrisome--in my personal opinion--is Warren's extremely close relationship with Paul Yonggi Cho (nee David Yonggi Cho)--who can legitimately be said to be the person who brought not only Joel's Army theology into the Assemblies, but led to its official embracement throughout the 1990s (Assemblies "disavowals" of the Joel's Army branding of "New Apostolic Reformation" and "Third Wave" theology notwithstanding).

There is a very intensely personal reason why I find Warren's association with Cho highly disturbing. I myself am a walkaway from what would appear to be one of the first churches in the US, if not one of the first churches outside of South Korea, where Cho tried to foment a Joel's Army revival; this was all the way back in the sixties, at that. (The church I am a walkaway from is now considered one of the ten most influential "Joel's Army" churches in the US.)

Suffice it to say, I am all too familiar with "old time religion" a la Cho (and have the therapist's bills to prove it).

Cho, for those who aren't familiar (and most of you won't be unless you are a walkaway from some of the most spiritually abusive segments of the dominionist movement), is the head of Yoido Full Gospel Church--an extremely large Assemblies of God church in Seoul, South Korea (and with multiple "satellite" congregations throughout South Korea) that qualifies as the world's largest megachurch and (if its satellite congregations are counted) quite possibly the largest single congregation of any church; the church has claimed quite literally three-fourths of a million people in South Korea as members, and effectively is the Assemblies of God in that country for all intents and purposes.  His megachurch empire started a scant ten years after the Assemblies entered Korea, so he is a prime study on how the Assemblies actively exports dominionism worldwide.

The reason that Cho has two names is a story in and of itself (and is where we begin jumping deep into the rabbit hole and seeing how far down it goes).  Cho has claimed that that he died and later came back from the dead:

Paul Yonggi Cho

Some of the biggest names in the charismatic movement claim to have been to the other side and back. Among them is Paul Yonggi [David] Cho -- controversial pastor of the largest church in the world (with more than 500,000 members) in Seoul, Korea. He said he met a blue-skinned, deceased missionary to Korea there who commissioned him to reach his country-folk for Christ.[1]

Cho has also stated that one of his assistant pastors at the Yoido Full Gospel Church died and came back to life after three days. During that time period, according to an interview Cho gave

to Mary Stewart Relfe, he was reunited with his wife in heaven where he saw God and was able to meet various biblical figures -- including Abraham, Stephen, and David.[2].

(Sources: [1]Cho, Leap Of Faith) (Bridge Publishing, 1984); [2] "Interview with Dr. Paul Cho," Mary S. Relfe, League of Prayer (P.O. Box 4038, Montgomery, AL, 36104).)

During this bit of a trip to the Other Side that Cho claims to have experienced (a surprisingly common claim by Assemblies-linked "name it and claim it" promoters; Jesse Duplantis, another "name it and claim it" promoter popular on the Assemblies traveling-pastor circuit, also claims to have died and come back, as have many others) Cho claims to have been told to change his name and also claims to have seen Jesus as a member of the local fire brigade:

Cho claims to have received his call to preach from Jesus Christ Himself, who supposedly appeared to him dressed like a fireman. (Dwight J. Wilson, "Cho, Paul Yonggi," Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, 161)
. . .
As Cho tells the story of his name change, God showed him that Paul Cho had to die and David Cho was to be resurrected in his place. According to Cho, God Himself came up with his new name. (Paul Yonggi Cho interviewed by C. Peter Wagner, "Yonggi Cho Changes His Name," Charisma & Christian Life, November 1992, 80)

Cho is the inventor of possibly one of the most spiritually abusive tactics ever devised--the "cell church" or "shepherding group", which has been the primary method in which his church has grown exponentially. (Of note, it was originally invented as a way to keep control over the huge congregation; it is now being used to "seed" dominionist movements in churches to take over from within, "cuckoo style".)  Cho is also, very much, a promoter of dominion theology and particularly "name it and claim it"; Cho has had links with the Assemblies frontgroup Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International which has historically been a major force in promotion of dominionism both here and abroad, and a profile at Rick Ross Institute notes that he has bastardised concepts from traditional Korean shamanism in almost identical fashion to that of the Moonies. He has also, by his own admission, used tactics based on those used by Soka Gakkai--a "Buddhist-based" highly abusive coercive religious group that is almost universally considered cultic and possibly violated law in obtaining confidential NCIC records for purposes of "dead-agenting" critics and which uses prayers as a form of cursing mainstream Buddhist leaders in Japan, has in general engaged in extremely unethical behaviour and whose members have even literally attempted to torch the temples of mainstream Buddhist churches.

It is, in fact, probably not a major exaggeration to state that Cho has been responsible for the increasing rate that the Assemblies of God has gone hard-dominionist worldwide; in fact, in 1992, he was elected head of the World Assemblies of God Council (the group overseeing all Assemblies of God churches worldwide)--the exact period when "Third Wave" pentecostalism (such as promoted in Brownsville Assemblies of God during the "Pensacola Revival") and its associated spiritual-warfare movements were embraced officially as a "move of the spirit" by the American Assemblies of God headquarters.

It should be noted that this is not the first time Cho has tried to breed the "Pensacola Madness"--in addition to the church I am a walkaway from and Brownsville A/G itself, one of the earliest churches he tried to foment a "Brownsville Revival" at was Juan Carlos Ortiz--pastor of Body of Christ (a large Argentinian Assemblies of God megachurch) who was one of the major parties who ultimately popularised Cho's "cell church" concept.

Another article (which notes that the church I am a walkaway from was the first in North America targeted by Cho) also notes that between the time the church I left was targeted and Brownsville was targeted that he claimed the next "outpouring" would be in Canada--at the Toronto Airport Fellowship, a Vineyard church often credited for "Third Wave" pentecostalism and its associated "spiritual warfare" movements. (Toronto Airport Fellowship has also been listed as an early Joel's Army church, though there were many Joel's Army churches before the "Toronto Outpouring" and this is now fairly well documented.)

Sadly, the rampant spiritual abuse I have reported as a survivor of "Third Wave Madness" is all too typical in the "Third Wave" churches--in fact, the whole "Third Wave" is increasingly regarded as spiritually abusive per se, and some of its core doctrines are frighteningly similar to those in Scientology.

Not only did Cho devise "Third Wave" pentecostalism, he in fact invented many of the tactics that are used by "spiritual warfare" groups--including "prayer gangs", "territorial marking" with Wesson oil, etc. and can in fact be credited with much of the dominionist "spiritual warfare" movement's invention and popularising.

Of interesting note, Cho has attempted to promote dominionist movements in South Korea itself and has multiple links to dominionist groups here in the States including Robert Weiner; the latter was founder of Maranatha, one of the earlier Joel's Army groups in the US and one of the first neopente dominionist groups widely regarded as a "Bible-based" coercive religious group (due to the extremely coercive manner of their "shepherding"; in fact, Maranatha was so abusive they were actually banned from several collegiate campuses before they "shut down" and rebranded as (initially) Morning Star International and (most recently) Every Nation).

In addition to the FGBMFI and other links, he's also linked to quite possibly one of the most spiritually abusive of the Assemblies frontgroups, "Youth With A Mission" (which is almost universally considered by exit counselors as cultic, and which is not only a confirmedly Joel's Army group but which is increasingly being found by NARRT researchers as being a major conduit of spread of much of the "spiritual warfare" theology within Joel's Army groups).

And this is still not the extent of Joel's Army involvement by Cho--among other things, Cho has a very close relationship with Mr. Joel's Army himself--C. Peter Wagner, who runs a massive network of Joel's Army churches and "apostles" and who can be considered to have coined the phrase "Joel's Army" (as well as its recent replacement in Joel's Army circles, "Elijah's Army").

Quite obvious why I consider anyone and anything to do with Cho as being Bad News.

And the links between Cho and Warren are, sadly, extensive indeed.  Deception In The Church and Let Us Reason document this:

Warren was a key speaker at Yonggi Cho's church growth conference in 1997. Cho is known to mix occult concepts with Christian teaching. He is especially known for his word faith & visualization techniques. Warren was also a key speaker at Schuller's Institute for Successful Church Leadership.

David Cho's connection to Robert Schuller is evident. Robert Schuller writes in the foreword to Yonggi Cho's book, The Fourth Dimension: "I discovered the reality of that dynamic dimension in prayer that comes through visualizing.... Don't try to understand it. Just start to enjoy it! It's true. It works. I tried it."

To say Cho is promoting mysticism would be an understatement. He says if Buddhists and Yoga practitioners can accomplish their objectives through fourth dimensional powers, then Christians should be able to accomplish much more by using the same means. (Paul Yonggi Cho, The Fourth Dimension, vol. 1, 1979, pp.37, 41) "You create the presence of Jesus with your mouth... He is bound by your lips and by your words... Remember that Christ is depending upon you and your spoken word to release His presence." (Ibid., 83)

In Warren's interview with Cho we can see his respect for him.

Warren: Do you think American churches should be more open to the prayer for miracles?

Cho: I feel that the most American churches really don't believe in the miracles of God. The church is getting very institutionalized. But I tell you that by a new anointing the American church would start to believe the miracle of the nation of God's hand."

Warren: Can you please pray a prayer of blessing to the pastors that are reading this? (Rick Warren And David Yonggi Cho Talk About Using The Internet by Tim Bednar July 25, 2003) (originally from e-church.com

More damningly, a dominionist publication has http://www.pastors.com/articles/ChoInterview.asp">interviewed Cho wherein the latter admits links with Rick Warren; this same publication has http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=9230">an article by Rick Warren where he quotes Cho directly in admitting both have possibly plaigarised sections of sermons from Billy Graham and a pastor of a Dallas, TX church:

There has been much talk in recent years on blogs and Web sites about how much of other people's sermons is appropriate to incorporate into your own messages. When does it get to the point of "plagiarism"? A friend of mine in Cincinnati was recently dismissed by his church's board of trustees because of this. As I predicted to that board of trustees, the size of that thriving church has been cut in half, the momentum they had been experiencing has gone away, and they are in big financial trouble. What a needless waste of God's momentum that had been resting upon them.

At a seminar, Dr. Cho, pastor of the world's largest church in Korea, was asked during a question and answer time, "How do you put your weekly messages together? They are so powerful!" He said, "Honestly, I have never given an original message in all my years of ministry here at Yoido Church. Each week, I preach word-for-word messages from either Billy Graham or W.A. Criswell from Dallas First Baptist Church. I can't afford to not have a home run each weekend when we gather. I don't trust my own ability to give completely original messages." Wow!

Warren was also a speaker at the Azusa Street Centennial (held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival, generally held as the "birth" of pentecostalism including the Assemblies of God) and reportedly shared the stage with Cho.

Warren and Cho also have joined forces in promoting megachurches via the Internet including setting up "cell churches" online (and networking fellow dominionists):

Churches need to stop building bigger buildings and start relying more on the Internet, say two leading pastors in the church growth movement. David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the 750,000-member Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, and Rick Warren, pastor of the 15,000-member Saddleback Valley Community Church, say the Internet is a "next generation strategy" that will connect decentralized home groups to the larger church body.

The two met recently in California to discuss church growth strategies for the 21st century, and their conclusion was -- stop building buildings and use that money for world missions. The interview appears in the July 25 issue of Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox, a free, e-mail newsletter available from the Web site www.pastors.com.

With 20,000 new converts a year, Cho says there is no way his church can match buildings to membership and so he's encouraging younger converts to stay at home and worship through the Internet.

"We are so jammed that we have no way to keep growing except by going to cyberspace," says Cho. He says he tells young people, "Don't come to church, just stay home and get your teaching through the Internet." These long-distance members give regular feedback on the sermons and services, and they can give their tithe through the Internet, and they stay physically connected to the larger body through small study groups.

Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Church," adds, "Even if we had all the buildings we needed, one question is whether or not the next generation wants to worship in huge buildings." He says Saddleback is experimenting with live Internet services on the weekends and has already set up a GroupNet to help small groups stay connected to each other.

Cho's church offers live services over the Internet, including Sunday and Wednesday. "But also, when I want to give special instructions or teaching to the cell groups," says Cho, "then I will teach it through the Internet to the cells and apartments."

"It is silly to build larger and larger church buildings," says Cho. "It is silly to spend more money on branch church buildings! You'll never have enough. I really believe this, and I have already announced to my people and ministers that the next step is to go into total cyberspace ministry because it is a real waste of money to build larger buildings." Warren adds, "No matter how much land you have, it eventually fills up.

Besides, just think of that money and how it could be used for missions. Our goal is to decentralize -- to send our church members out for ministry into their neighborhoods." Regarding the traditional need for buildings, Warren cites Saddleback's legacy: "We wanted to prove to the world that you don't have to have a building to grow a church. We were running over 10,000 in attendance before we built our first building. So we know how to grow and minister without buildings. What we're trying to learn now is how to do it through the Internet -- into the homes."

(It is worth noting--on a rather frightening note, at that--that many estimates have South Korea as the world's most "wired" nation, especially in regards to broadband access.)

Especially damning, Cho admits on his own website the links between him and Warren and cross-promotion of each other:

Prayer is the only way to survive!

Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in the USA came to see Dr. Cho who was visiting Los Angeles for the Spiritual Renewal Conference 2001 at Sarang Community Church in Los Angeles (Rev. Jung Hyun Oh). While Dr. Cho was talking to him, he urged the churches in the USA to pray. Dr. Cho emphasized prayer for the survival of the churches in the USA. He further said that leaders should listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and find out the methods of drawing young people into the Church, such as using the Internet.

It is frightening that Rick Warren is very, very close with the person who may in fact be one of the most responsible for the fact that the Assemblies of God is, denomination-wide, dominionist and embracing of spiritual abuse in the name of "spiritual warfare"--and in the process creating thousands of instances of "collatteral damage".

And the sad thing is--we are still not done with Rick Warren's extensive connections to Joel's Army groups.

In fact, Warren has close connections with some of the same folks Cho hangs around with--including not only having relationships with C. Peter Wagner but explicitly promoting him as an example to follow:

4. Dr. C.Peter Wagner. This man has also been cited as a successful leader by Rick Warren. You have noticed his name above. Who is Wagner and what does he believe? He is the professor of Fuller Theological Seminary, School of World Mission, Pasadena California. He believes in Dominion Theology, Kingdom Now, which is the premise that the Kingdom of God is already here! Wagner's spiritual warfare book, "Territorial Spirits," is a compilation of the writing of such people as Paul (David) Yonggi Cho, Larry Lea, Jack Hayford and others who accept the neo-dominionist doctrines. This book is an anti-biblical book which teaches that Christians can dispossess Satan's angels from their seats of authority over geographical areas. Biblically, these spiritual entities will not be put down until Jesus Christ returns, at the end of the Tribulation period, when Satan himself is bound for a thousand years. Revelation 19-20. Wagner says the Kingdom has come NOW. P.14: "The kingdom has come."

A book could be written re Wagner--several books have been written in apologetics circles and NARRT is working on a number themselves. Suffice it to say that pretty much C. Peter Wagner is considered the founding father of Joel's Army--association with him is damning indeed.

And it would appear that Rick Warren was directly mentored by Wagner...which would explain why Warren's strategies for social change sound so much like the Joel's Army seven-year plans.

In fact, it'd appear that Wagner, Cho, and Warren are working together in what amounts to a council of large Joel's Army megachurches.

...and now you know why I am quite unhappy with this choice.

The readers of this diary all know by now that--to put it very mildly--I am not one to sympathise with dominionists, and in fact could be described politely as being Mad As Hell about dominionists targeting kids in particular.

This does not mean we should descend to their level, though--an important thing we need to realise in order to prevent feeding a preexisting paranoia.  As the old yarn goes, "When you wrestle with a pig on its terms, both you and the pig get dirty, you get bruised up, and the pig likes it."
The reason I make a point on what is appropriate rather than inappropriate protest against dominionism is due to the following article in Christian Post that indicates that dominionists are already using the fact that people are doing Bad Stuff back to keep their folks in line--and to play the victim:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A woman whose summer camp for children near Devil's Lake, N.D., was featured in a documentary called "Jesus Camp," says all the attention led to her decision not to continue camps there.

"I have a responsibility to keep the children safe," the Rev. Becky Fischer said.

Fischer said the camp, which is owned by the Assemblies of God and rents to a number of groups, was vandalized after the release of the movie about her Kids on Fire camp. The Assemblies of God church also was vandalized, she said.

The camp's windows were broken and it had about $1,500 worth of damage. Police figure the church was vandalized the same night, said the Rev. Winston Titus, the camp administrator.
. . .
Fischer has asked that Magnolia Pictures not release the Jesus Camp movie in the Bismarck area because she worries about the risk of other incidents there.

She said the movie is scheduled at the Fargo Theater on Nov. 17, and will be out on DVD in a couple of months.

Anyone who reads this column knows damn well I am no fan of the Assemblies of God's promotion of dominion theology, of the religious abuse inherent in dominion theology, of the promotion of "Joel's Army" theology, or of the concept of raising kids as "Joel's Army" recruits.

However, vandalising the property is not cool.  Why?

a) It is sinking to the same level of people in the dominionist movement who firebomb women's clinics and the like.  (In fact, special federal provisions exist in regards to church vandalism, and it's stunts like this that tend to get groups listed as domestic terrorist groups.)

b) It feeds into an existing "us versus them" mindset in "Joel's Army"-type groups and in fact further reinforces abusive tactics and practices within the group.

I actually have an example of the latter from my own youth growing up dominionist--when I was around 13-ish, the Sunday school chapel (normally used for teen services; Sunday school was held in the "old church" which was by that point used for their private school and for Sunday school and "bible camp" stuff) was chained shut.  

The Sunday school teachers claimed later that day that this was because it had been vandalised--supposedly a pentagram had been burnt on the floor, graffiti saying "666" and "Hail Satan" had been sprayed several places, and paint or blood had been splashed on the altar.  

To my knowledge, it was not re-opened during the entire time I remained in "teen church" (maybe a year after that); furthermore (and here's what I mean by feeding on pre-existing coercive tendencies) the church both in its main services and in its Sunday school used this to repeatedly drive the point home that there was a massive Satanic conspiracy against the church and that it was because the church was God's Army and making Satan scared

To this day, I have to wonder if such an incident actually happened--I don't remember hearing anything on it on the news (and such an act of vandalism would certainly be notable, as the FBI was investigating church vandalism at that point), I don't remember anything about the FBI looking into things, and if (and this is a pretty big "if" here) the incident actually happened, I expect it was a bunch of stupid kids mucking around...but the effect was that it was used by the dominionists as Proof That They Really Are Out To Get You, So We're Doing The Right Thing And Need To Get Even More Extreme

c) They can turn around, portray themselves as the victims--and portray everyone fighting dominionism as the Bad Guys, as potential terrorists-in-waiting, based on the action of a few asshats.  (An extreme version of this is what the Phelps familial cult does--practically all of the members of the family are lawyers or disbarred lawyers, and they are very prone to filing lawsuits against people for assault or for even preventing their protests.)

I had thought--*hoped* at least--that the message had gotten through, but it would appear not so much--reportedly Wasilla Bible Church, one of several churches Palin attended, may have been the target of arson. (Of note, this is still being investigated.)

And hence, I will note just why stunts like this are so damn *stupid*.

Torching churches (and in the case of WBC, this was actually the *least* radical of the churches Palin attended) will just cause the dominionists to start up elsewhere--only in an unannounced location, and quite possibly even more radicalised than before.  I'd not be surprised to find that internally the Assemblies of God church in question where "Jesus Camp" is held isn't making very similar sermons to the Assemblies church I escaped after the "Chapel Incident".

In the particular case of Palin, too, this may actually give her the out to drop her WBC involvement--and either try to "stealth" at another church, or stop the pretense of "stealthing" and admit she's a Joel's Army stalking-horse. (It has been widely speculated that Wasilla Bible Church--the solitary non-neopentecostal-dominionist church she attended--may have been attended by Palin to "stealth" her actual denominational affiliation; reportedly she did not attend all that frequently, sometimes walking out mid-service.)

In fact, probably the only good thing at all that came out of this particular cunning plan (that was not thought all the way through) was that "Jesus Camp" was linked officially to an Assemblies of God church--something not too surprising to me, having attended a "Jesus Camp"-style day program in an Assemblies church in my youth and knowing how popular "Joel's Army" stuff is in the Assemblies anymore.  I'd much rather that this info had come about without giving aforementioned Assemblies church ammo to claim that "Folks Who Think We're A Cult Are Working With The Devil To Destroy Us", however.

We may find out more about what goes on at Wasilla Bible Church (which, whilst not solidly Joel's Army, is still hardline dominionist--though more of the SBC/"independent Christian church" variety, rather than the frothing "God Warrior of Elijah's Army" sort. Again, though, this gives them an incredible ticket for sympathy.

No, we can't sink to their level.  There are far more effective ways to fight this stuff:

a) Education, education, education.  Me writing about my own experiences is a way of this; "Jesus Camp", of interest, is another in that it's a fairly neutral portrayal of what these groups are like--many dominionist groups are having apoplexy now as a result of their "private face" finally being captured on film.
(Ironically, the asshats who vandalised the "Jesus Camp" grounds may have sabotaged the goal of educating people, in that the subject of the film went on to pressure movie theatres to request not to have it distributed in its hometown.)

b) Provide more resources for people who are escaping these groups--or who may need help in escaping these groups--and encourage them to share their stories.  (There are a number of excellent resources for walkaways now--but little awareness of religiously motivated child abuse in the social work community or psychologist communities.  Thousands of LGBT kids, for example, are on the streets at serious risk to themselves because they are "throwaways"--kids who have either been kicked out of dominionist households or who have had to run away to protect themselves.  Awareness of walkaway issues by social workers would do wonders to help kids who are escaping places like this.)

c) Work to make sure that dominionist groups can't hijack the political process.  (Be aware of the dominionist groups and churches in your area, and if they are explicitly supporting candidates or other things in violation of their 501(c)3 status, start making complaints to both the Federal Election Commission (or your state elections board) and to the IRS.  In this vein, it is also vitally important to GOTV for folks who are running against candidates backed by dominionists.)

d) Work to get rid of some of the extremely broad exemptions for abuse, inspections of camps, etc. that religious groups use in many states.  (In many states, "behaviour modification" facilities are run by dominionist groups and are not even required to be licensed (and the same goes for "Jesus Camps", preschools, and the like); state child protection services are also likely to give broad leeway in regards to religiously motivated child abuse.  These loopholes need to be closed; in states like Tennessee that require licensure for groups giving medicine, for instance, groups like Love In Action have been shut down based not on religious matters but on being unlicensed facilities.)

The bonus of this approach (as opposed to merely smashing in windows and vandalising the grounds of a dominionist group) is that the group is shut down or limited statewide if not nationally--and it also sets a precedent that can be used to protect other kids in groups outside of just that one group.  (In other words, if "Jesus Camp" had been shut down legally for something like fire code violations, not only would that have been the end of it restarting period in that state, but other "Jesus Camps" run by other groups could have been stopped.)

e) I cannot emphasize enough, as well, the importance of keeping a good amount of cleansing sunlight on these groups. In the case of Palin's connections with not just Wasilla Bible Church but other more explicitly Joel's Army churches, this has led to one of the first dedicated research groups focusing on educating and shining the spotlight on "New Apostolic Reformation" groups--including their theocratic intent and their abusiveness. This is something that is desperately needed, and *will* be needed in the coming months and years--the "religious right" is far from dead, and is already at this date promoting Palin as a potential Presidential candidate in 2012.

One thing we will have to keep a watch on post-WBC fire is the fact that there may be people who try to claim criticism of these groups subjects them to being targets (this did happen after the "Jesus Camp" incidents). We cannot afford to let this happen.

f) Make sure businesses are aware of the possibility of "affinity abuse" by dominionist groups--the use of company charity programs to fund promotion of things like the AFA or "Jesus Camp"-style facilities.  Don't be afraid to tell them that if they do not drop the dominionist companies, that you and your friends won't do business with them.  (

g) Keep our noses clean--do not engage in physical attacks on the property of dominionists or on dominionists themselves.  As I noted above, stuff like vandalising property or smashing windows does nothing to help them, in fact flatly encourages them, and allows them to play the victim and potentially endangers the entire movement in fighting dominionism.  (To give a clue from the other side--the reason dominionists are doing so much damage control re "Jesus Camp" is because the movie shows realistically the levels of indoctrination of kids.)

We have a hell of a lot of legal ammunition we can use against abusive dominionist groups (including the most effective ways--starving their conduits of power and money).  Let's not drop to their levels, folks.

It's generally the tradition that people do like to be scared around Halloween--originally a festival meant to drive away the monsters of the night, we now celebrate all things spooky and monstrous.

There are some monsters, though, that do need to be driven away...and some things which really are frightening.

One of those things in the "monstrous" category would be the particularly extreme branch of Joel's Army that Sarah Palin is closely connected with...and, as we'll see, it is truly horrifying as to the results.

Among other things, apparently a second nation besides Guatemala may have fallen to a Joel's Army coup (Fiji in the early 2000s)...and not one but two separate appointments have been made to Alaska's Suicide Prevention Council that are linked to Joel's Army groups that Palin is a member of.

Into the House of Horrors

We begin our trip into the frightening world of Sarah Palin's connections to Joel's Army--more formally known among a quickly-coalescing band of researchers as the New Apostolic Reformation, after a branding used by C. Peter Wagner--with the results of longterm research by Ruth at Talk to Action.

Ruth, along with a number of other folks (including myself and Bruce Wilson), is part of a research team specifically focusing on Joel's Army issues. Her most recent project has been with digging into the "Transformations" series videos--a series of videos produced by a Joel's Army umbrella organisation called the Sentinel Group.

The Cliff's Notes version of the Transformations vids is that if a country and its culture are converted over wholescale to Joel's Army theology, pretty much it can create a utopia--crime going down, prosperity going up, kittens farting rainbows, the whole nine yards.

As the report from the New Apostolic Reformation Research Team (henceforth referred to as NARRT) reveals, though, the truth is quite a bit more horrifying.

. . .

As we've reported earlier in posts on Talk to Action, several of the persons Sarah Palin is known to be associated with--including Thomas Muthee--promote a "Seven Mountains Strategy" that is essentially a Joel's Army "five-year plan" to take over all institutions of human culture and civilisation--including the financial, governmental, educational, and even entertainment sectors.

Quite ironically (for being a group that claims to be "God Warriors" so much), the ultimate intent of the "Seven Mountains Strategy" is to eventually set things up where one would effectively have to take the Joel's Army "Mark of the Beast" to survive--literally no services, not even at somewhere as mundane as the grocery store, would be available to those not converting. Apostates and the "unchurched"--a category that explicitly includes Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, members of non-neopentecostal Protestant churches, and even people involved in Freemasonry--would have the choice, literally, to convert or die.

The recently-released 36-page report from NARRT gives much more information on just *how* this is planned. Among other things, the Transformations video series promotes and discusses:

1) Establishment of what amounts to a parallel banking system, and even goes into explicit detail on "wealth transfer" from the "godless" to the "godly" (C. Peter Wagner, one of the "Founding Fathers" of the Joel's Army movement and practically Mr. Joel's Army himself, is quoted in the 2006 Transformations video as stating "I decree that vast amounts of wealth will be released supernaturally, even from godless and pagan sources. . . The enemy's camp will be plundered."

2) The explicit steeplejacking of emergency services. (This has been a subject of discussion before in this journal, particularly in regards to the Gothard frontgroup Police Dynamics Institute, but the trend is accelerating and has been around since at least 2005--based on documented activity with front groups of dominionist orgs and Hurricane Katrina relief.) Disturbingly, and again in parallel with trends noted as early as 2005, there is explicit discussion of partnership of front-orgs with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. This is also including steeplejack of police departments (such as through Gothard's PDI front) and the promotion of "prayer walks" and marathon fasts (water-only for 21 or 40-day periods, initially popularised in Latter Rain circles back in the 40s and still considered a hallmark of groups descendant from Latter Rain) as a form of community policing.

3) The explicit steeplejacking of psychiatric and social services, including suicide prevention councils. Palin herself is a canonical example of this--she appointed no less than two people heavily connected to Joel's Army groups to the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council: Pat Donelson who is founder of a Joel's Army front called Carry The Cure (that targets First Nations youth in Alaska for conversion) and Brenda Moore (who is connected to a theophostic "Counseling center" and medical clinic that is run as a front of a Joel's Army church in Anchorage and who is closely connected to Palin via Mary Glazier--whom we'll get into much more detail about shortly). (We'll be doing a dedicated post on Brenda Moore tomorrow.) The increasing promotion of the highly abusive Teen Challenge, Dream Center and Mercy Ministries--all of which are Assemblies of God frontgroups with close connections with Joel's Army--as "alternative sentencing" is also a big part of this.

4) Promotion of outright anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic information in the bizarre name of "spiritual mapping" and "spiritual warfare". At one point, a group goes on a tour of Mt. Everest to attempt to exorcise the "Queen of Heaven, who prevents the prayers of Catholics and Moslems from reaching God" (the Queen of Heaven is a title of the Holy Virgin Mary--claiming the "Queen of Heaven" is a demon is about as anti-Catholic as you can get, and directly equates Catholicism with Satanism), and at another, it's claimed they essentially assassinated Mother Theresa via imprecatory prayers; in another "spiritual mapping" trip, the Knesset in Israel is declared to be the "mind of Satan on earth". The US, alas, is also not alone--anti-Masonic imagery is brought up (due to the Founding Fathers having been Freemasons) and "exorcisms" have been performed on the city of Washington, DC under the claim the US--and Constitutional rule respecting the freedom of religion--was founded via a "false covenant made to Baal."

5) Have promoted the use of military coups--including death squads run out of Joel's Army churches, literal God Warriors With Guns--to promote their ideology. Guatemala of course is used as the canonical example, but in some of the Transformations videos an example is made of a coup-de-etat in 2000--where Joel's Army promoters (largely based in the indigenous Fijian population, after Assemblies "cell churches" largely steeplejacked the Methodist church in that country) proceeded to use Joel's Army theology to justify policies that largely disenfranchised Indo-Fijians and indigenous Fijians who disagreed with governmental policies. (This ultimately led to a coup in 2007.)

Sometimes the two combine. 1) and 4) combined quite recently in particularly bizarre fashion as Joel's Army promoters prayed over (I am not making this up) a bronze bull on Wall Street to call for the US economy to be completely steeplejacked and thus not "bullish" or "bearing" but "lionish"--in other words, if you're not Joel's Army, you don't get to do business. Seriously, this is some of the bizarreness promoted in these circles.

And the real horror story here: Palin is, quite blatantly, among their number as friends.

Fright Night

The folks at NARRT have been digging up quite a bit of info on Palin--and if the initial revelations re Muthee were disturbing, the following info may be horrifying.

Part of the reason the "Transformations" series of videos has come to attention is that because Ed Kalinins, head of Wasilla A/G apparently loaned a grateful Sarah Palin the videos back in 2000.

Even worse, it would appear this just scratches the surface.

For the first time, we have direct evidence of a top-level candidate being actively shepherded by an extremely hardline Joel's Army preacher.

In the same article above, it's noted that Sarah Palin not only is friends with Mary Glazier--a darling among the Joel's Army set, in part, because she is a major lynchpin in Joel's Army networks associated with C. Peter Wagner and because she's of Haida Nation descent--but would appear to be in an ongoing shepherding relationship:

On July 13, 2008, an Alaskan woman named Mary Glazier told attendees at a religious conference near Seattle that Palin joined Glazier's prayer group in 1989, when Palin was 24.

Glazier's group soon evolved into a prayer-warfare group and sometime in the early 1990's that group was absorbed into a budding national, then international, entity called the "Spiritual Warfare Network" and Glazier became the network's Alaska state director.

In 1995 Glazier's Alaska prayer-warriors mounted effort to drive an employee in the Alaska State prison system, a chaplain alleged to be a witch, from her job with "prayer warfare".

In the late 1990's, the prayer warfare network, now global, began to interlock with other rapidly coalescing national, then international networks - coalitions of "apostles" and councils of "prophetic elders" - all under the ideological imperative of something called "spiritual warfare".

Bruce Wilson, a NARRT researcher, has written a good piece on Glazier's activity and transcripts are available of the video where Glazier explicitly endorses Palin.

Since that article was published, additional confirmation that Palin is being actively shepherded by Glazier has come out, including via reports to the New York Times:

Sarah Palin has been publicly anointed and blessed by a top leader and inspirational figure in the New Apostolic Reformation, a global movement rapidly transforming Christianity: Thomas Muthee. Another top leader in the movement has stated Palin joined her prayer warfare group in 1989, at twenty four around the time when, according to Mary Glazier, "God was speaking to [Palin] about going into politics." A third movement leader has stated that Palin is still in Glazier's prayer warfare network, and a fourth movement leader has confirmed, to a New York Times reporter, the relationship.

And this is *still* not the full extent of Palin's relationship with Glazier.

As noted, Glazier runs effectively a statewide network of Joel's Army promoters and sympathisers. And Brenda Moore--the subject of a dedicated post tomorrow--is the other appointee Palin made to the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council; she herself is connected to Glazier via fellow Glazier shepherdee Eleanor Roehl.

We will get much, much more into that tomorrow--space does not permit me, unfortunately, to go into details (this does require a dedicated post).

But suffice it to say, the prospect of Palin being near the presidency (and no, folks, we *cannot* count an Obama victory as "in the bag" until votes are in, votes are counted, and he's sworn in as President Obama on 20 January 2009--a whole lot can happen in four days, much less three months)--an act which would quite literally give an apocalyptic, coercive Bible-based cult whose core theology dictates a nuclear war with Russia potential access to the Nuclear Football should McCain die in office--should give ANYONE nightmares.

In yesterday's post, I went into some of the initial detail on a statement given by Thomas Muthee in the infamous sermon where he "annointed" Sarah Palin and also claimed to literally run a traditional religious practitioner out of his home base.

Muthee's statement referred to a popular concept in Joel's Army circles--the concept of the "seven mountains", that is, seven pillars of society that these groups see as a major priority for takeover "by hook or by crook". (Of note, Palin was actually used as an example for the takeover of "government".)

Today, we look into how the "Seven Mountains" concept is promoted in Joel's Army circles--including some of the incredibly disturbing code-phrasing used (including literal references to genocide and extirpation of opponents), and how Palin is being used as merely a rook in what amounts to a "50-year plan" for national and societal steeplejacking by a group that can be literally described as calling for holy war with the rest of humanity. We also look at how the mere candidacy of Palin--and McCain's *other* overtures towards Joel's Army--are a symptom of a serious systemic problem in the GOP that could have literally apocalyptic consequences if unchecked.

More on the seven-point plan, revealed

"Seven Mountains" imagery, as we dig into it, becomes rapidly very disturbing. For starters, the "seven mountains" are directly equated with seven historical peoples and nations that formerly occupied what is now Israel, and who were driven out or completely extirpated during the pre-royal era of Israel (when the prophets and priests were running the country). This in itself is symbolic--many Joel's Army groups actually have claimed Israel started on a downward path when they changed their rule from a theocratic/theonomic model to a king with divine right of rule (this is seen as the "will of man", not the "will of God").

A particularly revelatory look regarding what Joel's Army has intended for the rest of us is at a site called Reclaim 7 Mountains, which is to say--succinctly--"convert or else":

As the blessed seed of Abraham according to Galatians 3:29, possessing the gates of our enemies and taking dominion of the earth to bless all mankind is the church's chief responsibility. Like it was for Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joshua and David, it will take warfare, strategy, teamwork, ingenuity and patience but the redeemed seed will prevail in taking the message of the Kingdom of God around the earth.

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

Matthew 24:14

In other words, the church is not sitting around waiting for the return of Jesus. It is working for the return of Jesus. It is the job of the redeemed sons and daughters of God to make disciples of every nation and prepare the earth for His return.

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."

Revelation 19:7

Notice in the above verse that the bride (the corporate church comprised of all the nations of the earth) has made herself ready. This implies two things. First, John saw the corporate church finally becoming complete in the last days. Secondly, he saw that it was the primary responsibility of the church to make these preparations happen.

The first time that Jesus came, He came to redeem the seed. Now he is waiting for the redeemed bride to make herself ready by taking dominion of the earth. Her preparations will be complete as she adorns herself with the nations of the earth. Then the end will come.

Note the subtle reference to "serpent seed theology"--many Joel's Army groups have a concept that all of humanity is descended from either sons of God (through Adam) or of the devil (through Cain--who is believed to have been the result of Eve having sex with the Serpent). Christian Identity takes a racist version, whilst Joel's Army promotes itself and "Elijah's Army" as the literal sons of God with its opponents being literal descendants of the Devil.

Interestingly, "Reclaim 7 Mountains" seems to embrace the "Joshua Branding" here (as opposed to the "Elijah Branding") of Joel's Army, based on a quote re an upcoming conference on workplace prosyletism and the use of the "parallel economy" as a recruiting tool--and also explains the "seven" fetishism:

When God called the people of Israel out of Egypt to form a new nation in the Promised Land, He told them that they would be the head, not the tail, if they obeyed the commands of the Lord. He told them to divide the land into 7 parts (Joshua 18:5). They would also have to displace 7 enemies that currently resided in the Promised Land. "This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out 7 enemies before you including the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girga@!$%#es, Amorites, and the Jebusites (Joshua 3:10).
Have you noticed a pattern yet — 7 mountains, 7 parts of land, and 7 enemies that needed to be displaced? 7 is the perfect number in scripture. It is the number for completion. He made the world in six days and rested on the 7th.
The 2008 Church in the Workplace Conference will be focused on the 7 mountains that shape culture. This conference will be unlike any you've experienced becausey ou will hear from people who are having an impact rightnow in each of these 7 areas and understand the role you can play in reclaiming these 7 mountains.
And remember, we ARE the Church in the workplace!

Yes, you're hearing this right:

a) "Joel's Army" is directly equated with the founders of Israel (this ties into theology indicating that they are in fact the "chosen people" along with Jewish people).

b) Their enemies are being directly equated with seven nations that were either displaced or the victims of wholescale genocide by the founders of Israel.

c) They are on a literal mission from God, in their minds, to do this--by hook or by crook.

"Reclaim 7 Mountains" goes into much more detail regarding this imagery--including potentially setting up kids as targets of child abuse for normal moves towards independence:

(re "family")

The family unit is clearly under assault by Satan. More specifically, it's fathers who have failed, although Satan's assault shows up in other areas too. The Mountain of Family is in dire need of an infusion of Elijah Revolutionaries. It could also be called the Mountain of Social Justice because the true greatest social injustice we currently face is that the hearts of fathers are not turned toward their children and the hearts of the children are not turned towards their fathers. All other social injustices spin off of that central injustice.

Scripture says that in the last days, it's not just the parents "fault"—something evil will be released on children to turn them against their parents.

But know this that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

The italicized words specifically describe the kind of children's behavior we may be familiar with, but their intensity and degree in the latter days will be worse. It is Satan's attempt to subvert the last days work of the spirit of Elijah with a preemptive strike.

The commentary re kids is worrisome for an entirely different reason than much of the rest of this section--it's a case where they indicate a willingness to turn against their own flesh and blood to maintain the party line.

Neopentecostal dominionists--and in particular those involved in the Joel's Army movement--are among some of the leading proponents of the beating of babies and toddlers with "chastening rods" in the name of "spiritual warfare". At least one major promoter of "Bible-based baby beating"--Bill Gothard, who has known connections to Palin via the International Association of Character Cities--explicitly runs a paramilitary training camp for "Joel's Army with Guns", among other fronts including "Bible-based" boot camps; Gothard, as well as many other promoters of religiously motivated child abuse (including Michael and Debbie Pearl, whose books are linked to the deaths of children), explicitly refer to Joel's Army concepts of "spiritual warfare" and driving out "generational curses".

In fact, there is a very strong component of religiously motivated child abuse connected with accusations of "witchcraft" in Joel's Army revivals in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere of the exact type promoted by Thomas Muthee--it's in fact enough of a problem in the United Kingdom (not exactly a place known as a huge Joel's Army hotbed) that formal advisories are given to social services groups on how to spot "deliverance ministry" related abuse and in Africa itself has resulted in a massive--and under-reported--humanitarian crisis. There is also a non-negligible crisis of religiously motivated child abuse of this type in the States--but, unfortunately, considerable barriers exist in regards to successful prosecutions.

In a particularly relevant note re Palin, the Assemblies runs a chain of "faith-based rehabs" called Teen Challenge where not only coercive tactics are rife, but parents are encouraged to send their kids there if they're seen as "disobedient"--and yes, being a gay kid in a Joel's Army household, or even being a walkaway or having questions about one's faith, is most certainly seen as being "disobedient".

Unfortunately, it's not just their own kids they turn on. A hidden call for genocide against LGBT people is given, as well as literal comparison of women's clinics to pagan temples of a particularly infamous god:

(re "family")

The seventh nation listed in Deuteronomy 7 is the Jebusites. The name Jebusites means "a place trodden down, rejection." That's the spirit on the Mountain of Family that must be dispossessed. The Jebusites represent rejection as it applies to our understanding of a main enemy on this mountain.
. . .
One could serve Baal by serving Molech, the one to whom children were brutally and cruelly sacrificed. [note: Worshippers would heat up statues of Molech and then place their children in the statues' red-hot arms and watch them burn to death.] For us, this represents the prevailing god and influence over abortion. Since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, more than 50 million children have been sacrificed at this altar of convenience. Baal worship in our land has cost millions their life. Abortion is the rejection of a child by a parent, evidence of the Jebusites of rejection at work. We see the heart of a parent turned not toward their children, but rather against them in a deadly way.

Homosexuality is also a manifestation of Baal worship and why male prostitution was integral to Baal ceremonies. Homosexuality is the rejection of one's natural sex drive. This rejection isn't necessarily a conscious choice; it's the fruit of rejection that has been sown in someone and defiled him. The point is not whether one is born homosexual or not.
. . .
A mass homosexual parade and celebration that was to bring many millions of dollars to New Orleans was scheduled the week Katrina hit the city. Baal was doubling up in the city by adding homosexual decadence to his existing active altar there. Hurricanes Wilma and Rita also each brought judgment on cities that were about to host major gay events—Key West and Cancun—thus seriously curtailing the celebration of gay acceptance. God loves homosexuals so much that he will spare no expense in making it clear that homosexuality is an abomination to Him, and that He can deliver someone from it. The name Katrina even means "purity"—perhaps a message of God's intent for that hurricane. What looks like God's anger against homosexuals is really His passionate love working to spare them from greater judgment—lifetime in a real hell.
. . .
We haven't touched on that last phrase yet, but it's important. If this family restoration doesn't come, the earth will be struck with a curse. That word "curse" means "annihilation." The earth will suffer annihilation if true family is not restored on earth. AIDS is a disease that has its roots in the violation of God's mores for the family. It's a sin disease that decimates families and leaves millions of orphans behind. A man and a woman who marry as virgins have provided themselves with the ultimate protection against AIDS. There are innocent AIDS carriers, but the source of the disease is sinful, anti-family behavior. Forty million people in the world are now infected with a death sentence that is directly attributable to violating God's known standards for family life. Could the curse of Malachi 4:6 be an even worse disease or virus that takes out the disobedient? Elijah Revolutionaries will not stand by and allow that possibility to unfold. We will receive and carry the restorative work of the spirit of Elijah to the nations.

(Note the shift in branding to "Elijah Revolutionaries", a variant of "Elijah Branding" of Joel's Army.)

Yes, you're reading this right. LGBT people and workers at women's clinics are not only directly equated to worshippers of a pagan god (equated with the devil and child sacrifice) but to a group that were ultimately forced into serfdom by rabbinical tradition (modern archaeologists state it is arguable whether Jebusites ever existed as a distinct people). Oh, and they're among the legions who claim Hurricane Katrina was some form of divine retribution (if so, God has aim worse than the Stormtroopers in Star Wars--the French Quarter actually made out pretty well) and I can only imagine what lovely things are being said about Hurricane Ivan being God's Wrath. :P
Oh, and the fact that bitty babies and haemophiliacs die of AIDS is apparently the fault of allowing the queers to exist. :P

It should be noted that one area they explicitly have targeted is the Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court, then, is probably even more influential on the Mountain of Family than on the Mountain of Politics. It decided Roe v. Wade and is the only entity with the power to reverse it. Its justices have the power to determine, for legal purposes, what a family is. They are involved in all morality-related rulings. To fully dethrone Baal and take this mountain, we will have to "take" the Supreme Court. The emerging Elijah Revolution will begin to bring God's order to the top of this mountain.

If anything, their bit on the "mountain of government" is even worse:

(Re "Government")

The second enemy nation mentioned in Deuteronomy 7 is the Girga@!$%#es. The name means dwelling in clayey soil and represents being motivated by earthy desires and ambitions. In essence it represents corruption brought on by the "pride of life" (1 John 2:16). The definition of corruption is "the impairment of integrity, virtue, or morality." This is what presently rules in politics and government.

All governments suffer from corruption, a built-in sabotage that guarantees their eventual implosion. The only government that will never have any corruption is the theocratic Kingdom of God. Here on earth, there will always be something less than a perfect government. We can (and should), however, insist on high ideals, principles, and individual character—people who can help manifest a form of government that is a blessing to a nation. We cannot instill a theocracy in a human government because theocracy is transcendent to humanity. The Kingdom of God can be superimposed on people through influence, but only God Himself can be "theo." Therefore, any attempt to establish a physical theocracy is ill-conceived unless it is reinterpreted as something other than what it actually means. (-cracy—government, theo—of God). A government can potentially function as a virtual theocracy, but only as the individuals in power allow themselves to be puppets (i.e. servants) of the theocracy (God's rule and reign). The goal is to bring the influence of heaven to bear on whatever political machinery that exists.
. . .
The Mountain of Government is perhaps the most important of the mountains because it can establish laws and decrees that affect and control every other mountain. Therefore, we find Lucifer himself entrenched on this mountain as the usurping "prince" over the nations. Whereas God's government is established through service and humility, Satan's government is established through manipulation and pride. Lucifer sits at the top of this mountain, where he specifically functions as the Antichrist. His role over the nations is to stir and raise up whatever would defeat the purposes of God on earth. When he is firmly entrenched in a nation, that nation will manifest the following "antichrist" distinctives.

1) Working to destroy Israel
2) Working to destroy the next generation (abortion, wars, and plagues)
3) Working to destroy Christians
4) Working to suppress women or release "Jezebels"
5) Working to pervert sexual mores (homosexuality, adultery, etc.)

Every one of these topics deserves a book of its own, so we won't be able to develop them much deeper here. The point is that Lucifer tries to weave into all aspects of governmental influence the seeds of these five distinctives. He attempts to change and arrange laws, pacts, and agreements that will advance his antichrist agenda. And he still thinks he can succeed—which will just make the end result a little sweeter. Anyone attempting to climb this Mountain of Government must understand who is ruling and what he is looking to perform. The Girga@!$%#es of corruption serve his purposes because they condition people to be pawns of his master plan. The displacement of Lucifer is guaranteed by God, and nation by nation will be pulled out of his clutches.

OK, step one: literally all secular government is compared to an obscure tribe of Caananites who were apparently entirely extirpated; secondly, pretty much any nation allowing reproductive health services or tolerating LGBT people is in direct control of the son of the devil himself.

Going back to the "Reclaim Seven Mountains" site, one of the most unintentionally hilarious parts of this speech is where the Apostles are almost literally compared to Larry the Cable Guy:

A quick look at the original twelve apostles should convince us that none of the natural qualities I've listed above define the role. Peter and the gang were primarily unlearned, redneck-type fishermen, and their natural gifts did not indicate the level of spiritual call upon their lives. Through them, we see a manifestation of God's divine strategy of choosing "nobodies" to turn the world upside down.

(And now you know why so much is made of Palin being able to field-dress a moose!)

In a note that is a very subtling--and very damning "from the horse's mouth" indictment--there's a segment that notes that "apostles will know one of their own" in regards to those appointed for government steeplejacking...disturbingly relevant in regards to those who've blessed Palin:

It will take true prophets and "wise men" to uncover true apostles. Whether or not the title comes into play, God is now preparing and raising up apostles to possess the Mountain of Government. They will be humble, intimate servants of the Lord who carry great spiritual power and authority. They may either be the advisors (intercessors) of politicians or the politicians themselves. (These will be the natural "disguises" for an actual apostolic anointing. Many will be women, who are the key for the church being released into her full destiny.) Daniel, for example, had an apostolic anointing from a position of influence. Esther and Joseph had actual positions they operated from—as well as influence beyond the position. King David was a good example of a presidential/apostle type. He had the highest spiritual authority and natural authority in the land.

And it should be noted that...well...if you're not a Joel's Army member, you're not seen as Christian enough and they intend to put you to the convert-or-die sword, too...because if they don't, God will allow the entire country to be screwed over:

This apostolic positioning will increase more and more among the nations of the world as the mountain of the Lord's house is exalted above all others. One reason we haven't advanced as far as expected in this area is that "Christians" who have come into power in various national governments haven't always been apostolic Christians. By apostolic Christians, I mean that they have made it to the top of the mountain without carrying apostolic authority. Apart from apostolic anointing, there is no displacement authority. Therefore many of these Christians have fallen to the same corruption as their predecessors. Lucifer and his corrupting Girga@!$%#es have not been spiritually displaced by the angels that would normally accompany a true apostle.

The goal is not just to have Christians in high places, but rather to have Christians who are called to be in high places step into that role. And wearing a "Christian" label on our sleeve isn't the point. We need to learn to be "as wise as serpents and harmless as doves" and realize that stealth authority and influence are much preferred over overt authority and influence. A low profile diffuses resistance from the opposition. Political righteousness isn't determined by whether someone calls himself a Christian or not anyway. That's established by whether the political values they are prepared to defend or establish are actually righteous. A Christian who espouses abortion rights or the validity of gay marriages, for example, is worthless as a "Christian" candidate. If candidates don't understand righteous politics, they aren't anointed for this mountain. They may have enough Christianity in them to enter heaven, but they don't have enough Christianity to bring the rule and reign of God down to earth.

This will change as the Elijah Revolution is released upon the nations. Sons and daughters of the King who understand the call to take the seven mountains will rise to the mountaintops. More important than their confession of faith will be their understanding of Kingdom issues. Do they understand God's redemptive plan for Israel in these last days? Do they understand that "if you touch Israel, you touch the apple of His eye"? (Zechariah 2:8). Entire nations will be severely judged or highly blessed and favored based on this issue alone. Governing cannot be done by the flesh anymore, as the issues will be increasingly highly charged spiritual matters that God will directly address—often through devastating judgments (Isaiah 26:9).

The world will come to learn, for example, that though God passionately loves every homosexual, remaining in that sin will cause someone to fall under the sword of His judgment. Feelings don't validate a homosexual lifestyle any more than they validate a murderer's desire to kill. We are all born with feelings that we must curb and cut off, and the sooner we embrace God's standards, the sooner we have a chance to be at peace with Him. It is well understood that any child, when left to his or her own standards based on a feeling, will become a spoiled, unruly brat. What comes to us naturally is sin. We will lie, cheat, fornicate, dishonor our parents, and commit every other form of sin when we define righteousness by whatever we think we were born with. The sooner we understand that God expects righteousness—regardless of what our innate tendencies tell us—the sooner we will be able to eliminate His judgments from our personal and corporate lives.

And now you see just WHY Palin is so damn dangerous--and why there's things like imprecatory prayers for McCain's death. Palin is seen, literally, as one of their Chosen--one of the few that, in their view, is sufficiently "in line" with Joel's Army theology to establish their own little Republic of Gilead, where anyone who doesn't toe the line will be driven out or killed.

And yes, Palin is pretty explicitly promoted as being one of the chosen of Joel's Army. In addition to that "Deborah Annointing" stuff, none less than Palin's mentor and darling of the Joel's Army movement Mary Glazier is rather actively promoting her as the Chosen One, politically speaking:

Just a few minutes ago Eleanor Roehl, a powerful Eskimo intercessor and prophet, called me to say she senses an imminent attack against our nation. Then Karen Fink came into my office to share the following revelation she had this past Friday with increasing weight on her heart ever since:

She received the scripture Gen. 50:3,"A period of NATIONAL MOURNING". She then saw Sarah Palin standing alone and she was mantled with the American flag. The flag was upside down because things are inverted (upside down) right now. I knew she was stepping into an office that she was mantled for."

(Of note, there's an interesting bit of scripture-twisting going on--and particularly disturbing, at that; Gen. 50:3 describes the 40-day embalming period and 70 days of mourning for a leader--in context with the rest of Gen. 49-50, the death of Jacob. Also, an inverted flag is a universal symbol of national emergency.)

And yes, they do pretty explicitly see themselves as divine agents:

Jesus has no intention of visiting temporarily to see who wants to "get saved." He will release His government and rule upon the earth—through His sons and daughters—and His Kingdom will never stop growing. He never gives the planet to Satan! The takeover of the affairs of earth is somehow tied into bringing order to the entire universe. Our planet is the last bastion of rebellion, and He will overwhelm it on His terms here on this planet. His terms? That His weak, foolish, simple, love-struck sons and daughters finally wake up to their inheritance and become the instruments that crush Satan—here and now.

This is also why prosyletisation is perfectly accepted...and why George W. Bush, and the Iraq War, are explicitly seen as divine mandate:

As I write this, President George W. Bush is a Christian who also serves as civil leader of the most powerful nation on earth. This position carries great responsibility—beyond what most people understand. "Most powerful nation" status is given by God; just as He places leaders in nations, He also establishes leadership among nations. President Bush has a responsibility before God to terrify terrorists and rogue nations. He probably relies on his personal walk with the Lord for guidance for the correct strategy to do so. But it's important to know that he has a biblical, God-ordained command to exercise "the sword" to stop those who would do evil. Confronting evil and delivering practical justice is a central call of those in civil positions of authority.

And lest anyone doubt, their primary allegiance is with Joel's Army, not constitutional rule:

We must approach this mountain as those whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). In the latter days, the Lord will use citizens of heaven who live on earth to exalt the His mountain above all other mountains. This citizenship must transcend our natural citizenship. Our natural citizenship is still important, as it establishes a specific arena where we're called to be active. But it's as citizens of heaven that we are sold out to our King and consumed by a deep love for Him, positioning ourselves to receive empowered strategy from heaven to fast forward His prayer while He was on earth: "Your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

Both the Federal government and--bizarrely--Harvard University are explicitly targeted:

If Washington, D.C., is the geographical top of the mountain, then at some point we must embark on a holy invasion of that stronghold. We see this already taking place with new ministries coming and physically spending a lot of time in the D.C. area. Prayer warriors, as well as those called to be the new visible faces on this mountain, need to invade.

If Harvard is a seedbed for the future leaders who will occupy the top of the mountain of politics, then it needs to be invaded as a part of the multi-pronged strategy. We need a host of Elijah revolutionaries to go and attend that school and bring the order of heaven to that place—a strategy we'll discuss in much greater detail in the next chapter. Christians at Harvard is not a new concept, but Elijah Revolutionaries on that campus would be. An Elijah Revolutionary lives out of his Kingdom identity. He or she is first and foremost a citizen of heaven, and only secondarily is he a citizen of his nation. A revolutionary will carry the zeal of the Lord for righteousness and justice—which are the foundations of His throne (Psalm 97:2). Harvard will again burn with transformational governmental righteousness that will bring light to the nations of the world. As I'm writing, I'm prophetically seeing these things for Harvard and how that is a key part of the action strategy for taking the land that the Lord has given us at the top of the Mountain of Government.

...and trust me, it only gets worse from there.

Rick Joyner, a "founding father" of the Joel's Army movement (and actually one of the persons who originally coined the term "Joel's Army"), also dropped hints as to how this particular band of "Christian nationalists" plans to deal with such complications as the Constitution (using terminology that could have been straight out of the Aunt's "Freedom from" speech from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale) on a post made on 19 June 2007 to the ElijahList (a major Internet mailinglist and forum for the Joel's Army crowd):

The kingdom of God will not be socialism, but a freedom even greater than anyone on earth knows at this time. At first it may seem like totalitarianism, as the Lord will destroy the antichrist spirit now dominating the world with "the sword of His mouth" and will shatter many nations like pottery. However, fundamental to His rule is II Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Instead of taking away liberties and becoming more domineering, the kingdom will move from a point of necessary control while people are learning truth, integrity, honor, and how to make decisions, to increasing liberty so that they can.
. . .
The kingdom will start out necessarily authoritative in many ways, or in many areas, but will move toward increasing liberty--so do all true churches and movements that are advancing toward the kingdom. You may have to be very controlling of toddlers, but the older they get, the more they can be trusted, and the more freedom they should have if they are going to develop into true maturity, which requires personal responsibility.

(Emphasis actually in Joyner's post.)

The post seems disturbing enough on its face (with lip service towards religious freedom--after a period of totalitarian rule--in phrasings that would do the North Korean propoganda agencies proud) but the true threat comes across when one realises that the Joel's Army folks are also among some of the biggest promoters of literally using "chastening rods" to beat toddlers into submission--giving a further, veiled, *very* dangerous threat that they intend to literally "beat the devil out of people" if deemed necessary.

Pretty much anyone who is not a neopente dominionist in "Joel's Army" is at grave risk should anyone with connections get near the Oval Office, or the Supreme Court, or Congress--and we already have some in Congress, though thankfully not a majority. And no, the risk isn't just restricted to Palin--McCain made some very overt gestures towards Joel's Army promoters John Hagee and Rod Parsley even *before* the selection of Palin, which makes those of us watching wonder whether it's a matter of an "olive branch" or possibly a sign that the Republican Party is so thoroughly steeplejacked that it may soon be impossible for nominations to occur without a candidate having "Elijah's Army cred".

And here's where it matters in this election

The Hagee connections in particular are worrisome--Hagee's church operates what may be one of the most abusive coercive religious groups ever formally documented, in some ways actually managing to be worse than Scientology in sheer intensity and amount of thought-reform tactics used (and that takes some major doing!). Hagee's group Christians United for Israel not only uses Joel's Army terminology in a way that even confirmedly Joel's Army churches in the Assemblies won't touch with a 40-foot barge pole but has explicitly called for essentially a massive holy war against the non-Jewish population of Israel and its surrounding countries, and has also hinted at Joel's Army endtime theology regarding nuclear war with Russia and the Moslem world.

In fact, McCain did not drop his association with Hagee and Parsley until too much came out regarding the promotion of "hunters and fishers" theology by Hagee--a virulent covert-anti-Semitic theology becoming increasingly common in Joel's Army circles in which Israel is rather explicitly promoted as a divinely-ordained "megaghetto" to which Jewish people must either be "lured" by "fishers"...or "herded" by "hunters". (A brief glimpse on how truly anti-Semitic this stuff is--Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and modern neo-Nazi groups, are explicitly promoted as "hunters" literally doing the work of God to herd Jewish people to Israel as if they were sheep and slaughtering them if they are "obstinate".)

And sadly, the bloodlust isn't just restricted to Jewish groups who refuse to act as good little end-time pawns on the Joel's Army chessboard. As I've noted in a previous post, Joel's Army groups have literally used the same "Phinehas Priesthood" imagery used by Christian Identity groups to promote omnicide against anyone not falling in line (including, notably, one of the "founding fathers" of Joel's Army--Rick Joyner)--the "Phinehas Priests" taking their cue from the Biblical leader Phinehas, infamous for a number of bloody purges (including the complete decimation of the Midianite people save for virgins--taken as spoils of war--and what very nearly resulted in the extermination of the Israeli tribes of Reuben and Gad over a case of mistaken identity re a temple) and the impalement of not only a Midianite but her Israeli fiance (who was seen as guilty by association).

More associations with what amount to a war on humanity come from the "horses' mouth". An increasingly popular rebranding of Joel's Army in their own circles is "Gideon's Army"--and an increasing fad is with Gideon Conferences, devoted to promoting "Seven Mountains" planning and typically limited to 300 people apiece. Why 300? It's not Frank Miller's comic re the Battle of Thermopylae they're thinking of--no, supposedly Gideon (who ran Israel after Deborah) managed to beat back a Midianite occupying force of 100,000 with only 300 men. (Much more will be discussed on this in future posts.)

This imagery has even been subtly referenced in regards to Sarah Palin, amazingly. An analgous imagery used in Joel's Army circles to "Phinehas Priests" is the concept of "Deborah Annointing" in women--that is, comparison to the Biblical prophetess Deborah, who led a bloody revolt against the Canaanites and whose right-hand woman literally killed the leader of the occupation by driving a tent peg through his head. In other words, women with "Deborah Annointing" are seen basically as "Mommy Phinehas Priests"--and Joel's Army promoter J. Lee Grady explicitly has promoted Palin in this regard.

This is by far not the only especially blatant salutation of Palin as essentially a member of Joel's Army, WACS Division. Thomas Muthee explicitly describes her as a canonical example of the kind of person they'd like to see taking the "Mountain of Government" during his "annointing" of her during her run for governor in 2005:

And the last area is in the area of government. Hello? We need believers there. We need men and women of integrity. You know, as the Secretaries of State. We need them right there. People that are born again, spirit filled, people who know God, and people who are serious with God.

So in a moment if you do not mind, I'll ask, you know, even before I go to do this thing, you know, I'll ask Sarah, would you mind to come please? Would you mind? Come, please. Let's all stand up, and let's hold hands all over this house. Come, Pastor, come.

[Sarah Palin comes to the stage in front of the congregation. Sarah Palin bows her head stretches her forearms forward and places the palms of her hands upward. Thomas Muthee lays hands on Sarah Palin's head. Pastor Ed Kalnin and unidentifed man lay hands on Sarah Palin's shoulders.]

Thank you, Jesus. Let's all pray. Let's pray for Sarah. Hallelujah! Come on, hold your hands up and raise them. Hold them and raise them up here! Come on, talk to God about this woman! Come on, talk to God about this woman we declare favor from today. We say favor, favor, favor! We say praise my God! We say grace to be rained upon her in the name of Jesus. My God, you make your judgement, you make room. You make ways in the desert, and I'm asking you today, we are asking you as the body of Christ in this valley, make a way for Sarah, even in the [inaudible]. Make her way my God. Bring finances her way, even in the campaign in the name of Jesus, and above all give her the personnel, give her men and women that will back her up in the name of Jesus. We want righteousness in this state. We want righteousness in this nation. Because you say [inaudible] in the name of Jesus. Our Father, use her to turn this nation the other way around. Use her to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers so that the curse that has been there long can be broken. In the name of Jesus. Father, we thank you today. We come in the hindrance of the enemy, standing in her way to there. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus! Every form of witchcraft, it will be rebuked in the name of Jesus. Father, make her way now. In Jesus' name, Amen.

With the previous explanation that they claim to "know their own" in office, and explicitly referring to some of the other "seven mountains" memes--this and yesterday's post should hopefully give you some insight as to just *why* this is far from an innocuous blessing.

The sad thing is...this is just scratching the surface as to the depths of connections with Palin, McCain, and Joel's Army stuff. (In fact, just today Ruth at Talk to Action has posted on how the links may go prior to Palin's political career--a subject we will be going into much deeper detail on in the days and weeks to come.) In future posts, we will reveal more info on how deep the rabbit-hole goes (and it goes very deep indeed)--issues which could have very real implications for the US and the world at large, especially considering that not only will Palin be a heartbeat away from the Presidency if McCain is elected--but McCain himself is likely to lend an ear to these folks, if his prior associations with Hagee and Parsley are any clue. In fact, there are some indications that McCain still has associations with Hagee via Joe Lieberman--indicating that the ties aren't so much broken as hidden.

And that could be a Very, Very Bad Thing Indeed for America and the world.

Today's diary is--and yes, I know, this is a shocker--NOT going to be about Sarah Palin. At least, not directly. This is more towards some of her supporters...and especially in light of Palin throwing stones whilst in a glass house re the Jeremiah Wright controversy, a deeper look is warranted into one group Palin is associated with in particular.

The truth is, Palin's stealth candidacy is but a single symptom of a much larger problem--much as a wound that won't heal is often indicative of the cancer beneath. And so it is here--as we'll get into in the coming weeks, Palin is actually a rook in what amounts to a high-stakes national game of chess that the Joel's Army movement is playing with the rest of America.

Today, we focus on some statements that were made with Thomas Muthee's "annointing" of Palin as governor--yes, that Thomas Muthee, the infamous Kenyan witch-hunter who spoke at Palin's supposed former congregation--and how he actually revealed much of what amounts to a longterm strategy by Joel's Army groups to steeplejack the country...and society.

First, some backgrounder

Hopefully, this will explain to some extent just why I've got such a concern here, but in order to discuss this, some background info is necessary.

A great deal of my own personal concern regarding Palin's candidacy is because she does still appear to be an active member of a particularly coercive movement that I myself am a walkaway from--namely, the Joel's Army segment of what I term "neopentecostal dominionism", a particular "Christian nationalist" ideology that had its origins in but is by no means restricted to the Assemblies. (If anything, it is now in a process of metastasis to even some mainstream churches--Episcopalian and Roman Catholic churches in particular being explicitly targeted via "cell churches".)

Of note, this is an evolving movement, and partly because of this and partly because of the fact that the movement tends to reinvent itself whenever bad press comes out, there is not really a standardised name for the movement even among its own practitioners. (The term "Joel's Army" itself has largely gone out of favour within the movement, replaced by things like "Joshua Generation" and "Elijah's Army" and such--largely because of bad press specifically re "Joel's Army" in apologetics circles.) It's also a coercive religious movement that has had very little formalised study of any kind; until fairly recently, the only people really writing about these groups were Sara Diamond and Skipp Porteous (both of whom have largely retired from research on Christian nationalism as a whole), and even exit counseling groups have only recognised in the past five years that many of these groups use the same systematic forms of control as better-known coercive religious groups like Scientology or the Moonies. (In fact, some indications are that these groups may be among the most coercive groups yet documented--particularly worrisome in light of their extremism.)

"Ruth", who is one of the few people (besides myself, Bruce Wilson, Chris Rodda, and Jeff Sharlet) who actively specialise in research of neopentecostal dominionism, has done an excellent series on both Palin's churches and the modern outbreak of this sort of thing (I myself would argue that the problem is far more extensive within the Assemblies and has had a habit of remission and flareup over a 60-70 year period, but she is concentrating on the worst bits of things, and some of it may not have been so obvious to people not in the movement--I've seen apologetics researchers note this too). Her first article notes the theological basis in "third wave" neopentecostalism, with the followup focusing on Rodney Howard-Browne being a major vector of Joel's Army theology and her most recent article being clarifications to writers that this is in fact an extremist movement not identical to "old school" pentecostalism and noting further info regarding Palin's churches and Joel's Army theology. In particular, she also has a very good post regarding a subtle form of anti-Semitism increasingly promoted in Joel's Army circles, including by Muthee--the concept of "fishers" and specifically "hunters" essentially herding Jewish people to Israel as a form of divinely-ordained ghettoisation.

Bruce Wilson, who's also been doing impressive research on this for quite some time, also has been performing an extremely valuable service--it's been said that a picture can tell a thousand words, and if this is true, video can tell even more of a story. Wilson, along with the site Irregular Times, has been doing the primary video documentation of the extensive linkages between Palin and "Joel's Army"--including a mini-documentary consisting of clips from Wasilla A/G in particular that were later scrubbed from their site, some of the earlier documentation of Muthee's call for infiltration, and the usual explanation that Joel's Army theology is an extremist movement.

In fact, Wilson's videos have riled up neopente dominionists sufficiently that an astroturf campaign was launched to try to remove Wilson's initial documentary from Youtube--bogus complaints claiming "inappropriate content" were sent to Youtube, in a remarkably similar manner to how Scientology has tried to get videos critical of the group pulled (only instead of filing DMCA complaints, the astroturfers apparently tried to label it as "inappropriate"--against Youtube's acceptable use policy, either for banned content (hate speech) or mislabeled adult material--probably in an attempt to get the posting accounts themselves yanked).

As for myself and my own background info, pretty much the first page of my diary should work, but I would also recommend specifically as backgrounder info re the use of the NIV in "Joel's Army" circles as well as a history of neopentecostal dominionist theology and info on two very specific coercive tactics that become very important in any discussion on neopente dominionism and "Joel's Army" in particular--the concepts of deliverance ministry and cell churches, in particular their uses in breeding "cuckoo congregations" and their historical use in Joel's Army groups. (As an aside, Paul Yonggi Cho has been a very underappreciated figure in the spread of this theology, in particular within the Assemblies.)

Until I get a formalised "bestiary of Christian Nationalism" together as well as a future chronological timeline of Palin's involvement with these groups (she's dared to invoke the Jeremiah Wright thing, nut her own connections with Joel's Army groups are far more damning put into chronological context--and this includes some involvements that have not as of yet been widely publicised), this is your homework reading for today's post. :D Trust me--it makes the following much easier to understand. If nothing else, start with Ruth's and Wilson's work; it is necessary backgrounder for what we're about to discuss.

Coded messages in Muthee's speech

As I had noted in a previous post, I had reported on how Irregular Times had posted the full transcript of Palin's "blessing" by Thomas Muthee. Space unfortunately prohibited me from going into a discussion on how a great deal of Muthee's talk was essentially a coded message to the Joel's Army community--something I hope to rectify in this post.

The relevant parts of the transcript are as follows:

In a moment, I'll be asking you that we pray for Sarah, and I'll tell you the reason why. When we talk about transformation of a community, we are talking about God invading seven areas in our society. Let me repeat that one more time. When we talk about transformation of a society, a community, it's where we see God's Kingdom infiltrate, influence seven areas in our society.

Number one is the spiritual aspect of our society. Mainly, the church for a long has just concentrated on that dimension, whereby we simply want people saved, we want them to go to heaven, we want them delivered, and that's it. But I'll tell you something: if all we do is come to the church and get people saved and then they go, I don't think much will happen in our society.

So the second area whereby God wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It is high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity, running the economics of our nations. That's what we are waiting for. That's part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the Israelites, you know, that's how they won. And that's how they are, even today. When we will see that, you know, the talk transport us in the lands. We see, you know, the bankers. We see the people holding the paths. They are believers. We will not have the kind of corruption that we are hearing in our societies.

So we go to the third area, it's in the area of politics. Tell your neighbor, "politics." Do you know what I discovered? This is funny. The people who actually split churches, they have the gift of politics, but they are exercising it in the wrong place. That's what I came to know. There are people who are wired to politics because God wants to take the political, you know, dimension of our societies. And those people should be prayed for. That's why I was, you know, I was so glad to see Sarah here. We should pray for her, we should back her up. And, you know, come the day of voting, we should be there, not just praying, we should be there. And I'm saying this because that's what I'm telling our church. I'm telling them that we need this in Parliament. In here is what you call Congressmen, you know, you know, the, the Governors, we need the bretheren right inside there. Is anybody hearing me?

You know, because who will change the laws of the lands? The problem is do we just pray, but we do nothing about it. If the believers had not done something in this country, your president would not be in office today. Yes or no? Am I right?

Number three, or number four, it's the area of education. We need believers who are educationists. If we had them, today we would not be talking about the Ten Commandments being kicked out of the church, I mean out of our schools. They would still be there. One of the things that you, you know, I would love you to know, I'm a child of revival of the Seventies, and that revival swept through the schools. They are open to preaching, you know, open. Open. Wide open. You go to any school, there is what we call Christian Union. Christian Union is nothing more but a bunch of kids that are born again, spirit-filled, tongue-talking, devil-casting. Is anybody hearing me? All over the country! Is anybody hearing me?

We need God taking over our education system! Otherwise, we, if we have God in our schools, we will not have kids being taught, you know, how to worship Buddha, how to worship Mohammed, we will not have in the curriculum witchcraft and sorcery. Is anybody hearing me?

The other area is in the area of media. We need believers in the media. We need God taking over the media in our lands. Otherwise we will not have all the junk coming out of, you know, coming out of the media. And not only that, we need God t__— [period of silence in video]. Why can't we have our living church in Hollywood? Guess what will happen. If we have a living church right in Hollywood, we would not have all the kind of pornography that we are having. Is anybody hearing me?

And the last area is in the area of government. Hello? We need believers there. We need men and women of integrity. You know, as the Secretaries of State. We need them right there. People that are born again, spirit filled, people who know God, and people who are serious with God.

Interestingly, there are areas where this very sequence has shown up before--Muthee himself is quoting from another Joel's Army promoter, one Lance Wallnau (who works as a motivational speaker in neopente dominionist circles). And, as we'll see today and tomorrow, Wallnau is far from the only Joel's Army cheerleader using this specific terminology.

After finding reference to "Seven Mountains" in one of "Ruth's" posts (in which she includes a video from Wallnau himself, I did some digging and was able to find info on a seminar where Lance Wallnau referred to an almost identical set of planned points for takeover of the country, Joel's Army-style:

What are the Seven Mountains?

The seven mountains are seven spheres of influence that make up the mind molders that control Nations. He who occupies these mountains controls the harvest. As Satan gains power over these mountains he increases his capacity for "Mind Control." That's the spiritual force that inclines whole people groups to think along the same pathway. It is the phenomenon that explains sudden trends in fashion or music. It works to turn whole continents against each other and will be used to facilitate global wars. Mind Control will increase as the Last Days speeds toward a conclusion.

Here are the Seven Mountains or Mind Molders:

1. Spirituality and Church
2. Family
3. Education
4. Government and Law
5. Media and Communication
6. Arts and Entertainment
7. Business and Finance

World Rulers of Darkness operate through people. Their goal is to penetrate key strategic positions at the tops of the mountains, and to populate these positions with people who will become gatekeepers to their foul agendas. A small group in control of Media with a homosexual bias can put on programs that make the Gay lifestyle appealing and entertaining. This media pummeling has the effect of softening minds to the issues of morality and creates intolerance for moral absolutes regarding sexual purity and a false tolerance for perversion.

Mind Molders work together in order to accomplish the strategies of the devil. This year alone, the family (Family Mountain) has come under assault by government legislatures (Government Mountain) in the State of Massachusetts to recognize that the union of a man and a woman is a thing of the past. Men now marry men and woman marry woman. Simultaneous with this, education (another mountain) chartered a school in New York to honor those students with a homosexual preference.

Abortion and Pornography are coming through this same gate at a rate that is barely keeping up with the number of marriages falling apart and the number of men and youth who are becoming addicted to sex on the internet.

The same strategy to leverage the power of mind molders is now being worked out by the spirit of Anti Christ in Europe. "Anti" means against or "instead of" - and "Christ" means "anointing". Therefore it is the name of a spirit that opposes Christians and seeks an alternative anointing. The World Ruler of Islam has so successfully joined with the spirit of Anti Christ in Europe that America is now the most hated country and George Bush in particular is now the number one most hated leader in Europe.

This, less than one generation after young Americans spilled blood to liberate our friends from the tyranny of Hitler's war machine. How can this happen? Again, it's called end time mind control. The manipulation and infection of the hearts and minds of people in mass through the mind molders. By the way, what is the number one thing Europeans most dislike about the President? His piety, they don't like the fact that he is a praying Christian!

Remember, Anti Christ is anti anointing. Europeans aren't against all prayer. They don't mind Muslims praying three times a day toward Mecca. This explains why a land where churches once dominated the landscape is now laced with golden domed Mosques dotting the horizon. This and the sudden rise of the European economy as their currency surpasses the U.S. dollar make all those who are afraid of being "Left Behind" nervous. But God has a plan- "Go into the entire world, all its systems, its mind molders and its Nations and infiltrate the world with My power and teaching. Don't run and don't hide.

Go through the door of globalization- world economics- and while it is yet day, while opportunity exists, penetrate these nations and systems with a demonstration of a belief system that has superior power and results. This is what Daniel did in Babylon and what Joseph did in Egypt. This is a large part of the reason why God is blowing on the marketplace message in this hour. This is a day where third world nations are asking for help, and developing nations are seeking to trade. The window is wide open to the church to impact the world. Opportunity is everywhere.

The anointing and the spirit of wisdom will give you access to people and places that will be altered by the covert and overt application of these commands. That's right- you can be covert! One friend of mine is transforming entire schools and businesses by applying certain key commandments to his client's lives and systems. They are not even aware of the degree to which their organizations are being aligned with the teachings of Christ. All they know is that it's working. In schools the students are getting better grades and discipline problems are on the decline. In business the people are starting to work like real teams and treating each other with respect. Companies are prospering. It works!

The 50 Commandments of Christ are the key to transforming your home, community and business. Memorize them. Meditate upon them. Ask the Holy Spirit for illumination on how to apply them to your life. Expect God to put His divine favor upon you. Favor takes you to the top of the mountains. Be full of the Holy Spirit and you will break the power of Mind Control off of every system you invade.

(Emphasis mine. Apologies for the huge quote, but it is needed in context.)

This is one of those rare areas you do get to see "Joel's Army, Unleaded". Namely, note the extensive demonisation of Europe and Europeans--this does play into "Joel's Army" endtime theology, most variants of which increasingly promote Europe as being (at best) a vassal state of Russia if not the home of the Antichrist itself. (The former is more common among groups that base their endtime theology more heavily on the "old" Scofield Reference Bible.) This is in turn tied to *other* conspiracy theories common in Joel's Army circles--namely, that Moslems and LGBT people are part of a vast Satanic conspiracy to undermine the US (which is seen as God's chosen nation along with Israel). Scott Lively's works, actively promoted by "Joel's Army" hategroup Watchmen At The Walls and many other Joel's Army groups, actively integrate this into a particularly nasty form of Holocaust revisionism in which some of the persons who were in fact victims of ha-Shoah are portrayed as its instigators...only with the word "Jew" replaced with "Homosexual".

The orders do tend to vary, but there are common references to "seven benchholds" or "seven mountains" or "seven spheres" in quite a lot of Joel's Army groups. The "seven points" are pretty much a common staple in describing essentially a plan for massive steeplejacking of what these groups see as the very foundations of human society.

Even Wallnau wasn't the ultimate originator of this. The term goes much deeper--at least one site critical of Joel's Army notes a possible derivation from a Coalition on Revival document--but the linkages are especially clear in regards to Joel's Army circles. Quite possibly the most damning of these is the fact that Wallnau's primary partner in promoting the "seven mountains" meme is none other than C. Peter Wagner--regarded, along with Rick Joyner and Rodney Howard-Browne, as one of the literal "founding fathers" of Joel's Army:

Lance Wallnau, who is now working with C. Peter Wagner on a global dominionism project using the motif of 7 mountains (or "spheres"), has proposed a strategy whereby-

"a very small minority of people. . . as small as 3-5% . . . can control how the agenda works in a nation and thus create or dominate the culture.

"He also makes a rather shocking statement....

"He says leaders of countries are not looking for Christian solutions to their cultural problems. But what they ARE looking for represents a *massive* time-sensitive opportunity for Christians to have a platform to impact and disciple entire countries of our world today." [Os Hillman, "Weekly Resource Offer," June 18]

Hillman turns out to be connected to a Joel's Army group called "Reclaim 7 Mountains". Per this site, two groups that have been consistently linked with Joel's Army theology--the Assemblies frontgroup Youth With A Mission and the "Assemblies conjoined twin" Campus Crusade for Christ--are credited with the idea and in fact Youth With A Mission may have been the ultimate originators based on an interview with YWAM founder Loren Cunningham, who (along with Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright) in turn plagairised it from TV preacher Dr. Francis Schaeffer back in 1975:

It was August, 1975. My family and I were up in a little cabin in Colorado. And the Lord had given me that day a list of things I had never thought about before. He said "This is the way to reach America and nations for God. And {He said}, "You have to see them like classrooms or like places that were already there, and go into them with those who are already working in those areas." And I call them "mind-molders" or "spheres". I got the word "spheres" from II Corinthians 10 where Paul speaks in the New American Standard about the "spheres" he had been called into. And with these spheres there were seven of them, and I'll get to those in a moment. But it was a little later that day, the ranger came up, and he said, "There is a phone call for you back at the ranger's station." So I went back down, about 7 miles, and took the call. It was a mutual friend who said, "Bill Bright and Vonnette are in Colorado at the same time as you are. Would you and Darlene come over and meet with them? They would love to meet with you." So we flew over to Boulder on a private plane of a friend of ours. And as we came in and greeted each other, {we were friends for quite a while}, and I was reaching for my yellow paper that I had written on the day before. And he said, "Loren, I want to show you what God has shown me!" And it was virtually the same list that God had given me the day before. Three weeks later, my wife Darlene had seen Dr. Francis Shaffer on TV and he had the same list! And so I realized that this was for the body of Christ.

I gave it for the first time in Hamburg, Germany at the big cathedral there to a group of hundreds of young people that had gathered at that time. And I said, "These are the areas that you can go into as missionaries. Here they are: First, it's the institution set up by God first, the family. After the family was church, or the people of God. The third was the area of school, or education. The fourth was media, public communication, in all forms, printed and electronic. The fifth was what I call "celebration", the arts, entertainment, and sports, where you celebrate within a culture. The sixth would be the whole area of the economy, which starts with innovations in science and technology, productivity, sales, and service. The whole area we often call it business but we leave out sometimes the scientific part, which actually raises the wealth of the world. Anything new, like making sand into chips for a microchip, that increases wealth in the world. And then of course prediction sales and service helps to spread the wealth. And so the last was the area of government. Now government, the Bible shows in Isaiah 33 verse 22 that there are three branches of government, so it's all of the three branches: judicial, legislative, and executive. And then there are subgroups under all of those seven groups. And there are literally thousands upon thousands of sub-groups. But those seven can be considered like Caleb: "Give me this mountain," and they can be a "mountain" to achieve for God.

There's some evidence Bright also plagairised from a secondary source--a neo-Calvinist Abraham Kuyper--indicating some of the more interesting influences in the Joel's Army movement outside of neopentecostalism.

In short, the concept of "Seven Mountains" is in fact quite possibly the ultimate extension of what has been termed "spiritual mapping" in Joel's Army circles. The earliest references I can find to this practice are in some Assemblies fronts (FGBMFI and Youth With A Mission) as well as quasi-front/"Assemblies daughter" Campus Crusade for Christ; the general concept is that these groups map out "spiritual strongholds of Satan" to focus "spiritual warfare" on.

The concept of "spiritual mapping" has led to some rather bizarre incidents. One of the more infamous examples of "spiritual mapping" in action was documented by Jeff Sharlet in his article Soldiers of Christ, originally appearing in Harper's:

So Pastor Ted did. First, he started a church in his basement. The pulpit was three five-gallon buckets stacked one atop the other, and the pews were lawn chairs. A man who lived in a trailer came round if he remembered it was Sunday and played guitar. Another man got the Spirit and filled a fivegallon garden sprayer with cooking oil and began anointing nearby intersections, then streets and buildings all over town. Pastor Ted told his flock to focus their prayers on houses with FOR SALE signs so that more Christians would come and join him. Once Pastor Ted and another missionary accidentally set off an alarm and hid together in a field while the police investigated. It was for a good cause, Pastor Ted would say; they were praying for the building to be taken off the market so it could someday be purchased for a future ministry. (It was.)

He was always on the lookout for spies. At the time, Colorado Springs was a small city split between the Air Force and the New Age, and the latter, Pastor Ted believed, worked for the devil. Pastor Ted soon began upsetting the devil's plans. He staked out gay bars, inviting men to come to his church; his whole congregation pitched itself into invisible battles with demonic forces, sometimes in front of public buildings.

Even in this American example, the bizarre shortly went to the frankly disturbing, crossing over in some aspects to frank harassment:

He moved the church to a strip mall. There was a bar, a liquor store, New Life Church, a massage parlor. His congregation spilled out and blocked the other businesses. He set up chairs in the alley. He strung up a banner: SIEGE THIS CITY FOR ME, signed JESUS. He assigned everyone in the church names from the phone book they were to pray for. He sent teams to pray in front of the homes of supposed witches—in one month, ten out of fifteen of his targets put their houses on the market. His congregation "prayer-walked" nearly every street of the city.

This was, of note, in addition to a claim by now-defrocked Ted Haggard that a "witch" had tried to assassinate him:

One day, while he was working in his garage, a woman who said she'd been sent by a witches' coven tried to stab Pastor Ted with a five-inch knife she pulled from a leg sheath; Pastor Ted wrestled the blade out of her hand. He let that story get around. He called the evil forces that dominated Colorado Springs—and every other metropolitan area in the country—"Control."

Such narratives, unfortunately, are not isolated. One of the more modern--and now distinctly more infamous--examples of this surrounds Thomas Muthee himself, who in the same speech claimed to have conducted a remarkably similar campaign of harassment of a traditional healer in his Kenyan home base including police harassment. Leaders of El Shaddai Church in Guatemala City--another church connected to not only Joel's Army but proteges of former junta leader (and genocide architect, and Verbo Ministries pastor) Gen. Rios Montt--have also issued almost identical calls for destruction of Guatemala's pre-Columbian heritage (especially disturbing, considering their connections with dominionist juntas where an estimated 200,000 Mayans died).

The main difference here is that the scale is bigger, in that the "seven mountains" in question are seen as seven pillars of society that must be conquered. Religious diversity and protections are seen as the enemy, as an article describing the links between El Shaddai and "Joel's Army" founding father C. Peter Wagner demonstrates:

"Christians in the global South are way ahead of us in this area," C. Peter Wagner, founder of Global Harvest Ministries and head of the International Coalition, told Charisma magazine. "The values of the kingdom of God should penetrate every level of society, and they understand that.... [Caballeros is] doing it right, going right to the top and taking dominion."

Wagner's Web site is loaded with standard right-wing political material, including attacks on church-state separation. Last year he called on followers to "Ask the Lord to remove the lie of 'Separation of Church and State' from this nation's governmental philosophy and from Believers' mindsets! There is no such language in the Constitution."

And the ultimate goal, in Joel's Army circles?

To quote Pinky and the Brain, "Try to take over the world".

And we discuss this in much more detail in tomorrow's post...as the implications are disturbing indeed.

Over the past few weeks, folks on the Internet have turned up an impressive amount of info re Sarah Palin's questionable judgements--including scandals involving the Alaska State Police (now known as "TrooperGate") and similar hijinks with the Wasilla PD, info re Palin trying to make rape victims pay for their own evidence collection kits (which led to the state stepping in), and Palin's disturbing connections with "Joel's Army" neopentecostal dominionists.

What has not been publicised so far is that the first two scandals have direct connections to the third--and, even worse, there's the most damning evidence yet that the very "Joel's Army" folks Palin is linked to may have been grooming her explicitly as a "stealth candidate".

Dominionist connections to TrooperGate

Most know about the questionable firing practices Palin did as Alaskan governor--what has not been widely publicised so far is that almost identical purges may have occured with the Wasilla PD--and in both cases due to the desire to get dominionist-friendly candidates in power.

Interestingly, it also appears that some of TrooperGate may have been related to dominionist connections of the replacement:

But Gov. Palin did not promote a socially conservative agenda during her first two years as governor and some Alaska right-wing commentators called her an economic liberal. Send us a sign, national fundamentalist Christian leaders seemingly said, that proves your credentials. In firing Monegan and hiring Kopp, Palin would have gained a controversial measure of revenge in a family dispute and established her standing as a Christian conservative politician.

Kenai City Police Chief Chuck Kopp was a rising star in Alaska's Christian conservative movement. He was a frequent speaker at local religious and patriotic gatherings. He was school board president of Cook Inlet Academy, the fundamentalist Christian high school in Soldotna his missionary-educator father founded. Kopp also was on the board of Port Alsworth's Tanailan Bible Camp, also founded by his father.

Through Samaritan's Place, Franklin Graham has been the chief benefactor of the Tanailan Bible Camp building and rebuilding a church and meeting hall and guest cabins. The evangelical scion of Alaska, Rev. Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple, is on Samaritan Purse's Board of Directors, so there's a clear connection between Graham, Prevo and Kopp.

Ah, yes, Samaritan's Purse. Frank Graham, alas, has been quite a bit more openly dominionist than his daddy Billy Graham; Samaritan's Purse itself is quite the nasty bit of work. In the latest rendition of the List of Good and Bad Charities, Samaritan's Purse gets its own dedicated section as to why they're listed as "bad guys":

Samaritan's Purse (Billy/Franklin Graham's charity group. Both Billy and Franklin Graham have been known to espouse dominionist statements in past, Franklin especially so. Per a report from someone who has sought employment with them. non-dominionists are not considered for employment and employees are required to have a reference from a pastor as well as a "testimonial of faith" on resumes for employment. Also is working with known dominionist group Traditional Values Coalition in promoting a "refugee adoption" scheme that requires statements of faith from both participating churches and refugees. Numerous reports of forced evangelism, in particular targeting children; a major part of Samaritan's Purse's operation in fact focuses on "convert or starve" targeting of children, including "sheep-stealing" from children who are attendees of mainstream Christian churches (extensive information in this Dark Christianity post--a full discussion would require a dedicated post on DailyKos). Frank Graham has been noted as promoting concept of Hurricane Katrina being God's retribution on New Orleans. Is known to have explicitly partnered with FGBMFI (an Assemblies of God frontgroup known infamously for interference in Latin American and US politics) in the FGBMFI's attempts to interfere in the inner affairs of nations on a worldwide basis. Has promoted Iraqi War and Israeli bombing of Hizbillah sites in Lebanon as "God softening the hearts" of Iraqis. Has promoted the attempted genocide of the Kurdish people (during Gulf War I) as a missionary opportunity. Maintains links to dominionist "parallel economy" alternatives to mainstream medicine (including the "Christian Medical and Dental Association", written about here.)

(Note to non-regular readers: FGBMFI is the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International, an Assemblies frontgroup which has worked at promotion of the neopente version of "Christian nationalism" for decades, particularly in Latin America. FGBMFI is intimately connected with the Iran-Contra Scandal (Oliver North is a regular speaker at FGBMFI events and FGBMFI itself was used as a funding-front for the Contras) as well as the genocidal regime of Gen. Efrain Rios Montt in Guatemala, and is also a major conduit for the spread of "Third Wave" theology (the basis of "Joel's Army" theology) via Paul Yonggi Cho.)

In fact, the info is so extensive as to why "Shepherd's Purse" is Bad News that there's pretty much a one-stop shop commentary on it on Dark Christianity--look through the comments.

It also appears that Palin herself has some connections to Graham, via the National Prayer Breakfast--a frontgroup of a secretive dominionist org called "The Fellowship" or "The Family" that increasingly has had links to neopente dominionists. Jeff Sharlet, a walkaway from "The Family", has written the definitive book on the subject; the article detailing the Samaritan's Purse/TrooperGate linkage gives some more info:

Palin's connection to what Jeff Sharlett has called "elite fundamentalism" is of interest now that she is an election and a heartbeat away from the presidency. Franklin Graham has been the keynote speaker for the Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast the past two years. According to their Web site, the organizers believe, "God directs the affairs of Man and is the ultimate authority over human events." The Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast is connected to the National Prayer Breakfast sponsored by The Fellowship Foundation, also known as "The Family," which espouses similar beliefs. The Family is headed by Doug Coe, one of the most influential evangelicals in Washington, D.C. Coe's group tends to operate behind the scenes organizing small cells attended by the power elite, mostly Republicans. George Bush was saved in such a cell while in Texas.

(This may in fact be some of the first confirmation of something I've speculated on before in this blog--the likelihood that George W. Bush is a member of a cell-church group and was thus recruited to at least some sympathies with neopentecostal dominionists.)

And the linkage still does not stop there. One of the groups trying to derail the investigation into TrooperGate is a dominionist legal group called Liberty Legal Institute:

On September 16th ABC News reported, "A group of Alaska Republican lawmakers, with the support of a Texas-based conservative legal group, has filed suit to stop the Alaska Legislature's "Troopergate" probe into Gov. Sarah Palin." The ABC coverage was not untypical of mainstream media coverage generally and is not being singled out for scrutiny.

This "Texas-based conservative legal group" is generally referred to as LLI (Liberty Legal Institute). Their website, which is very open and honest, may be found here.

To describe the LLI as a "conservative legal group" is like describing O. J. Simpson as a "well-dressed African-American". Both are true, as far as they go.

LLI describes themselves as, "a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in 1997 to protect religious freedoms and First Amendment rights for individuals, groups and churches." This self-description is from the front page of their website. The site also quickly makes clear that the First Amendment Rights they defend are those of the religious right. The banner of one page proudly displays this quote, "Group is the flip side to ACLU. [sic]" - Dallas Morning News

A quick click on the "Cases" tab reveals 14 cases under the headline of "Recent Cases". Briefly looking through the summaries, 11 are plainly related to religion. In the other three cases a connection to religion is unclear. One has to do with a high school student's political tee shirt, one has to do with a political contribution and one has to do with the wording on a town monument. All case were based in Texas.

LLI is in turn connected to one of the most secretive dominionist groups in existence, even moreso than the Council for National Policy--a group termed the Arlington Group, essentially a "who's who" of dominionist leaders of which very little public info is available.

It's worth taking some time to dig into LLI's leader--whose primary experience has been with the Rutherford Institute, another dominionist legal group:

Before founding Liberty Legal Institute, Mr. Shackelford was the Regional Coordinator for the Southwest and Mid-America regions of the Rutherford Institute (1993-1997) and the Director of Texas Rutherford (1989-1992). In addition, he has been sought out as an Advisor by the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives and serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas Law School teaching religious liberties (1994-present).

The Senior Attorneys aren't much better--and then there's the matter of their internship program with what amounts to the modern "big guns" of dominionist "parallel economy" alternatives to the ACLU et al:

Liberty Legal offers an internship program, in coordination with the Blackstone Fellowship and the Alliance Defense Fund, each summer that gives six of the top law students from across the country an opportunity to take action on current cases. Working in conjunction with our attorneys, the interns research and develop proposals on existing cases that attack our constitutional freedoms. Eventually, these men and women will become lawyers or judges and have a better understanding of constitutional freedoms and laws. The investment we make in their lives advances their leadership and commitment to making a difference.

Yes, this *would* in fact be the same Alliance Defense Fund that is encouraging dominionist churches to explicitly violate laws against electioneering from the pulpit in hopes of making a federal case out of it.

RapeKit-Gate and its connections with Palin's anti-abortion politicking

And the article also gives some tantalising info to suggest that the now-infamous info regarding Palin's refusal to allow Wasilla's government to pay for "rape kits" was also directly related to dominionism:

5. The LLI wants to pervert justice to perpetuate the strongest anti-abortion candidate ever. A candidate bold enough to strike rape kits from her city's budget because they contain emergency contraception (the equivalent to a "morning after pill").

And yes, more evidence is pointing to exactly *that* as the problem that Palin had. As I've noted before, many dominionists use a definition of the start of pregnancy that is *not* widely accepted in the medical community--defining pregnancy as beginning at conception rather than implantation. (Yes, those of you who had sex, had eggs meet sperm, but never implant are abortionists according to these folks.)

A claim that pregnancy starts at conception also allows these groups to claim, via some *very* interesting mental gymnastics, that practically all birth control outside of "natural" family planning is potentially abortifacient--even barrier methods (because they typically require the use of spermicide). And yes, this is one reason why increasingly dominionists are targeting pharmacies for infiltration.

And as it turns out, one of the "pro-life" groups Palin is connected to--the misnamed "Feminists for Life"--admits to promoting this bogosity. In fact, there's quite a bit of dogwhistling in their "Pro Life Answers" that they do in fact oppose hormonal contraception:

What about contraception?

Since FFL's mission is based on life beginning at conception, there is no FFL policy on contraception except when it presents a threat to a woman's health. Some FFL members support the use of contraception as long as there is no abortifacient effect, while others oppose it. Some oppose all or some forms of contraception for health reasons, others for religious reasons; others prefer natural methods to plan a
family; and still others want to incorporate new medical technologies that track a woman's fertility to be used in conjunction with natural family planning methods. FFL's mission begins at conception, not before.

And now, the explanaition.

Typically in dominionist literature, non-"natural family planning" methods are condemned as potentially abortifacient. "The Pill" and Plan B are claimed to prevent implantation (thus causing "abortion") as is the IUD; nonoxynol-9 and other spermicides commonly used in barrier methods (such as condoms and diaphragms) are claimed to be "uterine irritants" and thus potentially causing failure of implantation (and "abortions").

Did I mention that there are some very interesting mental gymnastics these groups go through?

It gets worse. It would appear that when Palin became the mayor of Wasilla, she was actively engaging in "clinic blocking" and a dominionist attempt to steeplejack the main community hospital serving Wasilla:

Soon after the book controversy, Bess found himself again at odds with Palin and her fellow evangelicals. In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.

At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.

And yes, the same Wasilla PD that charged people for their rape kits...is also the same Wasilla PD that may be extensively infiltrated by Wasilla A/G to such an extent that critics are afraid to speak out in literal fear of their lives.

Yes, this *would* in fact be the same Wasilla A/G that Palin has kept a relationship with even after claiming she left in 2002--and the same Wasilla A/G that led not only the protest against the clinic providing abortion services but book-ban initiatives--including attempts to go around the existing book-challenge policy of Wasilla Public Library..

In fact, there's evidence to suggest that the policy began shortly after the purge of Chief Stambaugh and the replacement by Chief Fannon...

...thereby linking TrooperGate (or, more properly, CopGate in general--there seem to be different incidents both on the state and town level), RapeKitGate...and the ever-growing "Joel's Army-Gate" Palin is hip-deep in.

Oh, and speaking of "Joel's Army-Gate"...that, *too*, has gotten more interesting with some truly damning info indicating Palin was explicitly promoted by none other than Thomas Muthee (whom we just wrote about) as being a dominionist stealth candidate as early as 2005.

New info re Palin and her "exorcist" friend...and her stealth candidacy

Just two days after writing about Muthee (who is connected with a Kenyan Joel's Army church literally linked to running a woman out of town--and who is part of a large and relatively unknown humanitarian crisis where literally thousands of children have been forced out of their homes as "witches" in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in what amounts to a massive "deliverance ministry"-based renewal of the Burning Times), some disturbing new info has come out re Muthee and his relationship with Palin.

Specifically, Irregular Times has come out with some very interesting new info that should give the most damning info yet regarding Palin's status as a Joel's Army "Manchurian Candidate".

Firstly, there's some new info regarding some of Muthee's sermons, including statements that not only pretty officially prove he's "Joel's Army" but also prove the lie to official "condemnations" of Joel's Army/Third Wave theology in the Assemblies--suggesting it's been rebranded, rather than truly condemned.

Specifically, it appears Thomas Muthee has dropped something I have only heard in Joel's Army circles because only two known English-language Bible versions use it--specifically, a very specific "God Warrior reveille" based on a mistranslation of Matthew 11:12 popular in Joel's Army circles. Per an archive originally coming from Kingsgate Community Church (KCC is a Joel's Army church with close connections with other neopente dominionist churches in the US and UK, and the term "community church" is commonly associated in the UK with neopente dominionist orgs), Muthee explicitly calls for holy war, "Joel's Army" style, at 23:30 in the recording:

The violent take it by force. People that have spiritual backbones are the ones that are going to advance. They are the ones that will move forward.

I thank God for what I see happening in this place. I thank God for the vision, the passion that I can see here. And my word is this: the more violent you become, the more committed you become, the quicker you will see things happen in this region.

Of note, this is a dead giveaway we're dealing with yet more Joel's Army nastiness. This particular phrasing is based on a specific misinterpretation of Matthew 11:12 that only occurs in the New International Version and "God's Word" Bibles--both "modern English" versions commonly used in Joel's Army circles. The phrasing in particular hints at the NIV version being used--itself the basis of a specific pro-"Joel's Army" reference Bible now being used as the official reference Bible by the Assemblies of God and other neopente groups.

For those not familiar with this misinterpretation, and its use in "Joel's Army" circles, a minor explanation is needed. In most versions of the Bible including the KJV, NASB and RSV, Matthew 11:12 is worded something like this:

RSV version, Matthew 11:12:

12. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.

KJV version, Matthew 11:12:

12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

NASB version, Matthew 11:12:

12. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

Literally every Bible version commonly used with the exception of three versions uses similar wording--denoting Heaven itself being under attack by violent men. Even the "old" Scofield Reference Bible--the source of much of neopente dominionist theology and internal mythology--sticks with this interpretation:

[2] suffereth violence

It has been much disputed whether the "violence" here is external, as against the kingdom in the persons of John the Baptist and Jesus; or that, considering the opposition of the scribes and Pharisees, only the violently resolute would press into it. Both things are true. The King and His herald suffered violence, and this is the primary and greater meaning, but also, some were resolutely becoming disciples. CF Lk 16:16.

The major outlier ("God's Word" and the International Standard Version are relatively unknown outliers, and even the ISV mentions specifically Heaven being attacked) is the text in the NIV, which is practically opposite of literally every other known English-language Bible version with the exception of one other very obscure Bible translation used primarily in neopente dominionist circles:

NIV version, Matthew 11:12:

12. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

Literally nobody but a solitary, obscure translation uses this wording--they either use wording like in the RSV (heaven being attacked, and violent men trying to storm their way into heaven) or wording similar to the ISV (talking of the forces of Heaven advancing, but being under assault by violent men). (The NIRV, essentially a more modern redux of the NIV, also has this odd translation; even one of the "daughter translations" of the NIV, the TINV, doesn't agree with it.)

And guess what is the most common translation used in "Joel's Army" circles? If you guessed "NIV", you win the jackpot. And much of that popularity, unfortunately, *is* due to the decidedly *unique* translation of Matthew 11:12--"Joel's Army" groups like to use that misinterpretation as a call for "God Warriors" to target people for explicit harassment and worse.

And it gets worse. Per this video (warning: potentially triggering to ex-neopente walkaways) and the transcript at Irregular Times, Muthee pretty much explicitly calls Palin out as a member of Joel's Army, God Warrior SEALS Division:

In a moment, I'll be asking you that we pray for Sarah, and I'll tell you the reason why. When we talk about transformation of a community, we are talking about God invading seven areas in our society. Let me repeat that one more time. When we talk about transformation of a society, a community, it's where we see God's Kingdom infiltrate, influence seven areas in our society.

. . .

So we go to the third area, it's in the area of politics. Tell your neighbor, "politics." Do you know what I discovered? This is funny. The people who actually split churches, they have the gift of politics, but they are exercising it in the wrong place. That's what I came to know. There are people who are wired to politics because God wants to take the political, you know, dimension of our societies. And those people should be prayed for. That's why I was, you know, I was so glad to see Sarah here. We should pray for her, we should back her up. And, you know, come the day of voting, we should be there, not just praying, we should be there. And I'm saying this because that's what I'm telling our church. I'm telling them that we need this in Parliament. In here is what you call Congressmen, you know, you know, the, the Governors, we need the bretheren right inside there. Is anybody hearing me?

You know, because who will change the laws of the lands? The problem is do we just pray, but we do nothing about it. If the believers had not done something in this country, your president would not be in office today. Yes or no? Am I right?

. . .

And the last area is in the area of government. Hello? We need believers there. We need men and women of integrity. You know, as the Secretaries of State. We need them right there. People that are born again, spirit filled, people who know God, and people who are serious with God.

So in a moment if you do not mind, I'll ask, you know, even before I go to do this thing, you know, I'll ask Sarah, would you mind to come please? Would you mind? Come, please. Let's all stand up, and let's hold hands all over this house. Come, Pastor, come.

[Sarah Palin comes to the stage in front of the congregation. Sarah Palin bows her head stretches her forearms forward and places the palms of her hands upward. Thomas Muthee lays hands on Sarah Palin's head. Pastor Ed Kalnin and unidentifed man lay hands on Sarah Palin's shoulders.]

Thank you, Jesus. Let's all pray. Let's pray for Sarah. Hallelujah! Come on, hold your hands up and raise them. Hold them and raise them up here! Come on, talk to God about this woman! Come on, talk to God about this woman we declare favor from today. We say favor, favor, favor! We say praise my God! We say grace to be rained upon her in the name of Jesus. My God, you make your judgement, you make room. You make ways in the desert, and I'm asking you today, we are asking you as the body of Christ in this valley, make a way for Sarah, even in the [inaudible]. Make her way my God. Bring finances her way, even in the campaign in the name of Jesus, and above all give her the personnel, give her men and women that will back her up in the name of Jesus. We want righteousness in this state. We want righteousness in this nation. Because you say [inaudible] in the name of Jesus. Our Father, use her to turn this nation the other way around. Use her to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers so that the curse that has been there long can be broken. In the name of Jesus. Father, we thank you today. We come in the hindrance of the enemy, standing in her way to there. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus! Every form of witchcraft, it will be rebuked in the name of Jesus. Father, make her way now. In Jesus' name, Amen.

(Emphasis mine; note the reference to national and generational curses near the end. I would recommend wide archival and distribution of the video (as Wasilla A/G will almost inevitably try to get it pulled from Youtube via bogus "inappropriate content" claims, similar to how Bruce Wilson's videos on Wasilla A/G and Juneau Christian Center have been targeted) and for folks to read the whole transcript--it is a very rare look at what kinds of sermons are done in Joel's Army churches internally, and pretty much lays out the "fifty-year plan" of neopente dominionist nationalism. A diary at Philip Munger's DailyKos account gives a bit more explanation re the video.)

It's worth noting that there's also a very subtle coded message here. Seven specific spheres of influence are noted, typically referred to as seven mountains in Joel's Army-speak, and researcher Bruce Wilson has video of Joel's Army promoter Lance Wallnau going on about this.

Those "seven mountains" are the exact spheres that Muthee is talking about neopente dominionists targeting, per the first link:

What are the Seven Mountains?

The seven mountains are seven spheres of influence that make up the mind molders that control Nations. He who occupies these mountains controls the harvest. As Satan gains power over these mountains he increases his capacity for "Mind Control." That's the spiritual force that inclines whole people groups to think along the same pathway. It is the phenomenon that explains sudden trends in fashion or music. It works to turn whole continents against each other and will be used to facilitate global wars. Mind Control will increase as the Last Days speeds toward a conclusion.

Here are the Seven Mountains or Mind Molders:

1. Spirituality and Church
2. Family
3. Education
4. Government and Law
5. Media and Communication
6. Arts and Entertainment
7. Business and Finance

The rest of the link is quite a bit of distilled Joel's Army crazy in and of itself. Per the link, LGBT people are in a conspiracy to control the media and to destroy families by taking over the "Media" and "Family" "mountains"; Europe is apparently in a major conspiracy with Islam to take over government and finances; and apparently everyone is pissed at George W. Bush because he's a "praying president" rather than the fact he's a reverse Midas. It reads like a twisted version of the game "Illuminati" and would be hilarious if they weren't so serious.

Writer "Ruth" on Talk to Action notes how Joel's Army promoters are essentially the "extreme of the extreme" and how they aren't content to wait for Rapture--and may be even *more* dangerous than the Christian Reconstructionists most folks are familiar with:

While Pentecostal churches have always celebrated a restoration of the church, this has been tempered with Rapture theology. As churches embrace this Apostolic revolution they are moving away from the traditions of Assemblies of God and other denominations and are adopting a view of the end time that includes the triumph and perfection of the church as opposed to escaping in the Rapture from an evil world descending into the apocalypse. They see the imminent end times as a time of great glory for the restored true Apostolic church greater than the one of New Testament times, and a time when the foot soldiers of this church will be imparted with supernatural powers. This outpouring of powers will allow them to crush evil with a "rod of iron" and deliver a purified church to Jesus when he returns. Their schedule is even more pressing than many in other Dominionist groups because their hybrid mixture of end time beliefs maintains the urgency of an imminent return of Jesus. The writer whose title I borrowed for this article states, "This growing army of delivered, discipled and deployed Christians are now prepared to become active participants in the cosmic battle for every area of God's terra-firma."
. . .
Regardless of how the end time narrative is altered to allow for this triumphant army of God, these warriors believe they have a mandate to take control of all earthly spheres. They teach that Jesus is waiting for humans to accomplish this task before coming to meet his Bride, the purified and perfected church. This purification of the church will take place through a restructuring of Christendom under the Fivefold ministry. This means a revamping of the governments of the church and the earth primarily under the authority of Apostles and Prophets who are anointed by God as defined by the anointed belivers in the movement.
. . .
Ed Kalnins of Wasilla Assembly of God is actively preaching and teaching theology which comes directly from the leadership of the New Apostolic Reformation/Third Wave. Kalnins has stated in sermons his desire that his church be Apostolic. This is Kingdom theology and Kalnins is quite open and blatant about the need for his church to take control for the Kingdom, starting with Wasilla and Alaska.

While it is very true that Palin's churches may officially still retain mention of the Rapture in some form, there is absolutely nothing in these sermons, associations and activities to indicate that they are waiting around to be snatched from the earth. Conversely, they are intent on taking control of society and government in the here and now.

And there's quite a bit of spin--and intimidation--being brought against critics. Along with the expected astroturfing, writer Max Blumenthal reports his own experiences at Wasilla A/G where he describes the damage control being done by the church:

Since Palin was nominated as vice president, Wasilla Assembly of God has taken a draconian line with reporters. The church now forbids members of the media from filming, taking notes, or bringing voice recorders to its services. I was able to record Muthee's recent sermons only by deploying an array of tiny cameras and hidden microphones. Though the quality and comprehensiveness of my footage was severely compromised by the church's closed door policy to the press, I was not going to be deterred.

By the end of the second day of Muthee's sermons, the church had been tipped off about me, the liberal media member in its midst. An associate pastor told me he had received an email from an anonymous source warning him about me. When I tried to interview members of the congregation in the church parking lot, my questions were either met with silence or open hostility. I strongly suspect the McCain campaign has mobilized the Wasilla Assembly of God against perceived threats from the media.

But they hardly needed encouragement. On the first night of services, Muthee implored his audience to wage "spiritual warfare" against "the enemy." As I filmed, a nervous church staffer approached from behind and told me to put my camera away. I acceded to his demand, but as Muthee urged the church to crush "the python spirit" of the unbeliever enemies by stomping on their necks, I pulled out a smaller camera and filmed from a more discreet position. Now, church members were in deep prayer, speaking in tongues and raising their hands. Muthee exclaimed, "We come against the spirit of witchcraft! We come against the python spirits!" Then, a local pastor took the mic from Muthee and added, "We stomp on the heads of the enemy!"

And this is--in a word--quite possibly the most damning evidence of something I noted in my original post--Palin may well have been groomed from the start of her political career as the Great White Hope for "Joel's Army" to get one of their own in the White House.

And this could be, in a word, a very bad thing for children and other living beings--even if the fact dominionists are doing imprecatory prayers for McCain's death should he be elected President isn't considered.

A few days ago, I had reported on Palin's linkages to "Bible-based cult" promoter Bill Gothard...and, sadly, followup info proves that this may be far from her only links to religiously motivated abuse.

It turns out that Palin--and Wasilla A/G--are intimately connected with "Joel's Army" promoters directly responsible for not only harassment of critics, but also a little-reported and growing humanitarian crisis in sub-Saharan Africa: namely, the growth of "Joel's Army" "exorcists" and people--including young children--fleeing for their lives from a literal "God Warrior" progrom.

Palin's links to Thomas Muthee, Witchfinder General

I have written in past re Palin's connections with "Joel's Army" promoters of deliverance ministry--a concept in neopente dominionist circles, including in the Assemblies of God, that anything and anyone outside the group can be demonised or "open doorways to Satan" in exactly the same way that Scientologists refer to "body thetans", "suppressive persons", and "enturbulation".

The past few days have been spent on gathering some of the most damning and disturbing info on this yet--namely, Palin's linkages to Thomas Muthee, head pastor of the neopente dominionist Word of Faith Church of Nairobi, Kenya.

And, per posts in the Wild Hunt Blog (a neopagan site that also has a major watchdog project focusing on promoters of "deliverance ministry") has noted based on Bruce Wilson's initial expose of Wasilla A/G, this includes a frank endorsement from Muthee:

As for Palin herself, she spoke approvingly of being personally prayed over by Thomas Muthee just before winning governorship of Alaska. Muthee is a popular figure among Third Wavers for driving out the "spirit of witchcraft" that resided in Kiambu, Kenya.

"He and his wife committed to six months of prayer with various types of fasting before ever entering Kiambu. Their goal in prayer and fasting was to ask God to reveal the name of the demonic principality ruling over Kiambu and keeping the city under such oppression. God revealed through a vision that a spirit of witchcraft was the ruling principality there and that a number of other demonic spirits were functioning under the headship of witchcraft. An effective strategy for conquest would be to topple the spirit of witchcraft first and thus bring the coalition of evil spirits into disarray and drive them from the city."

An article in the Times Online gives more info:

In video footage of the speech, she is seen saying: "As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold. And he was praying "Lord make a way, Lord make a way."

"And I'm thinking, this guy's really bold, he doesn't even know what I'm going to do, he doesn't know what my plans are. And he's praying not "oh Lord if it be your will may she become governor," no, he just prayed for it. He said "Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that's exactly what happened."

She then adds: "So, again, very very powerful, coming from this church," before the presiding pastor comments on the "prophetic power" of the event.

This is disturbing on multiple levels.

For starters, Muthee is a rising star in "Joel's Army" circles--especially being promoted as being a God Warrior in Darkest Africa. For seconds, as Bruce Wilson noted, it appears he was a regular at a Joel's Army revival at Wasilla A/G during the exact period Palin was running for governor--and proving even more of a lie to her statement to have quit the church:

Mike Rose, senior pastor of Juneau Christian Center has a long relationship with Rodney Howard-Browne, credited with being the instigator of the outbreak of 'Holy Laughter' around the world, including the Toronto Airport Revival. Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005. As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee 'prayed over' Sarah Palin and entreated God to "make a way" prior to Palin's successful bid for the Alaska governorship. Muthee made a return visit to the Wasilla Assembly of God in late 2008. Thomas Muthee's Word of Faith Church is featured in the "Transformations" video which details an account on how Muthee drove "the spirit of witchcraft" out of Kiambu, Kenya, liberating the town from its territorial demonic possession and enabling a miraculous societal transformation. The "Transformations" video set is used as an argument for social improvement through spiritual instead of human means, and as the best method for fighting corruption, crime, drugs and even environmental degradation.

Bruce Wilson has the video up of the conference (and I would encourage wide mirroring, as there is apparently an astroturf campaign by Wasilla A/G to get the vids yanked from YouTube) and extensive documentation of the Joel's Army/Third Wave linkages of all of the neopente dominionist churches she's attended--for those who aren't easily triggered, it's worth a look just to get a good gander on the "private face" of Joel's Army".

Oh, as for that "method" of purification? It involves something that most people thought was dead with Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General...but which still has a very dark and terrible life in neopente dominionist circles.

Namely, this involves literal calls to round up suspected "witches".

A look into a neopente dominionist witch-hunt

Bruce Wilson's article notes:

In the video, producer George Otis declares that after Thomas Muthee and his followers banished the "spirit of witchcraft" from the town, the crime rate in Kiambu dropped almost to zero, along with the rate of alcoholism, and according to Otis most of the residents of the town joined churches. The "Transformations" video has helped spark a network of 'Transformation' ministries and mission organizations and 'transformation' has become a buzz word for change based on supernatural instead of human efforts.

Unfortunately not noted is pretty much how most of the people were convinced to convert.

There are now multiple YouTube videos up discussing the matter, but it would appear (based on multiple reports) that this involved a coordinated campaign of harassment of the likes not seen since the days of the Salem Witch Trials of the execution of Jeane Panne in Belgium in the 1600s:

Sarah Palin has been linked to a witch hunt. No, not a figurative witch hunt, the kind in which people are made to feel pressured and discriminated against. I'm talking about a real witch hunt, in which a woman is accused of witchcraft by someone seeking political power, and the woman is forced to flee her home in fear of her life.

That's what one of Sarah Palin's favorite preachers, Pastor Thomas Muthee, has done.

sarah palin thomas muthee witch hunt video podcastMuthee wanted to get control over the town of Kiambu, Kenya - a place just outside of Nairobi. Not content to set up a church and slowly gain the trust of the local inhabitants, Muthee decided to get publicity and gain political power through a piece of cruel theater.

Muthee chose a local woman named Mama Jane who happened to work as a fortune teller. Mama Jane had never caused much trouble before, but she was an important target for Muthee, because she was a close associate of town's leaders. Muthee accused Mama Jane of being a sorceress - a witch who was engaging in spiritual warfare to curse to town of Kiambu.

Muthee's proof of Mama Jane's witchcraft? There had been three car accidents in the neighborhood of the clinic where Mama Jane worked. That, said Muthee, was sure evidence that Mamma Jane was a witch. So, Muthee got the local population in a panic, and sent three police officers into Mamma Jane's. They fired their guns, killing one of Mama Jane's pets.

Then, they arrested Mama Jane and threw her into jail. Muthee made his demand: "Mama Jane either gets saved and serves the Lord or she leaves town!"

Yes, you are reading this right--a woman was targeted simply for being a fortune teller, recruited the local cops, and arrested her simply for refusing to convert to "Joel's Army" spirituality.

An article in the Christian Science Monitor dating from 1999, and discussing the "Joel's Army" practice of "spiritual mapping"--that is, systematically mapping out which areas are supposedly "demonised" and targeting them for "spiritual warfare"--goes into more detail on Muthee's purge and the targeting of Mamma Jane:

In 1988, he and his wife, Margaret, were "called by God to Kiambu," a notorious, violence-ridden suburb of Nairobi and a "ministry graveyard" for churches for years. They began six months of fervent prayer and research.

Pondering the message of Eph.6:12 ("For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world..."), they prayed to identify the source of Kiambu's spiritual oppression, Mr. Muthee says. Their answer: the spirit of witchcraft.

Their research into the community revealed that a woman called "Mama Jane" ran a "divination clinic" frequented by the town's most powerful people.

After months of prayer, Muthee held a crusade that "brought about 200 people to Christ." Their church in the basement of a grocery store was dubbed "The Prayer Cave," as members set up round-the-clock intercession. Mama Jane counterattacked, he says, but eventually "the demonic influence - the 'principality' over Kiambu - was broken," and she left town.

Not so much discussed is what tends to happen in these meetings--typically what goes on are literal imprecatory prayers against "targets", that they either convert--or be forced to leave or die.

Ironically, it's a Joel's Army site promoting Muthee that goes into detail on the harassment of Mama Jane--and on tactics used:

Pastor Muthee said, "When we began to recognize who - or what - Mama Jane really was, my wife Margaret and I set ourselves to pray. Our aim was to break the power of witchcraft over the town -- a power that was preventing people from turning to the Lord. It was a struggle that involved much groaning in our spirits. In time, however, we felt the burden lift. The dark cloud we had seen covering the town drifted away, and we felt supernatural joy inside. We knew things were going to change.
. . .
"Our services became very oppressed. People would try to sing, but they just couldn't." Praying 24 hours a day, Thomas Muthee and his members did what they could to counteract the demonic attacks. But the power of evil invaded the church to the point that they could hardly pray. One day it got so bad they started a worship song and were never able to finish it! They went outside and found the remains of fresh sacrifices and rituals left behind by Momma Jane.

"Finally we decided we had had enough. The whole congregation raised their hands towards the Emmanuel Clinic. We asked God to either save this woman or remove her from Kiambu.
. . .
In plain terms, Thomas Muthee challenged Momma Jane to a power encounter, much as Elijah challenged the priests of Baal.

By now word had spread to the city officials that Momma Jane did not seem to have the power she once had. Her clients were embarrassing her by openly burning fetishes and renouncing curses. Some began pointing out that it could be no coincidence that her clinic was right next to the area where the serious accidents were occurring. "

Pastor Muthee continued, "Do you know what happened? A few days later, three children were killed outside her clinic. The people were furious because they suspected that Mama Jane's witchcraft was linked to the accident. Some were clamoring that she be stoned. When the police were called in to quell the uprising, they found one of the largest pythons they had ever seen in one of the clinic rooms. Startled, the officers drew their weapons and shot
it. That promptly ended the spiritual battle. Mama Jane was questioned by the police, releases, and moved to another town. Interesting, the same `bloodless accidents began happening there. [This was about 1992.] "We have not had a single accident since. In fact, since that woman moved out of Kiambu, the entire atmosphere has changed. Whereas people used to be afraid to go out at night, now we enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in Kenya.

The Times Online article also reveals some choice info on the specific forms of harassment:

According to accounts of the witchhunt circulated on evangelical websites such as Prayer Links Ministries, after Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned. Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python which they believed to be a demon.

And some of the most damning info is also at another Joel's Army site--largely a repeat of the first site, but also talking about specific organisation of not just prayer-gangs but targeted recruitment of officials to harass Mama Jane.

Sadly, incidents like this are part of a growing humanitarian crisis, especially in Nigeria and Kenya. And--even more tragic--often the targets are the youngest of all.

Bringing a terrible new meaning to "suffer the children"

Neopentecostal dominionism has grown explosively in sub-Saharan Africa, partly due to extremely aggressive targeting of the region by neopentecostal dominionists starting in the 1940s and partly because one of the main conduits of promotion has been "word-faith theology"--the same "name it and claim it" that Creflo Dollar et al promote on TBN and other dominionist networks. (Ironically, they are targeted much for the same reason Jewish people are targeted for conversion--many neopente dominionist end-time scenarios explicitly call for communities of "God Warriors" to be established in every nation and/or ethnic group before Jesus can come back and Rapture the lot of them off.)

And with "name it and claim it" tends to come "deliverance ministry"...and in Africa, "deliverance ministry" tends to breed "God Warrior" progroms, some of which even manage to put the actions of neopente dominionist hate-group "Watchmen At The Walls" to shame.

One example is with the destruction of traditional places of worship:

Born to a family of traditional priests, Ibe Nwigwe converted to Christianity as a boy. Under the sway of born-again fervor as a man, he gathered the paraphernalia of ancestral worship — a centuries-old stool, a metal staff with a wooden handle and the carved figure of a god — and burned them as his pastor watched.

"I had experienced a series of misfortunes and my pastor told me it was because I had not completely broken the covenant with my ancestral idols," the 52-year-old Nwigwe said of the bonfire three years ago. "Now that I have done that, I hope I will be truly liberated."

In addition, it's not just the recently converted burning this stuff, but apparently temples are actually being raided for the African equivalent of Assemblies-style book burnings:

As poverty deepened in Nigeria from the mid-1980s, Pentecostal Christian church membership surged. The new faithful found comfort in preachers like evangelist Uma Ukpai who promised material success was next to godliness. He has boasted of overseeing the destruction of more than 100 shrines in one district in December 2005 alone.

Achina is typical of towns and villages in the ethnic Igbo-dominated Christian belt of southeastern Nigeria where this new Christian fundamentalism is evident. The old gods are being linked to the devil, and preachers are urging not only their rejection, but their destruction.

The Ezeokolo, the main shrine of Achina — a community of mainly farmers and traders in Nigeria's rain forest belt — has been repeatedly looted of its carved god figures. While no one has been caught, suspects range from people acting on Christian impulses to treasure thieves.

Recently, a village civic association volunteered to build a house to keep burglars away from a giant wooden gong decorated with carved male, female and snake figures. The gong in the market square is reputed to be more than 400 years old, and in decades past was sounded in times of emergency.

"We feared it may be stolen or destroyed like so many of our traditional cultural symbols," said Chuma Ezenwa, a Lagos-based lawyer.

And then there are those who bring a new, and all-too-often deadly, meaning to Christ's impunction to "suffer the children".

. . .

Little reported in the US press, but more reported overseas in the UK, is the growing crisis of not only traditional healers and traditional faith communities being targeted for harassment but the crisis of ndoki orphans...children who are literally forced to flee their homes for their lives due to being targeted as "witches" in neopentecostal dominionist "revivals" in even more horrific manner than Mama Jane:

The rainy season is over and the Niger Delta is lush and humid. This southern edge of West Africa, where Nigeria's wealth pumps out of oil and gas fields to bypass millions of its poorest people, is a restless place. In the small delta state of Akwa Ibom, the tension and the poverty has delivered an opportunity for a new and terrible phenomenon that is leading to the abuse and the murder of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children. And it is being done in the name of Christianity.

Almost everyone goes to church here. Driving through the town of Esit Eket, the rust-streaked signs, tarpaulins hung between trees and posters on boulders, advertise a church for every third or fourth house along the road. Such names as New Testament Assembly, Church of God Mission, Mount Zion Gospel, Glory of God, Brotherhood of the Cross, Redeemed, Apostalistic. Behind the smartly painted doors pastors make a living by 'deliverances' - exorcisms - for people beset by witchcraft, something seen to cause anything from divorce, disease, accidents or job losses. With so many churches it's a competitive market, but by local standards a lucrative one.

But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.

Some parents scrape together sums needed to pay for a deliverance - sometimes as much as three or four months' salary for the average working man - although the pastor will explain that the witch might return and a second deliverance will be needed. Even if the parent wants to keep the child, their neighbours may attack it in the street.

This is not just a few cases. This is becoming commonplace. In Esit Eket, up a nameless, puddled-and-potholed path is a concrete shack stuffed to its fetid rafters with roughly made bunk beds. Here, three to a bed like battery chickens, sleep victims of the besuited Christian pastors and their hours-long, late-night services. Ostracised and abandoned, these are the children a whole community believes fervently are witches.

If anything, the practices are essentially the same thing that goes on at neopente "deliverance" services here with an African twist--and have, disturbingly, had the power at times of an entire village and neopente preachers who launch essentially "Joel's Army" fatwas against infants in some cases:

Mary Sudnad, 10, grimaces as her hair is pulled into corn rows by Agnes, 11, but the scalp just above her forehead is bald and blistered. Mary tells her story fast, in staccato, staring fixedly at the ground.

'My youngest brother died. The pastor told my mother it was because I was a witch. Three men came to my house. I didn't know these men. My mother left the house. Left these men. They beat me.' She pushes her fists under her chin to show how her father lay, stretched out on his stomach on the floor of their hut, watching. After the beating there was a trip to the church for 'a deliverance'.

A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat. If that didn't kill her, her mother warned her, then it would be a barbed-wire hanging. Finally her mother threw boiling water and caustic soda over her head and body, and her father dumped his screaming daughter in a field. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she stayed near the house for a long time before finally slinking off into the bush.Mary was seven. She says she still doesn't feel safe. She says: 'My mother doesn't love me.' And, finally, a tear streaks down her beautiful face.

Gerry was picked out by a 'prophetess' at a prayer night and named as a witch. His mother cursed him, his father siphoned petrol from his motorbike tank and spat it over his eight-year-old face. Gerry's facial blistering is as visible as the trauma in his dull eyes. He asks every adult he sees if they will take him home to his parents: 'It's not them, it's the prophetess, I am scared of her.'

Nwaeka is about 16. She sits by herself in the mud, her eyes rolling, scratching at her stick-thin arms. The other children are surprisingly patient with her. The wound on her head where a nail was driven in looks to be healing well. Nine- year-old Etido had nails, too, five of them across the crown of his downy head. Its hard to tell what damage has been done. Udo, now 12, was beaten and abandoned by his mother. He nearly lost his arm after villagers, finding him foraging for food by the roadside, saw him as a witch and hacked at him with machetes.

Magrose is seven. Her mother dug a pit in the wood and tried to bury her alive. Michael was found by a farmer clearing a ditch, starving and unable to stand on legs that had been flogged raw.

Ekemini Abia has the look of someone in a deep state of shock. Both ankles are circled with gruesome wounds and she moves at a painful hobble. Named as a witch, her father and elders from the church tied her to a tree, the rope cutting her to the bone, and left the 13-year-old there alone for more than a week.

There are sibling groups such as Prince, four, and Rita, nine. Rita told her mum she had dreamt of a lovely party where there was lots to eat and to drink. The belief is that a witch flies away to the coven at night while the body sleeps, so Rita's sweet dream was proof enough: she was a witch and because she had shared food with her sibling - the way witchcraft is spread - both were abandoned. Victoria, cheeky and funny, aged four, and her seven-year-old sister Helen, a serene little girl. Left by their parents in the shell of an old shack, the girls didn't dare move from where they had been abandoned and ate leaves and grass.

The youngest here is a baby. The older girls take it in turn to sling her on their skinny hips and Ikpe-Itauma has named her Amelia, after his grandmother. He estimates around 5,000 children have been abandoned in this area since 1998 and says many bodies have turned up in the rivers or in the forest. Many more are never found. 'The more children the pastor declares witches, the more famous he gets and the more money he can make,' he says. 'The parents are asked for so much money that they will pay in instalments or perhaps sell their property. This is not what churches should be doing.'

5000 kids abandoned--a conservative estimate--in *one* area of Nigeria yearly. The problem of "ndoki orphans" is prevalent throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa--Kenya is a hotspot, as is Ghana, as is Nigeria, as is the Congo, as is South Africa.

The problem is in fact severe enough that it's being actively exported--the United Kingdom has done much coverage of "deliverance ministry"-related child abuse, in part, because it's becoming a rather serious problem thanks to neopente dominionists in African emigre communities there. The BBC was one of the first mainstream news agencies to report on this form of religiously motivated child abuse due to a number of rather infamous cases of "deliverance ministry"-related abuse in the UK, which led to the discovery of at least thirty cases and the setup of a dedicated division of Scotland Yard to investigate; even now, UK social services groups are given instructions on how to spot "deliverance ministry"-related child abuse and are among the very few groups taking an aggressive stand against it including via research and educational efforts.

And sadly, deaths occur not just of children but adults too. The Nigerian Tribune reports that the Burning Times have come to Africa as people accused of being witches--typically in neopentecostal dominionist "deliverance services"--are literally being burnt at the stake in scenes more closely resembling the Spanish Inquisition than the 21st century:

Let's take for instance, the belief in witchcraft. Most Africans believe that witches exist and are real.

That witches cause diseases. accidents, death and business failures. Incidentally,. there is no evidence of witchcraft or the activities associated with witches.But because of the misconceptions associated with witchcraft, those accused of being witches are attacked, tortured, maltreated and killed in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In May, at least 11 people alleged to be witches were burnt to death in Kenya. Those who masterminded this heinous act said they had 'evidence' that they were witches. There have been other cases of witch hunt in Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa , Uganda, etc.
. . .
Critical thought should also be applied to the teachings of all religions including those of Christianity and Islam. Many paranormal beliefs continue to exist in Africa beeause Christianity and Islam promote and sanction them. They include the belief in witches, ghost, after life, faith healing, divine revelation, communication with spirit, etc. The two world religions -Christianity and Islam- introduced and control formal education in modern Africa.

One of the few other groups trying to help kids in this situation is RISE International--whom has contributed to efforts to help "ndoki orphans".

The problem, alas, isn't just restricted to Nigeria. As a major researcher on Joel's Army and the "Third Wave" on Talk to Action reports, it's not just sub-Saharan Africa, and "independent" neopente dominionist groups are promoting this worldwide--including via a Guatemalan church linked with a literal coup-de-etat:

The last city segment features Almolonga, Guatemala. Otis begins this segment by claiming that Almolongo is now 80% born again after the transformation of this town of about 19,000. Again he tells of a town in the grip of demonic strongholds, this time the demons of folk deities and syncretism. He states that previously the gospel could not take hold and evangelical Christians were a despised minority. Again a group of intercessors prayed and "after many signs and wonders and deliverances from demonic possession" the town was transformed. Otis then catalogs the miraculous changes in this once poor town plagued with crime and alcoholism. He claims that all four jails have been closed as there is no longer crime. Two dozen evangelical churches have replaced 36 bars and cantinas. The streets and buildings have been renamed after biblical places. But more remarkably Otis claims that this spiritual transformation has healed the land and revived the agricultural economy. Harold Cabelleros, founder of El Shaddai Church in Guatemala City, claims that Almolonga farmers now have three harvest per year, and that once God came to town, the harvest time for a radish dropped from 60 days to 40, and then 25.
. . .
Cabelleros also contributed to Wagner's 1993 book, Breaking Strongholds in Your City. Mell Winger was the director of the Bible Institute at El Shaddai Church in Guatemala City and later served with Ted Haggard at New Life Church, which shares the campus of the World Prayer Center. See Richard Bartholomew's Notes on Religion.

The involvement of El Shaddai is extremely disturbing for a special reason. Not only does El Shaddai have close links with Mell Winger (and by extension, Tedd Haggard at New Life Church--at least until Haggard was outed as gay, that is) but it is linked with the one dominionist group explicitly linked in a court of law with genocide and crimes against humanity. Specifically, El Shaddai is a member of a group of "Assemblies daughters" known as Verbo Ministries and a frontgroup of Verbo, Global Outreach Ministries...and two of the most infamous members of Verbo Ministries are Efrain Rios Montt and Jorge Serrano Elias.

Serrano Elias is particularly noteworthy here, as he was not only a protege of Rios Montt (and a protector of Montt's slaughter of upwards of possibly 200,000 Mayans (we aren't for sure how high it goes; they're still finding the bodies over 25 years later) and over a million displaced persons) but apparently was also a member of El Shaddai--not just a member, but apparently a minister and one of those establishing the initial benchhead for the closest thing the world has known to Nehemiah Scudder's regime in Heinlein's "If This Goes On...":

In 1976 he collaborated with various American Protestant churches to help the population recover from the devastating earthquake that had afflicted the country. He then published a document describing the miserable conditions under which the indigenous population lived, which resulted in his receiving threats. He went into exile in the US, only returning in 1982, to work in the government of fellow evangelist General Efraín Ríos Montt as Vice President of the Advisory Board to the government.

And El Shaddai, too, has attempted harassment of people and destruction of cultural relics in the name of "spiritual warfare":

As soon as the church started building, government archaeologists leaped to the defense of the pre-Colombian site. But before the church's laborers stopped, they are said to have dug up the head of a snake carved in stone. The leaders of El Shaddai Church interpreted the suddenly revealed archaeology of their new location as a sign: the Lord had brought them face to face with his vision for Guatemala.

Three hundred years before Christ, Pastor Haroldo Caballeros announced, the serpent mound had been built to dedicate the entire country to Satan. Ever since that offering to the plumed serpent Quetzalcoatl, Guatemala and all of Latin America had been cursed. Why else would a continent so rich in resources and faith be among the poorest and most indebted of the earth? Why else would a country so green and blessed by God be so afflicted with violence and poverty? But now this curse of centuries could be lifted, Caballeros said. It is probably no coincidence that the name of his church, El Shaddai, means "The Almighty" in Hebrew; this was a vision not just for saving souls, but for seizing a country's destiny. Caballeros preached like a polished courtroom advocate--his former profession--and was attracting influential people to El Shaddai, including a man about to be elected president of the country.

Funded by a well-heeled congregation, Caballeros mounted a national prayer campaign to take the vision for overcoming the serpent's curse to every evangelical pastor in the country. Fifty thousand prayer warriors were needed to battle the territorial demons controlling Guatemala, Caballeros declared. God wanted to open up the skies and rain down his blessings. He wanted to bring a revival with so many signs, prodigies, and wonders that every tongue would confess that Jesus is Lord of Guatemala. Uplifted by an army of prayer, the church would rise up like a giant. It would prophesy over Guatemala, liberate it, and turn the curse into a blessing.

El Shaddai is also at the heart of an attempt to make a third go at turning Guatemala into the Republic of Gilead--only bloodier, if Montt's rule is any guide.

The CSM article itself notes other examples of similar "witch hunts", even here in the States:

* In Hemet, Calif., a new pastor began noting on a map sites where what he believed to be negative spiritual influences were located: controversial religious centers, cults, youth gangs, and the West Coast's largest methamphetamine manufacturing facilities.

After years of research and targeted prayer, participants say, drug production has been dramatically reduced and corrupt police have been fired, gang members have converted, the "power of a demonic strongman" was broken, cults left town or were burned out, and Christians are in key leadership positions.

* In Cali, Colombia, home of the infamous drug cartel, pastors carried out a spiritual mapping campaign "gathering intelligence on political, social, and spiritual strongholds" in each of the city's 22 administrative zones. They began holding all-night prayer vigils involving thousands in the soccer stadium.

When vigils were followed by periods without homicides and the arrests of major cartel leaders, "a new openness to the Gospel was felt at all levels of society," and churches began to see "explosive growth."

Interestingly, one of the US churches most consistently linked with this sort of thing is New Life Church in Colorado Springs--former home of Ted Haggard. In Jeff Sharlet's article "Soldiers of Christ"--published May 2005 in Harpers Magazine--targeted harassment of not just critics but of people seen as the Enemy are noted:

He was always on the lookout for spies. At the time, Colorado Springs was a small city split between the Air Force and the New Age, and the latter, Pastor Ted believed, worked for the devil. Pastor Ted soon began upsetting the devil's plans. He staked out gay bars, inviting men to come to his church; his whole congregation pitched itself into invisible battles with demonic forces, sometimes in front of public buildings. One day, while he was working in his garage, a woman who said she'd been sent by a witches' coven tried to stab Pastor Ted with a five-inch knife she pulled from a leg sheath; Pastor Ted wrestled the blade out of her hand. He let that story get around. He called the evil forces that dominated Colorado Springs—and every other metropolitan area in the country—"Control."

Sometimes, he says, Control would call him late on Saturday night, threatening to kill him. "Any more impertinence out of you, Ted Haggard," he claims Control once told him, "and there will be unrelenting pandemonium in this city." No kidding! Pastor Ted hadn't come to Colorado Springs for his health; he had come to wage "spiritual war."

He moved the church to a strip mall. There was a bar, a liquor store, New Life Church, a massage parlor. His congregation spilled out and blocked the other businesses. He set up chairs in the alley. He strung up a banner: SIEGE THIS CITY FOR ME, signed JESUS. He assigned everyone in the church names from the phone book they were to pray for. He sent teams to pray in front of the homes of supposed witches—in one month, ten out of fifteen of his targets put their houses on the market. His congregation "prayer-walked" nearly every street of the city.

Population boomed, crime dipped; Pastor Ted believes to this day that New Life helped chase the bad out of town. He thinks like that, a piston: less bad means more good. Church is good, and his church grew, so fast there were times when no one knew how many members to claim. So they stopped talking about "members." There was just New Life. "Are you New Life?" a person might ask. New Life moved into some corporate office space. Soon they bought the land that had been prophesied, thirty-five acres, and began to build what Pastor Ted promised would be a new Jerusalem.

As disturbing as this is...it also appears that Sarah Palin may have been taking notes from Muthee et al--right down to the use of cops for harassment.

Evidence of subversion of Wasilla government?

Some of the info that has come out re Palin--and regarding her own running of Wasilla's government as well as her stint as governor--give ever more info indicating she essentially is running as the Manchurian Candidate of Joel's Army. And interestingly, a fair amount of this may directly tie into police scandals.

One bit of info includes info on Progressive Alaska indicating Wasilla A/G may have engaged in major infiltration of the Wasilla Police Department and that critics fear retribution:

A blogger told me that he needs to back off the more sensitive Palin information because he's afraid of getting shot by some of the more fanatical, hard-core "Palin-bots." I've been told that when media representatives attempted to speak to several members of Palin's former church, one member wouldn't speak out of fear of his/her life and the other declined out of fear of potential treatment by law enforcement who are also members of the church.

(And now you know why I post pseudonymously and am a bit paranoid on giving my personal info out!)

And tomorrow, we have some explosive new info to point out regarding how Palin is a veritable dominionist Midas--it turns out TrooperGate *and* "RapeKitGate" both have strong dominionist connections.

A few days ago, I wrote an article detailing several more links between Palin and particularly disturbing elements of the "Joel's Army" movement--namely, apparent links between Palin and Bill Gothard's network of groups, and some very disturbing dog-whistles from some of the "Joel's Army" faithful comparing her to the prophetess Deborah.

Now that I have my power restored...we can get to "the *rest* of the story", so to speak...and now you get the background as to why the latest revelations are quite disturbing.

Sarah Palin a Gothardite?

In my last post, I noted an article from the Cincinnati Beacon--a regular source of good investigative reporting regarding Gothard's various fronts--on Palin's links with Gothard. A recent article in Salon gives more detail--and more reason to worry.

Among other things, Wasilla is one of 200-plus cities in the US that have been recruited into a particular Gothard front--the International Association of Character Cities:

Sep. 18, 2008 | In April 2000, under the direction of then-Mayor Sarah Palin, the Wasilla City Council passed a resolution declaring itself a "City of Character." Adopted unanimously, the resolution pledged that the city would "do all in its power" to promote "positive and constructive character qualities which distinguish between right and wrong," which the resolution predicted could work a range of wonders, from reducing juvenile delinquency to increasing corporate profits.

Thanks to Palin's efforts, Wasilla is now among roughly 200 cities nationwide (and others in 27 countries around the world) that have committed themselves -- in name, at least -- to following the teachings of the International Association of Character Cities (IACC), an organization that purports to be secular but is modeled on the evangelical teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).

Palin's personal connection to IACC, and her efforts to bring its agenda to Wasilla as mayor, sheds new light on her connections to the Christian far right, as well as her willingness to infuse government with its ideals rooted in religion. Her championing of IACC principles raises further questions about Palin's views on running government, including the hiring and firing of government employees, an area in which she has come under intense scrutiny in part due to her involvement in "trooper gate."

It is not exaggeration to term IACC a recruitment front for what amounts to a very nasty "Bible-based cult" Gothard promotes. The Salon article does touch on this, but--as in most cases involving neopente dominionists and coercive activity in neopente dominionist groups--most of the writing has been in either apologetics circles, survivors' communities, or the small community focusing on this sub-segment of "Christian nationalism".

The first definitive bits of writing re Gothard's IACC and its role as a recruitment front (outside of those in apologetics circles) would be two articles--the second being an article on Talk to Action entitled Developing Dominionist Cities which is itself a summary of Silva Talji's "Cult of Character". I would strongly recommend people start out with those two articles as backgrounder.

One piece of backgrounder, too, that I would recommend would be an article I have written regarding experiences in several "Gothardised" cities who were members of IACC--the program is promoted as "secular", but in the actual seminars, there tends to be a rapid hard-sell to a specifically neopente-dominionist theology, and pointers to the "real content" being in the explicitly religious material.

Even more disturbing, IACC is part of what amounts to a multi-headed hydra of frontgroups linked with Gothard. One known front is Police Dynamics Institute, which promotes Gothardism to police, firefighters and EMTs; another is ALERT Teams.

The ALERT Teams linkage--which is actually quite close indeed with PDI and IACC--is especially disturbing, as it is one of the few Joel's Army groups that can be legitimately described as "Joel's Army With Guns" (complete with a paramilitary training facility). Even worse, it's a "Joel's Army With Guns" group directly linked with possible neopente-dominionist infiltration of the armed forces and potentially grave national security consequences; the head of the US Air Force's Cyberspace Command is a major supporter of ALERT Teams (as if the US Air Force didn't have enough issues with "God Warriors" and mandatory religious prosyletisation scandals!).

There is evidence that--at least in the particular case of Palin's involvement--there was even less pretense than usual on the program being supposedly "secular"--including a talk by David Barton of Wallbuilders, a major promoter of a form of historical revisionism popular in "Christian nationalist" circles claiming that the US was established as primarily a dominionist nation:

Palin, Menzel confirmed, learned how Wasilla could become a City of Character at an IACC conference held at IBLP's International Training Center in Indianapolis in April 2000. A conference brochure shows that Gothard and other speakers affiliated with IBLP taught several of the sessions. The conference included a videotape presentation on the separation of church and state by David Barton, a regular on the Christian right speaking circuit who argues that the separation of church and state is a "myth."

Although Menzel and the IACC's materials insist that the program Hill launched at his company is secular, IBLP's Web site boasts that as a result of Hill's efforts, Kimray "benefited from the application of Biblical principles." Menzel admitted to the Texas Observer two years ago that "these are biblical principles." Hill has ties to Gothard dating back to 1974; he served on IBLP's board of directors from 1993 to 2005, and is currently on its "board of reference."

Gothard's teachings, and his implementation of them, are highly controversial even among evangelical Christians. Based on seven "non-optional" biblical principles, Gothard demands obedience to "God-ordained authorities, such as parents, government, and the church."

This gets *very* disturbing, *very* quickly--especially if you have an idea of just what Gothard promotes.

One thing Gothard is big on promoting is the concept of coercive "Bible-based" boot camps--in fact, one facility in Indianapolis was *so* horrific it was shut down by the state of Indiana. This is, alas, simply an extension of the religiously motivated child abuse he promotes as an extension of an entire system of abuse that actually manages to resemble Scientology's infamous Sea Orgs far more than any "church charity".

And some of the abuse of children in particular is extreme. A correspondent whom wishes to remain anonymous forwarded info from a now-defunct mailinglist for support of "Gothard parents":

Lori-We learned about spanking babies. WE learned about disciplning a child with a rod at the age of 6 months, when the weeds are very little we pluck them out. We use a 1/4 inch wooden dowel when they are 6 months. If you ignore those weeds then by the time they are toddlers you have to do something drastic. WE learned that if we started when they were babies, they were so much more obedient in coming and sitting and being quiet. OUr goal
was that they be able to sit quietly for 2 hours on Sunday morning. Now it has been a joy.

I have learned that just one whack on a baby's bottom is not enough, it is 5 or 6 whacks. I found I was spankiing my children a whole lot less when I did it right the first time.

(And yes, the rest of the thread is just as bad.)

Of note, this is probably the most extreme religiously motivated child abuse I've seen documented yet; even Tedd Tripp and the Pearls, who formerly held the title of "worst of the worst", don't recommend using *that* thick of a rod to whack a six-month-old. :P

Gothard's system of abuse is in part based on enforcing a particularly extreme version of the coercive "discipling and shepherding" model common in abusive neopente dominionist churches--the same "cell church" model, of note, in use in John Hagee's church, in Wasilla A/G, and others. This is also the same cell-church model documented to cause short and long-term personality changes--in some cases, in as short as three days.

Little documented is that Gothard's "coercive neopente dominionism-plus" system has a heavy emphasis on not just the abusive "cell church" model (including a requirement people be under the "covering" of a shepherd) and some especially horrific child abuse, but also a very heavy emphasis on another oddity in neopente dominionist circles--namely, the concept of "deliverance ministry". "Deliverance ministry", boiled down, claims that literally anything can be "demonised" or "open doorways for Satan" and cause one to be "oppressed" or even frankly possessed by the Devil; in practice, it strongly resembles some of the worst practices in Scientology regarding "body thetans", "engrams", and "suppressive persons".

In similar manner as have been documented at some of Palin's churches, Gothard promotes the idea that illnesses are caused by "generational curses"--or even by things as innocuous as Cabbage Patch Kids or "Troll" dolls.

Combined, the two practices amount to one of the most coercive systems ever documented--and Gothard's system is far more extreme than even the infamous coercive chunderfest at Hagee's church documented by Matt Taibbi in his book "The Great Derangement".

As if this weren't enough, Gothard will in general not discuss his tactics unless you have been recruited into his programs (a dead giveaway we are dealing with a frank cult here), and promotes "Quiverfull" stuff in his own way by claiming in essence that "God will provide" for women having extreme amounts of kids and that parents shouldn't have Caesarian sections (and again attributes infertility to having Cabbage Patch Kids in the house)...among other things. In addition to this, one of Gothard's known fronts is a completely unaccredited "college" that includes classes on "Christian midwifery", and Gothard has even been known to encourage women to not register home births at all.

In addition to all the other fun stuff I've mentioned, Gothard is also very explicitly dominionist (as if you hadn't yet guessed this), has encouraged others to set up incredibly abusive "Bible boot camps" not unlike his Indianapolis misadventure, and attempted to suppress publication of a guide critical of his tactics.

Gothard's teachings have in fact been described as those of a Bible-based cult--which I am inclined to agree with, having grown up in a coercive group where Gothard's writing was heavily promoted and having written on the subject of abusive dominionist groups throughout most of my diary entries on DailyKos. My experiences aren't unique--apparently Gothard's stuff is heavily promoted within the Assemblies of God in particular (which is the denomination I am a walkaway from); disturbingly, Gothard is also heavily promoted within the dominionist "home education" movement.

...and yes, that would be the same Assemblies in which Palin was, and has been up to June 2008, heavily involved in...including in an official policy as state governor.

And this, after Cincinnati's commissioner has called for an investigation of IACC due to its heavy support of religiously motivated child abuse.

More on that "Deborah" dogwhistle

I also reported the other day on how J. Lee Grady--a Joel's Army promoter who is editor of the site "Fire In My Bones" and who has hailed fellow Joel's Army promoter Todd Bentley as a modern-day prophet--literally compared Sarah Palin to the Biblical prophetess Deborah.

This is a prime example of how many of the promoters of "Joel's Army" theology tend to drop code-words and overt "scripture twisting" as dog-whistles to their parishoners--and the "Deborah dogwhistle" is a particularly nasty one indeed, as we'll get into.

The specific dogwhistle in question:

When McCain announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate, I was reminded of the biblical story of Deborah, the Old Testament prophet who rallied God's people to victory at a time when ancient Israel was being terrorized by foreign invaders. Deborah's gender didn't stop her from amassing an army; she inspired the people in a way no man could. She and her defense minister, Barak, headed to the front lines and watched God do a miracle on the battlefield.

In her song in Judges 5:7, Deborah declares: "The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel" (NASB).

The use of the New American Standard Bible is somewhat unusual (most neopente dominionists tend to use the NIV), but despite the version, the message is clear...and disturbing.

The Song of Deborah describes a particularly vicious battle against the Canaanites during the pre-royal period of Israel--when the judges ruled the country along with the priesthood. It is worth noting Judges 5:6-5:8 in particular in the NASB version:

6 "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael, the highways were deserted,
And travelers went by roundabout ways.
7 "The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel,
Until I, Deborah, arose,
Until I arose, a mother in Israel.
8 "New gods were chosen;
Then war was in the gates.
Not a shield or a spear was seen
Among forty thousand in Israel.

(NASB version.)

It's also noteworthy what appears in the New International Version, the version that most neopente dominionists are more likely to be using:

6 "In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, the roads were abandoned;
travelers took to winding paths.
7 Village life [c] in Israel ceased,
ceased until I, [d] Deborah, arose,
arose a mother in Israel.
8 When they chose new gods,
war came to the city gates,
and not a shield or spear was seen
among forty thousand in Israel.

([c] or "Warriors"; [d] or "you".)

It's also worth noting some other minor dogwhistles. BibleWiki notes:

Name of the triumphal ode found in Jdg 5:2-31 and ascribed in the title (Jdg 5:1) to Deborah; it celebrates the victory in the plain of Megiddo over Sisera and his army.

For those unaware, Megiddo is of course the traditional site upon which the Final Battle will be fought--Armageddon. At least some groups do directly equate the two.

Then again, seeing as one of the persons fighting with Deborah was named Barak, this may not be as significant as one thinks--unless one counts that Barak ultimately failed at assassinating Sisera, and was beaten to it by a woman.

Oh, and the scene of aforementioned assassination is also noteworthy, one of the more spectacularly gruesome offings in the Old Testament that was not the result of direct divine intervention:

24 "Most blessed of women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Most blessed is she of women in the tent.
25 "He asked for water and she gave him milk;
In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds.
26 "She reached out her hand for the tent peg,
And her right hand for the workmen's hammer.
Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head;
And she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 "Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay;
Between her feet he bowed, he fell;
Where he bowed, there he fell dead.

(NASB version.)
Ironically, Judges 6 is not mentioned--in which Deborah reigns, and the people go to evil ways resulting in Midian occupation for seven years before Gideon takes over:

1 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.

(NASB version.)

And yet there is deeper meaning in this particular dogwhistle. One thing being heavily promoted in the Joel's Army community is the concept of a "Deborah Anointing"--that is, essentially a "women's corps of Joel's Army". An example from a site promoting "Joel's Army" theology explains succinctly:

THE DEBORAH ANOINTING

King David prophesied in Ps. 68:11-12, "The Lord gives the word (command); the women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host; Kings of armies flee, they flee; and she who remains at home will divide the spoil!" The book of Judges declares Deborah as the 5th and last judge of Israel who resided under a tree, where she spent her days and nights alone with God, and received the strategic war plan to defeat Israel's enemies while being outnumbered. As a wife, judge, prophetess and strong military leader, Deborah saved her nation from bondage and tyranny, and sang of being a mother in Israel and dividing the spoil of her conquered enemy, Sisera (Judges 5). Her commander of the troops, Barak, and the scribe of Issachar (who knew and read the times of Israel) refused to engage in war without her. Why? Because of the anointings that rested upon her. The DEBORAH ANOINTING will be released upon women's ministries and housewives, birthing new ministries releasing higher seats of power, authority and the prophetic. High-ranking commanders of God's Army will not engage in battle without them. The vast majority of front liners and trench diggers are women, and the scars of battle are evident. However, this anointing will birth a new song in the hearts of many women who proclaim the Word of the Lord.

In other words, folks seen as having a "Deborah Anointing" are seen explicitly as God Warriors In Dresses--basically the WACS of Joel's Army, as it were.

The same site gives some rather disturbing insight as to what they thought of the biblical Barak:

Last night in the 'wee small hours' I agonised over wondering if I had made a terrible mistake in the word the Lord gave me for Wales. I know full well that Deborah did not slay Barak, indeed it was Jael who slew Sisera and yet somehow I did not 'see' what I had written at the time of testing/posting. I prayed about it, repenting if was in error, not understanding why the prophetic word for Wales, spoke of Deborah slaying Barak. I asked the Spirit of God to show me in His Word the explanation for the use of such terminology. I believe the Lord in His Wisdom permitted me to remain 'blind' in order that He might bring forth the following revelation. The Lord led me to a specific page within a book on the Welsh revival and I believe this is what He has shown:
. . .
Barak almost made a grave mistake. When he first heard the Lord's instruction to go and fight the enemy commander and his army, his initial response was not faith but fear and denial of the power of God. Through Deborah the Lord was instructing Barak to go and take on the 10,000 men of Naphtali and Zebulun and to lead the way to Mount Tabor.

BARAK TO DEBORAH --"I'LL ONLY GO IF YOU GO WITH ME"

Barak was not prepared to enter the battle trusting God. He replied to Deborah "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go." Judges 4:8

The spirit within Barak did not believe in a conquering God who was able to defeat all opposition. Barak placed more belief in Deborah by his side than in the Lord God of Hosts as his strong deliverer. He had no revelation of the battle belonging to God, nor of the power that was in him being greater than the power in this world. Further, Barak was concerned for his flesh. The Lord is bringing together an end time army who will "love not their own lives unto death".

This is the revelation within the prophetic word for revival in Wales that we must understand. Without our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus as the risen victorious Christ, we will not be able to be used in the Lord's army against his enemy's.
. . .
The end time army will be a fearless, anointed army with no trace of the 'spirit' and rights to self within Barak. To be anything less that completely focused on the Lord and His awesome power will mean we are in danger of missing the commission set before us. It must be in His strength alone and completely dependent on Him that we move forward into revival. There are 'giants' that must be slain and it is only hidden in Christ and abandoned to His precious Spirit that we may be used to re-enforce the victory of Calvary.

Within God's Holy Word we come to understand how the enemy commander Sisera was killed by Jael - we are shown the defeat of the 'enemy without'. The Lord in His loving mercy is giving us a further 'key' - in studying Barak's responses and actions we are given some insight into the 'enemy within' - our sinful concern for our flesh, and our carnal doubts and lack of faith and belief in the nature and character of God as the Lord of Hosts.

WE MUST REPENT OF THE SPIRIT OF BARAK

I therefore believe we must repent of the sins that Barak walked in and ask the Lord for forgiveness. The Spirit will bring this conviction and through the Deborah anointing He will release those with a similar spirit to Barak. The end time army must march out in faith having sought the Lord with all of their heart, for there is no time for half hearted commitment or poorly shod armour or any amount of self-reliance.

(Of note, the "Wales revival" in question was a Joel's Army/Third Wave revival occuring in 1999.)

This is far from an isolated reference. Specific references to "Deborah Anointing" occur on multiple Joel's Army sites, including this one (linked with Hillsong A/G in Sydney, Australia--a particularly infamous Joel's Army congregation that is the home of the Family First political party) as well as this site, and a major Joel's Army promotion site (Fresh Fire Ministries) promotes it as "the mantle of Deborah".

There are indications that the term may well have been used in Joel's Army circles as early as 1998 or earlier, based on its use in Guatemalan "Joel's Army" churches. (Guatemala has suffered possibly more than any other country the sad reality of neopente dominionist regimes...in particularly genocidal fashion during the reign of Gen. Rios Montt.)

A subtle dog-whistle indeed--and not likely that anyone outside the Joel's Army movement would catch the full import of it.

Much like the US Postal Service, neither rain nor snow nor 70% of my hometown's power infrastructure being eaten by Ike will stop me from posting the latest on Palin's connections with dominionists.

We've posted before on her initial outing as a dominionist stealth candidate, her links to "Joel's Army" including Alaskan state funds being used for groups promoting apocalyptic theology, and her attempt at a back-door book ban in conjunction with a crusade by one of her home churches.

Today, we find out even more info on the book-ban attempt giving further proof that Palin has *not* dropped her links with Joel's Army--and if that weren't enough, there's some very telling evidence from the horse's mouth.

More info on the attempted book-ban--and its theological connections

Recently, a new article in Salon gives more disturbing info regarding Palin's attempt at an end-run against Wasilla Public Library's book-challenge policy--and more evidence that this was part of an attempt by several dominionist churches, with Wasilla A/G at the front, to purge LGBT-supportive books from both libraries and bookstores.

Since the initial links between Palin and neopente dominionist groups (including two separate Assemblies congregations linked to the "Joel's Army" movement as well as a third "independent" neopente denomination also promoting Joel's Army theology) have come out, there's been quite a lot of spin control--including claims that she left Wasilla A/G because it was "too extreme" (despite apparently having appeared regularly at Assemblies churches, including Wasilla A/G and at the district H/Q even as late as June 2008--four years after she claims to have left; not in a pattern fitting with someone leaving a church because of claims of being "too extreme").

Unfortunately, the Salon article would seem to prove the lie to this--with info indicating Wasilla A/G not only supported her but actually proclaimed her as the chosen candidate of "Joel's Army"--whilst carefully warning their parishoners to keep mum to the press:

WASILLA, Alaska -- The Wasilla Assembly of God, the evangelical church where Sarah Palin came of age, was still charged with excitement on Sunday over Palin's sudden ascendance. Pastor Ed Kalnins warned his congregation not to talk with any journalists who might have been lurking in the pews -- and directly warned this reporter not to interview any of his flock. But Kalnins and other speakers at the service reveled in Palin's rise to global stardom.

It confirmed, they said, that God was making use of Wasilla. "She will take our message to the world!" rejoiced an Assembly of God youth ministry leader, as the church band rocked the high-vaulted wooden building with its electric gospel.

The article gives some very revealing information regarding the hostile environment that Wasilla A/G tried to create:

When it was published in 1995, Bess' book caused an immediate storm in the Mat-Su Valley, an evangelical stronghold dotted with storefront churches. Conservative ministers targeted the book, and the only bookstore in the valley that dared to stock it -- Shalom Christian Books and Gifts – soon dropped it after the owner was barraged with angry phone calls. The Frontiersman, the local newspaper that ran a column by Bess for seven years, fired him and ran a vicious cartoon that suggested even drooling child molesters would be welcomed by Bess' church.

(Of note, the equation of paedophiles and LGBT people tends to be all too common in Assemblies churches--here's an example from my own hometown.)

There's also some info indicating that the attempt to go around the Wasilla Public Library's book-challenge policy was in fact inspired by the ongoing Joel's Army fatwa against "Pastor, I Am Gay" (which even extended to the point of literal pickets against bookstores daring to carry the book):

And after she became mayor of Wasilla, according to Bess, Sarah Palin tried to get rid of his book from the local library. Palin now denies that she wanted to censor library books, but Bess insists that his book was on a "hit list" targeted by Palin. "I'm as certain of that as I am that I'm sitting here. This is a small town, we all know each other. People in city government have confirmed to me what Sarah was trying to do."

And--as it turns out--her reported membership in "Feminists For Life" and statements on being virulently anti-abortion also directly influenced her policies in Wasilla--and in a different way than the infamous "make them pay for their own rape kits" way.

More evidence of theology and policy mixing

The article also notes an attempt to steeplejack community hospital boards, combined with an attempt to effectively ban abortion in the borough--one which led to the state of Alaska stepping in and ruling it unconstitutional:

Soon after the book controversy, Bess found himself again at odds with Palin and her fellow evangelicals. In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.

At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.

Another attempt at governmental steeplejacking firmly linked to Palin was what may well have been the very model for her attempted run as a dominionist stealth VP--namely school boards, a target for dominionist steeplejacks-by-stealth since the Christian Coalition's early organisational days in the early 80s.

Even worse, there are indications she has answered the question on whether or not she followed dominionist--and specifically neopentecostal dominionist--theology in governmental decision-making:

Another valley activist, Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. "She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board," said Munger, a music composer and teacher. "I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, 'Sarah, how can you believe in creationism -- your father's a science teacher.' And she said, 'We don't have to agree on everything.'

"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. "She looked in my eyes and said, 'Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.'"

As bad as this is, there is still far worse.

Palin's connections with Gothard--and queenmaking by the heart of the "Joel's Army" movement

Recently, links have been found between Sarah Palin and one of the more distinctly coercive "Joel's Army" groups out there--namely, Bill Gothard's "International Association of Character Cities", one of a veritable hive of frontgroups run by Gothard:

According to articles in today's Daily Oklahoman and Washington Post, when she was mayor of Wasilla AK, Sarah Palin "spearheaded" efforts to establish the town as as "a community of character" via the International Association of Character Cities (IACC). What these stories don't mention is that the Oklahoma City-based IACC is a secular front for Chicago millionaire evangelist Bill Gothard.
. . .
1) When she introduced the "Character Cities" program in Wasilla, did then-Mayor Palin inform other council members that it was a front for Bill Gothard?

In 2006, Arizona State Treasurer David Petersen was forced to resign after getting busted for accepting commissions for implementing Gothard's Character Training programs in the Grand Canyon state.

2) Has Sarah Palin received any income from the IACC or other organizations affiliated with Bill Gothard? Are she and "First Dude" Todd Palin going to release their tax returns as Joe and Jill Biden have done?

As The Beacon and others seek answers to these and other questions, we respectfully urge Governor Palin, good Christian that she is, to seek guidance from the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky's "Character Quality of the Month" for September 2008: TRUTHFULNESS.

The links with Gothard are particularly disturbing. Gothard's nest of fronts are among those directly provable to be running training camps for "God Warriors With Guns" and also have a history of links with "Christian nationalist" secessionists and racists. This is, of course, on top of actively infiltrating police and other public safety agencies to convert those to wings of "Joel's Army", and the promotion of religiously motivated child abuse so extreme that it's been linked to murder-suicides due to those being tortured finally snapping.

And...disturbingly..."Joel's Army" certainly seems to be getting the signal on their own end, as she is explicitly being promoted even more on their ends.

One example comes from Fire In My Bones (yes, "Joel's Army" groups love fire imagery) literally comparing Sarah Palin to the Biblical prophet Deborah. The original post seems to have been pulled, but the article was reportedly published in Charisma Magazine, and what is available is disturbing indeed:

A prominent evangelical figure in the U.S. this week said Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is a modern-day incarnation of the Biblical prophet, Deborah - primed to miraculously slay her nation's enemies on the battlefield.

Writing in his influential magazine, Charisma, editor J. Lee Grady likened the 44-year-old Alaskan governor to Deborah, the Old Testament prophet "who rallied God's people to victory at a time when ancient Israel was being terrorized by foreign invaders."

Evangelicals who don't support Charisma worry that J. Lee Grady has not only embraced Sarah Palin as a prophet, but in 2005 heartily endorsed Todd Bentley, the disgraced B.C-based faith healer.

Yes, you're reading this right; Palin is now being actively promoted within Joel's Army circles as being one of the very generals of their holy war.

And the article notes just how bluntly the point is being made:

As Grady wrote in this week's column, the gender of the Old Testament prophet Deborah "didn't stop her from amassing an army; she inspired the people in a way no man could. She and her defense minister, Barak, headed to the front lines and watched God do a miracle on the battlefield."
Grady continues: "In her song in Judges 5:7, Deborah declares: 'The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel'... Sometimes it takes a true mother to rally the troops."

Even worse, she's being promoted as a walking, talking prophecy-in-the-flesh by those promoting holy war with America by the same author:

Talk about a role model. Palin's life is a prophecy to America. She doesn't have to preach against abortion. She and her family, even with their flaws, are the embodiment of the compassionate pro-life values America desperately needs to adopt.

Even worse yet, there's reports that Joel's Army and other dominionists are literally making imprecatory prayers for McCain's death...so Palin can be president.

The explicit promotion of Palin as a latter-day end-times prophet is disturbing indeed--and a dangerous sign, a strong sign that Palin getting close to the Presidency could have the whole world's fate riding on it.

Over the past few days, I've been one of those Damned Annoying Palin Diarists--though not on BabyGate or some of the other stuff, but more on the fact she was originally put in as a dominionist "stealth candidate", that she has extensive and ongoing connections with "Joel's Army" neopente dominionists including providing tax dollars to them. Most disturbingly, more than a few of us have raised serious questions on how Palin's connections with these groups may have literally thermonuclear consequences and how much her dominionist connections would affect her public policy.

We may very well have reason to worry. Two new recent updates have given call for alarm--one being a disturbing call for war with Russia, and the second being new revelations re the attempted Wasilla book-ban that indicate it may have been a preemptive attempt.

And in both cases, her "Joel's Army" sympathies may be closely linked.

Palin conveniently answers the "Does being a 'Joel's Army' member mean I want to nuke Moscow?" question

A few days back, I wrote an article on the implications of "Joel's Army" endtime theology regarding Russia in relation to Sarah Palin--an article that has apparently made it all the way to none other than fark.com and which I wrote, in part, based on my own observations as a walkaway from a "Joel's Army" church and my own post-walking-away research.

Unfortunately for us and the rest of the world, Palin may have just answered that question.

The definitive DailyKos diary on this subject was written a few days ago by Rock Strango, but it's also worth looking at the original quote as well. After a fair amount of backpedaling on her commentary re Gulf War II being essentially a holy crusade (an idea that is actively promoted in "Joel's Army" circles, incidentially--including the very Assemblies of God church she claims to no longer be a member of but did guest preaching at as recently as June 2008, as we'll see below), she let slip that she'd be quite willing to go to war with the Russians--and furthermore promoted the concept of first strikes against any country that is seen as a potential threat:

* Gibson then brought up Russia's recent invasion of Georgia, an act roundly condemned by the Bush administration and by McCain himself. He asked Gibson if the US would be compelled to answer militarily under the NATO treaty if Russia again invaded Georgia. Palin answered, "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help."

* Expanding on her answer, Palin said, "[W]e've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable."
. . .
ABC's Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin if she believed that the Iraq war was part of God's plan.

GIBSON: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"

PALIN: "In what respect, Charlie?"

GIBSON: "The Bush ... Well, what do you interpret it to be?"

PALIN: "His world view."

GIBSON: "No. The Bush doctrine. Annunciated in September 2002, before the Iraq war."

PALIN: "I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made, and with new leadership -- and that's the beauty of American elections of course, and democracy -- is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better."

GIBSON: "The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is we have the right of anticipatory self defense. We have the right to a preemptive strike against any country we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?"

PALIN: "Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country."

This is quite a bit disturbing, seeing as:

a) As we went over in our last post, an end-time nuclear war has been a big part of end-time theology in Assemblies churches (and particularly those at the heart of the "Joel's Army" movement) pretty much since the time that nuclear weapons have been around.

b) Russia and the US still have enough nukes, between the two of them, to pretty much send the planet back to the Permian/Triassic boundary as far as the planetary ecosystem goes. (For those unaware, the P/T boundary is an event known by paleontologists as the Great Dying--the end-of-Permian extinction is the largest ever recorded, so thorough that only thirty percent of land vertebrates and only four percent of all sea-dwelling life survived; it is estimated that at least 90% of all species on the planet at the time went extinct. For fully twenty to thirty million years into the Triassic, life was dominated by a handful of "disaster taxa" in the closest thing this planet has known to a truly apocalyptic event.)

c) At least some stumpers for Palin have tried to claim her supposed "leadership of the Alaskan National Guard" (debunked by its actual general, by the way) qualifies her re foreign policy because "Alaska is right next door to the Russians".

. . .

If this were a case of severe foot-in-mouth disease (akin to Ronald Reagan's infamous accidentially-broadcast mike-test quip about "signing legislation outlawing Russia: we begin the bombing in five minutes"), it'd be bad enough.

Unfortunately, tied into apocalyptic imagery we know that her churches have supported, it becomes (as tvtropes.com playfully puts it) "Unleaded Nightmare Fuel".

Palin's official handlers have claimed she hasn't attended a neopente dominionist church since 2002. Despite this, however--and in an indication she may well have started attending Wasilla Bible Church (a still very dominionist, if not overtly neopente, church--but still (outwardly) "God Warrior Lite" compared to her previous congregations) as an attempt to cloak her true denominational allegiances--Palin has attended both Juneau Christian Center and has done official speeches for both Wasilla A/G's "teen ministerial Jesus Camp" (Master's Commission) and for the Alaska District of the Assemblies of God as recently as June 2008--fully six years after she claims she up and quit.

In fact, there are strong indications that Palin's relationship with the Assemblies--and misuse of Alaskan state funds to pay for trips to "revivals"--went on close to the date that McCain picked her as his choice for VP. Bruce Wilson, a noted co-researcher on neopente dominionism, has noted:

Along with her entire family, Sarah Palin was re-baptized at twelve at the Wasilla Assembly of God in Wasilla, Alaska and she attended the church from the time she was ten until 2002: over two and 1/2 decades. Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate.

Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday."

At the latter event, Palin and Alaska LT Governor Scott Parnell were publicly blessed, onstage before an estimated crowd of 6,000, through the "laying on of hands" by Wasilla Assembly of God's Head Pastor Ed Kalnins whose sermons espouse such theological concepts as the possession of geographic territories by demonic spirits and the inter-generational transmission of family "curses". Palin has also been blessed, or "anointed", by an African cleric, prominent in the Third Wave movement, who has repeatedly visited the Wasilla Assembly of God and claims to have effected positive, dramatic social change in a Kenyan town by driving out a "spirit of witchcraft."

Needless to say, it is extremely unusual, if you are truly switching denominations, to attend two churches like this--much less do the majority of your public speaking to congregations at the church you supposedly left. And it is still more unusual *yet* to have the pastor of your supposed "former" church doing a very specific type of blessing which is only conducted in neopentecostal churches--which includes, of note, imprecatory prayers against enemies and much nattering in tongues. (This, of note, is why I take Palin's claims of no longer being Assemblies with a grain of salt the size of a Taurus. Whether the Taurus in question is a bull, a Ford, a giant robot, or the actual constellation is up to the reader.)

This is especially true if you left the group because you claimed they were becoming "too extreme" (as some spin-doctoring for Palin has alleged)--most people I know who are walkaways from the Assemblies (and from "Joel's Army" groups in particular, and yes, this specifically includes people I know who are attending non-dominionist evangelical churches) tend to avoid their former congregations like the plague. (And yes, this is one of those areas where *being* a walkaway is uniquely enlightening.)

Palin's ongoing relationship with Wasilla A/G becomes especially worrisome in this light--her little speech to their missionary training camp in June 2008 is worrying enough, but it appears the pastor has also done quite a bit of promotion of Perpetual Spiritual Warfare With Actual Military Armament, based on several videos and reports:

The church runs a number of ministries providing help to poor neighborhoods, care for children in need, and general community services. But Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."

At one point, Pastor Kalinin actually makes a call remarkably similar to the calls made by the Taliban for people to sacrifice themselves for God, and further confuses Jesus Christ for John Rambo rather than the ultimate pacifist:

What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

(Of course, if you want the unleaded version of the madness, the sermons have remarkably not been scrubbed yet. I recommend archival before they catch on.)

More indications of theology influencing policy--this time with censorship

In one of my earlier reports, I had noted Palin's links to book censorship--namely, the attempts to remove several books from the Wasilla Public Library system (despite fake lists floating around based on the American Library Association's lists of most frequently challenged and banned books, we still do not know specifically what books were targeted) and an attempt to sack the librarian who refused to play along.

We now have a documented effort at both spin control and evidence that there seems to have been definitely something amiss with how the situation went with the attempted book ban.

One of the claims going around in GOP circles is a claim that no list exists of books Palin attempted to ban, but this doesn't mesh with both the report from the librarian and reports on librarian sites. There's also been evidence that one challenge was found--but only one: an attempt to remove the book "Heather Has Two Mommies" (frequently challenged by dominionist groups due to positive portrayal of lesbian parents).

This leads to two separate, but equally disturbing possibilities: that records have not been kept properly in the Wasilla library system (or may have been scrubbed) re book challenges, or that Palin herself may have been attempting more direct censorship or at least probing for vulnerabilities.

To recognise why this is a possibility, it's important to know how most public library systems handle things like book challenges. Typically, a formal complaint must be filed with the library and investigations conducted as to whether the book should be kept, moved to a different section of the library (reference or adult sections) or removed entirely. The library system the Wasilla Public Library is a part of does in fact follow these procedures.

There are indications from the very article mentioning the ongoing attempts at spin control by the GOP that Palin herself was considering banning books at first--preemptively, without benefit of library patrons filing complaints:

According to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman newspaper, Emmons did not mince words when Palin asked her "how I would deal with her saying a book can't be in the library" on Oct. 28, 1996, in a week when the mayor had asked department heads for letters of resignation.

"She asked me if I would object to censorship, and I replied 'Yup'," Emmons told a reporter. "And I told her it would not be just me. This was a constitutional question, and the American Civil Liberties Union would get involved, too."

A look at the article in question--which dates from 1996--gives more details, including indications that Palin specifically instructed the librarian to go outside of normal policy regarding book challenges:

"This is different than a normal book-selection procedure or a book-challenge policy," Emmons stressed Saturday. "She was asking me how I would deal with her saying a book can't be in the library."
. . .
"I'm hoping it was just a trial balloon," Emmons said, "because the free exchange of information is my main job, and I'll fight anyone who tries to interfere with that."

Interestingly, this matter came up with a call for revision of Wasilla Public Library's book challenge policy at the time:

The timing of the issue comes at a time when Emmons is trying to get the book-challenge policies of the Wasilla Library and of the Palmer City Library in line with the Mat-Su Borough policy, revised in December of last year.

Emmons described the new borough policy as "a very good one."

It is a step-by-step blueprint of procedures for anyone wanting to challenge the selection and availability of library material, Emmons explained. "it is a good process, and almost all public libraries have one."

The borough's policy was revised mainly to replace the borough manager as the final decision maker with a formal Reconsideration Committee Mat-Su Borough Manager Don Moore said Saturday that changes were made, with the blessings, after a dispute that was resolved about two years ago involving a challenged book at the Big Lake Library.

Emmons said the current Wasilla policy, which she described as written in more general terms than the borough's, also worked procedurally in a book-challenge case last year. Emmons said then-council-woman Palin was distressed about the issue when it came up, indicating she was aware of the city's book-challenge policy.

And there is some disturbing evidence to suggest that, again, "Joel's Army" theology may have directly influenced Palin's probing and ultimately her attempt to sack the librarian in question.

It appears that the Assemblies shows up yet again--this time, as one of the major proponents of book-banning in the area. In fact, it appears local Assemblies churches were trying to get not only books challenged but banned from bookstores around the time Palin became mayor--and Palin herself was working to get the book in question banned:

Gay book raises flap
ABCNews.com reported that the church Palin then attended, the Assembly of God, had tried to get a book called Pastor, I Am Gay out of local bookstores, according to author Howard Bess, a pastor of the Church of the Covenant in the nearby town of Palmer. "And she was one of them," Bess said. The book argues for churches to be tolerant of gays and lesbians.

Was that one of the books? While two copies donated by Bess to the Wasilla Library disappeared, leading him to donate more copies, Bess told PolitiFact that he "would be surprised if my book was not one of those at issue," but he couldn't be sure.

Former Frontiersman reporter Paul Stuart told PolitiFact that Emmons cited three titles Palin wanted removed. However, he could remember only two—and he got the names wrong, first suggesting I Told My Parents I'm Gay, later agreeing it was Pastor, I Am Gay.

Baker told ABCNews.com she "couldn't dispute or substantiate" Stuart's information, but Stuart said he was confident about the conversation. Friends and colleagues have said that Baker felt she was treated harshly by Palin.

This apparently was an organised attempt at book censorship by the Assemblies locally:

Palin's church at the time, the Assembly of God, had been pushing for the removal a book called "Pastor I Am Gay" from local bookstores, according to the book's author Pastor Howard Bess, of the Church of the Covenant in nearby Palmer, Alaska.

"And she was one of them," said Bess, "this whole thing of controlling information, censorship, that's part of the scene," said Bess.

Palin even asked at one point if the librarian at the center of the controversy would be willing to brave a picket by angry dominionists to preserve books:

According to coverage in the local newspaper, the Frontiersman, Palin asked the librarian at a meeting "if she would object to censorship even if people were circling the library in protest about a book."

And very interestingly, the very article noting GOP spin control has noted Wasilla A/G's central role:

The Rev. Howard Bess, a liberal Christian preacher in the nearby town of Palmer, said the church Palin and her family attended until 2002, the Wasilla Assembly of God, was pushing to remove his book from local bookstores.
. . .
"Sarah brought pressure on the library about things she didn't like," Bess said. "To believe that my book was not targeted in this is a joke."

Of note, the disappearance of the copies of "Pastor, I Am Gay" from the library (at the same time that "Heather Has Two Mommies" was also apparently challenged) points to a method of book censorship that is becoming more popular in dominionist circles--so-called "censorship by theft", where books are checked out and never returned (despite library fines) as a method of keeping them out of circulation.

And, as we'll see, book censorship--and worse things done to books--are a regular feature of "Joel's Army" and Assemblies "spiritual warfare".

. . .

As it turns out, the Assemblies has a long and ignominious history of not only book-ban attempts but literal book burnings (and you thought this just happened in "Farenheit 451" or at times of history that risk invocation of Godwin's Law!).

As I've noted previously in this series, the Assemblies--and especially the "Joel's Army" folks--are big, big believers in "deliverance ministry"--the concept that pretty much anything can be possessed by demons, can cause one to be possessed or "oppressed" yourself, and can only be cured by exorcism and removal of the offending item. (Why, yes, you have heard of this concept before--it's pretty much identical to a lot of the same harmful concepts as exist in Scientology. And yes, it does tend to mess people up just as badly mentally. Seriously--replace "enturbulation" with "demonic oppression", "Suppressive Persons" with the "Serpent Seed", "Sea Orgs" with "Joel's Army" (or "Children of Destiny" or "Elijah's Army" or whatever they're calling it this month), "introspection rundowns" with "deliverance services", "body thetans" with "demons", and "Xenu" with "Satan" and it's pretty much the same bucket of toxic stew.)

And in their own version of "mocking up their reactive mind", erm, "conducting spiritual warfare"...books and other media are very, very frequently targeted. The works of J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling are a favourite target of censorship, due to their magical references (and despite the fact that both authors were Christians); C. S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle (who in part incorporated Christian apologetics explicitly in their works, especially Lewis) are also frequent targets for similar reasons. (Yes, it may surprise you to realise that the Narnia Chronicles have been challenged and even burned in pyres by Assemblies-linked groups; it happens, though.)

A brief list (and this actually is a brief list) of Assemblies and "Assemblies daughter" book-burnings (as in the literal kind, not the metaphorical kind) are as follows:

First Assembly of God (Minot, ND) book-burning, September 2006
Harvest Assembly of God (Butler, PA) bookburning, March 2001 (also noted here)
Jesus Party (Lewiston, ME) planned book-burning, later turned to "book cutting" after burning permit denied by fire dept., Nov. 2001
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_708627.html">Second protest from Jesus Party including destruction of Harry Potter books, Nov. 2002 (Jesus Party is a neopente group that is known to target kids for recruitment via "bait and switch" ice-cream socials)
Christ Community Church (Alamogordo, NM) book-burning, Dec. 2001 (Christ Community Church is a neopentecostal church of uncertain denominational affiliation, though it is likely either a "stealth Assemblies" or "Assemblies daughter" congregation; of note, at least one other source reports that Pokemon and an image of the Holy Buddha were also burned (Pokemon are often claimed to be Satanic by neopente churches) as well as "personal problems" written on paper (in typical neopente magicking similar to "naming and claiming" objects and people); was subject of large and organised counterprotest)
Full Gospel Assembly (Grande Cache, AB), 1990s (noted in Wikipedia article on book-burning;  church is member of Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, which is the name under which the Assemblies of God operates in the Great White North)
Jesus Non-Denominational Church (Greeneville, MI), August 2003 (JNDC is a neopente church that is in the "Assemblies family" of dominionist churches and is heavily into "name it and claim it" and is KJV-only; another media report notes Catholic rosaries and non-KJV Bibles were also burned)
Dominionist neopente churches in general, spreading to the larger dominionist movement (article re book challenges and book-burnings targeting Harry Potter in particular, notes involvement of Focus on the Family in challenges)
Multiple neopente churches (Forbes.com article on phenomenon of "book burning" parties in Assemblies and "Assemblies daughter" congregations)
Multiple neopente churches (from a "Christian blog" entry on the morality of book-burning--includes, notably, discussion from dominionists who justify the burning of books and records)
Dominionist groups in general (PFAW article on book censorship efforts by dominionist groups, noting how deliverance ministry is often used as an explicit justification)

I should note that the practice of book-burning (and record-burning) is nothing new at all among the Assemblies or its daughters.  Other incidents not related to Harry Potter:

Unknown Assemblies of God church, presumably 1950s-1960s (noted in review of Cal Thomas book on how Assemblies churches would burn Elvis albums; this is especially hilarious as apparently Elvis Presley was known to have grown up in the Assemblies)
Attempted destruction of pre-Columbian Mayan relics (documented in "Accounting for Fundamentalisms", chapter 5; El Shaddai church is neopente church in El Verbo Ministries, an "Assemblies daughter" heavily connected with genocidal regimes in Guatemala including (during the regime of Gen. Rios Montt) the genocide of at least 200,000 Mayans and displacement of upwards of a million more including as refugees worldwide)
Disruption of White Deer Ceremony (ongoing), Yurok Nation (documented at Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC; traditional religious practices have been targeted by neopentecostal church conducting "spiritual warfare" against this yearly renewal ceremony)
Unknown dominionist church, Monticello MN, 1982 (book and record burning photo from exhibition "Bonfire of the Liberties")
Numerous neopente churches (experiencefestival.com noting history of book-burnings, notes history of Assemblies record-burnings including those of Elvis (ironically, later an Assemblies member himself during his "gospel album" period), Ozzy Osbourne, and Iron Maiden)
Attempted destruction of tribal relics, Nigeria, 2007 (almost entirety of non-Catholic, non-Anglican Christianity in Nigeria is of neopentecostal bent and consists of Assemblies and "Assemblies daughters")

Of note, in the case where Harvest Assembly of God went on its book-burning spree, "deliverance ministry" was specifically invoked:

"It's just something a little different. We're not trying to create a riot or anything. Cleanse your house from ungodly items and idols. It's time to deal with ungodly and demonic books, tapes, videos, statues and any other thing that gives demons the opportunity to traffic into your life."

Some of the calls for the destruction of books go right to the point of calling for the neopentecostal equivalents of fatwas against fictional characters. One of the more infamous examples of this occuring in an Assemblies-linked group was in the movie "Jesus Camp"; a scene occurs where a pastor is calling for Harry Potter to be put to death (of note, whilst not well documented in most media, the "Jesus Camp" of motion picture infamy was run out of an Assemblies of God church).

For similar reasons to why Harry Potter et al are targeted, books giving non-condemnatory views of LGBT people are also targeted explicitly. The official viewpoint of the Assemblies (and yes, this is in fact an official position paper, one of two separate ones) is that LGBT people are going to hell, should be "degayed", and are a part of a vast conspiracy to convert everyone to being gay (no, I'm not making this up: the second link actually all but comes out and says this).

And this is actually understated, compared to what often goes on in Assemblies megachurches. Assemblies megachurches are often horrifically anti-LGBT both officially and politically, to the point of dead-agenting of LGBT groups in attempts to smear them, involuntary outings and "exorcisms" of LGBT youth and shipment to abusive facilities for "degaying", denomination-wide support of vicious anti-LGBT hate groups including endorsements from denominational leaders, and even the use of literal Holocaust denial in regards to LGBT folks to excuse promotion of hate (specifically via the promotion in many Assemblies churches of an execrable work called The Pink Swastika as true history; the book claims that not only were LGBT people not killed in the Holocaust but were its primary architects and are ringleaders in a worldwide Satanic conspiracy).

Small wonder in this, then, why books on LGBT issues are among the most frequently targeted for book bans.

And in cases where book bans are not successful--such as, thankfully, what seems to have been the case in Wasilla--neopente dominionists in particular are resorting to decidedly more direct methods of censorship. A recent report from the Kennebec Journal notes the increasing problem with dominionists all too willing to violate the Eighth Commandment in the name of censorship:

At the public library in Mount Vernon, someone waltzed off with the "Kama Sutra."

Copies of "What's Happening to my Body?" have vanished from Penquis Valley Middle and High School library in Milo.

Missing from the Lincoln Middle School library in Portland is a copy of "It's Perfectly Normal."

All three books deal with the subject of human sexuality, and all are sharing the spotlight with works on other controversial subjects this week during Banned Books Week.

Sponsored by the American Library Association and other groups, the annual event is designed to raise awareness of efforts to restrict access to books through censorship or other challenges. Libraries across the country will mark the week with special displays, public readings and other activities.

In Maine, there's a heightened awareness this year, at least among the state's librarians after a Lewiston woman checked out copies of "It's Perfectly Normal," a popular sex education book for young adolescents, from the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries.

JoAn Karkos refused to return the book, which she described as pornographic, and sent each library a $20 check to cover the cost of the loss. She faces a court fine in Lewiston and the loss of library privileges in Auburn.

Although Karkos wanted to limit access to the book, Lewiston library director Rick Speer said her action had precisely the opposite effect. Supporters of the library have donated new copies, more readers are checking out the book, and community reaction has been overwhelmingly in the library's favor, he said.

This is by far not the only case of "censorship via theft"; a book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin has also been the target of "censor-theft" due to people objecting to the idea of homosexual penguins, the book Sandpiper has been the target of censor-theft, Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate have also been victims of censor-theft (targeted because they are books concerning same-sex relationships aimed at younger kids), books supporting decriminalisation of marijuana have been targeted for censor-theft, a book discussing children around the world--including Cuban kids--in a positive light was targeted, and so on and so on. (Sadly, the disappearance of "Pastor, I Am Gay" from Wasilla-area libraries would also fit the pattern of "censorship by theft"--especially as there was an organised effort by Wasilla A/G to have the book removed from bookstores as well as libraries.)

It's in fact a severe enough problem that librarians are now having to address the specific issue of book theft as a form of attempted censorship and libraries nationwide are starting to compile most frequently stolen books lists--among other things, to track an increasing epidemic of "censorship via theft" in public libraries.

Disturbingly, dominionist groups are also increasingly embracing the concept of "censor-theft".  Family Friendly Libraries, a dominionist pro-censorship group that has had a history of pushing for censorship of Harry Potter books and which has promoted "reparative therapy", has also promoted the tactic of deliberately misfiling library material.

So between her "Let's go to war with the Russies" comment and her documented attempt (fortunately, one which met with epic fail) to backdoor book censorship in Wasilla (at the same time what is likely her real church attempted an organised book-ban campaign against a book on LGBT folks and faith issues!), we already have answers to one of the big questions:

Yes, unfortunately, Sarah Palin is likely to let her "Joel's Army" convictions override the rule of law. :(

All the more reason never to let her near the Presidency...or a heartbeat away from it.

Over the past few days, I've done reporting on Sarah Palin's extensive dominionist connections--including the attempt to run her as a "stealth" dominionist candidate and her connections to some scary dominionist groups including not just "Joel's Army" folks but a far-right Christian Reconstructionist political party linked to domestic terrorism.

As bad as all this--and the scandals regarding her misrule in both Wasilla and as state governor--are, there's apparently still more.

Today, we find that part of those funding scandals include the tax money of Alaskans used to pay for youth programs at Juneau Christian Center. We also reveal info regarding a particularly disturbing Assemblies frontgroup Palin recently did a talk at, and we go into researching the dominionist connections of her most recent church--Wasilla Bible Church.

* * *

Your tax dollars, going to support dominionism for kids

In another example of what appears to be some extensive whitewashing at almost all of Palin's former and present churches, there were some very interesting links removed from JCC's site regarding an interesting bit of largesse by Sarah Palin to the church.

Fortunately, an astute blogger happened to archive the material, which included not only documentation of a $25,000 grant to JCC's "The Hub" from Palin's administration, but also a request for $100,000 total in state and federal funding and pictures of Palin actually being at the opening of "The Hub" (which have since been scrubbed from her website).

And all is definitely *not* as it seems with "The Hub".

"The Hub" is essentially a frontgroup run by JCC for recruitment of future members--much of its activities focus on recruiting kids. The page itself begins with the phrase "Destiny Has Begun!"--a codephrase commonly used in "Joel's Army" circles to denote the "generation of destiny" (the new rebranding of "Joel's Army" borrowed from an Assemblies-linked church in New Zealand, now that the press is starting to catch onto the "Joel's Army" branding). "Destiny" in and of itself is a favourite codephrase in these circles--in "Joel's Army" theology, people are "destined" to inherit all manner of wealth and take over the planet and whatnot.

The original blogger has also noted he's received some info to suggest that ongoing prosyletisation may be going on at "The Hub":

I also found some publicly available videos about JCC's "Ground//Zero" youth program through a rather circuitous route that I won't post here to protect the privacy of people in the videos that lead me to believe that more goes on here than what is described in the application.

The "Ground//Zero" program, too, is worth noting--and even based on its rather scrubbed page, the intent is to essentially set up an army of teen "God Warriors":

ground//zero - the center of rapid or intense development or change.

Our name speaks our purpose. At ground//zero we have a vision to develop youth that are marked by purity, passion, and the presence of God. This vision exists to create young people that will carry ground//zero as a movement, not just a meeting.

ground//zero is not a place, it's not a time, but it is a movement transported by people that will impact this generation with a message that instills hope and a purpose. The movement meets Wednesday nights.

Doors open at 6:00PM and service begins at 6:30PM for Middle and High School service.

Doors open at 8:30PM and service begins at 9:00PM for University service (ages 18-26).

(Last I checked, "ground zero" was the central blast point of explosions. And also a name that at least the New York community would probably find in extremely poor taste.)

Seeing as it's actually been established through some quite official sources that Juneau Christian Center is an Assemblies church, that means that at least $25,000 of Alaskan taxpayers' money may have gone for active efforts to convert Alaskan teenagers to "Joel's Army" theology.

More evidence of Palin's dallyances with Joel's Army

Possibly some of the more damning info yet on Palin's membership in "Joel's Army" comes from the recent revelations of Palin's speech to a group called "Master's Commission". The full transcript of her speech has now come out, and it's actually *worse* than the initial reports of her claiming that Gulf War II was a holy crusade.

Some of the badness is from specific codewords she uses (at the beginning, she literally describes the members as being under the "umbrella of the church"--a codephrase used in orgs that use abusive "cell churches" to denote the cell-church relationship). And she gives some real zingers, too, including one which notes pretty much *why* I get alarm bells when I hear neopentecostal dominionist churches ranting about "destiny":

But, um, so, having grown up here, and having little kids growing up here also, this is such a special, special place. The Assembly of God here has been a real center point in the Valley for all these years, and the Valley has been a center point for the state of Alaska. So what comes from this church I think has great destiny. And I say this to the Master's Commission students who have been here under this umbrella, who are going to be sent out now and bringing people in.
. . .
I just want to bless you, and oh, because I didn't know if I was going to get here tonight, I flew in from Juneau last night and I fly again to Juneau tomorrow. So I didn't prepare anything, thinking my schedule wouldn't allow me to be here. But I have a word, but really I'm cheating 'cause it's a, I think it was given to me today but I'm going to give it to the Master's Commission students because I think it's so applicable to they are headed. And this word was given to me, bless his heart, by Pastor Ed Kalnins this morning at our big Valley-wide church service.

It was called Ephesians 1:17, and this is what I want to pray over you guys too: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you a spirit wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, and that spirit of revelation also including a spirit of prophecy, that God's going to tell you what is going on and what is going to go on, and you guys are going to have that within you, and it's just going to bubble up and bubble over and, and it's going to pour out over the state of Alaska. Again, good good things in store for the state of Alaska. Let us pray for God's will to be done here, for all of your destinies to be met in this state.

(Yes, you're reading this right--Palin is stating, flat out, that the whole reason that Alaska is rick in natural resources and why people are moving there is so that neopentes can hold the Great-Grandmother Of All Revivals.)

However, this isn't all of why this is disturbing. For the rest of it, you have to do a little bit of digging into Master's Commission itself.

The efforts at whitewashing haven't been so successful with Master's Commission, as a fellow blogger has recorded, but even more enlightenment is found via some Google-massaging.

There are a number of groups using this name (and a surprising number of them are Joel's Army connected, indicating this may be one of the "rebrandings" we need to keep an eye on), but in this particular case, the "Master's Commission" we're concerned about is a post of an Assemblies frontgroup at Wasilla A/G that is connected to Phoenix A/G (Ted Haggard's present church). Whilst the main headquarters are now in Texas, the group did have its origins in the largest Assemblies church in the US (and one of the largest megachurches in the country).

The group promotes itself as a "discipling and shepherding" group (which is bad enough), but the info on Wasilla A/G's site--amazingly, not yet redacted--is even worse.

A preview of just how far we're going to be going into the rabbit hole becomes obvious on the website for Master's Commission North Pole (the state org--which, incidentially, has one of the most annoying Flash-based websites known). Aside from all the "sword" imagery and spouting off "destiny" every five seconds, it's let out that participants engage in "marathon fasting" of the type popularly promoted in Assemblies circles (which is to say, 21- and 40-day fasts with nothing but water, no food); in comparison, Lent just drops certain food groups, and Ramadhan only has daytime fasting. Such extreme fasts are considered quite unhealthy by medical personnel, and are seen as one major "warning sign" of a potentially abusive religious group.

Have I also mentioned the fun of the group targeting Native Alaskan and Inuit communities for conversion? And this is just baby steps, really, compared to what we're about to dive into.

The truth is, the group exists primarily as an ordination mill for the Assemblies of God:

Q: What sort of materials will I be taught?

A:
-Berean School of the Bible (work towards being credentialed with Assemblies of God)
-Scripture Memory (hidding God's word in our hearts)
-John Bevere Curriculum (Under Cover and Bait of Satan)
-Francis Frangipane (In Christ's Image Training)
-Steve Thompson (developing and operating in prophetic ministry)

Of note, that "Berean School of the Bible" is the Assemblies of God's mail-order correspondence school--and the Assemblies tends to have particularly lax standards for ordination (you can get by with two good words from other Assemblies preachers, a multiple choice "Bible quiz", and two years of "ministerial experience" without setting foot in a seminary hall).

Another sign that Something Is Not Right is the fact that a big part of the work of "Master's Commission" is working with another Assemblies front--namely, the "Dream Center" chain of "faith based rehabs":

Here at Masters Commission Wasilla Alaska you will be involved in many different ministries. Here are just some of them:

. . .

Dream Center: You will be serving Rob and Cherise Hyslip who are taking on the vision of a dream center here in Wasilla. Like the one Pastors Matthew and Tommy Barnett have started in L.A., it is a shelter and resource for those facing homelessness, poverty, drug addiciton, and hopelessness.

Ah, yes, Dream Center. :P Dream Center is one of several chains of "Faith Based Rehabs" that the Assemblies of God operates; in Dream Center's case, it is largely the Western District of the Assemblies promoting it, but it has spread to areas outside the Western District (such as Alaska). Past readers may remember Dream Center Phoenix as the site of Ted Haggard's so-far-unsuccessful degaying (he was ultimately dismissed from the program, as expected).

And--much like other Assemblies-operated "faith based rehab" chains such as Teen Challenge and Mercy Ministries, there have been reports of abuse...some egregrious.

One of the more disturbing reports of abuse at Dream Center facilities involves profiteering off Katrina evacuees and holding them in conditions identical to people in rehab (complete with random pee tests). Much like similar cases at Teen Challenge, at least one facility had a registered sex offender working with youth in Dream Center St. Louis in violation of Missouri law, and there are similarly coercive practices at Dream Center as exist at Mercy Ministries and Teen Challenge (including forced conversions as a condition of receiving aid--including Katrina evacuees who were targeted quite aggressively

Back to "Master's Commission", though. Probably some of the most damning material as to *what* and *whom* that speech Palin made was meant for is revealed on the "About Alaska" page, including textbook use of the term "Destiny" as a neopente dominionist codeword--and noting some very frequent offenders here:

Alaska has a divine destiny that has been spoken about by many church leaders and prophetic leaders from all over the world such as Dutch Sheets, Todd Bently, Steve Thompson, Woody Woodson, and Dr. Cho just to name a few.
You will have an awesome opportunity here in Master's Commission Wasilla Alaska to partner with God as he is getting ready to pour out His Spirit like never seen before and cause a great awakening that will see millions all across our world come to know the Lord in a radical and intimate way.

If this isn't a veritable "who's who" of modern Joel's Army promoters, I don't know what is.

Listed prominently is Todd Bentley, who recently became the primary focus on a new Southern Poverty Law Center article on "Joel's Army" groups; also listed prominently is Paul Yonggi Cho (nee David Yonggi Cho), head of the largest megachurch in the world in Seoul and pretty much the "founding father" of Joel's Army stuff in the Assemblies--oh, yes, and there's always Cho's lovely connections to the party responsible for a particularly genocidal attempt to establish the Republic of Gilead in Guatemala. Steve Thompson is connected with Rick Joyner's Morningstar Ministries (and Rick Joyner is one of *the* names most consistently connected with "Joel's Army") and tends to show up frequently in reference material re "Joel's Army"; Dutch Sheets is a real piece of work and a major, major promoter of this stuff as well (in fact, he's also engaging in rebranding of "Joel's Army" as "Gideon's Army" on his end) with connections to "Joel's Army" promoter C. Peter Wagner. Woody Woodson is probably the most obscure of the lot--he's heavily promoted on the Assemblies "traveling pastor" circuit along with a number of "word-faith" promoters.

And this is *still* not the full extent of the "Joel's Army" linkage; one group they're connected with is the International House Of Prayer along with Morningstar Ministries. (The International House Of Prayer has been mentioned in the SPLC report om "Joel's Army" groups; I am, to this day, surprised that the proprietors have not had the living you-know-what sued out of them by the proprietors of the International House of Pancakes.)

If that's not enough to curl your nosehairs, apparently the intent--as I noted above--is to essentially hold the Great-Grandmother of Revivals, for the express purpose of turning the Great White North into Jesusland:

In 1967 during the Alaska Purchase Centennial, Richard Peter wrote our Alaska State Motto. The motto is meant to represent Alaska as a land of promise. "North to The Future", we believe this is Prophetic; Alaska will be in the middle of a great outpouring.

Yes, you read that right...apparently the state motto is seen as a prophecy of a giant tent meeting. I can't make this up if I tried.

Again, I hope this puts to rest any doubt on the whole "Joel's Army" thing. :3

And her present congregation aren't exactly angels, either

Compared to this, Palin's present congregation--Wasilla Bible Church--seems rather harmless.

Unfortunately, appearances can be deceiving...especially with all the whitewashing of info critical of Palin going on. Wasilla Bible Church may not be Assemblies-scary, but it *is* definitely in the "SBC-level of dominionism, post-steeplejack" levels of "worrisome".

Finding out any solid info in regards to Wasilla Bible Church has been difficult, because there's very little info on the church's website; it claims to be nondenominational, but some things like the Statement of Faith point to similarities to so-called "Independent Christian Churches" (which, in the case of the megachurch variety, trend dominionist).

And an early, non-purged Internet Archive version of Wasilla Bible Church's page already turns up, as early as 2003, links to Focus on the Family--and both WBC and its parent church, as we'll see, are closely connected to FotF.

The linkage continues to the present day--in the most recent church flyer I've been able to find online, a Focus on the Family frontgroup called "Love Won Out"--which promotes the "degaying" bogosity--is actively promoted.

We actually tend to find more revealing info at the *parent* church of Wasilla Bible Church--a Palmer, Alaska church by the name of Lazy Mountain Bible Church. Again, there's an almost-deliberate attempt to hide where the origin was (all that is noted is that people apparently came to Alaska to found the church at some unidentified date, no bios on the pastors, no nothing)...but there are some indications of a potential neopente bent, and a *definite* dominionist bent.

One of the first warning signs is actually from a want-ad for an assistant pastor--specifically someone into "discipling and shepherding". (I mentioned earlier how this could be a Bad Thing in regards to Wasilla A/G.)

One surprising thing that I did find in research was apparent promotion of a popular women's writer in SBC circles within Lazy Mountain's church newsletter; in the same newsletter, though, we also find more promotion for that FotF frontgroup conference.

Another thing that pinged my radar--and may give a clue to the true denominational affiliation of WBC and its parent--was the discovery of a "Potter's Group" course. This raised my alert, in part, because some highly abusive "Assemblies daughters" tend to use this imagery (including the "Potter's House" group).

The application also gives hints of a potentially neopente group--it is in fact very similar to the form Matt Taibbi filled out to attend weekend at John Hagee's "Jesus Camp for Grownups" that turned into a literal vomitorium. (One of the giveaways we may be dealing with neopentes: one of the questions asked re abuse is a history of "Satanic Ritual Abuse", something that is pretty much *only* taken seriously in neopentecostal circles and which has been pretty well thoroughly debunked elsewhere.) Interestingly, it is one of the few applications for joining a cell-church group that I've seen that includes an indemnity form.

And yes, this *too* has links to Focus on the Family:

An Adult Sunday School Class featuring Focus on the Family's The Truth Project meets at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday mornings in room #11. The class is facilitated by Jonathon Peters, Doug Prins and Ed White.

A Truth Project Discussion Group will meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. in the home of Ed White. This is open to men and women.

(Again, the "Truth Project" is a little FotF project--only this time going for explicit dominionist indoctrination, in a surprisingly blatant attempt (via cell-churches)...and when I mean blatant, I mean flat out Christian Nationalism 101.)

And it wouldn't just be these two pet projects the "Bible Churches" in question are associated with. Another group that LWBC likes to promote is the Alliance Defense Fund--a dominionist legal group that effectively operates as the de facto legal battering-ram of FotF. (Yes, it's little known, but the Alliance Defense Fund *is* actually a Focus on the Family "daughter".)

The particular speaker that LWBC had from ADF is also particularly damning--and disturbingly in-line with Palin's past history. Chuck Lane, in addition to being a regional ADF head, also has connections with Campus Crusade for Christ (yes, the same Campus Crusade now linked to attempts at military steeplejacking and coercive tactics aimed at college students, among other fun things--yes, the same Campus Crusade that runs the "Fellowship of Christian Athletes" that Palin held membership in, the same one that is practically joined at the hip with the Assemblies) *and* Promise Keepers (the infamous dominionist "men's org" that came into controversy because of its use of abusive "cell church" tactics; to this day, Promise Keepers is still listed as a coercive religious group by some exit counselors).

Of note...this is on *top* of the documented promotion of conversion of Jewish people to "Messianic Jews"; in fact, the speaker in question literally blamed terrorist attacks against the Israeli community on Jewish people failing to convert and God giving a smiting as a result:

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

And yes, this is the same "Jews for Jesus" that is almost universally considered a coercive religious group because of deceptive recruitment tactics--as documented by many independent researchers and exit counselors (in fact, the last exit counselor noted got into exit counseling due to attempts by Jews for Jesus to recruit his grandmother when she was in a nursing home).

And this is *still* not all. Apparently, WBC's pastor has pulled his own version of a John Hagee foot-bullet--claiming in a sermon that America is due for a smitin' due to "rampant immorality".

So...yeah, Wasilla Bible Church are definitely not angels here.

And it's not entirely accurate to say that WBC is her sole congregation, either. Some media reports have indicated she may be attending both WBC *and* Juneau Christian Center--though there's definitely some ongoing spin on that.

And in fact, it looks like Wasilla Bible Church itself has been recruited into whitewashing the muck covering Palin:

On Monday, the church had another cause for notoriety. Kroons told NEWSWEEK that Palin's campaign staff had contacted him that morning to ask for his discretion when discussing the pregnancy of Palin's teenage daughter Bristol. "All I'll say is that Bristol is a young lady. We care about her and want to support her and the family," Kroons said. Ashley Brown, another pastor at the church, said he'd also been contacted by the campaign with the same request.

All the more reason, methinks, to keep shining that million-candlepower light in Palin's direction.

A few days ago, I wrote one of the first articles out there regarding Sarah Palin's VP nomination as a "stealth dominionist"--a "stealther" with extensive Assemblies connections (and to particularly scary segments of the Assemblies, as we'll get into) as well as dominionist orgs like Campus Crusade frontgroups and deceptive "feminist" anti-reproductive-healthcare groups.

The thing is, I may have just scratched the surface.

Much has been made of the recent revelation that Sarah Palin may be connected to the "Alaska Independence Party", but not revealed is its connection to the far-right Constitution Party--and she not only has attempted censorious campaigns in office, but was also apparently put in the GOP vice-presidential spot by none other than the kingmakers of the dominionist movement in the US.

* * *

New information re Palin's church...and what it could mean for you

In my original post, I noted Sarah Palin's membership in a "stealth Assemblies" congregation--that is, an Assemblies of God church that tries very hard to hide the fact from outsiders that it is, in fact, an Assemblies of God church. This is pretty much a danger sign in and of itself, especially to those of us familiar with the Assemblies and its increasingly strident calls from district leaders for literal holy war with the rest of America.

However, a recent Harper's Magazine article reveals just WHY she shouldn't be near a borough dogcatcher position, much less a literal heartbeat away from the office of President.

For starters, apparently the church she presently attends maintains *very* close relations with John Hagee's "Christians United For Israel". I've written on Hagee in past--ironically, Hagee was one of two "Joel's Army"-connected pastors McCain formerly used as "spiritual advisors" in an attempt to curry favour with the dominionist wing of the GOP.

And this relationship is troubling, to say the least, because Hagee and CUFI have a real love of seeing Israel as a literal "Armageddon pawn" to make the Rapture hurry the hell up and get here--including destroying the Dome on the Rock to build the Third Temple, if necessary (and yes, they've done Photoshopped images of just this). This is also the same lovely fellow, of note, who also essentially termed the nuking of the East Coast as a divine pimp-slapping.

And it'd appear that Mike Rose of Juneau Christian Center shares remarkably similar sentiments:

From an April 27, 2008 sermon: "If you really want to know where you came from and happen to believe the word of God that you are not a descendant of a chimpanzee, this is what the word of God says. I believe this version."

From a July 8, 2007 sermon: "Those that die without Christ have a horrible, horrible surprise."

From a July 28, 2007 sermon: "Do you believe we're in the last days? After listening to Newt Gingrich and the prime minister of Israel and a number of others at our gathering, I became convinced, and I have been convinced for some time. We are living in the last days. These are incredible times to live in."

The sad thing is, this may actually be less extreme than her former congregation. Between her membership at Wasilla A/G and JCC, she apparently attended another neopente church--Church on the Rock, a neopente "Assemblies daughter". Like JCC, it promotes cell-churches and the usual other claptrap--and also a healthy dose of Armageddonism and "Joel's Army" War On America:

From an November 25, 2007 sermon: "The purpose for the United States is… to glorify God. This nation is a Christian nation."

From an October 28, 2007 sermon: "God will not be mocked. I don't care what the ACLU says. God will not be mocked. I don't care what atheists say. God will not be mocked. I don't care what's going on in the nation today with so much horrific rebellion and sin and things that take place. God will not be mocked. Judgment Day is coming. Where do you stand?"

From an October 28, 2007 sermon: "Just giving in a little bit is a disastrous thing…You can't serve both man and God. It is one or the other."

Disturbingly, it would appear that Sarah Palin may have been expressing "God Warrior" sentiments as early as her membership in Wasilla A/G, literally proclaiming that the US Armed Forces in Iraq were on a literal holy crusade:

Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

This is not entirely surprising, hearing some of the sermons at Wasilla A/G:

The church runs a number of ministries providing help to poor neighborhoods, care for children in need, and general community services. But Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."
. . .
If the church had a political alignment, it would almost surely be conservative. In his sermons, Kalnins did not hide his affections for certain national politicians.

During the 2004 election season, he praised President Bush's performance during a debate with Sen. John Kerry, then offered a not-so-subtle message about his personal candidate preferences. "I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry." Kalnins added: "If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time."

Months after hinting at possible damnation for Kerry supporters, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. "I hate criticisms towards the President," he said, "because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you."

Much of his support for the current administration has come in the realm of foreign affairs. Kalnins has preached that the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq were part of a "world war" over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives.

What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

As for his former congregant and current vice presidential candidate, Kalnins has asserted that Palin's election as governor was the result of a "prophetic call" by another pastor at the church who prayed for her victory. "[He made] a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know."

For those of you who had doubts about my initial claim that she attended "Joel's Army" churches that wanted to establish a theocracy by hook or by crook...consider the question answered.

Palin tries to strongarm book censorship

According to a recent Time Magazine article, it would appear Palin was almost singlehandedly responsible for bringing nasty state-level GOP-style politics to Alaska's "Bible Belt", and that she pretty much ran as a dominionist-friendly candidate to get that mayoral position:

One thing all sides agree on is that the valley was in flux. The old libertarian pioneer ethos was giving way to a rising Christian conservatism. By shrewdly invoking issues that mattered to the ascendant majority, Palin won the mayor's race. But while she may have been a new face, says Naegele, she was no maverick — not yet. "The state party gave her the mechanism to get into that office," says Naegele. "As soon as she was confident enough to brush them off, she did. But she wasn't an outsider to start with. She very much had to kowtow to them."

Once in office, one of her very first acts was an attempt to strongarm book censorship in--even threatening to fire officials unwilling to toe the line and putting a "muzzle order" on all city officials to prevent press leaks:

At some point in those fractious first days, Palin told the department heads they needed her permission to talk to reporters. "She put a gag order on those people, something that you'd expect to find in the big city, not here," says Naegele. "She flew in there like a big-city gal, which she's not. It was a strange time, and [the Frontiersman] came out very harshly against her."

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

This should not be entirely surprising, however...as we'll soon see.

Palin's links with the Constitution Party

When I had heard the initial info re Sarah Palin's speeches and former membership in the Alaskan Independence Party, I had a few alarm bells ringing--among other things, the group does have known links to the Christian Reconstructionist and neo-Confederate group "Christian Exodus" as well as racist neo-Confederates "League Of The South" (see referral links at their home site), and a number of Constitution Party state affiliates also use similar names.

Today, it appears, none other than Fredrick Clarkson has confirmed my suspicions:

But what has not been reported as far as I can tell, is that the AIP is the Alaska affiliate of the Constitution Party, founded by Howard Phillips, and has been the political home to leading theocratic Christian Reconstructionism such as John Lofton, Otto Scott, Joe Morecraft and movement founder R.J. Rushdoony himself. It has also been the party of some of the most militant anti-abortion activists in the U.S. such as Matthew Trewhella and Ralph Ovadal of Missionaries to the Preborn and for many years Randall Terry -- until he decided to run (unsuccessfully) in a primary challenge to an incumbent Republican State Senator Jim King (who had stood up to the Religious Right  during the Terri Schiavo episode.)  More recently perennial GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes unsuccessfully sought the Constitution Party nomination.  Currently the third largest political party in the U.S. in terms of membership, it is usually on the ballot in about 35 states.

To say that this is a Bad, Bad, Bad Thing is quite possibly the understatement of this century.

For those who are new to this diary series, the Constitution Party is a political party that back in the 1980s used to be known as the US Taxpayer's Party. It actually manages to make the Texas GOP (probably the most thoroughly hijacked-by-dominionists GOP convention in the US) look downright moderate in its viewpoints; it has also historically been a political wing of the branch of the far-right most historically linked to domestic terrorism in the US.

And this "Happy Family" in the Constitution Party, of note, has included not only racist and neo-Confederates but literal bombers and assassins and "Christian Patriot" militia members. Some of the supporters of the Constitution Party in past--including that Matthew Trewhella mentioned above--http://www.skepticfiles.org/moretext/mushwak.htm">have literally called for armed insurrection against the United States and passed around petitions claiming that Army of God domestic terrorist attacks and assassinations of women's clinic workers were "justifiable homicide". Mr. Trewhella himself kept his own hitlist:

Rev. Matthew Trewhella --USTP National Committee, Wisconsin. A signer of Paul Hill's Defensive Action statement, Trewhella leads the anti-abortion group Missionaries to the Pre-Born. At the USTP Wisconsin state convention, he called for the formation of armed militias, such as the one he leads through his church. Newsweek reports that one member of the Missionaries who lived in Trewhella's basement for five months in 1990) kept a journal which included apparent plans for a guerrilla campaign of clinic
bombings and assassinations of doctors. What's more, a 100 page guerrilla army manual was sold by the USTP of Wisconsin at their May convention. Among the manual's justifications for armed resistance to the federal government is legalized abortion.

In part because of some bang-up investigative work on the US Taxpayers Party's more unsavory connections (including to Christian Identity groups gunning for "racial holy war", the usual "God Warriors With Guns And Bombs", links to the "tax protester" movement claiming that the Sixteenth Amendment was never ratified and that people given citizenship under the Thirteenth and Twentieth Amendments were untermenschen and just "subjects" but all white male landowners were Real Honest-To-God Citizens not bound to most laws, etc.) they changed their name in 1992 to the Constitution Party--hoping to throw off some of that bad press.

In fact, the Constitution Party (under its prior name, the US Taxpayer's Party) ended up listed as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center and was subjected to "dead-agenting"--character assassination--by a state head of the party. The listing as a hate org was only consolidated in the late 90s, when Michael Peroutka (a recent Constitution Party presidential candidate) became a member of the racist League of the South.

Yes, you are reading this right, folks; from 1992 to 1996, Sarah Palin was a card-carrying member of what is the de facto political wing of far-right domestic terrorist networks, including the most extreme branches of "Joel's Army" groups, in the US.

And finally, info from the horse's mouth

And--as has been suspected by many of us--info is now filtering out to suggest she was specifically proffered up by the dominionist wing of the party, and specifically by a secretive group long known as dominionist "kingmakers".

Max Blumenthal, who has spent quite some time watching the group known as the Council for National Policy--a secretive, invitation-only group that essentially acts as the "five year planning committee" for political dominionist and neoconservative groups--has confirmed through his sources that Palin has received the CNP's official blessing in possibly the most enthusiastic greeting of a pro-dominionist candidate since Reagan:

I learned of the get-together only through an online commentary by one of its attendees, top Dobson/Focus on the Family flack Tom Minnery. (Watch it here) Minnery described the mood as CNP members watched Palin accept her selection as John McCain's Vice Presidential pick. "I was standing in the back of a ballroom filled with largely Republicans who were hoping against hope that something would put excitement back into this campaign," Minnery said. "And I have to tell you, that speech by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin -- people were on their seats applauding, cheering, yelling... That room in Minneapolis watching on the television screen was electrified. I have not seen anything like it in a long time."
. . .
The members of the Council for National Policy are the hidden hand behind McCain's Palin pick. With her selection, the Republican nominee is suddenly -- and unexpectedly -- assured of the support of a movement that once opposed his candidacy with all its might. Case in point: while Dobson once said he could "never" vote for McCain, he issued a statement last week hailing Palin as an "outstanding" choice. If Dobson's enthusiasm for Palin is any indication, he may soon emerge from his bunker in Colorado Springs to endorse McCain, providing the Republican nominee with the backing of the Christian right's single most influential figure.

Combined with what else we know, this is incredibly frightening--especially considering that, if McCain gets elected, Palin may literally be but a heartbeat away from the Presidency and the Big Red Button.

This is too important to let this remain stealthed...it's time to shed some light on the subject.

The big news, obviously, in the blogosphere today is John McCain's surprise pick for the Republican veep nominee--a relative unknown by the name of Sarah Palin, whom--at least in the more conventional political circles--would appear to be a complete cypher.

Unfortunately, if one digs just a bit deeper, Palin is found to have some very interesting--and very disturbing--connections...among them, being potentially the first Assemblies-linked VP candidate, being a member of a "pro-life" group promoting itself as a feminist org, and having a number of links to dominionist groups targeting kids via "bait and switch" evangelism.
. . .
Sarah Palin's connections that McCain doesn't want you to know about

There are quite a number of extremely troubling links between Sarah Palin and neopentecostal dominionists--enough that, in truth, she may be ultimately as much of a "dream candidate" for the dominionist movement as Mike Huckabee was. Even worse, she's running in a manner that has been frighteningly successful for dominionist groups since the early 80's--specifically, as a "stealth candidate".

Palin's Assemblies linkage

The first link in and of itself is a doozy--and one of the most damning indeed. No less than the official newsletter of the Assemblies of God of Alaska promotes her proudly as one of the denomination's own, and she was actually feted at an official function of the Assemblies' Alaska District as recently as this year:

The opening night banquet of the 2008 Alaska District Council was honored to have Governor Sarah Palin address the delegates and guests. Governor Palin spoke of her appreciation for the Assemblies of God and requested that the Council pray for both her and the State of Alaska. Superintendent Ted Boatsman, who was Palin's junior high pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God, along with Pastor Mike Rose of Juneau Christian Center, where Palin presently attends church when in Juneau, laid hands on the Governor and led the Council in prayer.

Palin, who was elected Governor in 2007, is Alaska's youngest governor and the first female governor of the state. She just recently gave birth to her fifth child, Trig. Palin spoke of the faith challenge she faced when learning that Trig would be a Downs Syndrome child. However, she and her husband, Todd, believe that every child is a gift of God, deserving of life, and that God was asking them to accept His will for their lives. The Alaska District Council believes that the State of Alaska is blessed to have a woman of faith and courage as Governor.

A look at the home website of Palin's church tends to be revealing. Among other things, a particular Assemblies buzzword associated frequently with Hillsong A/G and New Zealand Assemblies churches shows up ("Destiny", here, is a buzzword for "Joel's Army", and is being preferred even as the phrase "Joel's Army" is getting enough negative spin that even the Assemblies is now having to do some rather massive spin control); cell churches are promoted (of the same sort that are linked to short-term and longterm psychological damage and are among the most coercive tactics ever documented in spiritually abusive groups). The church, like a number of other large Assemblies churches, is the center of a dominionist broadcast TV center whose programming is carried across multiple channels in Alaska.

In a trend that has been recently documented by no less than Southern Poverty Law Center (in its recent report on the Joel's Army movement), the church operates a Seven Project-esque targeted recruitment campaign aiming at teens (this is common across the Assemblies and across "Joel's Army" groups in general; fully a third of the documented national-level front groups operated by the Assemblies target teens).

And...believe you me, Palin's church is *definitely* "Joel's Army".

Mike Rose, pastor of Juneau Christian Center (Palin's church), is noted to be connected with the "Third Wave Movement"--a movement in neopente dominionist circles that is the major theological home of "Joel's Army". In fact, he's quite closely connected with Rodney Howard-Browne, a major (in fact, for some years, *the* major promoter) of "Third Wave" neopente dominionism, and actively promotes this insanity in his church:

1. Mike Rose

Mike is an AOG pastor in the largest city in Alaska, who had Rodney Howard-Browne minister in his church four years ago. At that time, they had a congregation of 200, but over the last 4 years, they have seen it grow to 600 in a community of 35,000.

The format that Mike uses is one which gives a balanced approach to church life, allowing for worship and the Word, ministry to the unsaved as well as impartation of the Holy Spirit.

To do this, he has followed a fairly traditional Sunday morning worship service with worship, communion and preaching of the Word, as well as all the other activities which occur in our morning services, such as dedications and so on.

If there are two or three people who are perhaps crying or laughing uncontrollably, the ushers will gently lead them into the prayer room where they can continue to enjoy the presence of Jesus without affecting those around them.

However, he is also open to the possible occasions when the Holy Spirit will just sweep over the service and the majority of the people will be either laughing, crying or worshipping at one time.

His Sunday evening service generally lasts for three to four hours, compared to the morning one of around two hours. At the conclusion of the evening evangelistic endeavour, people are invited to open up their hearts and hunger for a fresh touch of the Spirit. It was during these times that the powerful manifestations will take place and, having observed what has been happening in our Adelaide meetings over the last few weeks, these times have a great similarity to the old time Pentecostal camp meeting or tarrying services where people received a fresh touch of God.

Mike encourages his people to hunger and has taught them along that line. He helped them to understand and develop a new sensitivity to the ways of the Holy Spirit. His observations were:

* You cannot sustain a move of the Spirit without hunger.

* Corrections need to be made from time to time.

* Don't just get fascinated by the move of God, but rather keep your eyes on Jesus.

* Mission giving and outreach evangelism should be a prominent part of this move and the churches which don't reach out soon dry up.

He encourages us not to hype it up and that there needs to be a continual emphasis on holiness and that only qualified people should lay hands on those who have come for prayer.

Mike is also an adviser on Rodney Howard-Browne's Revival Ministries committee, along with three or four other AOG pastors in the USA. He informed me that he had sat in over 110 of Rodney's meetings and been impressed by the lack of pressure and hype, but by the powerful anointing of the Spirit which accompanies this young man.

As to *why* Howard-Browne's involvement is distressing--well, this previous article should give some pointers, but suffice it to say that another notable church he's had close connections with is the very church I am a walkaway from--hence how I know some of this up close and personal.

Some of the fun includes literal imprecatory prayers and curses against critics and literally accusing critics even within pentecostal circles of literal blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

Rodney Howard-Browne gave this 'prophesy' last year at New Life Center: 'Do not compromise. For if you compromise, you shall not only lose the anointing that I placed upon you, you shall lose your life.'" [T.A. McMahon, "Experience-Driven Spirituality," The Berean Call, May 1995, page 4]
. . .
"I'm telling your right now," [Rodney Howard-Browne] hissed, "you'll drop dead if you prohibit what God is doing!" Dramatically he gestured toward the crowd [at Melodyland Christian Center, Anaheim, CA, 1/17/95] and warned them
that those like me, who would dare to question that what he was doing was of God, had committed the unpardonable sin and would not be forgiven in this world or the next." [Hank Hanegraaf, "Counterfeit Revival" (1997), page 22]

Bad news...but it doesn't stop there.

Palin's links to "Feminists" For Life, a deceptive anti-abortion group

As if the Assemblies links weren't enough (and between this diary and the stuff that has been reported re John Ashcroft--much less George W. Bush's consistent support for Assemblies frontgroups--that should be a pretty big damn danger sign right there!), there's still more to indicate Sarah Palin may have been put in as a "stealth dominionist".

Among other things, Palin explicitly promoted "teach the controversy" by calling for the misnamed "creation science" to be taught in public schools (as now well documented in Kitzmiller vs. Dover School District, it's known that "creation science" is nothing more and nothing less than a method of putting young-earth creationism in public schools).

It also appears that Sarah Palin is a member of a misnamed group called Feminists for Life. FFL in fact engages in "cultural appropriation" of women's suffrage icons to promote a very woman-unfriendly agenda that--despite attempts to sound "not like those crazies in Operation Rescue"--would not only criminalise abortion but the IUD and hormonal birth control methods, and potentially everything outside the rhythm method (the term "abortifacient birth control" is a codephrase in the dominionist "pro-life" community for hormonal birth control--partly due to a unique urban legend claiming "the pill" and other hormonal birth control causes abortion and partly because of a unique definition of pregnancy beginning at conception rather than at implantation (the latter is what most mainstream OB/GYNs use) and thus making *anything* preventing implantation potentially "abortifacient").

FFL promotes such fun bogosities as "post-abortion syndrome" (the idea that having an abortion will inevitably lead to PTSD and insanity), and promotes mandatory waiting periods and misinformation guidelines that can be insurmountable for poor or rural women--even those forced to make the most heartbreaking choice because of a nonviable pregnancy. In fact, one of their biggest causes isn't feminist at all--they actively promote the idea that the best choice for women is to stay home as fulltime mothers, and it can be well argued that the only traditionally feminist viewpoint they really support is women's suffrage!

One of the big things FFL promotes is deceptive "pregnancy counseling centers"--where pregnant teens are forced to essentially listen to an altar call on how "abortionists want to murder their children" whilst a pee-stick test clears--and if she tests "yes", she gets a hard-sell to keep the child or to check herself into a dominionist-run "halfway house for teenage moms" where she will ultimately be forced to sign her kid over. (Yes, there is an entire private adoption industry in the dominionist community--mostly focusing on adopting out the infants of poor teenage mothers who have been forced to give their kids up and who have been either scared into it or checked into such facilities by their parents.)

Ironically, FFL itself is rather a "stealth" organisation in and of itself--yes, even the dominionists admit this. Interestingly, despite their claims of being more "moderate" than most anti-abortion groups, very few real solutions are offered on how they intend to fund such things (which can be boiled down to "CHOOSE TO BREED").

Palin's links with Campus Crusade frontgroups

Palin's linkages don't stop there. In Kaylene Johnson's book Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down (2008, Epicenter Press) it's mentioned that Palin was head of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes branch in her school--up to and including leading team prayers.

It is helpful to know a bit of FCA's past history to know why this is a matter of concern. FCA is, in fact, a known frontgroup of the coercive dominionist group Campus Crusade for Christ--yes, the selfsame Campus Crusade that has such close links to the Assemblies of God that it can be described as a "conjoined twin" of the Assemblies and the same one documented as having links to an ever-widening prosyletisation scandal in our Armed Forces. FCA also gets quite a lot of cash from de facto Assemblies funding-front Hobby Lobby--a chain, of note, that has bailed out a neopente university and has even funded paramilitary "Joel's Army" groups targeting teens.

The links between FCA and a particular Hobby Lobby frontgroup, Bearing Fruit Communications, are particularly close. At least one member of Bearing Fruit's board of directors (T. Ray Grandstaff) is a former Senior VP for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Regarding FCA itself, the group has been linked to dominionism in numerous ways; they are well known for "bait and switch" evangelism (in fact, they and Athletes in Action are among the two groups most frequently banned from public school campuses due to bait-and-switch "altar calls" marketed as anti-drug talks to the school administration). More info here. (Such tactics are a favourite of dominionist groups explicitly targeting youth.) It's also well known (and, apparently, explicitly by design) that Fellowship of Christian Athletes rather aggressively "dominionist-ises" any team they are let into (this tends to be bad even within the NFL, but even more so within FCA groups run in colleges and high schools).

Of particular note, FCA has close links with the US Air Force Academy religious coercion controversies (and is but one of *multiple* Campus Crusade frontgroups documented by Military Religious Freedom Foundation as involved in military religious coercion scandals), and the ACLU has had to fight them since the 60's because of religious coercion (in particular, Jewish people tend to be targeted, according to the anti-cult group Rick Ross Foundation); in addition, it is explicitly supported by dominionist groups, and explicitly partners with other dominionist groups targeting youth (including Chi Alpha (an Assemblies of God frontgroup), Campus Crusade for Christ, and even scarier groups like "See You At The Pole" (infamous for, among other things, nailing people's names to crosses and "praying" over them to essentially curse people in the name of Christ to convert or suffer) and Council for National Policy).

And finally, the dominionists themselves like her

As expected, many if not most of the dominionist groups in the US have given explicit approval for Palin on her anti-abortion bona-fides alone--including Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, and a pack of the more extreme dominionist anti-abortion groups.

I'm not the only one to have noticed the rather extensive dominionist bona-fides--Pastor Dan over on Street Prophets has noted this as well. Frederick Clarkson over on Talk to Action has also noted salutations from two other dominionist leaders--one being Kenneth Blackwell, who was the "dream candidate" of neopente dominionists in his home state (fortunately, he lost the gubernatorial election).

Chip Berlet has also noted on Talk to Action a further endorsement from Eagle Forum--the oldest dominionist political group aside from "The Family" and the Assemblies-linked FGBMFI.

In addition, it would seem she may well have quite a bit of approval from dominionists in general--that is, if the barometer of the Texas GOP Convention is to be believed. (The Texas GOP is one of the most thoroughly steeplejacked GOP conventions in the US; many of the official party platforms are indistinguishable from Constitution Party platforms.) The Houston Chronicle reports:

"It's a slam dunk. I think that people who are concerned about 'How conservative is Mr. McCain' are now going to say, 'If he can make a choice of Sarah Palin, then he can be trusted with our conservative ideals,' " said delegate Cathie Adams, Republican National Committeewoman-elect and president of the Texas Eagle Forum.
. . .
"I always thought he needed to pick a woman," said Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, former president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women. "I think Hillary Clinton's campaign stimulated a lot of interest among women voters, and I think this is going to hit a chord."

But Kaufman added: "I look forward to learning more about her." She also noted that Palin is considered to be against abortion rights, and McCain "thought he needed to satisfy that wing of the party."

Here's hoping this article starts shining a little bit of light on the subject--the last thing we need a literal heartbeat away from the Presidency is a ninja dominionist.

People who've followed the hijinks of the Assemblies of God in regards to televangelist scandals--and the history of televangelism, for that matter--know that the denomination has a long association with televangelism--and as the Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Ted Haggard scandals have shown, often a quite unsavoury one at that.

So today's news that the Assemblies are hip-deep in the latest televangelist scandal is no shocker--the thing is, they may have tangled themselves rather deep, as the latest association is with an explicit defense of Kenneth Copeland--one of six televangelists implicated in an embezzlement scandal with Oral Roberts University and one of six who are presently the subject of Congressional subpoenas re the scandal.

Even worse, the Assemblies are now trying to use the very scandal as a wrecking-ball to knock down the separation of church and state--and in an attempt to hide illegal electioneering and even potential funding of campaigns by the denomination.

The Assemblies officially supports graft and corruption

Today's post comes courtesy of one of my co-researchers, who noticed the following gem in the Christian Post (a newspaper largely aiming at the dominionist set, and I do note this in part because of a bibolatrous statement of faith and its board of directors") in what turns out to be a prime example of why "recon" on what is going on in the dominionist press is a Good Thing:

A group of Pentecostal ministers and churches have thrown their backing behind televangelist Kenneth Copeland and his refusal to cooperate with a Senate probe into his ministry's spending.

Assemblies of God International Fellowship released a statement in their latest newsletter saying the current investigation, led by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), into the financial records of six prominent ministries "seems to be crossing a legal boundary."

"Politicians enact laws to separate Church and State which many think to be unconstitutional and then try to intrude into Church affairs while denying the Church discussion of State (political) affairs. This sounds like a one way street in favor of the State," the group said.

This whinging shouldn't be all that surprising for multiple reasons--partly because of the Assemblies' long history of involvement with televangelism (in fact, they can be legitimately stated to have invented modern televangelism with Aimee Semple McPherson's "radio church"--which later grew into the first "Assemblies daughter", International Foursquare, after the first of several scandals she was involved in). There are other reasons, though, which tend to be a bit more disturbing.

A brief history of the probe

One reason the Assemblies may be especially feeling the heat is because--for the first time--this is an actual Congressional investigation of televangelism, and as a result has a potential to put a real hurt on the major conduit used to spread both theological neopentecostal dominionism and political dominionism. (Remember, the modern political dominionist movement was in part spearheaded by two televangelists--Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson; Tim LaHaye, who can ultimately be considered the "founding father" of political dominionism, was also a very frequent guest on the PTL Club. It is unlikely the neopente versions of "Christian Nationalism" would have been as popularised were it not for the main troika of televangelists overtly promoting it.)

The probe began when Sen. Chuck Grassley (ironically, a Republican; even more ironically, an evangelical himself) began a Congressional investigation of six televangelists who were members of the board of directors of Oral Roberts University--itself mired in a major embezzlement scandal where upwards of $1 billion (yes, that is billion, with a b) were stolen yearly by the board.

The matter also threatens to knock down the major tool neopente dominionist churches use to hide finances. Typically, with regular nonprofits one must account for all yearly incoming and outgoing funds via a form 990 filed with the IRS; however, churches and "missionary groups" get an extremely broad exemption (referred to by researchers as the "Form 990 Loophole") where they need only file a Form 1023 to state they are a church--and they need never file anything again.

Needless to say, there has been increasing use of the concept of "ministry as tax shelter and blackhole for financing" among even some political dominionist groups (the group "Wallbuilders", which specialises in what amounts to American historical revisionism (and is the subject of Chris Rodda's Liars for Jesus), uses the "form 990 loophole" and claims to be a ministry), and has been abused massively by neopentecostal dominionist churches (and increasingly, by the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention as well) to hide exactly how much money is going into illegal electioneering (among other things).

Thanks to the "form 990 loophole", Sen. Grassley had to essentially issue Congressional requests for info. (This is not uncommon; typically court orders or subpoenas are necessary to get this info, and most of what we know about the finances of most coercive religious groups has been the direct result of walkaways suing the groups for damages and legal discovery resulting from this.)

In Round 1, only two of the six televangelists targeted--Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer--bothered to respond at all; Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, "Bishop" Eddie Long, and Paula White did not. (Nearly all of these either are Assemblies preachers or Assemblies-trained, or have close links with the Assemblies.)

The letters were, in essence, asking the same questions that Ray Stevens asked--"Would Jesus Wear A Rolex On His Television Show?" Grassley had received reports of donations being diverted for such things as private jets (or, in the case of Kenneth Copeland, an entire general aviation airport where there have been some reports of flights coming in at decidedly odd times), Bentley automobiles, and so on--and Grassley wanted to know where the heck the money was in fact going.

By March 11, Creflo Dollar was still telling Sen. Grassley to pound sand whilst Long and White finally answered the Congressional inquiry. In fact, both have stated to Grassley that formal Congressional subpoenas will be needed in the televangelist equivalent of "You'll never get me alive, copper!"--and Copeland finally delivered a mess of papers on 6 December 2007.

Of the six, only Meyer and Hinn have delivered full responses and the others are likely to require followup subpoenas:

As of Friday, Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn are the only two ministries that have submitted full responses for the Senate probe. Randy and Paula White have submitted partial responses, Eddie Long and Copeland have submitted "very limited responses," according to the spokeswoman, and Creflo Dollar has submitted no requested information.

There has been some talk on the investigation that, if warranted, the investigation of those six televangelists could expand into a general review of groups involved in televangelism and tax-exempt groups using the "form 990 loophole". And it is precisely this which the Assemblies fears, for good reason.

Possible evidence of illegal funding of GOP by Assemblies?

To say the least, the Assemblies of God is not very happy about the latest development:

But some, including Assemblies of God International Fellowship, are backing Copeland and his questioning.

The fellowship believes that the IRS, created by the State, should be conducting an investigation, not the Senate.

"It seems that Rev. Copeland is right in ignoring the Senate's investigation of Church affairs but pledging to fully cooperate with any investigation by the IRS," the group stated.

Of course, the Assemblies is fully aware that without tax records it's difficult for the IRS to investigate (this is, of note, one reason it does tend to be quite difficult in practice to pull the 501(c)3 status of a church--the IRS essentially must issue subpoenas, or have a governmental body issue subpoenas, for church financial info in assessing penalties). The Assemblies itself, as well as its big megachurches, use the "form 990 loophole" extensively--and do a very good job of hiding where their assets are as a result.

And there is reason that the Assemblies has (pardon the pun) a bit of the "fear of God" in regards to a formal Congressional investigation of tax-exempt group accountability. It's already been mentioned previously in this diary that Assemblies and "Assemblies daughter" churches tend to have severe problems with accountability--in fact, due to the "cell church" structure used in many Assemblies churches, meaningful accountability of leaders can be impossible; the Assemblies, and its daughters, effectively operate as de facto ordination mills and even pastors have found themselves expelled from the denomination for bringing up concerns re embezzlement and spiritual abuse.

As it turns out, the Assemblies of God has been a rather consistent source of reports of illegal electioneering to Americans United (in fact, it and the SBC are the worst offenders re reports of illegal electioneering)--and the Assemblies is a particularly longterm offender. No less a source than the book Religion and Politics in the United States (written by Kenneth D. Wald and Allison Calhoun-Brown) has noted the seminal role the Assemblies played in founding modern "Christian Nationalism" and in particular the takeover of the GOP by dominionists:

Christian Voice, the oldest of these Christian Right groups¹, grew out of an unsuccessful attempt by California evangelicals² to pass a state law limiting the public employment of homosexuals or homosexual advocates. Concentrated in the western and southwestern states and composed primarily of members of the Assemblies of God, Christian Voice concentrated its efforts on electioneering--compiling information on candidates, offering lists of favored and opposed candidates, and raising funds to support independent campaigns of favored candidates. It also had an active lobbying presence in Washington, DC.

(Emphasis mine. pp. 214-215, 5th ed. published 2007, Rowman & Littlefield.
Footnotes:
¹Out of "Christian nationalist" groups active in the 70s. In my own personal research, only Eagle Forum and FGBMFI (another Assemblies of God frontgroup) have longer histories of overt "Christian nationalist" electioneering, and by its own claims predates most other groups involved in political dominionism, giving a date of founding of 1978.
²It is not uncommon in these publications to conflate evangelicals with neopentecostal dominionists, in part because neopente dominionists have done some considerable "cultural appropriation" of the term.)

It is not widely known, but the Assemblies of God was one of the top political donators to Ashcroft's 2000 Senate campaign--to the tune of $19,850, including a known $1000 donation from the denomination's leader. (This is actually not as surprising as it sounds; Ashcroft's father is founder of Chi Alpha, a "ministry"/frontgroup of the Assemblies targeting college-age youth in a manner similar to Campus Crusade for Christ.)

Of note--and in a probable attempt to hide the fact the money was coming from the church itself or as a potential sign that persons were explicitly directed to donate to Ashcroft's campaign--this seems to have been done by pastors or employees, including a number of folks who are complete cyphers otherwise: three separate donations by Richard Arnold of Colorado Springs, CO amounting to $2000 and donations by Bob Houlihan, also of Colorado Springs, also for the same amount. (Both are listed in the top 100 contributors to Ashcroft's campaign.) Other Assemblies-linked contributors in Colorado Springs include Bob Cook ($250) and Daniel Vagle ($1000).

In fact, there are anomalous donations from Assemblies-employed persons in no less than 9 states outside of Missouri: the aforementioned Colorado donations; Kentucky from one person donating $250; Alabama from two separate individuals of $250 and $1000 respectively; a donation from Oklahoma for $250; two separate donations from an Assemblies employee in Minnesota totaling $2000; Ohio being a source of multiple Assemblies-linked donations including two separate individuals donating $250; Pennsylvania donations including a donation for $250; Texas including one donation for $1000 as well as one donation for $500; California including another case of "double donation" of $2000 total as well as a second "double donator" of $500 total.

Missouri's funding is equally sketchy; not only is there Trask's known donation but a donation for $500, another for $500, another donation for $250, another for $250, another $250 donation, a relatively lowball donor of $200, and another case of a "double donor" totalling $400.

Even this may be a lowball figure. If frontgroups and divisions of the Assemblies operating under their own d/b/a are taken into account, the full extent of moneys donated to Ashcroft's campaign may have been substantially underestimated: a triple donation of $2500 total from a party associated with the A/G Foundation (which is actually a division of the Assemblies handling the "Bible Quiz" front as well as encouraging people to sign over their possessions to them after they die--in other words, it's where the Assemblies stores a non-negligible part of its funding and also in part where its legal department lives)--the very division, of note, that claimed that Grassley was effectively "picking on pentecostals".

In addition, other donations by Assemblies fronts and subdivisions include a $500 donation by a person employed with one of the Assemblies' "Bible colleges", a second donation from a different individual at said "Bible college" for $500, a donation from the Assemblies General Council for $1000, and three separate donations by a second General Council member for $2000. (So add $6500 to that $19,850 figure--the total is closer to a minimum of over $25,000 dollars donated by the Assemblies via seminary and "Bible college" employees as well as pastors.)

An especially damning sign that this may have been money explicitly funneled from the Assemblies illegally is the presence of not only a redacted donation of $250 by Houlihan, but donations by both him and his wife independently of the Assemblies to the tune of $2500 between the two of them--indicating he was explicitly trying to keep the Assemblies under the radar. (Houlihan is an employee of the Assemblies' seminary and has conducted seminars on bait-and-switch "compassion ministries" as a method of recruitment).

This is also not the only time the Assemblies has pulled this sort of thing. As recently as 2007, the Assemblies is known to have donated $1000 to Mike Huckabee's campaign, a similar donation of $500 was given to Bush's re-election campaign (in another sign of a damning bit of evidence pointing to this being official Assemblies funding, there is a separate donation by an Assemblies minister), as well as donations in 2002 for the election of James Talent for Senator. (Individual Assemblies churches are pretty bad about this, too; Robert Schenck, noted for his attempt to "annoint" the halls of the Senate in a neopentecostal hexing, would appear to be a non-negligible contributor to Sam Brownback's election campaign.)

Needless to say, if the investigation broadens and similar documentation is requested from the Assemblies as a whole..."problematic" would not begin to describe things. This is, to be blunt, the one thing that could pretty much not only shut down the Assemblies' electioneering engine (and also the similar engine that is being established in the SBC), but could also be the one thing to threaten the tax-exempt status of the Assemblies denomination-wide...including all of its frontgroups.

Dominionist attempts to "dead-agent" Grassley

Even though in past Grassley has had a history of supporting some of the same legislation dominionists support, the call for investigations of tax-exempt groups that snared the televangelists in the ORU scandal have caused dominionists to claim "Help, help, we're being oppressed!"

In fact, Copeland and crew have started a website and a new frontgroup for the sole purpose of "dead-agenting" Grassley and the campaign for accountability--claiming he's out to attack neopentecostals and promoters of "name it and claim it". Not only that, but apparently (per the lovely sorts of historical revisionism common in neopente dominionist circles) apparently Grassley is pretty much considered an agent of The Enemy and Trying To Steal Their Country (which was never theirs to begin with--despite "historical revisionism" by dominionists, the Founding Fathers were typically deists)

In truth, Grassley is conducting a very broad investigation--in part because he is in fact chairman of the Finance Committee in the Senate and a member of several other Congressional committees in charge of making tax law. Grassley is also investigating a lot of other groups besides neopente dominionist televangelists; not only is he explicitly requesting the IRS to enforce the laws on the books against charitable exemption abuse, but is investigating reports of funding mishandling by The Nature Conservancy, a plethora of nonprofit hospitals (most of which are owned by the Roman Catholic and Baptist healthcare systems, and many others of which are completely secular and operated as training hospitals by universities), the Smithsonian Institution, nonprofits involved in educational loan programs, the Red Cross, and others. In general, it can be said that Grassley's main goal is to increase public transparency re nonprofits--including transparency with nonprofits involved in charitable giving programs for federal employees and efforts to protect charitable groups themselves from potential exploitation. We're by no means saying Chuck Grassley is an angel--but he *does* seem to be pretty equal-opportunity when it comes to investigations.

We would make a humble suggestion to Grassley as to an easy way to fix the problem for future generations--namely, remove the "form 990 loophole" and make all 501(c)3 groups fill out a form 990 if they receive more than $25,000 annually in donations (which is what all non-church 501(c)3 groups have to do anyways).

Over the past few days, I've done some writing expressing concern regarding some revelations that Jeff Sharlet will be discussing extensively in his new book "The Family"--including information regarding apparently widespread and systemic use of pyramid-scheme-esque "cell church" groups, of which Hillary Clinton would appear to have been inducted through at least one, possibly two, levels of indoctrination within at least two separate cells within the group. There's also some real concern that some of the same "bad habits" of this particular type of religious pyramid scheme may be showing up in "The Family's" cells as well--one of which we'll discuss today.

The news re cell-church groups in "The Family" is probably not going to be the only bombshell released by Sharlet's upcoming book. My question is, what has "The Family" so spooked that they've apparently sealed all recent records about the group even to their own members?

What has "The Family" so spooked?

Up until 2003, "The Family" did have an archive where people could look up the history of the org at Wheaton College, a private Christian liberal-arts college in Illinois. Specifically, the archives of "The Family" were open to anyone who cared to visit the archives of the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College's school of evangelism.

This changed rather suddenly when one of the first articles Sharlet wrote regarding "The Family" saw print--specifically, "Jesus Plus Nothing" (which was, incidentially, in large part the article that broke the "private face" of "The Family" to the world) was published by Harper's Magazine back in March 2003.

"Jesus Plus Nothing" was the first article to extensively document "The Family" and its political connections--and it suddenly had the group running scared.

All of seven months after the article had seen print, "The Family" locked down its archives to an unprecedented extent--in fact, to an extent that even the Scientologists haven't taken:

Collection 459
[November 7, 2007]
Fellowship Foundation; 1935-
Records; 1937-1988; n.d.

592 boxes (592 DC; 240 cubic feet); Audio Tapes, Films, Negatives, Photographs

Restrictions
In November 2003, after consultation with the board of the Fellowship Foundation, the Archives placed the following restriction on the use of this collection:

All folders with paper records less than twenty-five years old are closed to users until January 1st of the year following the 25th anniversary of the creation of the youngest document in that file, except to those users with the written permission of the President of the Fellowship Foundation. This restriction applies to everyone, including Foundation staff and associates.

Example: A folder containing material dated no later 1977 would be open January 1, 2003.

Note

Researchers use this collection by the box instead of by the folder. Restricted folders will be removed from boxes before they are given to researchers.

Yes, you are reading this right--not even known members and elites of "The Family" have access to their archives after 1983 at present without written permission of the (figurehead) President of the Fellowship Foundation--archives which include practically all recent political activity, and permission which is unlikely to be granted except to people writing favourably about the group.

The group literally has locked down their records to even prevent their own from looking into the archives and discovering potential skunkworks; "The Family" locked things down in part to prevent anyone from confirming Sharlet's research--or doing research on their own.

Our question is--just what has Sharlet written that has "The Family" so panicked as to put restrictions on their own archives akin to what the US government uses for information they want to keep even more restricted than "top secret"? Why hide the info even from their own membership?

The list of information that is now inaccessible includes many of the audio reels of the National Prayer Breakfast, as well as--interestingly (and possibly one reason the archives were sealed) the records regarding the sale of the apartment complex "The Family" rented out for its "member" elite:

1994 Fellowship House in Washington, DC, sold. The organizational center (although that is perhaps too formal a designation for a very low key presence) for the movement was at The Cedars on 24th Street in Arlington, which the Foundation had owned for several years. Wallace Haines retired and returned to the United States, although he remained active in the organization's work.

Another reason they may be wishing to "hide the archives" is because of some very interesting info on "members", "associates", and apparently a core cadre of "The Family" that gives info about its cell-group structure:

The headquarters of the fellowship was known as Fellowship House. This was not so much an office building as a place for seminars, dinners, Bible studies, and informal meetings of all types. This section contains several folders of information on the administration and activities of Fellowship House.

There are several folders on Core, which is the name given to the group of fellowship leaders that got together regularly to pray and plan the fellowship's activities. Similarly, several files with "Group" or "Groups" in the title are brought together under "G," these contain information on the early days of the fellowship and the formation of prayer groups around the country. Except for Vereide, Halverson and Douglas Coe (for each of whom, there is a series) all the people involved prominently in the fellowship at one time or another, such as James Bell, Frank Carlson, Chuck Colson, Billy Graham, Wallace Haines, Mark Hatfield, Fred Heyn, Karlis Leyasmeyer, Albert Quie, and Paul Temple have one or more folders of material in this section.

(Halverson was the leader of "The Fellowship" in between Vereide and Coe.)

The list of names is interesting--we've discussed Chuck Colson before in regards to promotion of "faith-based coercion" with literal captive audiences, and Billy Graham's name is not a surprise to see there. Some of the names are more obscure, but have some particularly telling links--Karlis Leyasmeyer, for instance, used to give "stomp the commies for Christ" talks and openly promoted his links to "The Family Foundation" under its previous d/b/a "International Christian Leadership" as well as a Campus Crusade-esque group called "Youth For Christ" (essentially YFC was Billy Graham's answer to Campus Crusade).

One bit that I'm surprised they weren't able to squelch was information regarding a possible steeplejack attempt on the Jaycees:

For much of its history, particularly in the 1960s and '70s, the fellowship had a close relationship with the Junior Chamber of Commerce or Jaycees, both the United States and the International branches. The groups planned various joint events together and supplied speakers for each other's conferences. Material on this relationship is scattered throughout the collection, but a great deal is in boxes 415-419.

One thing that they almost undoubtedly were trying to squelch was info on Douglas Coe:

VII. Douglas Coe. Boxes 512-540. Among the materials in this section are correspondence on most aspects of the Foundation's work; minutes of the boards of various fellowship organizations; briefing letters sent to Core members about fellowship activities; Core planning materials; file on the formal organization of Prison Fellowship; materials on retreats Coe participated in; files on the various international trips he took, plans for a worldwide call to prayer including among other Presidents Jimmy Carter and Daniel Moi and Pope John Paul II.

For that matter, they may well have been trying to hide info on the "Core" members:

VIII. Board Materials. Boxes 541-568. These files contain minutes, bylaw, executive committee materials, and reports for the various overlapping organizations that, in one sense, made of the fellowship. This includes ICL, ICCL, Fellowship Foundation, Fellowship Council, Leadership Council, and Fellowship House. There is also a great deal of information on the history of the fellowship as well as Core materials, a policy handbook, from the French ICL a mimeographed manuscript by Pierre Tillard de Chardin entitled "Le Coeur de la Matiere", and some tax records.

Of course, one can understand just why "The Family" might be running scared. After Sharlet's initial article "Jesus Plus Nothing" came out, Lara Lakes Jordan found the tax records for "Fellowship House" and outed the six Congressmen living there (this is part of why "C Street Foundation" was, likely, organised as a ministry--to take advantage of the "church form 990 loophole" to avoid further embarrassing revelations).

What we do know so far is that in 1972, the group reorganised under a largely cell-based "decentralised" structure--in order to make it harder to shut down (this has been compared by Sharlet to the cells used by Communist groups; I myself compare it to the "leaderless resistance" tactic used by "Christian Patriot" militia groups, and both the militias and "The Family" likely borrowed it from neopentecostal dominionists and their initial use of cell-church pyramids to set up "cuckoo congregations" in mainstream churches) and harder to trace where all the money is going. Researchers have noted that by 1985 "The Fellowship Foundation" had over 150 ministries either receiving funds from it or as active "Family" frontgroups proper; part of why "The Family" may have sealed its records is in an attempt to prevent people from following their documentation to see what groups got which funding and which groups are overt fronts.

At any rate...I'm already very, very interested in just WHAT Sharlet has written that has "The Family" so very worried.

More worries regarding possible coercive tactics?

One thing that has generally been regarded as a danger sign by experts in coercive religious groups is the use of compartmentalised info--that is, only certain levels within the group are privy to certain info about it. It's considered a danger sign for two reasons--one, you can't do a full evaluation on whether you want to be in the group unless you're already in it; secondly, it makes things easy to hide from newer recruits (including some of the potentially more harmful stuff).

In fact, one of the more extensive tests of "coerciveness" of groups--Steven Hassan's BITE Model--has an entire section on this, the "Information Control" axis, that in two separate sections describes how groups using a "cell church" structure can be intrinsically abusive:

II. Information Control

1. Use of deception

a. Deliberately holding back information
b. Distorting information to make it acceptable
c. Outright lying
. . .
3. Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

a. Information is not freely accessible
b. Information varies at different levels and missions within pyramid
c. Leadership decides who "needs to know" what

Since 2003, "The Family" has met both of these criteria--largely in reaction to the writing of Jeff Sharlet. Not only do members typically deny the existence of the organisation outright (or at least did, until recently); not only does the group have documented use of cell groups and restriction of even reading of their own Bibles; not only does the group have documented and extensive links with other promoters of highly coercive tactics--but now we must add "restriction of info even to its own members" to the list of potential coercive tactics.

More and more, evidence is pointing to not only political manipulation by "The Family"--but there are more and more signs of potential abuse of its own members. This is something I desperately hope is wrong--but the more I read, and the more I dig, the more I do become concerned. (The fact that even other members of "The Family" are not allowed access to the archives is especially damning to me--if the group is worried about researchers, they could lock down the archives to non-"Family" members, but this points to the group being very afraid that someone in the group might hear something unsavory and do some digging themselves.)

Again, we wonder--just what has "The Family" so shook up about the fact that even their own "friends" are now feared as wanting to look behind the curtain?

And to you, Mr. Sharlet--thank you, again, for proving that The Truth Will Out. You've apparently done some good work, if they're *that* scared.

On Friday, news reports started coming out to the effect that Hillary Clinton may be a member of a cell-church group run by the secretive "Family" nee "Fellowship" org; as the import of this is underappreciated by most (even by some researchers into dominionism), I posted a diagram of how cell groups work in "The Family".

There are actually a number of reasons--besides the obvious--why it should be a matter of concern that Hillary Clinton would appear to have been recruited into a religious pyramid scheme with strong political aspirations. One reason I am gravely concerned for her right now is info I've dug up on the *other* reported members of her "cell church"--almost all of whom have strong history with dominionists...and it doesn't help that Hillary has also made some statements that point to her possible involvement in something very dangerous.

(An aside: For those unfamiliar with "cell church" groups--religious pyramid schemes that also have a very unhealthy tendency towards "Big Brother" activities that are used as a major tool in both recruitment and setting up "cuckoo congregations" in mainstream churches and political groups--please see my previous article on "The Family" and articles I've done in past on cell churches in practice.)

Hillary's fellow travellers in "The Family"--something to be concerned about

A glimpse on just why the concept of Hillary Clinton being in an actual Family "cell" (rather than merely attending the National Prayer Breakfast) is deeply concerning can be had in an article Jeff Sharlet has written for Mother Jones which may have been the first to report on the cell group in question:

When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian "cell" whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat.

Here's a brief dossier on each of the members:

Susan Baker

Susan Baker may not be all that familiar a name to modern audiences, but those of us following anti-censorship initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s remember her quite well--Susan Baker and Tipper Gore were the co-founders of the infamous Parent's Music Resource Council, a pro-censorship group that actively tried to get the entire musical libraries of certain artists banned. (Few people remember the PMRC wasn't originally pushing for the infamous "Tipper Stickers"--they wanted a ban, a complete ban, on distribution of certain artists and even after "Tipper Stickers" were widely adopted by the music industry attempted to have laws passed banning sales of "Tipper Stickered" albums to under-18s. "Tipper Stickers" actually came about as a compromise.)

Folks who are children of the 80s may well remember the PMRC ranting against Twisted Sister and 2 Live Crew. Less remembered, save among anti-censorship activists--and considerably less reported--is the fact that the PMRC was a major promoter of "Satanic Panic" and even funneled kids (who were unlucky enough to have censorious parents discover their collection of Metallica or Mötley Crüe albums) to one of the earlier and more infamous "Bible boot camps" in the dominionist "parallel economy" to legit mental health services (and in fact, the latter-day version of the infamous Love In Action/Refuge center recently shut down in Tennessee).

PMRC would often claim that "shock rock" artists such as Alice Cooper were active Satanists (amusing, since it's now widely known that Cooper is a Sunday school teacher at a Presbyterian church); as part of their promotion of "Satanic Panic", PMRC would actively promote a highly abusive "Bible boot camp" run by "deliverance ministry" promoter Bob Larson--the infamous "Back In Control Training Center"--in fact, rather extensively promoted, as documented in Dave Marsh's "Fifty Ways to Fight Censorship", documentation from the anti-censorship group Rock Out Censorship, and none less than Jello Biafra who was a very frequent target of the PMRC's wrath:

O for occult. Who is going to define what that is? In his first spoken word album, No More Cocoons, Eric Reed Boucher (who I will refer to by his stage name, Jello Biafra) notes one of the groups endorsed by the PMRC, called the Back in Control training center. This group was run by several Orange County based police officers, who among other things, published the Punk and Heavy Metal Handbook, which was sent out to police departments & parents alike. Among their list of occult related items and symbols were the following: black t-shirts, eagles (our national symbol), graffiti placed under bridges & in flood wash channels (in order to be closer to Hell and the devil), the Ozzy logo, the peace symbol (on the grounds that it is an upside down crucifix with arms broken to mock Christianity), and one of the most disturbing parts of this list, the Jewish Star of David. There is also a clip on Youtube titled "An Inconvenient Douche" from the early 90's when both Jello Biafra and Tipper Gore appeared on Oprah, where Biafra points these out as well.

"Back In Control" promised to "de-metal" and "de-rap" kids (just as "reparative therapy" groups promise to "de-gay" kids) and used almost identical tactics; Larson's facility promoted things like the claim that peace signs were "satanic symbols" and was a major promoter of the "Satanic Panic" which ended up ruining hundreds of people's lives due to false claims of "satanic abuse". An article from Kerr Cuhulain's "Witch Hunts" series (which is an expose of promoters of "Satanic Panic") details some of the FUD that "Back In Control" used to promote whilst in operation:

Another of the disturbing themes of America's Best Kept Secret is the idea that only Christian law enforcement personnel should be investigating "occult crime." "The law enforcement system in general is neither prepared nor equipped to handle the increasing amount of Satanic and occult-related crime in the US," Frattarola warns us, "Aside from Darlyne Pettinicchio, Sandi Gallanta (sic) in San Francisco, Dale Griffisss (sic) in Tiffin, Ohio, and an handful of other police officers around the country, law enforcement officials are frantically playing catch up."(47) Frattarola then quotes Sergeant Randy Emon extensively.

Frattarola's report was written before Emon re-examined the evidence and publicly recanted. Pettinichio, a deputy probation officer, is the founder of the Back In Control Training Center in Orange, California. She and her partner Greg Bodenhammer teach that heavy metal music turns juveniles into suicidal Satanists. Griffis is a retired police officer who set himself up as an "occult crime expert" and is a major disseminator of urban legends concerning Satanic crime. Sandy Gallant definitely has an interest in this subject but is well aware of the difference between Pagans and Satanists. Frattarola drops Gallant's name in America's Best Kept Secret but does not quote her or otherwise mention her. That Frattarola has misspelled Gallant's name is an indication that he doesn't know her very well. I have no concerns about Gallant or Emon.

Much of the rest of America's Best Kept Secret is a rant bemoaning the lack of evidence and support for Frattarola's beliefs.

The last two pages of the "Special Report" express the view of the Calvary Chapel that "The United States as a nation, has turned its back on God and as a result, has opened the door to, and even encourages Satanic activity by acting in bold defiance to the ways of God, dabbling in a practising things God's Word expressly forbids."(48) This is a common theme in works of this sort which exposes the purpose of such literature. It is intended to create the impression that Satanic cults are a widespread problem and responsible for many of the ills of society. At the same time it offers membership in the Church and persecution of non-Christian beliefs as viable solutions to this "problem".

(The latter is in reference to a "Special Report" given to police departments claiming that hundreds of secretive diabolist cabals have been found in the US and were operating large-scale murder and child-rape rings. No reliable evidence of this has ever been found; in fact, the only reliable evidence of any form of systematic, organised religiously motivated child abuse of any sort has to a whole been centered in the dominionist community.)

Another example of "Back In Control" FUD is here:

Some suggest that they should be "de-punked" and "de-metaled" before it's too late. More than 150 parents, teachers, probation officers, psychiatrists and police turned out for an all-day conference in Pasadena earlier this month to discuss the potentially evil effects of the punk and heavy metal culture. Punk and heavy metal paraphenalia was passed around. Chilling stories were told, like the one about the 15-year old "heavy metaler" who smashed all the furniture in his parents' house and beat his mother about the face. A videotape called "Spikes and Studs" was also played showing young women tearing away their clothes and offering theirbodies to the musicians. (Ed. note: As far as the women offering their bodies goes, remember, they did that to Frank Sinatra, too.)

Titled "Sound and Fury," the conference--one of the first to be held on the punk-metal phenomenon--was sponsored by the Back In Control Training Center in Fullerton, which was started up recently by two former Orange County probabation officers to teach parents what to look for and how to get tough with their children. For center directors Greg Bodenhamer and Darlyne Pettinicchio, punk and heavy metal--particularly metal--is public enemy number 1. They maintain there is a direct link between the aggressive music and lifestyle, and teenage suicide, homicide and self-inflected wounds. "These kids have been totally brainwashed by this stuff. They've got to be de-punked and de-metalized," Bodenhamer said.

He and Pettinicchio point to some well-publicized cases over the past year: Last October, 14 year-old Jennifer Newton was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stabbing and bludgeoning her mother to death in Fullerton. Prosecutors said Newton and her boyfriend were absorbed with heavy metal music. Last August, two teenage San Bernadino boys, described by authorities as "into the heavy metal scene," were accused of murdering a 15-year old boy who was shackled to a heavy milk crate near his home. In January, one 14 year-old boy was found by his parents bleeding in his Santa Monica bedroom after he sliced his knuckles and scrawled a giant "A" for anarchy on the wall. He survived.

Not everyone shares the somewhat alarming position that surfaced at the Pasadena conference. "I really don't think they're any big threat," Los Angeles Police Detective Harry Andrews said. "Sure, we arrest a few of them for dangerous weopons like attaching spikes on their hands. But, really, you know, people thought we were crazy too (in the 60's)."

(Yes, in certain households, it could actually be dangerous to be a metalhead--you risked being sent to a coercive center which practiced thought-reform tactics, a literal "Jesus gulag", if they found your music stash. I got very, very good at hiding my record and tape collection, needless to say!)

Much of the propoganda used for involuntary internment of metal fans to "Back In Control's" facility is almost, word-for-word, identical to the hate speech used nowadays against LGBT people. The book "Sound Of The Beast" (a history of heavy metal in the US, including the attempts to censor metal in the 80s), also has a few interesting details:

Through the feeding cycle of misinformation, heavy metal became targeted as a problem, and broadly inaccurate propoganda soon became probable cause to detain and search any high-schooler in a Ratt T-shirt. Companies like the Back In Control Training Center explicitly advertised their expertise in cult deprogramming techniques (not legit exit counseling--dogemperor) to "de-punk" or "de-metal" troubled teens and bring them in line with fundamentalist Christian beliefs. "Once kids become part of the heavy metal or punk culture," said Back In Control's founder in the book The Satan Hunter, "there is an attitude they frequently pass on to the parents: 'I'm going to do what I want, the hell with you, leave me alone,' and with the metallers, in particular, better than 90 percent are involved with drugs."

(Of note, the series "Witch Hunts" has an extensive debunking of "The Satan Hunter".)

As it turns out, I'm not the only one who sees the resemblance to "de-gaying" (and, for that matter, the entire coercive "Bible boot-camp" industry, which largely got its start with "de-metaling" and "de-punking" centers). No less than the book "Taboo Tunes" (a history of attempts at censorship of music due to "moral panics") also made that direct comparison:

...in an approach similar to that employed by those who have established treatment programs in order to "cure" homosexuals by retraining them, various organizations (like the Back In Control Training Center based in Orange, CA) were founded as "de-punking/de-metalizing" brainwashing centers in the 1980s.

In fact, Susan Baker was effectively the dominionist liason for PMRC in practice--and throughout Baker's term as PMRC co-leader (the group is now operated by Barbara Wyatt), the PMRC not only actively partnered with dominionist groups but became increasingly dominionist in and of itself:

Also disturbing are their connections with the Religious Right and other blatantly pro-censorship forces. For example, Susan Baker has said that "God calls me to be his instrument," and frequently arranges prayer meetings for the Washington power elite, commenting that her goal in life is to "live out the gospel." She also sits on the board of James Dobson's Focus On The Family, which openly favors censorship, going so far as to denounce Calvin Klein ads as "explicit and deviant."

It's also come out that Tipper Gore has, on at least one occasion, been invited to speak at an Eagle Forum dinner. The Eagle Forum, created by Phyllis Schlafly, is one of the largest anti-feminist, pro-life, anti-gay and ultimately anti-free speech organizations in America, which makes one wonder about Tipper's portrayal as a progressive, pro-choice feminist.

Oh, yes, there's that, too--Susan Baker was a known FotF board member as of 1992 (the date of the Rock Out Censorship article in question), though she isn't listed as of 2005. But during its period of maximum influence, the PMRC effectively operated as a frontgroup of none other than Focus On The Family--who did a lot of their early recruitment through PMRC newsletters.

Joanne Kemp

Joanne Kemp also tends to lean dominionist (subtly noting that the only people she really considers to be "Christian" are "born-again Christians"--code in dominionist circles for fellow dominionists):

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: How would you describe the role of religion in your lives now?

JOANNE KEMP: I would say our faith is very important to me and to all of our family, which is, you know, it's a great joy to see our grown children putting faith central in their lives as well. And so we have a very faith-based family.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Are you a born again Christian?

JOANNE KEMP: Well, I consider that to be like stuttering. I'm Christian. That's like if you say born again, that's a Christian.

(And you better believe this is code. Generally, dominionists--especially neopentecostal dominionists and members of steeplejacked churches--don't consider Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, or even members of a lot of mainstream churches truly "born again". In fact, in neopente circles, "born again" has a very specific meaning--namely, someone who has received "baptism in the Holy Spirit" and is speaking in tongues or otherwise "manifesting".)

In fact, Mrs. Kemp "leans dominionist" so much that she is on the board of directors of one of the major promoters of "faith-based coercion" in our prison system--Chuck Colson's "Prison Fellowship Ministries", recently banned from use in state prisons throughout the state of Iowa.

And yes, there's a very specific reason the US District Court roughly 140 pages of "No, you can't set up a neopentecostal tent revival in the prison system with taxpayer funds. Not Yours", too.

Stunts like this:

While these universal, civic values can logically be separated from the biblical context in which they are presented, the intensive, indoctrinating Christian language and practice that makes up the InnerChange program effectively precludes non-Evangelical Christian inmates from participating.Plaintiff-inmate Jerry Dean Ashburn ("Ashburn"), a self-described Reorganized Latter Day Saint, testified that, based on the reading of some of InnerChange's materials, he would not be comfortable joining the program. Plaintiff-inmate Bilal Shukr (a.k.a. Bobby Shelton) ("Shukr"), a Sunni Muslim, also read portions of the InnerChange curriculum and visited with the ISP chaplain to investigate whether InnerChange would be appropriate for him. The chaplain, a Dept. of Corrections employee, informed Shukr that the curriculum was strictly Christian-based and there were no opportunities for interfaith study in the program because there was no interfaith curriculum. Shukr testified that, as a Muslim, the teaching of the Bible was very important. What he could not countenance, as a Muslim, was that he would be in groups in which prayers would be offered to Jesus Christ as a deity, as God's son--something the strictly monotheistic religion of Islam would abhor. Shukr put it this way:

[T]here was no possibility for me, as a Sunni Muslim, to partake in that program without desecrating my faith, without me blaspheming God. We believe there's only one God, and he doesn't have any sons or daughters or partners. He's the supreme ruler over all mankind, and we are all brothers and sisters under one God. For me to embrace any type of curriculum contrary to that, I would be desecrating my faith.

Trial Tr. at 163. There are no similar community-based programs like InnerChange based on an Islamic model. For instance, while the Dept. of Corrections allows individual Muslim inmates to observe aspects of the holy season of Ramadan, there are no communal observations of Ramadan.

This fact, along with his other post-9/11 experiences of racial prejudice, Shukr testified, "just added fuel to the fire, mak[ing] it appear as though the state of Iowa has a partiality toward Christian-based programs, and not faiths of different sorts." Trial Tr. at 166. Inmate Troy Dewayne Redd ("Redd"), also a Sunni Muslim, keeps his faith through praying five times a day, making regular fasts, and attending Friday evening prayer service. For Redd, the act of joining InnerChange would be blasphemy--to do so a person "would have committed a sin against Allah, God." Trial Tr. at 292. InnerChange's own materials cast aspersions on non-Evangelical Christian faith groups.31 The Court found very credible Kevin Watson's testimony when he stated that, as a member of the Nation of Islam, he could not join InnerChange without compromising his faith. Indeed, Watson's Dept. of Corrections counselor informed Watson that InnerChange would probably not be for him.32

Likewise, Dept. of Corrections inmate Glendale More, Jr. ("More"), a member of the Lubavitch Jewish faith, practices his faith by not shaving his beard, wearing a yarmulke (although not yet allowed at the Newton Facility), performing mitzvahs, and staying kosher during high holy days (he pays for all his own kosher meals), praying, and staying in contact with his rabbis. To join a group praying to and worshiping Jesus Christ, as required by InnerChange, would violate his religious faith. The Court found credible the testimony of witnesses who stated that non-religious persons were often characterized by InnerChange staff as "unsaved," "lost," "pagan," those "who served the flesh," "of Satan," "sinful," and "of darkness." Native American inmates who enroll in InnerChange face obstacles as well. Benjamin Burens, a Native American Dept. of Corrections inmate, characterized his religious life as living the sweat lodge ways everyday. He does not believe Jesus Christ is God and does not use the Bible. Like many Native American prisoners, Burens participates in the sweat lodge ceremony on a regular basis. The costs of the sweat lodge materials--rocks, wood, etc.--are paid by those inmates who participate. While InnerChange has provided permission to the few Native American participants in the program to practice the sweat lodge ceremony, InnerChange makes clear that a non-Christian religious observance is not considered part of the InnerChange treatment program and may only be done at InnerChange's discretion. The Court found credible Burens' testimony that, during one-onone sessions with an InnerChange teacher, Burens was asked whether he was saved, whether he was a Christian, and whether he believed in Jesus. Trial Tr. at 758-59. Burens was also asked "what was I doing going out there to the sweat lodge ceremony." Id. at 759. Burens was told the sweat lodge ceremony was basically a form of witchcraft, against the Bible, sorcery, and worship of false idols. The InnerChange Field Guide in use during the time Burens was in the program stated: "As you are transformed into the image of Christ, you have more and more integrity." Pls.' Ex. 74. Not surprisingly, Burens did not last in the InnerChange program. The listed reasons for Burens' expulsion from InnerChange were that, because Burens received a visitor on a Friday, he missed a Friday revival by twenty minutes; that Burens was not growing spiritually; and that he did not "step up" in the community meetings, i.e., he did not fully participate in the services, instead remaining seated while others shows their involvement by singing songs, standing, and raising hands. Trial Tr. at 762-63.

One factor was definitely the promotion of Scientology-esque deliverance ministry, up to and including distributing the "deliverance ministry" manual "Bondage Breaker" as required reading.

Another factor was the fact prisoners had to attend mandatory revival meetings in order to be considered "participating"--and could not only have privileges removed (Prison Fellowship Ministries participants were given preferential housing and privs) but subject to sanctions for failure to complete a drug treatment plan--and, alas, Prison Fellowship Ministries' "InnerChange" (which had been promoted falsely to the Department of Corrections as ecumenical) was the only "drug treatment plan" available (no Rational Recovery, no visits by imams or rebbes or Native American traditional religious authorities).

Oh, and another major factor why it was shut down--a study by the court found the program didn't work and actually had worse recidivism than no treatment at all.

Eileen Bakke

Eileen Bakke is not as familiar as a name to most folks--Bakke (and her husband) are best known now for "charter school" initiatives, but both parties are also the heads of a dominionist grant program known as the Mustard Seed Foundation.

As amazing as it sounds, the very name of the org is a codeword--specifically, the name comes from a very selective quoting of Mark 4 (the story in which Jesus exhorts people to listen, comparing good words of God to tiny mustard seeds that grow into big things), specifically Mark 4:30-32:

[30] And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?
[31] It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
[32] yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

(Revised Standard Version)

A much more common "selective quoting" involving mustard seeds--and one which is backhandedly referred to on the main website for Mustard Seed Foundation--is used in "name it and claim it" circles, where it's claimed that God's blessing is to be given to people who "have faith as a mustard seed" (and in fact it has been known, as a method of soliciting funds above and beyond normal tithes of ten percent, to distribute mustard seeds in neopentecostal dominionist churches--in fact, the actual term "seed faith offering" for "tithes" of thirty to fifty percent of pre-tax income comes directly from this misuse of the parable of the mustard seed).

Mustard Seed Foundation is almost entirely a grant program targeted at neopentecostal dominionist churches (including a "Messianic Jewish" congregation); there is also apparently a scholarship program in place for students attending dominionist colleges.

As for their finances, they do seem to be more open, but even their disclosure gives much reason to worry--a good portion of their efforts are primarily aimed at conversion of other "people of the book" (including not only Jewish and Moslem people, but mainstream Christians (especially Roman Catholics) as well), and practically all of the grants and grant programs they have participated in have been for neopente dominionist church programs (including multiple grants to Assemblies and "Assemblies daughter" churches worldwide, so much that "Mustard Seed Foundation" can be genuinely seen as a funding-front for the Assemblies in unusually blatant manner). Their "theological grants" are given entirely to international "ordination mills"--not one organisation in North America or Western Europe are grant recipients (probably because of strict legal requirements).

The Bakkes also promote dominionist "Christian business" schemes extensively, including at seminars; their fortune has been primarily in the energy market, as Dennis Bakke was a former CEO of major international energy company AES.

As for their charter schools, it would appear the owners have taken great pains to hide...well...*everything* of note that could point to a dominionist origin. The only state Imagine operates charter schools in is Arizona.

However...following the link to Dennis Bakke's homepage starts hitting paydirt. In a remarkably similar manner to how Bill Gothard uses "secularised" versions of his material to recruit folks to the religious (and highly coercive) core group, Bakke uses a somewhat sanitized book called "Joy At Work" to lead people to his religious page.

The excerpts from the "Joy At Work Bible Study Companion" are particularly telling. The excerpts (which are a little extensive for me to extensively quote here, so my apologies for referring you to the page) pretty much state that he actively sees the "Saved" as "God's stewards" or "God's regents"--terminology that has been used in both Christian Reconstructionism and "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" theology; some of the phrasing indicates he may lean towards the "Joel's Army" version, with some subtle references to "fivefold ministry" (and not-so-subtle references to explicitly using the nonprofit sector as a bait-and-switch evangelism front).

The wedding of neoconservative hypercapitalism and dominion theology is so close, in fact, that Dennis Bakke pretty much stated in Christianity Today that God wants people to set up "cell" structures of "covering" in businesses:

A lot of Christians say to me, "This is just a management style." I think giving up power, sharing power, and allowing people to make decisions is just part of how God made us. Obviously, out in the secular world, it's an option. But I don't think we as Christians have an option. We do not have an option to control everybody's life. We do not have an option to take over all the important decisions. At least that's how I read the Parable of the Talents. And in Genesis I read that bosses were not supposed to be the ones making all the decisions. In fact, I don't think management is a really good thing. You manage systems and you manage money, but people ought to be led.

(He also explicitly refers to the Parable of the Talents elsewhere as apparently being a Biblical mandate for bosses to delegate duties; in truth, the Parable of the Talents was an admonition to not squander one's gifts but to grow them.)

In the same article, he advocates not only setting up front businesses for charity (rather than having them be run directly by a church) but also advocates having dominionist churches explicitly target CEOs and the like:

What should be the local church's relationship to the business world?

We prize lifestyle and workplace evangelism as being very important, which they are. But God cares just as much about the economics. When was the last time your church prayed to commission the carpenter or an executive?

I don't think churches should run social services or businesses. They shouldn't own clothing stores to serve the community or run food pantries. Churches are usually terrible at running them. They're not economically sustainable, and they don't really help the poor as much as if you just had a really good business. Churches should send their people out to start businesses to serve people's needs.

The church does not pay much attention to the mission we have to steward resources and to meet needs in the world and, along the way, meet our own needs. The pastor ought to be figuring out how we are going to equip somebody to go be the president of AES or the secretary at AES. And how you're equipping them is not teaching them the skills. Your mission is just like Daniel's mission and Joseph's mission, and you ought to be doing it as unto the Lord. This is not primarily for evangelism, but for delivering services to others. You are there to do the stewardship mission, the Genesis mission. As a church, we're all called to both discipleship and stewardship.

Of particular interest--the "sanitized" book is promoted both by Bill Clinton and by Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, possibly giving a bit of a clue as to whom may be the "shepherd" in the cell.

Grace Nelson

Grace Nelson is probably the only notable cypher as far as dominionist connections go in that list--I expect she, like Hillary, may well be in the process of being "shepherded".

And quite interestingly, Mrs. Nelson was also the only person in the cell willing to give a statement regarding what goes on there.

Sharlet's article notes Mrs. Nelson's commentary:

We contacted all of Clinton's Fellowship cell mates, but only one agreed to speak—though she stressed that there's much she's not "at liberty" to reveal. Grace Nelson used to be the organizer of the Florida Governor's Prayer Breakfast, which makes her a piety broker in Florida politics—she would decide who could share the head table with Jeb Bush. Clinton's prayer cell was tight-knit, according to Nelson, who recalled that one of her conservative prayer partners was at first loath to pray for the first lady, but learned to "love Hillary as much as any of us love Hillary." Cells like these, Nelson added, exist in "parliaments all over the world," with all welcome so long as they submit to "the person of Jesus" as the source of their power.

Throughout her time at the White House, Clinton writes in Living History, she took solace from "daily scriptures" sent to her by her Fellowship prayer cell, along with Coe's assurances that she was right where God wanted her. (Clinton's sense of divine guidance has been noted by others: Bishop Richard Wilke, who presided over the United Methodist Church of Arkansas during her years in Little Rock, told us, "If I asked Hillary, 'What does the Lord want you to do?' she would say, 'I think I'm called by the Lord to be in public service at whatever level he wants me.'")

In other words, even Mrs. Nelson has (more subtle) dominionist connections--with the Florida equivalent of the "National Prayer Breakfast", specifically picking who'd get recruited on as "Family" state contacts.

And possible signs of influence--or why I'm worried about what Hillary's gotten into

Another thing notable in the Jeff Sharlet article is a particular bit of phrasing from Clinton that is ringing major alarm bells for me in regard to her potential level of involvement--and what may well be going on in her "cell group":

After a glancing shot at Republican "pharisees," Clinton explained that, of course, her "very serious" grounding in faith had helped her weather the affair. But she had also relied on the "extended faith family" that came to her aid, "people whom I knew who were literally praying for me in prayer chains, who were prayer warriors for me."

This could be bad. Very bad.

For one, I have *never*, never ever ever, heard the phrases "prayer warriors" or "prayer chains" outside of a neopentecostal dominionist context. You don't even hear that stuff in SBC churches unless they are under heavy neopente influence.

In fact, there's only one place I've *ever* heard the term "prayer warrior"--within Joel's Army/Joshua Generation circles.

Lest I be accused of paranoia, I did a Google search for "prayer warrior" as a reality check just to be sure the PTSD wasn't flaring.

I'm afraid it wasn't just the PTSD. Link after link after link after link in the Google search goes to various "Joel's Army" promoters--with one of the *very* few exceptions being a link to books published by the SBC's Lifeway; the SBC itself is becoming positively infested with "Joel's Army" promotion, sadly, so this doesn't really make it mainstream. The search for "Prayer chain" (which is just a linked network of "prayer warriors") was a little less worrying, but not by much.

One of the more disturbing links--and I think this should be a telling summary of the entire concept--is a link to the website of the infamous "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" game (a Starcraft-esque tactical RPG fictionalisation of Joel's Army/Joshua Generation endtime theology where you get points both for converting people--and for killing "sinners" who won't convert); apparently there is a "prayer warrior" class in the game that gives bonuses for conversion.

Another telling link as to the reality of "prayer warriors" is the story of a walkaway and survivor of involuntary exorcism who eventually had to break off almost all relations with his family (who are neopentecostal dominionists) after daring to come out as a gay man.

The very term "prayer warrior" seems to have been invented by Joel's Army promoter C. Peter Wagner (who publishes books on not only "prayer warrioring" but "prayer shields" as well)--it is a very specific terminology, and--in neopentecostal dominionist circles--it is explicitly and tactitly known that "prayer warrior" activities can include not only prayers to bless but to curse.

Yes, imprecatory prayer is alive and well in these circles. In fact, Ken Hutcherson--yes, the same one linked with the violent Joel's Army hategroup "Watchmen At The Walls", actually called up his network of "prayer chains" of "prayer warriors" to do imprecatory prayers against the participants in the Day of Silence. More examples of imprecatory prayers are presented in this online submission for "prayer warriors" to do "prayer chains"--including a request for imprecatory prayers against "occult enemies", multiple requests for imprecatory prayers against non-dominionist relatives including a particularly disturbing request for imprecatory prayer against a daughter who came out as gay, an imprecatory prayer request against someone named "Martha", a request for imprecatory prayer against all opponents of the coercive Assemblies frontgroup Teen Challenge--and that's just in the first few. (And yes, this sort of thing is so common as to be the norm in these groups.)

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary...just what the devil have you gotten yourself into? :(

Secondly, Hillary Clinton is in an unusually vulnerable area as far as recruitment into cell groups go--she's had a rather extensive history growing up under authoritarian groups. Her pastor when she was growing up (a pastor of a mainstream United Methodist Church) has noted she had interest in conservative theological writing even as a teen and that her high school history teacher was "to the right of the John Birchers"; Hillary's grandmother Hannah Jones Rodham (even by Mrs. Clinton's own acknowledgement in her autobiography) was also infamously authoritarian, being known locally in the Scranton area as more than a bit of a holy terror. At least one DailyKos writer has written rather extensively on Hillary's relationship with Hannah Jones Rodham--including notes that Hillary apparently quite admired her grandmother.

Even more disturbingly, it looks like Clinton may be in the process of being graduated to a formal "member" (which, in "Family"-speak, is actually closer to being an initiate into the "inner circle"), per Sharlet's article:

These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast. Though weighted Republican, the breakfast—regularly attended by about 40 members—is a bipartisan opportunity for politicians to burnish their reputations, giving Clinton the chance to profess her faith with men such as Brownback as well as the twin terrors of Oklahoma, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and, until recently, former Senator George Allen (R-Va.). Democrats in the group include Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, who told us that the separation of church and state has gone too far; Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is also a regular.

There is also a note earlier in the article that also strongly indicates Hillary is being actively groomed towards "Membership", if she's not nearly there already:

Clinton, says Schenck, has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance.

"Schenck" here is Robert Schenck, who is an Assemblies of God pastor (in fact, pastor of the National Community Church, a large Assemblies megachurch which John Ashcroft has been an attendee of) and who is a former head of the infamous anti-choice group Operation Rescue. Schenck promotes his Jewish origins and claims to have converted in Assemblies "missions" targeting the Jewish population; he is also an extremely well politically-connected preacher, not only running a national de facto political action committee of dominionist preachers (largely Assemblies of God) which can literally be said to comprise some of the "worst of the worst" in the Assemblies, but also is partnered with and/or runs numerous dominionist political initiatives nationwide (including a frontgroup of the largely-Assemblies-dominated "National Clergy Council" called "Faith and Action" which has been known to engage in illegal electioneering).

Schenck is rather infamous for, among other things, sneaking into the Senate chambers and "annointing" the seats in cooking oil to "name and claim" the Senators in an bizarre imprecatory prayer attempt to hex them into voting for Samuel Alito during the hearings on whether Alito should become a Supreme Court Justice; Schenck also quite explicitly cursed the families of the Sago, West Virginia mine disaster and claimed that "God would rebuke them" for a statement made by a family member of "...you wonder if there is such a thing as a God anymore" (for those who don't remember, initial reports had indicated only one of the 12 miners had died, and this was thought to be a miracle; sadly, reports were corrected and it turned out only one miner had survived).

To say that Schenck would know whether or not anyone is being inducted into the inner workings of "The Family" is an understatement--if there is a dominionist initiative in Washington, Schenck or an associate *certainly* has his finger in the pie at some level.

There's also some disturbing evidence that Clinton may have been initially recruited--and that other politicians are being targeted across both major parties--specifically for the opportunities involved in working with the Oval Office on things like legislation. "The Family" expressly considers itself "kingmakers for God", and the Sharlet article also notes this explicitly:

Coe has been an intimate of every president since Ford, but he rarely imposes on chief executives, who see him as a slightly mystical but apolitical figure. Rather, Coe uses his access to the Oval Office as currency with lesser leaders. "If Doug Coe can get you some face time with the President of the United States," one official told the author of a Princeton study of the National Prayer Breakfast last year, "then you will take his call and seek his friendship. That's power."

"If you're going to do religion in public life," concurs Schenck, a Jewish convert to fundamentalist Christianity who's retained his sense of irony, Coe's friendship is a kind of "kosher...seal of approval."

In other words...if she's not a "Member" yet, she is almost certainly being groomed towards that end, and by people who make the "Washington Wives" seem like a Sunday brunch in comparison. Even more disturbingly, she may have been recruited under pretences that may have seemed like a political necessity.

Based on this information, I think it is especially important that Hillary--and for that matter, all politicians--come clean regarding their relationships with "The Family".

Not just because we worry about "The Family", mind. We're worried about them, too.

A few days ago, I wrote a post expressing concern re Hillary Clinton's reported involvement in a cell-church group operated by the longest-running political dominionist group in existence--some folks considered this a wee bit controversial, in part because it was "OMG CANDIDATE DIARY" (to be honest, I'm worried about her) and partly because folks noted "there is no clear evidence this is coercive".

After some discussion with Jeff Sharlet over in Fred Clarkson's article on "The Family"--in which he's discussed info that will be included in his upcoming book--it would appear that not only does "The Family" use the same model as other coercive groups using pyramid-like structures, but may well have *originated* its use politically.

A history of cell-church groups, revised

In my initial history of cell-church groups, I had noted that the earliest use I had documented for the use of cell-groups in any manner was the late 40s-early 50s within the Assemblies of God (a group known for its promotion of neopentecostal dominionism--being quite possibly the originators of it from a very early period).

Recent research I've done regarding the history of the violent "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" group "Watchmen At The Walls" has pushed back the use of cells in church steeplejacks probably to the late 1910s-early 1920s (again originating with the Assemblies)--and recent info from Sharlet which is to be published in his upcoming book "The Family" indicates that not only did "The Family" originate the practice but cell-church groups may have already been in semi-common use politically.

Specifically, Sharlet has traced the origin of political cell-church usage in "The Family" to one Frank N.D. Buchman, who may well have become acquainted with the practice via the use of cell-churches in China (later notable promoters of highly abusive cell-churches in China and among Chinese emigre communities include Watchman Nee and Witness Lee). In the 20s, he eventually was kicked out of China--in no small part because he accused other missionaries of being homosexuals.

Buchman well may have been one of the first dominionists in the US not affiliated with a neopentecostal church; he was a Lutheran, and in 1921 onward he founded an early dominionist group originally known as "The Oxford Group" and later becoming known as Moral Re-Armament (it has since gone through another reinvention and is known now as Initiatives of Change, and would superficially appear to have toned down some of its rhetoric).

Moral Re-Armament spawned not only Alcoholics Anonymous (a program that has come under criticism because of its reliance on a deity) but the program "Up With People"; its "Four Absolutes" (absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love) were seen to waffle in practice (there's some evidence that an early version of "bait and switch evangelism" or "heavenly deception" may have been used in that "absolute love" could require the telling of "white lies"), and the group became enough of a personality cult (around Buchman and--in a manner similar to that of neopente dominionist groups and what has been reported re "The Family"--the emphasis of "rhema" (personal revelation) along with and even over "logos" (the written Word)) that the conservative Catholic League itself warned Roman Catholics against association with the group as of 1951.

The Catholic League article actually does have some interesting info on the group:

The basic tenet of MRA is that the reformation of the world can only be achieved by creating a moral and spiritual force, by convincing all men of the necessity of absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. As helps to the practice of these cardinal virtues and to the further development of their moral life, the members of MRA engage in the exercises of sharing, surrender, substitution, and guidance. It is the last practice in particular that is of interest in an evaluation of this group.

Many leaders, Buchman states, are convinced that the world needs a moral and spiritual awakening, and they put their case in striking phrases. But that is only words. The problem facing men is how to do it. To solve this difficulty Buchman turns to God:

Now I find when we don't know how, God will show us if we are willing. When man listens, God speaks. When man obeys, God acts. The secret is God-control. We are not out to tell God. We are out to let God tell us. And He will tell us.

The lesson the world most needs is the art of listening to God. [2]

Listening to God is the heart of MRA. As a program of spiritual reformation, it must be performed according to protocol. Everyone must set aside a "quiet time" of fifteen minutes a day to listen to the voice of God. Although "anyone can hear the words of the Lord," it is also necessary to obey certain rules:

The first rule is that we listen honestly for everything that may come—and if we are wise we write it down. The second rule is that we test the thoughts that come, to see which are from God.

One test is the Bible. It is steeped in the experience through the centuries of men who have dared, under Divine guidance, to live experimentally with God. There, culminating in the life of Jesus Christ, we find the highest moral and spiritual challenge—complete honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love.

Another excellent test is, "What do others say who also listen to God?" This is an unwritten law of fellowship. It is also an acid test of one's commitment to God's plan. No one can be wholly God-controlled who works alone. [3]

Buchman is sure that he has this direct guidance from on high:

In a revolution I went through not long ago, God gave me direct orders to stay in a place which the authorities had said was the most dangerous of all. I stayed. Others, who fled in search of safety, nearly lost their lives. My friend and I were perfectly safe. [4]

The results of his listening are clear. He finds that God's thoughts become his thoughts. In fact, "direct messages come from the Mind of God to the mind of man—definite, direct, decisive. God speaks." [5]

This gift is not limited to himself. Everyone can, in fact, must, receive his instruction directly from God:

We accept as a commonplace a man's voice carried by radio to the uttermost parts of the earth. Why not the voice of the living God as an active, creative force in every home, every business, every parliament? Men listen to a king when he speaks to his people over the air. Why not the King of Kings? He is alive, and constantly broadcasting. [6]

Thus divine guidance must become the normal experience of ordinary men and women. "Any man," says Buchman, "can pick up divine messages if he will put his receiving set in order. Definite, accurate, adequate information can come from the Mind of God to the minds of men." [7]

Receiving this communication from God to begin a life governed by absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love is only the first step. It is the reform of self which must come before anything else can be accomplished. But the aim of MRA is more comprehensive. Buchman envisages the change not only of individuals, but, through them, of the entire human race:

Wherever I go people say one thing: "If only so-and-so would be changed!" You probably thought of the very person. Or you probably thought of five persons. Well, think of five persons changed. Think of nations changed. Is that the answer? The world is looking for an answer, and, by the Grace of God, there is an answer. But be clear on this point, the answer is not in any man or any group of men. The answer rests in the living God. It rests in a God-controlled person. It rests in a God-controlled nation. It rests in God-controlled supernationalism. [8]

Individual change of hearts leading to the reformation of the world is the plan and purpose of MRA. Moral Rearmament, therefore, is not a new organization which prescribes allegiance to a system of truths or precepts, but avowedly is only a means of deepening the truths which every man must hold. It is neither a church nor a religious sect. There are no dogmas to profess; no rites to practice. MRA exists only to change the lives of men, to make zealous reformers out of sinners, who still remain members of their individual churches. "Catholic, Jew and Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Confucianists—all find they can change, where needed, and travel along this good road together." [9]

(Footnotes: [2] Buchman, Frank N.D., Remaking the World (London, 1955), p. 35.
[3] Ibid., p. 36.
[4] Ibid., p. 40.
[5] Ibid., p. 72.
[6] Ibid., p. 13.
[7] Ibid., p. 14.
[8] Ibid., p. 25.
[9] Ibid., p 166.)

In a move that eerily mirrored the use of cells in "The Family"--and in better-known coercive groups such as Campus Crusade and (most infamously) Maranatha, the use of cell-churches to promote official dogma was rampant--and even at this embryonic state, warning signs abounded:

Frank N.D. Buchman, founder of MRA, was born in 1878 of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. He studied for the Lutheran ministry at Philadelphia, also travelling abroad to England and Germany. Assigned to a poor parish at his own request, he soon brought it to a flourishing condition by his zealous activity. In 1904 he turned to work with youth, and took up a position as chaplain in a youth center. But a disagreement arose between him and the administration over the use of funds for the institution, and Buchman left to travel in Europe. Here, in the English village of Keswick, as he attended a Sunday afternoon session of the village church where a woman evangelist preached about the cross and how Christ had taken on Himself the sins of the world, Buchman had a "spiritual experience." He suddenly saw that all his knowledge of Christianity was only theoretical. His duty was to put it into actual practice. Since personal sin was the cause of the world's evil, there was need for personal repentance. The very first step of his conversion was to write the six members of the committee in Pennsylvania and ask their forgiveness for his part in the argument.

Returning to America, he carried out his intention of imparting to others his own grasp of the religious truth he had seen by converting the atheist son of the family with whom he was boarding. Through his connection with the YMCA, and then Harvard University as a lecturer in personal evangelism, Buchman began to form followers in the ivy league colleges of the East. Soon the practice of house parties, at which students and often prominent men and women gathered to seek the "change," became prevalent throughout the country. One of the principal techniques for this metanoia was a public confession of one's fault's, a device that caused trouble, particularly on college campuses, where the confessions were largely sexual.

(Of note: One of the most frequent warning signs of a potentially coercive group is the unethical use of confessions, especially public confessions. This is an issue that is in fact one of the most frequently forms of systemic religious abuse within cell-church groups.)

The Catholic League was not the only mainstream church at the time to warn about potential abuses in Moral Re-Armament; the Church of England also specifically condemned the group, and the TIME Magazine article is especially enlightening as to the degree of abuse that was occuring--and some *other* disturbing statements by Buchman that would be mirrored by the present-day leader of "The Family":

Imported to America, the Oxford Group went well for a time among Ivy League undergraduates, who responded to the shiny-eyed intensity of the group's weekend "house parties" in well-staffed mansions, with their morning "quiet times" and their public confessions of sins. The four tenets of Frank Buchman's version of Oxford Group Christianity were "absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love," and so much absolutism was bound occasionally to end in tears; at Princeton, for instance, President John Hibben summarily banned Frank Buchman from the campus.
. . .
God-Guided Elite. Buchman meant M.R.A. to be a "God-guided campaign to prevent war by moral and spiritual awakening." It failed to prevent war, and it earned considerable censure for seeming to rely heavily on "changing" dictators; Buchman had the misfortune to exclaim publicly: "I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler." After World War II, M.R.A. turned to attacking Communism.

Another article detailing potential abusive practices in many of Buchman's groups including some specific concerns re Alcoholics Anonymous also notes other practices of concern that point to Moral Re-Armament having been coercive in practice--among others:

Although one can find parallels between AA and the Craigie Foundation, AA really owes its existence to the Oxford Movement, founded by Lutheran minister Nathan Buchman. Buchman, in response to what he believed to have been a personal mystical religious experience, started the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921. The goal of this group was to establish a world culture based on what Buchman considered to be the beliefs and practices of the early Christian church. Buchman tended to see everything in the context of a battle between good and evil. His vision was messianic and he equated his work and goals with God. He believed that any philosophy or ideology, particularly Communism, which disagreed with his vision of a world-wide theocracy, was inspired by Satan. He established the Four Absolutes: absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. He referred to himself as "soul surgeon." New members of his group were expected to undergo rigorous self-examination, openly confess their sins and weaknesses, surrender themselves to God, and make restitution to anyone they had harmed in the past. Additionally, they were expected to promote the organization for no fee and fund raising was a key activity of members of the fellowship.

Buchman also promoted the Four Cs: confidence in Buchman the soul surgeon, confession of sins, conviction (or acknowledgement) of one's sins, conversion to the principles of the First Century Christian Fellowship, and continuance of practice of the Fellowship rules. Besides the Four Absolutes and the Four Cs, members were also encouraged to live by specific fellowship slogans, which included "give news, not views," "win your argument, lose your man," and "J.E.S.U.S. just exactly suits us sinners." Buchman's explicitly stated goal was mass conversion that ultimately would lead to humanity being ruled by "God-Control."

The First Century Christian Fellowship grew rapidly in the 1920s. Buchman targeted recruitment activities towards men of power and influence and towards college students. He fully expected his followers to adhere to his dictates totally and to accept the veracity of his mystical experiences without question. Not surprisingly, a considerable amount of negative publicity resulted from his methods of recruitment and his group was often called both a cult and "Buchmanism."

In 1929, following a series of revivals he held in England, Buchman changed the name of his group to the Oxford Group and the organization continued to flourish under the new name. His hatred of communism allowed him to see fascism as a reasonable alternative and in 1936, he was quoted as saying "I thank heaven for a man like Adolph Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism. Think what it would mean to the world if Hitler surrendered to the control of God? The world needs the dictatorship of the living spirit of God. Hitler is Christianity's defender against Communism." Although he later admitted that he had been duped by Hitler, he did not issue a retraction. Understandably, that interview did irreparable harm to the Oxford Movement and in 1939, Buchman again changed the name of his movement, this time calling it "Moral Rearmament." The influence of Moral Rearmament peaked in the 1940s and its membership declined greatly following Buchman's death in 1961.

In other words, dominionist orgs were hitting on the concept of cell-churches widely as early as the 1920s.

Based on Sharlet's research--to be published in his book next month--"The Family" apparently directly adopted the tactics used by Moral Re-Armament (presumably also including the coercive tactics that got the group banned from Princeton in a remarkably similar manner to how Maranatha was banned from multiple state universities and Campus Crusade has also found itself occasionally banned) full-scale when the group was founded in 1935, integrating the use of cell-church groups in 1942--and already at that time using the specific term "cell group". In fact, much of the statements by Buchman (and Moral Re-Armament during his leadership of the group) *and* by "The Family" seem frighteningly similar enough--in particular the explicit targeting of world leaders for recruitment and the promotion of Jesus Christ as a cult of personality--one could legitimately make the argument that "The Family" may be the standard-bearers for what was known as "Buchmanism" in the Fifties.

Sharlet is supposedly going to be publishing a full history of this in his upcoming book--it is going to be *very* interesting, IMHO, what comes out once "The Family" hits the bookstores.

Recruitment, as it works in "The Family"

Many folks in the various threads re "The Family" have had many questions to the effect of "I heard Barack Obama and John McCain were also involved in this--can you clarify?". Much of the confusion is in part because of the specific terminology that "The Family" uses to describe its various levels of involvement--terms that not only don't exactly have the same meaning as their plain-English equivalents (another danger sign of coerciveness, by the way) but also refer to specific levels common in "pyramid-based" coercive groups.

Again, my descriptions are in part based on confirmation Jeff Sharlet has provided in regards to how the cell structure in "The Family" operates, combined with my own research and experiences.

Level 0: Recruitment via the National Prayer Breakfast

What I will refer to as "Level 0" is, to my knowledge, not named internally in "The Family" but is the level at which people are invited to the National Prayer Breakfast; Level 0 is the "recruitment level", where people are invited to a seminar and the group scouts likely folks out for potential further recruitment. Attendees don't necessarily agree with the ideology.

Level 0 in other groups (in these examples, I'll be using Scientology's internal structure as well as AmWay's; both are pyramidal coercive groups familiar to most--Maranatha and other abusive "discipling and shepherding" groups also have similar internal setups) would be the "personality tests" given by Scientologists (or the purchase of the book "Dianetics") or "business development seminars" held by AmWay or Scientology frontgroups.

Typically at Level 0 in recruitment, almost no practical info is given re the group save that it's a great way to improve yourself (or to network)--it's pretty much only once folks have joined (and, most of the time, not even then) that they realise the level of mire they have just gotten themselves into.

Inside the Beltway, things are complicated by the fact that the National Prayer Breakfast essentially operates as a semi-mandatory attendance event--at least if a politician wants votes. (In part, we can thank groups like "The Family" for this situation.) It's not a dissimilar situation from a person working for a business who is told by his boss to attend "business development seminars" (which turn out to be AmWay or Scientology recruitment events) and who is at risk for either being fired, demoted, or not being eligible for job advancement if he *doesn't* attend these seminars.

Fortunately, this would also appear to be the maximum extent of involvement of Obama and McCain, according to Sharlet.

Level 1: Indoctrination of "Friends" via cell-groups

Level 1 is probably the initial level at which true involvement occurs with "The Family"; this level is internally referred to as "Friends of The Family" and is the first level we start seeing things of real concern. (The following description should, I hope, explain why I am now gravely worried for Mrs. Clinton and what she's gotten herself into.)

Level 1 in "The Family"--and in most other pyramid-style groups (as we'll get into)--is the level of initial indoctrination and "shepherding". In "The Family", there's evidence (which, again, Sharlet will be discussing in full in his book) that indicate the same coercive practices common across pyramidal cell-groups may be occuring.

In particular, at least one comment by Sharlet has indicated that quite a bit more than innocent "Bible study" goes on in these cells, and that other potentially more coercive activities may go on in the inner circle:

I've never accused them of "conspiratorial mind control" but I do document that this is about a lot more than worship and Bible study, which are just fine. In fact, the inner circle of the Family does very little of either -- Doug Coe rejects church, and elite believers are encouraged to seek the advice of Jesus by direct consultation in a cell group, with scripture rarely consulted.

This is more than a little dangerous. In fact (we'll need to wait for Sharlet's book to come out to document more of it, alas), this is a rather strong hint that potentially abusive tactics may be in use (the use of unethical confession tactics by "Family" predecessor/model Moral Re-Armament are already a concern, and disallowing people to read the Bible for themselves (and requiring specific, leader-inspired interpretations) removes a powerful form of "reality testing" for persons in Bible-based groups). In addition, the specific advise to not participate in mainstream churches is very, very worrisome--it's a classic method to isolate people from communities that might threaten the dogma of what is promoted by Coe and by "shepherds".

The fact that group leaders promote authoritarianism in general also does not exactly relax one--it is extremely common in abusive "cell church" groups for leaders to claim direct personal revelation from God, and opposition to the group leaders to be opposition to God.

Level 1 initiates in pyramidal groups are generally not trusted to leadership positions within the group, are privy to only some of the info, and are essentially seen as "infants in need of instruction" internally--so they do tend to be shepherded and shadowed, in part because the group doesn't yet see them as "loyal faithful" and doesn't trust them not to leave or to bugger up.

There are equivalents to this elsewhere. Level 1 in AmWay is typically the level where people have joined the group, are not yet Diamonds, but are trying to peddle Quixtar merchandise to their relatives et al. (This is also where they are encouraged to join the AmWay "business motivational organisations" where quite a bit of the reports of coercive practices come from.) In Scientology, this is the level where people are in the group, aren't yet privy to the secrets about Xenu et al, are running up their credit cards with "auditing" sessions, and often join the Sea Orgs (a paramilitary/missionary group within Scientology) as a method of alternate payment for their E-Meter sessions.)

In addition, there's a potential *second* form of coercion that "The Family" has in their deck that is rarely available to "level 1" in abusive pyramidal groups (other than groups using org-owned living and working arrangements)--namely, "The Family" really can threaten to derail a political career if their mark gets too out of line. The only comparable *common* level of potential coercion over someone's career and livelihood that I'm personally aware of is with Scientology *after* someone has signed themselves into the Sea Orgs (and that's in part because, at that point, they do often end up in employment with Scientology as well as in Scientology-provided housing as well as force their members to sign coercive (and, likely, illegal) "contracts" where members forfeit their right to sue for damages); generally pyramidal groups do *not* get this sort of ammo until the "Level 2" recruitment stage.

This is the level at which Hillary Clinton is presently a member (and why I have concerns for her at this point).

Level 2: Leaders--what "The Family" sees as its "membership"

Level 2 are the shepherds and "faithful leadership" of pyramidal-style groups--those who've been in it long enough, and indoctrinated enough, to be seen as the "true faithful" and thus privy to the truth of what *really* goes on in the org.

In "The Family", Level 2 is what the group terms "members" (this is, as an aside, how "The Family" can legitimately claim that Hillary Clinton is not a "Member" of the group--"Member" refers to the leadership circles). Most of the skunk-works goes on here; people at this stage are pretty much isolated from religious observances outside of "The Family" (and religious groups approved by the org).

Level 2 in AmWay is roughly equivalent to the Diamond level; Level 2 in Scientology would be the OT VIIs and above who've paid out $400,000 US to hear the "Super Secret of Mankind" (namely, that all of humanity's troubles are the direct result of "enturbulation" (oppression and even frank possession) by "body thetans"--alien ghosts which were the result of a mass genocide by Evil Alien Overlord Xenu when he chucked millions of other aliens in the volcanoes at Kilahuea and Las Palmas some 73 million years ago--and most religions/theologies/etc. outside of Scientology are the result of "engrams" (implanted images) shown to these unfortunates before they were dumped in volcanoes to such a level as to give poor Lady Pele a permanent case of indigestion).

Most of Sharlet's writing (before his book) where he's mentioned politicians by name have involved presumed Level 2 members of "The Family". The Level 2 members have the private Family-owned apartments et al; they also toe the line *very* carefully because it could explode messily if they were to escape.

Fairly confirmable Level 2 initiates (or, as "The Family" terms them, "members") include U.S. Reps. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; and Mike Doyle, D-Pa.; and U.S. Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. (All six of these lived in Family-provided apartments.)

Other members (present and past) of Congress that may either be "Friends" or "Members" (not much documentation besides Sharlet's writing exists on this) include Senators Don Nickles and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, John Ensign of Nevada, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Conrad Burns of Montana; House members that may be either "Members" or "Friends" include Frank Wolf of Virginia and Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania.

Level 3: The men behind the curtain

Level 3 are essentially the true leaders of the org--the DeVos clan and the heads of AmWay IBOs would count in the case of AmWay, whilst L. Ron Hubbard and David Miscavaige would count as examples in Scientology.

In the case of "The Family", the "Level 3" candidate would be Douglas Coe, who is considered one of the 25 most influential "evangelicals" in the US (in large part due to his leadership in "The Family"). There are potentially other leaders as well that would qualify as "Level 3" management; the group decentralised much of its internal structure in 1972.

Interestingly, "The Family" uses front-groups, but does not use the "church loophole" to avoid filing a form 990 (501(c)3 groups--of which "The Fellowship Foundation", the "core group" of "The Family", is one--are generally required to file a form 990 in lieu of business tax forms, but there is a specific exemption applying only to churches that allows many coercive religious groups to hide their finances almost entirely--Scientology has hidden much of the worth of its assets via this exemption, and so have many of the televangelists now being investigated by Congress).

Because of this, form 990s for the org are available online; Richard E. Carver can thus be added to the list of "Level 3" leaders as can Marty Sherman, Stan Holmes Jr., Frank J. Sizemore III, John May, and Charles McCleod--all of whom are listed as being in upper management of the org. Charles Mendies of New Delhi, India is also listed as a "ministry coordinator"; Douglas Coe is also specifically listed.

An additional listing includes Eric Sanson as VP of "The Family"; Kirk Mitchell as secretary; Leroy Rooker as treasurer; Rod McAllister, Ronnie Cameron, David Parks, David Laux, Denny Pierce, Doug Crane, Robert Perry, Larry Franklin, and Mike Foster as "directors"; and Doug Coe as an "associate". However, this organisational table is more than a little misleading; literally everyone on "The Fellowship Foundation's" board of directors serves all of an hour a week without compensation, with Coe doing most of the running (as the only 40 hour/week board member), and thus can be said to be the true brains of the operation. (He is also the sole paid board member, earning over $51,000/yr based on the 2005 form 990.)

At the end of the form, practically the entire Coe family are listed as employees and "associates" (which may be the term that "The Family" uses in practice for its leadership)--Timothy S. Coe (Doug Coe's son and "associate", $110,000 yearly salary); Janice Coe (Doug Coe's wife and "associate", $2,400 yearly salary); David Coe (another son of Doug Coe and "associate", $110,000 yearly salary); Paula Corder (a married daughter of Doug Coe and "associate", $21,000 yearly salary); Alden Coe (son-in-law of Doug Coe and "associate", $12,500 yearly salary); and finally Elena Cole (daughter-in-law of Doug Coe and "associate", $12,500 yearly salary).

Interestingly, a second frontgroup of "The Family" (listed in the form 990 for "The Fellowship Foundation") is Wilberforce Foundation--it, too, does not use the "church loophole", is apparently a "Young Christian Leader's" training facility (think like Campus Crusade's "Leadership U"), and *is* directly run by David Coe (Doug Coe's son). The group is listed as being in "common management" with "The Fellowship Foundation", and (in addition to Tim Coe and David Coe, who are listed as vice-president and treasurer respectively) Jerry Jonker is listed as president and Marty Sherman as secretary (Sherman is also listed as being associated with "The Fellowship Foundation). All leaders save for Jonker also are substantially paid--Tim and David Coe to the tune of $110,000 yearly, with Sherman being paid $121,200 yearly.

The lack of the use of the "church loophole" is surprising, especially since "The Family" did use this loophole for "C Street Center", the frontgroup that actually manages the apartment housing.

For that matter, the form 990s are turning out to be quite interesting reading in and of themselves--more on that in another post.

There has been quite a lot of writing recently on Talk to Action (and today in regards to a secretive political dominionist group known as "The Fellowship" or "The Family"--especially in relation to an upcoming book by Jeff Sharlet (titled The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power--you can pre-order here) which threatens to blow the "Family Secret" wide open.

Frederick Clarkson here on DailyKos has recently reported on an NBC News report--along with a recent Mother Jones article re Sherlet's book--which give disturbing confirmation to something I've suspected for a time: Namely, that "The Family" uses a particularly abusive "discipling and shepherding" model common in neopentecostal dominionist cell churches.

The abusive tactics could have major implications politically--especially as Sharlet's book has noted that no less than Hillary Clinton is a member of one of the cell-churches linked to "The Family".

A brief history of cell churches and "discipling and shepherding" within neopente dominionist groups

The "discipling and shepherding" tactic known as the "cell church" has a fairly long history within neopentecostal dominionism. According to research I've done informally on the history of "cell churches", the earliest reference to their use has been with the "Watchmen Nee" and "Witness Lee" groups in China (and Chinese emigre communities) in the early to mid-40s (of note, both these leaders were heads of particularly coercive splits from the Church of God), and the tactic seems to have been especially popularised by Campus Crusade (and other "parachurch" quasi-denominations and recruitment fronts run by neopente dominionist orgs and denominations) and the Assemblies of God (starting with Paul Yonggi Cho in the 50's).

There is some preliminary evidence that cell churches may well have been used in the Assemblies *prior* to Cho's popularising of them; this includes the use of "cell-church"-like tactics to infiltrate and steeplejack Reformed Baptist churches throughout Eastern Europe in the 1910s and 1920s (and essentially planting the seed for what would become the especially violent "Joel's Army" group "Watchmen At The Walls").

If the use of "cell churches" is confirmed from early on in "The Family" (which has a history dating back to the early 30s--and some rather disturbing and persistent rumours of possible collaboration with American Nazi groups in that period which I hope Sharlet's book can either confirm or deny), that would lend credence to the neopente dominionist movement having invented it early on--possibly initially as a tactic for the steeplejacking of church and state alike.

Cell churches and "The Fellowship"

As I noted in an expose I've done in past on coercive tactics in cell-churches, the neopente dominionist model of "discipling and shepherding"--the very model which appears to be in use by "The Fellowship" nee "The Family"--may be one of the most singularly coercive and harmful tactics ever devised by spiritually abusive groups.

How cell-churches work is actually rather simple--the best model to look at, in fact, is probably the plethora of "affinity schemes" and similar pyramid schemes promoted throughout the dominionist community.

At top, you have the pastor. Below him, he is "shepherd" over the assistant pastors; these are in turn "shepherds" over the deacons; the deacons are in turn "shepherds" over the small-group managers, these in turn are "shepherds" over smaller groups, and so on until you get down to "home churches" or "cell churches" of around six people, including a "shepherd".

Those of you who are familiar with pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing have seen this before. Namely, everyone reports to or gives money to the "upstream", and they report to the "upstream", and so on and so on till you hit the very head of the organisation. (Yes, there's a reason why pyramid-related affinity fraud is so common--not only is it similar to "discipling and shepherding" models, it's not uncommon for pyramid schemes to be promoted *within* cell churches.)

Though "The Fellowship" doesn't have a pastor per se, there are indications things work pretty similarly. From a recent Mother Jones article on the upcoming book by Sharlet:

Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection. When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian "cell" whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat. Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.)

Of note, this is almost *identical* to how cell-churches operate in the Assemblies of God; often "cells" are segregated by sex, the use of the cell church is explicitly promoted as a "spiritual warfare" tactic, and cell-churches are explicitly promoted as a method of recruitment of people going to seemingly-innocuous affairs.

It's quite possible to herd surprisingly large numbers of people via what amounts to a religious pyramid scheme/"Big Brother Network". An example is given with Yoido Full Gospel Church--Paul Yonggi Cho's church, which has a claimed membership of over 3/4ths of a *million* people and which effectively operates as the Assemblies of God in South Korea.

In the case of Yoido Full Gospel, the level of layering is very apparent in the first three layers--Cho at top, and 171 associate pastors and 356 lay pastors (who are themselves supervised by associate pastors). The number of potential "big brothers" only gets more numerous from there.

And, as it turns out, the primary problem IS with these "big brothers"--just as it is with other kinds of pyramids.

"Big Brother"--not just a TV show anymore

Where this gets especially worrying--in particular in regards to Hillary Clinton's known involvement in a cell-church group linked to the Fellowship--is with the abusive tactics common in these groups.

In fact, the tactic is so abusive that even a number of premillenial-dispensationalist churches otherwise sympathetic to dominionism have commented on how the tactic is harmful if used as directed:

As we shall see, the cell churches are all pyramid structures where apprentice leaders are carefully trained and monitored but under the headship of another leader and the staff of the church. Although they claim to be "New Testament" forms, they are more rigid and authoritarian than the traditional structures we have today. Well known "church growth" consultant, Carl F. George describes his "Jethro I and II" systems (named after a system Moses established of 'lay judges'). It starts with the individual followed by the apprentice leaders, cell group leaders leader of ten, the leader of five groups of ten, of a hundred and five hundred. The flaw here is that the Old Testament form of organization, including the temple and the priesthood were done away with by the New Covenant.

The Pastors develop a hierarchy clergy and lay leaders into an organization which can be drawn on a chart called a "Meta-Map". "Skillful use of a Meta-Map helps staff and boards understand how their churches are configured so they can track such critical important factors as where leaders and potential leaders are, where new people are, how visitors are being handled, and where long-term members are relative to more recent members. A Meta-Map enables leaders to see what happens after everyone has gathered for corporate worship: Where do they go? What tasks to they take with them? What stations in life are they occupying?...Every visual symbol on a Meta-Map represents a leader to be supervised, a training site for producing an apprentice...) (Carl F. George, "The Coming Church Revolution", p. 246) Far from being loosely organized and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, cell groups are tightly controlled within the church hierarchy.

Proponents feel that "the traditional, program-based church cannot contain the coming revival." (Larry Stocksill, "The Cell Church," p. 17) The following describes an ideal cell meeting: "Sometimes, in a home setting, everyone will move into the living area and begin the 'icebreaker' as naturally as any other topic of conversation. The group leader poses a simple question (written into each lesson) to which anyone can have a quick or humorous response. An 'icebreaker' is indispensable because it promotes group community as well as opens up the members to sharing...The next component is a discussion of four questions based around a passage of Scripture. Our groups generally discuss the topic from the previous Sunday's sermon...The lesson closes with an 'application'...After the lesson, the group focuses again on prayer and 'vision.' (ibid., pp.135-136) This is hardly a description of a spontaneous "early church" meeting where everyone is free to share what the Lord is doing in their life. Sharing is okay as long as it relates to the previous Sunday's sermon.

Again, there is evidence of an almost identical setup in "The Fellowship". From the Mother Jones article:

The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan. The Fellowship isn't out to turn liberals into conservatives; rather, it convinces politicians they can transcend left and right with an ecumenical faith that rises above politics. Only the faith is always evangelical, and the politics always move rightward. This is in line with the Christian right's long-term strategy.

From a recent NBC Nightly News broadcast relating to Sharlet's book:

MITCHELL: Jeff Sharlet lived among Coe's followers six years ago and came out troubled by their secrecy and rhetoric.

Mr. JEFF SHARLET: We were being taught the leadership lessons of Hitler, Lenin and Mao. And I'd say, `Aren't--isn't there a problem with that?' And they would even seem perplexed by the question. Hitler's genocide wasn't really an issue for them. It was the strength that he emulated.
. . .
Mr. DOUGLAS COE: (1989) I've seen pictures of the young men in the Red Guard. They would bring in this young man's mother. He would take an ax and cut her head off. They have to put the purposes of the Red Guard ahead of their father, mother, brother, sister and their own life. That was a covenant, a pledge. That's what Jesus said.

[Andrea] MITCHELL: In his preaching, he repeatedly urges a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, a commitment Coe compares to the blind devotion Hitler demanded, a rhetorical technique that draws sharp criticism.

Mr. COE: (1989) Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler were three men. Think of the immense power these three men had, these nobodies from nowhere.

(Yes, you are reading this correctly; one of the present leaders of "The Fellowship" literally is invoking the totalitarian models of both the Cultural Revolution (in China) *and* Nazi Germany as an appropriate model of devotion. He is literally promoting Jesus Christ--and those in the Fellowship who claim to speak for Him--as a cult of personality.)

Tricia Tillian has written a book called "The Transforming Church" which includes a section on the use of cell-churches--and which warns of their coercive potential:

Up to now we have looked at the Church Growth model for change, and the house churches. But now we turn our attention to a different kind of enterprise - the cell church system.

At first glance, there seems little to distinguish cell churches from house churches, and the rhetoric appears to be identical. Both would denigrate the ecclesiastical structures of the old denominations; both would point out the small informal structure of the Early Church and urge Christians to transform their thinking about the way the Church is organised.

But there the similarities end. Christians could be forgiven for believing that cell churches are another method - a commendable method - of avoiding heavy shepherding and making sure that elders do not take on too much authority leaving the church members nothing to do but submit and obey like sheep.

Unfortunately the very opposite is true, for as we shall see, the cell church system is actually designed to enforce stricter obedience to the new order of apostolic government, and to ensure that this obedience is spread to local communities and eventually the entire world.

The purpose of cell churches is to transition the Church as a whole into a new order, to create a radical and ground-breaking reformation that will overthrow the established order and bring into being a pattern of apostolic government and prophetic revelation that will change the thinking of all Christians.

Especially in conjunction with the fact that "The Fellowship" already shows praise for leaders who constructed cults of personality and used tactics of thought reform against their own countrymen, this is especially worrisome.

As Tilliman documents, tactics that would be considered coercive and spiritually abusive are part of the game plan with these groups:

The method being used to change the entire thinking and value system of Christians today (the "paradigm shift" so sought by the leadership) is the Hegelian Dialectic which removes a person's confidence in what he previously believed so that he is open to accept another way of thinking.

As the cell church leadership have realised, this can best be done in a group setting providing love and support, but more importantly to ensure that each person is pressured to compromise his/her established rules or standards in order to be accepted as part of the group and to properly submit to the mentors and trainers set over them.

The aim is not to establish objective truth, on the basis of God's word and the nature of God, whether people like it or not, but to ACHIEVE CONSENSUS.

Group meetings in an informal context are the best place to do this, and that's where the change in thinking is taking place, as well as in the arena of seeker-sensitive megachurches and the revival churches where study is abandoned in favour of music, worship and experiencing God. What little teaching takes place emphsises over and over the need to conform, unite, love everybody, despise rational and critical thinking of all kinds, and agree as one for the good of the whole.

One commentator interviewed for a radio show comments:

"...what the Hegelian Dialectic is – most simply stated as – a synthesising of two opposites and so in a 'seeker friendly' church what you would see, is believers admixed with unbelievers and they would synthesise – that is coming to consensus where truth becomes somewhat in the middle; and so basically what happens is the believer ends up moved very slightly away from his original position of moral absolute – the seeker or the unbeliever is moved slightly more towards faith and the people who are doing this movement think that is good enough and eventually they will come to faith through this process. But the thing that ends up sacrificed really is the truth of the Word of God... [Jesus] always taught it factually and it would either convict people or it would not convict people. It was never watered down or softened ..."

["The Purpose Driven Nightmare"]

On the website of Berit Kjos, there is an excellent explanation of this process:

"When the Word of God is dialogued (as opposed to being taught didactically) between believers and unbelievers, with multiple Bible versions utilized (with King James usage discouraged) and consensus is reached – agreement that all are comfortable with – then the message of the Word of God has been watered down ever so slightly, and the participants have been conditioned to accept (and even celebrate) their compromise (synthesis). The new synthesis becomes the starting point (thesis) for the next meeting, and the process of continual change (innovation) continues. The fear of alienation from the group is the pressure that prevents an individual from standing firm for the truth of the Word of God, and such a one usually remains silent (self-editing). The fear of man (rejection) overrides the fear of God. The end result is a "paradigm shift" in how one processes factual information."

[What's Wrong With The 21st Century Church?" by Dr Robert Klenck]

Studies of this concept of the Hegelian Dialectic, and what Dean Gotcher has called DIAPRAXSIS have been undertaken, and you should not be put off by the scholarly nature of this discussion for at its heart is the basic building block of the New World Order. See for example this article on another website: Dean Gotcher's booklet and an overview and summary here: How Diapraxis manifests itself in the Church Growth Movement.

What is wanted by the cell church leaders is experiential knowledge of God in spiritual intimacy, the miraculous, group hugs, laying on of hands, singing and dancing, food, fun and thrills. Bible study, teaching and preaching the Word are downplayed and in some cases derided, and the main focus is on meeting people's "felt needs", relating to one another, "sharing", social activities, psychology, counselling and using spiritual powers to effect changes in the people who attend or who are being drawn to the group. Developing community life is deemed much more important than establishing objective truth in the heart of the individual.

Uh-oh. To anyone familiar with research on coercive religious groups and other groups practicing thought-reform tactics, this should be throwing up danger signals a-plenty.

Steven Hassan's BITE Model, a generally-accepted map of potentially abusive tactics in religious and business groups, notes some of these tactics rather specifically. In fact, the tactics used in cell-churches practically cover almost the entire BITE Model list of "red flags", including covering almost the entire Behaviour and Emotional Control sections (this is extremely unusual unless one is dealing with an incredibly abusive group; it is very, very rare that a group will hit each and every single category in the BITE model even if the group IS known to be abusive). Of note, the tactics described above would also qualify as abusive in lists of thought-reform tactics devised by Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer and Dr. Michael Langone, two of the original researchers on coercive tactics; I've used the BITE model precisely because it is probably the most in-depth model available of coercive tactics used in spiritually abusive groups.

Tilliman goes on to describe the level of coercion in Yoido Full Gospel; she makes a very persuasive case that essentially Cho has an iron fist over his congregation via the use of the extensive cell-church network.

And there's a very good reason why it works, sadly enough.

Evidence of psychological harm in cell churches

Possibly one of the most damning bits of evidence to ever come out re the effectiveness of cell-church groups to essentially breed a hivemind in their members (and that is pretty much the purpose of them) is a psychological study published in the book "The Discipling Dilemma" (which covered abusive "discipling and sheperding" tactics within the Boston Church of Christ, now the International Church of Christ--a group now, along with Maranatha, considered a model of how abusive "Bible-based" coercive groups tend to operate).

In this study, seven groups widely considered to be coercive (Scientology, the Hare Krishnas, the Moonies, The Way International (an abusive neopente group which has had some links with Bill Gothard promoters as of late), the ICC, Maranatha (now Every Nation) and the Children of God (an odd "Bible-based" cult which has had aspects of neopentecostalism and which has had notable issues with sex abuse) were compared with a control group of Churches of Christ not employing cell churches as well as members of mainstream Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches.

In literally all the cases of known coercive religious groups--including the two groups (Maranatha and ICC) known to use coercive "cell church" models and Scientology (which has used similar models)--there were documented personality type changes based on the MBTI in past, present, and future axes (usually converging on ESFJ, ESTJ, and ENFJ). In the case of the "Bible-based" groups using abusive cell church models, the evidence was particularly disturbing:

Among the 835 individuals who took all three forms of the MBTI, less than five percent showed no change at all and less than seven percent had the same past and future type. Among the rest, a comparison of past and future types showed that almost 20 percent changed on one MBTI scale, 35 percent changed on two, over 26 percent changed on three, and over 12 percent changed on all four scales, thus experiencing a total reversal of type.
. . .
A second result of this study that must be noticed is that the observed changes in psychological type scores were not random since there was a clear convergence in a single type. Ten of the 16 types show a steady decline in the percentage who came out as that type in the past, present, and future versions of the MBTI. Three transitional types show an increase from past to present and then a sharp decline in the future outcomes. There were three popular types in this study: ESFJ, ESTJ, and ENFJ. There was a steady increase in the percentage who came out with these three type indications in the past, present, and future results Percentages are figured separately for males and females since male and female distributions differ on the thinking-feeling scale. In the past, present, and future results, the percentage of males who came out ESFJ went from 2.58 to 26.37 to
to 54.23 while the percentages for females went from 5.10 to 34.31 to 53.48. ESTJs differ from ESFJs only on the thinking-feeling scale. The percentage of males who scored as ESTJ went from 7.73 to 15.92 to 20.37 while the percentages for females went from 4.67 to 13.81 to 23.04. ENFJs differ from ESFJs only on the sensing-intuition scale. The percentages of males who came out ENFJ went from 1.29 to 4.73 to 14.81, while the percentages for females went from 0.64 to 3.97 to 12.17.

There was a clear pattern of changing from introversion to extraversion, from intuition to sensing, from thinking to feeling, and from perceiving to judging.

(Emphasis mine.)

Generally, someone either has to be *very* good at faking answers or has to be involved in a group that practices pretty severe thought reform tactics to have a *total* reversal from INTP to ESFJ.

None of the controls showed this longterm personality change--thus indicating that the practice of "discipling and shepherding", as typically applied in cell-churches, is inherently harmful. This is the sort of thing that can trigger literal mental breakdowns (and has been well documented to do so in the case of Scientology and groups into "deliverance ministry").

Needless to say, this is very worrying--especially with Hillary Clinton's involvement in the group. (I would especially like commentary from Mr. Sharlet, if it's not been published in the book, in regards to tactics used within Fellowship "cell churches".)

This is especially worrying, too, not just on a personal level (I am a survivor of a group that did, and does, use abusive cell-church tactics--which is part of why I'm sort of a subject matter expert in that field). Other reports re David Coe, the leader of "The Family", don't really rest my mind, either.

We hope Hillary Clinton decides to be forthcoming regarding her relationship with "The Family" and in particular the cell-church group linked with "The Family" she is apparently a member of. It would be good for her to be open about this, or to better yet, disavow the group; secrets regarding "The Family"...are, pretty soon, no longer going to stay "in The Family".

The more that comes out about Mike Huckabee, the more I get scared.

So far, he's admitted he's part of the "Left Behind" fandom crowd, he's gotten endorsements and help from hate groups (like a pastor linked with "Watchmen On The Walls" who also wants to kick all non-dominionists out of the country), released rapist-killers from prison, wants to change the constitution to make the US a de jure theocracy, snd rather explicitly has invoked "God's Army" in his speeches.

As bad as that gets, though, it's worse than I feared. It seems that Mike Huckabee is not only a good friend of neopente cult leader and "Bible-based baby beating" and Joel's Army-with-guns advocate Bill Gothard...but he's also a member of his Bible-based cult.

And folks...that has some very scary implications in regards to that whole "Christian Nation" thing.

Huckabee: Joel's Army stalking horse?

The more I read about Mike Huckabee, the more that people find in digging up stuff, the more he opens his mouth...he sounds, more and more, like someone who would be the perfect "sergeant-at-arms" for the most extreme wing of the dominionist movement--the "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" contingent of neopentecostal dominionists.

First it was the call for the US Constitution to be "changed"--and the US de jure converted to the Republic of Gilead, or (more properly, considering Huckabee's theology) a one-nation version of the "Tribulation Force" popularised in the Left Behind novels. (And he could do so; something like 34 states have made calls for a constitutional convention to attempt to pass a "Human Life Amendment" that would ban not only abortion but practically all forms of birth control. According to Article V of the US Constitution, only 27 states need call for this; it is still legally iffy whether a "ConCon" resolution can be revoked or whether it can be limited.)

Then it was finding that Mike Huckabee was explicitly getting not only endorsements but a lot of informal help from Joseph Fuiten--yes, that Fuiten, the same guy who called for mass denationalisation of non-dominionists.

Then it was finding he was a Christian Zionist, a premillenial dispensationalist, and released a rapist-killer from prison despite protests.

Then it was Huckabee literally invoking "God's Army" in a speech in New Hampshire, using words that would have more place in an Assemblies tent meeting.

One of the real puzzlers to me in all this is why he has supported stuff that...even for a dominionist, steeplejacked SBC...seem more distinctly neopente than SBC. Why is he getting so much support from neopentes (even more so than the SBC itself)?

As you will soon see below...some new discoveries have pretty much revealed why--and made it even more absolutely imperative that Mike Huckabee is not allowed near an office of trust in the US, much less the Presidency.

Mike Huckabee: So fond of Gothard, he became a member of his neopente cult

Huckabee has been throwing some major danger-signals for me for some time, even with him ostenably being a Southern Baptist preacher. For one, he's been supporting some things--and been getting a lot of endorsement from people--that tend far more towards the Assemblies of God end of things than SBC (things like endorsements from practically the entire Assemblies leadership of the Washington/Oregon/Idaho area, for starters, or endorsements by some of the SBC theological seminaries where Assemblies partnership is close but not others, or Tim LaHaye's explicit endorsement).

I had suspected it may be a sign that Arkansas may be having worse troubles than most with neopentes partnering with the SBC and possibly injecting some of their theology in--but then I saw this little article in Salon and things made frightening sense why Huckabee has gotten most of his support from neopente dominionists:

As governor, he also promoted the faith-based programs of a reconstructionist minister named Bill Gothard -- and even boasted that he had gone through Gothard's "basic program" himself. More reputable evangelicals consider Gothard to be a cultish fringe character, but he has built an enormous empire, which depends on funding from local and state governments to bring his authoritarian version of the Gospel to prisoners, police officers and welfare recipients, among others. He experienced a moment of unwelcome notoriety recently, when the Denver Post revealed that Matthew Murray, the 24-year-old gunman who killed four people at two Christian centers in Colorado in December, had been subjected as a teenager to Gothard's superstrict "home-schooling" programs.

Huckabee's close connections with the likes of Grant and Gothard date back a decade or more -- and his rhetoric has surely changed, if not his views. He no longer denounces environmentalism, for example, at least not publicly. But he still maintains contact with reconstructionist leaders, some of whom are supporting his presidential candidacy. Just last month, Huckabee attended a campaign fundraiser at the Houston home of Dr. Steven Hotze, who became one of the nation's most notorious advocates of dominionist ideology when he led the religious right's takeover of the Texas Republican Party. Huck's old friend Gothard was also at Hotze's home, along with a bevy of extremists including Rick Scarborough, author of "Liberalism Kills Kids" and "Mixing Church and State."

(Emphasis mine.)

Suffice it to say, I went "oh, hell"...and started looking for backup confirmation.

It did not take long to find. A longterm "Gothard-watcher" on Talk to Action has posted rather extensively on Huckabee's links to Gothard:

First came the Body Snatchers. Then the Night of the Living Dead. Now our nation must face what may the most cunning and relentless invaders ever. Yes, America, I'm talking about Gothardite Zombies for Huckabee!

As reported by The Cincinnati Beacon, it began in Arkansas. If only we'd heeded the warning signs in plain sight. If only someone had listened when Governor Mike himself admitted that he walked among them:

"As a person who has actually been through the Basic Seminar, I am confident that these are some of the best programs available for instilling character into the lives of people."

Then, hiding behind an "aw shucks" grin and a Fender bass, he installed Gothard's faith-based programs into Arkansas towns, prisons, and schools.

Another post by the same wonderfully irreverent Gothard-watcher also notes some interesting things:

But my letter today concerns matters far more serious than earthly possessions and multi-million dollar bank accounts. Today I'm asking you to save the eternal soul of the man you support to be the next President of the United States - Mike Huckabee. Thanks again to recent articles by The Dean, I learned that you and Governor Huckabee are longtime associates and that you were photographed together at a recent "Huckabee for President" campaign event at a Houston home.

It's not just our irreverent friend, though. Ethics Daily (via Bruce Prescott's blog) has also noted the links:

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has ties to a controversial Bible teacher known for authoritarian views that critics say border on spiritual abuse.

Most Americans never heard of Chicago-based teacher Bill Gothard until newspapers wrote about Colorado church shooter Matthew Murray's 2006 Internet rant about growing up under strict homeschool teaching developed as part of Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles.

That piqued attention to a photo of Huckabee and Gothard together at a Houston fund-raiser posted to a family blog of a Gothard disciple.

The Cincinnati Beacon described Huckabee as a "long-time admirer" of Gothard. The former Arkansas governor wrote a letter used by Gothard to promote a program aimed at infiltrating city governments with core principles of the ministry stripped of overt religious references.

"As a person who has actually been through the Basic Seminar, I am confident that these are some of the best programs available for instilling character into the lives of people," Huckabee wrote in a letter promoting Gothard's prison ministry. Arkansas prisons had been using Gothard seminars and materials since 1996.

Huckabee also endorsed Gothard's "Character Cities" program. Gothard described a meeting in Little Rock as laying groundwork for "the most exciting opportunity I can imagine" to merge his institute's teachings with government programs.

The actual

Much has been made recently in the press in regards to Ron Paul having received some, shall we say, rather notorious endorsements from hate groups.

Not as well publicised--and IMNSHO, worth paying much closer attention to--is the fact that Mike Huckabee seems to have gotten a rather official endorsement from none other than Joseph Fuiten--the same regional Assemblies of God leader who is is an active supporter of notorious neopente-dominionist hate group "Watchmen At The Walls.

And it would appear, disturbingly enough, that Huckabee would have absolutely no problem with this endorsement--especially considering a recent statement about changing the Constitution to officially convert the US into the Republic of Gilead.

Huckabee endorsed by "Watchmen"-linked Assemblies regional head...

I've been definitely keeping a very close watch on Joseph Fuiten lately--partly because (as noted above) he's an active supporter of the hate group "Watchmen At The Walls" (the same group who beat Satender Singh to death and throws poo at LGBT people whilst promoting a particularly anti-LGBT version of Holocaust revisionism popular in the neopente community).  Fuiten has called for the denationalisation of non-dominionist and their internment as "illegal aliens", and who literally declared war on America during his speech to the hate group (of note, at least two "Watchmen" members are now on trial for the hate murder of Satender Singh.

As I've noted in past articles on Fuiten, one of the front-groups he runs is a group called "Positive Christian Agenda"--it's pretty much a de facto political lobbying wing of Cedar Park A/G (and can really be considered a regional political wing of the Assemblies in that entire part of the country).

And it seems--at least according to Fuiten's blog--they are officially endorsing Huckabee as the Knight in Shining Armour for a dominionist presidency:

Last week, in advance of Mike Huckabee's visit to Washington State, I called together a group of Christian leaders and key citizen activists to join me in endorsing the Presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee. I am happy to report, we were able to gain the support of 30 of these leaders in just a few short days prior to Mike Huckabee's arrival. Our official endorsement was announced at a press conference on Thursday, November 14. (Click here to review some of the local and national coverage of the event. Clarification: the "Positive Agenda" referenced in the articles and blogs should be "Positive Christian Agenda".)
. . .
It is my firm belief that Mike Huckabee could be elected.
. . .
Do you want to join me?

I'm writing to you today to invite you to join me and the others in this endorsement of Mike Huckabee. If you agree, please indicate your support by updating your profile by using the "SUBSCRIBE or UPDATE Your Profile" form, located at the top of the left column.* (Replies to this email work too.)

Please note, if you're receiving this email directly, when you input your email address in the form a message will appear indicating you are already a subscriber. Please ignore this and follow the prompts to submit your email address. A link will then be sent to your Inbox, which will allow you to access and update your profile. Of course, I would appreciate you updating any other information as well, but I am most interested in knowing if you ...

... stand with me in my endorsement of Mike Huckabee for President in 2008!

It's been no news to those of us watching that Mike Huckabee has been pretty much bending over backwards to be the Perfect Dominionist Candidate, and is starting to get more dominionists behind him.

Following the first link leads to a Google News blogroll of various news sites promoting Fuiten's endorsement, including this blurb from the Seattle Times which indicates Fuiten may have endorsed Huckabee at a Republican fundraiser (which also indicates the GOP in Washington State has been thoroughly steeplejacked).  

How steeplejacked?  Another Seattle Times article indicates the Republican dinner seemed more like a pentecostal tent meeting:

Mike Huckabee picked up endorsements in his presidential campaign from local Christian conservatives Thursday -- a move he said is being repeated around the country and is a better indicator of evangelical support than the high-profile endorsements his Republican opponents are getting.

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, was endorsed by Joseph Fuiten, pastor of Cedar Park Church in Bothell, and 29 other evangelical-faith community leaders from the area.

"The governor represents our values," Fuiten said after a small fundraising luncheon at the Harbor Club in Bellevue. "I like that he believes, and I like what he believes. His Christianity is organic; he has been this way all his life."

Huckabee also apparently visited Microsoft--which has been the specific target of a threatened boycott by Ken Hutcherson, who is the de facto American ringleader of "Watchmen At The Walls" (and apparently runs the English-language portions of the website) and is the other major dominionist leader of substance in Washington State.

There are also indications his "group of 30 leaders" likely had links to Focus on the Family--as it turns out, Fuiten became effective head of a new FotF state affiliate and effectively merged Positive Christian Agenda with the FotF back in August 2007. (This is not unlike how "Freedom's Heritage Forum" effectively became a lobbying wing of AFA-KY; Fuiten and Frank Simon have similarly politically influential positions, though Fuiten is quite a bit more influential in the Assemblies hierarchy itself.)

Now, essentially receiving an endorsement that is as close as we'll likely see to an official "Watchmen At The Walls" endorsement of Huckabee is quite bad enough.

Unfortunately, it appears that Fuiten et al are not the only "servers of the haterade" that have explicitly endorsed Huckabee as their man.

...and a whole other mess of rogues endorsing him, too

Whilst Fuiten has started a new frontgroup specifically to try to promote voting for Huckabee (of note, they're trying to be careful to claim it's not officially linked with the main election campaign--probably to avoid having Huckabee's FEC funds put to risk), there are other dominionists nationwide who have endorsed Huckabee.

At best, much of the list reads like the "Who's Who" of the "Generals of Joel's Army". At worst, we have a few bona fide hate groups.

From a supporter's link, it appears a whole mess of neopente dominionist groups have explicitly supported Huckabee, including heads of HSLDA (which has had links to the Constitution Party--which in the 80s, in its life as the "US Taxpayers Party" was known as a hotbed of "Christian Patriot" militia groups as well as racists (including a number of Klan and neo-Nazi groups) and pro-dominionist domestic terror groups like the Army of God--and not much has changed), one of the co-authors of the "Left Behind" series (yes, the badly written fictionalisation of "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" end-time theology which includes a "Rambo Christ" at the end book ("Glorious Appearing") who literally cleaves all non-dominionists in twain and casts them into the lake of fire even as the "God Warriors" are literally hip-deep in blood and corpses) and folks associated with Pat Robertson's Regent University, among others.

And why has Huckabee become essentially the Great White Hope of dominionists (who even as recently as four months ago were very seriously discussing jumping ship to the Constitution Party if the GOP couldn't elect an acceptable candidate in the primaries?

Well, two reasons.  One, Huckabee actually won Iowa (which is one of those areas where the GOP party apparatus has long been steeplejacked). And the second?

Well, it seems that Huckabee has been making statements that sound pretty much like the Constitution Party's platform as of late.

Huckabee in turn endorses the Republic of Gilead plan

Huckabee (even for a Southern Baptist minister) has been doing a rather surprising amount of kowtowing to dominionist causes--and possibly the most extreme members of the political dominionist movement, at that.

Among other things, he recently--I am not making this up--outright called for the US Constitution to be specifically amended to be more dominionist-friendly and to turn the US de jure into the Republic of Gilead:

The United States Constitution never uses the word "God" or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole authority from "We the People." However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it's time to put an end to that.

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

When Willie Geist reported Huckabee's opinion on MSNBC's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski was almost speechless, and even Joe Scarborough couldn't immediately find much to say beyond calling it "interesting."

(For those morbidly curious, the whole trainwreck is on video at Raw Story's website at the link above; Bruce Wilson has also reported on this on Talk to Action and has full video.)

One wonders if--especially considering some of the folks explicitly endorsing Huckabee like Fuiten and the "Left Behind" crowd--if some of these "constitutional amendments" include things like federally sanctioned progroms against LGBT people and Moslems (including the use of frank Holocaust revisionism to justify aforementioned progroms) or stripping all non-dominionists of US citizenship--even if they were born in the US (something, as an aside, which would likely legally make people  who were denationalised in such a fashion legal "non-persons" under US law with literally less civil rights than animals--at least cruelty to animals is illegal; in the court decision in question, torture was seen as "justified").

Let's just say that if Huckabee has many more successes of the manner he has had in Iowa...we better work and pray we get someone electable (and in this circumstance, I do not think Hillary is--sorry) and...well...people might want to start investigating countries of asylum just in case. (For all we know, fighting may not be an option if the Constitution gets changed, especially with some very aggressive attempts at steeplejacking of the military by many of the same folks supporting Huckabee--I don't put it past them to make it illegal for non-dominionists to possess firearms, either.)