I know I have been writing a lot about the creeping dominionsim of the Religious Right here lately, but that is because I think it is an important development that has the potential to fundamentally change the movement from an effort by conservative Christians to engage in and shape the political process to an effort to create create a borderline theocracy in which every aspect of America life is dedicated to honoring God in order to bring about the return of Christ.
And we are not the only ones alarmed by this development. As we noted earlier this week, VCY America had decided to drop Janet Porter's Faith 2 Action radio program due to her increasing ties to dominion theology, as demonstrated by her May Day prayer rally.
VCY America is run by Vic Eliason, who also co-hosts VCY's flagship program "Crosstalk" with Ingrid Schlueter.
On Monday, Schlueter dedicated her program to analyzing the rise of dominion theology and the New Apostolic Reformation within the Religious Right. Her guest was Sarah Leslie, an author, researcher, and member of the board of directors of Discernment Ministries, which has been voicing alarm at the rise of dominion theology within the movement on their blog:
Sarah Leslie is an author and researcher, a member of the board of directors of Discernment Ministries and also a member of the Discernment Research Group.
In response to the May Day event held this past Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial, Ingrid and Sarah brought to listener attention a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. This title was coined by C. Peter Wagner during the 1990’s.
Featuring teachers such as Dutch Sheets, Chuck Pierce, and false "prophetesses" Cindy Jacobs and Stacey Campbell, the New Apostolic Reformation is centered around a theology of dominionism. It teaches that Christians can take down demonic spirits in order to take back territories and institutions for Christ. The movement is post-millennial believing that Jesus will not return until Christians take over the 7 Mountains. These “mountains” are institutions like the media, entertainment, the economy, etc. In other words, their eschatology requires that instead of reaching people with the gospel one heart at a time, they believe they are to conquer the earth one demonic spirit at a time and make the earth perfect so that Jesus can return.
The program is an hour long and I strongly encourage you to listen to it because it is quite informative. And keep in mind that this discussion is taking place between two people who consider themselves a part of the Religious Right - Leslie was actually the head of Iowa Right to Life in the 1980s - so these are not religion-hating liberals voicing alarm about the radical views of dominionists, but very conservative activists who are warning that this movement is, in essence, a cult built on intolerance and coercion that is intent on creating an army of believers who will take complete control over our society and ultimately the world.
When extremely conservative Christian activists start issuing warnings about the radical turn the movement appears to be taking, it is probably a good idea to pay them heed.
