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Christian Group Wants To 'Redeem' U.S. States

More on Christian Nationalism.

New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?

Thousands of people hungry for an experience of God and longing to be free of their demons crowded into a large tent for a mass deliverance service. Some fell to the ground and lay still, others screamed as the pastor commanded their dark spirits to come out in Jesus' name. Some just held each other with what seemed relief and release. Afterwards around 20 were baptised in a horse trough filled with water.

This is the Global Vision Church near Nashville in Tennessee, headed by Pastor Greg Locke. He is a charismatic and controversial figure who is tapping into a long tradition of Pentecostal revival in the United States, an apocalyptic spirit that is animating the rise of a new Christian right.

God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history. It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes. That's been amplified by a backlash against what they saw as government overreach during the Covid pandemic.

"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Christian flags at US Capitol riot​

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.
But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.

Supporters of President Donald Trump pray outside the US Capitol on 6 January
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Prayers outside the US Capitol during the January 2021 attack

The sight of rioters carrying crosses and Christian flags, and even praying together, exposed just how much religious and political identities had begun to merge on the right - bonded by a belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

There were also pastors at the Capitol that day, and some continue to preach that message. Ken Peters is one of them. He's denounced the violence, but still defends what he sees as a patriotic mission. He says God has "a special plan for this country" that he'd felt was threatened by the prospect of Trump's election loss.

Peters' Patriot Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, a building with a cross in the front yard and a US-style flag painted onto the roof, is one of a growing number of non-denominational start-up congregations that say they want to take back the country for God. They feel threatened by immigration and are alarmed by the increased acceptance of different gender identities and sexual orientations that they believe are unbiblical. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63902626
 
Another guy who wants to create Gilead.

Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and parts of neighboring counties, was a little-known figure in state politics before the coronavirus pandemic. But, in the past year, he has led rallies against mask mandates and other public-health protocols, which he has characterized as “the governor’s autocratic control over our lives.” He has become a leader of the Stop the Steal campaign, and claims that he spoke to Donald Trump at least fifteen times between the 2020 election and the insurrection at the Capitol, on January 6th. He urged his followers to attend the rally at the Capitol that led to the riots, saying, “I’m really praying that God will pour His Spirit upon Washington, D.C., like we’ve never seen before.” Throughout this time, he has cast the fight against both lockdowns and Trump’s electoral loss as a religious battle against the forces of evil. He has come to embody a set of beliefs characterized as Christian nationalism, which center on the idea that God intended America to be a Christian nation, and which, when mingled with conspiracy theory and white nationalism, helped to fuel the insurrection. “Violence has always been a part of Christian nationalism,” Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist and co-author of “Taking America Back for God,” told me. “It’s just that the nature of the enemy has changed.” ...

He soon began attending events held by a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, a loosely linked network of charismatics and Pentecostals that, over the past decade, has played an influential role in conservative American circles. (Mastriano denied working directly with the group.) Many members believe that God speaks to them directly, and that they have been tasked with battling real-world demons who control global leaders. Prominent members in the group go by the title Apostle or Prophet to hark back to early Christianity. The N.A.R.’s overarching agenda—to return the United States to an idealized Christian past—is largely built upon the work of the pseudo-historian David Barton, who has advanced the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation. “Mastriano’s significance, alongside that of the N.A.R., is that he is attempting to create a theonomy—a system of enacting God’s law on earth,” Frederick Clarkson, a research analyst at Political Research Associates, told me. Bills that Mastriano supported in the legislature would have mandated teaching the Bible in public schools and would have made it legal for adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples, among other things.

Mastriano has likened his political agenda to that of the Old Testament figure of Esther, a queen who stopped the ancient Persians from massacring the Israelites; Mastriano said that “if we get the call, we’re not going to stand away from our Esther moment.” ...

On December 12th, Mastriano returned to Washington, D.C., to participate in a series of “Jericho Marches” organized by leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation in which conservative Christians, among a hodgepodge of QAnon followers and white nationalists, gathered to pray that God would keep Trump in office. Alex Jones, of Infowars, attended, as did members of the Oath Keepers militia. Participants dressed in Colonial knickers, to evoke the American Revolution, or in animal skins, to evoke the Israelites. Jack Jenkins, a reporter for Religion News Service, told me, “They blew on shofars”—ram’s horns that Israelite priests blew, according to the Bible, to bring down the sinful city of Jericho—“believing they could literally overturn the election results.” ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-r...r-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism

More about the New Apostolic Reformation.

Emerging out of the charismatic evangelical tradition, the NAR adheres to a form of Christian dominionism, meaning its parishioners believe it’s their divine duty to seize control of every political and cultural institution in America, transforming them according to a fundamentalist interpretation of scripture.

NAR adherents also believe in the existence of modern-day “apostles” and “prophets” — church leaders endowed by God with supernatural abilities, including the power to heal. In 2022, a handful of these “apostles,” the report notes, issued what they called the Watchman Decree, an anti-democratic document envisioning the end of a pluralistic society in America.

The apostles claimed they had been given “legal power and authority from Heaven” and are “God’s ambassadors and spokespeople over the earth,” who “are equipped and delegated by Him to destroy every attempted advance of the enemy.”

And who’s the enemy? Basically anyone who does not adhere to NAR beliefs. NAR adherents see their critics as being literally controlled by the devil.

“There are claims that whole neighborhoods, cities, even nations are under the sway of the demonic,” the report states. “Other religions, such as Islam, are also said to be demonically influenced. One cannot compromise with evil, and so if Democrats, liberals, LGBTQ+ people, and others are seen as demonic, political compromise — the heart of democratic life — becomes difficult if not impossible.” ...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-...istian-nationalism_n_665f6fdae4b08e32183f25a8
 
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Of all the threads on this mb I find this easily the most scarey. Fundamentalist interpretations of all the religions terrify me. It's so easy for people to get sucked up into them. :(
 
Of all the threads on this mb I find this easily the most scarey. Fundamentalist interpretations of all the religions terrify me. It's so easy for people to get sucked up into them. :(
I wouldn't worry too much about the Nationalist Christians in America. They are huge bullies and easily dealt with as such. Cowards to the core.

Also they don't like it when you call them Nationalist Christians instead of Christian Nationalists, because you have correctly identified them as Nat-Cs, and they hate that you know that.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the Nationalist Christians in America. They are huge bullies and easily dealt with as such. Cowards to the core.

Also they don't like it when you call them Nationalist Christians instead of Christian Nationalists, because you have correctly identified them as Nat-Cs, and they hate that you know that.

They do have influence with certain people who may think they are using useful idiots though. Remember Von Papen thought he was using the nazis ...
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the Nationalist Christians in America. They are huge bullies and easily dealt with as such. Cowards to the core.

Also they don't like it when you call them Nationalist Christians instead of Christian Nationalists, because you have correctly identified them as Nat-Cs, and they hate that you know that.

And, rather ironically, the man himself is reported to have said about the concept of 'nations' - "...go and make disciples of all nations” “[the gospel will be]...preached in the whole world” and “preached in His name to all nations..”

Thus rendering the concept of a nation/alism itself rather redundant, and the idea of the U.S. being 'special' even more so. My own opinion is that if Jesus Christ were to meet these guys now they might be in line for some vigorous teaching!
 
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