Rick Perry's best Christian Right buds thinking book-burning is a great idea (and while you're at it burn them thar Virgin Mary statues, too)

Savonarola: the Rick Perry of the 1490s?

C. Peter Wagner, chief Apostle of the New Apostolic Reformation (NSR) prominently backing Texas Gov. Goodhair Perry's Republican Presidential bid, doesn't much like being called part of America's own Taliban.

But, as Bruce Wilson writes in Burning Buddhas, Books, and Art: Meet The New Apostolic Reformation Talk to Action 09/14/2011, they share the Taliban's enthusiasm for destroying religious artifacts they consider offensive. And they have a very expansive definition of what such artifacts are.

Apostle Wagner has repeated invoked a book-burning in Florence, Italy by Savonarola (Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-1498), an ascetic monk who was a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 describes him this way:

The French king, whom Savonarola at the head of an embassy of Florentines had visited at Pisa, now entered the city. After the king's departure a new and peculiar constitution, a kind of theocratic democracy, was established at Florence, based on the political and social doctrines the Dominican monk [Savonarola] had proclaimed. Christ was considered the King of Florence and protector of its liberties. A great council, as the representative of all the citizens, became the governing body of the republic and the law of Christ was to be the basis of political and social life. Savonarola did not interfere directly in politics and affairs of State, but his teachings and his ideas were authoritative. The moral life of the citizens was regenerated. Many persons brought articles of luxury, playing-cards, ornaments, pictures of beautiful women, the writings of pagan and immoral poets, etc., to the monastery of San Marco; these articles were then publicly burned. A brotherhood founded by Savonarola for young people encouraged a pious, Christian life among its members. Sundays some of this brotherhood went about from house to house and along the streets to take away dice and cards from the citizens, to exhort luxuriously dressed married and single women to lay aside frivolous ornament. Thus there arose an actual police for regulating morality, which also carried on its work by the objectionable methods of spying and denunciation. The principles of the severe judge of morals were carried out in practical life in too extreme a manner. Success made Savonarola, whose speech in his sermons was often recklessly passionate, more and more daring. Florence was to be the starting point of the regeneration of Italy and the Church. In this respect he was constantly looking for the interposition of Charles VIII for the inner reform of the Church, although the loose life and vague extravagant ideas of this monarch in no way fitted him to undertake such a task. [my emphasis]

Now, Wagner and his Apostolic colleagues in the NAR idolize this guy Savonarola and his book-and-unclean-objects-ritual-burning. But they're nothing like the Taliban, no, nothing at all!!

But the NAR isn't so fond of Savonarola's asceticism, at least not for their religious leaders. They favor instead what they call the "Word of Faith," also known as the Prosperity Gospel, which basically teaches that if you're a good enough Christian, God will make you rich. (No, that cranky Jewish bachelor Jesus of Nazareth who started the Christian religion wasn't enlightened enough to advocate the "Word of Faith." If only he had had inspired Apostles like Wagner and Cindy Jacobs around!

Here is Cindy Jacobs' suggestions for stuff to burn:

There are certain occult items that we are are not to possess. If we own any of the following objects, we need to get rid of them. If the object was at any time worshiped as a god or used in the worship of a false god, then we should burn it or otherwise destroy it.

It is not unusual for tourists to bring home keepsakes from faraway lands that have demonic attachments or are idols. What we often do not realize is that these objects can curse us. For instance, many people purchase African masks that have been used in worship ceremonies. Others buy native art such as Kachina dolls, statues of Hindu gods and statues of Buddha. Back home, havoc starts to reign in the form of --usually the person does not know why these things have happened."

The idea that "sickness, tragedy, depression or marriage break-ups" occur because someone has a statue of Ganesha the Elephant God in their house is just hick superstition. But Gov. Goodhair's supporters in the NAR think that it makes perfect sense.

Apostle Chuck Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Sytsema elaborate their hick "theology" of book-and-other-bad-stuff-burning this way:

Take what can be burned and burn it. If it cannot be burned, pass it through the fire (as a symbolic act of obedience) and then destroy it by whatever other means are available to you such as smashing or even flushing (I have known people to do this with jewelry that cannot be destroyed in other ways)!

Once you have destroyed the object, renounce any participation you or your family have had with that object (whether knowingly or unknowingly) and ask the Lord to forgive you.[...]

Because the legal right for demonic forces linked with that object has been removed through these acts, you can now command any demonic forces linked with that object to leave in the Name of Jesus.

Repeat these steps for every object that needs to go.

Now, in the non-Pentecostal world of conservative Protestantism, and in mainstream Christianity more generally, the idea that you can catch evil spirits from statues is regarded as un-Biblical, even a variety of paganism. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament to Christians) mocked the false gods as being just pieces of stone that it was foolish to worship. (Contemporary Biblical scholarship sees that as a polemical characterization; the non-Jahwist religions in the ancient Near East regarded statues as symbolic representations of their gods.)

Most contemporary Christians also tend to see belief in demons as literal spiritual entities that can cause physical effects in the material world as bordering on mental illness, if not entirely over that line. This attitude is not without a realistic foundation. Apostles who claim to be receiving clear and literal direct communication from God are likely to be some brand of sociopath, whether or not they believe their own claims. Followers who defer to their official Apostles and Prophets for guidance on what the Lord's immediate will is free themselves from having to interpret their own messages from God. But this kind of Christian Pentecostal faith almost certainly facilitates the manifestation of clinical pathologies in followers, as well. If your belief system strong encourages the notion that your weird dreams or the hallucinations of space aliens you're seeing may be direct messages from God or the Devil, or the result of your being infected by an evil spirit, it's easy to imagine that that such a believer would be disinclined to seek counseling or medical treatment.

A cat statue: quick, burn it! Smash it! Before we catch a demon from it!

And what would all-American hick theology be without a big dose of good old anti-Catholic bigotry? Pierce and Sytsema on good candidates for burning:

Buddhas... Hindu images; fertility gods or goddesses (or any type of god or goddess); Egyptian images; Greek gods; gargoyles; kachina dolls, totem poles, or any other native figure that depicts or glorifies a "spirit" or demonic being; evil depictions of creatures such as lions, dogs, dragons, cats, or any other creature made with demonic distortions; or any other image of any person, idol, god, or demonic figure which is considered an object of worship or spiritual power in any culture of the world...

A commonly seen item in the United States that falls into this category is images of the Virgin Mary, who is often worshiped by many as an equal to Jesus. C. Peter Wagner calls the worship of Mary a "deceptive adaptation" by the Queen of Heaven, a high-ranking demonic principality, to gain worship that should belong to God. [my emphasis]

The Savonarola model as described in the article above is probably a good way to think of the NAR/Christian Right approach: "Savonarola did not interfere directly in politics and affairs of State, but his teachings and his ideas were authoritative." In the formally segregated South, the more proximate model for the Christian Right's notion of godly government, African-American citizen's weren't formally denied the vote. But it was largely denied in practice via legal barriers, voter fraud (the real kind), and extra-legal violence and intimidation. If you interpret the Constitution as much of the Christian Right does as enacting Christianity as the law of the land, you don't need to formally amend to have a de facto theocracy, if enough of the Congress and the courts go along with the notion.

Tags: c peter wagner, christian right, chuck pierce, cindy jacobs, new apostolic reformation

Bold apostolic leader Peter Wagner mealy-mouths about his New Apostolic Reformation

One at least partially constructive result of Texas Gov. Rick "Goodhair" Perry's run for the Presidency is that it has brought new and broader media attention to the "neo-Pentecostal" New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a stealth religious denomination led by chief apostle C. Peter Wagner which prominently supported Gov. Goodhair's pre-announcement prayer event.

Wagner isn't entirely happy with the newfound attention. Being an Apostle and all, he wants to see his apostolic message presented in the most favorable light. So he has done a defense of his movement in The New Apostolic Reformation Is Not a Cult Charisma News 08/24/2011.

Not to question his Apostolic marketing savvy or anything. But if you want to present a defense of your controversial movement for the press and general public, framing it as We're Not A Cult doesn't seem like the most promising way to go about it.

But his piece offers a good example of far-right and Christian nationalist messaging. Not surprisingly, it's in the white-people's-whine tone so popular in those political precincts: them mean libruls is pickin' on us! This victim posturing is chronic to present-day American conservatism. Frank Schaeffer calls its more religious various the Jesus Victims posture.

Wagner also uses the self-defense that Christian Right groups have used since they took shape in the late 1970s in their current form. They make two claims simultaneously: we're really really important, and we're actually pretty insignificant. The former claim is aimed at their supporters, the latter at everyone else.

Apostle Wagner cites a blog post by Marsha West at a site called Forgotten World Ministries, Texas Governor's Upcoming Leadership Event Includes Cult Members 08/03/2011. The article is clearly written from a conservative Protestant point of view, and she does mean the NAR when she talks about cult elements in Perry's prayer rally support.

There are cultish aspects of the NAR's practice. But West doesn't make much of a case for considering the NAR as a cult, and I wouldn't use that term for the NAR. But her description of them as a cult seems to be based on this claim: "The NAR believes that God is restoring the lost offices of Prophet and Apostle and that the modern-day apostles and prophets are gifted with the same gifts as the New Testament era Apostles." This is a red flag for observers of cults and those familiar with abusive practices by religious leaders. These NAR leaders claiming those titles not only claim to receive direct messages from God in the forms of auditory and visible manifestations. They also claim direct authority within their religious world based on their claimed status as Apostles and Prophets.

By contrast, the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations generally have formal requirements for ministers. And they have various procedures that can be used to address misconduct by ministers that don't require direct supernatural guidance from the Almighty. The kind of claim the NAR leaders make to divine authority are very legitimate concerns for anyone looking at their movement.

Before reading Wagner's polemic, it may be helpful to read Rachel Tabachnick, C. Peter Wagner's Response to Increased Exposure of the New Apostolic Reformation Talk to Action 09/09/2011. She points out that he Apostolically misrepresents the nature of the criticism to which he is responding in several recent defenses, presumably including the one cited here: "Wagner claims that the criticisms of the NAR are coming from the secular and liberal press, but proceeds to counter the accusations that have come from conservative evangelicals and Fundamentalists."

In the Charisma News article I linked, he cites West's article by name and also a Paul Rosenberg piece at Aljazeera English called America's own Taliban 07/28/2011. Rosenberg is Senior Editor of a left-leaning California alternative paper, Random Lengths News. In the Republican alternative universe, Aljazeera is "leftwing" all by itself. Apparently he considers West a leftist, too. Because he introduces the two references saying, "The best I can discern, the NAR has become a tool in the hands of certain liberal opponents of the conservative candidates designed to discredit them on the basis of their friendship with certain Christian leaders supposedly affiliated with the NAR. To bolster this attempt, they seek to accuse the NAR of teaching false doctrine and paste on it the label of 'cult.'" (Them libruls are persecutin' us nice Christian white folks!)

Actually, conservative evangelicals not associated with the NAR probably also qualify as libruls/leftists/socialists in Wagner's view. After all, the NAR considers their churches to be controlled by demons.

Wagner argues, on the one hand, that the NAR hardly exists at all:

I am rather fascinated at the lists of individuals whom the media glibly connects with the NAR. I'm sure that some of them wouldn’t even recognize the term. In many cases, however, they would fit the NAR template, but since the NAR has no membership list they themselves would need to say whether they consider themselves affiliated or not.

On the other hand, in the two preceding paragraphs, he contends that the NAR is a world-historical phenemenon:

The roots of the NAR go back to the beginning of the African Independent Church Movement in 1900, the Chinese House Church Movement beginning in 1976, the U.S. Independent Charismatic Movement beginning in the 1970s and the Latin American Grassroots Church Movement beginning around the same time. I was neither the founder nor a member of any of these movements, I was simply a professor who observed that they were the fastest growing churches in their respective regions and that they had a number of common characteristics.

If I was going to write about this phenomenal move of the Holy Spirit, I knew I had to give it a name. I tried "Postdenominational" but soon dropped it because of the objections of many of my friends who were denominational executives. Then, in 1994, I tested "New Apostolic Reformation." "Reformation" because the movement matched the Protestant Reformation in world impact; "Apostolic" because of all the changes the most radical one was apostolic governance, which I'll explain in due time; and "New" because several churches and denominations already carried the name "apostolic," but they did not fit the NAR pattern. Other names of this movement which are more or less synonymous with NAR have been "Neopentecostal," "Neocharismatic," "Independent," or "Nondenominational." [my emphasis]

It hardly exists. But it's as important as the Protestant Reformation. Welcome to the mealy-mouthed world of the contemporary Apostles.

As the diligent folks at Talk to Action and Religion Dispatches have documented, the NAR headed by Wagner isn't organized formally as a denomination. But in fact it is a network of "independent churces" that functions as a denomination. Wagner in the linked article lists some of the distinctive features of their beliefs. Here's how he describes the NAR's structure at the end:

Some of the authors I read expressed certain frustrations because they found it difficult to get their arms around the NAR. They couldn’t find a top leader or even a leadership team. There was no newsletter. The NAR didn’t have an annual meeting. There was no printed doctrinal statement or code of ethics. This was very different from dealing with traditional denominations. The reason behind this is that, whereas denominations are legal structures, the NAR is a relational structure. Everyone is related to, or aligned, with an apostle or apostles. This alignment is voluntary. There is no legal tie that binds it. In fact, some have dual alignment or multiple alignment. Apostles are not in competition with each other, they are in cahoots. They do not seek the best for themselves, but for those who choose to align with them. If the spotlight comes on them, they will accept it, but they do not seek it.

What he doesn't emphasize is that this "relational structure" is based on specific, sweeping claims of divine authority and functions in a distinctly authoritarian manner.

He argues that they don't advocate theocracy. He just wants:

... to have kingdom-minded people in every one of the Seven Mountains: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, and Business so that they can use their influence to create an environment in which the blessings and prosperity of the Kingdom of God can permeate all areas of society.

Religious scholars distinguish between "theocracy" and "theonomy." But both mean what most people would think of as theocracy: specific religious values dominanting government and the law, with the preferred religion given actual preference.

I'll close with a comment on the Christian theology of the NAR, in particular their demon-hunting. Without trying to add the qualifications that history has presented, the basic Christian theological concept of magic is that magic represents an attempt by humans to conjure God into doing what they want. In mainstream Christianity and even in much of conservative Protestant thinking, people can pray to God to meet their needs. But God does what he wants to do; he isn't subject to control by human prayer or conjuring.

The NAR makes claims not only about faith-healing, which itself pushes into the realm of superstition. They believe that their exorcisms can affect demons, which they conceive of in horror-movie terms as real entities with magical powers, can effect physical changes in the world. By which I mean physical changes not directly involved with the exorcism procedures themselves. And exorcism is a central feature of the NAR faith and practice. As Wagner writes: "One critic claimed that the NAR has excessive fixation on Satan and demonic spirits. This is purely a judgment call, and it may only mean that we cast out more demons than they do. So what?" That's cute: "One critic" says this. Actually, it's a very obvious and very obviously problematic aspect of the NAR Apostolic belief system.

Tags: christian right,, new apostolic reformation, peter wagner

The New Apostolic Reformation and today's Republican Party

Forrest Wilder and Rachel Tabachnick have used the occasion of Rick Perry's "The Response" religious rally to take a closer look at the Christian Right network on which he is pinning his apparent Presidential hopes at the moment. The role of the Pentecostal New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement is particularly important in this context. The NAR is also the religious trend with which Sarah Palin has been most closely associated both religiously and politically. Forrest Wilder writes about them in the Texas Observer in Rick Perry's Army of God 08/03/2011 and The Mainstream Media's Shallow Coverage of The Response 08/09/2011, and Rachel Tabachnick in Five Points About Rick Perry's Prayer Rally Not Yet in Mainstream Press Talk to Action 08/08/2011. Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch includes Rachel Maddow's news report relying heavily on Wilder's reporting in Understanding The "Apostle" In The New Apostolic Reformation 08/11/2011.

Jezebel: mastermind of the Democratic Party?

Wilder reminds us what a particular and narrow trend the NAR is within American Protestantism, despite their very outsized clout in today's increasingly radicalized Republican Party:

Some of the fiercest critics of the New Apostolic Reformation come from within the Pentecostal and charismatic world. The Assemblies of God Church, the largest organized Pentecostal denomination, specifically repudiated self-proclaimed prophets and apostles in 2000, calling their creed a "deviant teaching" that could rapidly "become dictatorial, presumptuous, and carnal." Assemblies authorities also rejected the notion that the church is supposed to assume dominion over earthly institutions, labeling it "unscriptural triumphalism." The New Apostles talk about taking dominion over American society in pastoral terms. They refer to the "Seven Mountains" of society: family, religion, arts and entertainment, media, government, education, and business. These are the nerve centers of society that God (or his people) must control.

One long-standing temptation of Radical Right groups is to model themselves along mirror-image lines of their enemies do or are imagined to do. The John Birch Society in its early years structured itself in a sort of secret cell manner, which they understood to be the way their main bogeyman, the Communist Party, operated. And for a variety of reason, not least of them concerns about protecting the tax-exempt status of the religious institutions that are their main basis, theocratic religious activists engage in no small amount of double-talk about the nature of their goals.

Baal (old-school version)

The New Apostolic Reformation, as Wilder explains, relies on a real network organized on authoritarian lines, with the leaders understood to be prophets and apostles with direct lines to God in the same way a "literalist"/fundamentalist reading of the Christian Scriptures would understand Biblical prophets and apostles to have. So it's always interesting to see what they have to say about the secrecy and clandestine intentions of the groups they perceived to be active tools of Satan:

Some of these groups' beliefs and activities will be startling, even to many conservative evangelicals. For example, in 2010 Texas prayer warriors visited every Masonic lodge in the state attempting to cast out the demon Baal, whom they believe controls Freemasonry. At each site, the warriors read a decree—written in legalese—divorcing Baal from the "People of God" and recited a lengthy prayer referring to Freemasonry as "witchcraft." Asked whether he shares these views, Stringer launches into a long treatise about secrecy during which he manages to lump together Mormonism, Freemasonry and college fraternities. "I think there has been a lot of damage and polarization over decades because of the influence of some areas of Freemasonry that have been corrupted," he says. "In fact, if you look at the original founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, he had a huge influence by Masonry. Bottom-line, anything that is so secretive that has to be hidden in darkness ... is not biblical. The Bible says that everything needs to be brought to the light. That's why I would never be part of a fraternity, like on campus."

Baal (counter-Trinity version)

The Charisma website reflelcts the NAR outlook. Their brief summary news report of Perry's "Response" rally is Jennifer LeClaire, 30,000 Unite In Fasting, Prayer at The Response 08/08/2011. Except on the most formal and highly-publicized occasions, like The Response rally, leaders of the NAR often don't make much effort to show their partisan preferences based on what they claim is Godly guidance:

Consider Alice Patterson. She’s in charge of mobilizing churches in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma for The Response. A field director for the Texas Christian Coalition in the 1990s, she’s now a significant figure in apostolic circles and runs a San Antonio-based organization called Justice at the Gate. Patterson, citing teachings by Cindy Jacobs, Chuck Pierce and Lou Engle, has written that the Democratic Party is controlled by “an invisible network of evil comprising an unholy structure” unleashed by the biblical figure Jezebel. Patterson claims to have seen demons with her own eyes. In 2009, at a prophetic meeting in Houston, Patterson says she saw the figure of Jezebel and "saw Jezebel’s skirt lifted to expose tiny Baal, Asherah, and a few other spirits. There they were - small, cowering, trembling little spirits that were only ankle high on Jezebel's skinny legs."

Jezebel (new-school version)

Patterson's vision bears a distinct literary resemblance to this:

"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?"

"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the Spirit's sorrowful reply. "Look here."

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

"Oh, Man, look here! Look, look, down here!" exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

"Spirit, are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.

"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end."

"Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.

"Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?"

The bell struck twelve.

That is, of course, from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843), the concluding scene of the appearance of the Ghost of Christmas Present. It's safe to say that the social vision which Dickens' fictional vision represented is a more humane one that the one embodied in Patterson's.

The dove was a favorite symbol for Asherah

Incidentally, for those not up on ancient Near Eastern religion, Baal was a Canaanite storm god, some of whose attributes were incorporated into the ancient Israelites' concept of Yahweh. Asherah was a female diety whose worship was stubbornly persistent among the ancient Hebrews, much to the consternation of the hardcore Yahwists, whose views are preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures. How Jezebel got promoted among the NAR crowd from a naughty Phoenician queen to a the mega-demon controlling the Democratic Party, I can scarcely imagine. Except that it probably has something to do with Hillary Clinton. Tabachnick calls attention to the following:

Another shocker was that Mike Bickle led part of the event. The event organizers came from Mike Bickle's youth-oriented International House of Prayer (IHOP) and Lou Engle's The Call, based at IHOP Kansas City. After Lou Engle, Bickle is one of the most controversial figures in the movement and source of the "Oprah as forerunner of the anti-Christ" statement that made the news. However, Bickle is a toxic figure in much of the evangelical world. He was the leader of the "Kansas City Prophets" in the 1980 and 1990s and was at the center of a very divisive dispute in Charismatic evangelicalism. Continuing the point about Mike Bickle, this event did not represent all conservative evangelicals. Although the big name family values guys - James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Donald Wildmon, and others - have been joining forces with the apostles for several years, this partnership is very controversial. The apostles plans to revamp Protestantism, eradicate denominations, their radical end times theology, and boisterous Charismatic manifestations are feared, and rightfully so, by many fundamentalists and evangelicals. This event was a organized and led - from the prayer leaders and messaging to the band - by the NAR. It was a duplicate of The Call events that have been held around the country. [my emphasis]

Jezebel's unhappy end, as pictured by Gustav Doré; presumably the "apostolic" Pentecostals who see her as the controlling demon of the Democratic Party are hoping for a replay

Tags: christian right, christianism, new apostolic reformation, radical right, rick perry