How a charismatic Christian movement aims to take over American culture

[TomSea]

How a charismatic Christian movement aims to take over American culture
By Brad Christerson, Biola University and Richard Flory, University of Southern California   |   March 17, 2017

Rick Perry (R) is serving as President Donald Trump's energy secretary. Pool Photo by Olivier Douliery/UPI | License Photo

March 17 (UPI) -- In August of 2011, more than 30,000 people cheered wildly as the then U.S. presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry – now secretary of energy in the Trump administration – came to the center stage at "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis" at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Perry quoted from the Bible and preached about the need for salvation that comes from Jesus. He concluded with a prayer for a country he believed to be overwhelmed by problems: The Conversation

"We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government."

He then proceeded to ask God for forgiveness for forgetting "who made us, who protects us, and who blesses us." In response, the crowd exploded into cheers and praise to God.

Five years later, on April 9, 2016, and 1,500 miles away at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, tens of thousands of people gathered to pray for the supernatural transformation of America. The event consisted of more than 16 hours of healing sessions, worship music and prophecy from some of the most popular Charismatic Christian leaders in the world.

Continued: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Voices/2017/03/17/How-a-charismatic-Christian-movement-aims-to-take-over-American-culture/4461489761384/

[mountaineer]

Leave it to UPI to create a bogeyman out of thin air.

[EC]

Not thin air - the potential has always been there. Heinlein warned about it in the 50s.

[Hoodat]

I'm not seeing the problem here.  Care to enlighten me?

[truth_seeker]

I'm not seeing the problem here.  Care to enlighten me?

Some would see the "problem," with the VP and Energy Sec. tied to charismatic "... more than 16 hours of healing sessions..." that can be made to seem like a Rev. Benny Hinn confab.

BTW Rev. Benny resides in his plush seaside mansion just down the coast from the areas cited; USC, Coliseum, Biola (La Mirada) etc.

[Hoodat]

Is it that you have a problem with God healing people?  Or is it just some personal bigotry against Christians?

[truth_seeker]

Is it that you have a problem with God healing people?  Or is it just some personal bigotry against Christians?

I'm a member of the "to each their own," denomination  aka "if you like your Benny Hinn, you can keep your Benny Hinn."

Here in The OC we've had more than our fair share of religious leaders. Rev. Shuler, Rev. Chuck Smith, Rev. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, PTL Club, 700 Club, Rev. Hinn, Rev. Rick Warren, to mention a few. There were others.

Most but not all, have turned their religious callings into pretty swank lifestyles, leaving me somewhat skeptical about the separation of spirituality and splendid lifestyles.

But once more, to each their own.

[Emjay]

Is it that you have a problem with God healing people?  Or is it just some personal bigotry against Christians?

When you make hateful, vindictive posts about social security recipients on one thread, it's hard to take you seriously when you go all Christian elsewhere.

[Hoodat]

When you make hateful, vindictive posts about social security recipients on one thread, it's hard to take you seriously when you go all Christian elsewhere.

What hateful and vindictive comment did I make about social security recipients on the other thread?  Please explain.

Lies make Jesus cry.

[Hoodat]

I'm a member of the "to each their own," denomination  aka "if you like your Benny Hinn, you can keep your Benny Hinn."

Fair enough.  I don't have a problem with anyone wanting to restore righteousness to government.  But i also understand your skepticism.

[INVAR]

It's a little late for any Christian group/denomination/sect to "take over American culture" - especially when their churches will not preach the need for repentance from wickedness and sins that the culture has proclaimed good and the whole people have embraced as the new morality.


We've lost the culture.


Taking it back will require that which few Christians in America and the West are today willing to risk, given the adoption of the secular Gospel over the years.  Third world missionaries like myself do have a little bit of an advantage in recognizing what is required and what will be the likely response.

A "do not Judge" mindset among self-identifying Christians make 'taking over' this wicked culture an abject impossibility.

[Chosen Daughter]

When you make hateful, vindictive posts about social security recipients on one thread, it's hard to take you seriously when you go all Christian elsewhere.

Emjay I am not commenting to get into the middle of anything.   I am not wanting to pick arguments with you but I wonder what is happening to you?  I saw the SS comments.  Young people have plenty of reasons to question the SS program they are paying for but most probably will not benefit from.  Government has known for years it will collapse and leave the younger generation without benefit yet they cannot seem to address the problem.  All I ever hear is raise the age of retirement.  That to me is not the answer.  People who do physical jobs are not the same as office workers or government workers.  I cringe when I hear raise the age argument.

This needs serious attention. 

I never saw a hateful comment.

[Chosen Daughter]

It's a little late for any Christian group/denomination/sect to "take over American culture" - especially when their churches will not preach the need for repentance from wickedness and sins that the culture has proclaimed good and the whole people have embraced as the new morality.


We've lost the culture.


Taking it back will require that which few Christians in America and the West are today willing to risk, given the adoption of the secular Gospel over the years.  Third world missionaries like myself do have a little bit of an advantage in recognizing what is required and what will be the likely response.

A "do not Judge" mindset among self-identifying Christians make 'taking over' this wicked culture an abject impossibility.

"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
 - Alexander Hamilton (1787 after the Constitutional Convention)

[INVAR]

"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
 - Alexander Hamilton (1787 after the Constitutional Convention)

A culture that has devolved itself into the wickedness it has, has absolutely no esteem for the Constitution and the system of government as established.  It instead showcases the hostility towards the very Finger that inspired it's establishment, and as such - liberty that the Constitution and this system was intended to safeguard and protect is no longer something this people want.

They want what a government they have made into a god will provide and mandate.

[Chosen Daughter]

A culture that has devolved itself into the wickedness it has, has absolutely no esteem for the Constitution and the system of government as established.  It instead showcases the hostility towards the very Finger that inspired it's establishment, and as such - liberty that the Constitution and this system was intended to safeguard and protect is no longer something this people want.

They want what a government they have made into a god will provide and mandate.

The sad truth.

[Emjay]

Emjay I am not commenting to get into the middle of anything.   I am not wanting to pick arguments with you but I wonder what is happening to you?  I saw the SS comments.  Young people have plenty of reasons to question the SS program they are paying for but most probably will not benefit from.  Government has known for years it will collapse and leave the younger generation without benefit yet they cannot seem to address the problem.  All I ever hear is raise the age of retirement.  That to me is not the answer.  People who do physical jobs are not the same as office workers or government workers.  I cringe when I hear raise the age argument.

This needs serious attention. 

I never saw a hateful comment.

George W. Bush attempted a sensible reform.  I wonder how many of the people who hate SS worked with him for it.

The whole system needs a complete reform.  We just need to decide on an age that is young enough to be able to plan a whole new system.  I would say 40 or 45.  Then we need to install a program similar to investing in 401K and the like, where younger workers could opt out of social security and invest a similar amount in an approved program of their choice.

It needs to be an approved program because they can't go investing in wind chimes or wind farms, etc.  It also needs to be compulsory because otherwise people cannot be counted on to do it and would come pleading poverty when they have to retire.

I may have overreacted to Hoodat but he went all schizoid on us and his posts seemed to blame social security recipients... I felt like I was taking food out of his dog's mouth.

[Hoodat]

George W. Bush attempted a sensible reform.  I wonder how many of the people who hate SS worked with him for it.

I was one of its biggest and most vocal proponents.

I may have overreacted to Hoodat but he went all schizoid on us and his posts seemed to blame social security recipients... I felt like I was taking food out of his dog's mouth.

Seemed?  Felt like?  How about what I actually did instead of your emotional reaction to it?

Please go back and read what I actually said, and then show me what part you disagree with.  And then perhaps we can discuss this like adults.

[Mesaclone]

Ya...that's what we need. More fear-based theology. What could save a country's ethics more effectively than a deity who slaughters women and children (Sodom, Gomorrah, Jericho...everyone in the flood)...turns people into salt for momentary human weakness...and favors death to homosexuals? That's the kind of god these folks advocate for...thankfully, a god that exists only in their imaginations and the addled rantings of Old Testament fanatics....and as mentioned, the Benny Hinn's of the world have made vast profits from the fear they generate. That is absolutely NOT what this country needs.

People have a right to believe as they will, but the fire and brimstone stuff...that's all man and no God....so lets keep it as far from government as we can.

[mountaineer]

Read the Bible first, mesaclone. Then maybe your analysis will be less worthless.

[INVAR]

Mesaclone's anti-biblical and anti-Christian screed goes a long ways towards explaining why he made Trump his god.

[Silver Pines]

Ya...that's what we need. More fear-based theology. What could save a country's ethics more effectively than a deity who slaughters women and children (Sodom, Gomorrah, Jericho...everyone in the flood)...turns people into salt for momentary human weakness...and favors death to homosexuals? That's the kind of god these folks advocate for...thankfully, a god that exists only in their imaginations and the addled rantings of Old Testament fanatics....and as mentioned, the Benny Hinn's of the world have made vast profits from the fear they generate. That is absolutely NOT what this country needs.

People have a right to believe as they will, but the fire and brimstone stuff...that's all man and no God....so lets keep it as far from government as we can.

@Mesaclone

"Fear-based theology?"  You mean like your constant hyperventilating about the disasters Hillary Clinton would visit upon us?   Woe be unto us if we failed to accept the sacrament of the orange deity. 

Bottom line, you wouldn't harbor anger and bitterness toward God and those who believe in Him if you really thought He didn't exist.

[Mesaclone]

Read the Bible first, mesaclone. Then maybe your analysis will be less worthless.

I've read it in great depth...and a very large number of other Gospels that didn't make it into "the book"...nearly went to seminary at one point.

My favorite is Thomas "the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood... and I am there, lift a stone... and you will find me."

[Mesaclone]

@Mesaclone

"Fear-based theology?"  You mean like your constant hyperventilating about the disasters Hillary Clinton would visit upon us?   Woe be unto us if we failed to accept the sacrament of the orange deity. 

Bottom line, you wouldn't harbor anger and bitterness toward God and those who believe in Him if you really thought He didn't exist.

I have nothing but love and respect for God...and am 100% certain the he/she/it exists.....the point is that the Old Testament is a huge misrepresentation of who and what God is. My beef is with man, not God. Specifically, the inept and culturally backward fiction writers who wrote and compiled the angry mythology that became the old Testament. The one true God is a being of love and reason, not the murderous and irrational beast of the Old Testament.

[bigheadfred]

It will produce a growing number of Christians who see their goal not just as saving souls but as transforming society by taking control over its institutions.

Might sound all good, but when huge amounts of money are involved, everything goes to hell.

[roamer_1]

It will produce a growing number of Christians who see their goal not just as saving souls but as transforming society by taking control over its institutions.

Might sound all good, but when huge amounts of money are involved, everything goes to hell.

They're not changing it. They're changing it back