Onward Christian Soldiers

NPR has a good piece up about the militant wing of Christianity with which Perry "pals around." They are a special bunch, let me tell you:

For the past several years, she says, the NAR [New Apostolic Reformation] has run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the "seven mountains of culture" from demonic influence. The "mountains" are arts and entertainment; business; family; government; media; religion; and education. 

"They teach quite literally that these 'mountains' have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society," says Tabachnick. "And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. ... The apostles teach what's called 'strategic level spiritual warfare' [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we're accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they're doing that's quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups."

This fits very well into the overall GOP mantra of "if you're not with us, you're against us." Only in this case, if you're not with them, you're a demon. But don't worry, they are just doing god's work:

One of Engle's previous rallies took place in Uganda in May 2010, shortly after an anti-homosexuality bill had been proposed. 

"Various people got on the stage [at his rally] and promoted the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda, which is a very draconian bill that would allow for executions for certain offenses, and would also allow for people who don't report homosexual history to be jailed," she says. "The apostles have had a long history in Uganda, and some of them have had close relationships with both political and religious leaders there. In fact, an apostle in Uganda takes credit for promoting the anti-homosexuality bill and was recognized by the parliament in Uganda when the bill was introduced."

I am sure if you dig deep enough, you can find the underlying premise in that law of "love the sinner, hate the sin," or "love others as Christ loved us."

These people are wildly out of touch with the values of the vast majority of mainstream America. They are virulently homophobic, anti-abortion, seek to coddle Israel at every turn, and think it's a good idea to actively attempt to usher in what they call the 'end times.' You know, because bringing about the wholesale destruction of the earth is just so fucking cool. And at the heart of all these batshit ideas is their belief in what they call dominionism, that is, that they are ordained by god to have dominion over everything - government, the media, society at large - and enact their perverse agenda on us all cleanse us of our demons.

And all this while the various tea bagger state legislatures are foaming at the mouth in absolute terror of the non-existent threat of Sharia law infiltrating our nation. Meanwhile, we have a legitimate group of lunatics seeking to establish a theocracy of their liking in every echelon of government both state and federal. I realize that it's because they want to establish their theocracy and that of another, but it's still ironic nonetheless.

And all the while this is more or less entirely permissible because it's Jebus based, and who doesn't love Jebus? And we are a Christian nation and center right and all that. Oh and the practitioners of this particular brand of lunacy happen to be overwhelmingly white and thus non-threatening, scary, or other, so bonus points for that too.