QAnon seemed mostly harmless too
QAnon appeared to be just a loose network of conspiracy crackpots until a bare-chested guy wearing horns and face paint stood on U.S. Senate’s dais on Jan. 6. Fred Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, has worked to draw attention to another loose network of believers with political designs on the country: The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). This network of nondenominational churches aligned with Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA has aspirations for replacing our “demon-infested bastions of ungodly government,” he Clarkson writes.
Clarkson provides an overview at Salon:
The NAR seeks to consolidate those Christians it recognizes as “the Church” in what it believes to be the End Times. Although many NAR leaders have been closely aligned with Donald Trump, they insist that they aim for a utopian biblical kingdom where only God’s laws are enforced. Most therefore hold to a vision of Christian dominion over what they call the “seven mountains“: religion, family, education, government, media, entertainment and business. (This is what is meant by Dominionism.)
But as with any religious movement, the NAR’s notion of what God requires is a matter of interpretation, and in this case God’s intentions are said to be revealed through modern-day, mutually recognized apostles and prophets, some of whom lead vast networks of believers, whom they often call “prayer warriors.” These dynamic networks seek to dissolve traditional Christian denominations and institutions, peeling away members and sometimes whole congregations. When pundits speak of non-denominational Christianity, this is mostly what they mean.
The NAR’s long-term plan is to transform all of institutional Christianity to their vision of how the church was organized in the first century A.D. In their view, the only legitimate church offices, as described in the Book of Ephesians, are apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors (but no popes, bishops or presidents). This is called the “fivefold ministry.”
The “interpretation” Clarkson references flows from a selective reading of cherry-picked Bible passages that fit into not just a right-wing theological framework but a political one. As messaging expert Anat Shenker-Osorio said to Lawrence O’Donnell, “motivated reasoning is a hell of a drug.”
Pastor and musician Sean Feucht partnered recently with TPUSA for a “Kingdom to the Capitol,” 50-state revival tour. Apostle Clay Nash of Arkansas hosted “a series of 50 prayer conference calls staged by leading apostles in the first four months of 2023″ to rally the faithful, Clarkson reports. The transcripts may be found here.
Lots of blustery “sword of the Lord” and “full armor of God” and “take back the Kingdom” stuff. Nothing new there. For over half a century that rhetoric has fueled what Dr. Anthea Butler, a historian of African-American and American religion at the University of Pennsylvania, describes as an evangelical Christianity “captured by Pentecostals and Charismatics.”
What has added spark to the fuel is the Internet. As with QAnon and the white nationalist movements, that network has allowed this religious network to grow and spread. Clarkson offers much more at Salon.
NAR leaders … will likely continue to stoke distrust in the normal function of elections and government. The struggle between what actually happens and conspiracy theories about what doesn’t happen will almost certainly continue. There will always be someone to blame — Freemasons, Communists, witches, antifa, Black Lives Matter or someone else from the long menu of potential scapegoats. The responses will not necessarily be peaceful.
UPDATE: You think I’m kidding?