Salem 66: Dispatch #2 – September 14-20, 2015
Don Jolly covers the religion of the 2016 election season. Continue Reading →
Tag: rick perry
A Very Perry Christmas
Ashley Baxstrom: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Christmas tree lots sprouting up like weeds, Christmas lights hung on trees in every wannabe-hip-neighborhood in the five boroughs, a whole new set of Christmas displays in the Macy’s windows. And of course, the turtledove on top: pundits and politicians decrying the “War on Christmas.” There may not be snow on the ground (the rolling Texas farmland ground), but there are Kay Jewelers commercials on the air, which means the culture wars – like poinsettias and gingerbread lattes – must be back in season. Today Gov. Perry released a brand new campaign ad, keeping pace with the other GOP candidates and the changing season.
“I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Christian,” Perry says. “But you don’t need to be in the pews every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” (Really, if you didn’t watch it before, just – just watch it. If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the voice of the Ghost of a Certain Texas President Past.)
Perry promises (drawls) that if he’s elected he’ll stop “Obama’s war on religion” and will fight against “liberal attacks on our religious heritage.” Continue Reading →
The Thing About Dominionism…
At The Wild Hunt Jason Pitzl-Waters gives us a wrap-up of all the Dominionism hoopla of the past few weeks. It’s a good summary and a great source if you’re just now trying to figure it out. Pitzl-Waters also goes directly to the most important aspect of this conversation: how would the individual beliefs of the presidential candidates affect each of us? He writes:
The trouble is that it only takes a few well-placed individuals to make things difficult for those who don’t toe some arbitrary theological/cultural line. I guess what I’m trying to say is that just because some of this sounds paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after us.
Dominionism: One More Response Response
Abby Ohlheiser: If the Book of Mormon and Romney’s early campaign were a Mormon Moment, the past few weeks have been something of a “Dominionism” moment. Dominionism, a generalized term for a collection of Charismatic Christian movements that treat the structure and power of civil government, media, and other significant institutions as mission field, is a key part of reporting that understands the Religious Right (which, of course, is not synonymous with Evangelical Christians). Sarah Posner’s most recent piece on it is at Salon today. It’s part of Ryan Lizza’s profile of Michelle Bachmann, and of a substantial portion of the coverage of Rick Perry’s The Response, which I attended earlier this month. Continue Reading →
Dominionism Isn't Just an Evangelical Thing
There’s an awful lot of commentary about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Dominionism lately, thanks to Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann’s prayerful entry into the GOP presidential race. Most of it is not contextualized nor historically accurate, or like this odd retort–by A. Larry Ross, Billy Graham’s long-time media representative, to a Michelle Goldberg column on Dominionism, both at The Daily Beast–misleading. (The Tea Party isn’t religious? Where you been?) Really the best piece I’ve seen yet is by Sarah Posner at Salon. Continue Reading →
Dominionism Isn’t Just an Evangelical Thing
There’s an awful lot of commentary about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Dominionism lately, thanks to Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann’s prayerful entry into the GOP presidential race. Most of it is not contextualized nor historically accurate, or like this odd retort–by A. Larry Ross, Billy Graham’s long-time media representative, to a Michelle Goldberg column on Dominionism, both at The Daily Beast–misleading. (The Tea Party isn’t religious? Where you been?) Really the best piece I’ve seen yet is by Sarah Posner at Salon. Continue Reading →
Dominionism Isn’t Just an Evangelical Thing
There’s an awful lot of commentary about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Dominionism lately, thanks to Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann’s prayerful entry into the GOP presidential race. Most of it is not contextualized nor historically accurate, or like this odd retort–by A. Larry Ross, Billy Graham’s long-time media representative, to a Michelle Goldberg column on Dominionism, both at The Daily Beast–misleading. (The Tea Party isn’t religious? Where you been?) Really the best piece I’ve seen yet is by Sarah Posner at Salon. Continue Reading →
Perry's Cross-Section of the Body of Christ
by Abby Ohlheiser
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, hugged the praise musicians one by one as he took the stage for a second time at The Response two weekends ago, a day-long prayer and fasting rally in Houston, funded by the American Family Association (AFA). He had amassed a crowd of over 30,000 who were happy, dancing, and calling for a Christian infusion into what they see as an America in grave danger–in bad need of God’s mercy. I use the possessive here because Perry was, along with the praise music, was infusing the audience. In many ways this was his stage, his rally, his call to God. And, as we now know (but had already guessed), The Response was also a warm-up routine for Perry’s announcement of his presidential candidacy one week later. The theology of the event, both of a Christian religion and an American religion, was specific: the nation must revive. Young people must convert. And to the sort of Christianity that abides by Mike Bickle’s “pure reading” of Scripture. Bickle, who runs the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, was one of the most heavily featured speakers at The Response. As he said at the rally:
There’s a crisis of truth in the pulpits today in our land. That, in the name of tolerance, even in the name of love, we are redefining love that is not on God’s terms. Jesus is God. There is no other God than Jesus. Father, son, and Holy Spirit. All the world religions, they can say what they say. There is no other god besides Jesus. There is no other standard of truth.
Perry’s Cross-Section of the Body of Christ
by Abby Ohlheiser
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, hugged the praise musicians one by one as he took the stage for a second time at The Response two weekends ago, a day-long prayer and fasting rally in Houston, funded by the American Family Association (AFA). He had amassed a crowd of over 30,000 who were happy, dancing, and calling for a Christian infusion into what they see as an America in grave danger–in bad need of God’s mercy. I use the possessive here because Perry was, along with the praise music, was infusing the audience. In many ways this was his stage, his rally, his call to God. And, as we now know (but had already guessed), The Response was also a warm-up routine for Perry’s announcement of his presidential candidacy one week later. The theology of the event, both of a Christian religion and an American religion, was specific: the nation must revive. Young people must convert. And to the sort of Christianity that abides by Mike Bickle’s “pure reading” of Scripture. Bickle, who runs the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, was one of the most heavily featured speakers at The Response. As he said at the rally:
There’s a crisis of truth in the pulpits today in our land. That, in the name of tolerance, even in the name of love, we are redefining love that is not on God’s terms. Jesus is God. There is no other God than Jesus. Father, son, and Holy Spirit. All the world religions, they can say what they say. There is no other god besides Jesus. There is no other standard of truth.
Safe Words
Abby Ohlheiser: All the religious language of the last fortnight’s Perry and Ames fest ’11 (or should that be ’12) made me click on this tweet (despite the parenthetical clue) without thinking for a second that it would be a comment on anything other than something Bachmann or Perry have talked about recently. By the way: don’t google “perry bondage.”
It was, in fact, an article about the sort of bondage with a bigger but quieter internet presence: BDSM, which stands for bondage, discipline, sado-masochisim. Continue Reading →