Chuck Darwin on Nostr: The movement certainly aligns with many goals of the Christian right: -- a total ...
The movement certainly aligns with many goals of the Christian right:
-- a total abortion ban,
an end to gay marriage and LGBTQ rights.
Traditional family is the fundamental unit of God’s perfect order.
In theory, affirmative action, welfare programs, and other social-justice measures would be unnecessary
because in the Kingdom,
as Abildness, the Pennsylvania apostle, and her husband once explained to me,
there is no racism and no identity
other than child of God.
“Those that oppose us think we are dangerous,”
her husband told me,
describing a vision of life governed by God’s will.
“But this is better for everyone.
There wouldn’t be homelessness.
We’d be caring for each other.”
Matthew Taylor told me he sees the movement merging seamlessly into
“the MAGA blob,”
with the prophets and apostles casting whatever Trump does as part of God’s plan,
and rebuking any dissent.
“It’s the synchronization with Trump that is most alarming,” he said.
“The agenda now is Trump.
And that’s how populist authoritarianism works.
It starts out as a coalition,
as a shotgun marriage,
and eventually the populism and authoritarianism takes over.”
In another sense, the movement has never been about policies or changes to the law;
it’s always been about the larger goal of dismantling the institutions of secular government
to clear the way for the Kingdom.
It is about God’s total victory.
“Buckle up, buttercup!”
Wallnau said on his podcast shortly after the election.
“Because you’re going to be watching a whole new redefinition of what the reformation looks like
as Christians engage every sector of society.
Christ is not quarantined any longer.
We’re going into all the world.”
On the day after the election,
I went to "Life Center",
the NAR church where Elon Musk had spoken a couple of weeks earlier.
The mood was jubilant.
A pastor spoke of “years of oppression”
and said that
“we are at a time on the other side of a victory for our nation that God alone
—that God alone
—orchestrated for us.”
The music pounded,
and people cheered,
and after that,
a prominent prophet named
#Joseph #Garlington
delivered a sermon.
He was a guest speaker,
and he offered what sounded like the first hint of dissent I’d heard in a long time.
He talked about undocumented immigrants
and asked people to consider whether it might be possible
that God was sending them to the U.S.
so they could build the Kingdom.
“What if they are part of the harvest?”
he said.
“He didn’t send us to them;
maybe he’s sending them to us.”
It was a striking moment.
Life Center,
Mercy Culture,
and many other churches in the movement
have large numbers of Latinos in their congregations.
In 2020, Trump kicked off his outreach to evangelical voters at a Miami megachurch
called "El Rey Jesús",
headed by a prominent Honduran American apostle named
#Guillermo #Maldonado.
I wondered how the apostles and prophets would react to the mass deportations Trump had proposed.
Garlington continued that Trump was “God’s choice,”
but that the election was just one battle in the ultimate struggle.
He told people that it’s “time for war,”
language I kept hearing in other NAR circles
even after the election.
He told people to prepare to lose friends and family
as the Kingdom of God marched on in the days ahead.
He told them to separate from the wicked.
“If you’ve got a child
and he says, ‘Come and let us go serve other gods,’
go tell on him.
Tell them, ‘I’ve got a kid who is saying we need to serve other gods.
Can you help me kill him?’ ”
Garlington said he wasn’t being literal about the last part.
“But you need to rebuke them,” he said.
“You need to say, ‘Honey, if you keep on that path,
there’s a place reserved in hell for you.’ ”
-- a total abortion ban,
an end to gay marriage and LGBTQ rights.
Traditional family is the fundamental unit of God’s perfect order.
In theory, affirmative action, welfare programs, and other social-justice measures would be unnecessary
because in the Kingdom,
as Abildness, the Pennsylvania apostle, and her husband once explained to me,
there is no racism and no identity
other than child of God.
“Those that oppose us think we are dangerous,”
her husband told me,
describing a vision of life governed by God’s will.
“But this is better for everyone.
There wouldn’t be homelessness.
We’d be caring for each other.”
Matthew Taylor told me he sees the movement merging seamlessly into
“the MAGA blob,”
with the prophets and apostles casting whatever Trump does as part of God’s plan,
and rebuking any dissent.
“It’s the synchronization with Trump that is most alarming,” he said.
“The agenda now is Trump.
And that’s how populist authoritarianism works.
It starts out as a coalition,
as a shotgun marriage,
and eventually the populism and authoritarianism takes over.”
In another sense, the movement has never been about policies or changes to the law;
it’s always been about the larger goal of dismantling the institutions of secular government
to clear the way for the Kingdom.
It is about God’s total victory.
“Buckle up, buttercup!”
Wallnau said on his podcast shortly after the election.
“Because you’re going to be watching a whole new redefinition of what the reformation looks like
as Christians engage every sector of society.
Christ is not quarantined any longer.
We’re going into all the world.”
On the day after the election,
I went to "Life Center",
the NAR church where Elon Musk had spoken a couple of weeks earlier.
The mood was jubilant.
A pastor spoke of “years of oppression”
and said that
“we are at a time on the other side of a victory for our nation that God alone
—that God alone
—orchestrated for us.”
The music pounded,
and people cheered,
and after that,
a prominent prophet named
#Joseph #Garlington
delivered a sermon.
He was a guest speaker,
and he offered what sounded like the first hint of dissent I’d heard in a long time.
He talked about undocumented immigrants
and asked people to consider whether it might be possible
that God was sending them to the U.S.
so they could build the Kingdom.
“What if they are part of the harvest?”
he said.
“He didn’t send us to them;
maybe he’s sending them to us.”
It was a striking moment.
Life Center,
Mercy Culture,
and many other churches in the movement
have large numbers of Latinos in their congregations.
In 2020, Trump kicked off his outreach to evangelical voters at a Miami megachurch
called "El Rey Jesús",
headed by a prominent Honduran American apostle named
#Guillermo #Maldonado.
I wondered how the apostles and prophets would react to the mass deportations Trump had proposed.
Garlington continued that Trump was “God’s choice,”
but that the election was just one battle in the ultimate struggle.
He told people that it’s “time for war,”
language I kept hearing in other NAR circles
even after the election.
He told people to prepare to lose friends and family
as the Kingdom of God marched on in the days ahead.
He told them to separate from the wicked.
“If you’ve got a child
and he says, ‘Come and let us go serve other gods,’
go tell on him.
Tell them, ‘I’ve got a kid who is saying we need to serve other gods.
Can you help me kill him?’ ”
Garlington said he wasn’t being literal about the last part.
“But you need to rebuke them,” he said.
“You need to say, ‘Honey, if you keep on that path,
there’s a place reserved in hell for you.’ ”