Bush as "God's appointed president"?!?
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Sat Dec 03, 2005 at 12:43:58 PM EST
This is a reply (that I've made into its own dedicated journal entry) in regards to a question someone asked on a certain infamous "are you a dominionist" test that has been linked here.

The question: "Why on earth are they including George W Bush and his policies on the quiz?"

Trust me, unless you're a dominionist, it makes no sense whatsoever.

If one is a dominionist, or at least conducts research on what the "home churches" of the dominionist movement are saying, though...it starts making very frightening sense that starts to explain much about poll numbers (including the fact that, even with poll numbers in the low thirties for Bush, his support among "evangelical Christians" (they, alas, lump dominionist and non-dominionist "evangelicals" together) is still somewhere in the eighties.

Specifically....they think he's a man of God.  Literally.

More than that--Bush is seen by a large number of dominionists as hand picked by God himself to run the country.  (No, I am not making this up.)

And the really scary thing?  Dubya apparently agrees with them.

Firstly, Bush has claimed he was chosen by God to run the country in rallies at dominionist churches.

The fact that Bush has been documented using dominionist code phrases in speeches doesn't really reassure one, either.

The fact that the inauguration itself (which was filled with dominionist code words) was likewise seen by dominionist groups as proof they had won also doesn't help.

Bush has even described himself explicitly as a "messenger of God" and "doing God's will" and explicitly believes his presidential election was the result of divine providence.

Now, a minor digression that ties this together:

A very common piece of scripture-twisting that is used in spiritually abusive churches (especially spiritually abusive churches part of the "Third Wave" movement or into "spiritual warfare" movements in general--nearly all of which are dominionist as a direct extension of their theology) is "touch not my annointed" or "touch not a man of God".

I have touched on this in passing in relation to spiritual abuse in the church I walked away from, but it bears further discussion in specific relation to the mindset in spiritually abusive churches supporting dominionism (and why it is so difficult to criticise the practices of their church leaders).

This apologetics site has specific reference to the misuse of "touch not mine annointed":

Many a day, whether it is via the televangelists or out of the podiums of local churches, two groups of phrases are delivered to all who listen. The first phrase is "Judge not, lest ye be judged" from Matthew 7:1. The second phrase is from Psalms 105:15 which states "Saying, touch not mine annointed, and do my prophets no harm." Is this what Christians do when they question teachings from (most of the time self-proclained) "God's Anointed" evangelists and preachers. Many who claim to have the annointing would say so, and so would their followers. To any criticisms directed to them, whether positive or negative, their response is usually "Touch Not Mine Annointed"

From the pulpit of a well known televangelist on recorded tape.

"There are people attempting to sit in judgement right today over the ministry that I am responsible for, and the ministry that Kenneth E. Hagin is responsible for. ... Several people that I know of called that faith bunch out of Tulsa a cult, And some of them are dead right today in an early grave because of it, and there's more than one of them got cancer."

From the pulpit of a local church I once attended.

"So you want to say that what I am preaching is not from God? You need to remember, "Touch Not God's Annointed". Since I have been given responsibility for this congregation and I am the shepherd, You do not have the right to question me. I am a child of God and I pray, talk to, and hear from God everyday. When you question me, you are actually questioning God. Therefore, to question me is to place your self in rebellion and in opposition to God himself. You, the congregation, know what happens when you are in rebellion. Remember 1 Samuel 15:23 "For rebellion is as of the sin of witchcraft...". Therefore, If you dare to question me, you are in witchcraft, and you are to be treated and punished the same as witches, mediums, and sorcerers, in the eyes of God..."

So, we have seen two different perspectives manifesting the same root. To question these leaders about their teachings is questioning God himself. To question would bring such horrors such as: cancer, other sicknesses, death, judgement, branded a "heretic", etc.


As the page notes, this is actually a misuse of that particular verse in an attempt to stifle dissent and criticism:
In fact, when one reads Psalms 105:15, one can clearly see that this whole Psalm is devoted to the memories of where God had brought his people from since the beginning of time from Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Verse 15 deals specifically with the issue of the historical aspects of the true enemies of God touching the chosen people of Israel. This verse actually comes from Genesis 20:7.

Dominionists, especially the "premillenial dispensationalist" flavour of dominionists, also consider themselves specificially "annointed" as a "chosen people" by God along with Israel (in the pentecostal branches of dominionist thought, the existence of the pentecostal movement and the revivals that crop up now and again in that movement are seen as "proof" of this).

More info of this misuse of scripture or use of scripture out of context for purposes of abuse (termed "scripture twisting" in the walkaway community):
http://www.gospelassemblyfree.com/facts/anointed.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/6312/abuse3.html
http://members.citynet.net/morton/touchnot.htm (EXTREMELY good page on this)

Why do I mention this?

Many of the "home churches" behind the dominionist movement, in particular the AoG, have not only documented histories of this exact sort of scripture twisting among other forms of spiritual abuse occuring in their congregations, but also multiple administration links exist to the AoG in particular including General Boykin, ex-Attorney  General John Ashcroft (whose senatorial campaign was actually funded by the AoG and who, in typical AoG religious practice, literally had himself annointed with Wesson oil when olive oil was unavailable upon his appointment as Attorney-General), and Doug Wead (and in fact much of his coaching in dominionist thought and lingo was from Wead himself).

In "dominionist-ese", these people ARE being taught that Bush is, quite literally, one of the "annointed of God" and thus not to be questioned at the very peril of one's soul.  Being one of the "annointed", he's to be followed without question and supported.

Bush also explicitly used spiritual warfare terminology that has explicit meaning to dominionists after 9/11, so most dominionists in the "spiritual warfare" movement really DO think Dubya is "one of them", so to speak.

In fact, their belief that Dubya is one of "their annointed" is strong enough that the phenomenon of "prayer gangs" specifically set up for praying for the President has started
(warning: pro-dominionist):

http://www.thegospelgreats.com/bush.htm
http://www.heartlight.org/fast/

This article also has further information on the specific promotion of Bush as "Annointed" as well as the formation of "prayer gangs" to support him.

There is at least one Christian group standing up to this nonsense, though: Christians Doubting President Bush (which was formed, in part, because of dominionist churches claiming that Bush was "chosen by God to lead this country").




Display:
It is, I think, ironic that the very things to read to counter this particular view -- that leaders (kings) get their authority from God (Divine right) and are not to be questioned because they speak for the Almighty Himself -- are the Enlightenment thinkers of the 1600 and 1700s.

Ultimately culminating in two documents, one of which, states, "...that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed..." (the Declaration of Independence), and "We the People...." (the Constitution of the United States).
Alonzo Fyfe

The Atheist Ethicist
by Alonzo Fyfe on Sat Dec 03, 2005 at 09:57:31 PM EST


I have read most of what you have written about Dominionists on this site, and perused the Dark Christianity site a bit. Can you point me to a glossary of code phrases? Is there such a thing?

by bybelknap on Sun Dec 04, 2005 at 01:08:52 AM EST
There are actually a number of different lexicons floating around, but the articles in question that I linked to actually do a pretty good job of documenting the use of those verses and code phrases within the dominionist community.

Regarding the issue of a "Dominionist/English Dictionary" so to speak, this is an issue that multiple people are working on, as have multiple communities.  I can point you to some initial efforts:

http://www.rthoughtsrfree.org/tcnglossary.htm
http://www.livejournal.com/community/dark_christian/64392.html
http://p212.ezboard.com/fexpentecostalforumsfrm7.showMessage?topicID=969.topic
http://www.religiousrightwatch.com/glossary/glossary.htm

There is also a discussion on this thread regarding the construction of a "dominionist lexicon".

Regarding those lexicons, the TCN, Dark Christianity and Ex-Pentecostals Forum board lists probably have the best info on what is used within the dominionist community.


by dogemperor on Sun Dec 04, 2005 at 07:31:37 PM EST
Parent

Thanks for the links. I'm looking forward to building my own sort of cheat sheet or quick reference so I can understand what is being said.

by bybelknap on Mon Dec 05, 2005 at 10:15:02 AM EST
Parent




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