As an escapee from a dominionist church that heavily promoted "Name it and Claim it", it's a subject I have an unfortunate amount of familiarity in.  It's actually quite disturbing that this stuff is spreading, because--and this is something that has not been covered to a great extent--it is literally a side-branch of dominionist theology, and is often a "gateway" to promotion of frank political dominionism and some of the scariest facets of "spiritual warfare" theology.

Both "name it and claim it" and "spiritual warfare" groups (including groups promoting some of the most dangerous tactics, tactics which are now known to be common across spiritually abusive groups) are ultimately derived from dominion theology in the pente and neopentecostal movements.  Essentially, in the core theology of these groups, the "saved" are in fact the Elect, are considered ubermensch, are considered at the very least at the very right hand of God (and in some cases are even elevated to the position of Jesus, or just below him), and as such are seen as superior to the rest of us.

Dominion theology explicitly teaches that Satan "stole dominion" of the land and all things (including physical property and territory) from the Elect, that they are the first group to "get it right" since the time of Christ, and that they are Elect for the specific purpose of being a sort of divine army to reclaim the planet for God (or at least reclaim as much as possible before the Rapture hits, so there can be a really big army at the End of Days to kick Satan's ass; and yes, they DO pretty much put it in those terms).  In the political realm, this has led to the direct growth of dominionism as a political movement, as well as a social movement that tends towards paramilitary imagery including borderline terrorism and recruitment and training of children.

Where "name it and claim it" fits into this is simple--as they are considered "God's elect", and (so it is taught in these groups) God wouldn't deny his children anything, pretty much the world's riches are theirs to claim--but they must specifically claim dominion over things, are taught that poverty is caused by "Satan stealing your blessing", and followers are often encouraged to give massive "seed faith offerings" to basically "show God how much you claim this".

"Name it and claim it" is also heavily connected with the concept of "deliverance ministry"--the idea that pretty much ANYTHING can be possessed by devils and can cause you to be possessed (and be permanently damned).  The failure of "name it and claim it" to work is often boiled down to either objects (often innocuous objects) or associations with persons "opening doorways for Satan in your life", or (often) on "generational curses" resulting from the misdeeds of ancestors often seven generations removed (often every bit as innocent as the things "opening doorways for Satan"--like Mom having played with Cabbage Patch Kids, or Grandma having read a horoscope or had a Tarot card reading, or great-great-great-great-Grandfather having been born in a pre-Christian society in his homeland and thus following traditional religious beliefs).  This leads to a frightening amount of control over the lives of members--some of which are identical to those in Scientology in levels of coercion.  In something that should scare the readers, Bill Gothard, the person behind "Character Training Institute", is one of the major promoters of this branch of "name it and claim it" including the bizarre claim that Cabbage Patch Dolls were "opening doorways for Satan".

It is probably not coincidence that "name it and claim it" is almost consistently associated with abusive, coercive tactics--enough to the point that some "name it and claim it" groups are almost universally considered de facto "Bible-based cults".  A look at the listings of groups of concern at Rick Ross Institute and at Steve Hassan's Freedom of Mind Institute list most of the "Bible-based" groups listed as being "name it and claim it" groups; in fact, one of the "name it and claim it" preachers listed on Ross's site (Paul Yonggi Cho, pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea--the largest single church congregation worldwide, claiming 900,000 members (largely through a large network of "satellite" churches throughout South Korea) and also the head of the World Conference for the Assemblies of God) pretty much started one of the most disturbing movements in dominionism--the "Third Wave" movement, otherwise known as "Brownsville" or "Toronto" revivals (there are churches, including the very church I escaped from, that embraced "Brownsville Madness" many decades previously to Brownsville, and the mess originated with Yoido Full Gospel).  

One of the really disturbing aspects re Cho is his known close association with none other than Rick Warren of "Purpose Driven Life" fame.  Warren has spoken positively on Cho even though the latter is largely responsible for the spread of "Spiritual Warfare" theology throughout the Assemblies of God and elsewhere.  As noted before, I'm also a survivor of a church that was one of Cho's early "experiments" in seeding "Brownsville Madness".

Of course, part of the "name it and claim it" and dominion-theology madness extends explicitly to "naming and claiming" the government as well, and this includes literally cursing people in the name of Christ, the teaching of immoral, harassing, and potentially even illegal tactics to "name and claim" specific targets or groups of people for conversion, making "territorial pissings" with Wesson oil on the seats of every chair in the Senate chambers in an attempt to "name and claim" the entire Senate of the United States, and promotion of pyramid schemes which are universally regarded as business cults and which heavily promote "name it and claim it" (further details, for those who want the full story, is at Merchants of Deception).

This is also, increasingly and frighteningly, also applied to mainstream Christian churches; dominionists deliberately set up "cell churches" in mainstream Christian congregations as a method of "naming and claiming".

And--sadly--"name it and claim it" is actually a surprisingly large factor in religiously motivated child abuse, in that the horrific abuse these kids suffer is justified as both a method of "naming and claiming" the souls of these kids--or, occasionally, because it's claimed the kids are "opening doorways for Satan".  It's also a major impetus for "homeschool" correspondence schooling of dominionists' kids, including indoctrination of kids by using dominionist curricula packages that fail to meet basic standards and even glorify  slavery of non-dominionists.  In cases where schools aren't "toeing the line enough", dominionist groups have actually led purges of already-hardline-dominionist colleges.

Another area where "name it and claim it" (or, more specifically, the fear that if one goes to the wrong business, it will "open a doorway for Satan" and lend all one's "naming and claiming" and seed-faith offerings to naught) is the promotion of dominionist operated "Shepherd's Pages" and other directories of specifically dominionist friendly businesses.  (This is why megachurches are doing things like setting up their own daycare centers, banking facilities, and so on--it's their way of "naming and claiming" those businesses, as well as offering dominionist alternatives so that people won't be "contaminated" by the outside.)  It's also a non-negligible force behind the deliberate misuse of corporate charity-affinity programs for funding of dominionist groups (this is a way of "naming and claiming" those businesses), as well as the faith-based coercion recently banned in Iowa as well as in the United Kingdom.

In some of the "name it and claim it" groups, especially those close to the origins of "name it and claim it", it even goes so far as to claim that people in opposition to the dominionists are the literal children of Satan and are "trying to steal their blessing--a theology that, in its more explicitly racist form, led directly to Christian Identity.  (This isn't too surprising--William Branham, the person who pretty much invented much of the original theology behind "Name it and claim it" in the 30's, was a known racist and Klansman and pretty much invented the "serpent seed" theology that Christian Identity bases its claims of RaHoWa (Racial Holy War) on--and what the Third Wavers and other proponents of "spiritual warfare" use as their justification for dominionism and the extremely unethical tactics used.)

I myself dealt with almost all the consequences--including the complex PTSD, the fact I grew up in borderline poverty because half our family's income was going to the church (at one point over half, at a time when we had to charge groceries at salvage stores because those were the only places that accepted credit at the time--my family literally HAD no money to spend after bills, often had to put bills off because of my mother pretty much giving all our money to the dominionist pit I escaped as "seed faith offerings", and my father and mother frequently fought in rows where my mother literally would accuse my father of "trying to steal God's blessing from her"; at the same time, she'd also accuse me of being demon-possessed because I would ask her why she needed the TV to blare at 1am and 5am on school nights to "pray" and read the Bible, and she would curse my sister for daring to treat gay men like human beings), the panic attacks I now get hearing dominionist codewords spoken by the President of the US and a non-negligible portion of Congress, the whole nine yards. :P

Needless to say, I have enough experience to last me the next six lifetimes (if not more) on why this is Bad, Bad News. :P

by dogemperor on Sun Sep 17, 2006 at 08:22:01 PM EST

By the way, I've just remembered Mike Murdock's explanation as to why we should give money to him, rather than to some charity: "you give down for health, and up for wealth".

by Richard Bartholomew on Mon Sep 18, 2006 at 05:25:35 AM EST

Shepherding teaching had always attracted fierce criticism from its rivals...Bob Mumford, a shepherding leader, wrote, in defending the Faith [i.e. Prosperity] Movement, and Kenneth Copeland in particular, 'What they have gone through in teaching the faith message is so analogous to what we have experienced that it's brought a certain sense of camaraderie.' This coming together of Faith leaders with those from the shepherding movement became a reality at the meeting of the Network of Christian Ministries in 1985. Kenneth Copeland even called for a merger of the two revelations given to the Faith and shepherding movements...The Network code of ethics required that members refrain from criticizing one another

Divide and Conquer: Cell Churches and Hijacks

For what it's worth, Sara Diamond also touches on this subject in "Spiritual Warfare".

(And in the case of the particular churches in question using the breeding of "cells" as a divide-and-conquer tactic, the shepherding movement and "cell church" movement have been largely one and the same, with "cell churches" usually referring to "planted" congregations within mainstream churches or to satellite congregations and "home meetings" affiliated with a church, with "shepherding" being the method of control over the members in each.)

by dogemperor on Mon Sep 18, 2006 at 02:54:09 PM EST