MRFF vs. Sectarian Supremacism and Anti-Government Conspiracists in the U.S. Chaplain Corp
Rachel Tabachnick printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Tue Jul 20, 2010 at 06:47:32 PM EST
A compilation of past articles, video, and documentation on sectarian Christian supremacism and anti-government conspiracy theorists in the U.S. Military Chaplain Corp.

Given the current revival of anti-government rhetoric, the following list of articles might mean more to readers now than when they were originally published. MRFF has repeatedly warned about the aggressive proselytizing conducted by the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), headed by Ret. Col. Jim Ammerman.  In addition,  Ammerman and some of his chaplains, while flaunting their military credentials, have promoted "New World Order" conspiracy ideology, in which they claim that the U.S. will imminently lose sovereignty, betrayed by government leaders who are part of a demonic cabal of "Illuminati," described as international banking families. (The list is Jewish except for the Rockefellers - explanation to follow below).

An article about the history and activism of Mikey Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation is currently cross-posted at Alternet and TruthOut. Below the following list of links is further information on Ammerman and a selection of quotes from his book  After the Storm in which he describes the first Gulf War as a massive religious revival.

Previous articles and documentation on this issue include:

Conspiracy as Prophecy, by Rachel Tabachnick
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/12/155813/579

Colonel Jim Ammerman, Apostle and New World Order Conspiracy Theorist, by Rachel Tabachnick
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/22/115820/165

Defense Department Certified Agency Newsletter Suggests Killing Democrats, by Bruce Wilson
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/thp_defense_department.html
This article on MRFF, originally written for Talk2action, includes a graphic of the video packaging for Ammerman's video "Imminent Military Takeover of the USA, II" marketed by "The Prophecy Club" and video excerpts of Ammerman and one of his former chaplains James F. Linzey.

Conspiracy Theorist Military Chaplains Promote Anti-American Militia Activity, by Chris Rodda
cross-posted at Talk2action and Huffington Post.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/5/20/17201/4681
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/conspiracy-theorist-milit_b_204948.html

MRFF Demands DoD Revoke Authority of Chaplain Endorser Who Suggested Democrats Should Be Executed, by Chris Rodda
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/27/165511/755

James F. Linzey Espouses Anti-Semitic White Racialists Conspiracy Theory, by Bruce Wilson
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/10/17129/0387
The article includes partial transcripts of Linzey interviewed on a 2005 radio show in which he encourages Christian patriots to buy bullets to defend themselves and their families from the imminent invasion of America by foreign troops, and claims the Illuminati is headquartered in Israel.

Video clip of Ammerman speaking for The Prophecy Club claiming Clintons are part of Illuminati and that eight families own the Federal Reserve. (2:54 minutes)
http://vimeo.com/5169394

Video clip of Ammerman for The Prophecy Club with timeline of Satanic plot from beginning of the world to the imminent takeover of the U.S.  (:54 seconds)
http://vimeo.com/5282211

Videoclip of Ammerman for The Prophecy Club claiming that foreign troop are in U.S. forests and on military bases waiting to invade.  (1:08 minutes)
http://vimeo.com/5284272

Video clip of former chaplain under Ammerman, James Linzey, for The Prophecy Club, claiming that  global banking is trying to change our racial and political order. (1:06 minutes)
http://vimeo.com/4890329

Video clip with audio of James Linzey on Messiah's Branch radio program, April 10, 2005 claiming illegal immigration is ploy of world bankers/communists to force race mixing. (2:45 minutes)
http://vimeo.com/5289639

Partial transcript of James Linzey on "The Edge" radio show, March 12, 2005
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/10/17129/0387
Linzey claims Illuminate are headquartered in Israel and discusses concentration camps that are supposed to be used to gas Christian patriots.

Video clip of James Linzey for The Prophecy Club, claiming that Illuminati control mainstream Protestant churches and states that these are "demonic, dastardly creatures from the pit of hell and we need to stomp them out."  (1:43)
http://vimeo.com/5288710

In the introduction I promised an explanation of the inclusion of the Rockefeller family on what is otherwise a list of Jewish names of "world bankers" used by both Ammerman and Linzey.  In this particular strain of conspiracy theory the Rockefellers are claimed to be crypto-Jews, or Illuminati descended from a Jewish bloodline, who infiltrated the Mainline Protestant churches, seminaries and universities.

This is explained in more detail in overt anti-Semitic media such as "13 Bloodlines of the Illuminati," a book and Prophecy Club video by Fritz Springmeier. The Prophecy Club order form, updated 2006, included The Prophecy Club produced videos "Imminent Military Takeover II," by Jim Ammerman, and James Linzey's "How World Bankers Are Destroying America" and "How Illegal Immigrants Are Destroying America."  The Prophecy Club marketing also included  Fritz Springmeier, Texe Marrs, Henry Gruver, Gen. Ben Partin, Gary Kah, Al Cuppett, and Jerome Corsi and a host of other prophecy and conspiracy theory writers.

In addition to his MRFF work, Weinstein is currently involved in a
personal lawsuit
against Col. E. H. (Jim) Ammerman, head of one of largest chaplain endorsing agencies for the military, the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (GCFC), and Gordon Klingenschmitt, one of his former chaplains.  Klingenschmitt has broadcast  "imprecatory" prayers against both Weinstein and Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which Weinstein argues encourages violence against him and his family.

Audio of one of Gordon Klingenschmitt's imprecatory prayers against Weinstein and Rev. Barry Lynn.
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/klingapr09.mp3
or
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/audio_recordings.html
(Note that there is a whistling sound before Klingenschmitt begins speaking.)

Klingenschmitt's Imprecatory Prayer in audio above.

"Let us pray. Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty, including Barry Lynn and Mikey Weinstein, who issued press releases this week attacking me personally. God, do not remain silent, for wicked men surround us and tell lies about us. We bless them, but they curse us. Therefore find them guilty, not me. Let their days be few, and replace them with Godly people. Plunder their fields, and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants, and remember their sins, in Jesus' name. Amen."

Military Religious Freedom Foundation
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/
Letter and 57 pages of information sent by MRFF to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asking for revocation of GFGC's Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/gates_letter.html
The 1997 request by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for a review of CFGC can be viewed beginning on page 5 of this document.

Articles in other publications:

Jesus Killed Mohammed:  The Crusade for a Christian Military, by Jeff Sharlet
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/weekly-watch/4-17-09/weeklywatch.html
Harper's, May 2009

Christian Soldiers:  The growing controversy over military chaplains using the armed forces to spread the Word, by Kathryn Joyce
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/06/18/christian-soldiers.html
Newsweek, June 19, 2009

 Conspiracy Theorist Military Chaplains Promote Anti-American Militia Activity, by Chris Rodda
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/conspiracy-theorist-milit_b_204948.html

Mikey Weinstein's Crusade, by Stephen Glain
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/25/mikey_weinsteins_crusade
Foreign Policy Magazine, May 25, 2010

American charismatic evangelical organizations are entrenched in northern Iraq, including institutions built with U.S. taxpayers' money.  

What In The Name Of Crusades Are American Evangelicals Doing In Kurdish Iraq? by Bill Berkowitz
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/1134/

How American Right Wing Evangelicals Are Waging `Spiritual Warfare' in Northern Iraq, by Michael Reynolds
http://www.alternet.org/world/147513/how_american_right-wing_christians_are_waging_'spiritual_warfare'_in_northern_iraq?page=3

In the near future I will be writing more about the significance of the players in the preceding articles who have engineered this Christian dominionist entrenchment in Iraq.  This represents a coming together of Reconstructionists like George Grant (known for his, "It's dominion we're after" quote) and charismatics, including New Apostolic Reformation leaders and organizations.  The latter includes George Otis, Jr., producer of the Transformation series of movies, and Belmont Church, Nashville, led for many years by Don Finto, a New Apostolic leader.  One list of evangelical entities "planted" in Iraq including churches, Christian bookstores, printing press, radio stations, and Christian schools is on Belmont Church's website.

Following are quotes from Ammerman's 1991 book After the Storm, in which he writes proudly about exploiting Operation Desert Shield, the first Gulf war, to proselytize thousands of soldiers stationed in Saudia Arabia (and local Muslims) to his brand of charismatic evangelical Christianity.  Ammerman claims that 150,000 American troops were "saved" in this charismatic revival in Saudi Arabia.  The first chapter is titled "A Christian Holy War."  Ammerman viewed the war as a spiritual battle between born again Christians and the forces of evil. Those requiring proselytizing included other Christians who did not qualify as Spirit-filled and who belonged to "legalistic denominations." The endorsements in the front of the book were made by Richard Roberts (son of Oral Roberts) and James Robison, and the foreword was by the late Jamie Buckingham, former editor of Ministry Today.

After the Storm (1991), by Jim and Charlene Ammerman

From the back cover:
"Today we are on the verge of what may be the last and greatest period of spiritual renewal before the return of the Messiah."

"For the moment, the Moslem nation of Saudi Arabia was the greatest Christian mission field on earth."
(page 46)

"While the military is doing its best to fight a battle, the source of the problem is not a physical or political issue; rather it is a spiritual one... There are principalities and authorities over this region of the world.  There are fearsome demons who have come together there."
(page 67)

"Actually a miracle has already happened!  Isn't it exciting to realize that, for the first time in over sixteen hundred years, Christians are being asked to come into a Muslim country?  Think about that for a moment.  Here is a place that has not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ since the time Islam came into being, and we are right there."
(page 68)

"As Dave [Chaplain Dave Plummer] concluded his speech, it struck me that the real war was just beginning.  We were not only to minister to half a million American service men and women, but also to begin a revival among Islamic nations."
(page 70)

"The Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches - thanks to private citizens as well as the ministries of Larry Lea, Jimmy Hester, Dick Bontke of the Arlington Christian Center, Ken Copeland, Richard Roberts, Merlin Caruthers, Ed Cole Ministries, End Time Handmaidens, and Worship International- sent over 150,000 crosses, 300,000 Christian tapes, and boxes of Bibles and other Christian materials.  These items not only got through, but they were distributed quickly throughout the region.  Other individuals and churches were involved in similar programs.  The Good News was getting out!"
(page 96)

"With thousands of people being saved, I wondered what could be accomplished if we didn't have the heavy burden of restrictions on our chaplains? How many other soldiers would feel the power of Jesus' hand?  How many more would come under the conviction of the Spirit?"
(pages 100- 101)

"We don't need legalistic, denominational tradition; we need the pure and simple Word of God.  After all, the Word tells us the Spirit makes alive, but the law kills."
(page 157)

In this last quote the animosity toward other Christian denominations is apparent, as in Linzey's radio interview where he claims that the infiltrators of the Mainline Protestant churches are "demonic, dastardly creatures from the pit of hell."  Ammerman is an apostle in the International Coalition of Apostles, led by C. Peter Wagner, a large but underpublicized sector of the Charismatic/Pentecostal stream, which has become very politically active.  Wagner teaches that Catholics and Muslims are prevented from converting to evangelical belief because of a territorial demon he describes as the "Queen of Heaven."  There are numerous primary sources by New Apostolic leaders claiming that non-charismatic Roman Catholics are controlled by demons, including Wagner's book Confronting the Queen of Heaven.

In addition to heading the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, one of the largest agencies providing chaplains to the U.S millitary, Ammerman is  Vice President of the Board of Directors of the National Council for Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Norris also serve on this Board of Directors) and a Commissioner and Director for Transworld Accrediting Commission International (TACI) which accredits evangelical schools, seminaries, colleges and universities.

Ammerman is also a long time colleague and friend of John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, (whose national CUFI Summit began today)  and claims to have encouraged Hagee to take his broadcasting empire international.  In his sermons, Hagee echoes many of Ammerman's  warnings about an imminent takeover of America by Illuminati-led demonic forces, including the claim that the Rothschilds own the Federal Reserve and are intentionally deflating the U.S. dollar.

As the Military Religious Freedom Foundation repeatedly points out, this crusade is not primarily a war between Christians and nontheist, or between Christians and Jews, or even Christians and Muslims.  A full 96% of the people who contact MRFF with complaints about the aggressive religious environment are Christians, including Catholics and Mainline Protestants. The above quote is an example of the war that is taking place by GCFC against traditional denominations and many other Christians who do not accept the charismatic beliefs of Ammerman and his chaplains.  Ammerman, like the New Apostolic Reformation movement to which he belongs, is non-denominational, and claims to represent Christianity at large.  But in reality, this is a sectarian war of religious supremacism against other Christians as well as against other religions.

In the area of conspiracy ideology, Ammerman's legacy is problematic.  The Prophecy Club videos, particularly those of former military, are used to substantiate irrational anti-government conspiracy theories, such as FEMA concentration camps with rooms for gassing prisoners, train boxcars with shackles, and nuclear suitcase bombs planted by immigrants in American cities.  Many rational and thoughtful Americans have legitimate concerns about the abuses of big banking interests and the problems associated with illegal immigration.  Ammerman and others have provided simplistic answers and easy targets for difficult questions, and have used their military credentials to give their stories credibility.  Ammerman still heads the CFGC, and it is still authorized as the endorsing agency for more than 270 Military Chaplains/Chaplain Candidates and 180 Civilian Chaplains/Seminarians, and this is an ongoing problem.




Display:
I would like to see a study of the impact religious dominionism is having on the attempt to repeal DADT. With dominionists securely rooted in the military command structure, it would stand to reason they would do all they could to prevent Congress from repealing DADT and allowing openly gay military personnel to serve. This is probably a narrow issue in the larger scheme of things, but it is something you don't hear about in the mainstream media.

by khughes1963 on Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 09:58:51 PM EST

The dominionists are using the very same tactics that their conspiracy theories espouse- they want a new world order- but with a Dominionist bent. Some conservative anti-dominionist Christians think the Council for National Policy is an extension of the one world government conspiracy! Some of the people who speak at Prophecy Club events are CNP members.

by zowie on Tue Jul 20, 2010 at 08:52:22 PM EST
Yes, it is curious. The stated agenda for dominionist is taking control over the "seven mountains" of society and government and teach that this should be done by stealth. This is remarkably similar to what they claim a Satanic Illuminati cabal is trying to do.

There are traditional fundamentalists who believe that the NAR and dominionists are the apostate church of the end times. Another curious conflict is The Prophecy Club.  Some of their past speakers featured on the videos are raving, overt anti-Semites and some claim to be philo-Semitic Christian Zionists. Yet, their conspiracy theories are parallel and in many ways almost identical.

by Rachel Tabachnick on Tue Jul 20, 2010 at 10:26:46 PM EST
Parent

One of the members of the CNP is Lt. Col. Oliver North, who, when questioned by Rep. Brooks in the Iran-Contra affair about martial law in this country which will toss the Constitution into the wastebasket http://prorev.com/fema.htm (This is not a conspiracist site- Naomi Wolf was talking about the same thing- and she is no raving theorist).----- Please note- CNP council member Edwin Meese was in charge of Cable Splicer, an exercise for instituting Martial Law in America.----- It is weird to see the conspiracy theorists hanging out with the same people their theories condemn! (It gets better-Some of the members of the Council for National Policy are Masons and also have connections with the Council of Foreign Relations-and this does not irk the conspiracy theorists among them one bit!.

by zowie on Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 06:25:12 PM EST
Parent



Presenting a big picture and adding so many supporting links to add in details really helps.

Sara Robinson has a new post up on HuffPo that resonates well with this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-robinson/obama-blows-up-the-gu lf-a_b_649303.html

by GenieO on Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 12:20:13 AM EST