NPR reports about the Alabama Supreme court judge who apparently adheres to an extreme Christian theology called the Seven Mountains Mandate. Seven Mountains used to be considered extremist but has become more common in the theocratic Christian nationalist wealth and power movement. NPR writes:
Tom Parker, a Republican who joined the court in 2005, wrote a concurring opinion that quoted at length from sources such as the Book of Genesis, the Ten Commandments and Christian thinkers of centuries ago, such as Thomas Aquinas. But comments he has made in other media have raised questions about his seeming espousal of “Seven Mountains” theology, a concept that some experts consider to be Christian extremism.
“God created government. And the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it's heartbreaking for those of us who understand. And we know it is for Him,” Parker said on a recent podcast hosted by Christian activist Johnny Enlow. “And that's why He is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now.”
Parker’s remarks on the podcast were released the same day that the Alabama Supreme Court issued its ruling on IVF embryos. His appearance on the show was first reported by Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog organization.The Seven Mountains Mandate urges adherents to establish what they consider to be God’s kingdom on Earth by taking control of seven areas of society: family, religion, government, education, arts and entertainment, commerce and media. Once relegated to a fringe of the Christian conservative movement, it has gained followers in recent years as the ranks of nondenominational, neo-charismatic Christians have grown in the U.S. It also has earned greater media attention since House Speaker Mike Johnson assumed his elevated role, due to his connections with leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement that espouses Seven Mountain theology.“The Seven Mountains is a structured outline for Christian supremacy,” said Matthew Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. “The idea is that Christians are supposed to take power over society and that influence flows down from the top of each mountain.”
“It is a real Christian Nationalist threat to our judicial system to have Supreme Court justices who understand theologically and think of themselves theologically as above precedent and the rule of law,” said Taylor. “If they think that their allegiance is to a higher power and their allegiance is to the Bible primarily before the Constitution, if they are invoking modern prophecies as the rationale for the work that they do, that should really raise questions about the separation of religion and state and the ways that Christianity and Christian nationalism is getting infused into the very structures of how our legal system is working.”
It is hard to know how many churches and congregations this movement consists of. Wikipedia suggests that many in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement are reluctant to admit to being part of Seven Mountains theology (also known as Dominionism). That theology grew mostly out of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Data from Pew Research in 2011 suggests the NAR could constitute a significant minority of Christians in the Americas.
I did not think it would ever be important to know more about Christian theology, especially fringe extremism. Talk about a false sense of security. Well, Christian nationalist elites did a fine job of scaring the bejesus out of me -- false sense of security is all gone.
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Religion News Service recently reported on support for Christian nationalism among Americans:
A new survey finds that fewer than a third of Americans, or 29%, qualify as Christian nationalists, and of those, two-thirds define themselves as white evangelicals.
The survey of 6,212 Americans by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution is the largest yet to gauge the size and scope of Christian nationalist beliefs.
It finds that 10% of Americans are avowed Christian nationalists, what the survey calls “adherents,” while an additional 19% are sympathetic to Christian nationalist ideals.
The vast majority of Americans (70%) do not think the government should declare America a Christian nation. And nearly 60% do not think its laws should be based on Christian values.
Most Americans (73%) said they preferred a country made up of a diversity of faiths and not just Christianity.
More than half of Republicans now identify as Christian nationalist or sympathizers, the survey concludes. Some members of Congress, notably Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, proudly endorse the label. Former President Donald Trump called himself a nationalist, and the survey finds Christian nationalists have far more favorable views of Trump than the general population.
That makes the political power of Christian nationalists far greater than their actual numbers in the population.
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Christian nationalist propaganda and slanders by faux Christian Franklin Graham:
Graham cited Faux News. That alone undermines the credibility of what Graham and his crackpot reasoning asserts. The data is probably not real, because what Faux cited came from something the ultra-radical, Christian nationalist Family Research Council posted online. If the asserted increase in attacks on churches is real, one has to wonder how many of those attacks are by enraged Christian nationalists on churches that support the LGBQT community, immigrants and women's rights. Those attacks probably would not be attributed to radical faux Christians attacking normal, real Christians. Here is what MB | FC says about the FRC:
FRC is designated to be a hate group!
In addition to blatant lying and crackpot reasoning, DJT and radical right authoritarians perfected the dark free speech arts of falsely claiming victimhood and projecting onto critics and opponents what one does ones-self. It appears that all of those propaganda and slander tactics are being adopted by the Christian nationalist movement. The constant appeal of dark free speech to authoritarians, grifters, kleptocrats, ideological zealots and radical extremists comes from its dark power. It has great power to poison minds with lies, hate, slanders and a sense of infallible, arrogant self-righteousness.
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