Capitol Hill Blue Forums Life and Moral Issues Religion and Philosophy Effects of Religious Conservatism: Seven Mountains Dominionism / Zionism

I never understood how Christians - especially Evangelical Christians - can support Trump. After all, the guy is an adjudicated sexual assaulter and adjudicated business fraudster, with 91-grand jury indictments. That goes against everything in the Christian Bible and Christian teachings. My opinion was that Evangelicals are just naive.

On Sunday night, February 25, 2024, I heard a broadcast of On The Media on NPR. OTM is an hour-long weekly radio program hosted and edited by Brooke Gladstone. Part of that broadest dealt with Seven Mountains Dominionism. It was a real eye opener for me.

Seven Mountain Dominionism holds that there are seven aspects of society that believers seek to influence: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. SMD is a brand of Christian fundamentalism that has mostly flown under the radar - until the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children.

Seven Mountain Dominonists believe that it is their mission to influence the world through these seven spheres is justified by Isaiah 2:2 "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains."

Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker, a Seven Mountains Dominionist, wrote a concurring opinion in the IVF ruling that sought to define the “sanctity of unborn life,” citing heavily from scripture and theology. When a judicial decision is filled with Biblical scripture - there is no separation of Church and State. Parker has also openly criticized other judges for not sufficiently considering religion in their rulings. Parker has for years been lauded by abortion foes and condemned by reproductive rights advocates for writing opinions that would help spawn the fall of Roe and further restrict abortion access. Parker repeatedly invoked scripture in his ruling, arguing that Alabama law is based on theology that says God created every person “in His image.” He and the other justices in the 8-1 majority said that life begins at conception and that therefore frozen embryos are protected under the law.

“Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God,” Parker wrote in his concurring opinion. He added that state code recognizes “unborn human life,” and that destroying it – including frozen embryos – is an affront to God.

“All human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” he wrote. Parker also referred to the writings of a 17th-century theologian as evidence that people were created in God’s image.

It doesn't matter to the religionists who gets them their Christian-based U.S. law - even if it is an adjudicated sexual assaulter and adjudicated business fraudster, with 91-grand jury indictments - all these religionists need is one POTUS to get them there. Trump is their guy. Trump has already delivered the Supreme Court to them.

It turns out that it is me, who is the naive one, when it comes to Christian evangelicals and Trump.

Dominionism has been around for some time. I think the most famous, until now, of this genre is Sen Cruz. Despite a number of flavors, taken as a whole, they are akin to the political extreme Islamic groups. They pervert and usurp holy books in an attempt to speak for God as if they know the mind of God.

These religious zealots have been and will remain a serious danger to the concept of the Founders of a secular political system which would allow free religious beliefs, but not a religious state.

The assault on Democracy continues from all corners.

While the original intent of this thread is to discusses a very conservative Christian sect and its affects on society and government, I am expanding the thread to discuss a very conservative Judaistic sect and its affects on society and government, as well - because the two conservative religious philosophies intertwine, and well as the negative effects each of the brand of religion has on non-followers.

The belief that all humans have certain rights, endowed by the Creator as Jefferson put it, is common. The lesson of Chapter 9 of The Origins of Totalitarianism (“Origins”) by Hannah Arendt is that such rights mean little or nothing if there is no one to enforce them. Realist diplomats after WWI knew that the successor states would not enforce the human rights of minorities and refugees unless forced to do so. They created the Minority Treaties to provide that enforcement, backed by the League of Nations.

It didn’t work. It turns out that the important part of Jefferson’s observation is the next phrase: “that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….“

Absent the protection of the state, the mystical state of having rights is useless. And even having formal rights, like citizenship, is no protection against denaturalization, as found in The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, Hannah Arendt's first major work, where she describes and analyzes Nazism and Stalinism as the major totalitarian political movements of the first half of the 20th century.

Arendt writes: The problem of the stateless and rightness of Arabs described by Arendt has not been solved. The Palestinian Authority has no ability, or will, to protect the human rights of Palestinians and Gazans. Hamas is a terrorist organization, not a government. No Hamas member from top to bottom cares about the lives of the people of Gaza, let alone their rights, though apparently the “leaders” care about their own safety and luxuries, living the rich life in Qatar.

The State of Israel doesn’t care about the Palestinians either. There’s the ruthless bombing. There’s the settler attacks in the West Bank, which go unpunished. Israel has sold oil leases that were thought to be the property of the Palestinians. Even as the current Israeli "war" against Gazan Palestinians continues, it announced its intention to build 3,000 new housing units for settlers in the West Bank.

There are two factions within the Zionist movement, Labor Zionism and Revisionist Zionism. Labor Zionism is the faction that seemed to prevail. It’s the faction of the Kibbutzim, people working the land to make the desert bloom. Radial Zionists (very conservative Judoists) believes that the State of Israel should include all the land from the Euphrates to the Nile. Radial Zionists believe Arabs and other non-Judoists who live there now have no political rights, and this the radical Zionists' ideological position.

From the viewpoint of some within US evangelicalism, the establishment of the state of Israel is a prerequisite of the Second Coming of Jesus. It’s not that these folks love Israel per se, but that this is simply part of what has to happen before Jesus comes again. SPOILER ALERT: Judoists do not fare well during the Second Coming.

The "problem" with the Second Coming for US evangelicals is that Jesus will not come back to earth until the Judoists and Judea leaders ask Him to come back. Just as the Judiah leaders led the nation to the rejection of the Messiaship of Jesus, they must some day lead the nation to the acceptance of the Messiaship of Jesus. This, then, is the two-fold basis of the Second Coming: Israel must confess her national sin and then plead for Messiah to return, to mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son. Until these two things happen, there will be no Second Coming.

As I have often written here at The Rant: Conservatism is the bane of mankind’s existence. I cite every negative outcome man has ever experienced through the ages, can be traced back to conservatism in one form or another: philosophy, religion, or government - or a combination of any of the three.

I have updated this thread's title to: Effects of Religious Conservatism: Seven Mountains Dominionism / Zionism

white christian nationalism folks are not evangelicals. They are, however, the current driving force of the entire Republican party. Even Trump does what he is told to do by them. They would have non-believers believer they are evangelicals but they are not. I could go on and on about them but there is a LOT on them on the net. Just look for white christian nationalism and you will find a LOT of stuff, mostly against. There was one where a girl that had been a member since birth and was no longer that was pretty interesting.

Basically, this is the religious group that started working on the Republicans 50/60 years ago (really!) They stuck to their guns and, with sly and dedication they did what was they thought was necessary. No current Republicans would dare say anything to them, they just knuckle under. They are not going to go away until they rule the world (they think, I think).

I have also noticed that, pretty much, nobody says, or does, anything that might upset them. They are, for all purposes, a really bad group that claims Christianity and is willing to do whatever to get their way.

Apparently, we are also being told that they represent something between 1 out of 4 or 30% of Christians in the United States (I have no idea if that is true or not but thought that was also pretty interesting)

I wish us all good luck.

One last. It seems that the white Christians do NOT consider Catholics to be Christians. I thought that was kinda interesting. Although Catholics do house some pretty strange outfits. Amy Coney Barrett belongs to something called the People of Praise which is a “covenant community”.

If you read about that one you will have difficulty believing that she can be all that impartial.