The New Apostolic Reformation?

I ran across an interesting article on NPR recently about a growing religious movement that has links to several political figures, including GOP presidential hopeful and Texas Governor Rick Perry (through his recent prayer rally). I know little beyond this article at this point, but there are some elements here that are concerning to me if this is a movement that is gaining real popularity.

I’m interested in the story and the movement particularly because it may have some relevance to the upcoming election, and particularly because religious trends in Christianity are always of interest to me. However, I will say from the outset that I try to be particularly sensitive to “guilt by association” issues. So I’ll say up front that this post should not be construed as an attack on Rick Perry – I have no idea how much of a connection he has to this movement, although it does sound like it may be significant. My primary interest here is in offering a bit of commentary on some of the beliefs this group espouses, and why I see some of those beliefs as problematic.

First, a couple excerpts from the article:

Tabachnick says the movement currently works with a variety of politicians and has a presence in all 50 states. It also has very strong opinions about the direction it wants the country to take. For the past several years, she says, the NAR has run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the “seven mountains of culture” from demonic influence. The “mountains” are arts and entertainment; business; family; government; media; religion; and education.

“They teach quite literally that these ‘mountains’ have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society,” says Tabachnick. “And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. … The apostles teach what’s called ‘strategic level spiritual warfare’ [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we’re accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they’re doing that’s quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups.”

There is quite an emphasis on spiritual warfare here – one that I’m not sure is healthy. Perhaps in a later post I’ll describe some of my past experience with “spiritual warfare”, but for now I’ll leave it at this: I believe wholeheartedly that there is a spiritual realm, and that forces in that realm affect our lives. I also believe that the Bible tells us very little about that realm – and that should tell us something about how concerned God wants us to be about it. It is far too easy for good Christians to get caught up in speculation about the spiritual world, and lose focus on how we’re actually supposed to be living our lives. I see some of that in the description of this movement. A couple thoughts:

• I do believe politics is important. It effects many people’s lives in both positive and negative ways. Having said that, I don’t believe real change comes through politics. It comes through changed lives, and I believe that should be the primary concern of the church. Laws don’t change hearts – love and grace and relationships change hearts. And changed hearts are the only way to change society – no matter the issue. So any Christian movement that makes political change its primary goal has, in my opinion, misplaced priorities.
• This talk about hierarchies of demons concerns me. A great deal of spiritual warfare literature talks about such things, but the Bible doesn’t – at least not in anything but the most veiled terms. There is reference to demons, principalities and powers, and so on – but to divide them up into types of demons (lust, pride, and so on) or various hierarchies of command is to move well beyond what the Bible says about the spiritual world.
• The Kingdom of God on earth is not dependent upon our “reclaiming” anything but people’s lives and hearts. The Kingdom of God is present wherever God’s followers are present, making the choice to live their lives as if God is Lord and king. And it spreads as more people come into relationship with God and make the choice to follow him. Biblically, I don’t see anything that tells me our job is to wrestle control of certain parts of society from demons – we are to go about our lives living as God has called us to live: telling people about him, showing love and compassion and grace to the people around us. We’re supposed to love God and love people – fighting demons, as exciting as it may sound, does not seem to be our primary calling or responsibility.
• Sin is not a result of hierarchies of demons. Sin is a result of fallen human beings who choose not to live as God has called us to live. Demons and other outside forces may influence us towards sin, but their presence does not guarantee that we will sin, nor would their absence mean that sin would be gone. The idea that sin is caused by hierarchies of demons seems to me to be an abdication of our own responsibility for our sin – it seems to be a denial of the reality that the line between good and evil runs through each one of us.

There are other things I could comment on in the article, including how supremely unhelpful it is to claim that gay and lesbian people are possessed by demons. If our goal is to bring the gay community into relationship with God – which should be our goal with any group of people – such accusations will not help that effort.

At any rate, I’ll be watching news about this movement with great interest, and more than a little concern. And I’d welcome anyone else’s thoughts or information about it as well.