The Evangelical Elephant in the Room

Rick Perry: Demon-Hunter?

This almost sounds like the latest story arc in the HBO vampire series, “True Blood.”
Except it’s really happening, and THAT scares the bejeezus out of me.

An apocalyptic group of hyper-evangelical Christians wants to reclaim the “seven mountains of culture” from demonic influence: arts and entertainment, business, family, government, media, religion, and education.

According to the “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR, not to be confused with NRA in any way) Oprah Winfrey is a harbinger of the Antichrist, and all gay people are controlled by demons. America’s head demon-hunter, C. Peter Wagner, claims that the leaders of this worldwide movement are apostles and prophets by divine right, “gifted by God.”

They seek control of American business, politics, and culture to accelerate Jesus’ return to Earth. While some rhetoric is similar to that of evangelical Christians, the NAR terminology is more aggressive, like their doctrine; the apostles plan on exorcising demonic forces from entire geographic regions via “spiritual warfare.” A rally planned for November is designed to “free” Muslims from demons preventing their conversion to Christianity.

Two major NAR factions, “The Call,” and the “International House of Prayer” (IHOP??) helped engineer Rick Perry’s prayer rally Aug. 6. Prophets and apostles spoke on stage at the event, a neon sign of the group’s growing presence in American politics.

Rachel Tabachnick, a Southern Baptist who converted to Judaism as an adult, has researched the NAR apostles for over 10 years. Her background provides insight for identifying this growing, almost covert, movement, which she says is fundamentally, and “radically different” from traditional evangelicals. To other people, they present themselves as simply non-denominational.

What they REALLY mean is non-demoniacal.

So can we assume Rick Perry’s on the TX Board of Education’s curriculum committee?

Read more at NPR.