Liberty University

Yesterday we took the opportunity of Rick Perry’s recent speech at Liberty University to revisit his appearance on last year on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, in which he went into depth about the “supernatural events” (mainly rain or lack thereof) that have driven his life.

If the governor’s visit to Liberty is any indication, the affinity that he displayed with the Religious Right in his TBN appearance is still going strong. Before Wednesday’s speech, Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. gave Perry a rousing welcome, defending the governor for his controversial effort to require that girls in Texas recieve HPV vaccinations and calling Perry’s secession talk “gutsy.” Brian Kaylor of EthicsDaily, a publication of the Baptist Center for Ethics, reports that the ties between Perry and Falwell are even closer than what is being reported. Falwell was scheduled to take part in one of televangelist James Robison’s leadership summits, at which Religious Right leaders urged Perry to enter the race. While Falwell “could not make it,” Liberty University’s Vice President Johnnie Moore participated. Kaylor reports that Moore and David Lane, who organizes state-based “restoration” projects, were behind Perry’s appearance at Liberty:

Organized by Texas evangelist James Robison, the June meeting was a follow-up to a September 2010 meeting as Robison and other conservative Christians plotted to bring political revival and change to the 2012 elections.

Liberty's chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., son of Liberty's late founder, was scheduled to attend but could not make it.

Robison led a similar effort prior to the 1980 presidential election as he sought to defeat then-President Jimmy Carter. That effort culminated in an August 1980 rally in Dallas with then-Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan as the key speaker.

On Wednesday, Falwell introduced Perry at Liberty by talking about how much he "admired" Perry for "having the guts to say things that weren't exactly politically correct, like when Governor Perry hinted that Texas might secede one day from the Union."

Falwell also recounted saying several months ago – before Perry joined the presidential race – that "it was too bad" Perry was not running for president.

…

Falwell also said that Perry's trip to Liberty was organized and made possible due to the work of religious-political organizer David Lane and Liberty's vice president for executive projects, Johnnie Moore. Both Lane and Moore have been part of Robison's group.

According to Perry, Lane and Robison inspired him to lead "The Response," a prayer rally held last month at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Numerous other individuals in Robison's group were key leaders in planning the event, which thrust Perry into the national headlines just days before he officially announced he was running for president.

Perry's support among conservative evangelicals is one of the key factors to his rapid rise to the front of the Republican presidential primary polls.

His speech at Liberty University on Wednesday, his private meetings with Christian leaders in June and August, and his prayer rally in August demonstrate Perry's efforts to mobilize conservative Christians and receive their support as he seeks to be what Robison and his group say they are hoping for – a new Ronald Reagan.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University School of Law continued to argue that the gay rights and feminist movements tacitly advocate pedophilia during today’s Faith & Freedom with visiting Liberty University law professor Judith Reisman. Barber claimed that the anti-bullying group GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) “sexualizes children” and is “running interference for the pedophile movement” and “making [children] receptive to potential advances from adults.”

Reisman said that “the whole point of the objective” of GLSEN’s anti-bullying efforts was to promote pedophilia. She went on to claim that “the aim of homosexual males and now increasingly females is not to have sex with other old guys and get married but to obtain sex with as many boys as possible.”

Such claims from the right-wing activists are not new, as Barber once said that “GLSEN tacitly advocates sexual abuse” and Reisman called GLSEN “a modern version of the Hitler Youth.”

Barber: Now I talk about the sexual anarchy movement and their larger goals, the pedophile movement is one branch, the homosexual activist movement is another branch, you know the pro-abort wing with Planned Parenthood and people like that. Part of the homosexual activist movement for instance is GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, they partner with the National Education Association and create a curriculum that seeks to indoctrinate children into the idea that homosexuality is normal, natural and good. This sexualizes children and aren’t they really running interference for the pedophile movement here? By sexualizing these children, making them receptive to potential advances from adults?

Reisman: Well yes of course Matt, that’s the whole point of the objective of the activity. And I don’t distinguish them, this is all part of the pedophile movement.

…

Reisman: We know that pedophilia, which was the original Greek they say it’s ‘love of’ but of course it isn’t, it’s ‘lust for’ boys. And there’s a strong, clear, cross-cultural, historical reality, people don’t want to do deal with, but the propaganda has been loud and strong to deny the fact, the aim of homosexual males and now increasingly females is not to have sex with other old guys and get married but to obtain sex with as many boys as possible. That’s the reality. I wish it weren’t, but it is.

As we have been noting for the last week or so, it seems as if the entire Religious Right movement has developed collective amnesia when it comes to the concept of dominionism, claiming never to have heard of it and to have no idea what it means.

In fact just yesterday, Pat Robertson was saying that he had no idea what the term meant and, whatever it was, it did not apply to him.

But, as Sarah Leslie at Herescope reports, it is a little hard to believe that Robertson has no idea what dominionism is considering that he has been quoted as directly advocating for it:

This strange denial by Pat Robertson, cited above, that he doesn't know anything about Dominionism is ludicrous! Robertson is one of the chief purveyors of this doctrine. In Al Dager's book Vengeance Is Ours: The Church In Dominion (Sword, 1990), he describes Pat Robertson's Dominionist views and transcribed a speech in Dallas in 1984 where Robertson said:

Now what do you do? What do all of us do? We get ready to take dominion! We get ready to take dominion! It is all going to be ours--I'm talking about all of it. Everything that you would say is a good part of the secular world. Every means of communication, the news, the television, the radio, the cinema, the arts, the government, the finance--it's going to be ours! God's going to give it to His people. We should prepare to reign and rule with Jesus Christ. (Dager, p. 95)[emphasis added]

By the same token, we now have Matt Barber claiming that dominiomism is nothing more than some silly liberal conspiracy theory:

Barber is the Associate Dean for Career and Professional Development and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Liberty University.  Just last year, Liberty University was a sponsor of the American Vision’s Worldview Super Conference entitled "2010 Sovereignty and Dominion conference - Biblical Blueprints for Victory!"

The Bible tells us in Genesis 1:28 that God created us to multiply, fill the earth, and take dominion of His creation for His Glory. When Jesus came to earth, He gave his disciples the Great Commission and told them to make disciples of all nations, Baptize them, and teach them to obey all that he had commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). These two mandates form the basis for why Christ’s Church exists on this planet. Every square inch of this world belongs to King Jesus. It is our privilege to serve Him by exercising servanthood dominion in every area of life.

Or what about John Aman, Director of Communications at Truth in Action Ministries, who claimed that "dominionism is a sham charge-one reserved for Christians on the right" that was dreamed up by the Left as "a handy way to smear evangelicals like Bachmann and Perry who bring biblically informed moral convictions into public debate."

Truth in Action Ministries was, until just last month, known as Coral Ridge Ministries.  George Grant, who served as the executive director of Coral Ridge Ministries and a close associate of the late D. James Kennedy, wrote a book in 1987 entitled "Changing Of The Guard" [PDF] in which the following passage appear:

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ-to have dominion in the civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.

But it is dominion that we are after. Not just a voice.

It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.

It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.

It is dominion we are after.

World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less.

If Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, as the Bible says, and if our commission is to bring the land into subjection to His Lordship, as the Bible says, then all our activities, all our witnessing, all our preaching, all our craftsmanship, all our stewardship, and all our political action will aim at nothing short of that sacred purpose.

Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land - of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. It is to reinstitute the authority of God's Word as supreme over all judgments, over all legislation, over all declarations, constitutions, and confederations.

Amazing, isn't it, how Robertson has no idea what dominionism is despite having openly advocated for it, and how Barber says it is a silly scare tactic even while his employer sponsors conferences promoting it, and how Aman says it doesn't even exist while the former Executive Director of his organization makes it explicity clear that "world conquest" is their goal.

If the Religious Right really doesn't know anything about dominionism, maybe they ought to start reseraching their own history and agenda.

As we mentioned the other day, there have been a lot of articles lately from journalists, columnists, and Religious Right activists completely dismissing any talk of "dominionism" among the Religious Right.

Dominionism, they claim, is just some meaningless conspiracy-theory dreamed up by the Left as scare tactic because nobody within the Religious Right movement would ever embrace those ideas or associate with anyone who espoused any sort of Christian Reconstructionist views.

Really?  While searching for something else, I stumbled upon this 2007 article from Americans United about a conference organized by the Christian Reconstructionists at American Vision and co-sponsored by several "mainstream" Religious Right organizations:

The gathering, dubbed “Preparing This Generation to Capture the Future,” was hosted by American Vision, a ministry that has been toiling away since 1978 to “help Christians build a truly Biblical worldview.” In a conference handout, American Vision states that “By God’s grace, we will work together to make America a truly Chris­tian nation for our children’s children.”

Based in Powder Springs, Ga., American Vision also produces reams of material that push Christian Reconstruc­tionism, a form of fundamentalism that argues for a re-writing of American history, dismantling secular democracy and constructing an America governed by “biblical law.” Reconstructionists seek to impose the criminal code of the Old Testament, applying the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.

Despite its overtly radical theocratic agenda, American Vision is allied with some of the Religious Right’s most powerful outfits. This year’s conference was cosponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, a well-funded Religious Right law­yers’ outfit that James Dobson and other religious broadcasters helped create; Michael Farris’s Home School Legal Defense Association; the late TV preacher Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University School of Law; and World Magazine, Marvin Olasky’s influential evangelical Christian periodical.

The event was promoted heavily by the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, and it was held in a facility owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination and a religious body closely aligned with the Bush administration.

American Vision is run by Gary DeMar, who is a self-identified Christian Reconstructionist.  Last year, DeMar's organization hosted another Worldview Super Conference.  Take a guess what it was called?

Sovereignty & Dominion: Biblical Blueprints for Victory!

The Bible tells us in Genesis 1:28 that God created us to multiply, fill the earth, and take dominion of His creation for His Glory. When Jesus came to earth, He gave his disciples the Great Commission and told them to make disciples of all nations, Baptize them, and teach them to obey all that he had commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). These two mandates form the basis for why Christ’s Church exists on this planet. Every square inch of this world belongs to King Jesus. It is our privilege to serve Him by exercising servanthood dominion in every area of life.

This conferece was co-sponsored by Liberty University Law School and among those attending the event were Janet Porter, who served as the co-chair of Mike Huckabee's Faith and Family Values Coalition during his presidential campaign and John Eidsmoe, who spoke at the event. Eidsmoe, as you may recall, was Michele Bachmann's mentor who advocates a variety of far-right views.

So Religious Right groups openly co-sponsor an event organized by Christian Reconstructionists and Michele Bachmann's mentor is a featured speaker at an event organized by these same Christian Reconstructionists which is entitled "Sovereignty & Dominion" ... but to point out the influece of Christian Reconstruction and Dominioism among the Religious Right and some GOP presidential candidates is "just another attempt to discredit opponents rather than answer them"?

• I don't see how anything Liberty University says here in any way changes the fact that the school is one of the leading recipients of federal aid in the form of student loans.
• FRC reports that Michele Bachmann has been confirmed as a speaker at the next Values Voter Summit.
• I almost want to see Michele Bachmann become president just to watch her try and fulfill her promise to get gasoline under $2 a gallon.
• Finally, the fact that one of Bachmann's staffers was arrested for terrorism in Uganda seems like it might be a big deal.
• Liberty Counsel says schools ought to be able to block websites for gay organizations because they are just trying to "force school to be purveyors of their immorality."
• Finally, it seems that members of the band Sugarland were saved from the Indiana State Fair stage collapse tragedy by their prayer circle.

On today's installment of "Faith and Freedom Radio," Mat Staver and Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel/Liberty University discussed the passage of marriage equality legislation in New York, which they used as an opportunity to attack Kevin Jennings and claim that groups like GLSEN and PFLAG encourage five year-old children to have sex with one another and even support pederasty and child sexual abuse. 

Barber eventually warned that "when we shake our fist against God and rebel against him," as the legislature did in New York, it was only a matter of time before we suffered the consequences:

In a story first reported by Brian Kaylor of EthicsDaily.com, James Robison has been bringing social conservative activists and televangelists from across the country together to strategize on how to prevent President Barack Obama from winning reelection. A who’s who of Religious Right leaders, including Don Wildmon, Tony Perkins, Richard Land, Rod Parsley, Jerry Boykin, Jim Garlow, Daniel Lapin, Kenneth Copeland, Harry Jackson and Sam Rodriguez attended the gathering hosted by Robison.

According to Kaylor’s report, Robison called the meetings an “absolute necessity and one of the ways the people of God’s Kingdom can leave His footprints on planet Earth, impacting our own great nation.” Robison, who was Mike Huckabee’s mentor and host of Life Today, recently spoke with Texas Gov. Rick Perry about how the economic crisis was needed to turn America back to God. Wildmon and Garlow are both closely involved in organizing Perry’s The Response prayer rally and Kaylor reports that the “group is connected to Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry's plan for a large prayer rally in August.” He writes:

According to a list obtained by EthicsDaily.com, among the attendees at the meeting were several Southern Baptist leaders: Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas who recently suggested on Fox News that Obama was a Muslim; Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Richard Lee, pastor and the editor of the controversial The American Patriot's Bible; and former North American Mission Board head Bob Reccord, who now heads the semi-secretive group the Council for National Policy, founded by Tim LaHaye. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University and son of the late founder of the Moral Majority, was scheduled to attend but couldn't make it.

Also attending the meeting were: Jacob Aranza, a minister who in the 1980s helped popularize the theory that rock ’n’ roll music included backmasked messages promoting drug use and sex; Vonette Bright, widow of Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright, who played a key role in conservative religious-political efforts that birthed the so-called "Religious Right"; Jerry Boykin, a former Pentagon official rebuked for violating policies by speaking in churches in uniform; Jim Garlow, chairman of Newt Gingrich's organization, Renewing American Leadership; Ruth Graham, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham; Harry Jackson, a politically active conservative pastor; David Lane, who has led several efforts to politically mobilize pastors; Ron Luce of Teen Mania Ministries; former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen; Rod Parsley, a controversial megachurch pastor who endorsed John McCain in 2008 before being rejected by McCain; Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leaders Conference; and Don Wildmon of the American Family Association.

…

Tony Perkins, president of the James Dobson-founded Family Research Council, similarly praised Robison during the June 2 broadcast. Perkins attended both the September and June meetings.

"I sensed a new leadership that the Lord has called you to, in that there is a clear recognition that America needs to turn to God," Perkins said. "But I think what you're able to do as kind of a senior statesman of the church is to call together those leaders today that are emerging, and those that are present, to bring them together because unity is the key. I know one of the conversations we had is that you prayed for that unity among us. I think if we could ever be unified and we could walk together as a body of believers in this country that we could profoundly impact this nation."

…

Robison and his group seem united in their opposition to Obama and their desire to see Obama defeated in 2012, but it remains to be seen if they can find a candidate who unites and activates them like Ronald Reagan did in 1980.

Watch Robison and Perkins explain America’s dire need for Godly leaders:

Last month, Peter LaBarbera used his radio show, Americans for Truth Hour, to highlight a speech given by Liberty University law professor Rena Lindevaldsen, who serves as Lisa Miller's attorney in her position with Liberty Counsel. Lindevaldsen, speaking against marriage equality, declared that Christians can’t compromise on the issue of LGBT rights because that would mean “deny[ing] the truth of the scripture” and “Satan obviously doesn’t want us to look at the truth of scripture.” This is just the latest in a long line of anti-gay statements from Liberty University and the affiliated Liberty Counsel, which in the past has claimed gay marriage is a fight against an "Antichrist Spirit" and would like to see President Obama impeached for extending leave to domestic partners. 

To accept homosexuality as healthy and normal necessarily means we as Christians deny the truth of the scripture. There is simply no sound biblical position of neutrality on this issue. As Christians we have to treat the Bible as our action plan, therefore we have to refuse to legitimate [sic] any actions that the Bible calls sin.

And that’s one reason as Christians we hear we should compromise on the marriage battle. Let’s allow civil unions. Let’s allow domestic partnerships. When we do that, however, we compromise on scripture by calling what God says is sin, good.

Our only options as Christians, if we’re going to adhere to scripture, is to fight for marriage and everything that’s included in that. We don’t want to give up all the rights of marriage and simply protect the name of marriage because that’s not what the Bible is about when you hear about marriage.

That’s also why we shouldn’t get out of the marriage business all-together which is what some Christians say. “Let’s just give it over to churches, let them marry who they want and government gets out of the business.” That’s not the way the government works though. Government in all areas of life seeks to steer people into conduct it thinks is good, and is helpful to society. And that’s why it is involved in marriage, because time and again marriage between one man and one woman has shown to be the most optimal environment for raising godly children who are productive citizens.

And so to get out of the marriage business, as I like to call it, altogether simply means there’s going to be a void. There’s going to be a vacuum. Something fills that void. In essence, evil will sweep in and run rampant on the issues of marriage, relationships, and homosexuality.

Satan obviously doesn’t want us to look to the truth of scripture. The truth of scripture is that God has a different plan than same-sex sexual conduct for your life.  And so if Satan and those who are essentially advancing his agenda do not what to shed light on the truth, we have to.

We have been writing about the growing overlap between the traditional Religious Right and the new brand of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles like Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, Chuck Pierce, and Lou Engle, who have emerged out of the New Apostolic Reformation movement.

In recent years, old-school Religious Right leaders like Tony Perkins and Janet Porter have eagerly embraced leaders like Joyner, Engle and Jacobs and welcomed them into movement, often placing them front and center in their events. 

So imagine our surprise when we took at look at the American Family Association's blog today and saw a post by Marsha West laying out her concerns about the movement and calling out various Religious Right leaders by name for aligning with false prophets like Jacobs:

Last year self-professed NAR prophet Cindy Jacobs’ and General’s International held the May Day 2010: A Cry To God For A Nation In Distress at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial where “local representatives shared about their state’s Christian heritage and lifted up prayers for their state and the United States. National leaders offered up prayers of repentance for seven main issues: family, the church, education, arts and entertainment, business, government and the media.” Janet Porter of Faith2Action had an active role in organizing the gathering. In attendance were such notables as James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Wendy Wright, Jerry Newcombe, Peter LaBarbera, David Barton, Mathew Staver, Robert Knight, Alan Keyes, to name a few. Also in attendance were several NAR leaders including C. Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Lance Wallnau and Rick Joyner.

In April 2010 conservative Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA hosted The Awakening 2010 conference sponsored by the Freedom Federation. They define themselves as “a group of the nation's largest multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations representing more than 30 million Americans united by core values. The group’s mission is to bring together community leaders committed to mobilizing the Judeo-Christian worldview to preserve freedom and promote justice.”

One of the speakers at the event was Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Other influential leaders include Newt Gingrich, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, Wendy Wright, Richard Land, Andrea Lafferty, Kelly Shackelford, Ken Blackwell, Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, and NAR Apostles Cindy Jacobs, Lou Engle, Harry Jackson and Samuel Rodriguez.

What is wrong with this picture? People from the NAR who are in the grip of evil were invited to participate in both of these events. One example is Cindy Jacobs. Jacobs is the NAR’s “lead U.S. National Apostle.” Cindy is supposedly a modern day prophet. But I beg to differ. This woman has uttered more false prophecies than Walgreen’s has pills, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that she is no more a prophet of God than Lady Gaga! The truth is, Cindy Jacobs is a false prophet.

Considering that Perkins regularly co-hosts a radio broadcast with AFA head Tim Wildmon and Dobson, Barton, Staver and the like are key ideological allies of the organization, I wonder how they feel about being called out for associating with people "who are in the grip of evil."