Cuccinelli

Given the relatively recent rise of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles such as Cindy Jacobs and Lou Engle within the Religious Right movement, I've recently read several books by Engle, Peter Wagner, and Johnny Enlow to try and get a better understanding of the theology and agenda behind this movement. 

Yesterday, I finished reading Jacobs' "The Reformation Manifesto: Your Part in God's Plan to Change Nations Today" and just wanted to highlight a section that exemplifies the difference between the standard Religious Right leaders and this new breed of prophetic intercessors.

Whereas people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell regularly made (and, in some cases, continue to make) news for claiming that specific natural disasters were the result of God signaling his displeasure with humanity, activists like Jacobs regularly take responsibility for unleashing these sorts of events. 

In her book, Jacobs recounts an incident in 2006 when she came to Washington, DC for a conference.  During her visit, God gave Jacobs a "prophetic word" that He was going to "wash Washington" and gave her a vision of "angels in chariots of fire encircling the area, waiting to be invited in." Jacobs delivered her prophecy to the conference, noting that "not only were we interceding for the upcoming mid-term elections in our nation, but for righteousness and justice to be released into the courts."

According to Jacobs, "there was tremendous warfare in the heavens that night" following her prophecy ... which was then followed by a rainstorm which flooded the nation's capital: 

That night after the meeting, the skies over the Capitol looked like the bombing of Baghdad. Lightning and thunder rocked the skies and the rain began to fall. Over the weekend, the rain increased. The skies looked like the heavens would, with the angelic host fighting the powers of darkness over the city. There was war in the heavenlies!

The news services on Monday June 26, 2006 reported in the natural what the prophets prophesied at Shift the Nation. One part of the city was flooded with a five feet deep mudslide covering the Capitol Beltway road for one mile. One of our prayers during the conference was for corruption to be exposed and for God to build a “highway of holiness” across the nation and the Lord has spoken to us quite a bit about an Isaiah 35 holiness movement in Washington, DC.

In addition, as intercessors have been praying about the Free Masonic designs in the original layout of the Federal district by L’Enfant Plaza, the L’Enfant portion of the metrorail subway system in DC was stopped because of water on the electrical lines.

I also saw a vision the first night of a huge old tree being pushed back and forth until the roots were loosened from the soil. Considerable time was spent asking the Lord to “uproot” one more Supreme Court justice to help give the votes needed to overturn Roe vs. Wade. God gave us two remarkable signs as the news reported on June 26 that “Not even the White House could escape the damage, as a 100-year-old American elm tree fell near the front door.”

Additionally, The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department located on Constitution Avenue was shut down for a whole day on June 26, 2006. We also prayed and spoke about Ezekiel 47:9-11 which speaks of the river that flows from the throne of God and brings life to where ever it flows. It is one of the most classic passages on revival. As the waters rose in the city, fish were found washed up from the flood for the first time in memory - and fish are a symbol of revival!

Jacobs, Engle, and the like believe that they have supernatural powers of the exact same sort possessed by Jesus Christ, given to them by the Holy Spirit, thus allowing them to know the will of God, perform miracles, and cause events to happen. 

I've been studying the Religious Right for more than a decade and have never seen anything like this among the groups and people that we monitor.  But now not only are "prophets" and "apostles" like Jacobs and Engle being welcomed into the more "traditional" movement, they appear to be rapidly changing the nature of the movement itself, with Engle leading the FRC "prayercast" and leading more "mainstream" leaders in Call-like prayer sessions while Jacobs played in key role in orchestrating Janet Porter's upcoming "May Day 2010" prayer rally which is organized entirely around "7 Mountains" dominionist theology and is scheduled to feature several GOP members of Congress.

As Sarah Posner notes, last night's opening session of the Freedom Federation's "The Awakening" Conference was pretty much a bust:

The Freedom Federation Summit taking place April 15-16 at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia was billed as the next Great Awakening, the inaugural gathering of "a new movement [that] is forming in America comprised of people of all races, ethnicities and generations." With the mobilizing power of dozens of religious right organizations behind it, why was the first night attended by only a few hundred people?

I'm not sure what the organizers were thinking, but kicking off this thing on tax day, knowing that tea parties were mobilizing around the country, was obvious poor planning. Last night's activities took place inside Thomas Road Baptist Church, which seats several thousand, but only drew a few hundred spectators, and when I first arrived there were only a few dozen. This could not have made many of the first night's top speakers -- including the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli -- very happy. Some of today's activities are slated to take place in the University's basketball arena, which seats 10,000, and it would be remarkable if Liberty and/or Thomas Road aren't able to send out an ABP to get some more warm bodies in the place.

In fact, the only interesting speaker was Cindy Jacobs, who was part of a panel on "Politics and People of Faith" with Richard Land, Samuel Rodriguez, and Arnold Culbreath during which she declared that "the Bible is the government of the people, by the people, for the people" and got so excited about the coming national awakening that all Culbreath could say when she finished was "wow":

When we talk about God, politics, and people of faith, you have to say that politics is not neutral. Many times we think that it is a neutral thing, but it is not ideologically neutral ever. And if the people of faith don't engage, then someone will engage.

But the point is, we have to say this: does the Creator have a right to say how nations are governed? Of course he does. I think it's John Wycliffe, I know it is, in 1382 that said "the Bible is the government of the people, by the people, for the people." And many of us don't even understand that in the United States today our roots, everything we are, is based upon the Manufacturer's handbook. That we took our law from English common law and that what we have and who we are works because the Creator put it into a constitution and then put it into a people that would cause righteousness and justice to come to the land.

And so I believe this is why we are here. We're here for a great awakening to understand that politics are simply the ideological vessel that God has allowed to be in society today that will determine what happens in the soul of the nation. So we cannot be idle and we cannot be silent.

I was thinking where would we be today without a [William] Wilberforce that had said people of faith have to do something when they see something is unjust. There would be slavery still today, or these things.

I want to tell you, and I believe, that we are on a verge of the greatest awakening, not only what we would say just in the church, but we are on the verge of the greatest awakening that we have ever seen in our history as a nation ... I want to say something radical: it's not the faith of our founders that is going to heal this nation; it is a people who will rise up and understand that the Bible is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And I believe there is an awakening that is not going to begin, but has already begun that will do just that.

Jacobs' panel was then immediately followed by a speech from Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's Attorney General.

• Think Progress: Huckabee Compares Gays To Drug Users, Says They’re Unfit To Adopt Kids Because ‘Children Are Not Puppies’.
• Alvin McEwen: The Friends of Mike Huckabee.
• Sarah Posner: The Endurance Of Christian Reconstructionism.
• Crooks and Liars: Rick Santorum Explains Right Wing Anger: Obama Wants to Change Us From Being a Judeo-Christian Nation.
• Zachary Roth: Tea Party NY Gov Candidate's E-Mails Exposed: Racism, Porn, Bestiality.
• Jim Burroway: Joyce Meyers: Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill “Profoundly Offensive, Dangerous, and Disturbing Attack”.
• Media Matters: Why is Fox News calling tea partiers Nazis?
• TPM: Virginia AG Cuccinelli: 'A Tea Partier Before There Was A Tea Party'.
• Finally, John McCain goes after J.d Hayworth with a new ad: 

A few months ago, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer declared that the time had come to throw all Muslims out of the US military and prevent any others from every serving again.

So I guess it should not come as a surprise that Fisher is now calling for the deportation of all Muslims in the US along with a blanket ban on the immigration of Muslims into this country:

[T]he most compassionate thing we can do for Americans is to bring a halt to the immigration of Muslims into the U.S. This will protect our national security and preserve our national identity, culture, ideals and values. Muslims, by custom and religion, are simply unwilling to integrate into cultures with Western values and it is folly to pretend otherwise. In fact, they remain dedicated to subjecting all of America to sharia law and are working ceaselessly until that day of Islamic imposition comes.

The most compassionate thing we can do for Muslims who have already immigrated here is to help repatriate them back to Muslim countries, where they can live in a culture which shares their values, a place where they can once again be at home, surrounded by people who cherish their deeply held ideals. Why force them to chafe against the freedom, liberty and civil rights we cherish in the West?

In other words, simple Judeo-Christian compassion dictates a restriction and repatriation policy with regard to Muslim immigration into the U.S.

I guess that I should point out that Fischer is listed as a confirmed speaker [PDF] at next week's "Awakening 2010" Freedom Federation summit where VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will be delivering a keynote address.

Today's Roanoke Times contains this rather stunning reaction from the NRCC to the serious threats made against Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello:

While his organization doesn't condone such behavior, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said Perriello is not the victim.

"Central and Southside Virginians are the ones who are going to have the bear the burden of increased taxes," he said. "What you're seeing is a frustration among his constituents who believe he's not listening to them."

But we're not talking about folks letting off steam, we're talking about life and death:

The FBI and Albemarle County officials are investigating a severed gas line from a propane tank to a gas grill on the porch of the Ivy home of Bo Perriello, a day after Lynchburg Tea Party member Mike Troxel listed the address he believed was the congressman's on his personal blog, encouraging people to protest. According to The Associated Press, a threatening note also was sent to the house.

The article also contained these rather reasonable quotes from a familiar figure:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who has a following in the Tea Party movement, called the posting of Perriello's brother's address "appalling."

"I think that is way over the line," he said. "I don't think it's close. It's an appalling approach. It's not civil discourse. It's an invitation to intimidation."

When the NRCC makes Cuccinelli look like a voice of reason, you know the GOP has gone off the deep end.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sat down for an interview with CBS 6 reporter Mark Holmberg where he discussed everything from his threat to sue the federal government if health care reform passes to his letter to state universities informing them not to grant anti-discrimination protections to gay employees to his statement that questions about President Obama's place of birth are not "beyond the realm of possibility."

Cuccinelli dismissed the Birther question as a far-fetched wild goose chase, but when the question turned to whether or not he believes "the practice of homosexuality is a detriment to our culture," he was far less dismissive, saying "the acts are" because it is best when everyone is "integrated into society":

When Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli isn't speculating about whether or not President Obama was not born in the United States, he apparently worries about the federal government tracking his family.

In an overlooked recording from the campaign trail, candidate Cuccinelli told a crowd that he was considering not registering his son for a Social Security number because "it is being used to track you." He also claimed that many others are not registering for Social Security numbers for the same reason.

Watch:

We're gonna have our 7th child on Monday, if he's not born before. And, for the very concerns you state, we're actually considering – as I'm sure many of you here didn't get a Social Security number when you were born, they do it now – we're considering not doing that. And a lot of people are considering that now, because it is being used to track you.

If the newly unearthed "birther" comments didn't establish Cuccinelli as a bona fide member of the paranoid, anti-government Tea Party movement, this video should do the trick.

In the last several posts I wrote featuring video clips from the "Convergence 2010: A Cry to Awaken A Nation" conference, I tried to note the rather new development of Religious Right activists like Harry Jackson, Jim Garlow, and Janet Porter joining forces with self-proclaimed "prophetic intercessors" like Lou Engle or, in this case, Cindy Jacobs of Generals International, which hosted this particular conference.

But frankly, aside from the fervent praying and occasional speaking in tongues, nothing any of these Religious Right leaders said at this conference was all that different from the sorts of things you hear at any Religious Right conference. 

The difference in this case was the host, Cindy Jacobs and her Generals International.

And written descriptions just cannot do justice to her style of speaking and activism, which is wholly different from what we normally see at Religious Right conferences.

As such, I have put together this video of Jacobs closing out the "Convergence 2010" conference where she recounts the time she had an amazing visitation with God during which he showed her Seraphim and set her bedroom on fire, before she set about about casting out demons, lifting curses, and conducting faith healings of everything from AIDS to Hepatitis C to Glaucoma and even Cancer:

It should also be noted this sort of overlap is becoming more and more common, as both Jacobs and Engle have been invited to the upcoming Freedom Federation summit next month at Liberty University along with elected officials like Virgina Governor Bob McDonnell, VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Govs. Tim Pawlenty and Rick Perry.

When Ken Cuccinelli was running to become Virginia's Attorney General, he made it quite clear that he was a hard-core right-winger who didn't like gays:

"My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society."

So I guess it comes as no surprise that now that he is in office, he's using his position to press his anti-gay agenda:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has asked the state's public colleges and universities to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, arguing in a letter sent to each school Thursday that their boards of visitors have no legal authority to adopt such statements.

In the letter, Cuccinelli (R) wrote that only the General Assembly can extend legal protections to gay state employees -- a move the legislature has repeatedly declined to take, including as recently as this week.

"It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly," he wrote.

Colleges that have included such language in their policies -- which include all of Virginia's leading schools -- have done so "without proper authority" and should "take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia," Cuccinelli wrote.

Last month, Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a decree taking away protections for gay and lesbian state workers in Virginia, so things are really looking up for equality in Virginia under its Republican leadership.