Lou Engle

• Newt Gingrich is officially blah, blah, blah.
• Speaking of joke GOP candidates, Donald Trump is meeting with some pastors.
• In related news, Mike Huckabee wants your prayers ... but not officially.
• But back to Gingrich - can the media please stop quoting Ralph Reed about how Gingrich's past misdeeds should not be held against him?
• Gary Bauer says "rarely have I seen such an assault on our values as we have witnessed in the past 24 hours."
• Focus on the Family thanks Lou Engle.
• Finally, some bravely anonymous "Southern Baptist leader" explains that Osama Bin Laden's real problem was that he was a Muslim.

Newt Gingrich will announce his decision to run for President tomorrow on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. After an address to the Georgia GOP, he will embark on a tour of Iowa. Tracking Gingrich’s comeback in Republican and Religious Right circles, Right Wing Watch has compiled a “Top Ten” list of Gingrich’s truculent and divisive rhetoric and consistent disrespect for the rule of law, freedom of religion, and equality:

1. Gingrich With Hagee, Warning US Becoming "Secular Atheist Country Dominated by Radical Islamists"


2. Gingrich Says He Stands for Religious Liberty but Denies Rights To Muslims


3. Gingrich Wants Ground Zero Declared a National Battlefield Memorial to Stop Park 51


4. Gingrich Says His Infidelity Was Due To The Fact He Was Working So Hard To Save America


5. Gingrich Group Funneled $125K To AFA To Remove Iowa Judges Who Supported Marriage Equality


6. Gingrich Group Calls For Elimination of Ninth Circuit Over Cross Ruling


7. Gingrich Warns of Sharia While Condoning Dominionist Ideology


8. Gingrich and Huckabee Recommend the Ravings of Anti-Gay Activist Matt Barber


9. Gingrich's Presidential Campaign To Heavily Rely On Barton's Counsel and Advice


10. Gingrich Joins Lou Engle To Urge America to Rediscover God

During The Awakening’s panel on “Messaging and Mobilizing a New General of World Changers,” the fear of swelling youth support for marriage equality laws was widespread. Religious Right activists were particularly worried about the results of a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll that found that not only did 53 percent of Americans favor marriage equality, but that support was even stronger among younger Americans: “In an ABC/Post poll five and a half years ago, for example, under-30s were the sole age group to give majority support to gay marriage, at 57 percent. Today it's 68 percent in that group – but also 65 percent among people in their 30s, up a remarkable 23 points from the 2005 level; and 52 percent among those in their 40s, up 17 points.”

While the early morning panel was composed of young conservative leaders and Liberty University students, the audience was largely older and a number of questioners expressed fear over rising support for marriage equality among youth. Thomas Hall, a close aide to Lou Engle and a board member of the dominionist Oak Initiative, lamented the youth energy and support for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and Ryan Sorba admitted that even conservative students are not rallying behind the opposition to marriage equality.

William Estrada, a leader of the homeschoolers group Generation Joshua and the Home School Legal Defense Association, argued that conservative youth are organizing. Estrada mentioned a homeschoolers group in Hawaii, the Guardians of Liberty, who he said singlehandedly convinced former Governor Linda Lingle to veto a civil unions law. “We’re seeing young people standing up for the cause of traditional marriage,” Estrada said. What he failed to mention was that just a few months later, newly elected governor Neil Abercrombie signed the civil unions bill into law with little public outcry.

Marriage equality still faces immense political hurdles, with just five states and the District of Columbia adopting equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians, but the discouragement over the lack of anti-gay fervor among youth at The Awakening should not be taken as a sign that Religious Right activists have any intention of giving up. If their “Religious Liberty and the LGBT Agenda” panel demonstrated anything, it's that the Religious Right is unleashing even more venomous and blistering attacks against gays and lesbians. That is, when they aren't denying the existence of gay people.

Dejected, angered, and confused, last week’s poll by the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow shows the increasing desperation and panic of the Religious Right:

As we have noted before, C. Peter Wagner is widely regarded as the man responsible for the New Apostolic Reformation which gave rise to the self-proclaimed prophets and apostles like Lou Engle, Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, Chuck Pierce, and the other Dominionist/7 Mountain advocates who are slowly working their way into the Religious Right mainstream.

Given that Pierce, Joyner, and Jacobs have all weighed in on the recent earthquake in Japan to claim that it was an effort by God to shake the nation free of its "spiritism" and pagan ideology, it only seems logical that Wagner would also weigh in and do so in a manner that puts all the others to shame.

You see, as Wagner explains, he has been working to free Japan from this paganism for decades but has failed miserably because "the enemy has built seemingly impenetrable strongholds to prevent [God's destiny] from manifesting":

Japan's culture has been virtually uninterrupted for 3,000 years. Paganism is deeply rooted in the warp and woof of the nation. The spirits over Japan have had their way and they are not prepared to allow Christianity more than a token presence.

The most serious setback for Japan's territorial spirits came during a seven-year period following World War II. Despite a Buddhist facade, Japan's most deeply entrenched spirits are the principalities controlling Shintoism, which is a spiritualized form of nationalism. The chief visible figure employed by these dark angels is the emperor. In the popular mind, the emperor was himself a deity. But as a part of the World War II peace process, Emperor Hirohito publicly denied this status and the Japanese government agreed to separate itself officially from any religious institution, including Shintoism. General MacArthur called for thousands of Christian missionaries, many went, and Christianity grew well for what are now known as the "seven wonderful years."

For more than 30 years it appeared, in the visible, that Japan was maintaining its status quo. But in the invisible world, the dark angels began regaining their foothold. The growth of the Church slowed to a crawl. Then Hirohito died and his son, Akihito, would become the new emperor. A crucial question revolved around the Daijo-sai ceremony, the spiritual component of the traditional inauguration of the new emperor.

Now, if you know anything about Wagner, you know that he believes that it is the "Daijo-sai ceremony" that is the key to Japan's enslavement to demonic forces because, during it, the Emperor has sexual intercourse with the Sun Goddess:

Japan, as a nation, is one of the nations of the world which has consciously, openly, invited national demonization. And they do this though what’s called the Daijosai ceremony…where when a new Emperor comes in to power…And as a part of this ceremony the Emperor goes to this specially chosen…place…He eats rice that has been planted and harvested and chosen through witchcraft. And at a certain time that night the Sun Goddess visits him in person, and has sexual intercourse with the Emperor…So the emperor becomes one flesh with the sun goddess and that's an invitation for the Sun Goddess to continue to demonize the whole nation.

So, according to Wagner's logic, it only makes sense that Japan would continue to suffer unrelenting hardship and remains impenetrable to the Holy Spirit:

In the invisible world, the two ritually become one flesh and, through its supreme leader, the nation officially invites demonic control as long as he is emperor.

Unfortunately for Japan, as for Haiti, a foolish decision was made and Emperor Akihito decided to reverse his father's post World War II position and once again became, in the popular mind, "deified" through the Daijo-sai ceremony. Not only that, but the government paid the expenses of the multimillion dollar ritual over the vehement protests of the Japanese Christian leaders.

Since then, predictably, the overt participation of government officials, as national leaders, in pilgrimages and rituals connected with traditional Japanese paganism, have been on the increase.

Last week, Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, and Chuck Pierce all weighed in on the tragedy in Japan to explain that God was seeking to break the "stronghold of spiritism" that gripped the nation in order to free them from the "grip of idolatry" while warning that the earthquake was a sign that demonic Nazism was going to engulf the United States.

Over the weekend, Jim Garlow who, in addition to running Newt Gingrich's Renewing American Leadership also has close ties to Jacobs, Lou Engle and the entire movement of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles, took to his Facebook page to say that while there may be some cause for alarm about radiation from Japan reaching America, the real threat to this nation is the secular left:

As one who lives on the West Coast, I am concerned about potential radiation drift from Japan, as well as the failures of our own nuclear reactors in earthquake-prone California.

But as one who lives on the Left Coast, I am infinitely more concerned about the lethal ideological “radiation” that has been leaked into our “atmosphere” for forty years from the radical secular left. It is killing our nation.

This is not a future threat. It is a present day struggle of life and death – now. In fact, a faulty understanding of the beginning of life has resulted in the deaths of 52,000,000 persons in the womb. After all, when do human rights begin?

But that is only one small part of the ideological damage from radical secularism. They would, if they could, destroy the very concept of a mother and a father leading a home. They will, if they can, spend us into oblivion, destroying the future for our children.

We will all be safer when we come to the realization that the anti-biblical secular philosophies are, at this moment, a greater threat to our nation’s existence than our nuclear reactors.

We can examine, alter and improve our aging and vulnerable nuclear reactors. And we should. They are old and need attention.

But secularism’s largely undetected toxic political ideology is poisoning us and our children. America needs a massive dose of “political, historical and theological potassium iodide” to protect us from the radical left’s destruction. And we need it quickly. Morally, America has been getting closer to a Chernobyl-like “level 7” condition for over two years.

For months now, we have been chronicling how self-described prophets and apostles have been merging 7 Mountains/Dominionism with "mainstream" Religious Right activism ... and increasingly the man at the center of this appears to be the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins.

Perkins was among the first to embrace Lou Engle and transform him into a Religious Right leader and now he seems to be doing the same with Rick Joyner of The Oak Initiative.

Just today we noted that Joyner, Jerry Boykin, and Janet Porter were gathering for a conference next month and as I was looking for more information about that, I stumbled across this video of Perkins, Joyner, Boykin and Frank Turek discussing the importance of Christians getting deeply involved in politics. 

Perkins explains the absolute necessity of getting Christians into all levels of government while Boykin compared Christians today to the Spartan army and quoted King Leonidas by declaring "molon labe" ["come and get them"] when he and his army were told to lay down their weapons. 

Likewise, Boykin declared "molon labe," stating that he will not be silenced and challenged those in Washington who are out to take his liberties, rob his grandchildren, and destroy America to just try to take them from him.

Finally, Joyner announced that Christians have more than enough people to take control, but they need to bind together and, as such, would soon be unveiling coalition called "300":

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• Michael Cole-Schwartz @ HRC Back Story: HRC & Soulforce Present 70K Petitions To Lou Engle.
• Joe.My.God: GEORGIA: Wingnut GOP Rep Wants Police To Investigate All Miscarriages.
• Media Matters: Huckabee Upset That Christians Are Sharing Their Buildings With Muslims.
• Dump Bachmann: Will Michele Bachmann & Tim Pawlenty Be Hanging Out With Bradlee Dean at Freedom Fest 2011?
• Warren Throckmorton @ Crosswalk: Bryan Fischer speaks with forked tongue.

• PFAW: House-Passes Devastating Amendment in Latest Attack in the GOP's War on Women.
   
• Ezra Klein: Unions aren't to blame for Wisconsin's budget.
   
• Jim Burroway @ Box Turtle Bulletin: KC Vigil To Tell Lou Engle to Stop Exporting Hate to Uganda.
   
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• Ryan J. Reilly @ TPM: Palin Knocks Obama For Promoting Breastfeeding, But Declared Awareness Month As Gov.
   
• Alvin McEwen: Family Research Council's 'detailed response' to SPLC's charges leave much to be desired.
   
• County Fair: Beck Modifies Islam And Communism Symbols To Look More Like UN Emblem.
   
• Igor Volsky @ Wonk Room: Christian Post: Military Chaplians Don’t See DADT Repeal As ‘A Big Deal.’

As we have mentioned several times before, John Stemberger of the Florida Family Policy Council, was an early and central player in the Rifqa Bary saga when she turned up in Florida in 2009.  His actions during that case have now resulted in misconduct complaint being filed against him by the Florida Bar as well as a $10 million defamation lawsuit from the attorney who represented Bary's parents.

As such, Stemberger has set up a legal defense fund to cover his mounting legal expenses that has the support of Jerry Bokin, Newt Gingrich, Tony Perkins, Lou Engle and David Barton. 

And today, Barton had Stemberger on his "Wallbuilders Live" radio program where they, along with Rick Green, alleged that the lawsuit and misconduct complaint are an attempt by radical Muslims to destroy anyone who dares to criticize them. [I would like to point out that none of the claims made by Bary about her parents or the claims Stemberger asserts in this interview were ever substantiated by state investigators who examined them]:

Barton: The message is don't talk about us or we'll come after you the same way.

Green: It's an intimidation factor.

Barton: We're showing you what happens to people who talk about us or people who come after us in court - we will make you pay. And they may eventually lose, but that's only if you have enough money to outlast them. And so it really is a bad thing and we've got a good friend of ours on today that's in the middle of one of these things were Islamic groups have come after him because he stood and actually won a court for justice. And because he won, now they are going to make him pay a price.

Stemberger: Well, as your listeners may remember the name Rifqa Bary was a former Muslim teenager who made international headlines in about the summer and fall of 2009 when she ran away from her parents in Ohio to Florida, to a Methodist pastor and his wife after her parents threatened her life for not renouncing her Christian faith.

You know, she knew the repercussions of this so she was very, very careful to be discreet with it. But then when the parents, when the [leaders] of the mosque confronted the parents, that's when they began to blow up and the father specifically threatened her, demanded she denounce her faith, said that "you'll be dead to me" and that, according to her affidavit which is public knowledge, made some really specific threats ... But when they found a book on Esther in her bedroom, that's when they just said "we're going to send you back to Sri Lanka" and she knew she would just be a walking dead girl at that point.

Just weeks after [Rifqa turned 18] the lawyer who opposed Rifqa in court and who represented Rifqa's parents, Mr. Omar Tarazi, whose family has deep ties with CAIR, which is the Council on American Islamic Relations, he filed a grievance against me.

Green: This is their typical game plan. You mentioned CAIR, this is how they strike back, they trump up these kind of things and just give you a barrage of quote "ethical complains" so that you have to spend your time, energy, and money defending those instead of fighting the real fight, right?

Stemberger: Well, there is a clear growing trend of malicious lawsuits and other legal actions which are filed by adherents of radical strains of Islam and they're designed to punish, silence, and to chill legitimate speech and public discourse about Islam.

Barton: That's Islamic lawfare. I mean, they're coming after you to make him an example and say "don't anybody else every try to intervene ..."

Green: Whether they win or lose, they example is made that we're going to cost you money ...

Barton: And if there is every a time to step up and help a brother, this is it. We're not going to bring a BB gun to a tank fight. We're going to show up and we're going to take you toe-to-toe on this thing.