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.
