By Bruce Wilson — Cross posted at Talk2Action
Seven Mountains Apostles come to Harvard
On April 1-2, 2011, the Harvard Extension Service and Learning Society will host, at the Harvard Northwest Science Building, the “Social Transformation Conference”. The upcoming event has already generated considerable controversy, and Truth Wins Out, a “Non-profit organization that defends the GLBT community against anti-gay misinformation campaigns”, plans to run a full page ad in the Harvard Crimson, on Thursday March 31st, protesting the event–which is being billed as advancing the “Seven Mountains” program. One of the scheduled speakers is linked (intimately) with a professed co-author of Uganda’s so-called “kill the gays bill”, and the 7 Mountains movement is already impacting US national politics. Below are 7 facts you should know about 7M movement and its speakers lined up for the Harvard conference.
Prominently featured on the Social Transformation Conference website is a professionally-produced video on the “Seven Mountains mandate”, which instructs “Bible believing” Christians to seek control of seven key sectors of society: education, government, media, business, arts & entertainment, religion, and the family. According to the video, the “church” must regain control of those sectors, which are now occupied by “darkness”. [below: Seven Mountains video]
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The Seven Mountains concept is a vision for the total eradication of secular society and church-state separation. Os Hillman and Lance Wallnau, two of the scheduled Social Transformation Conference speakers, are in the vanguard of promoting the 7M idea, which Wallnau calls “a template for warfare.”
The ‘Seven Mountains movement’ is a newly formed global Protestant mega-denomination that has coalesced out of independent charismatic Christianity; Four of the speakers, Hillman, Wallnau, Pat Francis, and Bill Hamon, are all apostles within the biggest organizational body in this movement, the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA), launched in 2001 [see footnote #1], and three are on the ICA’s elite “Apostolic Council”.
[see this article, Resource Directory for the New Apostolic Reformation, for a list of Seven Mountains / NAR entities, initiatives, and prayer networks. For a short academic overview of the overall movement, see: Who are the Apostles? What is the New Apostolic Reformation? Seven Mountains Campaign?]
7 Notable facts about the Social Transformation Conference speakers
—Three of the apostles, Lance Wallnau, Os Hillman, and Bill Hamon, are on record promoting virulently antigay rhetoric. Two have labeled homosexuality an “abomination” and one, Bill Hamon, advocates the death penalty not only for homosexuality but for all sex outside of marriage.
—Two of the apostles, Os Hillman and Pat Francis, are close colleagues of ICA apostle Julius Oyet, a professed architect and co-author of Uganda’s Anti Homosexuality Bill–that would impose the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and require citizens, upon pain of three-year prison terms, to report all homosexual activity to police and government authorities. Hillman has played a role in the American evangelical financing of Oyet. In a March 2010 interview, Julius Oyet stated that the Seven Mountains movement was successfully “infiltrating” its ideology into the grassroots of Ugandan society.
—All four apostles promote the claim that witchcraft is a pressing contemporary societal problem.
—Three of these apostles, Hamon, Francis, and Wallnau, claim that families and even entire people groups can be plagued by “generational curses” incurred by ancestral involvement in idolatry and witchcraft.
—These same three apostles also serve on the ICA’s elite Apostolic Council, the ICA’s accountability agency, along with top founders of the movement who are on record (with books in-print) advocating the burning of native art, Catholic religious relics, and Books of Mormon. ICA leaders also have boasted of having helped to kill Mother Theresa, through prayer-warfare.
–One apostle, Bill Hamon, serves, along with The Call founder Lou Engle, on the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders (ACPE), the top prophetic body of the Seven Mountains movement, whose prophets profess to communicate directly with, and receive prophetic insight, from God. ACPE prophet Mary Glazier has suggested that believers will drive the unrighteous from “the land” and has has stated that at 24, Sarah Palin joined her personal prayer group which in 1995, according to Glazier, successfully hounded an alleged witch out of Alaska. In September 2008, Glazier released a prophecy suggesting that Sarah Palin, following a tragic death, would ascend, after a period of national mourning, to a higher national office.
—In November 2009, at a Hawaii conference event attended by Cam Cavasso, the Republican senate candidate running against Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye, apostle and Harvard conference speaker Pat Francis told her evangelical audience, “We put our foot on Hawaii! And you said every place we put our foot, we will rule. So we are the Kingdom, the Kingdom is here!” Francis’ rhetoric dramatically contradicts apostle and and top 7M promoter Os Hillman’s claim that “The 7 mountains initiative is not an initiative to establish dominion over all the earth or in governments.” Footage from 2009 Hawaii event shows Francis inveighing against “generational curses” and “witchcraft”.
The New Apostolic Reformation / Seven Mountains movement
ACPE and the ICA are top organizational entities in the collective movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation–an attempt to remake Christianity that is as ambitious as was the original Protestant Reformation. Leaders and membership in this global, US-based movement are not waiting for the “Rapture”. They are seeking earthly power.
Leaders of the NAR/Seven Mountains movement are aggressively working to move from the fringes into the mainstream. While their underlying ideology is extreme compared to traditional fundamentalism, they have managed to re-brand as pseudo-progressive by emphasizing ethnic and racial inclusivity (towards the creation of a new ‘rainbow right’), and through the faith-based provision of social services. This protective facade allows ICA apostles to move within Democratic Party centrist policy circles with ease and one ICA apostle, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference Samuel Rodriguez, has helped write the “Third Way Come Let Us Reason Together governing agenda.
Movement ties to national politicians
The Seven Mountains/NAR leadership is being aggressively courted by top-level Republican Party politicians including several who may run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination (including Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann (see footnote #2)), and its leaders over the past two years have shared stages with many Republican senators and Congress members, including Senator Jim DeMint and former Senator Sam Brownback, now governor of Kansas, who was Lou Engle’s roommate for seven months, in a rented Washington DC condominium, as Brownback confirmed in September 2010.
Former Hawaii Lt. Governor James “Duke” Aiona, who ran in the 2010 election for the Hawaii governor’s seat, is closely tied to a Hawaii effort, “Transformation Hawaii”, run by an international ministry one of of the ICA’s top apostles, Argentine-born Ed Silvoso, who head the International Transformation Network. The movement has plied considerable resources into politically organizing in Hawaii [see Transforming Hawaii, parts 1 and 2]. Apostles Ed Silvoso and Pat Francis performed a ceremony, at a 2009 Hawaii conference at which Aiona gave the keynote address, to drive out demons, curses, and “false Gods” from the State of Hawaii.
Evangelist Jack Hayford, who gave the gave the closing prayer at the 54th Inaugural Prayer Service for President George W. Bush, in 2001, at the Washington National Cathedral, has played a major role in promoting Wagner’s ideas, including the use of exorcism to heal medical and psychological maladies, and has endorsed Wagner’s claim that Japanese emperors have ritual sexual intercourse with demons.
Political organizing methods
The NAR / Seven Mountains movement organizes through “prayer warrior” networks and has launched dozens of ground-level political organizing efforts (see: Resource Directory for the New Apostolic Reformation) in cities across the United States. In some cases, as in Newark, NJ, Baltimore, MD, and Orlando, FL, these efforts, generally branded with the term “transformation”, publicly presented as benign citywide prayer initiatives against crime and social problems, are nonetheless tied directly to top New Apostolic Reformation apostles and prophets.
The movement’s top leaders, especially C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, and Ed Silvoso, have developed novel theological concepts (see: Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare (SLSW) Glossary) that involve the need to fight demon powers, which are held to cause societal problems and crime, and prevent successful evangelizing efforts (see: Muthee and the Transformations Franchise (PDF file)).
“Spiritual Mapping” has been a key organizing tool for the movement. It involves squads of believers walking city and town streets to identify sources of demon-infestation, which according to spiritual mapping teaching are often associated with businesses, institutions, and even specific individuals. Spiritual Mapping ideas have inspired local initiatives, such as in Amarillo, Texas, which appear to be evolving into faith-based vigilante efforts. During the 1990′s methods for Spiritual Mapping (and its public euphemism, called “Prayer Walking”) were developed by C. Peter Wagner and Ted Hagard, at Haggard’s Colorado Springs New Life Church. This American Life journalist Alix Spiegel reported on Haggard’s church activities, in This American Life segment #77, “Pray”. One of the ICA’s apostles has taught that enemies/sources of demon infestation can be pinpointed on a map with colored pushpins.
“Dog Whistle” politics and faith-based health care
The movement has developed its own Biblical scripture-based lingo, through which its apostles and prophets can communicate political ideas in a manner that outsiders almost wholly miss. One example of this Bible-based code-talking, sometimes referred to as “dog whistle” politics, was Sarah Palin’s recent claim to be a victim of “blood libel”. Another example is the battlecry of the Seven Mountains movement, “The Head Not The Tail”.
The 7 Mountains / New Apostolic Reformation movement is developing an international network of miracle-healing centers under ICA apostle Cal Pierce, who describes his network as a “Kingdom Health Care System.” These centers, called “healing rooms”, purport to heal cancer and other serious illnesses, and drive out demons. The Lifeline Ministry of professed co-author of Uganda’s “Kill the gays bill” Julius Oyet runs one of Pierce’s healing room franchises.
Footnotes:
1. As of 2010, the International Coalition of Apostles removed its “short list” of ICA apostles from public circulation. Here is the 2009 members list [PDF file], courtesy of the Internet Archive, listing Os Hillman, Pat Francis, and Bill Hamon as ICA apostles. Lance Wallnau became listed as an ICA apostle in 2010 and now serves on the ICA’s elite apostolic council.
All four Harvard Social Transformation Conference speakers, apostles Pat Francis, Lance Wallnau, Bill Hamon, and Os Hillman, are also faculty members of the Wagner Leadership Institute (PDF file of WLI faculty members), which serves as the primary teaching institute for training evangelical leaders in the ideas and practices of C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation / 7 Mountains movement.
2. In the linked video, evangelist Rick Joyner describes a post-2008 election trip to Congress, where Joyner met with Congressional Representatives including Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Joyner is not officially part of C. Peter Wagner’s several NAR entities but serves as a key strategist of the Seven Mountains / New Apostolic Reformation movement, participates in numerous NAR events, and contributes writing to books by Peter Wagner and his apostles. In this 2008 video footage, Joyner can be seen together onstage with C. Peter Wagner, at a ceremony for the “former apostolic alignment” of evangelist Todd Bentley, who was covered in the Southern Poverty Law Center Fall 2008 report, ‘Armin’ For Armageddon.
Truth Wins Out ad:
The people in this New Apostolic Reformation movement talk a lot about “witchcraft.” And they think that LGBT people are possessed by “demons.”
They sound crazy, but we MUST take them seriously.
In the 2010 General Election in Hawaii, the International Transformation Network, which is part of the New Apostolic Reformation, did everything they could to defeat supporters of Civil Unions who were running for office.
We passed Civil Unions in Hawaii this year and it was signed into office on 02/23/11 by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
But the transformation folks say that passing Civil Unions is “just the first step.” They are planning to keep opposing Civil Unions in Hawaii.
In Hawaii many of the people working on “Transforming Hawaii” have been fighting against equal rights for LGBT people for a decade or more.
Organized Sociopaths. That’s f*****g scary.
Bleah. I wish there were a way to fast forward to the organization-shattering sex scandal.
A bit late to the game aren’t we? Dr. Dobson and many of the right wing politicoristian extremists have been espousing this well thought out plan for decades.. I listen to right wing pseudo christian radio.
Home schooling(?)
loading school boards(?)
changing curriculum(?)
Charter schools(?)
You are so far behind the curve. How do you think these teabagger illiterates get their ingrained belief system? Decades of breaking down and de-funding public education. Charities? That is why they want to starve out the poor and end government assistance, to get them to come back to church for further non christian right wing indoctrination.
I have heard this on that Ol’ radio driving around in the south…right out of Dobson’s mouth. Of course more he used a more “churchy” terminology so the “flock” can see the “light”.
This infiltration (I have been listening since early seventies)is beyond critical mass. These quacks are in the statehouses, in congress, the senate and one frightening “Manchurian candidate” ran and failed being one heartbeat away from the presidency!
How’s that “supreme” court working for you?
Meanwhile.. We are supposed to be sobbing about civil unions.
What is worse the small minds on the right trying to subvert our government or the small minds in the “progressive” community worried about who they are diddling.
Ignorance abounds.
The very reason people in this movement have been able to mainstream themselves to this extent is that almost no one in the secular world has been watching them.
Sex scandals come and go. Leadership changes. The Christian supremacist movement persists regardless.
Pete, I’ve been studying the Christian right for years.
As has Wayne Besen. The movement referenced here is new. The International Coalition of Apostles was launched in 2001.
If you think it’s unimportant that speakers at the event are close to a Ugandan leader who has co-authored a bill many characterize as potentially genocidal, that’s your right of course. I, for one, take it quite seriously.
So, Pete, what are you doing to improve things?
Pete:
Surely, you must know that Truth Wins Out is the creator of DumpDobson.com and Respect My Research, which documented Focus on the Family’s research distortions. You must be aware that I photographed Focus on the Family’s “ex-gay” leader John Paulk in a gay bar, causing the entire staff to have a prayer session in the cafeteria. (FoF Radio host Mike Trout’s affair was also part of that prayer)
http://www.dumpdobson.com/
http://www.respectmyresearch.com/
Not only are we not “late to the game” — it is fair to say that in many ways we redefined the game.
Focus on the Family called this organization its most vociferous critic. There is a reason they said that.
But we’re sobbing about civil unions, Wayne! :c
Gay people aren’t allowed to worry about gay issues.
[...] to an article in today’s Harvard Crimson, speakers at the controversial “social transformation” conference have promised to whitewash their extremist views. Organizers, who declined repeated [...]
They are not nearly as clear in their alleged schemes as you imply. Stringing together about 100 statements, phrases, beliefs or actions doesn’t amount to a coherent argument. I agree with Wayne that this is new. It is not Jerry Folwell or James Dobson. Some of it has been around for six decades–and some of the predecessors rejected by Assemblies of God, etc. Some of these folks have much stronger ‘dominionist’ theology than others–and it has been a movement whose thought is moving. I think you assign more coherence, unity, movement, strategy, etc. than is there. It’s like Homeland Security listening to terrorist cell chatter and concluding there is an Arab plot to destroy America.
This all occurs out of a religious subculture that for a century was largely in opposition to modernity, isolated itself from public engagement. Liberal Chrristianity and Catholics meanwhile were fully engaged with their thinking woven into the public life of the nation.
I think there are a few folks with true Dominionist beliefs that do not align with a pluralistic and democratic society. But writ large the movement is no more dominionist than say blue-collar, unionist Catholic churches of 1950. They’re just out exploring mountains they abandoned. In terms of exercising religious power over domains of society–I think some are very unclear and I don’t fault anyone for being concerned.
But the authority deal really flows out of their view of spiritual authority. They don’t think they need someone in the Whitehouse. They can release the right apostle to speak over the nation’s budget and exert some form of spiritual control.
Some of it is religious bombast. Some of it you aren’t putting in context. Some of it they are not clear. I believe they deserve critique. I believe you are following them and not just criticizing without understanding. But I think you misportray.
In my opinion, at the end of the day the biggest threat is that someone like Sarah Palin take them to mean more than what they intended, gets elected to office, and think of themselves as King. They do need to be called on this–but that is different than alleging this is what they have set out to accomplish.
The Christian church in the US is dwarfed by church in China, India and Africa. Portraying an African leader like Oyet as a puppet of American Christians depends on an old colonialist worldview.
lovetruthlove, I would trust Wayne & Bruce on this over you. I know they’ve done background and know what these speakers are about. They also don’t have your biases against GLBT people. And before you ask–I think a bias against bigots is okay, even admirable.
lovethetruth, this is a cohesive movement with a coherent ideology and political agenda. Evidence for that is extensive. NAR leaders refer to each other, in their many books, as being in the same movement. They talk about their movement, its theology, and its agenda. The NAR leadership can be found together every year, year by year, at a seemingly endless succession of movement confabs (often called “conferences” though they are not such, in the academic sense–there is no diversity of opinion). At these events they also talk about their movement, its ideas, and its political agenda. The New Apostolic Reformation and its predecessor movements have been addressed in various academic writings. It now has defined organizational bodies. Indeed, ICA apostles have to pay yearly dues.
A few other points – 1) I have not portrayed Julius Oyet as a “puppet”. Oyet is an ICA apostle and a leader in the NAR movement in his own right. 2) Sarah Palin herself emerged from the NAR movement – there’s extensive evidence documenting this. 3) In regards to this comment of yours, “I think there are a few folks with true Dominionist beliefs that do not align with a pluralistic and democratic society. But writ large the movement is no more dominionist than say blue-collar, unionist Catholic churches of 1950″, well…
In 2008, C. Peter Wagner, the leader-emeritus of the New Apostolic Reformation, who helped co-launch (along with John Wimber) in the 1980′s the global ‘Third Wave’ movement from which the NAR has coalesced, who has helped define the movement and its ideology, and who presided over the International Coalition of Apostles for the first decade of its existence, published a book titled “Dominion!- How Kingdom Action Can Change The World”.
As C. Peter Wagner writes on page 60 of his book, in a sub-section titled “Dominion Theology”, “The practical theology that best builds a foundation under social transformation is dominion theology, sometimes called “Kingdom now.” Its history can be traced back through R.J. Rushdoony and Abraham Kuyper to John Calvin.”
Wagner and his fellow NAR apostles and prophets are unabashed dominionists. They talk about it openly.
Dominion rests in the Genesis admonition to “take dominion” (ie steward) the Earth. There is a continuum from theologies of stewardship to something like an Islamic State.
There is a continuum of views re Kingdom (of which there are vastly different conceptions–related to God’s rule) that range from God’s rule only being present in Heaven–to those that believe it can be fully implemented in Earth now;;;;; but at its core relies on Jesus proclamation of the arrival of the Kingdom and his basic instruction to His followers to seek God’s rule and pray it be present.
Wagner for instance pushes down this road towards some kind of vague dominionism–but the further he went the more disconnect he had.
I do not like where he took it. I agree that his presence (and others) have allowed the Dominionist type stuff avenues through a web of Christian networks. But part of the reason for this access and what appears like a movement is its very fogginess. It holds together because of its lack of clarity. Because 50 “apostles” talk about dominion does not mean 2 of them mean the same thing–and in my opinion, even the most publicly active voices are really promoting nothing more than “integrate your faith in all walks of life.” Very frankly, these guys DNA is still rooted in a faith that separates from the culture. At the core they are preachers when push comes to shove will run from the public sphere back to the pulpit. I know one of the “apostles” well and have pushed him on these issues. I could best describe his position as in disagreement with any theocratic impulses.
I don’t mind TWO tracking and challenging. I think the stuff takes churches/individuals places I do not agree with; and in my thinking even places most the leaders do not agree with. It makes them ripe for political exploitation; as was the religious right and as sometimes is the religious left.
Bruce–let me just ask this and get out of my wordy responses.
If you had a continuum from the Amish (ie leave us alone; pacifist; we’ll ignore government) on the left and an Old-Testament Theocracy (Or Islamic State) on the right–where would you place this movement.
If scale was 0-100, I’d put mainstream protestantism and Roman Catholic Church at a 50. American Fundamentalists of 1950 at about 35. Moral Majority at 55. The NAR (maybe 60, but really I think 55)
lovetruthlove–the Amish are on the left? huh? They may not get involved in politics but they’re pretty socially conservative in their beliefs. They don’t allow openly gay people in their church. If you want a leftist religion I’d look at some of the more liberal Presbyterian chapters or the Metropolitan Community Church.
A true Christian believes in one thing above all – the Golden Rule.
Also, I Corinthinans 13 helps – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”
Yep, pretty much sums ‘em up…
Good luck with the demonstration this weekend at Harvard. I hope you get a lot of publicity and much support.
When and where will the protest be? What is the turnout expected to be?
“the Amish are on the left?” Daniel
My apology. I didn’t mean “left-right” in a political or social sense. I just meant visually ona piece of paper. I should have just said “On one end of the spectrum” and not used “Left” or “Right.
lovetruthlove, as far as that goes, why the Amish? Why not Buddhism?
lovetruthlove, why does it matter where these groups fall on your imaginary spectrum? Does the fact that there are groups who are more violent somehow make these hateful people more okay? I see that you’re just all up in distraction of late, but you still can’t or won’t answer the question of just what you’re trying to achieve on this message board.
D–Buddhism may work. I was just pulling a group out of thin air that represents a theology with zero interest in influencing government.
B–I responded to B Wilson’s profile and what he was highlighting about them; suggesting they might be a bit different than he portrayed. I asked what I thought might clarify why he portrays differently than I might.
lovetruthlove, if you have some sort of knowlege or evidence that shows that these groups are different than what Bruce wrote why don’t you just present it? Again, I know Bruce, Wayne and Evan study these groups pretty thoroughly and I’m more likely to take their word for these things (though I do my own research as well) because I know them from their past work.
As far as influencing govt–I’m not sure that’s the social standard. The Amish have their own government, courts and social standings (which include some anti-gay stances) that they do enforce upon their own people.
[...] you need to catch up on why we’re protesting at Harvard today, click here. Tags: Harvard, Harvard protest, [...]
Bruce, this is one of your best articles on this movement yet. I’m going to get the word out for people to read it.
Those of us who follow religious extremism have been aware for years about the different “factions” of the 7 Mountain people and their agendas and it can get overwhelming to try to track all of it. You have done a great job neatly tying all of it into a broad overview.
These people are becoming increasingly ‘mainstream.’ One only needs to look at the upcoming Awakening 2011 sponsored by Liberty Counsel to see the mix of these ‘apostles,’ dominionists and leading Republican candidates.
I’m not sure if it is clear but this event is not something sponsored by or associated with Harvard University, as far as I can tell. I seems to be something hosted by Harvard Extension – which is Harvard’s ‘continuing ed’ type organization. I am not sure how closely the extension school is associated with harvard itself – if at all. Some of the extension school’s faculty also teach at the extension school but that’s about it I believe. I could be that these ‘apostles’ just rented out some of the extension schools rooms and then got to slap ‘Harvard’ all over their material. The fine print says : “This event is student operated and the contents are not endorsed by Harvard University”
They do a cute little number on their site quoting ‘Harvard’s motto adopted in 1629′ = ‘veritas christo et ecclesiae’ – you know, back when it was a divity school. Harvard has long since dropped christ and the church and it’s motto TODAY is just veritas.
BradS, this is what these groups do. They book a seminar or speaker at a venue and then claim that the event is sponsored by that institution. Anti-evolution and climate change deniers do this too. They’ll book their ridiculous conference at a respencted institution and then use that to claim legitimacy.
[...] Story by: http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2011/03/15753/ [...]
[...] EXCERPTED FROM Charismatic Church source http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2011/03/15753/ [...]
[...] earthly dominion. Researcher Bruce Wilson has written extensively on the New Apostolic Reformation. He says that the mandate of the Seven Mountains Movement is for “Bible-believing” Christians to seek [...]