24AR29-44

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AR 29:44 - "evangelicals" calling for spiritual warfare?

In this issue:

NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION - the legacy media's perspective

SCIENCE - "We gain so much in our understanding when we realize that God permeates science"

Apologia Report 29:44 (1,685)
November 27, 2024

NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION

In "The Evangelicals Calling for 'Spiritual Warfare' to Elect Trump," Kris Maher and Aaron Zitner profile "Lance Wallnau, a self-styled prophet in a fast-growing evangelical [sic] movement. ...

   "Wallnau, 68 years old, is one of the most important figures in the New Apostolic Reformation, an influential movement in evangelical Christianity that blends direct experience of the Holy Spirit with a call to engage in politics as a form of 'spiritual warfare.' He opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, but his main goal is to elevate Christians to greater influence to transform society." (Sounds like another conspiracy theorist, eh?)

   "... JD Vance, Trump's running mate, appeared at a Wallnau event in the swing state of Pennsylvania. 'If Christians aren't out there voting, Christians aren't going to have a voice in this country,' Vance told the crowd.

   "Evangelical voters have leaned Republican for many years. George W. Bush, who described himself as a faithful Christian, won nearly 70% support from white evangelical Christians in 2000 and nearly 80% four years later. Other Republican candidates have blended evangelical beliefs with blue-collar populism, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a onetime pastor, in 2008 and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a noted social conservative, in 2012.

   "Yet Donald Trump - with his three marriages, tabloid lifestyle and reality-show background - managed to win the hearts of Republican voters...." [Is it better to vote for the lesser of two weasels, or not to vote at all — which merely delays a far greater negative just a bit longer?]

   Matthew D. Taylor - a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies who tracks the New Apostolic Reformation - says that no evangelical leader did more than Wallnau to provide a theological rationale for religious conservatives to accept Trump. ... 'I would call Lance Wallnau a Christian supremacist,' Taylor says. 'He wants Christians to be in charge of society and to tear down the wall of separation between church and state."

   Wallnau, based in Dallas, "reaches millions of people online, through his podcast, a YouTube channel and a Facebook page that the platform says has one million followers."

   The authors add that "the New Apostolic Reformation and thousands of other charismatic nondenominational churches ... have about 33 million U.S. members combined, compared with about 74 million U.S. Catholics and 54 million members of denominational Protestant churches, said Todd Johnson, of the World Christian Database, <worldchristiandatabase.org> which tracks religious affiliation. Membership in the independent, charismatic churches is increasing rapidly, he says, making the movement one of the fastest-growing segments in American Christianity. About 10% of those worshippers subscribe to the ideas and approach of the New Apostolic Reformation. ...

   "Wallnau has a talent for turning complex theological concepts into easily digestible slogans, making him a kind of evangelist for the meme era. He also has a disarming personality and often sprinkles jokes into his sermons. ...

   "Wallnau promotes the 'Seven Mountain Mandate,' a call for Christians to ascend to leadership roles in seven areas of culture and society: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. ...

   "Wallnau understands politics as a battle between the forces of good and evil, and his preaching is often infused with an apocalyptic urgency. He teaches a course called 'End Times Jesus' <www.lance-learning.myshopify.com/products/end-times-jesus> which he says will 'awaken believers to the true manifestation of Jesus in these last days.' ...

   "Wallnau and other leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation often call for 'spiritual warfare' to defeat political opponents they describe as influenced by demonic forces. ...

   "In the 1980s and 90s, [Wallnau] led nondenominational churches in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. He then got a doctorate from a Phoenix university now called Primus University of Theology. He runs several ministries, including one called Furnishing Families of Texas that provides beds and furniture to single mothers. He has led corporate leadership retreats and calls himself a Tony Robbins for Christians."

   On the first night of Wallnau's "Courage Tour" in Wisconsin last July, "Mario Murillo, a Pentecostal evangelist based in Tennessee who frequently tours and speaks with Wallnau, declared that he was healing dozens of people in the crowd. 'We say in the name of Jesus, this is God's power, right now!' he said. 'Arthritis is healed, bursitis, headaches and pain, pain in the hip, legs and feet, it's all gone.' ...

   "Wallnau told the crowd it was a mistake for Christians to remain silent as the country shifts toward a liberalism that is antithetical to their beliefs. He criticized pastors in particular." Wall Street Journal (Oct 9 '24) <www.tinyurl.com/2zvx5ypn>

 ---

SCIENCE

"Spiritually inclined scientists are rediscovering a vision imbued with a sense of human values - and mystery" by Joel Kotkin (presidential fellow in urban futures, Chapman University, and senior research fellow, Civitas Institute at UT Austin) -- Suzie Bohlson, director of both the Master of Science in Biotechnology and Biotechnology Management programs at UC–Irvine, "came to believe that, as she looked at the structure of biological life, she could feel some organizing intelligence in the systems she studied. 'I started to realize that science and religion complement each other.'"

   Bohlson adds: "People assume if you are Catholic, you have certain conservative views on women and gender that I don't share."

   "In recent months, however, Bohlson has come out of the 'closet,' speaking openly of her faith to colleagues and joining the growing ranks of Catholic scientists in America. For her, the trend isn't about politics; like most of her colleagues, Bohlson is a Democrat. It's about melding knowledge and faith, embracing the spirit of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order. ...

   "Whatever their current religious orientation, many spiritually inclined scientists draw inspiration from recent breakthroughs.... 

   "Perhaps the key turning point was the Big Bang. [T]heoretical physicist and Catholic priest Georges Lemaître showed how Einstein's own theory of General Relativity aligned with the astronomer Edwin Hubble's then-controversial observations that the universe was expanding.... Today, Lemaître is known as the father of the Big Bang theory.

   "As Einstein pondered these and other findings, his views, particularly toward the end of his career, evolved in the direction of acknowledging a belief in a divine force. ... Einstein's German contemporary Werner Heisenberg described a similar evolution. 'The first gulp of the natural sciences will turn you into an atheist,' he wrote, 'but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.'

   "For groups like the Society of Catholic Scientists, <catholicscientists.org> with more than 2,100 members and 28 regional chapters, the notion that science and religion are complementary is not as controversial as it may seem to some. Even billionaire tech innovator Elon Musk has called himself a 'cultural Christian,' describing his beliefs as 'a religion of curiosity' and 'of greater enlightenment.' This view has gained some backing as well from leading intellectuals like Douglas Murray, historian Tom Holland, and psychologist Jordan Peterson. ...

   "Ironically, as some religiously oriented scientists emerge, it is increasingly the 'established,' ultra-secular scientific establishment that is damaging its credibility by injecting political dogma into research. Yet this political power - tied to research funding for such things as climate change - makes it unlikely that we are witnessing 'the fall of the New Atheism,' as suggested by Christian talk show host Justin Brierley. Roughly half of U.S. scientists, according to one 2023 study, are atheists or agnostics."

   In reference to mainline Protestant denominations, the authors add that "Once powerful, these churches have gone from counting roughly half of Americans as members to barely 9 percent. But this pattern can also be seen across almost all religions. In 1965, a Gallup poll found that 70 percent of respondents said religion is 'very important' in their lives. Today, fewer than half of Americans (45 percent) say religion is 'very important.' ...

   "One survey found that two-thirds of atheists and one-third of agnostics believe that science makes 'the existence of God less probable.' The case for harmony is even worse in Europe, where the share of people who claim that religion is important stands at one-third or even less. At times, professing certain beliefs can even prove dangerous, landing one person in court in Finland and causing a conference in Amsterdam to disinvite speakers who, among other things, insist that there are only two sexes. ...

   "As historian Rodney Stark has observed, many early Church fathers saw science, much as Bohlson does, as revelatory of divine presence. Stark suggests that this attitude stems from the precept of Mosaic religion positing that God is 'a rational being and the universe was his personal creation,' leading Christians to yearn to advance 'human comprehension' of his work." A brief history of science and religion follows.

   "The proclivity to embrace science, notes Ashwin Rangan, former chief information officer of ICANN, the Internet supervisory body, helps explain somewhat the remarkable emergence of India as a center of technology and mathematics. ...

   "The late Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, wondered, as do many religiously oriented scientists, what such a strictly materialistic worldview would leave in its wake. He pointed to the work of Israeli philosopher Yuval Harari as creating a vision of humanity that is reduced to algorithms. Without religion's moral compass, Sacks suggests, societies are doomed to failure, whatever their level of technology.

   "In combating the mechanistic view of life, scientists like Bohlson are rediscovering a vision imbued with a sense of human values - a humbler understanding of how the world is constructed. Science and technology, understood as disciplines removed from or even superior to questions of morality, cannot provide a sense of meaning, and that is a cause of distress, particularly for the young."

   Bohlson suggests that "The world is always a mess, irrespective of science. ... But with religion we can endure it and make our work worthwhile. We gain so much in our understanding when we realize that God permeates science." City Journal, Oct 4 '24,  <www.tinyurl.com/2kj46ub5> 

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