Bruce Wilson of HuffPo Provides “Mountains” of Information in this Article Discussing Political Dominionism
The following is a post by my friend and fellow researcher Bruce Wilson of
HuffPo and talk2action.com who is one of the foremost researchers on Political Dominionism.
Ensign’s “C Street House” Owned By Group Touting Plans For Christian World Control
Most recently covered by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (1, 2), Washington D.C.’s ”C Street House” has over the past two weeks become the center of a media firestorm. Along with GOP Senator Tom Coburn, sex-scandal embroiled GOP leaders Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford have been tied to the row house, assessed to be worth 1.84 million dollars, which is registered as a church and provides Washington politicians with substantially lower than market rate rent. Coburn and Ensign have lived at the C Street house, while Sanford has participated in its Bible study group.
According to the Washington Post the house is owned by Youth With a Mission D.C. Youth With a Mission is one of the most extensive Christian fundamentalist para-church organizations on Earth, and YWAM founder leader Loren Cunningham has publicly outlined a vision for Christian world-control.
In a 2008 promotional video, “Reclaiming 7 Mountains of Culture”, Loren Cunningham describes a vision he shared along with the late Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer, in which Christian fundamentalists could achieve world domination by taking over key sectors of society such as business, government, media, and education.Francis Schaeffer is widely credited as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th Century Christian right. Among the myriad ministries of Bill Bright’s behemoth Campus Crusade For Christ is the Washington D.C. ministry Christian Embassy that targets Pentagon leaders for evangelizing.
The C Street House is run by a secretive Washington ministry known as The Family, or The Fellowship. Over the past year and a half, The Family has gradually come to public attention, mainly due to journalist and Harpers contributing editor Jeff Sharlet’s ground breaking book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. The Family runs the yearly National Prayer Breakfast and maintains a network of Capital Hill prayer groups which have enjoyed the participation of both top GOP but also top Democratic Party Congress and Senate members.
The Family runs but does not own the C Street House. According to a June 26th, 2009 Washington Post story, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, “The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name: The Sanford and Ensign Scandals Open a Door On Previously Secretive ‘C Street’ Spiritual Haven”, the C Street House is owned by a “little-known organization called Youth With a Mission of Washington DC.”
Youth With a Mission is a global Christian evangelical organization founded in 1960 which, declares YWAM, is “currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 149 countries, with a staff of nearly 16,000.”
As Cunningham introduces Reclaim 7 Mountains of Culture, “It was August, 1975… and the Lord had given me, that day a list of things that I had never thought about before. He said, ‘This is the way to reach America, and nations, for God.’ ”
The video continues with a narrator who declares, “In every city of the world, an unseen battle rages for dominion over God’s creation and the souls of people. This battle is fought on seven strategic fronts, looming like mountains over the culture, that shape and influence its destiny. Over the years, the church slowly retreated from its place of influence on these mountains, leaving a void now filled with darkness. When we lose our influence, we lose the culture and when we lose the culture we fail to advance the kingdom of God. And now, a generation stands in desperate need. It’s time to fight for them and take back these mountains of influence.”
Reclaim 7 Mountains of Culture then outlines seven areas of influence for Christian fundamentalists to reclaim:
- The Mountain of Government, “where evil is either restrained or endorsed”,
- The Mountain of Education, “where truths, or lies, about God and his creation are taught.”,
- The Mountain of Media, “where information is interpreted through the lens of good or evil”,
- The Mountain of Arts and Entertainment, “where values and virtue are celebrated or distorted”,
- The Mountain of Religion, “where people worship God in spirit and truth, or settle for a religious ritual”,
- The Mountain of Family, “where either a blessing or a curse is passed onto successive generations and,
- The Mountain of Business, “where people build for the glory of God or the glory of man.”
The last is the key mountain, proclaims the video: “those who lead this mountain influences what controls our culture.”
Youth With a Mission also runs a global Christian evangelism educational ministry headquartered at the University of the Nations 45 acre campus in Kona, Hawaii.
As one example in which organizations such as YWAM are implementing the Reclaiming the 7 Seven Mountains agenda, the university has developed programs to provide its students with real world skills such as media and film production.
One of the graduates from the Kona university is Loren Cunningham’s son, David Loren Cunningham, who founded the Film Institute in 2004 with other University of Nations students, to place students in the film industry in order to transform Hollywood from within. Cunningham directed Path to 911, the controversial television film aired on ABC on September 10 and 11, 2006 and covered at The Huffington Post by journalist Max Blumenthal.
Tags: 7 Mountains, C Street House, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christian, Christian Embassy, GOP Ensign, Jeff Sharet, Rachel Maddow, Sanford, The FAmily, Washington DC, Youth With a Mission
July 11th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I do not know how HuffPo moderates their comments, but I have tried to post 4 or 5 different posts on Bruce Wilson’s article and none have gone through. I do not use foul language, like others I have seen in comments. I find it very strange.
July 11th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I really like Bruce Wilson’s articles. If he is a friend of yours, perhaps you can ask him who is moderating the comments on his article and not approving many. Here is one I have tried to post:
Excellent resources:
http://palingates.blogspot.com/search/label/religiongate
http://www.theopalinism.com/blog/
http://www.correntewire.com/seven_mountains_and_the_joels_army_plan_for_takeover
July 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
These are some more creepy details about just how involved the leaders of The Family were in Sen. Ensign’s messy life:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/hampton_religious_buddies_drove_ensign_to_fedex_to.php?ref=fpb
As if it were not disturbing enough that this religious organization is subsidizing these members of congress, they appear to get very intimately involved in the running of their lives.
July 12th, 2009 at 7:17 am
That their membership and affiliation with this organization is never to be discussed outside The Family is suspicious. This is surprising given that one of its’ goals is to spread Christianity on a worldwide level. YWM is the public face, but the real wheeling and dealing goes on behind the scenes among the Family members. Knowing this helps me understand why the republicans recently compared themselves to the Taliban. Their goal is not to help America or Americans, but to help themselves by controlling all of the areas in the 7 Mountains of Culture. This organization is dangerous. If they are successful, we will be forced to live under their rules. I can see them “weeding out” Americans and others whom they declare enemies of the state. The ideology and mentality are in place among the far right-wing extremists, and they are working on ways to retake political power in DC and bring the rest of their 7 Mountains into fruition. I want to thank you for the information you provide about these types of issues as it will be bloggers like yourself who will go where the MSM will not.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I am not surprised. During the time i was a christian, I went to a discipleship school and spent one summer with YWAM. The dominionist theology was taught there. Thousands have heard and come to believe this stuff without really doing a proper evaluation of it. What is surprising is the hidden side of it i.e. The Family, but then again knowing the christian fundies like I do, it shouldn’t have been. It’s scary and if these people end up in power, the freedoms we know as Americans will cease. Just look at what erosion of freedoms we experienced under GW. It will be worse if these folks become the government. These folks don’t believe in the Rapture so much as forcing everyone to live as a fundie. Women will become breeders for Jesus. Unbelievers will harassed and forced out of jobs. 1984 indeed.
July 12th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
PJ, Majii, Anne & PCG,
I am heartened by the intelligence and awareness of this frightening Political Dominionist Movement that has been underway using the “skirts” of the GOP for legitimacy for over 30 years now. PD count on their antics to strike people as absolutely unbelievably fantastic and that anyone who dares to shed light on what they are doing is a “fringe nutcase tinfoil hat”…blah, blah, blah….
I know this is bizarre material! And it is so difficult to assimilate into out rational thought that even those we might view as allies/progressive/enlightened/mainstream Christian, actually contribute to the PD Movement by mocking or downplaying the authenticity of the message as well.
I welcome your ongoing comtributions as it is not only important for me, but extraordinarily important for all those readers out there – many of whom will never comment – to read others’ views and experiences. I know personally that there are “walkaways” from dominionist churches who are too fearful of ever coming forward.
Talk soon!
Leah
July 13th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Leah – I’m sure you have seen Bruce Wilson’s post on 11-12-08 where he posted a video of Palin, Parnell, and Lisa Murkowski getting anointed or blessed or whatever. My question is – do you think Lisa is part of this cult? In light of the recent revelations of the C Street thing and because of members flying under the radar, it makes me wonder. I think we all know Parnell is in the party, but I’m wondering about Lisa. Any thoughts or information?
July 14th, 2009 at 12:15 am
BS, You are correct in placing Parnell in Palin’s Political Dominionist camp as he belongs to a church in Anchorage known as “Change Point”. I can tell you that I grew up with Lisa (we are a few months apart), and her dad and mine went to school in Ketchikan from grade school up and I have always known her parents, Frank and Nancy, to be Catholics and the ONLY reason that I can imagine that Lisa was on that stage was because she does not understand the Political Dominionist affiliation of Palin..
WHICH reminds me, it is time to call Lisa…
Thank you!