Building the Hammers of God-Politic is our Religion

“In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to enter into evil.[1]‟

Professor Michael Ledeen, a German Jewish immigrant is considered the father of neo conservativism(Source was incorrect it described Leo Strauss) . His leadership and philosophy have shaped the modern political movement into what it is today. He was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a councilor to the National Security Council. He was also special council to Secretary Alexander Haig in 1985. He was also a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, according to William O. Beeman of the Pacific News Service, “Ledeen has become the driving philosophical force behind the neoconservative movement and the military actions it has spawned.”

Outside of Politics he has had relationships with religious leaders such as Pat Robertson for over twenty years.

In a few short sentences the ramifications of the Torah of Atzilut have become clearer.

“In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany, they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts, for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.

And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said, in the whole stadium, “Hitler, we are yours.”

And they nearly took the world.

Lenin once said, “Give me 100 committed, totally committed men and I’ll change the world.” And, he nearly did.

A few years ago, they took the sayings of Chairman Mao, in China, put them in a little red book, and a group of young people committed them to memory and put it in their minds and they took that nation, the largest nation in the world by storm because they committed to memory the sayings of the Chairman Mao[2].

When I hear those kinds of stories, I think ‘what would happen if American Christians, if world Christians, if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ, would say ‘Jesus, we are yours’ ?

What kind of spiritual awakening would we have ? “– Pastor Rick Warren

First in addressing a statement like this, to understand it, polemic must be left to the side. It lends itself too easily to be taken at face value. The statement itself is not an original one and was borrowed from what must be a mentor, Douglas Coe Leader of the” Fellowship”. Mr. Coe’s statement in transcript is in the footnotes. His is even more graphic, especially for a “man of God”.

With regard to both statements they are acceptable and understandable under Neo Platonics auspices. Take the good, discard the rest. In this regard the most heinous people can be looked at as examples. What were their successes? These may be emulated and copied. It is strictly a philosophic model.

Note that it was not about inspiring leadership or commitment, but from the bottom up committing to leadership.

Mr. Coe’s influence within the Christianity of the USA is large enough that with a few years unconditional commitment to leadership became a standard teaching.

David Kuo, a member of a small prayer group and staffer in President George W. Bush‘s Office of Faith Based Initiatives, said of the Fellowship:

“For all the hysteria about Christian organizations, the irony that the Fellowship is being targeted as a bad egg is jaw-dropping. This is so not Focus on the Family, this is so not the Christian Coalition. There are other Christian groups that are truly insane. Who purport to follow Jesus Christ and who I would submit do not. The Fellowship is a loosely banded group of people who have an affinity for Jesus.”

“If you think Jesus Christ is special, in his own category of specialness, and you feel an affinity to him, and you do not harm others consciously, you can consider yourself a Christian”- Huston Smith.

The theology of the Family is “Jesus only”. In Mr Kuo’s statement that they are “a group of people who have an “affinity for Jesus,” we see Huston Smiths theological and philosophic stamp.

In 2002, Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan on a fact-finding congressional trip, meeting with the leaders of both Muslim countries. According to Pitts, “The first thing we did when we met with [Afghan] President Karzai and [then Pakistan] President Musharraf was to say, ‘We’re here officially representing the Congress; we’ll report back to the speaker, our leaders, our committees, our government. But we’re here also because we’re best friends…. We’re members of the same prayer group.[3]”

The Family hosts prayer groups for leaders around the world, regardless of religion. The theological underpinning is a soft Perennial Philosophy. Jesus as the cosmic Christ maintains Orthodoxy for both this type of Neo Platonic Christian and his Muslim counterpart who sees Him as the eternal Koran. If it is a Hindu then the cosmic Christ takes on the garb of lord Krishna. Praying together each maintains orthodoxy, together.

Since this is the religion of leadership the adept never needs to worry about his current state. There is no one above him except his god. The leader who has committed atrocities needn’t worry about judgment; all is justified getting back to paradise. 

The Family has been criticized by author Jeff Sharlet for influencing US policy because of relationships, between foreign dictators, US politicians, defense contractors, and industry leaders, facilitating military aid to repressive regimes. They have had relationships with Brazils long dictatorship of Generals to General Suharto of Indonesia, to Siad Barre of Somalia. “The Fellowship’s reach into governments around the world is almost impossible to overstate or even grasp,” says David Kuo, a small group member and former special assistant in George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.

It is easy to see the merit of this for any presidency. The religious philosophy plied this way can make the seemingly impossible happen. Two international governmental leaders with no common ground in a dispute are reminded of the ultimate common ground they share. With this in mind it is no wonder that Douglas Coe and his membership are sometimes called on for diplomacy.

A perk for foreign leaders who are involved in the prayer groups is the possibility of being able to speak with the President as a favor to this religious leader. A favor they would not otherwise have.

This is the Gospel of Diplomacy.

Pastor Warren has called for a Second Reformation based upon his global P.E.A.C.E. Plan. .. “Attacking the five global giant – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic diseases and illiteracy and poor education, by Planting churches, Equipping servant leaders, Assisting the poor, Caring for the sick and Educating the next generation

To this end “Saddleback and our Purpose Driven Network has now trained over 400,000 pastors in over 162 countries.”

“For the past 18 months we have been on a stealth, secret mission – project – around the world. We’ve been sending members out, actually over 4500 members somewhere overseas, over the period of time, the last few years, going out to do what we’re gonna call the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

You’ve been hearing little snippets about it, today we’re going to unveil it publicly. But the first thing before I even talk about it in a minute is you need to understand that at the heart of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan is this theme – The Kingdom of God…  What is the vision for the next 25 years ? I’ll tell you what it is.

It is the global expansion of the kingdom of God…And the Bible says this in Matthew 24 : ‘The Good news about God’s kingdom will be preached into all the world, in every nation, and then the end’s going to come. ‘

And you can go argue about prophecy all you want but Jesus Christ is not going to conclude history until everybody he’s wanted to hear the word has had a chance to hear the word. But one day God’s going to bring everything to a culmination.”

What seems unknown is that the Gospel was preached across the world in the first century as shown. After this, the times of the Gentiles needed to be fulfilled, and then he would come. While the goals of his plan are admirable, the follow through has been less than appealing. The African countries that have signed on to his plan are now working out a Gospel of attrition.

In a November 2009 NPR interview, “Jeff Sharlet alleged that Ugandan Fellowship associates David Bahati and Nsaba Buturo were behind the recent proposed bill in Uganda that called for the death penalty for gays. Sharlet reveals that David Bahati, the Uganda legislator backing the bill, reportedly first floated the idea of executing gays during The Family’s Uganda National Prayer Breakfast in 2008.

Family member Bob Hunter gave an interview to NPR in December in which he acknowledged Bahati’s connection but argued that no American associates support the bill.”

Another mentor and friend of Pastor Warren from Fuller Theological Seminary is the Apostle C. Peter Wagner. Apostle Wagner’s view of forwarding the kingdom is vocally more in the dominionist strain, and his reason for supporting a social implementation of the Gospel is as a means and method.

From his article “Lets Take Dominion Now”-

“Another convincing example of a grass-roots change agent reporting on substantial progress toward transformation is Eddie Long of Atlanta, whom I quoted previously. Here is Long’s report: Today I can honestly say that metropolitan Atlanta would miss [New Birth Missionary Baptist Church] very much if something caused us to move away or shut down. The New Birth congregation finances and operates vital support programs in the city and pumps large sums of money and thousands of volunteer hours into key areas such as youth offender intervention programs, public school programs, and support and outreach programs for homeless women and children. We are involved in every aspect of life, and we are making a major impact in the Atlanta metropolitan areas.

This, in turn, is causing us to gain major footholds in the city infrastructure, . . . the criminal court system, public high schools, the Georgia State Senate, the United States Senate, and even into the White House itself. . . . When you are a politician in a major metropolitan area, it isn’t wise to dismiss or ignore a highly unified, committed, and motivated group of voters exceeding twenty-two thousand people representing almost every voting precinct in your city.”[4]

Can it be said that this religious influence which is spread across the world has all been for the better? Can we say any more without a smile that whether conservative or liberal in view Government does not affect the religions that we practice? This is only a natural product of men of faith effecting the government with their religion.

In April 2009 Pastor Brian McLaren a leader in the Emergent Church movement, stated in an article for Sojourners Magazine that Christians who hold a “millennial view” of the return of Jesus Christ are distorted and likens a dispensational view to racism. He also states he has come to realize it is morally and ethically harmful. Pastor McLaren like many other religious philosophers seeks to change the face of the faith to what he sees as a more transcendent and activist model. His view is post millennial, which is shown in his own remarks.

While the “millennialist” he speaks of specifically is the type of person who wishes to start “holy war”, in doing so he is marginalizing many who are honest in their faith, holding an ancient view that the world will not improve, despite our efforts.

To this end in 2009 he was an adviser in crafting HR 1913, otherwise known as the “Hate-crimes Bill”, which incidentally was passed into law in the USA. With this came a new set of definitions of those that would perpetrate a “hate- crime”, of which the millennialist is now included. Now the person actively engaged in trying to move the Hand of God and the person who simply holds the ancient view of the end-times are lumped together and effectively marginalized by law.

This can only be viewed as religion by legislation. Eventually it will have the same effect as the 12^th Blessing at the inception of Judaism. The Faith once again will change over time at the hands of the philosopher.