cell913blog.com #31

For the last two-dozen-plus pieces in this space, the focal point has been the character, life, exploits and identification with the story and the mythology that has grown up following the life and death of Nelson Mandela. Born and raised in the Methodist faith, while deeply imbued and indoctrinated in the tribal rituals, customs, myths and legends of the Zulu tribes in the Transkei, highly respectful of the role models of elders like his father, his mentors, and his many African peers, including even his political opponents, Mandela is a bright ‘light’ of courage, reason, and especially both modesty and compassion, especially for relieving or perhaps terminating the apartheid system which enshackled his people. Never did Mandela even once, assume the mantle of working and struggling and fighting as a “God warrior”. His own mantra was as a ‘freedom fighter’ and his methods, both strategies and tactics were legal, political, rhetorical, deception and subversion, as well as leadership, even to the point of studying the works of Marx and Lenin, in order to better understand the communist allies, while continually disavowing any personal membership in the communist party. He, reluctantly, after decades of struggle without any significant impact in ameliorating the oppression of South Africans, finally agreed to engage in violence, and went off to learn military leadership, strategies and tactics, in order to provide more effective leadership.

Apartheid, the system generated and legally enforced by the white supremacy government of various leaders, was a system wholly seeded and operated by while men. Mandela’s life was dedicated and committed to the removal of chains of oppression imposed by other men. In it essence, Mandela’s was an historic and political, a philosophic and psychological/sociological conflict.

For months, if not years, in 2024, the world has been engaged in a political/rhetorical/philosophic/ideological/economic and obviously moral conflict between government systems (and leaders) considered on the one hand, ‘autocratic’ or ‘despotic’ or ‘tyrannical’ or ‘oligarchic’ versus on the other hand, government systems and leaders generally considered ‘democratic’. And while the western media has been deeply focused on this ‘battle-field’ as if it were the crucial and pivotal confrontation of our age, another ‘war’ has been going on at a different level of both public acknowledgment and intelligence, as well as appealing to a far different psychological/spiritual and sociological target.

After 2001, and the bombing of the twin towers, on 9/11, we began to hear about the radical Muslim terrorist movement, under titles like Al Qaeda, Isis, Al Shabab, and others. While engaged in the ‘elimination’ of terrorists cells dedicated to advancing the cause of a caliphate, we also learned about the apparent divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and the respective countries in which each sect dominated the population and the government. Implicitly connected, as well as explicitly related to this conflict, is the relationship of Israel and her most prominent advocate and protector the United States. We could hardly even consider the Sunni/Shia conflict without also being aware of the shadow of deep and profound anti-Israeli sentiment, even contempt for the state of Israel.

It has not been the religious conflict that we know exists in the Middle East, and in Africa, alone, that has occupied both religious scholars and thinkers. There has been another growing conflict within the so-called Christian religious communities. We have, for decades, if not centuries, known about a tension between what are called ‘conservative’ Christians and ‘liberal’ Christians’…defined primarily by a different ‘reading’ and interpretation of scripture…the former being generally more ‘literal’ and authoritative, while the latter is considered more ‘metaphoric,’ and ‘mythic’ and guiding rather than legally binding. And while that tension has beset the Christian churches for centuries, with various applications, creeds, rituals, idols, and figure-heads in opposition, in person and through their writings, another profoundly disturbing conflict has opened up in the last few years, rearing its ugly head more recently in various quarters, including the United States, Australia, Canada.

The question of how a revivified Mandela would regard this conflict inspires what follows.

Writing in independentaustralian.net, on May 25, 2022, Bilal Cleland,  we find:

The Pentecostal Chruch’s Seven Mountains Mandate is an affront to democracy and a danger to society….A branch of dominionism, which sees adherents of their variety of Christianity as entitled to dominion over the Earth, interprets the Seven Mountains as aspects of human society. The Seven Mountains over which they claim dominion are education, religion, family, business, government and the military, arts and entertainment and the media. This is an important part of American evangelical Christianity. It is widely supported by adherents of the collection of churches known as Pentecostal…..Amn article on Christianity.com reveals: ‘According to the New York Times some four million Americans belong to classical Pentecostalism….Roger E Olson, professor of theology at George W Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University in Waco Texas writes:

The fourth aspect of Pentecostalism’s dark side is its tendency to emphasise the spiritual over the physical in terms of the Kingdom of God’s ‘alreadyness’. The Kingdom of God is often viewed as present where there is much manifestation of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and many people being spiritually converted and filled with the Holy Spirit—the to the neglect of social justice. For most of its history, the Pentecostal movement in the U.S. was obsessed with anti-communism and its main form of social activism. Racial equality was not a major focus of Pentecostalism and, in general, Pentecostals have been complacent about segregation—even among themselves…..According to Philip Almond, Emeritus Professor of Religious Thought at the University of Queensland…(points out) that Morrison’s (Australian Prime Minister) ‘have a go’ philosophy ‘sits squarely within Pentecostal prosperity theology.’ This is the view that belief in God leads to material wealth. Professor Almond adds: the godly become wealthy and the wealthy are godly. And, unfortunately, the ungodly become poor and the poor are ungodly. Only those who  have been saved by Jesus (generally those who have had a personal experience of being ‘born again’…) have any hope of attaining eternal life in heaven….Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, and non-born-again Christians are doomed to spend an eternity in the torments of hell….Steve Davies warns about one extreme aspect of the Seven Mountains Mandate, the Extreme World Makeover: ‘No the whole deal is, again, he has told Satan I am going to do this great thing with my sons and daughters. They are going to awake; they ae going to arise and they will begin to shine. And they will operate my light in my authority and my power and they will change everything. I will not have to exert my own direct muscle. They will carry my muscle. They will crush you…..The subjugation of society to such an interpretation of Christina scripture would destroy any notion of participatory democracy, multiculturalism or religious freedom. It is basically medieval totalitarianism.

(Bilal Cleland is a retired secondary teacher and was Secretary of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Chairman of the Muslim Welfare Board Victoria and the Secretary of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.)

On npr.org, Odette Yousef, December 5, 2023, in a piece entitled, “Speaker Mike Johnson draws scrutiny for ties to far right Christian movements’…

in a transcript of a conversation quotes Ari Shapiro, Host, House speaker Mike Johnson is the keynote speaker at an event fort the National Association of Lawmakers tonight. The group is working to take conservative Christian control at every level of government.

Quoting Ailsa Chang, Host: Now, their views go further than abolishing abortion nationwide or walking back same-sex marital rights.  At a group held earlier this year, one speaker defended the idea of the death penalty for gay people. Johnson’s ties to far-right Christian movements are unprecedented for a lawmaker in such a high position of authority.

Quoting Fred Clarkson, from Political Research Associates, a non-profit that tracks the far right, who has followed  the Christian far right for many years: I’ve seen a tremendous uptick in the rhetoric of violence among prominent Christian right leaders…..Dominionist sorts of the New Apostolic Reformation in particular where they’re predicting civil war and they’re clear the need(ing) to take out God’s enemies in the end times.

Youseff: (But) the movement has also seen in recent years that there is another path to power, and that path was the presidency. Andrew Whitehead of Indiana University-Purdue University says Donald Trump was actually   a perfect test of the power of Christian nationalism.

Removing any mantle of Mandela, and delving into my own personal experience with the far-right Christian evangelical fundamentalists, I have a long record of direct confrontation, protest, public denunciation, and their vengeful push-back.

One of their number public dubbed my homilies, “heretical” while another left a phone message on my answering machine ‘You are the Anti-Christ”….Another called titles to which I had been introduced in theology school, such as “People of the Lie” and “The Road Less Travelled,” heretical…and the phrase ‘new age’ was generally deployed in discussion of the homilies I prepared and delivered.

In the spirit, courage, defiance, and determination of men like Mandela, I join others whose determination is to detour and to defeat these various theocratic movements to transform western liberal society into a Christian nationalist compound, a la Waco itself.

And the first test at the ballot box to express determined opposition to the New Apostolic Reformation and to the Seven Mountain Mandate is to defeat all of those candidates who subscribe (formally, informally, secretly, or openly) to this religious scourge that knows no limits to its self-proclaimed self-righteousness.

And we call on responsible, thoughtful and courageous church leaders to speak out about this nefarious attempt to take over any government at any level, municipal, state/province, federal/national.

For God’s sake, this movement from the radical elements of any and all religions has no place in our world!