Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

[Tennesseer]

Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and two dozen members of Congress assembled at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., last week for the second-annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. The event was chock-a-block with Christian nationalist pastors and featured a clarion call for spiritual warfare, with members of Congress beseeching fellow Christians to "tie the hands of Satan" and to "bind the demonic forces" that are supposedly possessing America.

The National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance is the brainchild of Johnson, a religious zealot who is second in line for the presidency and who, as Rolling Stone has reported, is convinced that America is "dark and depraved" and deserves God's wrath. The gathering is staged as a far-right counterweight to the National Prayer Breakfast, a longstanding ecumenical religious event, which was also held in Washington last week. That gathering was attended by President Joe Biden, who offered a bland prayer that America should remember its character of "honesty, decency, dignity, and respect," and find strength in togetherness.

The NGPR, by contrast, featured extremist calls for Christians to stand in opposition to sinful American culture - in particular the rise of LGBTQ freedoms, the environmental movement, and the practice of abortion. The kind of repentance sought by the speakers was often less for personal failings than for the failure of Christians to exert power and control over those who don't obey their theology.

Pastor Ché Ahn, for example, is a far-right Christian nationalist who spoke at the "Stop the Steal" protest seeking to keep 2020 election loser Donald Trump in office, a day before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Ahn is a leader of the New Apostolic Reformation, an ascendant, power-obsessed religious movement that calls on Christians to take dominion over the nations of the world in order to hasten the return of Jesus. In his call for repentance, Ahn lamented: "We have abdicated our responsibility to occupy until You come."

Rest of article here: Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

[Opti]

with members of Congress beseeching fellow Christians to "tie the hands of Satan" and to "bind the demonic forces" that are supposedly possessing America.

If they would quit Congress and let good people serve instead, it would be a start to that goal.

[happyhoix]

Feb 6, 2024 18:03:12 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and two dozen members of Congress assembled at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., last week for the second-annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. The event was chock-a-block with Christian nationalist pastors and featured a clarion call for spiritual warfare, with members of Congress beseeching fellow Christians to "tie the hands of Satan" and to "bind the demonic forces" that are supposedly possessing America.

The National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance is the brainchild of Johnson, a religious zealot who is second in line for the presidency and who, as Rolling Stone has reported, is convinced that America is "dark and depraved" and deserves God's wrath. The gathering is staged as a far-right counterweight to the National Prayer Breakfast, a longstanding ecumenical religious event, which was also held in Washington last week. That gathering was attended by President Joe Biden, who offered a bland prayer that America should remember its character of "honesty, decency, dignity, and respect," and find strength in togetherness.

The NGPR, by contrast, featured extremist calls for Christians to stand in opposition to sinful American culture - in particular the rise of LGBTQ freedoms, the environmental movement, and the practice of abortion. The kind of repentance sought by the speakers was often less for personal failings than for the failure of Christians to exert power and control over those who don't obey their theology.

Pastor Ché Ahn, for example, is a far-right Christian nationalist who spoke at the "Stop the Steal" protest seeking to keep 2020 election loser Donald Trump in office, a day before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Ahn is a leader of the New Apostolic Reformation, an ascendant, power-obsessed religious movement that calls on Christians to take dominion over the nations of the world in order to hasten the return of Jesus. In his call for repentance, Ahn lamented: "We have abdicated our responsibility to occupy until You come."

Rest of article here: Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

So if they’re kicking out the gays are they also kicking out the divorcees?

Or are we being selective in the sins we’re offended by?

[tallguy]

Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

Damn, there's not going to be anyone left in the Republican Party.

[teen persuasion]

Feb 6, 2024 18:23:59 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Feb 6, 2024 18:03:12 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and two dozen members of Congress assembled at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., last week for the second-annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. The event was chock-a-block with Christian nationalist pastors and featured a clarion call for spiritual warfare, with members of Congress beseeching fellow Christians to "tie the hands of Satan" and to "bind the demonic forces" that are supposedly possessing America.

The National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance is the brainchild of Johnson, a religious zealot who is second in line for the presidency and who, as Rolling Stone has reported, is convinced that America is "dark and depraved" and deserves God's wrath. The gathering is staged as a far-right counterweight to the National Prayer Breakfast, a longstanding ecumenical religious event, which was also held in Washington last week. That gathering was attended by President Joe Biden, who offered a bland prayer that America should remember its character of "honesty, decency, dignity, and respect," and find strength in togetherness.

The NGPR, by contrast, featured extremist calls for Christians to stand in opposition to sinful American culture - in particular the rise of LGBTQ freedoms, the environmental movement, and the practice of abortion. The kind of repentance sought by the speakers was often less for personal failings than for the failure of Christians to exert power and control over those who don't obey their theology.

Pastor Ché Ahn, for example, is a far-right Christian nationalist who spoke at the "Stop the Steal" protest seeking to keep 2020 election loser Donald Trump in office, a day before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Ahn is a leader of the New Apostolic Reformation, an ascendant, power-obsessed religious movement that calls on Christians to take dominion over the nations of the world in order to hasten the return of Jesus. In his call for repentance, Ahn lamented: "We have abdicated our responsibility to occupy until You come."

Rest of article here: Mike Johnson Gathers Far-Right Christians to Cast Out Demons

So if they’re kicking out the gays are they also kicking out the divorcees?

Or are we being selective in the sins we’re offended by?

Oh, they're being selective all right.

NAR leaders like Garlow fetishize Old Testament worship practices, and the NGPR proceedings began with a bearded man simultaneously blowing two shofars, or trumpets fashioned from animal horns. As Garlow explained, one symbolized a "call to arms," and the other represented "the sound of travail before a holy and righteous God."

The keynote speaker for NGPR was the controversial "messianic rabbi" Jonathan Cahn. Cahn grew up Jewish but accepted Christ as his savior, and he now leads the Beth Israel Worship Center in New Jersey. He is perhaps best known for his mystical, pop-religion bestsellers. NGPR attendees received a copy of Cahn's book The Return of the Gods, which Garlow insisted is "explains what is happening in America … more than any other one single book I am aware of."

In his address, Cahn recapped the theological argument of that book - that America is not fighting nameless demons, but against the influence of three pagan gods from the age of the Old Testament. Cahn preached that because America has abandoned the Christian God, this "dark trinity" is staging a "repossession" of the country.

Cahn named these three false gods as Baal, "the spirit that drives God out of every realm of public life"; Ishtar, "the spirit of sexual immorality" and "unbridled lust"; and Moloch, who tempts parents to engage in "the sacrifice of their own children." Cahn's sermon presented the culture wars (over secularism, sexual and LGBTQ rights, and abortion) as a holy war against insidious false deities, and he didn't speak as if this were a metaphorical struggle. "We must pray for the power of God to cast out the spirits of darkness, from our land, from the halls of our Capitol here," Cahn insisted, shouting: "Cast out the gods, cast out the spirits, and set America free!"

I don't understand how they call themselves Christians when they blatantly ignore Jesus's explicit teachings (feed the poor, etc) and glom onto OT practices that Jesus said weren't important anymore.

And isn't the whole point of monotheism that they believe there IS only one god, the other gods don't exist? They seem to be giving those other gods an awful lot of influence.

They are definitely not interested in freedom of religion for other Americans, either.

[tallguy]

Feb 7, 2024 22:36:24 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

I don't understand how they call themselves Christians when they blatantly ignore Jesus's explicit teachings (feed the poor, etc) and glom onto OT practices that Jesus said weren't important anymore.

And isn't the whole point of monotheism that they believe there IS only one god, the other gods don't exist? They seem to be giving those other gods an awful lot of influence.

They are definitely not interested in freedom of religion for other Americans, either.

They're not.  They want to think that they are, so they glom onto whatever shred they can find that they can use to justify their bigotry.  As far as a true understanding of what Christianity really is or the ideals it stands for, they are utterly clueless.  Not that that fact matters to them.  Didn't some right-wing or religious leader decry some things that actually comport with Christian belief as "wokeism?"  

[djAdvocate]

as long as they start with Trump, i am good with it.