New Apostolic reformation is a radical branch of evangelical Christianity believing that their leadership are apostles, akin to those that accompanied Jesus Christ during his life. NAR began in Canada before relocating to California. It gained prominence in 1996 when C. Peter Wagner took control. Wagner joined the group to the charismatic Christian movement, preachers who claimed they could perform miracles, and rewrote the groups beliefs to fit his own agenda. Wagner introduced the concept of “spiritual warfare” to the group. The idea that demons inhabit the world and work to take over strategic institutions, interfere with our daily lives, and can only be combatted by adherence to Christianity, an inherently combative and fear-mongering doctrine. From Wagner’s view, poverty and illness are manifestations of demonic possession and can be cured through prayer alone. Wagner also used his platform to demonize vaccines, abortion clinics, surrogate motherhood, the queer and trans community, and the democratic party, naming them all as methods for a demonic takeover and things that should be immediately destroyed should his followers gain power.
While spiritual warfare is not uncommon among radical Christians, this iteration of it was also unique for its adherence to the “Seven Mountains Mandate”, an obscure evangelical belief that began in 1975 and commands Christians to invade the “seven spheres of society” in reference to Revelations, the final book in the bible. These seven spheres are family, education, media, arts, entertainment, business, and government. The mandate implores Christians to infiltrate and take control of these things. Once achieved, the biblical end times will begin, with NAR believers being the only true Christians.
Now, with all that exposition over, some of you may say, So? America has a hundred extreme religious groups preaching fire and brimstone every day, what’s one more? And while that may be true, what’s important to understand is that NAR is not a broader church. It’s a set of political beliefs veiled as religious dogma, and those oppressive and anti-democratic beliefs of Christian nationalism are far more widespread than anyone should be comfortable with.
Many senators and right-wing political figures have popularized and endorsed Christian nationalism. The most outspoken of which is Colorado senator Lauren Boebert, who has made statements on multiple occasions attacking religious freedom in the United States. Saying “I’m tired of all this separation of church and state junk – that’s not in the constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like they say it does” at a 2022 church service in her home state. She has also made many statements referencing these Evangelical beliefs at a summit for Turning point USA she hosted that same year, saying “It’s time for us to position ourselves and rise up and take our place in Christ and influence this nation as we were called to do.” Along with “We know that we are in the last of the last days, but it’s not time to complain about it. It’s not time to get upset about it. It’s a time to know that you were called to be a part of these last days. You get to have a role in ushering in the second coming of Jesus.”
Boebert is certainly the most brash and outspoken, but it only takes a cursory glance at the statements and social media posts of other notable right-wing candidates to see that her views are not uncommon. The highest ranking adherent to NAR is Mike Johnson, a critical figure in the movement to decertify the 2020 election before taking up the role of speaker of the house, who has blamed school shootings on no-fault divorce laws and the sexual revolution and, earlier in his career, advocated for the recriminalization of homosexuality under American law while working with Alliance Defending Freedom, a far-right hate group as categorized by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
While these radical beliefs still may seem to be a minority, with most senators saving face and not publicly endorsing NAR beliefs, that’s not good enough. NAR may be the worst of the worst of Christian nationalists, and their members may seem insignificant, but the more Christian nationalism is popularized and normalized in American politics, the more NAR and groups like them hoping to uproot our society and seize our freedoms, gain strength. It is imperative for the survival of our nation that we recognize the clear wording in the first amendment of the constitution, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” A right that is being questioned more and more as states make provisions for religion in public schooling, whether it be through Chaplains or mandatory religion classes.
It is imperative for the survival of our nation as we know it, that we disavow the idea of the United States of America as a Christian nation, a belief opposed directly by the founding fathers that seeks nothing but the reduction of our freedoms, the stratification of our society, and the stupefying and servitude of our nation’s people to the will of extremists.
https://newrepublic.com/article/167499/new-apostolic-reformation-mastriano-christian
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/donald-trump-allies-christian-nationalism-00142086
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/139781021
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/15/1211536399/speaker-johnson-christian-nationalism-evangelical
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/09/14/lauren-boebert-christian-nationalist-republican-colorado/
https://www.freedomforum.org/separation-of-church-and-state/
