by Dr. Michael Brown, New American Prophet
There are few things more frightening to leftist Americans than a Christian conservative who has political power. That’s why the unexpected, out of the blue rise to power of Rep. Mike Johnson sent shock waves through the left, as if to say, “These religious fanatics are trying to take over the country! Soon they’ll be imposing the Christian version of Sharia on every American! Danger!”
Johnson even had the temerity to say this in an interview with Sean Hannity, “I am a Bible-believing Christian. Someone asked me today in the media, they said, ‘It’s curious, people are curious: What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.’” Oh, the horror!
To be sure, countless political leaders in American history, including many of our presidents, also extolled the Scriptures. In the words of Abraham Lincoln in 1864, when presented with a Bible by “loyal colored people” in Baltimore, “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To you I return my most sincere thanks for the very elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.”
More recently, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan said, “Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of America into a distinctive Nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible. … These shared beliefs helped forge a sense of common purpose among the widely dispersed colonies — a sense of community which laid the foundation for the spirit of nationhood that was to develop in later decades. The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers’ abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual, rights which they found implicit in the Bible’s teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual.”
But that was different (although, to be sure, many on the left openly expressed their concerns about Reagan’s ties to the religious right). That was before the rise of the ever present, always in the shadows, Christian movement called “NAR” – short for the New Apostolic Reformation. Yes, it is NAR that is trying to take over the world, and Mike Johnson is part of NAR. This really is frightful!
Yes, Johnson is “the most Christian nationalist speaker in history” and is actually a “false prophet.” Indeed, according to Rolling Stone, “The newly elected House speaker has ties to the far-right New Apostolic Reformation — which is hell-bent on turning America into a religious state.” Americans, beware!
Are you ready to connect the dots?
We are informed that “there’s a flag hanging outside his office that leads into a universe of right-wing religious extremism as unknown to most Americans as Johnson was before he ascended to the speakership.”
This would be the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, of which Rolling Stone says, “Historically, this flag was a Revolutionary War banner, commissioned by George Washington as a naval flag for the colony turned state of Massachusetts. The quote ‘An Appeal to Heaven’ was a slogan from that war, taken from a treatise by the philosopher John Locke. But in the past decade it has come to symbolize a die-hard vision of a hegemonically Christian America.”
I first heard about this flag with the publication of books by Dutch Sheets, An Appeal To Heaven: What Would Happen If We Did It Again? (2015) and Jennifer LeClaire, The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening (2017) – yes, a spiritual awakening, not a Christian takeover. The concept was that American leaders in the past looked to God for mercy and help in times of need, recognizing that our only appeal was to heaven. The same must happen again in our day – there must be a fresh move of God, another great awakening – if our nation is to survive. Our only hope is an appeal to heaven!
Not so, say Bradley Onishi and Matthew D. Taylor, authors of the Rolling Stone article. Instead, “To understand the contemporary meaning of the Appeal to Heaven flag, it’s necessary to enter a world of Christian extremism animated by modern-day apostles, prophets, and apocalyptic visions of Christian triumph that was central to the chaos and violence of Jan. 6. Earlier this year we released an audio-documentary series, rooted in deep historical research and ethnographic interviews, on this sector of Christianity, which is known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The flag hanging outside Johnson’s office is a key part of its symbology.”
And despite a spokesman for Johnson stating that the flag was simply a gift to him from another congressman, Onishi and Taylor are not buying it: “It is simply untenable to think that Johnson is unaware of what the Appeal to Heaven flag signals today. It represents an aggressive, spiritual-warfare style of Christian nationalism, and Johnson is a legal insurrectionist who has deeply tied himself into networks of Christian extremists whose rhetoric, leadership, and warfare theology fueled a literal insurrection.”
America, beware! Your beloved country is about to be turned into a religious state.
Read the rest here.
