By Eric Tichenor
There is one sentence from the ancient Hebrew Tanakh, within the Torah section (teachings, law), which perfectly illuminates the motivations of the seditionists who have created our current, modern-day political crisis. And it has been going on for decades.
In the first chapter of the book of Genesis, the modern translation of the 28th verse reads, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Some translations use the phrase, “take charge!”
Dominion theology, and all its iterations under the umbrella of Evangelical Christianity, urges its adherents to essentially seize all facets of society, everything and everyone, including the entire world and its peoples, in order to hasten the “second coming” of their deity.
For those who align themselves with such beliefs, these are the real and true motivations for those of them in control of different power structures within our society. Government is only one of the “mountains” for them to conquer. The other six are, Education, Religion, Family, Business, Arts & Entertainment, Media.
With just a simple word association exercise, you can see how easy it is to identify at least one private or public entity associated with dominion theological thinking in each of these categories.
Some might say that all this is just an innocuous detail, as all people of any faith are certainly allowed to privately practice their beliefs while also publicly performing their civic duties and political obligations equally for all Americans. Sadly, this is not the case today. For those of this belief in positions of power within our Democratic Republic, those who committed treason against our nation on January 6th, 2021, this is not a zero-sum game. They believe they are an active part of their god’s plan to “subdue the earth”, and they will try to achieve this “glory” at any cost.
At.
Any.
Cost.
After all, their god “calls” them to do these things and they believe they are already “forgiven” for their aggrievances against others in the process of “taking dominion over the earth”.
While he certainly should and will be held to account for his words and actions of the last four years, this isn’t about Donald Trump. He is simply their pawn, merely a puppet, their “Cyrus”, unwittingly used as a vehicle for these dominionist thinkers in government to achieve their religious goals. The religious and political leaders surrounding him feigned their loyalty in exchange for a laundry list of self-serving and religious policy objectives being met. Upon being tapped to be Trump’s running mate and vice-president, why else would Mike Pence be so seemingly “giddy” to now align himself with a man who was previously vilified?
He is their perfect scapegoat as well. Those responsible for the insurrection can simply say, “he did it” or “he said it”, and wash their hands of any wrongdoing. And the honest public and truth telling media will eat it up. “We can’t blame religion”, they will say. Because reasons.
Similarly, the literal army of true-believers, who both prescribe to such theologies and vote for the politicians who esteem them, are also a convenient scapegoat for what happened on 1/6. Currently, the narrative is that some of the 147 congressmen and women who voted to overturn our past presidential election claim that they fear retribution, including death, if they “betray” their dominionistic worldview. The representatives who say they wanted to vote for impeachment, but now say they couldn’t or wouldn’t, claim the same fears.
These are false claims. False, at least in the sense that what they are really saying to their constituents is, “At. Any. Cost.” Instead, it is a badge of honor for these “politicians” to continue their “holy war”, even now still, of taking over America for their god. This is why the law abiding, fact acknowledging, truth tellers among us are so dumbfounded at their continued behavior even after our National Capitol was invaded by these domestic religious terrorists.
Let’s be frank at this point, these religious fanatics, these Christianists, have infiltrated our halls of government all across America. And it is not by accident either. There are numerous “ministries” whose sole purpose is to train-up young, impressionable citizens with this kind of worldview, so that they might gain access to the political machinery that runs our country. Some of these individuals are among the most prominent actors and directors of the failed insurrection we endured last week.
To all legitimate media outlets. To all responsible religious leaders. To all honest influencers. Now is your time to save America from these Christianists.
Name all the names.
