The Shipwreck Of Conscience

In The Anchorage Daily News, I read: http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/567096.html  
Palin blessing echoed extreme strategy  
ALAN BORAAS COMMENT 
Published: October 25th, 2008 12:19 AM Last Modified: October 25th, 2008 03:15 AM

Most who watched the YouTube clip of Rev. Thomas Muthee's "laying on of hands" ritual protecting Gov. Sarah Palin from witches at least raised an eyebrow. Witchcraft is considered hocus pocus by many Americans but has a distinct cultural context in Kenya and other parts of Central Africa where Muthee is from. In pre-colonial central Africa witches were a metaphor of instability, so to be accused of witchcraft meant the individual was somehow threatening to the social order.
African witchcraft took on a similar meaning after missionaries arrived. In rural areas today social progressives are sometimes labeled witches and their accusers are often fundamentalists who hold to traditional tribal practices and reject progressive gender roles and acceptance of modernity. Witchcraft is taken quite seriously; in May of this year 11 people were burned as witches in rural Kenya. One of those killed was a teacher who represented the influence of modernity to villages.

Just why a church in Wasilla, Alaska, would adopt the language of witchcraft to express their belief in a battle of good versus evil is not clear. But even more revealing was Rev. Muthee's summary of the principles of what has come to be called Christian Nationalism, which preceded his "laying on of hands" ritual. Extreme Christian Nationalists not only believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation but that its institutions should be run entirely by fundamentalist or evangelical Christians. They believe they have a mandate to purge our institutions of "humanists" who believe that humans are in control of their own destiny, progressive Christians and non-Christians. They believe there are seven areas of society that must be controlled, the so-called Seven Mountains Strategy: church, family, education, government and law, media, arts and entertainment and business.

Muthee echoed this Christian Nationalist strategy in his Palin blessing sermon, where he stated, "When we talk about transformation of a society, a community, it's where we see God's Kingdom infiltrate ... seven areas in our society." Muthee went on to describe his version of the Seven Mountains Strategy and when he got to politics he was praying for Gov. Palin.
About 40 percent of the U.S. population describe themselves as fundamentalist or evangelical but not all subscribe to Christian Nationalism. Michelle Goldberg estimates about 10 percent to 15 percent of the U.S. adult population are Christian Nationalists. They are overwhelmingly white and Republican and make up a significant part of the "base" of the party. A number of notable spokesmen of the conservative religious right are associated with Christian Nationalist beliefs, among them Franklin Graham (but not his father Billy), Pat Robertson and Douglas Coe.

Christian Nationalism is a form of American exceptionalism -- the idea that Americans are unique because of our heritage. Christian exceptionalism dates back to Puritan leader John Winthrop. Normally exceptionalism is recognized as the unique founding of the United States built on immigrant pluralism and based on Enlightenment ideals. But Winthrop promoted a different type of exceptionalism. In his "shining city on the hill" sermon Winthrop rejected the equality of religious pluralism and affirmed instead that the United States is a Christian nation built on Christian, not Enlightenment, principles and was to be ruled by Christians.
Winthrop's Puritans also used witchcraft as a means of social control. Many of the Salem "witches" were women breaking from the established gender roles, starting farms of their own and otherwise acting independently. Those 17th century agents of modernity were burned at the stake for their actions, similar to what is happening in Kenya today. It is therefore remarkably interesting that Gov. Palin used the term exceptionalism in her debate with Sen. Biden and quoted Winthrop's "shining city on the hill" metaphor as the model for America in the world. (She actually referenced the source as Ronald Reagan, who used the phrase in his last speech as president. Reagan correctly cited Winthrop.)

Nothing she did as governor suggests Sarah Palin would conduct witch hunts or give voice to seditious Christian Nationalists were she to reach the Oval Office. On the other hand, quoting the father of Christian Nationalism and directly participating in a religious rite protecting her from witchcraft that espoused the Seven Mountains Strategy is a reason to ask questions. The real problem is that no national candidate has been so shielded from the press and scripted (and, it turns out, clothed) as Sarah Palin so it's hard to know what she believes.  

Alan Boraas is a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College. 




I have quoted the article in its entirety. I believe it is important to know the enemy's face. We have lived in a child's world of make-believe so long, we no longer know where to stand. We have let our so-called leaders destroy our nation, our lives, our families. Within the vacuum that will be created as the vessel called Leviathan: the mighty S.S. American Empire, slips into the ocean deep, we who stand in peril of the sea will be faced with the demons of the times of dissolution, those who will compel belief in " ...church, family, education, government and law, media, arts and entertainment and business." God cares nothing for your earthly concerns of the worldly church, worldly education, worldly government and law, the matters of media, arts, entertainment and business. He cares that we put away the things of childhood and embrace the creation of God in the spirit of the sermon given on the mount, that we give up everything, so that we may gain everything.
We must love the Parable and the Paradox of God's love, the lilies of the field that neither toil nor spin... No more letting the Future be worked into a cruel Irony of Circumstance...where the mighty are thrust down from their towers of Babel, dragging us with them in their destruction. For, indeed, where there are no ones who believe themselves to be "mighty", then there are no thrones from which they be downcast. The horrid religion of Witchery and Compulsion will be our adversary. It is rising now. And this is from the guy who says we cannot speak to God. Well...that is yet another paradox.
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