One of the more ominous actors of recent years looms large this election season.
The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is one of the most significant religious and political movements of our time. Unsurprisingly, NAR and adjacent evangelical groups are playing an outsized role in public life. They have also been quietly registering voters in evangelical churches in swing states for more than a year.
News coverage is beginning to catch up with this movement that is using the tools of electoral democracy to errode or end it. But alas, the political community is still running behind. Popular notions of “Christian nationalism” only get us part way there in understanding the short and long term significance of this movement.
Most recently, The Independent (of London), featured a major story on NAR in American politics:
Web magazine Religion Dispatches calls the NAR “one of the most important Christian religious and political movements of our time” and points to the role of NAR leaders in the electoral campaigns of Trump “and Trump-aligned figures, from school boards to statewide elected offices”.
On his website, Lance Wallnau, an American preacher who popularised the Seven Mountains strategy, calls it an “unstoppable movement”.
Some media coverage conflates the NAR with Christian Nationalism, but they're actually very different. Christian nationalism contends that America has always been a Christian nation. But it’s more about identity than religion, bound up in nativism and white supremacy – reimagining the country’s history and values.
NAR, on the other hand, is very much rooted in religion. It’s also multi-racial, and at its root is the restoration of modern-day apostles and prophets – including women like [apostle Paula] White-Cain. NAR’s vision is to remove the “demonic forces” from positions of power and replace them with Christians intent on bringing about the Kingdom of God.
Getting our minds around all this can be challenging. Fortunately, it's not as baffling as it may sometimes seem.
That’s why Polical Research Associates and the Southern Poverty Law Center are hosting a free public discussion titled, The New Apostolic Reformation and the Threat to Democracy. These events will be held on Zoom on Thursday, August 15th from 1:00 to 2:30 PM EST and again on Wednesday, August 21st, 1:00 - 2:30 PM EST.
Please RSVP by registering here.
Several leading writers and researchers on NAR will engage in a colloquium style discussion followed by Q&A, moderated by Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Political Research Associates.
Presenters will include:
· Anthea Butler, Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania.
· Frederick Clarkson, Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates.
· André Gagné, Professor and Chair, Department of Theological Studies, Concordia University, in Montreal.
· Julie Ingersoll, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Florida.
· Peter Montgomery, Research Director at People for the American Way.
· Rachel Tabachnick, Former Associate Fellow, Political Research Associates.
Whether or not you are able to attend if you want to get up to speed on the NAR, I suggest these resources: “American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times” a short book by André Gagné that is at once a primer and a concise and authoritative reference; The New Dominionism Tries To Rule, by Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, Southern Poverty Law Center; Meet The New Apostolic Reformation: The Cutting Edge of the Christian Right by Paul Rosenberg at Salon; “The Violent Implications of the “Jezebel” Attacks on Kamala Harris,” by Melissa Gira Grant in The New Republic; The Alabama Embryo Opinion Is About More Than Christian Nationalism: An insurgent religious movement is beginning to feel its strength: by Stephanie McCrummen in The Atlantic; A Reporter's Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation by Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné at Religion Dispatches; and the story of NAR involvement in the insurrection of January 6th, by Matthew D. Taylor and Bradley Onishi at Religion Dispatches.
