The Old Domionism
posted by CS | 4:00 PM 
Hey kids! Let's all go to Jesus Camp.
The central problem with their efforts, again IMHO, is their interpretation of God's commands to believers specifically via the New Testament, which culminates in a political orthodoxy termed dominionism - an interpretation more in line with the Old Testament than the new.
In fact, what dominionism seems to seek in this day and age is the Kingdom of Christ promised in the next. To me, scripture seems pretty clear that while in the future, Christ will be King and all will worship Him (in what might be termed a Theocracy, though not quite), today the believer is to be concerned with God's two great commandments: to love Him with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love one another as ourself. (The latter one is deceptively simple for me, as I practice self-loathing.) ;-)
Dominionism rather seems to be concerned less with the individual's relationships to his God and fellow man, than with a society's relationship to God. It's a unique form of socialism mixed with authoritarianism - not unlike a Soviet Union of the God-fearing, if in appearances only.
Most believers have not heard of the movement, but would recognize it through its more familiar public arms: The Moral Majority, The Christian Coalition, Renew America, to name a few.
It's not that I oppose the positions of these entities; sometimes I do, but more times than not, I am sympathetic or downright supportive of them. But I am not supportive of their general interpretation of Scripture as mandating believers to effect political changes culminating in theocracy.
I think in this respect, believers make the same basic mistake secularists make: acting upon a belief that this current earth can be made a heaven of sorts. Secularists, believing this life all there is, are logically compelled to maximize everything, perfecting as much as possible. Believers in an afterlife - particularly the flavor promised by Christ - should know better.
At least I should. ;-)
Fischer is the central character in "Jesus Camp," a documentary about Pentecostal evangelical Christians, some of whom send their children to summer camps where they pray, "speak in tongues" and are encouraged to campaign against abortion.Living in an America where the political and social landscape were dominated by evangelical Christians would certainly be better than the status quo, IMHO, but would itself be fraught with problems.
The central problem with their efforts, again IMHO, is their interpretation of God's commands to believers specifically via the New Testament, which culminates in a political orthodoxy termed dominionism - an interpretation more in line with the Old Testament than the new.
In fact, what dominionism seems to seek in this day and age is the Kingdom of Christ promised in the next. To me, scripture seems pretty clear that while in the future, Christ will be King and all will worship Him (in what might be termed a Theocracy, though not quite), today the believer is to be concerned with God's two great commandments: to love Him with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love one another as ourself. (The latter one is deceptively simple for me, as I practice self-loathing.) ;-)
Dominionism rather seems to be concerned less with the individual's relationships to his God and fellow man, than with a society's relationship to God. It's a unique form of socialism mixed with authoritarianism - not unlike a Soviet Union of the God-fearing, if in appearances only.
Most believers have not heard of the movement, but would recognize it through its more familiar public arms: The Moral Majority, The Christian Coalition, Renew America, to name a few.
It's not that I oppose the positions of these entities; sometimes I do, but more times than not, I am sympathetic or downright supportive of them. But I am not supportive of their general interpretation of Scripture as mandating believers to effect political changes culminating in theocracy.
I think in this respect, believers make the same basic mistake secularists make: acting upon a belief that this current earth can be made a heaven of sorts. Secularists, believing this life all there is, are logically compelled to maximize everything, perfecting as much as possible. Believers in an afterlife - particularly the flavor promised by Christ - should know better.
At least I should. ;-)
3 Comments:
Interesting link...I happened to have grown up in the Pentecostal church (my father's extended family belongs to it, with one of his cousins a minister), so I'm pretty familiar with how they conduct their services. The documentary would be interesting to watch.
Apparently, this film won the Sterling Award for Feature Film from the AFI at the Silverdocs festival in DC:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117945527?categoryid=13&cs=1
"Jesus Camp," Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's look at a summer camp for young evangelical Christians, won the Sterling Award for feature film Saturday at the fourth annual Silverdocs, the D.C.-area documentary fest held by American Film and Discovery Channel.
Ewing and Grady will receive $10,000 cash, $10,000 in-kind services from Video Labs and $5,000 in film stock from Kodak.
Here's a good interview with the directors about the movie:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/jesuscamp.html
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