{"id":6201,"date":"2011-08-18T17:18:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T21:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=6201"},"modified":"2011-08-18T17:18:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T21:18:19","slug":"washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of “crazy Christians?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Here we go again,” writes Lisa Miller for the Washington Post.<\/em> “The Republican primaries are six months away, and already news stories are raising fears on the left about ‘crazy Christians.'”<\/p>\n

One piece, she notes,\u00a0connects Gov. Rick Perry with a previously unknown Christian group called \u201cThe New Apostolic Reformation,\u201d whose main objective is to \u201cinfiltrate government.\u201d Another highlights whacko-sounding Christian influences on Michele Bachmann. A third cautions readers to be afraid, very afraid, of \u201cdominionists.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The stories raise real concerns about the world views of two prospective Republican nominees,” writes Miller.\u00a0“But their echo-chamber effect reignites old anxieties among liberals about evangelical Christians. Some on the left seem suspicious that a firm belief in Jesus equals a desire to take over the world. (The same charge, ironically, leveled at Obama in 2008 by some extremist Christians.)”<\/p>\n

Miller continues:<\/p>\n

As Rachel Maddow so sarcastically said in her Aug. 10 broadcast on the New Apostolic Reformation: \u201cTheir goal, world domination, blah blah blah.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a defense of the religious beliefs of Bachmann or Perry, whatever they are. It\u2019s a plea, given the acrimonious tone of our political discourse, for a certain amount of dispassionate care in the coverage of religion. Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they\u2019re Christian. A third of Americans call themselves \u201cevangelical.\u201d When millions of voters get lumped together and associated with the fringe views of a few, divisions will grow. Here, then, are some clarifying points.<\/p>\n

Evangelicals do not generally want to take over the world. \u201cDominionism\u201d is the paranoid mot du jour. In its broadest sense, the term describes a Christian\u2019s obligation to be active in the world, including in politics and government. You could argue, says Molly Worthen, who teaches religious history at the University of Toronto, that the nineteenth and early twentieth century reformers \u2013 abolitionists, suffragists, and temperance activists, for example \u2013 were dominionists.<\/p>\n

Extremist dominionists do exist, theocrats who hope to transform our democracy into something that looks like ancient Israel, complete with stoning as punishment. But \u201cit\u2019s a pretty small world,\u201d says Worthen, who studies these groups.<\/p>\n

Christian PR man Mark DeMoss put it this way: \u201cYou would be hard pressed to find one in 1,000 Christians in America who could even wager a guess at what dominionism is.\u201d<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Here we go again,” writes Lisa Miller for the Washington Post. “The Republican primaries are six months away, and already news stories are raising fears on the left about ‘crazy Christians.’” One piece, she notes,\u00a0connects Gov. Rick Perry with a previously unknown Christian group called \u201cThe New Apostolic Reformation,\u201d whose main objective is to \u201cinfiltrate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,956],"tags":[828],"class_list":["post-6201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-washington-post-on-faith","tag-politics-2"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of "crazy Christians?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of "crazy Christians?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Here we go again,” writes Lisa Miller for the Washington Post. “The Republican primaries are six months away, and already news stories are raising fears on the left about ‘crazy Christians.'” One piece, she notes,\u00a0connects Gov. Rick Perry with a previously unknown Christian group called \u201cThe New Apostolic Reformation,\u201d whose main objective is to \u201cinfiltrate…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-18T21:18:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Washington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of \"crazy Christians?\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Washington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of \"crazy Christians?\"","og_description":"“Here we go again,” writes Lisa Miller for the Washington Post. “The Republican primaries are six months away, and already news stories are raising fears on the left about ‘crazy Christians.'” One piece, she notes,\u00a0connects Gov. Rick Perry with a previously unknown Christian group called \u201cThe New Apostolic Reformation,\u201d whose main objective is to \u201cinfiltrate…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-08-18T21:18:19+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians","name":"Washington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of \"crazy Christians?\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-18T21:18:19+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-18T21:18:19+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/washington-post-why-are-news-stories-raising-fears-of-crazy-christians#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Washington Post: Why are news stories raising fears of “crazy Christians?”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6203,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201\/revisions\/6203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}