Beware Rick Perry...

... and the NAR--the New Apostolic Reformation movement that organized "The Response," the Texas governor's August prayer rally for "a nation in crisis." Yesterday's Terry Gross "Fresh Air" interview with researcher Rachel Tabachnick, linked above, was one of the scariest things I've heard for a long time. An obviously well-financed and well-organized group of right-wing Christian evangelicals, the NAR practices "dominion theology"--which means, in a nutshell, them having dominion over the rest of us. Their political agenda includes the banning of abortion, the attack on gay rights, and the conversion of Jews. The latter is intended to clear the way for the Second Coming of Christ and the rapture, currently on hold, it seems, until enough Jews in Israel convert to Christianity--a prerequisite for the grand event. But that's not all:

For the past several years, [Tabachnick] says, the NAR has run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the "seven mountains of culture" from demonic influence. The "mountains" are arts and entertainment; business; family; government; media; religion; and education.

"They teach quite literally that these 'mountains' have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society," says Tabachnick. "And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. ... The apostles teach what's called 'strategic level spiritual warfare' [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we're accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they're doing that's quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups."

Along with their demons, they also believe in the Antichrist--and many of them, I would guess, subscribe to the harebrained notion that Obama is his current manifestation in the world, bent on leading us into the satanic abyss of Socialism. (Just try googling Obama and Antichrist side by side. I'm not offering to do it for you.)

The NAR also argue, apparently, that this country's constitutional separation of church and state is a myth. They believe, quite literally, that it's their God-given right and duty to take over first this country, then the world. What's scary is not that already large numbers of people believe such madness but that they are able to persuade others to follow their delusional agenda, and that they wield potentially vast political influence. The fact that at least one major contender for the Republican nomination for the presidency is, if not one of their number, at least demonstrably influenced by their supposed piety, is deeply troubling to me. It should be receiving far more media investigation and exposure than a single episode of "Fresh Air." In case you missed this interview, here, again, is the link. If it doesn't scare the pants off you, I don't know what will.