I was doing some grocery shopping this weekend, and as I left the store I was persuaded to make one last purchase. Outside were several Girl Scouts sitting at a table surrounded by boxes of cookies. I immediately reached for my wallet.

Girl Scout cookies rock. I'm partial to Thin Mints, Trefoils and Samoas. Plus, my daughter was a member of the Scouts when she was younger, so I've always had a soft spot for the organization.

[update: subsequent research shows that Invisible Children has extensive social and institutional ties to The Fellowship (also called "The Family"), the Washington D.C. based evangelical global network which has been credited, by the bill's co-author MP David Bahati, with inspiring and even providing "technical support" for Uganda's Anti Homosexuality Bill, often called the "kill the gays bill". See this subsequent 7,000 word report]

What does Invisible Children share in common with the Discovery Institute, the leading organization promoting "Intelligent Design", a pseudo-scientific theory created to insinuate creationist ideas into public schools -- or with The Call, whose leader Lou Engle claims homosexuals are possessed by demons, calls God an "avenger of blood" and a "terrorist", and in May 2010 staged a rally in Kampala, Uganda, at which Engle warned of a gay menace to society and shared a stage with one of the authors of Uganda's notorious Anti Homosexuality Bill ?

990 IRS tax forms and yearly reports from Invisible Children, and 990s from its major donors, tell a story that's jarringly at odds with the secular, airbrushed, feelgood image the nonprofit has cultivated.

"We feel like God calls us to be joyful in the work that we're doing, no matter what we're doing. [...]

A lot of people fear Christians, they fear Liberty University, they fear Invisible Children - because they feel like we have an agenda. They see us and they go, "You want me to sign up for something, you want my money. You want, you want me to believe in your God." And it freaks them out."

--- Jason Russell, speaking at Liberty University, November 7, 2011

Is Invisible Children a nonprofit devoted to human needs, or is it a ministry devoted to bringing souls to Jesus ? Judging by a talk co-founder Jason Russell gave last November at Liberty University, it would seem to be a bit of both.

There may be no continent on Earth where the influence of the New Apostolic Reformation is more pervasive than in Africa. The NAR has close ties to Uganda's president and first lady - who have several times held official state dinners for top NAR leader Ed Silvoso. Janet Museveni even traveled in 2006, with an entourage, to Silvoso's yearly conference in Argentina. In 2007, both Musevenis were billed as speaking at the same yearly conference though I have not so far been able to confirm their presence.

Now, due to the 2011 appointment of justice Mgoeng Mgoeng as SA Chief Justice, the NAR may be positioned to advance its dominionist, "Seven Mountains" agenda in South Africa also - with erosion of womens rights and LGBT rights, and secular government, as possible outcomes.

I was stunned to attend a Christian Coalition rally in Washington D.C. and find what was being peddled in booths at the meeting.  Present were John Birch Society manuals, Cult leader Rev. Moon's followers, and his paper, the Washington Times, and all sorts of Ronald Reagan memorabilia.  The item that stood out from the visit was the larger than life cardboard poster of Rush Limbaugh.  It was easily discerned   that he was the favorite broadcaster of the throng gathered.

It's still hard for me to believe that in light of the sluggish economic recovery, ongoing worries over jobs and mounting home foreclosures that most Americans are interested in a protracted discussion over access to contraceptives.

Yet here we are. The issue simply will not go away, chiefly because some misguided clergy won't let it die.

[update: for related story, see Gingrich Faith Coalition Leader: Punch To Gut Healed Stomach Tumor]

Dutch Sheets is a member of Newt Gingrich's Faith Leaders Coalition -- as confirmed in January by researcher Rachel Tabachnick and noted in a February 27, 2012 story in The Nation). In a February 19, 2009 podcast, Sheets detailed (transcript below) an ambitious Internet-driven plan to "infect" one million young Americans per year with the dominionist Seven Mountains vision - that believers should infiltrate and take places of influence in key sectors of society and culture.

The 7M mandate has been promoted extensively by the NAR, including by Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee, prior to his blessing of Sarah Palin, as shown in 2005 church footage (see links, above) that emerged during the 2008 election. The Seven Mountains are: business and finance, religion, the family, education, media, arts and entertainment, and government.

Rick Santorum, a conservative Catholic, has lived in the shadow of John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic president, his entire political career.  So much so that he felt the need to make a formal speech distancing himself from Kennedy's views on separation of church and state, and in the course of repeating what would be a campaign theme, he famously said that the speech made him want to throw-up.

But Santorum is not the only one living in the shadow of JFK, and he may not be the only one who wanted to throw-up.

The deeper into the GOP primary season we get, the more  former Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) class and culture war rhetoric abandons all pretense of moderation.  More concerning, he has become more heated, snide and resentful as his popularity has grown.

He has demonstrated that he is willing to reach blue-collar voters by fear-mongering. But more importantly, he has shown us how Opus Dei's teachings inform his vision for society.

The New Apostolic Reformation has prayer warrior networks in all 50 states under the authority of several apostles including Cindy Jacobs, who heads the U.S. Reformation Prayer Network (RPN). RPN is producing prayer guides for each state as part of the "FastForward" initiative to impact the 2012 election.  The California FastForward Prayer Guide is now available and openly attacks the state's labor unions.

We know little about Guatemala, a Central American neighbor with a troubled history, stoked by U.S. corporate profiteering, military interventions, and U.S. support for an assortment of ruthless military dictators. During a thirty plus-year bloody civil war, the Guatemalan army, police and paramilitary groups were responsible for destroying hundreds of Maya villages and the deaths of tens of thousands of Mayan people. Most official estimates maintain that some 200,000 Guatemalans were killed, mostly by government or government-related forces. In recent years Guatemala City has become one of the most violent cities in the world, as violence by drug cartels and gangs continues to rise.

Last year's November elections vaulted a general linked to human rights abuses into the presidency. One of his first appointments was a man who has consistently demonized the Mayan people, and who, over the years, has developed a close relationship to C. Peter Wagner's U.S.-based Christian conservative religious movement, the New Apostolic Reformation.

A November Charisma Magazine article is titled the "Rising Tide of Influence: How Pentecostalism is gradually changing the dynamics of American Politics."  But most of the leaders in the article are not traditional Pentecostals - they are apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation. The NAR is one of the current forces behind the radicalization of the Religious Right, and in turn, U.S. politics. NAR leaders teach a dualistic worldview in which all other religions and philosophies, including secular democracy, are considered controlled by demonic entities in a cosmic battle with Christianity.  They are leaders on social issues, like fighting abortion and gay rights, but they also emphasize a mandate to take "dominion" over all of the "Seven Mountains" or cultural power centers - arts, business, education, family, government, media, and religion.

The late Rousas Rushdoony, father of Christian Reconstructionism wrote the tome and laid the foundations for infusing Dominion Theology into American politics, but it is Charismatic Dominionists who have had the greater success in drawing millions of followers in the U.S. and worldwide.  Following is a brief introduction to a few of the leading apostles and prophets, including video links.