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Sojourners' Blog--"leaders of The Call have traded one form of bigotry for another"
The fallout from TheCall Detroit is spreading across evangelical media in surprising and significant ways. Jim Wallis' influential "God's Politics Blog" is up with a post from Aaron Taylor, a writer who I interviewed for a recent piece at Talk to Action. Taylor's post is notable for its sharp rebuke of TheCall's disturbing theology of racial reconciliation and for its emphasis on TheCall's role in the larger New Apostolic Reformation-style dominionism and Christian Zionism. |
Here is a part of his argument from his post "Why I Don't Heed `The Call'":
Though I treasure my Pentecostal heritage, these days I feel like an outsider looking in, because though it started out as a pacifist movement in the early 20th century, today Pentecostalism (at least in America) is largely known as a religion that spawns extremist movements that trumpet militarism and bigotry.
Chief exhibit:
The Call
Founded by Lou Engle, The Call is a movement that regularly holds massive prayer events in stadiums across the country. Engle is part of a network called the New Apostolic Reformation, which believes that God is raising up an end-times army of apostles and prophets to take over earthly governments before Jesus comes back.
A few of its prominent leaders are Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, and Mike Bickle. Though the end-times theology of these individuals may vary, the underlying principle that binds them together is the idea that Christians are called to dominate earthly governments and civil society, and that apostles and prophets are supposed to pave the way to make that happen.
While they fashion themselves as champions of racial reconciliation, the reality is the leaders of TheCall have traded one form of bigotry for another. They lure African Americans, Latinos, and other racial minority Christians into their program by conducting ceremonies of repentance for past sins, but then they use their expanded platform to demonize Muslims and gay people, and promote an extreme Christian Zionist agenda.
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