Monty (0:00)

Should have brought whiskey with me today. Genesis 1:28 says God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves on the ground. If you listen to right leaning pastors or J.D. vance or most members of the MAGA movement, you'll hear things about needing Christian leaders, how this is a Christian nation, and how Christians should rule the government. This is called Dominion Theology, which started in the 1970s in earnest and became what we now know as the Seven Mountains Mandate. This verse, which is the basis of Dominion Theology and the Seven Mountains Mandate, also play a key role in the Christian push to force women to have as many kids as possible. After all, doesn't the Bible say be fruitful and multiply? We'll deal with that later. The Mandate is the idea that Christians are called to control the seven spheres or mountains of influence in the world. These mountains are religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment and business. And none of this is biblical, but it is an effective tool to gain power and so much money. Today we discuss the foundational teachings of Christian nationalism, the Seven Mountains Mandate, its origins and growth, and why it's utter horseshit Today on Flipping Tables, you'll have to forgive me for being a little spicy today. People have been testing me lately. I've been going through a lot of big change. That's really great and a lot of it's really exciting, but change is uncomfortable and uncertain. I've pulled back from my gig schedule with my band to work more on original music and I'm considering quitting my day job that I've run for 15 years to focus on this work. And I'm also recovering from being sick. So it's been a lot. But I'm so honored to be here with you. Couple quick announcements starting from this episode. I do have paid sponsorships, so if you want to keep your podcast ad free, please consider becoming an accomplice on Patreon for early releases. But also they will be ad free. It's $1 a week. I'm going to be adding more tiers soon that will include cool quarterly gift boxes, private livestream events, and in person events. So growing up in a Southern Baptist church in rural Wyoming, I remember the first time that I was introduced to the Seven Mountains Mandate. My church did a special Wednesday night series about how to fight against the lie of evolution and how science was indoctrinating people against God. Towards the end of this series, the pastor spoke about what's called the Seven Mountains Mandate. He spoke about how the only way we were going to turn America back to God is if Christian women had enough babies to, and I quote, breed out liberals and secularists. He also spoke to us little girls quite a while about this. But he also said that Christians had to control all facets of culture, that we needed to be able to infiltrate society and bend it towards Christianity, even if we had to use force. This was also the only way people would accept a student going into things like the arts in my church. Well, he's going to fight in the mountains of arts and media for God was kind of the dialogue in order to understand this ideology behind the Christian power worship that we are experiencing now and the utter defiance of kindness, inclusivity, or the separation of church and state, you have to understand this doctrine. But we're gonna address first two myths that led to this theology and talk about how it was born. Myth number one. And I've discussed this before on Instagram and on the podcast we are not a Christian nation. We are a nation founded on religious liberty. Most of the founding fathers were at best dies and they repeatedly talked about how this was not a nation founded on Christianity, but on religious liberty. If you'd like to do a deep dive on this, I highly recommend the book the Founding Myth by Andrew Seidel. Incredibly thorough. And it really talks about what our history actually means, not this Christian distortion of it. Myth number two, Dominion theology. This idea that Christians have been commanded in the Bible to rule with an iron fist is not biblical. It comes from the verse I opened the episode with Genesis 1:28 that said, God bless them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and in the sky, and every living creature that moves on the ground. So this verse is often taken to say that women should have as many babies as possible because God said so. Well, first of all, Genesis is fiction. It is a fiction storytelling book that was written 5,000 years after the events were supposed to have taken place. But also the command to be fruitful and multiply has already been fulfilled. We have already done it. We've been fruitful, we've multiplied, we've filled the earth. It does not mean that we have to do that in perpetuity. The second thing is that for most sermons that are proponents of Dominion theology, they will read this verse up until the line that says, fill the earth and Subdue it. But that last sentence, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds in the sky and every living creature that crawls on the ground, makes it clear that the dominion, the rule is over the animal kingdom. It does not apply to other human beings. And Jesus was also very clear that his ministry always offered an invitation, never force. He even commanded things like give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, pay your taxes, those kind of things. It's not biblical. Dominion theology formally began to take shape in the 1970s, though its ideological roots stretch back into the American religious right and also the Puritans, who believed that they were establishing a city upon a hill in the New World, a society that was going to be guided by divine mandate. In the 19th century, post millennial theology, which taught Christians, taught that Christians must build God's kingdom on earth. Christ returns laid the foundation for this idea that believers should take control over society because then we can force Christ to come back. This city on a hill idea came from a historian named Perry Miller, who was prominent in the 20th century. He was a historian, a literary scholar, and he helped revive interest in early American Puritanism. His work emphasized the intellectual and theological depth of the Puritans and challenged the idea that they were joyless fanatics. Miller brought renewed attention to John Winthrop's 1630 sermon, a model of Christian Charity, which is where we get the phrase a city upon a hill. This sermon had by and large been forgotten about until Perry revived it. Miller's scholarship in the mid 20th century elevated this text to a foundational level of American identity, taking it from obscurity to being almost a founding document. John Winthrop delivered this sermon aboard the Arbela before landing in New England. And the city on a hill metaphor was drawn from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. It was meant as a moral warning. If the Puritan colony failed to live righteously, it would be publicly shamed. And the phrase was revived and reinterpreted in the 20th century, first by Miller and then most famously by Ronald Reagan. And it became a marriage between politics and this supposed Christian founding. Ronald Reagan was the one who reframed it as a symbol of America's exceptionalism and America's destiny to be a moral beacon to the world. It became a staple of political rhetoric and used to promote American exceptionalism, which is a key tenet in the Christian nationalist movement. In the 1970s, dominion theology became more clearly defined through the works of a man named R.J. rushduni. He was a theologian and a founder of the Christian Reconstructionist movement. His 1973 book, The Institutes of Biblical Law, argued that civil law should be based entirely on biblical commandments, including Old Testament penalties. We're going to dive into him. It is utter insanity what this man promoted. But it is important that we know that the Seven Mountains Mandate dominions Christian theology. And the idea that Christian should rule over the earth, over society was really built by Rush Juni. And so we have to understand just how wild and insane his ideas were. Rush Juni's vision was for a theocratic society governed by Christian principles. And his ideas were further developed later by followers that we'll touch on. But this branch of Dominion theology was deeply theocratic and called for a literal application of biblical law in government and culture. Let me explain. He was. Rush Duty was a Presbyterian theologian. He was a philosopher and a writer. He was born to Armenian immigrants and was deeply influenced by Calvinist theology, which has a strong belief in that The Bible is 100% accurate, 100% inerrant, and 100% literal. He founded the Chalcedonian foundation in 1965, which became the main platform for promoting Christian reconstructionism, which is this idea that America has to rebuild America under Christian principles, because that's how we were founded, is that idea. It's a theonomic movement advocating for a biblical worldview applied to all areas of life, even if that means applying it by force. So here's Rushduni's core teachings. 1. The biblical law should be civil law. Rush Juni argued that Old Testament law, including civil codes in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, should be the foundation of modern government. He opposed secularism and believed that laws must be based entirely on the Bible. And an example of this was he. He believed that crimes, crimes in the Old Testament like adultery, homosexuality, even though that translation is questionable, and blasphemy, so blaspheming God in some way. I don't know who decides what's blasphemy and what's not, but he believed that these should be capital offenses punishable by death because that's what it says in the Bible. Number two, he believed in theonomy and dominion theology. Rush Juni was a pioneer of Dominion theology, the belief that Christians are mandated by God to rule over society, enforce all facets of society under Christ's lordship. This is the underpinning and like the very deep guts and foundation of what became the Seven Mountains Mandate, really comes from Rushduni and his particular brand of Dominion Theology. And it's very much his ideas. Rushduni's ideas have been repackaged into what we now know as the far right political movement. Number three, he believed in what's called post millennialism. This is the belief that Christ will return after a golden age on earth. Haven't you heard Trump reference this? He's referencing Rushduni and the Seven Mountains Mandate. After this golden age on earth brought about by Christian dominion and obedience to biblical law, only then will Jesus return. Number four, he believed only in Christian education and was anti public schools. He despised public education, which he called a form of human. He did not believe that everyone is entitled to education. He also believed it was a tool for the secular state to indoctrinate children in anti Christian values. How familiar does this sound? The university professors are indoctrinating our kids. The, you know, this dialogue, all of this rhetoric comes from Rushduni. He was an early champion of the homeschooling movement, framing it as a moral obligation for Christian parents. Back to Dominion theology in that Bible verse real quick. The homeschooling theology also played a critical role in Dominion theology because they also believed in very strict gender roles and believed that women should have as many babies as possible. And if a woman takes birth control or she doesn't have kids, she is defying the will of God. Because of their firm belief in gender roles, these beliefs come in very handy because a good way to tie a woman down is, is to force her to have as many kids as possible and to force her to homeschool. It keeps a woman in the home, which they believe is her rightful place. It also keeps her underneath the resources of her husband, which means she can't leave, which is what they also agree with. Number five, he rejected democracy and pluralism. Rush Dooney believed that democracy was fundamentally flawed because it allowed ungodly people to rule. He favored a biblical republic where civic leaders submit to God's law, not the will of the people. He opposed religious pluralism, called it immoral because it gives equal standing to what he called false religions. This man was diametrically opposed to religious freedom. He did not believe that you can have a society that allows for anyone to practice whatever religion they want. I need people to understand that this is fundamentally what Christian nationalists believe. They do not believe in religious freedom. That is why anything that does not give Christianity power to them is Christian persecution, because all these other things are false religions and it's wrong to give false religions equality. This is why people who have deconstructed Christian nationalism are trying to send off emergency red flares about what's going on because we were raised in this belief. The goal of Rush Dunes theology, the goal of Dominion theology, the Seven Mountains Mandate, as well as Christian nationalism, is to crush every form of secularism, every other religion underneath its weight. To remove the freedom of thought, the freedom of religion, because it is the only way that you can force people into the Christian faith without doubt, without question, even if it means giving people capital punishment for committing a sin that you don't agree with. Some more extreme teachings that Rush Juni has. Here are some moral offenses that Rush Dooney openly advocated for execution of. We mentioned homosexuality, adultery, blasphemy, witches. So this even ties back to the City on a Hill and the Puritans because they used this ideology of we are ordained by God to later execute women to take their land and their wealth, or execute women that had mental health problems. The same ideology replies here. But Rushduni also believed in the execution of rebellious children. He believed that if you have a rebellious teenager, you should be able to stone them to death. This is the underpinning of what is now Christian nationalist movement. And do not let them tell you otherwise, because it is. He acknowledged that in a true biblical society, these people would be put to death. So therefore, if we are going to be a biblical society, we have to put them to death. And he argued that these executions would rarely happen because society as a whole would be more moral. Number two, he believed in abolishing the separation of church and state. Rush Juni called the separation of church and state a myth and believed that America was founded as a Christian nation, which we've already talked about is a lie and should be returned to that foundation. And again, he rejected the idea of religious freedom, believing that only biblical Christianity should be permitted in public life. Do you hear me? This is why Christians will say things like, well, I don't hate homosexuals. I just don't agree with their lifestyle. It shouldn't be in movies. It shouldn't be in the classroom. It shouldn't be because they truly believe that only Christianity should be allowed in public life and in leadership. That is a true belief. Christian fundamentalists and Christian nationalists do not believe in religious freedom of any kind. Number three, Rush Dooney openly supported slavery. In his massive book, Institutes of Biblical Law, Rush Juni defended biblical slavery, claiming it was not immoral and that biblical slavery was more humane than modern welfare systems. He described Southern US slavery as benevolent. This is why the Christian Nationalist Project 2025 movement wants to roll back civil rights protections. It's the reason that they oppose DEI because they believe that slavery was never wrong in the first place and that that southern slave owners were just really nice people taking care of black people. It's underpinned by the belief that not only are black people inferior to white people, it's underpinned by the belief that they're not as smart, they're not as capable, they're not as intelligent. And so white people stepping in, whether it's colonialization or slavery, is just helping them out. That same thought applies to Native Americans and the genocide that was excused in United States history. Rush Juni critiqued civil rights and social justice. Again, I just mentioned that that is why Project 2025 come comes for civil rights and wants the 1964 Civil Rights act to be overturned. They believe that it is their right to be racist and to discriminate. And they also believe that slavery is perfectly justifiable. Biblically. Brush Juni claimed that civil rights was grounded in Marxist and humanist theology. And he believed that social justice movements were inherently anti Christian because they emphasized equality over biblical order. Here's my next point. Fundamentalist Christians and Christian nationalists do not believe in equality, period. They don't believe in equality between races. They absolutely do justify slavery. They're opposed to dei, affirmative action, anything that gives people equal footing. They do not believe that men and women are equal. And they will never fully support women's equality because they don't inherently believe in it. They don't believe in a woman's right to abortion. Not because the Bible says that. The Bible doesn't talk about abortion and is very clear that life begins at first breath. And it's very clear even in Exodus that a fetus, the value of a fetus is less than the value of, of the life of its mother. It's very clear about that. But they are so firm in their belief that women are beneath and subject to men that anti abortion laws play into that. Because you can't. You can tell women as much as you want that their natural state is at home submitting to their husband. If you have to keep reminding women that's where they belong, that's not where they naturally exist. Anti abortion laws allow them to impose their interpretation of biblical law onto women. Because this movement, this Mandate Dominion theology fundamentally does not believe in equality. They don't support human rights because they don't believe everyone has them. And they believe that the list of human rights is different based on your gender, based on your sexuality, and based on what you look like. Now. Rushduni originally was considered kind of a fringe theologian. This was not mainstream in his time. This was considered a little out there. It was really only held onto by really strict Christian fundamentalists. But his ideas have gained so much influence Even as I read through that list. Can you hear it in your mind? What we've seen in the news the last 10 years, the articles, what we see pastors talking about, what we read in Project 2025, what JD Vance espouses, his formerly fringe theology has now become mainstream. It's become mainstream through the Christian homeschooling movement, the Tea Party and any MAGA aligned Christian nationalism, any Dominionist politicians like Michele Bachmann, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence and the spread of Christian Reconstructionist language in modern Republican rhetoric. When the Republican Party married into religion with the Reagan establishment, rushdooney's ideologies immediately had a direct IV into mainstream evangelical thought and mainstream right politics. So now we have the Rush Juni's really the founder of all of this. We now have his ideals, how crazy they were, and his firm belief that not only were white people superior because Dominion theology and the Seven Mountains Mandate are also foundationally built on white supremacy, as is most American evangelicalism. We now know what his opinions were, but it was also furthered by figures that he inspired, such as Gary north, who was his son in law, and a man named Greg Bonson. So Gary north, he was an economist, author, political theorist. Again, this is Rush Juni's son in law. He taught that all economics for our country should be based on biblical law. He rejected anything that screamed socialist, Marxist. And a lot of these ideas took place in the very beginning of the Cold War. So any language that was anti communist, anti Marxist was a little bit more acceptable to people because we were at war with the USSR and the Red Scare was a very real thing. Most people today cannot distinguish between what communism and socialism actually is. But in the time that these ideals were growing, that language was recognizable and it was universally accepted. North also argued that gold and silver should be the only legal tender because it was the only legal tender allowed in the Bible. That is how extreme these movements are. That is why so many Christian fundamentalists push for the gold standard. It's because, well, the Bible says so. He opposed central banking, he opposed the Federal Reserve, and he called it a form of theft. North once wrote that any Christian supporting government welfare or any kind of currency was participating in theft since they both violate God's law and they violate property rights. He he argued for theocracy over democracy. North rejected secular democracy as inherently evil and advocated for a theocratic republic which is where biblical law is the legal foundation. This is what is happening right now in our country. Project 2025 the Maga Movement is an attempt. They don't care about the law because they do not care about democracy, because they think that democracy is evil. Their goal is to establish a theocracy where the only acceptable religion is Christianity and that Old Testament biblical law can be enforced on people who do not follow Christianity. He also supported the death penalty for offenses like homosexuality, adultery, idolatry, and what he called incorrigible children. He supports the death penalty for rebellious kids. He believed that democracy inevitably led to tyranny and that God's law is the only legitimate standard of justice, which is ironic considering the actions of tyranny that we're now witnessing in the government that's trying to establish this theocracy. Trump is not a Christian. We know that. I personally believe that both Trump and Musk are atheists. But they do know how to use this standard to make a lot of money in the meantime and put the people in power who want to fund that. This is a national witnessing of a very large smash and grab. Number three, north, unlike Rushduni, who rushed to believed in waiting for a Christian revival. North believed that Christians should seize power through political, economic, cultural means and force. He said we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools. Until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, then they will get busy in constructing a biblically based social, political and religious order. This is why the religious school voucher system is happening right now. Because they want to drain public schools, shut them down, because they believe they are tools of secularism. They want to be able to dictate who is allowed into Christian schools. So if you are not white and you are not male, you will be at a disadvantage. And they want to be able to indoctrinate you from the time you walk in that school door, that Christianity is your only option. So that's Greg North, Rushduni's son in law. He also dramatically influenced a man named Greg Bonson, who was a philosopher, theologian and a Christian apologist. He believed in what's called presuppositional apologetics. Bonson championed what's called the Vantilian method of apologies, the idea that all reasoning is based on presuppositions that non Christian worldviews are irrational because they cannot account for logic, morality or knowledge without God. He is the reason you hear so often that people will say something along the lines of, well, why do atheists have morality outside of God? They can have morality outside of God because without God, morality doesn't exist, which culturally has been disproven. This comes from Bonson. This is his ideology. So an example, Bonson argued that if you don't believe in the God of the Bible, you have no basis to say that murder is wrong because morality would be arbitrary without a divine standard, which we know culturally isn't true. Remember that Christianity is a fairly new religion, Chris. Like religions have been predating Christianity for thousands of years and in every society murder was wrong. Why? Because the cultists of the society understood that it was wrong to do harm. So that's not true. He also believed in what's called theonomy, which is God's law is binding today. Again meaning that the Old Testament, any law that God quotation Marks has laid down is binding right now. He rigorously defended the ongoing validity of the Old Testament civil law. So this, this is why so many people will reach into the Old Testament and pull up a verse about homosexuality or about a random sin that they don't like, but they'll disregard all the other laws about sacrif and type of clothing that you wear and the food that you eat. Say, say. Well, not those laws. We're talking about civil laws, but only when it's convenient for them, only when it's a movement that they oppose. And the verse in Leviticus that they particularly pull against homosexuality is actually talking about incest. But what are you gonna do? Because this is. This has been going on since Miller brought a city upon a hill in the 50s. And since the 70s when Dominion theology started to take hold, this has been a 50 year buildup. Bahnsen believed that a truly Christian government would enforce capital punishment for crimes like blasphemy, just like ancient Israel did. And to be fair, some people think that God damn it is blasphemy so you could get the death penalty for that. He also believed in no religious neutrality. A key Bahnsen concept was that there's no such thing as religious or moral neutrality. There's no gray area. All laws, education and culture are either submitted to God or they're in rebellion against him. Which is why you can't be a woman that doesn't have kids because their interpretation of the Bible says you have to. So therefore you're in rebellion against God and you should be punished. He opposed secular public education, religious pluralism and any legal system that was not grounded in Scripture. So any law, law or any legal system founded on equality, equal representation, they don't believe in. By the early 2000s, Dominion theology had been rebranded and popularized within a charismatic and Pentecostal movement called the Seven Mountains Mandate. The Seven Mountains Mandate has now become an evangelical and fundamentalist movement as well. This version taught that Christians must seize control of seven key spheres of cultural influence. Religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. And I use the word seize there very intentionally because they intend this to be a militant and forceful movement. This is not a well, we're going to try or we're just going to do the best we can in our circle. This is militant. While less extreme than the Reconstructionist model previously, the Seven Mountains Mandate is founded on those extreme principles and it retains the core idea that Christians are divinely commissioned to dominate society. Key figures in this doctrine include Lance Walnut, Bill Bright, and a man named Lauren Cunningham. Their teachings helped spread Dominionist thinking beyond the theological fringe that it started and into mainstream white ring Christian activism and Republican politics. Dominion Theology thus evolved from a colonial idea and a post millennial thought into a formal theological and political system starting in the 1970s. And it became much more of a strategic cultural framework in the 2000s. Its development a significant shift in how some Christians view their role in politics and society not as passes passive observers, but as agents of divine authorities and soldiers for God. Soldiers for God is very frequently used, especially for young Christians to start to indoctrinate them to the idea to force Christianity on the world around them. And right before I dive into what is the Seven Mountains Mandate Break Mandate. How did it get born? How has it affected our culture today? How do we see it around us? We're going to take a quick and little brief sponsor break. If you listen to my content, you probably know that I talk a lot about history, a lot about current events, a lot about religion. 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So come party in Nashville, beat the hangover at Intravenous Solutions. Give the code Monty10 at checkout and you'll receive a 10% discount on services. And I'm back. So let's go to the Origin of the Seven Mountains Mandate. As Dominion Theology through Rush Juni is building in the 70s, the Seven Mountains mandate is born at that same time. They kind of merge later. The Seven Mountains mandate traces back to 1975 when two influential Christian leaders, Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and Lauren Cunningham, the founder of Youth with a Commission, claimed to receive a divine revelation on the same day in separate locations. According to their testimony, God revealed to them that in order to fulfill the Great Commission and bring about the Kingdom of God on earth, Christians must influence the seven key spheres of society. I want to point out that they claim this happened. There is no proof. People just believed it. They were like, yep, we both had this vision and God said so and people took it and they bought it. Let's talk a little bit about each of them though. Bill Bright was kind of a behind the scenes evangelical giant. A lot of times when people think of really famous evangelicals, they think of Billy Graham. But Bill Bright was just as important, working in the back, working behind the scenes, and he was one of the most he created one of the largest and most influential Christian ministries in history. His passion for evangelicalism was unmatched, but his methods and his ministry entanglements have drawn a little bit of controversy. Bill Bright was born on October 19, 1921 in Cowetta Oklahoma. Growing up during the Great Depression, he developed a strong work ethic and an intense patriotism. In his early years, Bright had little interest in religion. After moving to Los Angeles, he pursued a career in business, eventually founding Bright's California Confections, a successful candy company in the 1940s. After a personal conversion experience and exposure to Christian ministries like the Fellowship, which is a. It's a really influential and very secretive Christian political network. I need to do an episode on the Fellowship, actually. Bright dedicated his life to full time evangelism. He briefly attended Princeton Theological Seminary and Fuller Seminary, but left without completing his degree. He was convinced that traditional theology wasn't necessary for the work he believed God had called him to. I want to tell you what this sounds like. If you study any American cult and most cults globally, it always starts with God appeared to me in a vision. Well, I can't study traditional theology because God's talking to me directly. I just want to point that out. In 1951, he and his wife Vonette founded the Campus Crusade for Christ at ucla. His mission was to evangelize college students whom he saw as the future leaders of the world. He's not wrong there. His methods were systematic, almost corporate, including the creation of the Four Spiritual Laws, a pamphlet that simplified evangelicalism into a step by step formula. And as I was growing up, we were indoctrinated into this movement. Even as elementary and middle school students, high school students, we handed out these pamphlets. I was, I was forced to memorize them. Those four spiritual laws were this one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. And they would use John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but inherit eternal life. So obviously this is a nice opener. God loves you, he's got a purpose for you. All of us want to know our purpose. It's a great opener. Number two was that man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life. Romans 3:23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Man is sinful and separated from God. And this idea of inherent born with sinfulness is very key in Christianity because it allows for them to come to you and say, well, you can't trust yourself. That's just your sinful nature. Well, you can't believe that. That's not, that's not of God, that's of your sinful nature. And it predisposes you to not trust your gut, not trust your instinct, not ask questions, and to submit to anyone that you perceive as a religious authority. The third tenet of the pamphlet was Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin. Through him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life. Romans 5:8. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, you have a problem. But also, look, I have a solution to fix your problem. And number four, we must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives. John 1:2. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God. And I'm gonna take a little moment here to talk about this. So I am. And if you've seen any of my work, you know this. I am deeply passionate about the teachings of Christ. I love them. Love God, love your neighbor, take care of the world around you. But this particular selling point of Christianity, and this is what they do at revivals and special events, is a bold faced, intentional manipulation. Because love sets you free. And one of the things I've been thinking about so much as I grow in my own life and I grow spiritually, and I'm actually developing a curriculum to help people heal from and understand purity culture, is that while I was a traditional Christian fundamentalist, I never felt free. Everything felt wrong. I hated my hair, my face, my weight, because all of that was spiritual. I hated the fact that I knew I had to get married, I had to have kids. I never felt free. Jesus sets you free. And using this ideology, they bring people in with this promise of love and purpose. And then as soon as you're in, especially for women or people of color, you are all of a sudden weighed down by all this restriction. It incenses me that a belief system built on not believing in civil rights and justifying slavery uses as their selling point, God loves you and has a plan for your life. It is to use people to gain power and to gain money. And for those of you, because I have a lot of followers who are currently Christians or they have deconstructed, I am telling you right now that good faith sets you free and that any faith built on not treating people with equality, when Jesus said to love your neighbor and gave no qualifiers is horseshit. I'm a little again, a little spicy today, but it makes me so incensed because of its intentional distortion of What Jesus taught and its misuse of the Bible, the old test half of the Old Testament is fiction. We don't have any evidence that many of these Old Testament characters existed outside of myth. And you're going to use it to stone rebellious children? Are you out of your goddamn mind? I will go back to Bill Bright now. I just wanted to put that in there as a public service announcement. Bill Bright did have some controversial aspects of his ministry. He politicized evangelicalism. When he first started doing this, this was not a popular thought. People were totally fine with keeping politics and religion ideals separate and they thought that you should. But he blurred the lines again because of the Cold war and Cold War politics because it was the Christian exceptionalist nation against the evil atheistic USSR. And here's the thing, it was also during the 50s, during this cold War ramp up that Under God appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance. Under God was not in the original Pledge of the of Allegiance. In God We Trust was not originally on our currency. It was added in the 50s to draw a distinction as we went into this Cold War. But because Bill Wright viewed communism as both a political and spiritual evil, he merged the two. Campus Crusade's international efforts sometimes aligned with U.S. formal policy, Foreign policy, leading critics to call it religious imperialism, which it was. He also had a very authoritarian leadership style. Campus Crusade was tightly controlled for the from the top down. They had quotas, there was bonuses. They would treat evangelicalism the way that you would treat your job, like getting reprimanded if you don't meet your quota. They had a cultural insensitivity. So Bright's most famous project called the Jesus Film. If you guys grew up in church, you know what I'm talking about. It was translated into thousands of languages. It was criticized for westernizing Christianity, which it did, it whitewashed Christianity, but became this huge evangelical kind of selling piece of media. This was very kind of blonde hair, blue eyed Jesus version of Christianity. And it also he also had a lot of financial secrecy. Now Bill Bright did not do an olsteen or these multi million dollar pastors, but his ministry was handling hundreds of millions of dollars. Campus Crusade staff were required to raise their own salaries. So this ministry is taking in hundreds of millions of dollaries dollars and not paying their own staff. Their staff had to fundraise their own salaries. Which begs the question where did that money go? So there was a lot of controversy over that. So let's talk a little bit more about the other founder of the Seven Mountains Mandate, Lauren Cunningham. Lauren Cunningham was born on June 30, 1935 in Taft, California, into a deeply religious Pentecostal family. His upbringing was very similar to Jim Jones. He was saturated in missionary Zealand religious teachings. And at the age of 13, he felt called to a life of global evangelism. In 1960, Cunningham founded the Youth with a mission with an audacious vision to mobilize young people, many without formal theological education, to spread the gospel to every nation on earth. Both of these ministries targeting youth is intentional. It is easier to indoctrinate and brainwash youth than it is adults, which is why they push the Bible in schools, why they push school vouchers to Christian schools. Because if you bring in a grown ass adult and you try to teach them the story of Jonah and say that it's absolutely literal, they're gonna laugh at your face and be like, are you joking? You being serious right now? What do you mean all these animals fit on the ark? Because those are fictional stories. But if you can get a kid, preferably, or a preteen or a teenager, and maybe even a college student, you can convince them as long as you're persuasive enough. So Youth with a mission quickly became one of the largest short term mission organizations in the world. And it operated on a decentralized model. So rather than having kind of centralized, top down corporate headquarters, they relied on autonomous bases all over the world that allowed for local leaders to initiate their own projects. Some of the controversial aspects of Lauren Cunningham's ministry was there was a lack of oversight because it was decentralized so much. It was notoriously difficult to regulate. And many ex workers and volunteers reported spiritual abuse. Cult like control tactics, huh? Wonder where that came from? And authoritarian leadership at local bases. Again, how do cults start? Almost always someone telling them that they are either God or God speaks to them directly. Also, Lauren Cunningham's ministry had dominionous leanings. He advocated for influencing all spheres of society. Here's something that's funny about this. He advocated for influencing these spheres before his magical vision of the seven mountains mandate. So that is perilously convenient. He had questionable mission tactics as well. They were very aggressive with their evangelicalism and they faced accusations of cultural insensity and again, religious imperialism, particularly in indigenous communities. These were the missionaries going in and steamrolling and westernizing tribes in saying that they had the right to do so because God told them to, without any respect to those peoples or their cultures or their languages. Short term missionaries, often barely trained teenagers, were sometimes sent into complex, delicate cultures, leading to instances where local traditions were completely trampled in the name of evangelicalism. And for a second, I want us to go back to City on the Hill with John Winthrop in 1630 and the Puritans. This religious colonialism is a common theme from the second the boats hit the shore. This colonialism is what gave the British, in their mind, permission to colonize the world, to commit genocide, to wipe out other cultures, to call other people that didn't look like them or speak like them savages. It all comes from this, and we still have not gotten rid of it. He also had a lot of political entanglements. The leaders and alumni became increasingly involved in politics, particularly through the Fellowship, which was also called the Family. You know what? I'm going to start preparing a podcast episode on them today, because the Fellowship and the Family is a secretive, massive network of Christian nationalists that have been working for a very long time to make what we are seeing happen happen, starting with school board elections. So while the youth, Youth with a Mission officially claims neutrality, they have heavily leaned towards right wing caucuses, including anti LGBTQ legislation and Christian nationalist rhetoric. So let's go back to 1975. 1975. Both Lauren and Bill have this vision in different cities on the same night. And the seven mountains that Christians are supposed to rule is religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. These domains, proponents argue, shape the heart and soul of every nation to bring about God's will on earth. And believers must rise to positions of leadership and influence and force Christianity violently, if necessary. Now, briefly, there was a third man, Francis Schaeffer, who is a very prominent Christian philosopher and theologian who also lent his work to the language of the seven mountains mandate. He's much more famous than some of the other proponents are. He was a very critical thinker in theology. He also did a lot of incredible work. He really did. And Francis Schaeffer is one of the few famous religious leaders that really didn't have any scandals associated with him directly. He really does seem to have led an upright life, but he. He led to this. He contributed to the language of the gap between faith and culture and thinking that it should be closed. So, for instance, he argued that Western, modern, Western culture had lost its way because it abandoned absolute truth. He opposed moral relativism. He opposed human. He opposed, again, kind of religious pluralism. And he believed that we were. It's kind of the idea of, well, there's school shootings because we took prayer out of schools. That's a very Francis Schaeffer ideology. He had so unlike Many Apollo, excuse me. Unlike many fundamentalists at the time, however, Schaeffer actually supported art, music and culture. And he thought that they were important now. He thought that they were important because they could reflect divine truth. But many Dominion theologists, many fundamentalists of his time really discredited the arts. They were the people that we see now that defund the arts, defund culture, kind of steamroll and ruin it. Francis Schaeffer wasn't like that. But his most cultural impact or like the most controversial thing about Francis Schaeffer was that he did later in his life become very involved in American politics. So not only did he provide the framework for the Seven Mountains Mandate, he helped promote it. But later he very much became the central figure in the rise of what is now the religious revolution. Right. His book How Then Should We Live? And a Christian manifesto. The Christian Manifesto especially warned that secular humanism would lead to tyranny if Christians did not act. This Christian fear of we're being persecuted, they're taking the Christ out of Christmas, we have to act now, is from Francis Schaer. That's where this ideology comes from. He called for active Christian engagement in political issues, especially abortion. He was a very big proponent of the anti abortion movement. Also, even though Francis Schaeffer wasn't as much directly involved in the Seven Mountains Mandate, his political leanings, his disregard for separation of church and state, and his his kind of forceful rhetoric with Christianity and culture heavily influenced evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, as well as political strategists. So even though the Seven Mountains Mandate was not built by Schaeffer, the current movement that we see of the far right, political, religious, marriage with the Seven Mountains Mandate is very much his fault. Because of his influence on people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he had a very militant tone in politics. He was very forceful. Much of his language very much mirrored Rushdooney. Even though his stances weren't as harsh, like he didn't believe in stoning people for adultery, his tone was very much the same. So even though it does truly seem that he lived righteously, he did seem to practice what he preached. He was a very key figure in marrying Rushduni, Dominion theology, the Seven Mountains Mandate, into the political sphere. Anti abortion, anti LGBTQ rhetoric that came down through, especially Jerry Falwell. So let's dive in to the Mandate itself. So the Seven Mountains Mandate is, we've talked about, a product of Dominion theology. It's that interpretation of Genesis 1:28. And unlike traditional evangelicalism, which emphasized individual salvation and the separation of church and state. Traditional evangelicals believe that salvation is between you and God. And they believe that everyone has the right to practice religion as they see fit. Unlike that, this new version of evangelicalism, this movement sees no divide between the sacred and the secular. Its adherents believe that Jesus will only return once the church has taken control of every aspect of society, establishing God's kingdom on earth. That's that idea post millennialism. We establish God's kingdom here, this golden age of Christians ruling the earth, and then Jesus comes back. This belief system heavily overlaps with charismatic and Pentecostal movements. So some of the key modern figures of the movement as it is now. So not the founders. The people who are pushing the Seven Mountains Mandate, Christian nationalism as well as Rush Juni's version of dominion theology is Lance Walnut, Peter Wagner and people like Dutch Seats Dust Dutch, that's a name sheets. Chuck Pierce and Cindy Jacobs. The most prominent of these is Lance Walnut. We're going to talk a little bit about him. He's a charismatic speaker and author who helped popularize the Seven Mountains mandate in the early 2000s and last. Lance Walnut claims that Donald Trump was chosen by God to take the top mountain of government. That's why they support this is all Donald Trump had to do was play Christian and they're like great, he's going to take over this mountain. And even those who don't consider him a Christian refer to him as a Cyrus. Cyrus was a Babylonian king during the time that Israel was in exile. Cyrus was the king that allowed them to return to Israel to build the temple. So they will twist and bend the scripture and someone's completely immoral lifestyle to fit their rhetoric. No matter what they have to do, they will find an excuse, but that's how they justify it. So the Seven Mountains Mandate started as this spiritual vision. It's increasingly become a political blueprint, particularly in the Trump era. The rise of Donald Trump in 2016 marked a turning point. Many Seven Mountains leaders such as Lance Walnut that I just mentioned, declared him a modern day Cyrus, a secular leader appointed by God to protect Christianity and defeat the forces of liberalism, secularism and globalism. Just little fun side note here. I was taught that all Democrats were demon worshipers and literally ate babies. That is what's going on in some of these churches and some of this rhetoric. They believe that liberalism and democracy are attacks on Christianity, that they are inherently evil and Satanist. Christian nationalists use this framework to mobilize voters and activists. Prayer rallies were held on state capitals, prophecies were broadcast about overturning Roe v. Wade. I don't know if you remember those proph. I do. And the Seven Mountains preachers became fixtures in the Stop the Steal events after the 2020 election. The election was not stolen. We all know that this went to court. It was proven. There was evidence given. It never happened. But they used it to further their rhetoric. And the Seven Mountain Mandate leaders were key figures in Stop the Steal. So the education mountain has become the new front line. We see school vouchers. They started this infiltration of American society by pushing who got elected to the school board. So if you are a parent especially, you need to be paying attention as to who's being elected to your school board, because it starts here. Proponents have targeted the public school curriculums. Now they've been able to public target public schools funding as a whole. Why? They oppose evolution. They think it's an affront to God. They oppose LGBTQ rights or even acknowledgement that they exist. And they oppose racial history. Does this all sound familiar? Removing books from libraries, stripping DEI civil rights. This is all part of the Seven Mountains mandate that people have been being taught explicitly since the 90s. I grew up with this. I grew up thinking that the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King were enemies of God because it defied God's divine ordination of America. That is why all this is happening. If you're looking at all these headlines and you're like, where is this coming from? It comes from one movement. It comes from this movement. And they started it by backing local school boards without using overt religious language, but pushing things like parental rights, biblical values, and freedom from indoctrination. Those are trigger words from the mandate. So the media and entertainment mountain. While conservatives have long criticized liberal Hollywood, Seven Mountains leaders are building alternative media empires from Christian films like God's Not Dead to even social media like Truth Social. And I've mentioned this on a previous podcast that Amazon's releasing a King David series. And it's this glamorous dramatization of King David, who we also don't know for sure if he existed or not. We think he was based on someone who's real, but most scholars believe that the stories about him are fictional. Also, I want to point out, because we have to face the issues with the Bible. The Bible calls. The Bible is written by men, edited by men, translated by men, and used by men for power. Let's just get that out of the way. The Bible refers to King David as a man after God's own heart, after he raped Bathsheba and murdered her husband. That is a problem because many of the reasons that people use in Christian circles to justify the sexual sin and the violence of men comes from the idea that you can do something as horrific as rape and murder and still be after God's own heart. That's why we have to be honest about what's real in the Bible, what's fictional, and start telling the truth about it, because it leads us down very dangerous pathways. So obviously, there's been critics of the Seven Mountains Mandate, and they warn that it poses a threat to democracy, which it does. Christianity Today and other centrist or moderate evangelical publications have warned that the Mandate distorts the gospel message, turn it into a quest for political power, which it does. The gospel is for spiritual transformation, not political power. Secular watchdog groups like the group that I work with, Americans United, have flagged the movement as a growing tide of Christian nationalism, which it is. The Southern Poverty Law center has expressed concern over how the Seven Mountains rhetoric often merges with anti lgbtq, anti immigrant and conspiratorial worldviews. I hope that so many pieces are falling into place for you right now. The abortion argument, anti lgbtq, this insane and irrational hatred of immigrants, the conspiracies, the QAnon, Pizzagate, all of this comes from one foundational belief system. This mandate, and this merging with Dominion theology from the same time frame, these are the things that have created this movement. And one of the most alarming critiques is that it blurs the line of church and state to the point of theocracy. Because they believe in theocracy, they do not believe in the separation of church and state. And unfortunately, the Seven Mountains mandate isn't confined to the U.S. it's found adherence in Latin America, Africa, Asia, where charismatic Christianity is growing fast. And they've kind of put their own spin on on it. But it especially has a stronghold in Brazil in particular. The Seven Mountains Mandate continues to grow in influence, especially among younger conservative men. For the first time in history, there are more young men flocking to and attending church than there are young women. Why? Because we have had, for the first time ever, an entire generation of women who have had autonomy. And so women recognize the. We recognize the abuse now. We recognize subjugation. We recognize when our choice is being taken away. So for the first time ever, more women are leaving the church than staying in it. That has never been recorded in American history, but this type of mandate is gaining huge popularity with young men. The Red Pill movement, the right wing media it's no longer fringe. This is now mainstream stream. And one of the things I want to talk to you about with the media is that there are several trends online that are algorithmically linked to seven mountains mandate and red pill content. I actually did an interview with a Google, a woman who works algorithms in Google and has for almost a decade. And she told me, she confirmed for me, she's like, these specific topics are algorithmically linked to Christian nationalist content. And those are the trad wife content trend, whether it's fashion or tradwife in general, the clean girl old money movement. So minimal makeup, minimal jewelry, very muted colors. And the new clean eating movement, which is hilarious to me because after working in Fitness for 15 years and being demonized for saying things like watch what oils something is fried in, it's funny to see the tables turn. But the reason that all of these are linked is because it buys into an inherent distrust of science, an inherent submission and silencing of women. And also, I don't know if you've noticed, if you've been looking at any beauty magazines or even on Instagram, how the very thin white woman aesthetic is coming back in that is also algorithmically linked to Christian fundamentalist, Christian nationalist content. Because there's two reasons for this. They do absolutely tie weight and appearance to purity and service of God in Christianity because of their fixation on traditional gender roles. But there's also a more insidious reason, and that is that a frail, weak person can't fight back. I know that sounds wild, but it's very true that. And I remember in again, in church, I grew up in these circles where these were much more explicit that women should not be stronger than her husband. He should be able to overpower her. That is, that is what church leaders have said to my face. So there's a lot. One of the ways that you can kind of filter your content, you're like, oh, is this anything that mutes or makes women or their needs a little bit more invisible? Be very cautious. Anything that overtly pushes modesty, but only for women, women, Anything about promiscuity especially directed at women, and anything, obviously that is overtly violation of church and state, anything that checks those boxes, be very careful with. And if you're looking at content that you really like, because not all trad wife influencers are part of this movement, many of them aren't. But if content is very much saying women should do a list of these things, be cautious. If it's women can, that's fine. I just wanted to Put that in there. Because I see so much of that content and because I was raised in it, I see the manipulation, but I'm not sure that many other people do. This whole movement has language of infiltration and influence that has now shifted to political domination. In the early 90s and 2000s, the Seven Mountains concept found a champion in Peter Wagner, who was a former seminary professor. But he taught that God was raising up new apostles and prophets to govern not just the church, but all of society. And the Christians that are now in their 30s and 40s were raised in this theology. We all were. I was raised in this. We were taught we were soldiers for Christ. We were taught we would have to fight back. We were taught that we would have to take over the country. We were taught you have to have as many kids as you can in order for Christians to rule. So understand that that is the idea. And the idea is to control all of these fears. And I want to take a minute to talk about who I consider to be the poster child of the Seven Mountains Mandate right now, who I think is very, very dangerous, and that's Lance Wallna. He's a business consultant turned charismatic preacher, and he's turbocharged the political angle of the Seven Mountains mandate in the early 2000s. Thousands. He's preached that political engagement was essential. His most famous sermon on the topic was called Invading Babylon, and it explicitly frames politics as spiritual warfare. In 2015, he was the one who declared that Donald Trump was anointed by God as a wrecking ball to the political establishment. A lot of this idea of he's going to shake things up comes from Lance Walnut. Lance Walnut is now not really functioning as an evangelical. He's functioning as a political strategist. He wrote a book called God's God's chaos candidate in 2016 that was wildly circulated in fundamentalist circles. And he's been a big part of helping a lot of conservative Christians who maybe would have been on the fence or maybe not supported Donald Trump. He's helped them buy in. And I just want to talk about him briefly before I wrap up. Lance Wallna was born in the 1960s, raised in a Catholic family, before converting to evangelical Christianity as a young man. Man. Early in his career, he wasn't a pastor in. In the traditional sense. He built his reputation more as a motivational speaker, leadership consultant, and a business coach. He does hold a doctorate of ministry from Phoenix University in theology, which is unaccredited. And he's. He's definitely gotten some scrutiny for that, but he gained A following among charismatic Christians by preaching about marketplace ministry, the idea that Christians should influence society by succeeding in business, media and government. So he was made for the seven Mountains mandate. So he popularized this in modern culture. He didn't create it, but he definitely popularized it. And despite his religious rhetoric, critics have point out a number of problems surrounding his ministry. He's made a lot of prophecies that didn't come true, which is again, very much a common theme in cult leaders and in a lot of prophets. Anytime someone says they're a prophet, I roll my eyes. I'm like, mm, sure you are. He prophesied that Trump's second term, repeatedly insisting before and after the 2020 election that Donald Trump would remain president. Oops. But then of course, after Biden, when he reframes it and says, no, Trump still has a spiritual role in 2020 and the political timelines were misunderstood. You didn't understand me. People that weren't he said this people not tuned into the spirit, spirit interpreted him incorrectly. So he didn't. He just wouldn't admit that he was wrong or disrupt his own narrative. He just claimed that, that, that people misheard him. He's also been criticized for monetizing prophecies. Snake oil salesman. He's a cult leader. He's a cult leader. He sells spiritual solutions to political problems, including online prophetic coaching courses, Kingdom entrepreneur business classes and books, DVDs, webinars on how Christians can seize the seven mountains. And he has been known to kind of sell prophecies. So much of his content behind his paywall, which has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, capitalizes on political fear. He fear mongers. He gets you to buy in. He also is very much into prosperity gospel and he's gonna sell you his truth. But if you hear him wrong, he'll let you know. If he's wrong and you wanna confront him, he's gonna tell you that you didn't hear him right. And around actually the 2020 election, I just remembered this. He promoted like very exclusive high dollar coaching seminars, like Trump's version of a coaching seminar he did like for high bidders, like the new club that's opening in D.C. called the executive Branch, which is being opened by Trump's sons as well as Steve Witkoff, his best friend's sons, which has a half a million dollar admission fee and is being marketed for CEOs, foreign policymakers and tech giants to have direct access to the White House. It's literally a club that's going to run the government, where bribes are Going to take place. Buy into my club. I'll give you access to the White House. Another reason that Lance Walnut has been criticized is he lives a very comfortable lifestyle. He's much more in that Olsteen prosperity gospel, luxury homes, high end trip trips, expensive conference venues. And he points a lot of his courses towards prosperity gospel, wealth building, spiritual rhetoric. If you follow God well enough, you're going to be prosperous. And I need to tell you something, and I will not back down on this. A multi million dollar spiritual leader is a liar. That is a spiritual moral failing. I'm not saying that successful spiritual leaders and good people should not have have the fruits of their wealth. By all means, have a nice house, have a couple nice cars, take your family on a great trip. Cool. When you have multiple homes, hundreds of cars, a private jet, and there are people in your congregation or who follow your ministry who do not have food security, you are a charlatan. You are. That is a moral failing. It's the same reason billionaires should not exist. Nobody needs that money. While people say suffer. So you ever come across a pastor who's real, real living the high life? I wouldn't listen to them, to be honest. And also it's very dangerous to attach prosperity to salvation because that, that means that if someone gets robbed, oh well, you must have some hidden sin in your life. That's crazy. We're, we're, I'm, I'm going to set you free from some of these ideologies. He also has made many false authority claims. So he's claimed to be in the room with top political and religious leaders, even though many of these have been proven to be true. He's claimed he was in rooms in the Trump administration where he wasn't. He's been part of these confidential prophecies which people were like, no, he wasn't there. So he has blatantly lied multiple times and he just kind of snakes his way out of it. But he does have very close connections with Christian nationalist movements like the Reawaken America tour. And he's very close to figures like Mike Flynn and Eric Trump. And he's still a major voice, which is why I talk about him. So he's really good at blending this prophecy, politics, prosperity, and redefining what Christian political engagement looks like. It's a lot, isn't it, how Christians are trying to invade all of these different places in the world. And this political influence started with school boards and it ended up in the Supreme Court. Brett Kavanaugh is a seven mandates recruit and the problem is, is that they have been so militant and so organized under the surface with things like the family and the fellowship, that people who are either Christians who simply respect religious liberty or liberals or non religious, we have not been organized and defiant and aggressive enough against this movement. And that is what has put us in the position that we are now. Which is why I'm making this podcast unique. Need to understand what you are up against. I had dinner with Marianne Williamson last month in D.C. and she just extended the invitation. I was in D.C. for the summit for Religious Liberty and I met with her and she asked me what I thought of the Democratic Party and I said, well, they're weak and performative, but my biggest issue with them is they don't know who their enemy is. You do not understand how militant and organized these people are. You do not understand how extreme this theology is or how extreme their goals are. And we as people who value the separation of church and state, if we do not understand Dominion theology and the Seven Mountains Mandate and the machine running it, we are bringing knives to a gunfight. So I just want to take a minute to summarize this kind of nutshell it for you. I would encourage you, if so, if you have someone in your life who is like, what is going on? Send them this episode. I don't care if they follow the podcast, send them this so that people understand what is going on. So again, the Seven Mountains Mandate is the idea that society can be divided into seven spheres or mountains of influence. Family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business and government. The Seven Mountain adherents believe that they have been commanded by God to seize control by force of these mountains, by means of spiritual warfare tactics, and again, force. Their belief is that once Christians have established dominion over all seven areas of society, they will be able to establish the kingdom of God on earth, as some tell it, to bring about the end times, to bring about the Rapture. To be clear, the ultimate ambitions of the Seven Mountains Movement is to establish theocracy. It is to establish white Christian supremacy and depending on the eschatology, trigger the apocalypse. While many of these adherents trace the idea Back to the 1970s, the movement did not kick off in earnest, not the way that we see it now, until 2012, 2013. So I graduated college in 2011, and even though I was young for graduating, I was only 20. My senior year, Donald Trump spoke at my congregation chapel in Liberty University. This was years before he announced his presidency. Because the Falwells have been integral to the Seven Mountains Mandate movement and they are integral to his campaigns and his candidacy. And bringing him into Liberty University in front of all of us college kids was intentional. It's also been popularized by Lance Walnut, fellow charismatic leaders like Bill Johnson, the Christian takeover of secular society. This is a over 50 years of these movements building steam, but really over a decade of it building into what it is now. A 2024 poll found that 40% of American Christians now embrace this mandate. That is a terrifying number because that means that 40% of American Christians do not believe in religious liberty. They don't believe in equality of genders, sexuality, race. The Seven Mountains movement was not sitting on its hands during Trump's sojourn in the wilderness. After 2020. Cut off from federal power, movement leaders including White Cane and Walnut embraced a local strategy, championing church backed states for local offices and waging aggressive campaigns to influence public school policymakers. That's why all of this stuff happening in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, that's where they put their energy while we, we were all in myself and I hold myself to this standard too, I took a breath when Trump didn't get reelected and I shouldn't have because during that time they went into these southern red states and started influencing public school policy. And that is why school vouchers are taking hold. It was passed in Tennessee, passed in Texas, and it is now at work trying to be passed in the Senate. If it gets passed in the Senate, we will lose public schools. And most Americans will not be able to receive a formal education anymore because private charter schools will get very exclusive and very expensive. So much of it has borne the brunt of it in small towns, rural towns. It's affecting our ability to make votes the way that we want to. I know that this is a lot. I know it's a lot of information. I know it's a lot of history and I know that it's scary being in the environment that we're in, but the more knowledge we have is truly our greatest weapon. My goal for everything I do is to teach you something. And my hope for you is that you become so ravenously curious that you never stop asking questions. Do not take people's word for it, even mine. Fact check me. Read as much as you can. Begin to build your own library's book bands. Those bans will not stay restricted to public school libraries and to military bases. Those bans will extend, and they are trying to extend them. Build your library network with people that you know, have big libraries. And I would encourage you to on the important books, make sure you have a physical copy. Know as much as you can. Because the only way that we're going to beat this is if we get as organized and as determined as they are. But we also have to have the knowledge and the data to refute what they say. Say. That is why on all of the government platforms, all this data is going missing. Research is being canceled. That's because they can win with propaganda if we don't have information to refute them. That is my purpose in life right now. Learn as much as you can, take in as much as you can. Know the data, know the numbers, print things out, because that information is going missing. Information on immigration and immigrant crimes has disappeared. Cancer research has been cut. Child cancer research has been cut. The largest women's health study to the end, nih, has been cut. Because without that data, we don't have anything to refute. The idea of like, hey, actually, abortion bans kill people. Georgia, Texas, Idaho have stopped counting, keeping track of maternal mortality because they don't want to admit that the maternal mortality rate is increasing under an abortion ban. Knowledge is your most valuable weapon and time is your most important resource. Do not lose track of those. I hope that this gives you a better understanding of what's going on, what we're up against, and gives you hope because there are a lot of us who used to be part of this movement who are fighting against it. And now that you know that it's there, you can be on guard against it. Thank you again so much for joining me today. Thank you for your curiosity. Thank you for your support on Patreon for early episodes ad free episodes. They're also going to start getting bonus episodes and bonus live streams. Streams. Please, please keep asking questions, keep having the hard conversations and I will see you next week on flipping table.