Texas Governor Rick Perry has teamed up with the American Family Association and the International House of Prayer to organize a prayer rally known as "The Response" on August 6 at the Houston Reliant Stadium. Right Wing Watch has documented the extremist views of these religious organizations. Perry himself claimed that the nation's economic woes are part of God's plan to return America to biblical values.
Aside from snubbing Constitutional law in order to promote religion and aside from the gathering of extremist, dominionist leaders and endorsers of the government-sponsored The Response, there appears to be another problem with Perry's prayer event: A link with the radical side of child indoctrination.
Indoctrinating Children into 7 Mountains Theology, Radical Christianity and End Times Belief.
The International House of Prayer – Kansas City (IHOP-KC) is prominently featured in Perry's prayer website and is a "spiritual warfare" center in Missouri where evangelical Christians gather for 24/7 prayer, 365 days a year.
Like Jim Garlow and others listed as Perry's "leaders" on the Response prayer rally website, IHOP-KC is aligned with Seven Mountains Christian theology, which holds a theocratic belief that 7 areas of culture, called mountains or spheres, must be dominated by Christians to prepare a kingdom for Jesus Christ to return to rule. This type of theology seeks to rid society and government of secularism or alternate faiths. IHOP-KC's "intercessory missionaries" openly state that their goal is to "impact the seven spheres of society—family, education, government, economy, arts, media, and religion."
Another of IHOP-KC's goals is to convert as many children as possible.
In fact, according to their latest "Children's Equipping Center" promotional video, they want to convert one million children (see video below).
Images of children, gathered in prayer with their faces contorted in worship and arms outstretched in evangelical fervor, are reminiscent of a popular film released a few years ago.
Becky Fischer in Jesus Camp
The 2006 documentary Jesus Camp depicted a charismatic Christian summer camp where children were taught spiritual warfare and prophetic skills so that they could "take back America for Christ." Becky Fischer, who ran the camp, felt that American Christians must train their children to be a part of the "army of God" with the same focus and intensity of Islamic parents.
According to Wikipedia, Fischer's ministry is part of an "apostolic network" of charismatic churches and ministries that believes in the existence of present-day apostles and prophets. Fischer's website includes teachings from prominent apostolic "prophets," including Cindy Jacobs, Lou Engle, Patricia King, Stacey Campbell, Kim Clement, Bill Hamon and Rick Joyner.
Two of these same characters – Engle and Joyner — are also aligned with the 7 Mountains theology and featured at the IHOP-KC website. Engle, who leads "TheCall," which organizes young people into days of fasting and prayer, is a prominent preacher at IHOP-KC. He has been involved in creating what they call Justice Houses of Prayer (JHOP) around the country. His first was in 2004, when he "planted" the first JHOP in Washington, DC "to contend with the injustice of abortion and to pray for righteous leaders to be raised up in America."
IHOP-KC's "Children's Equipping Center" promotes the same apostolic ideology.
It's Jesus Camp on steroids.
"I used to think that prayer was really, really boring," remarked a child on IHOP-KC's promotional video, "and now, I think that prayer is like awesome and fun."
The Center has trained over 25,000 children in its "Signs and Wonders" camps. Its vision is to reach over 1 million children in Kansas City and throughout "the nations of the earth." To do so, IHOP-KC is constructing a facility on its 120-acre piece of real estate that it calls Shiloh.
The Center will be 27,000 square feet and house 400 children at a time for training in "Godly character." Soliciting $3 million in funds with the promotional video, IHOP-KC's Lenny LaGuardia explained that the Children's Equipping Center is "critical" because it allows IHOP-KC to target children during "the most formative stages of their lives."
"The heart of our vision is to intentionally develop opportunities for children of all ages to be equipped to heal the sick through the laying on of hands; to prophesy, preach, and teach; to give from their heart to the poor; to worship; and to evangelize the lost. Finally, we want to provide opportunities for them to express and grow in their gifts as musicians, singers, artists, and prayer leaders. "
Children will be trained so that "signs and wonders can be released through them," according to the website.
Speaking before an International House of Prayer Meeting, Lou Engle said, "I don't want to just produce good kids. I want to bring forth fiery lovers. Give us our children and make 'em love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength!"
From 8-18, children and teenagers are shuffled through the Children's Equipping Center, where they give testimonies, work miracles, become prophets and proclaim their love for Jesus.
Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer, sponsor of the Center, says that the "mandate of Elijah is for the fathers to turn to the children." He is apparently talking about "The Elijah Revolution," a corresponding youth outreach where young people are considered prophets who fight "the spirit of Jezebel" and the adult population will listen to them.
The Center claims that they are seeing kids "being raised up as prophetic end time messengers, filled with the Holy Spirit and powerful in His kingdom."
Some of these children believe that the end times will occur in their lifetimes and that they will play an important leadership role. "Prayer is the best use of my time," a boy remarked.
"It's like wet cement and the Word is going to write on wet cement," brags Bickle. "When it dries, they will believe in radical Christianity. They'll have a heart of faith. It will be normal for them to live in a radical way before the Lord."
The Elijah Revolution — Fighting the Spirit of Jezebel.
Another radical Christian youth movement is known as "The Elijah Revolution." Like IHOP-KC, it is heavily influenced by Lou Engle of TheCall.
Corresponding with 7 Mountains Christian dominionist theology, The Elijah Movement centers on human activities that bring about the return of Jesus Christ to earth. The seven mountains dominionists believe that seven areas of culture must be completely dominated by Christians so that the world is transformed into a Christian kingdom. Only when this kingdom is created, will Jesus return and rule. These Christians also believe that Jesus will not return until Elijah the prophet appears, citing Malachi 4:5-6,
4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Just two weekends before Perry's August 6 prayer rally in Houston, The Elijah Revolution is partnering with TheCall, Luke18 Project, and IHOP–KC, to launch The Elijah Revolution Conference in Houston, one of a series of teen conferences and high school campus initiatives, "calling teenagers to a life of wholehearted devotion to Jesus and radical commitment to God, in the spirit of a Nazirite."
The Elijah Conference, scheduled for July 22 through 23, will empower "teens in America to rise up with something stronger than rebellion."
A May 31 post at the Elijah Revolution Facebook page spells out the philosophy of the movement,
"If your compassion for people exceeds your passion for Jesus, you will eventually find yourself in opposition with His leadership."
In his promotional video, Engle says that Houston has the largest abortion facility in the western hemisphere. "That's what they did in the days of Ahab and Jezebel — they killed the babies," he warns in his raspy voice. He also says that Houston is important because it was the scene of the 1906 revival led by William Seymour, one of the founders of the Pentecostal movement. "We believe that Houston is ripe for a new Elijah Revolution," Engle claims.
The "spirit of Jezebel" plays a larger than life role in Engle's preaching and is a significant enemy to those who take part in the Elijah Revolution.
In the album, "Prayers for the Elijah Revolution," Engle's voice is put to song.
"God, as we look at the land of America at this hour, we see that it is like Israel of that day. A land with godly roots and righteousness at its foundations. But God, in that hour and that day, Ahab married Jezebel and brought in the demonic spirit that came to destroy every vestige that was left of righteousness in the land. The spirit of Jezebel that swept through this nation creating sexual perversion and immorality, the spirit that was behind rebellion, the spirit behind witchcraft, the spirit behind violence, Jezebel destroyed all the prophets of the land."
Out of nowhere, the spirit of Elijah arose to confront Jezebel, according to Engle. The spirit of Elijah raises teenagers from the dead so that they will say no to Jezebel and bring judgment, he goes on to say.
This "Elijah Revolution" is cited in "prophet" Cindy Jacobs' "Root 52" intercessory prayer groups, who "map out" the states and then engage in spiritual warfare types of prayer. In the Washington prayer alert, for instance, the group reports:
In mapping both Seattle and Olympia many key ley lines have been discovered (a majority of them have been established through the arts). Olympia is laid out much like Washington D.C. influenced by free-masonry design and structure. We believe that a key to binding and bringing down these Baal/witchcraft/jezebel influenced strongholds will be through the Arts and Media sphere! May God raise up anointed singers, musicians, artists, craftsmen, sculptors, dancers, etc, in the Northwest! We are praying for the hearts of the fathers to turn to the children and the hearts of the children to turn to the Fathers to release an Elijah Revolution that confront this jezebel spirit. And we are praying for a generation of Jehu's who walk in sexual purity and the truth and power of God's written Word to bring her down (Rev. 2:18-29). As the light of the Glory of God in face of Christ increases through day and night prayer and worship combined with a kingly anointing, we will see these demonic strongholds dislodged from this region!
We stake a Claim in the midst of the Whirlwind for the Glory of the Lamb through every sphere in society in Washington State. May God "Wash" Washington, "a ton" through the blood of his Son. Jesus we plead your blood over our sins and the sins of our state. God end abortion and send Revival to Washington! Amen!
Perry's Prayer Rally and Jesus Campers.
What does the "Jesus Camp Unplugged" ideology of these groups have to do with Governor Perry's prayer rally?
It's represented in a big way.
There are two "student mobilization" leaders associated with Perry's "The Response." Not one of the team of religious leaders are associated with mainline youth missionaries. Instead, they are all affiliated with "intercessory," spiritual warfare types of youth ministries such as TheCall, IHOP-KC/Children's Equipping Center and The Elijah Movement:
- Luis & Jill Cataldo, Director of The Response/Program Coordinator for The Response – These top leaders of Perry's prayer group were involved with Young Life, a Christian outreach to high school kids, and are now staff members of IHOP-KC.
- Randy & Kelsey Bohlender, Program Coordinators for the Response – The Bohlenders are former youth pastors who serve as prayer missionaries with the International House of Prayer and on the leadership team of TheCall.
- Dave Sliker, National Student Mobilization for The Response – Sliker is a senior leader at the International House of Prayer Missions Base in Kansas City, Missouri, is on the board of TheCall with Lou Engle, and is the director of the Elijah Revolution.
- Laura Zavala Allred, Student Mobilization for The Response – Allred founded "Captured" in 2004, a ministry for young women, recently launched the Back to Life Movement, a pro-life movement, and serves as the worship leader at Christ For The Nations Institute, live in Dallas, Texas.
"If your compassion for people exceeds your passion for Jesus, you will eventually find yourself in opposition with His leadership." These, the words of The Elijah Revolution, are strong words to consider. Through his appointment of leaders of The Elijah Revolution and other radical youth ministries to leaders in his prayer rally, Texas Governor Rick Perry is endorsing this attitude.
Real Education vs. Supernatural Education – The Meaning of Crisis.
When it comes to young people, Perry governs a state where high school textbooks have been rewritten to service the ideology of the Christian right. He governs a state where $4 billion has been cut from public education due to a severe budget crisis, but which is home to more tax-free mega churches than any other state in the nation.
"I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution," Perry remarked last year.
According to Perry's "The Response" website, the nation is in a state of crisis.
Last December, Bloomberg reported that fifteen-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th among peers from 34 countries on a math test and scored in the middle in science and reading. Education Secretary Anne Duncan warned that our students must improve to compete in a global economy. “The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are,” Duncan said. “This should be a massive wake-up call to the entire country.”
Perry's wake-up call and solution appears to be to rally with those who believe that the next generation of Americans should be trained to "release signs and wonders" and become end times prophets, heralding in the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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