Presuming this kind of post is on-topic, I thought it would do some good to shine some light into the dark corners of the time in which the Dommies began to emerge. It's always critical to keep in mind the founder effect, which has to do with the character of a movement's founders later having an effect on the future of it.
For the purpose of my little twaddle-I mean essay, I shall note what I'm defining Dominionism as: the political form of Christianity that first began to arise in the 1920s. Its precursors in the 19th Century Great Awakenings are not considered here, and I already know that Pentecostalism was the bastard grandchild of Anglicanism. Thank you.
Let's take the 1920s in the US at a glance, shall we? There was a car bombing in New York, near Wall Street. The Ku Klux Klan was in full flower, in both South and North. Indians had gained legal citizenship which was in some ways a dubious blessing, as is nearly every "gift" to the Natives. The Nadir of Race Relations was ongoing, Jim Crow was in its high point, the Flappers and other wealthy middle-class phenomena were scandalizing the rich, Prohibition had created a culture rife with crime and violence, and there was a general phobia of Catholics and Jews in the US.
It was in this context that the idea of higher criticism produced a backlash, with the publication of
[eaec.org]. (May be triggering in some ways, and is a link to an Evangelical website. I sincerely apologize, I could not find a secular link. If one can be found, please edit my post and put it in, I don't want to be responsible for triggering someone). This, not the Pentecostal Revival of 1900, is the true start of Dominionism, when the ideas that led to Fundamentalism (a term that meant defender of the Fundamentals, which were a boiled-down version of Protestant theology, Catholics and Orthodox need not apply) and the concept of political religion was born. The Fundies opposed eugenics and other such concepts, and had their high water mark with the Scopes Trial. Now, let's put this in perspective, shall we? In the midst of the post World War I period, when a bunch of corrupt do-nothings were the national leaders and when eugenics, Jim Crow, and Sundown Towns and race riots and all that were together, come the Fundamentals.
I suppose a question for discussion is whether or not the Dommies ever really believed in their ideals, or whether or not they started out from the very beginning as a bunch of crooks and charlatans?
If this post isn't proper or needs editing, please let me know. Thanks.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
elettaria in her personal journal; I've been given permission to quote it here. Although the group it discusses is not explicitly dominionist in a political sense, there are some things in the description that are very worrisome (particularly the spiritual-warfare rhetoric). Does anyone know more about this group and whether it has any dominionist connections, or whether it's just an ultra-conservative church?