Back in April, the Prime Minister took his tax-payer funded RAAF jet to the Gold Coast to deliver a religious sermon at a large Pentecostal event, telling the crowd, "... what Australia needs is the church".
But why should that matter? If he’s just taking his plane (which we all pay for) to go and exercise his faith, that’s a little annoying, but probably fine, right?
Or, was he giving a battle cry to the religious deep-state within Australian politics — which is growing tired of working in the shadows, sensing that the time may soon come when they will be able to step forth into the light?
Conspiracy? Or reality?
Kenneth Copeland, a renowned US televangelist, is worth an estimated US$760 million. Similar to ScoMo’s mate, Brian Houston, Copeland preaches the ‘prosperity gospel’ and lives a life of luxury. His Ministry’s 600-hectare headquarters includes a a TV studio, a $6 million lakefront mansion and private airstrip for its $17.5 million jet.
During a televised sermon in March 2020, he declared Covid 19 “finished” and “over” and called on the Wind of God to blow it away. Perhaps the Wind of God was not the answer to an airborne virus.
He is also a key proponent of the so-called ‘Seven Mountains Mandate’, a little-known christian movement that aims to restore the vice-like grip religion once held on society, as in the dark ages.
The Seven Mountains Mandate first started in 1975, when Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright, and Francis Schaeffer proclaimed that God had delivered them a simultaneous message to invade the “seven spheres” of society. These seven spheres, or seven mountains, being:
- Government
- Media
- Arts and Entertainment
- Business
- Education
- Religion
- Family
At the heart of the 7M mandate is dominionism, which draws on the King James Bible’s interpretation of Genesis 1:28: the passage in which God grants humanity "dominion" over the Earth.
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
People like Copeland, Houston and Paula White (the ‘spiritual advisor’ to former President Trump), believe that Satan has been in control of the world since Adam’s first sin in the Garden of Eden, and that God is looking for people who will help him take back dominion.
By subscribing to this manifesto, they believe that the church must lay claim to these pinnacles of influence, before God can return and execute his final judgement. These charismatic evangelical leaders walk hand-in-hand with right-wing populists because they want the same thing — control.
But what’s that got to do with our Prime Minister? Aside from the fact that he has installed fellow pentecostal christian, Stuart Robert, into his cabinet, there has been a concerted push by elements within the Liberal/National Party to stack their membership with christians, and in particular, Pentecostal christians.
George Christensen told the Church and State summit (whose logo is unmistakably seven mountains), that “Politics is all about numbers…The more people that you have in that broad church that are from the conservative Christian wing the more it’s going to lean in that direction.”
In Daily has also reported that prominent South Australian religious Liberals have been recruiting party members in various Pentecostal communities in recent months, with more than 400 new members signed up since January.
This is religious branch-stacking like we’ve never seen before, occurring under the most religious Prime Minister we’ve ever had.
As he gathered up his speaking notes on the lectern at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, with his tax-payer funded jet preparing to whisk him back to Sydney, the PM ended his speech by saying “we are called, all of us, for a time, and for a season…”, adding, “for such a time as this.”
Scott Morrison appears to be forging a path for countless others to follow. As long as he is Prime Minister, he will continue to pray on people in disaster centres, keep an eye out for signs of God’s work, and send clear messages to his conservative, religious foot soldiers that their time will soon come.
From the mountain-top.