Yet Another Spiritual Enterprise Brings Together Left and Right
By Brannon S. Howse
Another example of this strange convergence of conservatives, evangelicals, neo-evangelicals, the New Religious Right, Word of Faith, and the New Apostolic Reformation is the Freedom Federation. This coalition includes people involved in—among other things—ecumenicalism, the third way, common good, and social justice on both the political and theological right and left. It is a dream come true for those committed to the Hegelian process. The Freedom Federation website describes this coalition and its goal as not only political but also spiritual:
Today a federation of some of the largest faith-based organizations in the country gathered in the Nation’s capital to plan, strategize, and work together on common interests within the Judeo-Christian tradition to mobilize their grassroots constituencies and to communicate faith and values to the religious, social, cultural, and policymaking institutions. The constituents of these organizations are concerned about the spiritual, moral, cultural, and economic condition of the Nation.
The Freedom Federation is a federation of individual, national, multi-ethnic and transgenerational organizations and leaders. The Freedom Federation is not a separate organization. It is a federation of organizations with large and unique constituencies that share common core values.
The Freedom Federation further explains:
These organizations represent some of the Nation’s largest constituents of youth, Hispanics, African-Americans, women, clergy, and churches. The common shared interests include faith, moral values, and freedom. The Freedom Federation is committed to core values expressed in the Declaration of American Values, a document which sets forth foundational values. Based on these shared core values, the leaders of these national organizations will work together on common interests to plan, strategize, coordinate, message and mobilize their various constituents to mobilize a movement to advance these shared core values.
Freedom Federation Member Directory:
•American Association of Christian Counselors—www.aacc.net
•American Family Association—www.afa.net
•Americans for Prosperity—www.americansforprosperity.org
•American Values—www.ouramericanvalues.org/
•Bott Radio Network—www.bottradionetwork.com
•Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND) —www.bondinfo.org
•Burning Media Group—www.burningmediagroup.com
•Catholic Online—www.catholic.org
•Church of God in Christ—www.cogic.org
•Concerned Women for America—www.cwfa.org
•Eagle Forum—www.eagleforum.org
•Exodus International—www.exodus-international.org
•Extraordinary Women—www.ewomen.net
•Family Research Council Action—www.frcaction.org
•Generals International—www.generals.org
•Harvest International Ministries—www.harvestim.org
•High Impact Leadership Coalition—www.thetruthinblackandwhite.com
•Liberty Alliance Action—www.libertyalliance.org
•Liberty Counsel—www.lc.org
•Liberty University—www.liberty.edu
•Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN) —www.blackgenocide.org
•Lifenews.com—www.lifenews.com
•Morning Star Ministries—www.morningstarministries.org
•National Clergy Council—www.nationalclergycouncil.org
•National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference—www.nhclc.org
•Renewing American Leadership— www.torenewamerica.com
•Strang Communications—www.strang.com
•Teen Mania—www.teenmania.com
•Teen Pact—www.teenpact.com
•The Call—www.thecall.com
•The Conservative Action Project— www.conservativeactionproject.org
• The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission—www.erlc.com
•Traditional Values Coalition—www.traditionalvalues.org
•Vision America—www.visionamerica.us
•WallBuilders—www.wallbuilders.com
Did you notice the organizations listed such as Cindy Jacobs’ General International, Rick Joyner’s Morning Star, Samuel Rodriquez’s National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Lou Engle’s The Call? These are all individuals and organizations associated with the New Apostolic Reformation movement.
The Freedom Federation held their 2010 and 2011 conferences at Liberty University. Did you ever think you would see the day when Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church would work in conjunction with those associated with the New Apostolic Reformation? Then, in 2012 the Freedom Federation conference was held at a church in Florida that embraces the Word of Faith movement. The Freedom Federation website listed as invited and/or confirmed the speakers for video presentations. Here is a partial list of those:
Chuck Colson
Vonette Bright (wife of the late Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade)
Lou Engle
Frank Gaffney (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms
Control Policy for the Reagan Administration.)
Mike Huckabee
Tony Perkins
Samuel Rodriguez
Tim Wildmon
Cindy Jacobs
Rick Joyner
Richard Land
Apostle Guillermo Maldonado
The website also listed as a potential speaker Keith Fournier, who is described as “a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church….” The bio also describes Fournier as “a human rights lawyer, author, scholar, broadcaster, activist, ecumenist and academic.” An ecumenist is someone who works to bring religious groups together. It is related to the words “ecumenical” and “ecumenicalism,” ideas the Church of Rome has been promoting since Vatican II in 1962-1965.
Mr. Fournier is also founder and president of Common Good. The Common Good website says their objectives include working “for the advancement of true social justice….” Not only that, the name of the organization is itself significant. “Common good” is a phrase used by the Pope and the Vatican ever since “the term and modern concept of ‘social justice’ was coined by the Jesuit Luigi Taparelli in 1840.”
These spiritual enterprises of the New Religious Right seem to be a regular occurrence. On January 3, 2012, for instance, the website of Cindy Jacobs reported that representatives of the Family Research Council would be joining Mike and Cindy Jacobs, along with NAR “prophet” Dutch Sheets, for “a night of intercessory prayer.” Unfortunately, this did not surprise me. As far back as 2008, the president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, wrote on the FRC blog about taking part in “prophet” Lou Engle’s rally on the mall in Washington, D.C. Perkins reported that “I was able to join Lou Engle for about half of the 12-hour event.”
Copyright 2012 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.
