About What Happened in the Rotunda Yesterday...
Adding Context to LancasterOnline's Article on Dominionist Activity in Pennsylvania's Capitol Building This Week
Jaxon White at LancasterOnline serves up what might be the first local piece of journalism that explicitly names Dominionism and provides a framework around what is referred to as the New Apostolic Reformation. Posted last night, Conservative lawmakers, faith leaders meet with Christian dominionist activist in Harrisburg provides an inside look at a meeting between GOP state lawmakers and faith leaders known for Dominionist activity locally and nationwide.
What follows is a primer on what you need to know beyond what the article itself offers. My audience on this Substack appears to be largely new-to-me and not people who previously followed my account on X (which is still active for the time being).
This poses a challenge that I did not anticipate when launching this Substack: My readers here do not benefit from the last 2-3 years of context provided in my tweets. Therefore, this is a first attempt at creating a primer largely centered on what my Lancaster audience likely needs to know.
There are many significant leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation whose origin stories begin in Lancaster, PA. Abby Abildness, a graduate of Hempfield High School, is one of them.
For readers new to Dominionism and/or the work of “Apostle” Abby Abildness, please refer to the following resources to inform your reading. Please share these resources widely with your networks:
101: Dominionism. (Frederick Clarkson, Political Research Associates.)
Pennsylvania’s Prayer Warrior: Abby Abildness And Her Dominionist Crusade in the Commonwealth. (Emily Hofstaedter, Mother Jones.)
She’s a Prophet. She’s a Theocrat. The Christian far right has a road map—and one woman’s at the wheel. (Jenny Cohn, Bucks County Beacon.)
Next, a few clarifications that refer to specific passages of White’s piece for LancasterOnline:
“Feucht” refers to Sean Feucht, who has visited Lancaster, PA a number of times over the past decade, but who readers might remember from last year’s Remember America event held by Dayspring Christian Academy. While it is correct to name dominionism here, “Christian dominionism” is misleading. Longtime expert on the far right, Bruce Wilson adds clarity to this detail on X last night, stating “I'd characterize dominionism as "a radically anti-pluralist Christian tendency that seeks to achieve political power, by force if necessary, in order to impose its understanding of biblical law and biblical rule upon society."
A second important distinction to begin to digest is what the New Apostolic Reformation is, what it is not and how that is intentionally slippery.
Abildness does lead the Pennsylvania Apostolic Prayer Network (PAPN) and the Global Apostolic Prayer Network (GAPN). Both organizations are aligned with what we refer to as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), but the NAR itself is not actually an organization, at least not in the way we typically define one. Wilson, again, shared a succinct comment about this distinction on X last night: “The NAR is a movement - and PAPN and GAPN, led by NAR apostle Abby Abildness, are NAR networks within the NAR movement.” Read the section “Identity politics” in Fred Clarkson’s piece “It’s Not the Name It’s the Theocratic Vision - The New Apostolic Reformation’s PR Problem” for Religion Dispatches to delve deeper into the nuances of the NAR terminology.
Finally, my fellow researcher KiraResistance wants to highlight three of her most important threads on Abby Abildness. Kira’s work is simply the best and her video captures are always revealing. Find her three important threads below. (The links for X are for my readers still on that problematic platform. The “Unrolled” links will help my readers not on X see the research. Whichever you use, I recommend “reading” these as a multi-media article in sequence: Read the text and view the media in the order in which it is presented.)
Kira thread on Abildness’ strategy in practice (X / Unrolled)
Kira sharing a video that illustrates Abilness’ end goal (X / Unrolled)
KiraResistance contributes to CROW’s Substack - a must-subscribe-to account. Kira emphasizes that while Abby Abildness is an important figure in the NAR and worth watching, Sean Feucht has more influence and will be the focus of her brief in CROW this week. I will link it hear when it is released.
A Note From Me:
Editing: In order to get information out as quickly as possible, I will sometimes bypass having my piece edited for grammar and clarity. Small edits will not be noted. Significant edits or additions will be noted, as I did with my first Substack piece earlier today.
Accessibility: Some readers educated me on issues around accessibility and ableism. I will continue to work to improve on both fronts.
Last, this work is time-consuming, so it is critically important to me that my readers are able to benefit from it. If there is anything unclear - be it the content or the ways it is shared - do let me know. If you are a Lancaster-based activist whose work would benefit from a specific piece, let me know with as much lead time as possible. Let’s work to work smarter together, not harder alone.
