New Apostolic Reformation Leaders Burn Native Art
Jacobs was not merely referring to objects associated with contemporary interpretations of Wiccan practice, or with Satanic ritual. Cindy Jacobs and her colleagues, Peter Wagner, Ed Silvoso, and others in the New Apostolic movement cast their net of purported "witchcraft" and "idolatry" over objects associated with major world religious traditions such as Catholicism, Mormonism, and all Eastern religions, and also many native art objects. So much to burn, so little time, and the imperative may have global consequences. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the Third Wave tendency in charismatic evangelical Christianity from which the New Apostolic movement is now coalescing encompassed, by AD 2000, almost 300 million Christians worldwide. Now, stresses Peter Wagner, it's bigger. [video, below: Hawaii Lt. Governor Duke Aoina says, July 2008, that he's a part of Transformation Hawaii, and Cindy Jacobs calls on pastors to tell their church members to bring in "witchcraft items" to be burned]
As Cindy Jacobs wrote in her book Deliver Us from Evil (Regal Books, from Gospel Light, 2001),
"There are certain occult items were are not to possess. If we own any of the following objects we need to get rid of them. If the object was at any time worshiped as a god or used in the worship of a false god, then we should burn it or otherwise destroy it. Jacobs went on to describe an alleged, contemporary religiously-motivated destruction of native art in the U.S. state of Hawaii:
"Pastor Jim Marocco... planted a church on the island of Maui. He had people bring and burn occult items, specifically objects that were worshiped as part of their native religions. After the objects were destroyed, his church experienced great growth." (Deliver Us from Evil, page 225) Cindy Jacobs then proceeds to give an account extremely similar to that offered, below, from C. Peter Wagner, on a mass-burning of allegedly "occult" items that Jacobs, Wagner, and Ed Silvoso helped orchestrate in 1990 in the Argentine city of Resistencia. As Peter Wagner wrote in his book Hard-Core Idolatry - Facing the Facts,
"Burn The Idols! For those unfamiliar with their movement, C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, and Ed Silvoso are three of the leading figures in the creation of what Wagner has dubbed the New Apostolic Reformation (sometimes also called the Apostolic and Prophetic movement or the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit.) The most important crucible for the distinctive ideas and practices of their movement was the Argentine city of Resistencia, where beginning in 1990 according to Wagner, Prayer Evangelism and Spiritual Mapping were first tried on a mass scale (for an explanation of these terms, see Rene' Holvast's 2005 doctoral dissertation for the University of Utrecht, Spiritual Mapping: The Turbulent Career of a Contested American Paradigm [PDF file link], reworked and republished in late 2008 as a book, from Brill academic publishers.) The mass-burning of allegedly evil objects Wagner describes was an attempt to break the powers of evil that had supposedly become entrenched in Resistencia. It is characteristic of the movement that religious items associated with major world religions such as Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam are lumped together with "pornography", "drugs," and faddish commercialized occult objects such as Ouija Boards. The inherent disrespect of world religious traditions, some going back thousands of years, is intrinsic to the basic outlook of Wagner et. al - there can be only one truth, one correct belief system, and all pretense otherwise is mere compromise. What's so striking about this outlook is that it extends even to native art objects. One would have to look back hundreds of years for a comparable totalistic imperative to annihilate entire religions and cultures. A classic example would, of course, be the attempt of the Catholic Church to expunge New World Cultures. As Manuel Aguilar-Moreno writes in A Handbook to Life in the Aztec World,
"On their quest to eradicate Mesoamerican culture, the Spaniards toppled indigenous sacred structures and built Catholic churches and other edifices over them. Oftentimes, rubble from the destroyed indigenous sites was used in the construction of colonial palaces and Catholic edifices such as the cathedral and many other churches in Mexico City. This not only sanctified the space and legitimized the Catholic Church but also sent the natives the message that the Catholic Church was indeed supreme to the heathen and "demonic" spirituality of the indigenous peoples." [A Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, pages 338-339 In Deliver Us from Evil Cindy Jacobs instructs readers, for a more detailed explication of the process by which everyday life can be sanctified and purged of demon influence, to consult Ridding Your Home of Spiritual Darkness by by Chuck D. Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Sytsema.
"Take what can be burned and burn it. If it cannot be burned, pass it through the fire (as a symbolic act of obedience) and then destroy it by whatever other means are available to you such as smashing or even flushing (I have known people to do this with jewelry that cannot be destroyed in other ways)! Pierce and Sytsema provide a list of objects to burn, destroy, or flush down toilets that is very similar to Peter Wagner's list, only longer:
"Buddhas (like those on the jewelry box); Hindu images; fertility gods or goddesses (or any type of god or goddess); Egyptian images; Greek gods; gargoyles; kachina dolls, totem poles, or any other native figure that depicts or glorifies a "spirit" or demonic being; evil depictions of creatures such as lions, dogs, dragons, cats, or any other creature made with demonic distortions; or any other image of any person, idol, god, or demonic figure which is considered an object of worship or spiritual power in any culture of the world... The Pierce/Sytsema list objects to be destroyed from "false" or "occult" religions is almost identical to Wagner's - all major world religions except Judaism and charismatic evangelical Christianity - and adds, also, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Baha'i, Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation. Other native objects added to Wagner's list include native drums. But the Pierce/Sytsema list has a major contemporary component. In a final subsection, "Other Objects," we learn that,
"Our homes may be filled with other items that do not bring glory to God and may attract demonic activity. These would include games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Masters of the Universe, in addition to a myriad of demonic or violent video games; books and magazines devoted to fantasy; comic books, posters, movies, or music with demonic, violent, or sexual themes; pornography; illegal drugs; sensual art, books, or "toys"; or a number of other things that are demonic, illegal, immoral, or contrary to God's Word. While the draconian nature of this imperative, to burn, destroy, or dispose of all objects in contemporary life deemed to be "demonic, illegal, immoral, or contrary to God's Word" might tempt some to draw comparisons with movements within militant Islam, that could very possibly mislead, because the movement that Cindy Jacobs, Peter Wagner, and Ed Silvoso have helped to inspire, shape, and lead is surprisingly, even jarringly at ease with modernity, "Bonfire of the Vanities" notwithstanding. At the March 2010 Convergence conference in Cedar Hills, Texas, Ed Silvoso concluded a presentation by bestowing an "anointing" Silvoso presented as restoring a class of miracle described in the New Testament book of Acts, in which Peter was said to have been able to effect miracles through everyday objects he regularly came into contact with, such as an apron. Up onstage, Ed Silvoso declared to a crowd of several hundred New Apostolic leaders that they, too, would now be able to effect miracles via everyday modern appliances and technological objects in their lives. Silvoso raised up his iPhone and his audience, including Cindy Jacobs and Peter Wagner brandishing their own iPhones, held cellphones and other mobile communications devices such as Blackberries, aloft in unison to receive Silvoso's impartation. (video of the cellphone anointing)
New Apostolic Reformation Leaders Burn Native Art | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 hidden)
New Apostolic Reformation Leaders Burn Native Art | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 hidden)
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