Rick Joyner joins hands with Maranatha's Bob Weiner
Christian Dem in NC printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Tue Nov 01, 2011 at 06:15:15 PM EST
cross-posted at dKos

Many of you know that I'm particularly unnerved by leading dominionist "prophet" Rick Joyner's recent rise to prominence because he's based just a few miles south of me.  His operation is headquartered at the old PTL complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina.  But there's another reason--he's recently joined hands with the former leader of a group that gave birth to an outfit that burned me badly back in my college days.

One of the board members of Joyner's activist group, the Oak Initiative, is Bob Weiner.  If that name is familiar to some of you guys, it's because Weiner was the founder and leader of one of the more notorious "campus cults" of the 1980s, Maranatha Campus Ministries. They caught all kinds of hell for abusive and controlling tactics with its members--most notably, a ban on dating.  It was also one of the more prominent promoters of the same dominionist crapola that Joyner preaches now.  Weiner claims to have "repented" of his past teachings, but that seems hard to believe given that he's linking up with Joyner.

Maranatha first got into the national spotlight when the Wall Street Journal profiled it in 1985.  Rick Ross has the article hosted here.  It revealed some pretty shocking practices.  For instance, it was drummed out of a Canadian university after a student there was so torn about his past life that he maimed himself.  At another school, members were told that lying to others was acceptable if it was for their own good.  And at another, a student questioned a teaching that tampons were unsafe, and was told she had a rebellious spirit.

Maranatha broke up in 1989 due to growing heat from the press.  However, a good number of churches once affiliated with it still exist today--including one in Durham that suckered me into joining its campus outreach at Carolina during my freshman year.  That church, King's Park International Church, is one of the more prominent churches in Every Nation, a group of charismatic-oriented ministries built around several former Maranatha churches and ministries.  The links to Maranatha are so strong that at the very least it's a linear descendant of Maranatha, and it can be argued that it's a revived and repackaged Maranatha.  

I saw many of the same things that former Maranatha members reported--controlling practices, heavy demands on my time, the lot.  All I didn't see was a ban on dating.  I finally got out in January 1997 ... and the scars still run deep today.  It was only by accident that I found out about their Maranatha ties--and when I warned my former "brothers and sisters" about it, their response was, in so many words, "So what?"  Many of them are still active in Every Nation today.  In fact, they have a church here in Charlotte--and sometimes I wonder if that was intended to be my church, given how many of my friends were groomed to be leaders there.

That church doesn't mention its Maranatha past much, but per corporate records from the North Carolina Secretary of State's office, it was founded in 1985 as a Maranatha church--and still operates under its original bylaws (as amended) today.  Back in 2005, I was one of several people who alerted the Triangle press about this outfit.

So now Joyner has invited the leader of a recognized cult to his board.  Tells you a lot about his character--and that of the dominionist movement.




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Weiner is one of the apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation and the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA).  Other major Maranatha leaders who have been ICA apostles include J. Lee Grady, who was previously editor of Maranatha's Forerunner.  

The Oak Initiative has been working for the last year with an affiliate, Transformation Michigan, to prepare for Lou Engle's TheCall Detroit.  This is a 24-hour event in Ford Stadium that has been promoted as spiritual warfare against Islam and freemasonry.

Read more about the Oak Initiative in numerous Talk2action articles including the following:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/2/133338/8422
Samuel Rodriguez and the Oak Initiative:  Marketing Religious Supremacism as Social Justice

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/21/01935/7353
Oak Initiative Confirm Resignation of Co-Founder and Vice President Samuel Rodriguez

by Rachel Tabachnick on Wed Nov 02, 2011 at 08:09:55 AM EST


...have been linked with Weiner for some time now.  Wagner is on record as looking up to both Wiener AND Rice Broocks as "pioneers" of the third wave/NAR.  

Supposedly one of the main issues the leadership of what is now Every Nation had with Weiner was that Maranatha under his leadership was "too" charismatic and "mystical" in public.  In other words, it APPEARED too weird and controlling.  It was ok to be weird and controlling but not where "non-believers" could see.  Based on my research, I believe Maranatha broke up not because its leaders were repenting of excesses (despite what they said publicly) but because it was a power struggle between Weiner and his underlings over all the bad press they were getting and Weiner got the boot.  

I have also been told anecdotally that the reason why Joyner's and EN's organizations once shared the same Morning Star name back in the day (early 90s) is because they were going to join together but obviously that never happened and EN eventually changed their name to what it is now.

My theory is that in the modern day NAR, there are two broad "types" of ministries, roughly corresponding with the movement's theology (or more accurately, theosophy in the historic sense) regarding the "bride" and "bridegroom."  Some are "bridal" ministries emphasizing worship, mysticism, submission, 24-7 prayer a la Zinzendorf's Moravians, etc.  I identify Joyner's ministries with that portion of the movement and despite Weiner's old dominionist rhetoric he fits better with that side of the movement as well (he has certainly worked more with them in the 20+ years since Maranatha broke up).  Others are more concerned with preparing believers to be assume God-like "headship" or leadership over the world--"head and not the tail"--so more into formal training/inculcation into leadership, "taking over" the 7 Mountains including college campuses, politicians/governments, other social/cultural structures, etc.  EN today is more the latter, even more so than Maranatha was.  Obviously there is overlap between the two--Wagner's apostolic structures cover both--and I don't believe that they are mutually exclusive (obviously there is a lot of "bridegroom" dominionist rhetoric in The Call or IHOP) but it's more a function of emphasis IMHO.

To close, after over 20 years since Maranatha "broke up" it isn't such a big deal to be associated with Weiner because sadly many if not most of Maranatha's cultic beliefs and practices have become quite normative, at least within the evangelical and charismatic branches of American Christianity.  Those of us who still identify as Christians after walking away from our former group(s) and looked and looked and looked and LOOKED for "normal," non-cultic churches untouched by the NAR craziness certainly understand this first hand.

by ulyankee on Wed Nov 02, 2011 at 10:01:46 AM EST

Good grief ... he's even more unbalanced than even I suspected.

by Christian Dem in NC on Wed Nov 02, 2011 at 05:48:13 PM EST
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And the commentary is helpful as well. This is important because the many mainstream evangelicals who seem utterly incapable of seeing the problem or significance of NAR were important in exposing Maranatha back in the day. They need to understand these connections.

by gregmetzger on Fri Nov 04, 2011 at 09:07:22 PM EST
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Does it necessary to include those people? I think the organization should focus on its goal let recognize the freedom of faith. indoor wall fountains tabletop fountains tabletop fountains

by lancemayer on Tue Nov 08, 2011 at 06:27:29 PM EST
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Aren't water fountains a little off the topic?

by Heathen07 on Fri Nov 25, 2011 at 04:25:42 AM EST
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by LayneMarvin on Thu Feb 20, 2020 at 09:31:32 AM EST

The joining of forces between Rick Joyner and Bob Weiner is a concerning development. Weiner's past leadership of the Maranatha Campus Ministries, known for its abusive and controlling tactics, raises red flags about his involvement in Joyner's activist group, the Oak Initiative.  Peter Veres real estate market Their shared promotion of dominionist beliefs compounds the concern. Vigilance is necessary to prevent the spread of harmful ideologies.

by isabelladom on Sat Apr 22, 2023 at 04:47:27 AM EST


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