As reported in a December 8, 2014 Time magazine story, an official letter from Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee, enthused, "RNC members have been invited in their personal capacity, to participate on a trip to Israel in early 2015. This incredible opportunity is made possible through the generosity of David Lane's American Renewal Project and the American Family Association."

The official Republican National Committee all-expenses paid week-long travel junket, due this Saturday to fly 60-odd Republicans of the RNC to Israel, has come under heavy criticism because of an extensive record of bizarre and hateful statements made by Bryan Fischer, the (just fired) Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association which is organizing and financially sponsoring the trip (Fischer's growing clout among the GOP is documented in a special report from People From The American Way.)

But former AFA spokesperson Bryan Fischer is not the only Republican Party-linked figure associated with the upcoming RNC Israel trip to have made deeply offensive religious supremacist statements. Working to organize the trip is pastor David Lane - whose American Renewal Project, that seeks to draw pastors into politics, is financially supported by the AFA.

In 2013, in an op-ed published and then hastily withdrawn by World News Daily [text of op-ed preserved here], pastor David Lane, who for years has worked to draw pastors into politics and who has personally led dominionist religious ceremonies blessing Republican senators such as Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, called for a "War To Restore a Christian America".

"the soundbite quotes, you know, the Hitler and homosexuality one..."

According to the American Family Association, its longtime, former spokesperson Bryan Fischer will no longer be representing the nonprofit. Fischer was fired, states AFA President Tim Wildmon, because of "the soundbite quotes, you know, the Hitler and homosexuality one...".

Statements from Fischer, in his official capacity as AFA spokesperson, showcased on the MSBNC Rachel Maddow Show blame the rise of Hitler and his Nazi movement on homosexuality and seem to imply that American Jews (and all other non-Christian minorities in America) have "no First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion."

Fischer's statements, which for years have been collected and archived by Right Wing Watch, a project of People For The American Way, have attracted the attention of Jewish media both in the United States (from the Daily Jewish Forward) and in Israel (from Haaretz).

But, while Bryan Fischer's AFA rhetoric has been the primary focus of such coverage, from MSNBC and Jewish media, coverage from Right Wing Watch, whose work at chronicling extreme speech from the U.S. religious right has established the factual basis for much of the mounting scandal besetting Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus and the RNC, places pastor David Lane much closer to the center of the story.

"acknowledge Jesus an imperator... or ...begin drinking holy blood."

In his 2013 World Net Daily op-ed "Wage War To Restore a Christian America", Lane, who has described himself as a "political operative and a mechanic", called upon believers to sacrifice their lives in order to force Americans to either acknowledge Jesus as their supreme ruler or else "begin drinking holy blood." Wrote pastor Lane,  

"American Christianity has not done a good job of producing martyrs... Christians must risk martyrdom and force Babel to the crux where it has to decide either to acknowledge Jesus an imperator and the church as God's imperium or to begin drinking holy blood."

The same year, in 2013, Lane also predicted car bombings in major U.S. cities because of "homosexuals praying at the Inauguration [of Barack Obama]".

Lane's pastors rallies have regularly featured figures such as Wallbuilders head David Barton, who appears to endorse "biblical slavery" and has claimed the U.S. Constitution is based on the Bible.

In 2013 at an Iowa pastors rally, Lane and Barton helped lead public blessings of U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and  Rand Paul. Also publicly blessed at that event, according to a special report from Christian Broadcasting Network reporter David Brody, was RNC head Reince Priebus: a photo posted by Brody shows Reince Priebus amidst a tight knot of men laying hands on Priebus, to bless and anoint the RNC head as one of God's elect.

Lane's close ties to Reince Priebus and the Republican National Committee were also on display in a January 19, 2014 story from CBN reporter Brody. According to Brody, Renewal Project head David Lane had sent out an email, to 10,000 pastors, which featured a ringing endorsement of Priebus as a GOP leader who "the masses will follow" and who could lead the American evangelical right to political triumph :

"Reince Priebus is making a stand this coming Wednesday in Washington, DC...but let's see this for what it is -- Reince Preibus is moving the ball down the field.

30 years ago Ronald Reagan branded the Republican Party as the leader of limited government, lower taxes, deregulation of business, the attitude of 'the-one-thing-government-can-do-for-me-is-leave-me-alone' -- which brought in the Reagan Democrats and Independents; Reagan then won reelection in 1984 with 49 States.

He then handed the ball to Bush 41', who quickly lost, and then Bush 43' needed the Supreme Court in 2000, and OH in 2004 to win the presidency."

The Evangelical/Pro-Life Catholic constituency didn't show in 2008 or 2012.

We need someone with principle, the masses will follow.

Will you -- right now -- stop and whisper a prayer for Reince Priebus please. He's making a stand, which is what we are all commanded to do...

Reince Priebus -- Salute. "

As noted by Rachel Maddow and MSNBC, pastor David Lane has played a key role in organizing both Rick Perry's 2011 presidential campaign kickoff prayer rally "The Response" as well as the apparent 2015 kickoff of Loiusiana governor Bobby Jindal's presidential bid, also dubbed "The Response" and featuring a number of the same pastors (and NAR leaders), such as Jim Garlow, Doug Stringer, and Willie Wooten, who were also showcased at the 2011 Rick Perry event (see this take, by Frederick Clarkson, on Jindal's prayer rally.)

Unnoticed or unremarked by Maddow was the fact that both the 2011 Perry rally and the 2015 Jindal rally were dominated by the apostles and prophets of the aggressively dominionist New Apostolic Reformation (Dominionism, also known as Dominion Theology, holds that Christians should dominate all sectors of society - including government and/or impose some version of biblical law.)

But footage from the Jindal rally culled by Right Wing Watch shows a featured pastor calling upon his audience to take control of the "Seven Mountains", seven key sectors of society (government, business & finance, media, education, arts & entertainment, the family, and religion.)

While most media missed Perry's ties to the Dominionist NAR, in late 2011 following Rick Perry's The Response rally, National Public Radio's WHYY radio show Fresh Air aired an extended interview with researcher Rachel Tabachnick concerning the nature of the New Apostolic Reformation whose apostles and prophets dominated Perry's 2011 rally and who had ringingly endorsed and blessed Rick Perry's presidential aspirations according to a blockbuster Summer 2011 report from Texas Observer.  

In a followup, on October 11, 2011, Fresh Air featured a full-length interview with evangelist and NAR leader C. Peter Wagner, widely credited with playing a leading role in organizing and leading the emerging NAR movement. Wagner admitted Sarah Palin's close ties to his movement but denied that the NAR was theocratic or "dominionist".

The following year, in December 2012, Wagner wrote an op-ed for Charisma Magazine in which C. Peter Wagner called on members of his movement to Take Dominion Over Everything.

One of the professed acolytes of the NAR movement - a personal disciple of one of Wagner's colleagues, NAR apostle Dutch Sheets, was former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, whose decision to shut down the Florida vote recount in four Florida counties during the 2000 election helped send George W. Bush to the White House. Harris called Sheets her "Mordacai", referring to a minor Old Testament figure who served as an adviser to Queen Esther.

In September 2006, a Charisma magazine story described Harris' "relationships with godly friends and mentors--including charismatic Christian leaders such as Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs and Kimberly Daniels." All three served as apostles or prophets in Wagner's growing NAR movement. Added Charisma,

"Colorado pastor Dutch Sheets, whom Harris refers to as her "Mordecai" because of his ongoing counsel and encouragement, recently gave her a large metal key as a symbol of Florida's role in turning the nation around. That role highlights the importance of Harris' campaign."