The “New Apostolic Reformation” can be confusing to outsiders. It is, as veteran religion reporter Bob Smietana describes it, “a movement of independent charismatic apostles and prophets that seeks to have Christians dominate all elements of society, including the government.”
But what exactly do these folks mean by “apostles and prophets”? And what accounts for the apparently massive appeal of this movement?
Here is a simple rule for answering both of those questions: Whenever you see the word “prophet,” just substitute the words “dungeon master.”
I suppose I should take a moment here to explain what a “dungeon master” is. Even if most regular readers of this blog likely already know, it may help those “apostles” and their followers to better understand what it is I’m saying about them.
The term “dungeon master” (or “DM”) comes from Dungeons & Dragons, which is probably the most popular and most famous table-top role-playing game. This refers to the player who facilitates the game by serving as the chief story-teller, and referee and interpreter of rules, and the presenter and representative of everyone and everything the other players and their characters encounter. It’s a role that requires hours of preparation, and then lots of nimble improvisation to accommodate all of the unexpected choices the other players make, all while making sure the game is challenging, but not impossible.
But while DMs are distinct from the other players, they are still players themselves. They are still playing — still part of the game and still in on the fun. This D&D player’s site does a good job capturing that in a “How to Be a Dungeon Master” post that emphasizes how it may be a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun: “In basic terms, the main responsibilities of the DM are to narrate the adventure, control the monsters during combat, roleplay any nonplayer characters (NPCs) that the party might encounter, and help move the story along.”
This is also, in basic terms, the role of the “apostle” or “prophet” in the NAR: “To narrate the adventure, control the monsters during combat, roleplay any nonplayer characters (NPCs) that the party might encounter, and help move the story along.”
Those are the key elements of NAR’s teaching: an adventurous narrative, in which the players are cast as brave heroes and warriors, a cast of monsters presented by the DM, and “the world” or the rest of the world, which consists of NPCs who speak from the DM’s script in the DM’s voice and exist only to “help move the story along.”
It’s a game. It’s a fun game — an exciting bit of escapism that allows players to imagine they’re brave and strong and powerful, participants in a great and noble and meaningful quest. That’s appealing, particularly for people with lousy, no-respect jobs who spend most of their week being reminded that they are not brave or strong or powerful, and who are not permitted the luxury of pursuing anything greater or more noble or meaningful.
But they still know it’s a game. And so do their DMs — the “prophets” and “apostles” narrating this adventure.
We know that they know it’s a game because they say so. Not all the time, or even most of the time, but whenever they have to say so. That is, they say so whenever one of their players gets confused between the game and reality and starts really killing the very real, human people the rhetoric of the game insists are inhuman “monsters.”
This real-world violence ruins the game and threatens the game. And so, to protect the game, and the living they make as DMs, the “prophets” and “apostles” all rush to condemn the killings and the violence, and to explain that they never actually meant any of that stuff they said, and that they never intended for anyone to take it seriously.
This piece from NPR’s Odette Yousef discusses the latest example of the DMs and their game producing this real-world violence:
“It’s reasonable to be concerned in the present that this movement we call the New Apostolic Reformation, is priming the pump for anti-abortion and other kinds of violence in our society now,” said Fred Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates. “There’s been a decided uptick in the rhetoric and vision of violence in the United States from apostolic leaders for some time.”
Clarkson said within NAR circles, abortion is spoken of as a “demonic enterprise,” and that institutions and individuals that permit or support it are considered enemies.
“The question is, at what point does the rhetoric meet the reality?” he said. “At what point do individuals or perhaps organized groups, perhaps large groups, begin to take action against the ‘enemies of God’ and the ‘demonic forces’?”
Vance Boelter, the missionary turned assassin who allegedly murdered a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and shot two others last week, is just the latest fantasy role-player who tried to make the dungeon masters’ rhetoric meet reality. The thrill of that rhetoric — the great adventure of that game — became preferable to his own mundane life as a failed entrepreneur. The rhetoric was so much more appealing than the reality, so he chose the former over the latter, loaded his guns and put on a costume to wage war on those demonic forces and enemies of God.
As a result, the “apostles” and “prophets” who had served as Boelter’s DMs were forced to make statements denouncing him for literally doing what they literally talked about. His alma mater — Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas — put out a statement distancing itself from its former student and condemning his actions: “CFNI unequivocally rejects, denounces, and condemns any and all forms of violence and extremism, be it politically, racially, religiously or otherwise motivated.”
Don’t blame the game, it’s just a game!
And in a short while, they’ll go back to playing that game, narrating the adventure, presenting the monsters, and moving the story along. They’ll go right back to pretending to believe that abortion is a literal human sacrifice made by evil subhuman people to literal demonic forces and telling their players that they must be like Gideon, tearing down the idolatrous altars and waging war on the idolaters and their false gods. Because that’s the game, and it’s exciting and fun, and why settle for being a nobody when you can imagine you’re a level 12 Gideon Paladin?
Sure, that game involves bearing false witness against your neighbors, and every once in a while one of the players engages in real-world violence against those same neighbors, but what do you expect the DMs to do about that? Just stop playing entirely?
They can’t do that. Not just because the game is the source of their livelihood, but because it is the source of their meaning and their identity. They do not know who they are apart from the game.
And yet they still know it’s just a game, admitting and insisting on this every time the game’s imaginary violence spills over into reality.
Some of the things I’ve read following up on the right-wing political violence in Minnesota:
- Jeff Sharlet, “On the Christian Education of Dr. Vance Boelter“
- Jonathan Larsen, “The Gospel According to Vance Boelter“
- Keri Ladner, “We Should Not Be Shocked That the Alleged Minnesota Shooter’s Christian School Is Connected to Political Violence“
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In