Most of us were understandably overjoyed when American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown. Until two weeks ago, so many horses had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes only to come up short in the Belmont Stakes that it didn’t appear anyone would ever win the Triple Crown again. Well, a prominent pastor in an out-and-out fascist offshoot of the religious right thinks that American Pharoah’s historic victory is a sign that Christians of his ilk are now poised to take over the world.
Johnny Enlow is a prominent writer and speaker in the New Apostolic Reformation, an overtly fascist movement that believes it can bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world and steamrolling over anyone who dares to resist. This movement’s strategy centers around taking over the “seven mountains”–their term for the seven forces that influence our culture. Specifically, business, media, arts, education, family, religion, and especially government.
In 2008, Enlow wrote “The Seven Mountain Prophecy,” in which he outlines that Christians under “submission” to God’s “apostles” and “prophets” should strive to? take over the world and “present the nations of the world to the Lord as his possession.” Once that happens, a government would ideally function as a “virtual theocracy” in which those in power serve as “puppets” of the theocracy. As if he hadn’t made that clear, he told an audience at Harry Jackson’s church in 2013 that all seven of these mountains–particularly government and media–should function on Earth exactly as they do in heaven. If that doesn’t sound frightening enough, consider that in that very same book, he claimed that it was no coincidence that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans before it was due to host a gay pride event. Supposedly, God was giving those due to attend the event a sign that he loved them.
But these passages are models of sanity compared to an article Enlow recently wrote for an NAR-aligned email listserv, Elijah List. Enlow somehow managed to find “sign” after “sign” that American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win is a prelude to a Christian takeover of the world. For instance, American Pharoah’s jockey in all three Triple Crown races, Victor Espinoza, wore number 5, which is the “number of grace.” Additionally, he has won five of the six Triple Crown races in the last two seasons; he was the jockey for California Chrome’s near-miss last year. His last name is Spanish for “thorny” or “from thorns.” To Enlow’s mind, Espinoza’s near-miss in 2014 aboard California Chrome heralded “a coming shining of California,” and his performance aboard American Pharoah is a sign that this country is about to step into greater leadership in the world as “a world-Pharaoh.”
Enlow also points out that “Belmont” is French for “beautiful mountain.” According to Enlow, as the global landscape undergoes more and more upheaval, the “rising sons and daughters of the King” will gain increasing influence over the “seven mountains.” He then really goes off the rails by saying that the fact someone finally won the Triple Crown is a sign that beginning with this year’s celebration of Rosh Hashanah, NAR-aligned Christians will be in a position to “actually contend for entire nations”–conveniently leaving out that Rosh Hashanah is celebrated in the fall, not the spring. He concludes that American Pharoah’s win should give his followers hope, since they’re on the verge of “going into the Promised Land and of the tops of the 7 mountains.”
If your head’s spinning from this, don’t feel bad–mine is too. I first had contact with the NAR when I was deceived into joining a borderline cultish campus ministry in my college days that was aligned with one of the more notorious NAR outfits, Every Nation. I’ve heard some off-the-charts loony stuff during this time from NAR people, but this spiel from Enlow is one of the looniest I’ve heard yet.? One has to wonder–did Ayatollah Khomeini go into these kinds of rants before 1979? Or the leaders of the Taliban before 1996? Keep this on file in case any presidential candidate takes a page from Rick Perry’s playbook and tries to get too close to these fascists during the campaign.
