Manifest Destiny

And Dominion Theology

A philosophy destroying the nation

Dominion theology is the antithesis of service and humility. It is the antithesis everything Jesus is recorded to have said or done. It is in opposition to God’s grace. Manifest Destiny is a phrase coined in 1845 as a rallying cry to propagandize white-Americans right to seize every corner of this land for the white-identity Americans of European Christian descent — Manifest Destiny was the rallying cry for dominion over this nation. It was an excuse to seize and conquer the land for westward expansion. The Manifest Destiny doctrine is still considered “the philosophy that created a nation” — but, it has gone too far, becoming a philosophy that is destroying the nation. We are living, in real time, the undermining impact of our constitutional democratic republic and of basic human rights by the political right’s dominion theology manifesting the only outcome — a destiny of cruelty and oppression.

Dominion theology was born out of an interpretation of a single word, taken out of context within a single verse of the Old Testament in the King James Version (KJV) translation of Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

The theology of dominionism is not what was intended in Genesis 1:28, any more than was the divine right doctrine. It was not a command to impose fundamentalist theocracy — certainly not to impose belief by force. It was an edict to care for the earth by being good stewards and serving all creatures and beings. There has been much scholarship demonstrating how the KJV is a famously inaccurate translation, deliberately manipulated to propagandize the Western Christian doctrine of the “Divine Right of Kings.” American dominion theology is little different, and is predicated on the same theological dogma. It is a white-identity and white-prosperity theocratic dogma.

Out of dominion ideology grew America’s Manifest Destiny doctrine. America was the new “promised land” and no culture or belief but their version of Christianity has the right to dominate. Dominion is white Christian men’s Manifest Destiny by the will of God. The doctrine has been used to justify the atrocities committed as white European descendants swarmed across the lands. The idea, even before it was codified in writing, was used to empower white American men to invent the colonial system of chattel slavery. The presumed destiny of dominion justifies controlling access to knowledge. It justified subjugating, displacing, and slaughtering non-white indigenous peoples wherever white Americans turned their eyes on this continent. That presumed dominion and assumed destiny justified babies in cages for daring to step foot on this land they see as destined to be the domain only of white-identity. Such a dogma necessarily makes enemies of society and everything outside that narrow doctrine — from native men seeking justice to immigrant babies seeking refuge.

Dominionism and Manifest Destiny is expressed in America today in the prosperity gospels intertwined with fundamentalist evangelicalism (“The Church”). It is a belief system divorced from the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ — who never once coerced forced belief, nor commanded it be forced; Jesus never told anyone to start a religion, let alone telling anyone to go manifesting destiny. It’s blatant to everyone looking back at “The Church” — cruelty is at the core of the American rightwing’s manifesting destiny in our modern era. “The Church” has become an institutionalized system of cruelty and abuse… from telling children they are born inherently corrupt and putrid in the eyes of God, to stripping women of the full personhood of bodily autonomy, to oppressing the poor and not-white, to denying the LGBTQ the very right to exist.

When everyone not you is the enemy, demons and the devil are everywhere. It’s a life or death struggle for the right to claim Heaven itself. Everything and everyone perceived as outside white-identity theology is the enemy. The culture wars are being fought with a near-Armageddon mentality. Manifest Destiny refuses God’s grace, denies it for anyone who is not a white-identity man cloaked in Christianish fundamentalist evangelicalism. It is a war against the very concept of the God who is love.

The overarching message of the Bible is that God wants to be in right relationship with us and for us to be in right relationship with all God’s creation. Culture wars are not new. They’re written even into the Bible. Men, inspired by God, interpreted the world through the lens of their cultures — interpretations in opposition with other cultures. When we read scripture with discernment founded in a heart of love, we can see those cultural impositions embedded around God’s messages of love and loving.

We are created to be stewards of creation, to be living reflections of the image of the God who is love. God loves and God is love; we know God when we know love. Throughout scripture, we are repeatedly commanded to love others by humbling ourselves to serve the world, to strengthen the weak, to work justice for the marginalized and the oppressed. We are commanded to serve those in need — not to dominate them. We steward God’s children when we feed the hungry, when we comfort the lonely and distressed. To welcome the stranger is to welcome God. To lift up the downtrodden is to honor and praise God. We are meant to steward creation. The dominion that God demands is for us to be living reflections of the image of the God who is love.

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