What is Christian Dominionism — and Why Should Even Christians Fear It?

Jennifer R. Povey
5 min readMay 4, 2022
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

So. Deep breath.

There’s a movement in this country which people don’t understand, and which is behind so many of our problems.

That movement is Dominionism.

What is Christian Dominionism?

Christian Dominionism is, plain and simple, the belief that Christians have an obligation to do their best to rise to power in a country and then run it according to “God’s Word.”

Sound familiar?

First of all, not all right wing Christians are Dominionists, but all Dominionists are right wing Christians.

There are several subdivisions within it:

  1. Soft Dominionism — the belief that America is a “Christian nation” and thus should abide by Christian tradition.
  2. Hard Dominionism — the belief that only Christians should be permitted to hold political office. (Sometimes this excludes Catholics).
  3. Christian Reconstructionism — the belief that all Christians should strive to excel in their individual field of endeavor so as to dominate it. I.e., if you are a Christian writer, you are obligated to become the best writer you possibly can and try to win all the awards.
  4. Kingdom Now — the belief that Christians need to take back the Earth through “spiritual battle.”
  5. Seven Mountains Dominionism — the belief that Christians should control seven “mountains,” or areas of life, namely family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. I.e., pretty much everything. Ted Cruz’s father is a Seven Mountains Dominionist. Ted Cruz is too smart to admit to being one, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

But all of them have in common one basic idea: Christians should be in charge. Christians should only vote for Christian candidates who support Christian values.

Dominionism is Unconstitutional

In the United States, Dominionism is blatantly unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment. (So is criminalizing abortion, criminalizing birth control, etc. Criminalizing birth control is anti-Semitic, by the way).

Jennifer R. Povey

I write about fantasy, science fiction and horror, LGBT issues, travel, and social issues.