{"id":12477,"date":"2022-11-08T17:52:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T06:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/?p=12477"},"modified":"2024-03-13T12:28:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T01:28:18","slug":"raised-in-her-fathers-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/08\/raised-in-her-fathers-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Raised in her father\u2019s church"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2019, when Clare Heath-McIvor wrote on her blog about <\/span>why she wasn\u2019t a dominionist anymore<\/span><\/a>, she recalled that her entire church, family and social community was so caught up in this fundamentalist ideology that she dared not question it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, the church \u2026 was involved in an international network with heavy Dominionist overtones. Catch cries like \u2018What time is it? It’s time to take over!\u2019, \u2018Dominion in every domain\u2019, and, \u2018Let\u2019s go take the city\u2019, were met with songs about laying down our own ambition to serve the cause. We talked this. We sang this. We worked this,\u201d she said, writing under the pseudonym \u2018Kit Kennedy\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy Dominionist experience had been governed by a driving mandate to gain power and influence in order to bring the kingdom of God (ie. righteousness). But it had come at the expense of peace and joy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clare wrote that her friends and family were into the dominionist movement \u201cboots and all\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having left the church, in a dramatic and painful way, with her then husband Patrick McIvor in 2016, <\/span>Clare used the blog<\/span><\/a> as a way of processing her lifetime experience of having been deeply involved in what had transformed from a \u201crun-of-the-mill\u201d evangelical church to something she believed to be \u201cmore extreme right\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The church that Clare and Patrick left behind was City Builders Church, located in the town of Sale in Victoria\u2019s east. Clare\u2019s father, Brian, was \u2013 and still is \u2013 the church\u2019s pastor.<\/span><\/p>\n

City Builders Church has been in the public spotlight recently, with <\/span>allegations from Liberal Party members<\/span><\/a> that the church had joined with Pentecostal allies to take over local party branches in the state\u2019s east.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later this month, Clare\u2019s sister, Renee Heath (pictured), will contest the state election as a <\/span>candidate for the Liberal Party in the Eastern Victoria Region<\/span><\/a> for the upper house. Renee \u2013 reportedly an active member of City Builders Church \u2013 narrowly won a preselection battle in June, 55 votes to 53, over incumbent moderate Liberal member Cathrine Burnett-Wake.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the media reported on the church\u2019s historic links to gay conversion therapy program Living Waters Program and past campaigns against same-sex marriage and abortion rights, Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy moved to distance candidate Renee from her father\u2019s church, saying <\/span>\u201cRenee is not her family\u201d<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Renee Heath has declined to comment on her positions on such policy issues, but, <\/span>according to an ABC report in early September<\/span><\/a>, she has said she respects the separation of church and state. “I am not my father. To suggest that I am is offensive, as it belittles me,\u201d she said. The statement, however, hardly distanced her from the church. <\/span>According to an ABC report this week<\/span><\/a>, she is a shareholder of a church enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

What has gone unreported, however, is City Builders Church\u2019s alleged link to dominionist ideology \u2013 also known as the \u2018Seven Mountain Mandate\u2019. In a blog article on, <\/span>\u2018What is dominionism?\u2019<\/span><\/a>, Clare explains that it is the belief that Christians need to gain influence in, and take dominion of, seven key domains of society \u2013 media, government\/politics, education, business\/commerce, religion, arts\/entertainment and family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis drive towards Christian domination of the 7 domains uses some tactics that are innocent and others that are less so; varying from mastery of one’s own craft, to spiritual warfare or subtler\/sneakier methods to dominate or stack organisations or movements,\u201d she wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c… the important thing is this \u2013 Dominionism is a thing, it’s here, and it is usually covert and militant in its nature. We\u2019ve met Islamic fundamentalism. It’s out there. So too is Christian fundamentalism, and this is one way it manifests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>another article on the subject,<\/span><\/a> Clare recalls that she first heard about dominionism from the pulpit, when a guest preacher instructed about the seven key domains in a PowerPoint presentation. Her involvement in it deepened when she became part of an international network of churches that espoused the ideology. \u201cWe stood together, inspired by the message of our divine assignment and sang songs that asked: \u201cWhat time is it?\u201d The answer: \u201cIt’s time to take over.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though dominionism had \u201cslipped its way into churches\u201d, Clare said most people would be unaware. Just like in <\/span>Fight Club<\/span><\/i>, she wrote, the number one rule of the dominionist movement was: \u201cDon\u2019t talk about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clandestine. You won\u2019t hear of someone walking into a political party and saying, \u2018I\u2019m a Dominionist and I\u2019m here to take over.\u2019 That\u2019s a large red tick in a box marked \u2018entitled weirdo.\u2019 Nor will you read headlines like, \u2018Dominionist faction does blah blah\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clare\u2019s description of City Builders Church appears consistent with Pastor Brian Heath\u2019s public comments. In <\/span>sermons early last year<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>he told his congregation that \u201cthis church is here to affect every domain of society\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just like in Fight Club<\/i>, she wrote, the number one rule of the dominionist movement was: \u201cDon\u2019t talk about it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As reported in <\/span>Rationale<\/span><\/i> last week<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> he told a webinar late <\/span>last year how his church had become a \u201ctraining centre\u201d in the region, with many people from his family and around him engaged in the political arena and in areas such as business, media and education.<\/span><\/p>\n

A number of articles on Clare\u2019s blog focus on a topic that particularly cuts deep \u2013 that of gay conversion practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, her then husband, Patrick, contributed a piece as a guest blogger on the topic, <\/span>\u2018How I Survived the LGBTQA+ Conversion Movement\u2019<\/span><\/a>. In it, he details how he became involved in the \u201cchurch in Sale\u201d as a teenager and how he formed a relationship with Clare, \u201cthe pastor\u2019s eldest daughter\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the article, he also shares his experiences with same-sex attraction and efforts to seek support within the church \u2013 a church, he wrote, that views homosexuality as a \u201cparticularly \u2018vile\u2019 sin, not to be tolerated, especially not in church.\u201d Eventually, he was connected with an external program called the Living Waters Program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe process of Living Waters involved reading through a 400 page pseudo-psychological manual together, confessing sexual sins, receiving deliverance prayer with water and oil, and speculating about the sins of my parents,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHomosexuality was considered synonymous with words like addiction, narcissism and witchcraft. The program dismantled my identity and criminalised the way I experience desire, reframing any bad thing to happen to me, past, present or future, as a punishment from God; I was the embodiment of God\u2019s judgement on society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent media reports,<\/span>\u00a0Pastor Brian Heath denied that his church endorses gay conversion therapy<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his article on the blog, Patrick wrote that he wanted to leave the church when he and Clare had a baby on the way. He had come to the realisation that they were in a \u201cspiritually abusive church\u201d and that he did not want to subject his own children to \u201canother person\u2019s control\u201d. They were soon excommunicated from the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an article titled, <\/span>\u2018Why I became an affirming Chistian\u2019<\/span><\/a>, Clare writes about how \u201cmy father\u2019s church believed homosexuality was an abomination\u201d and about how she had to deconstruct and reconstruct her faith after leaving the church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The church publicly campaigned against same-sex marriage. While still in the church, Patrick had, according to an ABC report, been involved in efforts to <\/span>oust local federal member Darren Chester at a Nationals Party branch meeting<\/span><\/a> for supporting the reform. A member of Patrick\u2019s family and fellow churchgoer even appeared as a <\/span>concerned mum in an infamous ‘no’ campaign television advertisement<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After leaving City Builders Church, Patrick became an advocate for in the successful campaign for laws to ban gay conversion and suppression practices in Victoria . <\/span>In speaking to ABC radio<\/span><\/a> about the the-proposed laws in late 2020, Patrick said the practices were happening in religious subcultures and inflicting \u201chorrible silent life-long harm\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe place where you are most unsafe, as a queer person these days, is if you grow up in a fundamentalist religious church \u2026 I have to say it makes me mad as hell that the biggest and loudest voices against this bill are actually perpetrators. Some of them are members of my family. Some of them are members of my former church that have organised over 100 people to write letters to their local MP to prevent this from going through, all while denying that they have anything to do with it,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of this month\u2019s state election, the Victorian Liberal Party has given an <\/span>\u201ciron-clad guarantee\u201d<\/span><\/a> not to amend the laws banning gay conversion therapy and suppression practices. Yet the party has been eager to appeal to church communities, including by promising to wind back Labor\u2019s reforms that prevent faith-based institutions<\/a> such as schools from discriminating in employment on grounds including sexuality, gender identity or marital status.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rise of a number of conservative Christians, including Renee Heath, as candidates for the Liberal Party has sounded alarm bells among moderate party members and other members of parliament who have supported a number of social reforms, including on gay conversion and suppression practices, anti-discrimination laws and voluntary assisted dying. According to media reports, such conservative Christian candidates have not answered questions about their policy positions on such issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clare Heath-McIvor\u2019s blog stands as a testament to deep thinking about questions of faith and fundamentalism, and the deep personal costs for some. Now, just weeks out from the state election, the personal experiences of Clare and Patrick, as outlined on that blog, <\/span>add urgency to the need for more answers about a political candidate raised in her father\u2019s church.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you wish to republish this original article, please attribute to\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Rationale<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Click here<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0to find out more about republishing under Creative Commons.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Images: Renee Heath – Liberal for Eastern Victoria Region (Facebook); City Builders Church (screengrab, YouTube).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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