Religion Rejecting the World

In keeping with a dominant theme in the last few posts, I came across a story carried on Religon Dispatches - found at:
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/1618/my_womb_for_his_purposes%3A_the_perils_of_unassisted_childbirth_in_the_quiverfull_movement/ - dealing with a subset of the 'quiverfull' movement of conservative Christianity that calls for a complete rejection of any human system. After all, if you depend on any person, you are not depending on God.

I have commented about this patriarchal movement that rejects any birth control and depends on God to give or to withhold pregnancy before. In case you wonder about the name, there is a Biblical reference that refers to children metaphorically as 'arrows', hence to have a 'quiverfull' is to have many children. Part of the rationale given by some in the movement is to increase the number of children in Christian families and, thus, compete against the high birth rates among other religious groups.

The story from Religion Dispatches, though, looks at a more radical portion within this movement who hold more extreme views. In the 'Home In Zion Ministries' group, primarily influenced by Carol Balizet, who in turn is influenced by Kenneth Copeland and the 'name-it-claim-it' teachings, the true Christian is one who rejects all human institutions and depends solely upon God for all things.

In their words:
We’re Home in Zion Ministries, and as our name may indicate, our goal is to encourage separation from the counterfeits of the world, and entrance into what is symbolically called Zion. This is a life TOTALLY dependent on God alone. We advocate home childbirth, home schooling, home healing, often even home churching, and other things which accompany a separation from the world and a return to the God-centered reality of the kingdom. We want to share the experiences and testimonies of the many, many families we know who have victories in these and other areas of kingdom life. We reach out to the "seven thousand" who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’

‘Satan has built himself a seven-headed system (or a system built on seven mountains) as counterfeits for these seven revelations of our need-meeting God. Seven intricate, self-perpetuating, man-glorifying, unholy organizations: government, commerce, education, science, the arts, medicine and religion, which claim to provide all the things that God has promised.’

As the Religion Dispatch article and the other articles it references, this 'Zion' based teaching has led to deaths and abuses among the followers. This certainly seems to be an example of the misinterpretation and misapplication of scripture. Yet, the beliefs expressed by this group are not that far removed by what is proclaimed in many conservative, though more 'mainstream', Christian churches. I have heard many sermons extolling the faithful to depend upon God, to turn their back on the world, and to live faithful and holy lives separated from the world. It is a short step from those sermons to this mind-set.