ReignDown

[[File:ReignDown USA 12-8-12 Promo Poster.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Promotional poster for ReignDown's 2012 gathering. Chop off the bottom third and you'd actually have a pretty decent poster.]]
'''ReignDown''' is an [[Christian evangelism|Evangelical Christian]] worship and [[prayer]] gathering, run by the '''ReignDown USA''' organization. Notably, their 2012 gathering received an official endorsement from Kansas governor [[Sam Brownback]],<ref>Kyle Mantyla. "[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/brownback-declares-saturday-day-restoration Brownback Declares Saturday to be a 'Day of Restoration']." Right Wing Watch. 2012 December 4.</ref> who issued a video inviting people to participate in ReignDown's meeting in Topeka, Kansas.<ref>Brian Cole. "[http://vimeo.com/54389956 Gov. Brownback invites you to participate on 12-8-12]." Vimeo. 2012 November 27.</ref>

Eyebrow-raising quasi-official government endorsements aside, ReignDown is a run-of-the mill Evangelist organization. Its official blog devotes an entire post to fretting about America not being Godly enough,<ref>"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/blog/ Why?]." ReignDown USA Blog. 2011 August 29.</ref><ref>'''Note:''' Their "blog" doesn't have section linking (a curious failure of an otherwise web-savvy organization) so you'll need to search within the page for the post title to read it.</ref> they see the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the 2011 earthquake in Japan as signs that America should repent,<ref>{{refquote|2010 began with turmoil in Haiti and Chile. 2011 has seen one of the biggest and most devastating earthquakes in history rock Japan. A deep cry has gone out to this nation... There is no better way to respond than to heed God's call to America and the entire Body of Christ to worship, pray, and repent.}} —"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/blog/ We will not forget.]" ReignDown USA Blog. 2011 February 10.</ref> and it supports school prayer (endorsing an effort to stage a prayer sit-in at several high schools<ref>"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/blog/ Prayer Initiatives You Should Know About]." ReignDown USA Blog. 2011 October 3.</ref>). That being said, it's relatively apolitical, with nary a mention of [[abortion]], [[gay marriage]], [[evolution]], or the evils of [[secular humanism]] in sight.

ReignDown's first gathering was held on 2008 in Washington, D.C., followed by their second on December 2012 in Topeka, Kansas. They spent the first half of 2013 raising money for a May (of that year) meeting in Israel.<ref>[http://reigndownusa.com/img12/box-israel.jpg Image] announcing ReignDown's Israel 2013 meeting.</ref> In the start of May, ReignDown abrubtly announced the Israel meeting would be rescheduled for October 15, 2014.<ref name=excuses>[http://reigndownusa.com/blog/ Clarity on Israel]. ReignDownUSA blog. 2013 May 7.</ref> Officially, this is because God appeared to its founder in a dream and dramatically revealed ReignDown's new meeting date.<ref name=excuses/> Even a mildly cynical reading suggests they simply hadn't raised enough money in five months to hold a concert in Israel, and so pushed the date out by a generous one and a half years.

==The ReignDown mythos==
The name ReignDown is taken from a supposed promise God made to the organizers to "reign down His blessings and miracles in an unprecedented way."<ref name=vision>"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/the-vision/ The Vision]." ReignDown USA.</ref> This makes ReignDown not only a pun, but a pun that makes absolutely no sense.<ref>A random homophone substituted into a sentence does not a pun make.</ref>

Like many Evangelical Christian organizations, ReignDown has a carefully-managed narrative built around it. Theirs involves a call to (spiritual) arms, miracles, and gratuitous Bible quotes.

===The "vision"===
According to ReignDown's website, their mission began when [[God]] [[revelation|spoke]] to a housewife named Shawn-Marie Cole in 2005.<ref name=vision/> He told her to bring people together to bring God back into America and repent on behalf of the nation. It specifically mentions {{wpl|Michael W. Smith}} and [[George W. Bush]] as leading the gathering. This "vision" is an interesting study of how modern Evangelical Christians try to portray their faith (''viz'' propaganda).

God spoke to a lowly, ordinary person — a housewife. This has the immediate appeal of a personal (Christian) God, one who is present in our lives. But, despite God speaking to ''her'' and not anybody else, the president of her own nonprofit is her father<ref>{{refquote|Joining Kallestad as coauthor is his daughter...}} —[http://authors.simonandschuster.ca/Shawn-Marie-Cole/45728225 Shawn-Marie Cole's author page] at Simon & Schuster.</ref> and its marketing consultant is her brother,<ref>"[http://reigndownusa.com/contact/ Contact Us]." ReignDown USA.</ref> — as ex-Christian blogger Libby Anne has observed,<ref>Libby Anne. "[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/09/ctbhhm-michael-pearls-stamp-of-approval.html CTBHHM: Michael Pearl’s Stamp of Approval]." ''Love, Joy, Feminism''. 2012 September 21.</ref> this is typical of Evangelical Christian culture: even if something is the woman's idea, it still needs the stamp of approval from the men in her life, and must ultimately be steered by those men.

The people Cole's vision mentioned as leading the nation in repentance also smacks of Evangelical culture. Michael W. Smith was already a popular Christian singer at the time, and then-President George W. Bush was enormously popular with Evangelical Christians. This plays squarely into the existing Evangelical power structure; as [[Fred Clark]] would probably say, there isn't a lot of [[Jesus Christ|Christ]] in her vision — rather than radical advocacy of the poor and downtrodden, her vision calls for the powerful to engage in entirely symbolic acts.

===The "miracle"===
ReignDown USA plays up their 2008 meeting as being heralded by divine intervention. The National Park Service announced "tornadoes, heavy rain and winds, and lightning"<ref name=vision/> were going to hit the gathering, but then ReignDown averted the crisis with the power of prayer. They mention this on their website,<ref name=vision/> their blog (which leads the story with the most dramatic vaguely-relevant Bible quote they could think of),<ref>"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/42608.html What God Did on 4.26.08]." ReignDown USA.</ref> ''and'' their 2008 annual report.<ref>"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/RDAnnualReport.pdf 2007-2008 Annual Report]." ReignDown USA.</ref> But ultimately, this supposed miracle boils down to "the weather man said it would rain, but then it didn't" — as miracles go, this is pretty weak.

==Performance as a nonprofit==
ReignDown is an admittedly small nonprofit. Despite the big talk about leading the nation into repentance and their slick website and promo materials, their event videos don't show a remarkably large crowd<ref>Archive of ReignDown's [http://vimeo.com/56357860 Kansas 2012 livestream]. (2:16:58 to 2:17:49 shows a full pan of the entire crowd. It isn't very big.)</ref> and their annual revenue is barely $100,000.<ref>"[http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/orgs/profile/208469450 Reigndown USA Inc]." National Center for Charitable Statistics.</ref> (This is almost certainly eaten up by the enormous cost of staging even a small concert.)

Among the many things ReignDown USA asks people to pray for, they also ask that you pray their financial obligations are met,<ref>"[http://www.reigndownusa.com/prayer-guide/ Prayer Guide - Finances]." ReignDown USA.</ref> suggesting ReignDown is unaware how nonprofits are supposed to make money. (There is no word yet on whether the IRS considers prayers tax deductible.)

==External links==
*[http://reigndownusa.com/ Official website] of ReignDown USA.
*[http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/orgs/profile/208469450 National Center for Charitable Statistics] on ReignDown.

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

[[Category:Fundamentalist Christian organizations]]

Categories: Fundamentalist Christian organizations