The Seven Mountains Mandate

The Seven Mountains Mandate is a political strategy to mobilize Christian people to seek and secure positions of power in one of the areas of cultural influence: religion, family, education, business, government, media, and entertainment. While describing this powerful political and religious movement as a whole, Boedy highlights one organization—Turning Point USA (TPUSA)—and its influential leader—Charlie Kirk—as of special significance. “Supporters of the movement like Kirk now stand ready to use and abuse the levers of democratic power to deliver on all the movement has been promising. How they are planning to do so is what this book is about” (x).

Publication and initial distribution of this book occurred just weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025. This adds a peculiar aura to the reading of this book; it also presents a powerful challenged to the fundamental thesis of the book, namely, the leadership role of TPUSA in the broader conservative movement in this country. Time will tell, and let’s hope Boedy writes about that as well.

Boedy first introduces the Seven Mountains Mandate: what it is, where it came from, and how it ascended to its place at the top of a powerful political movement. Boedy reveals the roles of Bill Bright 1921-2003 (Campus Crusade for Christ), Loren Cunningham 1935-2023 (Youth with a Mission), and Francis Schaeffer 1912-1984 (L’Abri). Particular attention is given to a private conversation in Boulder, Colorado, in August of 1975.

Chapters one through seven treat, one by one, the seven mountains of cultural influence and how they are appropriated by those longing to change the United States into what they call a “Christian nation.” They are driven by the conviction that “educating students about the greatness of America, including its supposed origins and consensus as a Christian nation, is the first step to turning back those schools to God. To turn the schools back to God means to turn the nation back to God. Conquering the mountain of education is doing the Lord’s will” (23).

That Kirk became a leader in this proposed reformation of higher education is ironic given the facts that he failed in his efforts to secure an appointment to West Point and later dropped out during his first year at community college. He is presented as a third generation leader of the attack on public schools as too secular. Hillsdale College in Michigan, Liberty University in Virginia, and Logos School in Idaho, along with Turning Point Academy Association are highlighted.

Chapter two takes up the “mountain” of government. It introduces Peter Wagner and his concepts of spiritual warfare, prayer walking, and mapping as strategies to resist the demons that supposedly control American cities. Others propose the use of “city elders” to supersede the role of elected councils and employed executives. As to democratic norms and practices (like voting), Christian Dominionists “see democracy when they win, tyranny when they lose” (58).

Next comes religion.  Simply put, “the church is included in the powerful places controlled by Satan” (60).  It has not done enough “to stem the tide of moral and spiritual decay in the nation” (61).  Church leaders such as bishops, pastors, and scholars are rejected in favor of apostles and prophets, leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation (like Che Ahn, 65ff). Evangelism now means, not baptizing sinners and organizing churches, but mobilizing Christian people for “biblical citizenship” which includes, when necessary, violent efforts to establish Christianity.

Chapter Four addresses the family under the rubric of the masculine heart and the feminine mystique. “To strengthen the family means to attack those who supposedly weaken the institution of marriage by embodying alternatives to the one-man-one-woman partnership” (81). Thus, the attack on the entire LGBTQ community, especially the T (trans). And also feminism, against which TPUSA uses outdoor adventures to “create real men in response to the rise of feminism” (87). It is men who are to rule the family and the nation. The result of this men first strategy, Boedy asserts, is “to silence, erase, and eliminate voices” (96).

When it comes to the economic mountain, Boedy traverses some familiar territory: the prosperity gospel! This engine of personal wealth is never far from the proponents of Christian Nationalism. The antidote to poverty and inequality is unfettered capitalism, through which the wealth of the world comes into the hands of individuals who will share it liberally with those, like Charlie Kirk, who are saving the Nation and, also, becoming millionaires themselves. “Apostle” Lance Wallnau appears again, as do Loren Cunningham, Pat Robertson, especially Stephen Davis, the latter in addressing the “victim mentality” that has socially imprisoned poor, often black communities.

Chapter Six climbs the mountain of media, only to find sitting at the top a circle of conservative millionaires like Jack Van Impe, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and of course Charlie Kirk. These stalwart “truth-tellers” offer an alternative to the news and commentary of the corrupt and demon-possessed mainstream media, especially as regards Israel and the End Times. Regardless of particulars, Boedy contends that this alternative media system is always peddling conspiracies, “creating an alternative set of facts, history, and culture” and thereby “eroding trust in democratic institutions” (125).

Finally, Boedy turns his attention to entertainment, engaging not so much the traditional Hollywood culture of movies and television as the emerging platforms of podcast and meme. These, he asserts, use politics and public life as the avenue for ridicule and denigration. He concludes by invoking Neil Postman and his famous book Amusing Ourselves to Death (1975), which (ironically) names politics, religion, news, athletics, education, and commerce as co-opted for entertainment and complicit in “killing our nation” (143, with note 7/32).

“I have lived through most of this” I wrote in an email to Boedy this week, ten weeks after my first contact and my first article (themeetinghouse.net/kirk-boedy). I wondered to him how the death of Kirk might impact the future of TPUSA and also of the wider Christian Nationalist Movement. Too early to tell, we both concluded, but this much is clear to me: that movement is deep and wide and not dependent upon Kirk, or Trump, or anybody else named in this book. It has captured the mountain of government (White House, Supreme Court, Congress, and not a few state capitals); but its success on the other six mountains is mixed generally, and very limited specifically (education, business, and family, in particular).   Frankly, it is not at all clear to me what they consider a “Christian Nation” especially as regards to government regulations, scientific research, care for the poor and the refugee, and administration of things as diverse as roads, harbors, and skies, telecommunications, social security, and banking.

What will be interesting and entertaining to watch is how the two wings (religion, business) of this currently ascendant political juggernaut will continue their cozy toleration once the wealth objectives of the tech titans part ways with the Christian vision of the Seven Mountain Mandate.  Maybe in my lifetime. Maybe not. Cheers.