The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for the worldwide dominion of God’s Kingdom… a world of decentralized theocratic republics.... That is the only choice: pagan law or Christian law. God specifically forbids “pluralism.” God is not the least bit interested in sharing world dominion with Satan."
Quote by David Chilton, writing in PARADISE RESTORED--A Biblical Theology of Dominion
...Reconstructionism, also called Theonomism, seeks to reconstruct “our fallen society.” Its worldview is best represented by the publications of the Chalcedon Foundation, which has been classified as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the Chalcedon Foundation website, the mission of the movement is to apply “the whole Word of God” to all aspects of human life:
“It is not only our duty as individuals, families and churches to be Christian, but it is also the duty of the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics, and every other sphere to be under Christ the King. Nothing is exempt from His dominion. We must live by His Word, not our own...
From "How Republicans and Their Big Business Allies Duped Tens of Millions of Evangelicals into Voting for a Corporate Agenda" by Frank Schaeffer at Alternet Nov. 10, 2010
Frank Schaeffer argues that the Religious Right has become dominated by the radical Christian theology of Reconstructionism. Sometimes referred to as Christian Dominionism. And combined with The Tea Party which they control along with the GOP and in the wins they made in the midterm elections they are more emboldened. We can expect even more belligerent obstructionism in dealing with the obama administration. and more insane attacks on Obama characterizing him as "other" as demonic , a secret Muslim etc.
The founder of Reconstructionism Rousas Rushdoony in these videos states that secular governments are illegitimate and the only acceptable form of governance and law is that based upon "God's Law". The policy of "Separation of Church and State" is an abomination in the eyes of God. Biblical governance he argues is more efficient than any other . His use of the term efficiency sounds a bit like a form of Fascism which is also concerned with efficiency.
The only permissible law is "God's Law"
Second American Revolution: Rousas John Rushdoony (5 of 9)
Second American Revolution: Rousas John Rushdoony (6 of 9)
Jay Grimstaed a Reconstrutionist explains how to take control of the United States government by stealth
Odd isn't it that the Professional Islamophobes Robert Spencer and Pam Geller never mention the darkside of Christianity or that these radical Christians are becoming more numerous and may be able to influence legislation and policies . But maybe they don't mind theocracies as long it is not an Islamic Theocracy .
Second American Revolution: Jay Grimstead (2 of 3)
President Obama keeps talking about cooperation and discussions leading to reasonable give and take on both sides but the conservative forces unleashed in America have no interest in compromise . They are fundamentally anti-government and against using government and taxes to help out those in need and those who are treated unfairly or unjustly. Such notions are nonsense since whatever happens to an individual is a result of not just hard work but also unwavering faith in God and Jesus. Those God favors prosper those he does not favor are punished with poverty and misery.
Frank Schaeffer argues that the Religious Right's objective is to make America into a form of theocracy in which the government and all institutions and the laws of the land are in accordance with "God's Law" as found in the Bible and interpreted by a Christian elite.
Their agenda is similar to the Evangelical Seven Mountains theological movement which preaches in favor of restoring God's Dominion (Dominionism) over all of society from government and the economy and business to schools, universities , the media, science and the Arts and over all citizens. They would then impose their own form of a Christian style Sharia These Christocrats /Christo-fascists would be given complete freedom in the imposing of harsh laws as long as they let the corporations and Big Business to carry on as it saw fit. For instance they might imprison all those who publicly or even privately objected to the new order along with blasphemers, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals etc. but would have to ignore Biblical warnings about usury / high interest and of course pass laws favoring "private Property" over any other rights of citizens.
In such a theocracy there is no "private space" - since all of one's actions, private conversations, or whatever one reads or watches on tv or film or what music one listens to can be judged by the religious authorities and leaders who would interpret "God's Law" and then put it into action. As Frank Schaeffer points out these Religious Right fanatics are not much different than Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
How Republicans and Their Big Business Allies Duped Tens of Millions of Evangelicals into Voting for a Corporate Agenda by Frank Schaeffer at Alternet Nov. 10, 2010
The bible-thumping white underclass have given a big boost to the corporate bottom line.
Tens of millions of American voters got duped badly in the 2010 election. The bible-thumping white underclass thought they hit back at what they regarded as the nefarious forces trying to “take our country away.”
They were bought, paid for, sold, traded and manipulated by the most powerful in the US election: a Billionaire Lynch Mob led by Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove, the Koch brothers, and hundreds of millions in organize corporate cash. They peddled a fear agenda: fear of immigrants, fear of government control of our lives, fear that their country would become irrevocably changed.
(we could also add the fear of Muslims including Muslim Americans whom they are told will bring Sharia law to America. They also have ramped up the fear and hatred of homosexuality and LGBT community. And of course fear of feminists, liberals, progressives including liberal churches that adhere to "Social Justice" which we are told by Beck and Pastor Hagee is anti-Christian. GORD.)
...Where the fear and loathing began
A bedrock article of faith among many of the anti-Obama white voters is that America had “Christian origins,” and that today America must be “restored” to “our religious heritage.” The “Puritan heritage” of America is constantly cited as evidence for our need to return to our “biblical roots.” The Constitution is also waved around as if it too is some sort of Bible to be religiously believed in...
... by calling for a “return to our roots” (be they biblical and/or constitutional) they are actually maintaining a grand old American tradition: religious delusion as the basis for conquest. The Puritans believed that they were importing “authentic Christianity” to America...that they were on a divine mission...calling themselves “The New Israel” and a “city set upon a hill.” John Winthrop (governor of Massachusetts Bay) transferred the idea of “nationhood” in biblical Israel to the Massachusetts Bay Company.
And the Puritans claimed they were God’s “Chosen People.” They said that they had the right to grab land from the “heathen.” These were the American Indians whom the Puritans thought of as the “new Canaanites,” to be slaughtered with God’s blessing and in the case of the Pequot Indians burned alive.
There are many threads in the anti-Obama tapestry but three are ignored at our peril: 1) The End Times fantasies of the Evangelicals; 2) The rise of so-called Reconstructionist theology and 3) the culture war launched over the legalization of abortion.
1. “End Times” Fantasies
The evangelical/fundamentalists/Republican far right is in the grip of an apocalyptic “Rapture” cult centered on revenge and vindication. This “End Times” death wish is built on a literalist interpretation of the Book of Revelation. This fantasy has many followers...
...The momentum for building a subculture that’s seceding from mainstream society (in order to await "The End Times" has irrevocably pried loose a chunk of the American population from both sanity and from their fellow citizens. The Christian Zionist franchise holds out hope for the self-disenfranchised that -- at last -- everyone will know "We born-again Christians" were right and "They" were wrong. But here’s the political significance of the Christian Zionist dominance: the evangelical/fundamentalists’ imagined victimhood.
I say imagined victimhood, because the born-agains are hardly outsiders let alone victims. They’re very own George W Bush was in the White House for eight long, ruinous years and Evangelicals also dominated American politics for the better part of thirty years before that by enforcing a series of “moral” litmus tests that transformed the Republican Party into their very own culture wars lickspittle.
Nevertheless, the white evangelical/conservative Roman Catholic sense of being a victimized minority only grew with their successes.
...2. The Rise of Reconstructionist Theology
Where did the “victims” on the Far Right get their “theology” of perpetual damn-the-facts victimhood from? The history of theology (Christian or otherwise) is the history of people desperately trying to fit the way things actually are into the way their “holy” books say they should be. And since the facts don’t fit and never will, religious believers can either change their minds, embrace paradox, or find someone else to blame for their never-ending loss of face and self-esteem.
...If you feel victimized by modernity (let alone humiliated by reality) then the Reconstructionists have The Answer to your angst: apply the full scope of the Biblical Law to modern America and to the larger world! Coerce “non-believers” to live in your imaginary universe...
...The Reconstructionist worldview is ultra Calvinist, but like all Calvinism has its origins in ancient Israel/Palestine, when vengeful and ignorant tribal lore was written down by frightened men (the nastier authors of the Bible) trying to defend their prerogatives to bully women, murder rival tribes and steal land. These justifications probably reflect later thinking: origin myths used as propaganda to justify political and military actions after the fact—i.e., to justify their brutality the Hebrews said that God made them inflict on others and/or that they were “chosen.”
...Reconstructionism, also called Theonomism, seeks to reconstruct “our fallen society.” Its worldview is best represented by the publications of the Chalcedon Foundation, which has been classified as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the Chalcedon Foundation website, the mission of the movement is to apply “the whole Word of God” to all aspects of human life: “It is not only our duty as individuals, families and churches to be Christian, but it is also the duty of the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics, and every other sphere to be under Christ the King. Nothing is exempt from His dominion. We must live by His Word, not our own...
It’s no coincidence that the rise of the Islamic Brotherhoods in Egypt and Syria and the rise of Reconstructionism took place in more or less the same twentieth-century time frame—as modernism, science and “permissiveness” collided with a frightened conservatism rooted in religion. The writings of people such as Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and those of Rushdoony are virtually interchangeable when it comes to their goals of “restoring God” to his “rightful place” as he presides over law and morals. Or as the late Reconstructionist/Calvinist theologian David Chilton, writing in PARADISE RESTORED--A Biblical Theology of Dominion (and sounding startlingly al-Banna-like) explained:
Our goal is a Christian world, made up of explicitly Christian nations. How could a Christian desire anything else? Our Lord Himself taught us to pray: “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6: 10)… The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for the worldwide dominion of God’s Kingdom… a world of decentralized theocratic republics.... That is the only choice: pagan law or Christian law. God specifically forbids “pluralism.” God is not the least bit interested in sharing world dominion with Satan.
... Rushdoony argues that democracy and Christianity are incompatible: “Democracy is the great love of the failures and cowards of life,” he writes. “One [biblical] faith, one law and one standard of justice did not mean democracy. The heresy of democracy has since then worked havoc in church and state… Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies.”
3. The Culture Wars Launched over the Abortion Debate & Roe V Wade 1973
... The messengers and day-to-day “issues” changed but the volume of the anti-government “debate” and anger originated with the anti-abortion movement. “Death Panels!”, “Government Takeover!”, “Obama is Hitler!” and all such “comments” were simply updated versions of “pro-life” rhetoric...
Evangelicals created a parallel “Christian America,” (to) create a Puritan/Reconstructionist-style holy-nation-within-our-fallen-nation.
This went far beyond mere alternative schools and home schools. Thousands of new Christian bookstores opened, countless Evangelical radio programs flourished in the 1970s and 80s, and new TV stations went on the air. and ... New Evangelical universities and law schools appeared, ... with a clearly defined mission to “take back” each and every profession – including law and politics – “for Christ.” ...
...The price for the Religious Right’s wholesale idolatry of private everything was that Christ’s reputation was tied to a cynical political party owned by billionaires from the fast-food industry, raping the earth (not to mention our health), to the oil companies destroying our climate. It only remained for a Far Right Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court to rule in 2010 (Citizens United V. The Federal Election Commission), that unlimited corporate money could pour into political campaigns – anonymously -- in a way that clearly favored corporate America and the super wealthy who long since were the only entities served by the Republican Party’s defense of the individual against the government. The “individuals” turned out to be Exxon, the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, McDonald’s and Goldman Sachs et al.
... What the Religious Right ...did was contribute to a climate where the very legitimacy of our government...is up for grabs. Then the internet came along and Fox News came along and Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann et all came along and no fiction was too fantastical to be believed as fact. We passed into a high tech stone age, myth superstition and outright lies gained a new currency.
...This was the politics that won in the Republican gains in the 2010 midterm elections. This was the logical conclusion of the process of delegitimizing the Federal Government that was launched by the Reconstructionists, the anti-abortion movement and of course is fed by the “Left Behind”/Christian Zionist apocalyptic revenge fantasy.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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