America the Theocracy: Dominionism goes to print

America The Theocracy
A band of influential preachers is praying for the power to rule America. For those who disagree, they have a solution -- stoning.

BY JOHN F. SUGG


Gary DeMar makes a disconcerting impression for a firebrand revolutionary who wants to overthrow the established order in the United States. No camouflage, and he carries a Bible instead of an assault rifle. Sporting khaki pants with razor creases, tassel loafers and, most of all, a warm smile, he looks like your neighbor. He might be.DeMar runs American Vision, a prolific publishing house of mostly his own books in Powder Springs, a suburb of Marietta, Ga. He's a churchgoer -- nothing radical there. His church is Midway Presbyterian -- and Presbyterians are pretty mainstream, aren't they?


Look again.

It's a Wednesday night in February and about 40 Midway parishioners are gathered for a class. They're bedrock, anytown Americans -- other than their monochrome white complexion.

This is more than one man's radical dreaming. It's the core belief of a movement called Christian Reconstruction, and DeMar is its Tom Paine. Many followers accord him the status of transforming an arcane offshoot of Calvinism into a political dreadnought -- and of launching that theological warship at a speech 20 years ago.

The movement, also dubbed "dominion theology" and "theonomy," has spread far beyond the right wing of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. It has penetrated, to some degree, most conservative denominations, including Southern Baptist.

More here: http://www.weeklyplanet.com/cover.html


There are also loads of sites here explaining the movement and it's
danger to our democracy. Alot of people who are in the "mainstream" churches don't even know that they are being led to this.

As for myself I think the real danger is relying on others for our interpretations of the gospels and allowing people who say they speak "for God" to lead us. Very scary.

Edit: It's a very long read but worth it.

No difference between Al-Queda in Afghanistan and Cadillac driving religious extremists here.

I find that in both cases it is more a question of power and control than morality.

LOL, that's rich.
You get the credit but I'm goona lift that and I got the feeling I'll be using it more and more in the future.

http://www.yuricareport.com/
link that to this:
http://www.againstbombing.com/ArmageddonUpdates.htm
connect the dots.

Thanks for those links. They explain exactly what is going on. My point was how few everyday people know that they are pushing this movement without really knowing it and would be shocked if they actually knew how far they wanted to go.

And I don't think their past actions would be exempt from these punishments. Scary reads.

documenting how the Religious Right has hijacked the Republican Party. Lots of specific details, articles, documents, etc.

http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

Lots of informative articles there.

If they are trying to usurp the Constitutional government of the United States, then they are traitors, and deserve a traitors death.

I would personally prefer the punishment given to traitors under English Law, be given to these people, of course this would only apply to the adults.

Anyone who tries to take away my Constitutional rights, is going to
suffer as much pain as I can inflict upon them.

If it comes down to it, I will be willing to fight these people, and I don't mean with words either.

Trouble of it is...the in-laws I love moved to the Bible Belt, with Hubby's wingnut sister and became Southern Baptists in the finest? sense of the word (no offense to mainstream Baptists meant)and are beginning to sound more and more like Reconstructionists or at least extreme fundamentalists. But I have ever-so-politely let them know their environment will not be the environment my daughter lives in.

These are probably the same kind of people who at the time of the Revolutionary War were the ones we called "Redcoats". Just as some here at the time were just fine with the Church of England figuratively ruling America, they are just fine with their church ruling America.

Traitors is right.

Although I supect the real fundamentalist equivalents would have been the Puritans with their theocracy and OT rules of society. By the Revolution, their brand of extremism was waning.

The University of Georgia's Larson says it has gone unnoticed by many, perhaps the majority, of Americans for a simple reason. "A hundred years ago," he says, "newspapers published the sermons preachers preached on Sunday. Everyone knew what the Baptists believed, or the Lutherans or the Presbyterians. That's no longer the case. And it has worked to the benefit of (Christian Reconstructionists) as they doggedly pursued their goal."

Maybe it's time to do this again but I doubt it will happen. Publishing the sermons will put out the hate for all to see.

companies?

Is O'Dell tied in with them?

http://www.matrixmasters.com/blog/2003_12_01_newsarchive

"Dominionism pictures the seizure of earthly (temporal) power by the 'people of God' as the only means through which the world can be rescued...It is the eschatology that Bush has imbibed...through which he has gradually (and easily) come to see himself as an agent of God who has been called by Him to 'restore the earth to God's control,' a 'chosen vessel,' so to speak, to bring in the Restoration of All Things." . . . Such delusions might perhaps explain the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive killing, the mountain of lies and deceit that created the bloody atrocity in the Gulf, his complete disregard for the destruction of innocent life.


CEO, Walden W. O'Dell, recently wrote in a fundraising letter for the Republicans, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year."

movement?


BTW, the link came across as source code in FireFox. I copied it to an editor, named it blog.html, dropped the file onto a browser, and it worked. Just so you know how to deal with such an occurrence. Don't do it in Word, used simple text like notepad, or other simple editors.

Here's what I've come up with so far:


http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm#ES&S

% of U.S. vote count: Probably the largest voting machine company. ES&S claims that they tabulated "56% of the U.S. national vote for the past four presidential elections." source: http://www.essvote.com/


AIS (1980) was formerly Data Mark (1979), both founded by brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich. Bob is currently president of Diebold (see below). Todd Urosevich is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S.
AIS was primarily funded with money from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of H.F. Ahmanson Co., holding company for the nation's largest savings and loan association and a group of Omaha-based insurance companies, at the time. http://www.essvote.com/index.php?section=exec&rightnav=about&f_exec_id=4
Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy (hard right wing organization) http://www.ifas.org/cnp/name98.html. Howard Ahmanson also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute: "Established in 1965, Chalcedon (kal-SEE-dun) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) and Christian educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a a crucial factor in the challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere... A world that is increasingly pessimistic and disillusioned with the failure of secular Humanism is now feeling the impact of Christians who are exercising dominion and reclaiming lost spheres of authority for Christ the King." http://www.chalcedon.edu/ / critical profile: the organization's purpose is to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society. Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism -- which mandates Christ's dominion over all the world. http://www.ifas.org/fw/9501/chalcedon.html

http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.a.htm#ahmanson

Howard Ahmanson, Jr.- CNP Member 1984-85, 1988, Board of Governors 1996, 1998. President of Fieldstead and Co.; Fieldstead Foundation; chair of the California Independent Business PAC. Ahmanson is an Orange County financier who inherited Home Savings of America from his father, has spent millions promoting Religious Right candidates, first in California and then nationwide. Ahmanson has been a major contributor to the Capitol Resource Institute, 6 the California political front of Focus on the Family; the Western Center for Law and Religious Freedom, the Reason Foundation, 7 (an offshoot of Reason Public Policy Institute (RPPI) 8. and the California Prolife Council. Inc.


Ahmanson also served 23 years (retired 1995) on the board of the Chalcedon Institute 12 in Vallecito, California, which Newsweek (Feb. 2, 1981) accurately identified as the think tank of the Religious Right. The Chalcedon Institute, to which Ahmanson has contributed over a million dollars, was founded in 1965, perpetuates the Dominionist/Reconstructionist/Kingdom Now beliefs of founder Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony who was also a member of the CNP. Rushdoony, who died February 8, 2001, is known as the "father of Christian Reconstructionism," which is the misguided belief that Christians should have dominion over all earthly affairs and nations and the law would be according to Old Testament laws, which includes the death penalty for many infractions.

Haven't found anything yet on the programmers but the ownership seems to have very close ties to the movement.

Edit: ES&S gets some of it's programmers from an Air Force base in Omaha.

Current ES&S CEO Bill Welsh was profiled in the University of Tulsa Magazine, Fall 2001. An interesting excerpt: "Given the fundamental importance and the logistical complexity of elections, Welsh and company leave nothing to chance: they had four business jets and two turboprops on standby; as well as more than 1,000 temporary employees, some drawn from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. ES&S staff were ready to be anywhere at a moment's notice to help iron out unexpected kinks." Comment: Why does ES&S go to an air force base for temporary personnel? http://www.utulsa.edu/alumni/magazine/pdf/TUmgFa01.pdf

This quote sends chills through me.

"critical profile: the organization's purpose is to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society. Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism -- which mandates Christ's dominion over all the world."

Where the dominionists wanted the law based on the 10 Commandments. Not all ten though, just the last seven. My question is why do they leave out the first three? Very odd. Maybe because their version of the law is not based on Christianity but on a want for social control of the masses.

and it's one long read but again worth it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=28847

Edit: If nothing else, scroll down to the middle and check out the chart. It connects ALL the dots.

You mean the part of the bible where Jesus doesn't actually say anything? Great. Selling our daughters into slavery, owning people, etc. Nice. Sorry, that's quite reactionary and I know there are still a lot of good teachings that can be taken from the O.T., but I'm guessing that's not the basis for their ideas.

http://www.chalcedon.edu/desk/vision_statement.shtml

The role of every earthly government—including family government, church government, school government, vocational government, and civil government—is to submit to Biblical law.

Our emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a a crucial factor in the challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere.

All these guys tried to directly get elected and run politics. Like Robertson's campaign in 1986 I think and Falwell's Moral Majority. Now they are more along the lines of telling the Government what to do.
Take Bush for example: His family is friends with Billy Graham, he spoke to the Council for National Policy, just about every Christian Right person endorsed him, and appoints reactionary reactionary people. I know the Christian Right is not what the majority of America adheres to, and I know it is not what the majority of Christians adhere to. This is just another point that the President is serving the Wealthy, Televangelistic few, rather than all of us.

I know the Christian Right is not what the majority of America adheres to, and I know it is not what the majority of Christians adhere to.

With the Christian Right heavily embedded in mainstream churches, it is more than likely that thier views are being indoctrinated in the congregations.

This is just another point that the President is serving the Wealthy, Televangelistic few, rather than all of us.

It goes a little deeper than that with the ownership ties of the voting machines and the Republican Party. Also, Evangelical Christians are Bush's largest voting bloc.

They aren't just controlling the Government, they are also controlling their fellow Believers.

are about Christianity anymore. It is fascism cloaked in Christianity.

check this out:

the evangelicals in my town tried to implement it. They lost. But they won in other towns across america.

http://www.charactercities.org/meet.asp
http://archive.aclu.org/news/1999/w090299a.html
http://www.kimray.com/About/Profile.html
http://www.iblp.org/iblp/
http://www.liberty1st.org/cfirst.aspx
http://www.biblicalexaminer.org/w200203.html
http://www.liberty1st.org/never_judge.asp
http://www.midwestoutreach.org/02-Information/02-OnlineReference/02-UnorthodoxyGuide/105-IKnowSomething/Gothard-IBLP/Allen-IssuesOfConcern.html
http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/ctfgc9-98.html
This should get you started....type city of character into your google engine and you will see TONS of cities of character in the USA right now..
Its stealth and uses neutral language to cover up its biblical agenda.

I got 6.5 million sites with that google. That's another thing is they see the need to use stealth. Most good things thrive out in the open. It tells me this is not a good thing and goes back to the main point of relying on others for our interpretations.

It sounds like a proposterous story--but it's reality! If I ever had any qualms about voting for Kerry, these stories dispell them.

and the mayor was the one behind it..hes dumber then a box of rocks..
2/3 of the people in the audience wanted it..luckily, theres a lot of artists in this area, and they got involved.
Of course, I called each city council member and said ACLU UUUUUUUUU
and that got them all hoppin a bit
I couldnt make it to the meeting where the resolution was struck down, (busy doing anti war stuff), but the woman who did go to speak against it said that one of the council members (an evangelical who wanted it), found out I had called the ACLU, she said
"OH THAT WOMAN NEEDS TO RESPECT AUTHORITY SHE NEEDS TO LEARN ABOUT CHARACTER"
so my friend just stood up at the city council meeting and said SEIG HEIL to her.

hahaha. boy, that council woman is lucky I wasnt there.

this is a great article, although it is quite frightening to envision where this all could lead!

I think this may be where the new Brownshirts will come from.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
- Voltaire, 1767.

This needs to be out there.

I'm all for some persecution gospel :)

The family that bankrolls some of the worst of the hackable, unverifiable machines is heavily into Christian Reconstructionism. Feel safer now?

I've explained that there. It's much worse than alot of people have thought.

and so is every other link that I googled the title for. Seems like there were 3 or 4 servers that hosted that story that are down. Google still has the cached version luckly. Just something to make it a little more interesting... The Cached page is here

I noticed it's been down all day. Very odd. I thought it was my computer.

This is silly. I believe that these guys are a little on the crazy side. They are misrepresenting the bible to suit their political wants. Well as my mother would always tell me, Want in one hand and s**t in the other and see which one fills up first.

Have you seen your government lately? Thanks for the input.

And thanks for the reply.

Welcome to DU. :toast:

Though she said "wish" in one hand.