Theocracy Watch. Ammo.

http://www.theocracywatch.org/

Hartmann said he was going to have someone from this group on his show tomorrow to talk about Dominionist churches like Sarah Palin's.

I'm not sure how many people understand the Calvinist hoo-haw these people believe.

Theocracy is bad stuff.

Christian Identity is in that mix as well.

CI really is bizarre with their doctrine of the 'two seeds'. It's science fiction-y in a way.

insight to the level of their intelligence.

There are two streams of conservative-theocrats.

The first are indeed "dominionists" - The Christian Reconstructionist crowd, ala the late Rushdoony, Gary North, Greg Bahnsen, Ken Gentry, et.al. These are the Calvinist types who want to see Mosaic civil and moral codes used to construct a parallel system for the U.S. - the death penalty for homosexuals, death penalty for adultery. The Christian Reconstructionists do a good job of misconstruing and ignoring some of the egalitarian economic legislation of the Hebrew Bible and are fanatic in their defense of private property, the free market and so on. The Reconstructionists want to 'reconstruct' America on the basis of a theocratic, this-world, interpretation of 'the kingdom of God.' Reconstructionists are postmillennialists - they believe Jesus returns to a converted, Christian world in which all governments acknowledge Jesus as King and civil legislation is founded on Biblical law.

Palin comes from the the rapture-ready, premillennial, dispensational end of the spectrum. Her ilk are equally as opposed to homosexuality, women's right to reproductive choice, a secular civil society in which there is a studied neutrality toward religious issues. On one hand, the premillennial evangelicals believe the U.S. and the world are going to hell in a handbasket and nothing can be done to stop it. They look for Israel to be destroyed, a remnant of Jews converting to belief in the Jesus of evangelical Christianity, a global seven year tribulation. On the other hand, these sort of 'Left Behind,' WWJD, fish emblem on the car, Jack Van Impe, Joel Osteen types who look for imminent apocalypse want to influence legislation and law to benefit Christianity. Strictly speaking, however, they cannot believe Christians will ever assert dominion over the government. These are the Falwell fundies - everything sucks, Jesus is coming soon, but vote fundies into office to end abortion, end glbt civil rights, give tax money kickbacks to evangelical organizations. Do they want to carry out that agenda while they help precipitate war in the middle east? Do they want to defund the Boy Scouts while Palin lifts McCain's hand to the red button to launch global thermonuclear war and bring back their Jesus? I don't know. It's a dangerous, ignorant, inconsistent and grossly primitive worldview to which they adhere.

So, from my perspective, Palin comes from a theological background that not only affirms legislating Christian dogma, but anticipates and longs for imminent apocalypse - war, disease, poverty, environmental degradation.

In any event, whether Palin is 'dominionist' or not, she is a clear and present danger to our Constitutional liberties. As a liberal Presbyterian minister, I have opportunity to rub shoulders with the Assembly of God folks in our local ministerial association and their attitude is base and primitive. They certainly believe in Christian superiority and have a fanatical devotion to the idea that America is a Christian nation.

If Palin is a thorough-going AoG and evangelical, she believes in a theistic deity who redeems by violence - whether Jesus on the cross as sacrifice or as kill 'em first and ask questions later Apocalypse Jesus. Palin assumedly believes in a worldview informed by the foundational motif of redemption through violence. Palin and company hold to a whacked out and inconsistent worldview - as a PCUSA minister can I say the Assembly of God folks are religious fucktards? It's not that scholarly of a descriptive, but it fits.

I've rambled. Sorry. I despise everything Palin stands for. Vent, vent.

from somebody who was raised nominally Presbyterian and thinks the fundamentalists are more than a little bit CRAZY.

:hi:

I read Sara Diamond's book years ago & knew some of the distinctions you outlined. Kind of forgot.

I listen sometimes to 'Christian' radio stations that sell their time in half-hour blocks to various ministries. There seems to be a lot of mutation & melding of doctrines. I've even heard people talking about UFOs & such. People are grasping for something.

I'd think more government oversight in determining the tax-status of some groups might drive the hucksters out of the business.

Anyway, thanks for your post & welcome to DU.

-- I've lurked now and again at DU over the years and finally, I suppose, got around to registering.

& thanks for providing the link to theocracywatch - while I might take issue with their shorthand of Palin as dominionist - its only because I think she is even worse, blending certain aspects of reconstructionism with the expectation of imminent nuclear war, Jewish genocide, etc.

On the ground where I am at, trying to explain that to folks in a small town/rural area that is fairly conservative can feel like banging your head against the wall.

and fucktard is a perfectly good scholarly description in my opinion.

and thanks for the scorecard. It does help perspective to catalogue the crazies.

:hi:

Jessica Yellin reports from "The Situation Room"
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/08/yellin.palin.faith.cnn

Following any god's orders, as the slate for a Veep and the candidate who selected her, is a truly frightening idea.

They are playing this again, right this minute, on Wolfie's show.