De-Funding Education: it really is about theocracy versus democracy

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/3/5/16037/25573

It is a safe bet that if you are looking at an elected official from the Tea Party, you are looking at a Dominionist. While some of the rank-and-file in the Tea Party are not hard-core members of the Christian Right, those who they elected to power are almost invariably from the school of thought which espouses dismantling the federal government and returning the power to patriarchal families and to states who will rule in accordance with Biblical law.

Dominionists are extreme free-market hawks. They believe it is sacred in the same way that they believe that the family is sacred. They believe that all programs which promote equality are immoral. Education and unions are two of the greatest instruments of equality.

The Tea Party will defund public education until it is nothing more than a lurching skeleton, and then they will point to its ineffectiveness as a reason to abolish it altogether. They don’t believe in public education; they believe in homeschooling. Not only does homeschooling keep our children from being exposed to dangerous ideas like evolution, civics, the true history of the United States and slavery, it also keeps their mothers in their place: the home.

Which brings us to women’s roles in the society of the Christian Right: they want to roll-back all gender-equality laws so that women will be forced back into the home. Dominionists do not want to take away just abortion; they want to end birth-control. I know most people think that Catholics are the only Christian group who oppose birth-control on religious grounds. But Domionists see a “population winter” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVHV49xFdhM looming on the horizon, a time when there will not be enough white people to push back the hordes of the Others.

Two Decades of Christian Nationalist Education Paved Way for Today's War on Labor.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/2/20/181252/049

The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy - Part One
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2005/11/28/172929/14

The Rise of Charismatic Dominionism
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/1/3/122613/0240

Jesus Hates Taxes: Biblical Capitalism Created Fertile Anti-Union Soil
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4366/jesus_hates_taxes%3A_biblical_capitalism_created_fertile_anti-union_soil

Is Wisconsin Union-Busting Religiously Sanctioned?
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/julieingersoll/4279/is_wisconsin_union-busting_religiously_sanctioned

That got me to thinking… and re-reading Gary North and David Chilton on “Biblical economics.” I have argued that Reconstructionists have spent the last fifty years articulating a critique of American culture and developing resources and institutions (especially Christian schools and Christian homeschools) to “reconstruct” society in terms of what they understand as biblical law. In this world, every aspect of life is governed by biblical law; there is no area of life outside of it.

There are now families in which multiple generations—grandparents, parents and children—have all been shaped in these contexts; contexts that include “Christian American history,” dominionism, creationism, and biblical economics. For Reconstructionist Doug Phillips’ organization Vision Forum, cultivating this kind of “multi-generational faithfulness” is an explicit goal. And when you look at tea party rallies and see all those white middle class fifty-somethings you are looking at many of them. Sarah has also made the case for this at RD. We’re not arguing that this in the only influence… just that it is an important one.

Economics is seen as so central to a “biblical worldview” that it is the focus of much of the work of leading Reconstructionist Gary North. North’s earliest work (1973), widely used as a Christian school textbook, is entitled Introduction to Christian Economics and he was founder/owner of the publishing outfit Institute for Christian Economics (ICE). North has written on the Federal Reserve, inflation as intentional theft of the value of money, and in favor of privatization labeling other arrangements “socialism.”

He also published David Chilton’s Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators (first in 1981) which is a critique of Ron Sider’s “socialism.” Here, socialism refers to something broader than an economic system; it refers to a civil government that regulates activities other than those the Bible charges it with regulating, a society in which people look to the government to solve problems over which the Bible doesn’t give it authority.

[jemelanson]

1. What these "people" want is to turn the USA into a Theocracy.

then the battle will be between the different Sects of Christianity as to which one will Dominate. Then it will be all out war on anyone or anything which does not conform to their narrow view of what is right and all else is sin. The Constitution will be history, science will be history, history will be rewritten from their world view. All religions except their approved one will be out-lawed. Then the inquisition will begin again. If you think that this will not turn out every bit as oppressive as the worst of the Muslim Taliban rule then think again. Forget education for females, forget employment for females, forget birth control. Think Taliban type restrictions on all women. Forget about free elections, forget about any justice for crimes against women. It will be an oppressive dictatorship. Watch for book burnings coming to your neighborhood. There will be sever censorship of all forms of media, books, music, art, education, science, expect the return of things like pauper prisons, slavery, and all other forms of segregation, discrimination, if you are not among those in the right Religion then you are a heretic and will be dealt with accordingly. First they go after the Public Schools, then the unions, then the other religions. Expect religious tests for employment.

it will be done according to biblical law and Shara law is not so dis-similar. It will be just as bad. If you as a woman do not have a husband, then you will need one. Any woman who does not have a Male keeper, is dangerous. That means a return to the 17th or 18th Century prohibitions on women owning property. Women will be property. Children will be property.

[KaoriMitsubishi]

2. The christian meme is a threat to Civilization.

The sooner we realize that and eradicate it the better. If that sounds harsh or unliberal then consider that they fully intend to subjugate and if necessary, destroy everyone who stands in their way.

[WingDinger]

3. The only problem was that communist, Jesus. Now, after Christ reform

they have an updated Rambo Jesus. WWJK. Who would Jesus kill. They also updated the calvinist crede, and have added the stick to the calvinist carrot.