The Ultimate Goal of the Fundamentalists-chilling!!

[Ruffhowse]

The Christian Right has shown impressive resilience and has rebounded dramatically after a series of embarrassing televangelist scandals of the late 1980s, the collapse of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, and the failed presidential bid of Pat Robertson. In the 1990s, Christian Right organizing went to the grassroots and exerted wide influence in American politics across the country.

There is no doubt that Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition gets much of the credit for this successful strategic shift to the local level. But another largely overlooked reason for the persistent success of the Christian Right is a theological shift since the 1960s. The catalyst for the shift is Christian Reconstructionism--arguably the driving ideology of the Christian Right in the 1990s.

The significance of the Reconstructionist movement is not its numbers, but the power of its ideas and their surprisingly rapid acceptance. Many on the Christian Right are unaware that they hold Reconstructionist ideas. Because as a theology it is controversial, even among evangelicals, many who are consciously influenced by it avoid the label. This furtiveness is not, however, as significant as the potency of the ideology itself. Generally, Reconstructionism seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of "Biblical Law." Reconstructionism would eliminate not only democracy but many of its manifestations, such as labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Women would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed. So severe is this theocracy that it would extend capital punishment beyond such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder to include, among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality.

Reconstructionism has expanded from the works of a small group of scholars to inform a wide swath of conservative Christian thought and action. While many Reconstructionist political positions are commonly held conservative views, what is significant is that Reconstructionists have created a comprehensive program, with Biblical justifications for far right political policies. Many post-World War II conservative, anticommunist activists were also, if secondarily, conservative Christians. However, the Reconstructionist movement calls on conservatives to be Christians first, and to build a church-based political movement from there.

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/chrisre1.html

Folks, these nut jobs are NOT going to go away, even if we win this election. They have a radical agenda, are very organized, and have a long term strategy. We must be prepared to keep our vigiliance in the face of their fanatic tenacity.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. This tendancy is not confined to Christians

you find it in fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist Hinduism as well. It is, in my opinion, a retreat from the Message as given by the prophets of various religions, the Message that preaches tolerance and social justice for all.

[Ruffhowse]

2. It certainly is a retreat from bedrock American principles, such as

separation of church and state, and religious tolerance (in these theocracies, there would be no toleration of other religions). These issues would have our founding fathers spinning in their graves.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. I agree with you on that.

Jefferson called himself a 'theist' and John Adams was a Unitarian-don't think the fundies would like either of them very much.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/

The Despoiling of America


How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State




By Katherine Yurica



With Editorial and Research Assistant Laurie Hall



February 11, 2004



The First Prince of the Theocratic States of America




It happened quietly, with barely a mention in the media. Only the Washington Post dutifully reported it.<1> And only Kevin Phillips saw its significance in his new book, American Dynasty.<2> On December 24, 2001, Pat Robertson resigned his position as President of the Christian Coalition.



Behind the scenes religious conservatives were abuzz with excitement. They believed Robertson had stepped down to allow the ascendance of the President of the United States of America to take his rightful place as the head of the true American Holy Christian Church.



Robertson’s act was symbolic, but it carried a secret and solemn revelation to the faithful. It was the signal that the Bush administration was a government under God that was led by an anointed President who would be the first regent in a dynasty of regents awaiting the return of Jesus to earth. The President would now be the minister through whom God would execute His will in the nation. George W. Bush accepted his scepter and his sword with humility, grace and a sense of exultation. <snip>



http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Here's more.

<snip>As Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court explained a few months later, the Bible teaches and Christians believe “… that government …derives its moral authority from God. Government is the ‘minister of God’ with powers to ‘revenge,’ to ‘execute wrath,’ including even wrath by the sword…”<3>



George W. Bush began to wield the sword of God’s revenge with relish from the beginning of his administration, but most of us missed the sword play. I have taken the liberty to paraphrase an illustration from Leo Strauss, the father of the neo-conservative movement, which gives us a clue of how the hiding is done:





“One ought not to say to those whom one wants to kill, ‘Give me your votes, because your votes will enable me to kill you and I want to kill you,’ but merely, ‘Give me your votes,’ for once you have the power of the votes in your hand, you can satisfy your desire.”<4>





Notwithstanding the advice, the President’s foreign policy revealed a flair for saber rattling. He warned the world that “nations are either with us or they’re against us!” His speeches, often containing allusions to biblical passages, were spoken with the certainty of a man who holds the authority of God’s wrath on earth, for he not only challenged the evil nations of the world, singling out Iraq, Syria, Iran, and North Korea as the “axis of evil,” but he wielded the sword of punishment and the sword of revenge against his own people: the American poor and the middle class who according to the religious right have earned God’s wrath by their licentiousness and undisciplined lives. <snip>

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. And more. Much much more. Please read the article. It's VERY long

<snip>To the middle class he said, “I’m going to give you clear skies clean air and clean water,” then he gutted the environmental controls that were designed to provide clean air and water. The estimated number of premature deaths that will result: 100,000.<5> He said to the poor and to the middle class: “I’m going to give you a prescription drug program, one that you truly deserve.” Then he gave the drug industry an estimated $139 billion dollars in increased profits from the Medicare funds and arranged for the poorest of seniors to be eliminated from coverage, while most elderly will pay more for drugs than they paid before his drug benefit bill passed.<6> After that he arranged for the dismantling of the Medicare program entirely, based on the method outlined by his religious mentors.<7> He said to the people of America, “I’m going to build a future for you and your children,” then he gutted their future with tax breaks to the rich and a pre-emptive war against Iraq, and the largest spending deficit in history.<8>



This article is the documented story of how a political religious movement called Dominionism gained control of the Republican Party, then took over Congress, then took over the White House, and now is sealing the conversion of America to a theocracy by taking over the American Judiciary. It’s the story of why and how “the wrath of God Almighty” will be unleashed against the middle class, against the poor, and against the elderly and sick of this nation by George W. Bush and his army of Republican Dominionist “rulers.”




How Dominionism Was Spread




The years 1982-1986 marked the period Pat Robertson and radio and televangelists urgently broadcast appeals that rallied Christian followers to accept a new political religion that would turn millions of Christians into an army of political operatives. It was the period when the militant church raised itself from centuries of sleep and once again eyed power.<snip>



http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

[OutsourceBush]

7. One reason they are so successful is that they use Rev. Moon brainwashing

techniques (apparently co-developed with the CIA) on the masses here in the US. Americans, being the dumb sh*ts that they are, fall for minimal brainwashing techniques.

You can tie all of this crap to one organization, the CNP which Moon is a member of. Moon has ties to just about every far right group in the US. Moon is called 'Father' even by religious right leaders. They think he is the second coming of freaking Christ.

But it is even more complicated, they also get their major funding from several billionaires such as Scaife, Hunt and Coors.

We are looking at the end-game for these dangerous nuts right now. They have managed to get control of the House, Senate, and Presidency. All that is left is the supreme court.

To ensure power for 1,000 years (as the bible calls them to do) they have instituted computerized voting machines with Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, all apparently controlled by far right radicals from these groups.

[Indiana_Dem]

8. Oh don't! You're scaring me!

I know what they're doing, I just don't want to hear it because it scares me! I became a born-again Christian in 1985 during the height of Pat Robertson's call for Christian political action--by 1990, I felt very leary of this new rise of churchdom. By the time Pat Robertson decided to run for president, I decided to run from that brand of Christianity. I could see exactly what religous leaders like Pat were doing to people. Although, I still call myself a born-again Christian, I will never separate from my fundamental beliefs in separation of church and state and loving my God, my brother and following the golden rule.

It's scary to me because so many well-intentioned Christians are too ignorant to see how they're being led deceptively by these wolves in sheeps clothing. Like the pied piper.

[izzie]

9. It is also interesting how they take over other churches.

I have seen a church that has moved into being sort of fanatic and every Sunday it is packed but it really is an old church that did not believe this stuff. People seem to want to be told how to think. This one has a school also so even kids are learning how to think.

[Francine Frensky]

10. The Tali-born-agains...

How is this ANY different from the Taliban government?

I truly fear that fundamentalists in ALL religions will eventually "win". Moderates are too willing to "talk" to find common ground and too conciliatory, and the fundamentalists take no prisoners, accept no compromises. That hard line approach will win, but at what cost to civilization??

[Ruffhowse]

11. bump