Theocracy Alert

Theofascists and America�s shadow government, the Council for National Policy

By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer

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October 22, 2005�Michael Marcavage, the director of the evangelical Christian organization Repent America, was the subject of Philadelphia City Paper�s February 3, 2005, cover story. What he said during the interview defined theofascism: �Homosexuals are to be put to death. The wages of sin is death. But I want to make it clear that I�m not advocating the independent killing of homosexuals . . . I�m saying that the Government�s duty is to uphold God�s law.�

Marcavage was among the first to claim hurricane Katrina was �Godﾒs wrath� against homosexuals. Aside from Mardi Gras, Marcavage was certain a pissed-off �God� had targeted New Orleans because it was scheduled to host a gay event over Labor Day weekend. But what of the men, women and children killed and injured or left homeless and hopeless by Katrina?

Marcavage�s answer: too bad, screw �em, they deserved it. In his own words . . .

Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From �Girls Gone Wild� to �Southern Decadence,� New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. . . . Let us pray for those ravaged by this disaster. However, we must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long.

At OutFest 2004�Philadelphia�s annual celebration of National Coming Out Day�11 members of Repent America were arrested for refusing to move from in front of a stage performance. Repent America also took its evangelical homophobia to a Philadelphia Phillies game when the team held its third annual Gay Community Night. They were lauded by a Christian Right �news service� for doing so.

The fifteenth annual OutFest was held in Philadelphia on October 9. Repent America was there with banners flying and bullhorns blaring. Before the day�s events began, Frannie Price, executive director of Philly Pride Presents, put the best light on the pending confrontation: �For the last two years we�ve been faced with protesters that have been showing up with signs like �abomination,� �sodomites,� . . . [and] with bullhorns, but this is a day of celebration. It�s not a rally. It�s not a protest. We�re not a violent or destructive community.� The �Photo Gallery� on Repent America�s web site provides ample evidence to support Ms. Price�s descriptions of their tactics.

This year, Repent America was joined by members of the Street Preachersﾒ Fellowship. The two groups yielded about 30 protestors. Their �Christian� hate was as vile as ever, as noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer�s October 10 story:

�At this point, you�re not going to get converts. This is their [gays and lesbians] big day. But I�m here to rain on their parade,� said street preacher Ruben Israel, 43, who had flown in from Los Angeles. He carried a sign that said the letters in gay stand for �God Abhors You.�

The Street Preachers� Fellowship travels far and wide to preach their message of hate. SPF posted these remarks after protesting at a National Organization of Women event in Washington:

The Street Preachers� Fellowship traveled again to the Nation�s capital to preach to the NOW Parade of rebellious women, made up of 250,000 witches, whores, wackos and weight lifters who failed at being women. No commentary is needed to describe the ridiculous onslaught of failed feminism that marched through the streets of Washington, D.C., trying to be anything but a �Lady.�

Perhaps these �spokesmen for God� took their cue from televangelist Pat Robertson�s 1992 fundraising letter in which he claimed �The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.�

Such blatant hate-mongering sounds a lot like the rhetoric of Neo-Nazi and white supremacy groups that�s meant to incite violence so that they can then claim to be �victims� and, thereby, garner even more publicity for their perverted causes. There�s good reason for that.

Michael Marcavage and Repent America reportedly have �close ties� to the Chalcedon Foundation, a group founded by Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony, who also co-founded the Christian Reconstructionist movement. Rushdoony�s faith-based proposals have included the death penalty for �practicing homosexuals� and the reintroduction of �servitude� in America.

The background of the Negro culture is voodoo and magic; and the purposes [of] the magic are control and power over God, man, nature and society. Voodoo and magic was the religion and life of America�s Negro. �R.J. Rushdoony

The Chalcedon Foundation has published the works of several white supremacists. One of those authors is Larry Pratt, co-chair for Pat Buchanan�s 1996 presidential campaign. Mr. Pratt is also the head of Gun Owners of America. His position is lethal, all ways: �Man�s wisdom today has been to declare gun-free school zones, which are invaded by gun-toting teenage terrorists who we refuse to execute.� Pratt also founded English First, a group opposed to non-English speaking immigrants. And, of course, Pratt is also involved with the Christian Reconstructionist movement.

In a nutshell (pun intended), Christian Reconstructionists embrace Jerry Falwell�s literalism: �The Bible is the inerrant . . . word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible, without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etc.� Falwell�s �etc� includes how governments should be formed, how they should operate, what laws they should enact, and how those laws should be enforced.

Christian Reconstructionists �believe that anyone who performs �adultery, blasphemy, heresy, homosexual behavior, idolatry, prostitution, or evil sorcery� should be executed [as well as] anyone who had or performed an abortion.� Essentially, Reconstructionists believe anyone who disagrees with their �holy� views should be condemned and eliminated. No opposition can be tolerated. Damany Higgs recalled the same �thinking� espoused by his former college roommate, Michael Marcavage:

Higgs says that he and Marcavage had political arguments that exploded into personal attacks.

�We would talk about things in the Bible,� Higgs recalls. �I grew up in church. . . . I would say it doesn�t explicitly say in the Bible that being homosexual is a sin, it says that lusts are sins, and that was one of our debates.�

�Are you gay?� Marcavage would ask him. Higgs was not.

�Well, a person who believes something like this is definitely going to hell� [replied Marcavage] . . .

Higgs says this reaction is very much in character for his old roommate. �If you don�t agree with what he says, he condemns you.�

The actions of the Chalcedon Foundation, Christian Reconstructionists, the Street Preachers� Fellowship and Michael Marcavage�s Repent America animate the words of Randall Terry: �I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good . . . Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty; we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don�t want equal time. We don�t want pluralism.�

Naturally, Christian Reconstructionists have ties to groups that advocate violence to impose their theofascist ideology on everyone. Rev. Matthew Trewhella founded Missionaries to the Preborn in 1990. His militia missionary adheres to Trewhella�s 1993 declaration: �lethal force [is] justifiable provided it was carried out for the purpose of defending the lives of the unborn.� And once the unborn are born, Trewhella gave this advice in his address to the U.S. Taxpayers Party: �This Christmas, I want you to do the most loving thing. I want you to buy each of your children an SKS rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition.� Trewhella might want to have a chat with Larry Pratt about �gun-toting teenage terrorists.�

Chalcedon author, Christian Reconstructionist and gun advocate Larry Pratt is a buddy of former attorney general and messianic messenger John Ashcroft who also had trouble with the concepts of �equality� and �civil rights,� as do many of his colleagues in the shadowy Council for National Policy, the enduring star-chamber for ultra-conservatives who use religion to justify their politics. The CNP was founded in 1981 by members of the John Birch Society and fanatical evangelicals.

While researching the Council for National Policy several years ago, I found the following. Unfortunately, the original links are no longer active, nevertheless they�re acknowledged at the end of the quotation:

The [CNP] meetings are closed and attendees rarely speak publicly about the proceedings. The agenda of a meeting at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs in 1982 was filled with CNP members talking to the �already committed� about their favorite topics�Phyllis Schlafly on traditional values, Maj. Gen. John Singlaub on special operations in El Salvador, Gen. Albion Knight on national defense, and so on. The list of speakers includes most of the major figures of the Right including: Philip Truluck of the Heritage Foundation; Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus; beer baron Joseph Coors; conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan; Frank Shakespeare, chairman of Heritage Foundation; direct mail wizard Richard Viguerie; Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority; the president of Amway Corp, Richard DeVos; Neal Blair, president of Free the Eagle; John (Terry) Dolan, chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. delegate to the United Nations; and from the Christian Broadcasting Network, evangelist Pat Robertson.
[Group Watch:CNP >http://www.pir.org/gw/cnp.txt]

The last name in that list was recently in the news for advocating the assassination of Venezuela�s duly elected president. The White House reaction to Pat Robertson�s call-to-murder was convoluted and mild, to say the least. The GOP was largely and ominously silent, much like the Christian Right . . . perhaps for more than the obvious reasons. Christian missionaries would make excellent covert agents:

Last week Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered NTM [New Tribes Mission] to leave his country, accusing the organization�s Bible translators of actually being U.S. spies guilty of �imperialist infiltration.� Also, ASSIST News Service reports that the president of Venezuela also accused the Christian mission�s workers of exploiting the natives while living in luxury and failing to abide by Venezuelan custom laws�charges NTM strongly denies.

At the time I was doing the original research, the six permanent standing Council for National Policy committees were listed as:

Family co-chaired by Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum;

Law and Justice co-chaired by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and former Texas Court of Appeals judge Paul Pressler;

Economics co-chaired by former Office of Management and Budget director Jim Miller and Reed Larson of the National Right to Work Committee;

Defense and foreign policy co-chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Howard Phillips of Conservative Caucus;

Institutional reform co-chaired by former California state senator H.L. Richardson and direct mail expert Richard Viguerie;

Environment chaired by former Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Energy Don Hodel.
[http://www.ifas.org/cnp/index.html]

Other noteworthy CNP associates have included Grover Norquist, Oliver North, and Ralph Reed.

In his rumored �king-making� speech before the Council for National Policy in 1999, presidential wannabe George W. Bush allegedly promised to appoint only anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court and to take a tough stance against gays and lesbians. Is it any wonder that religion was such a significant factor in Bush�s selection of Harriet Miers, whom more than a few deem totally unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court? Is it any wonder that Bush�s current advocacy of Miers depends almost solely on her belonging to an evangelical Christian church with a �staunchly� anti-abortion dogma?

Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund provided further insight into the shadows:

He described a call among 13 members of the Arlington Group, which he described as �an umbrella alliance of 60 religious conservative groups,� on Oct. 3, the day President Bush picked Miers. . . . During the call, James Dobson, founder of the evangelical group Focus on the Family, introduced two friends of Miers to speak about her, according to Fund.

White House political guru �Karl Rove suggested that we talk with these gentlemen because they can confirm specific reasons why Harriet Miers might be a better candidate than some of us think,� Dobson said, according to notes that Fund said one participant took during the call.

One participant asked whether the men thought Miers would vote to overturn Roe. �Absolutely,� U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade of Texas said.

�I agree with that,� Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, a longtime Miers companion, said, according to Fund. The call came a day after Rove spoke at length with Dobson about Miers, assuring the influential conservative that Miers was acceptable.

The evangelical Christian Right had been cool to the Miers� nomination. Then Dr. James Dobson publicly assured the flock and threw his support to Ms. Miers. In doing so he mentioned �confidential� information he was �privy to��via Karl Rove�but �not at liberty to talk about.� Does anyone really believe Dobson�s public explanation?

The anti-gay hate-based reelection strategy Karl Rove concocted, coupled with George W. Bush�s backing of any and all anti-gay legislation�not to mention his advocacy of a constitutional amendment to deny certain Americans equal civil rights�seem nothing less than fulfilling the other promise made to the CNP star chamber. Is it any surprise that Miers was opposed to equal civil rights for people afflicted with HIV/AIDS?

Bush�s November 1, 2001 Executive Order 13233 was a further means of concealing the machinations of the shadow government while also increasing its ability to act undetected. Under 13233, �a former president�s private papers can be released only with the approval of both that former president (or his heirs) and the current one.� The New York Times clarified:

Before [the] executive order, the National Archives had controlled the release of documents under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which stipulated that all papers, except those pertaining to national security, had to be made available 12 years after a president left office.

Now, however, Mr. Bush can prevent the public from knowing not only what he did in office, but what Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan did in the name of democracy. (Although Mr. Reagan's term ended more than 12 years before the executive order, the Bush administration had filed paperwork in early 2001 to stop the clock, and thus his papers fall under it.)

In the aftermath of Bush�s executive order, glimpsing the clandestine scheming and covert operations of America�s shadow government will be more difficult, but not impossible thanks in part to the trail �left behind.�

Tim LaHaye is coauthor of the Left Behind series of post-rapture, all-you-non-evangelical-Christians-are-screwed novels that spawn a series of films produced by and often starring 80s teen star Kirk Cameron, who now runs Way of the Master ministries. Mr. LaHaye was on the original board of directors of Falwell�s Moral Majority. He�s been been linked to the Christian Reconstructionist movement and has been a key figure in the Council for National Policy.

True to its purpose��an intelligence aggregator that tracks the activities of people we have determined to be noteworthy, both living and dead. . . . But it mostly exists to document the connections between people, many of which are not always obvious. A person's otherwise inexplicable behavior is often understood by examining the crowd that person has been hanging out with��NNDB.com illuminated what�s behind LaHaye�s Left Behind:

LaHaye believes that the Illuminati is secretly engineering world affairs. �I myself have been a forty-five year student of the satanically-inspired, centuries-old conspiracy to use government, education, and media to destroy every vestige of Christianity within our society and establish a new world order. Having read at least fifty books on the Illuminati, I am convinced that it exists and can be blamed for many of man�s inhumane actions against his fellow man during the past two hundred years.�

The first rule of the Illuminati was �Do Not Talk About the Illuminati.� The Council for National Policy tries to live by that rule. But some of the brethren get carried away with their own sanctimonious self-importance and expose �the most powerful organization you�ve never heard of,� as the CNP has been called. They are the all too real Illuminati who wish to �establish a new world order,� namely theirs: perverted Christianity married to radical ultra-conservative politics.

Marcavage�s Repent America and the Street Preachers� Fellowship may seem more akin to Fred Phelps and his cult than the calculating Machiavellian powerbrokers of the CNP that pull the strings of their White House puppet, but like their cohorts in the Chalcedon Foundation and the Christian Reconstructionist movement, they�re all of a kind and share a common goal: turning America into their theofascist state . . . by any means necessary.