Theocracy Alert

The Dominionist church-state: the enemy within

By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Contributing Writer

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November 17, 2004�On December 24, Christmas Eve 2001, Pat Robertson stepped down as President Of The Christian Coalition. Lo and behold behind the nativity scenes religious conservatives believed Robertson�s step was taken so that President Bush could take his place as head of the American Holy Christian Church. So reported Katherine Yurica in "The Despoiling of America�How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State." [1]

In fact, it was the sign that the Bush government under God was led by an anointed American president, the first regent in a dynasty of regents waiting for the return of Jesus to earth. The prez would now be the minister through whom God would execute (don�t take that word lightly) His will in these United States. Of course, Dubya accepted scepter and sword with grace and a humble sense of exultation. It was a kind of mandate from God if not the people: Junior, a savior was born, and a Dominionist star shone.

As Supreme Court Jusitce Antonin Scalia pointed out a few months later, the Bible teaches and Christians agree, "government . . . derives its moral authority from God." Funny, I thought it was our �unalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" that our "Creator" gave us. At least that�s what the opening of the Declaration of Independence said. Nevertheless Scalia tells us, it is the "minister of God" who has powers "to �revenge,� to �execute wrath,�� of course "including wrath by the sword." I never remember seeing that in the Declaration or the Constitution. Yet somehow George began to wield his sword like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, though a lot of folks missed the gore, not Al.

Leo Strauss, putative father of the neocon movement, added this bit of bowdlerized text from Machiavelli: "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 power in your hand, you can satisfy your desire.�" Well, isn�t that the moral high ground? Now we know what George was smirking about all along.

Thus, given the inciting incident of 9/11, the investigation of which has been rightly reopened by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the president warned the world that "nations are either with us or they�re against us." Laced with biblical passages, his speeches were delivered as if by a man who held the power of God�s wrath. He not only challenged "the Axis of Evil," he took a few whacks against some folks at home, mainly the poor and middle class, who according to Dominionist thinking, "earned God�s wrath by their licentiousness and undisciplined lives." The outcome is the past four years, which generated the largest spending deficit ever, in large part for tax cuts to reward the rich for their inherent goodness. Right Ken, Dick, Tom, and all you Frontier givers?

And so it went, "the Lord giving and the Lord taking." Like His minister, this same Shrub that�s been re-upped, by hook and by crook, by intimidating minority and student voters, by dumping votes, erasing others, by hacking computer tallies, with the help of Associated Press and Diebold (whose board members and leaders are also of the Dominion). Passports anyone? It�s gonna be a long flight. You say you want to stay? You want to duke it out? Okay. Read on . . .

Spreading the Dominionist Word

From 1982 through �86, Robertson, plus other radio and TV evangelists, rallied Christian soldiers to this new political faith. It turned them literally into an army of political ops.  Most of us didn�t have a clue that this "militant agenda" dressed up as Christianity�s lamb was licking its chops with a scheme for a government coup that would turn the U.S. into a wolf (or Wolfowitz), seeking a world empire for the 21^st Century. Yet as early as 1994, lone journalist Frederick Clarkson warned that Dominionism "seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of �Biblical Law.�" And this to eliminate " . . . labor unions, civil rights laws and public schools."

As to the citizenry, "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 [to] blasphemy, heresy, adultery and homosexuality." [2] Sound like yesterday�s news? Well, that ain�t all. Today as yesterday, Dominionism is into stealth. As stealthily as Robertson himself, distributing at an Iowa Republican County caucus this memo, "How to participate in a Political Party," which read . . .

• Rule the world for God.
• Give the impression that you are there to work for the party, not push an ideology.
• Hide your strength.
• Don�t flaunt your Christianity.
• Christians need to take leadership positions. Party officers control political parties and so it is very important that mature Christians have a majority of leadership positions whenever Possible, God willing. [3]

Yet it�s estimated 35-million plus American Christians subscribe to Dominionism in the U.S., and don�t even realize themselves how heretical, how seditious their goals are, thanks to the great job the televangelists and their churches did in painting a picture of an "outside enemy," a kind of spiritual al Qaeda, which in reality is the secular society we call "the home of the brave and the land of the free."

What�s more, they�re running on time to overthrow that society, since the complete takeover of American government was set for 2004. Yabadabadoo! So unless we resist the GOP�s agenda, we can kiss our culture, Constitution and laws goodbye. If in saying this I scare the hell out of you, remember that�s their aim: to scare the bejesus out of you.

Just so you know, Dominionism was born in a movement called Christian Reconstructionism, founded by the late RJ Rushdoony, his son-in-law Gary North, old Pat Robertson, Herb Titus, the former dean of Robertson�s Regent University school of Public Policy (used to be CBN University); Charles Colson, born again Nixon crook; Pat�s political strategy guy Tim LaHaye, Gary Bauer, the gone Francis Schaeffer, and Paul Crouch, coincidentally founder of TBN, the world�s largest TV network, and a battalion of bobble-head TV and radio evangelists and talk show hosts.

The real trick was to start with the Gospels and turn the spiritual "Kingdom of God" into a real-life political empire, to be taken by force; first stop the U.S. of A.

Tossing out Jesus and his original message, "My kingdom is not of this world," the Dominionists came up with their "Gospel", sole purpose to drive Christians into politics and make world domination (as in Dominionism) happen. That�s so Jesus could came back to earth, and the world table would be set for his rule by his ever-loving regents, all Judases, pockets jingling with sell-out silver.

Machiavelli, Communism, Secular Humanism and Neoconservatism go to work for a Militant and truly evil Anti-Christian Religion.

In the �50�s and �60�s, right-wing Christians agonized over commies and communism gobbling up the world. They also found another bugaboo, fingered by Francis Schaeffer in 1982, their top-gun theologian. The bugaboo was Secular Humanism, oh my god, the greatest threat to Christianity the universe had ever seen. Soon American fundamentalists and Pentacostals saw "humanists" everywhere. Schaeffer, appearing on Robertson�s 700 Club Show, claimed that "humanism" (one of the world�s more benign philosophies) was being thrust on Christians. It (humanism) taught that man was "the center of all things," as tasty a piece of neocon disinformation as you�ll ever find.

Go to your search engine, type in "humanism" and it says "A philosophical system of thought that focuses on human value, thought, and actions. Humans are considered basically good and rationale creatures, who can improve themselves and others through natural human abilities of reason and action. Secular Humanism is a late development emphasizing objectivity, human reason, and human standards that govern art, economics, ethics, and belief. As such, no deity is acknowledged." Sounds pretty decent to me.

Ah, but the last phrase was the kicker "no deity is acknowledged." In other words, it was up to man to act properly, using his natural abilities of reason and action. It did not throw the onus for right action on the fear of punishment from God, who once again might be busy running the universe, and not have time to personally kick every Tom, Dick and Ken in the ass and tell them not to act like gangsters.

And then, in a tremendous leap in logic, the Dominionists contended humanism like communism was based on atheism. More disinformation. Humanism laid the primary responsibility for right action at man�s feet, and gave God, if He/She/It/The Force/The Void was there, a break for a few minutes in cosmic time. Communism�s resistance to theism was largely a reaction to the Church�s complicity with Czarist rule, which relentlessly oppressed the masses of Russian people for seven centuries. When they had enough of both oppressors, the Russians had a revolution, and the political tables were turned, not unlike what the Dominionists are attempting, only in the name of God. Humanism, probably by association of the "ism" suffix, was the enemy, too, in the Dominionist view of God and people. And Schaeffer, like a small-time Hitler, spoke with great passion of this, misusing the Declaration of Independence to rationalize his insanity . . .

"Today we live in a humanist society. They control the schools . . . public television . . . the media. . . . The courts are not subject to the will of the people through elections or re-election . . . all the great changes in the last forty years have come through the courts. And what we must get in our mind, the government as a whole, but especially the courts, has become the vehicle to force this view of the total population, even if the total population doesn�t hold this view." [4]

Schaeffer noted those "great changes since 1942," as if they were anathema, a trip to perdition. In fact, those years include WW II, when we kicked Hitler�s butt, preserved world democracy and rebuilt the world economy. Then "our boys" (all creeds, nationalities and colors) marched on at home to help secure civil rights, while building the most potent economy on earth. Yet all Schaeffer had to say about this great American effort was a seditious libel, which he would if he could shove down everyone�s throat . . .

"If you don�t revolt against tyranny and this is what I call the bottom line, is that not only do you have the privilege but the duty to revolt. When people force upon you and society that which is absolutely contrary to the Word of God, and which really is tyranny . . . we have a right to stand against it as a matter of principle. And this was the basis upon which the founding fathers built this country." Was our fought-for freedom a tyranny? Was that contrary to the Word of God? How about the preservation of human and civil rights? We helped fulfill the dream of the founding fathers, not destroy it, as he was advocating. What God was he talking about?

Yet his sick sophistry, this ignorant racist diatribe enraptured none other than the great Billy Graham hisself. On Pat�s old 700 Club show, his eagle eyes, peering from under bushy brows, the big B said . . .

"Time has come when evangelicals are going to have to think about getting organized corporately. . . . I�m for evangelicals running for public office and winning if possible and getting control of the Congress, getting control of the bureaucracy, getting control of the executive branch . . . I think if we leave it to the �other side� we�re going to be lost. I would like to see every true believer involved in politics in some way shape or form."

Well Billy-babe, it is every true and non believer�s right, thanks to the Constitution, to be involved in politics and hold office. Thanks to all the blood all kinds of American shed since the Revolution.  And we weren�t lost, except in your and your friends� dark minds. Maybe we disagreed about some things, like segregation, the Klu Klux Klan, a woman�s right to choose, etc, etc. But we weren�t lost because we disagreed with you and yours.

Nevertheless, according to Dominionist dogma, "God�s people" [as opposed to the other side] had a moral duty to change the government of the United States. [5]. Bottom line: by 2000 the new religion was born, 35 million strong, declaring war on the other 245 mill. And hail, Karl Rove, Minister Bush�s political brain, told the Family Research Council in 2002, "We need to find ways to win the war." [5]. The thing is, they were in power, so what war did they want to win now? The war against other people breathing? Or perhaps, having turned Christianity upside down, now they wanted to turn American Democracy upside down. You betcha! Call the Office of Homeland Security. I think I�ve found a cadre of major terrorists.

The Machiavelli Connection

After all this, it�s not hard to imagine why Machiavelli became the Spiritual Godfather of Dominionism. And why the author of The Prince found such acceptance in the thought and actions of Karl Rove/George Bush.  Undo the New Deal.  Give corporations all freedom to rape and pillage.  Dress corruption in religion.  Create an American empire to rule the world.  Lead the populus like Reverend Jim Jones led his followers to Kool-Aid oblivion.  Yes, the Dominionists reveled in Machiavelli�s teachings, in passages that advised "a leader must only appear to have the qualities of goodness�he need not actually possess those attributes."  Dominionists also sucked up Machiavellian passages like the following . . .

"Alexander VI did nothing else but deceive men, he thought of nothing else, and found the occasion for it; no man was ever more able to give assurances, or affirmed things with stronger oaths, and no man observed them less; however, he always succeeded in this deceptions, as he well knew this aspect of things."

Parenthetically, who does this remind you of? Or this . . .

"Everybody sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of men, and especially of princes, from which there is no appeal, the end justifies the means." (p. 93)

Parenthetically, Machiavelli�s means included murder, rape, pedophilia, torture, overthrowing a state, name it. He would have loved Abu Ghraib. For instance . . .

"Let a prince therefore aim at conquering and maintaining the state, and the means will always be judged honorable and praised by every one, for the vulgar is always taken by appearances and the issue of the event; and the few who are not vulgar are isolated when the many have a rallying point in the prince." (p. 94)

And so, ladies and gentlemen, and all the ships at sea, you read it, heard it here, what these God-spewing Dominionists are really about. For more hard-core evidence, simply go to the Yurica Report and check out the 45-page story (10 pages of which are documentation) of the Dominionist Army for yourself. It might be helpful to know in greater detail with whom you�ll be dealing in the next four years.

In fact, it seems like a lifetime ago that we were singing, "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine." It�s time to surface and take a good look at all those smiling (and not so smiling) faces around us. Power to the people! The good, loving, open-faced people of America.  In fact now, like Now is the time to come to the aid of your country. Step up to the plate, swing for the fences. We need every hit can we can get to win this game. Get me?

Sources:

1. The Despoiling Of America. Also "Religious Right Finds Its Center in Oval Office," Washington Post, December 24, 2001.

2. "Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence," by Frederick Clarkson, The Public Eye Magazine, Vol. VIII, Nos. 1 & @, March/June 1994, Part 1 of a four part series.

3. See subhead: A Short-Lived Sigh of Relief

4. All 700 Club quotes were transcribed by Katherine Yurica and her Editorial and Research Assistant Laurie Hall.

5. "War on Secular Society".

Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer who resides in New York, where the five Mafia families, like the one in Washington, DC, are still acting out the words of their consigliare, Machiavelli. Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net. Thanks to Katherine Yurica for her brilliant work.