In the conference's opening ceremony, the Dominionists recite an oath
they dream of hearing in every classroom:
"I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior for
whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming
again, with life and liberty for all who believe."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7235393?rnd=1113748959015&has-player=true&version=6..0..12..857
The Crusaders
Christian evangelicals are plotting to remake America in their own
image
By BOB MOSER
It's February, and 900 of America's staunchest Christian
fundamentalists have gathered in Fort Lauderdale to look back on what
they accomplished in last year's election -- and to plan what's next.
As they assemble in the vast sanctuary of Coral Ridge Presbyterian,
with all fifty state flags dangling from the rafters, three
stadium-size video screens flash the name of the conference:
RECLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST.
These are the evangelical activists behind the nation's most effective
political machine -- one that brought more than 4 million new
Christian voters to the polls last November, sending George W. Bush
back to the White House and thirty-two new pro-lifers to Congress.
But despite their unprecedented power, fundamentalists still see
themselves as a persecuted minority, waging a holy war against the
godless forces of secularism.
To rouse themselves, they kick off the festivities with "Soldiers of
the Cross, Arise," the bloodthirstiest tune in all of Christendom:
"Seize your armor, gird it on/Now the battle will be won/Soon, your
enemies all slain/Crowns of glory you shall gain."
Meet the Dominionists -- biblical literalists who believe God has
called them to take over the U.S. government.
As the far-right wing of the evangelical movement, Dominionists are
pressing an agenda that makes Newt Gingrich's Contract With America
look like the Communist Manifesto.
They want to rewrite schoolbooks to reflect a Christian version of
American history, pack the nation's courts with judges who follow Old
Testament law, post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and make
it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions.
In Florida, when the courts ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube
removed, it was the Dominionists who organized round-the-clock
protests and issued a fiery call for Gov. Jeb Bush to defy the law and
take Schiavo into state custody.
Their ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of a "faith-based"
government that will endure far longer than Bush's presidency -- all
the way until Jesus comes back.
"Most people hear them talk about a 'Christian nation' and think,
'Well, that sounds like a good, moral thing,' says the Rev. Mel White,
who ghostwrote Jerry Falwell's autobiography before breaking with the
evangelical movement.
"What they don't know -- what even most conservative Christians who
voted for Bush don't know -- is that 'Christian nation' means
something else entirely to these Dominionist leaders. This movement is
no more about following the example of Christ than Bush's Clean Water
Act is about clean water."
The godfather of the Dominionists is D. James Kennedy, the most
influential evangelical you've never heard of.
A former Arthur Murray dance instructor, he launched his Florida
ministry in 1959, when most evangelicals still followed Billy Graham's
gospel of nonpartisan soul-saving.
Kennedy built Coral Ridge Ministries into a $37-million-a-year empire,
with a TV-and-radio audience of 3 million, by preaching that it was
time to save America -- not soul by soul but election by election.
After helping found the Moral Majority in 1979, Kennedy became a
five-star general in the Christian army.
Bush sought his blessing before running for president -- and continues
to consult top Dominionists on matters of federal policy.
"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost," Kennedy
says.
"As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and
influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our
literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our
news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect
and institution of human society."
At Reclaiming America, most of the conference is taken up by
grassroots training sessions that supply ministers, retirees and
devout churchgoers with "The Facts of Stem-Cell Research" or
"Practical Steps to Impact Your Community with America's Historical
Judeo-Christian Heritage."
"We're going to turn you into an army of one," Gary Cass, executive
director of Reclaiming America, promises activists at one workshop
held in Evangalism Explosion Hall.
The Dominionists also attend speeches by supporters like Rep.
Katherine Harris of Florida, who urges them to "win back America for
God."
In their spare time, conference-goers buy books about a God-devised
health program called the Maker's Diet or meet with a financial
adviser who offers a "biblically sound investment plan."
To implement their sweeping agenda, the Dominionists are working to
remake the federal courts in God's image.
In their view, the Founding Fathers never intended to erect a barrier
between politics and religion.
"The First Amendment does not say there should be a separation of
church and state," declares Alan Sears, president and CEO of the
Alliance Defense Fund, a team of 750 attorneys trained by the
Dominionists to fight abortion and gay marriage.
Sears argues that the constitutional guarantee against state-sponsored
religion is actually designed to "shield" the church from federal
interference -- allowing Christians to take their rightful place at
the head of the government.
"We have a right, indeed an obligation, to govern," says David
Limbaugh, brother of Rush and author of Persecution: How Liberals Are
Waging War Against Christianity.
Nothing gets the Dominionists to their feet faster than ringing
condemnations of judicial tyranny.
"Activist judges have systematically deconstructed the Constitution,"
roars Rick Scarborough, author of Mixing Church and State.
"A God-free society is their goal!"
Activist judges, of course, are precisely what the Dominionists want.
Their model is Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice who
installed a 5,300-pound granite memorial to the Ten Commandments,
complete with an open Bible carved in its top, in the state judicial
building.
At Reclaiming America, Roy's Rock sits out front, fresh off a tour of
twenty-one states, perched on the flag-festooned flatbed of a diesel
truck, a potent symbol of the "faith-based" justice the Dominionists
are bent on imposing.
Activists at the conference pose for photographs beside the rock and
have circulated a petition urging President Bush to appoint Moore --
who once penned an opinion calling for the state to execute
"practicing homosexuals" -- to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The other side knows we've got strongholds in the executive and
legislative branches," Cass tells the troops.
"If we start winning the judiciary, their power base is going to be
eroded."
To pack the courts with fundamentalists like Moore, Dominionist
leaders are planning a massive media blitz.
They're also pressuring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist -- an ally
who's courting support for his presidential bid -- to halt the
long-standing use of filibusters to hold up judicial nominations.
An anti-filibuster petition circulating at the conference blasts
Democrats for their "outrageous stonewalling of appointments" -- even
though Congress has approved more nominees of Bush than of any
president since Jimmy Carter.
It helps that Dominionists have a direct line to the White House:
The Rev. Richard Land, top lobbyist for the 16-million-member Southern
Baptist Convention, enjoys a weekly conference call with top Bush
advisers including Karl Rove.
"We've got the Holy Spirit's wind at our backs!" Land declares in an
arm-waving, red-faced speech.
He takes particular aim at the threat posed by John Lennon, denouncing
"Imagine" as a "secular anthem" that envisions a future of "clone
plantations, child sacrifice, legalized polygamy and hard-core porn."
The Dominionists are also stepping up efforts to turn public schools
into forums for evangelism.
In a landmark case, the Alliance Defense Fund is suing a California
school district that threatened to dismiss a born-again teacher who
was evangelizing fifth-graders.
In the conference's opening ceremony, the Dominionists recite an oath
they dream of hearing in every classroom:
"I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior for
whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming
again, with life and liberty for all who believe."
Cass urges conference-goers to stack school boards with Dominionists.
"The most humble Christian is more qualified for office than the
best-educated pagan," says Cass, an anti-abortion activist who led a
takeover of his school district's board in San Diego.
"We built quite a little grass-roots machine out there. Now it's my
burden to multiply that success all across America."
Cass points to the Rev. Gary Beeler, a Baptist minister from Tennessee
who got permission for thousands of students to skip class and attend
weeklong events that he calls "old-time revivals, with preaching and
singing and soul-saving and the whole nine yards."
Now, with support from Kennedy, Beeler is selling his house and buying
a mobile home to spread his crusade nationwide.
"It's not exactly what I planned to do with my retirement," he says.
"But it's what God told me to do."
Cass also presents another small-town activist, Kevin McCoy, with a
Salt and Light Award for leading a successful campaign to shut down an
anti-bullying program in West Virginia schools.
McCoy, a soft-spoken, prematurely gray postal worker, fought to end
the program because it taught tolerance for gay people -- and thus, in
his view, constituted a "thinly disguised effort to promote the
homosexual agenda."
"What America needs," Cass tells the faithful, "is more Kevin McCoys."
While the dominionists rely on grass-roots activists to fight their
battles, they are backed by some of America's richest entrepreneurs.
Amway founder Rich DeVos, a Kennedy ally who's the leading Republican
contender for governor of Michigan, has tossed more than $5 million
into the collection plate.
Jean Case, wife of former AOL chief Steve Case -- whose fortune was
made largely on sex-chat rooms -- has donated $8 million.
And Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, is a major source of cash
for Focus on the Family, a megaministry working with Kennedy to
eliminate all public schools.
The one-two punch of militant activists and big money has helped make
the Dominionists a force in Washington, where a growing number of
congressmen owe their elections to the machine.
Kennedy has also created the Center for Christian Statesmanship, which
trains elected officials to "more effectively share their faith in the
public arena."
Speaking to the group, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay -- a winner of
Kennedy's Distinguished Christian Statesman Award -- called Bush's
faith-based initiatives "a great opportunity to bring God back into
the public institutions of our country."
The most vivid proof of the Christianizing of Capitol Hill comes at
the final session of Reclaiming America.
Rep. Walter Jones, a lanky congressman from North Carolina, gives a
fire-and-brimstone speech that would have gotten him laughed out of
Washington thirty years ago.
In today's climate, however, he's got a chance of passing his pet
project, the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which
would permit ministers to endorse political candidates from their
pulpits, effectively converting their tax-exempt churches into
Republican campaign headquarters.
"America is under assault!" Jones thunders as his aides dash around
the sanctuary snapping PR photos.
"Everyone in America has the right to speak freely, except for those
standing in the pulpits of our churches!"
The amen chorus reaches a fever pitch.
Hands fly heavenward.
It's one thing to hear such words from Dominionist leaders -- but to
this crowd, there's nothing more thrilling than getting the gospel
from a U.S. congressman.
"You cannot have a strong nation that does not follow God," Jones
preaches, working up to a climactic, passionate plea for a biblical
republic.
"God, please -- God, please -- God, please -- save America!"
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://PerkinsTragedy.org http://www.rightard.org/
"Bible scholar" is just a euphemism for "unemployed."
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