Primer on Dominionism (long)

[scottxyz]

It's important to know who is secretly hijacking America's government, and why and how.

This may also help genuine Christians at DU to understand why some people are so suspicious of them. Unfortunately the Christian religion has been hijacked by a group of extremists who want to use it is a platform for a political coup.

Jimmy Carter is Christian; Pat Robertson and George W. Bush and Antonin Scalia are "Dominionists".

The history of Dominionism is laid out very clearly here:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

"Dominionists have gained extensive control of the Republican Party and the apparatus of government throughout the United States; they continue to operate secretly. Their agenda to undermine all government social programs that assist the poor, the sick, and the elderly is ingeniously disguised under false labels that confuse voters...."

[ladjf]

1. The global oligarchy uses the Dominionists as their agents

of public mind control. Between the two, there is little chance for the general population to avoid being exploited and manipulated.

[durutti]

2. I love it.

Jimmy Carter -- who was at least in the recent past a racist, and gave arms to the Indonesians to aid in their genocide of the East Timorese -- is more "Christian" than Robertson? Gimme a break. He's just as bad.

[Gildor Inglorion]

4. Nonsense!

Carter was a "racist" in the "recent past"? Kindly put up or shut up. That man hasn't a racist bone in his body and never did. Proof, please. And "recent" is less than 20 years, by the way.

[davekriss]

8. I have mixed feelings about Carter

You already mention East Timor. My understanding is that his administration continued and intensified the "American Holocaust" in Central America (although nothing like what was to come in the Reagan/Bush eigthies). He also allowed Brzenzki to use the mujahaddin in Afghanistan to provoke the Soviet Union into it's long, destabilizing war (something the mujahaddin, specifically OBL, may have done to us by provoking us into both Afghanistan and Iraq -- Karma can be a bitch, eh?). So Carter's record is questionable.

But lest Pat Robertson escape unscathed...

CANDIDATE ROBERTSON'S CENTRAL AMERICA POLICY
by Sara Diamond, copyright 1986
http://www.holysmoke.org/wb/wb0239.htm

Click through to read about Robertson's consistent support for some of the worst players in Guatamala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. How anyone can call anyone who aids and abets such misery a "christian" is beyond me -- that is, until you understand the unique and violently repressive definition of "christian" held by the Dominionists.

[davekriss]

3. Christian Reconstructionism/Dominionism...

Christian Reconstruictionism and Dominionism are amongst the most dangerous, anti-democratic currents running through American society today. Currently exploited by the neo-conservative cabal in the Whitehouse, George "Mickey Mouse" Bush could easily lose control of the broomsticks he invokes on the national stage without Fantasia's wise wizard to reel them back in.

In addition to the work of Katherine Yurica, here are two good essays on the subject that I recommend (the second now a "classic"):

America The Theocracy
A band of influential preachers is praying for the power to rule America. For those who disagree, they have a solution -- stoning.
By John F. Sugg, March 25, 2004
http://www.weeklyplanet.com/2004-03-25/cover.html

Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence
by Frederick Clarkson
The Public Eye Magazine, Vol. VIII, Nos. 1 & 2, March/June 1994
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisrec.html

Sara Diamond also covers some of this territory in her early nineties book, "Roads to Dominion" and has some material available online.

Scary stuff, folks; read it with the lights on!

(On edit, fixed the links. And adding: Saw several people today with Timothy LaHaye's popular books in their laps -- I wonder how many of them support or are aware of the stern intepretation of "biblical law" espoused by LaHaye's "team" for the future of America, which includes the death penalty for anyone not sufficiently "Christian" by their definition?)

[Lars39]

7. The folks I have personally known to read the series

are southern baptist missionaries. They believe it is scripturally based. It is not fiction to them. They really believe events are going to happen this way. They love to loan the set out to read, to convince others.

[camero]

9. Another one here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=28847

If anything else, check out the chart to see the links between the dominionists and the Republican party.

Also they have links to the voting machines: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1300465#1300645

[scottxyz]

5. Here's a particularly chilling passage

we are very close to seeing the Dominionists achieve their goal. All they need to do is to appoint a majority of judges who will adhere to the “dead Constitution” construction rule of Scalia (or what Harry Jaffa called “the original intent” construction rule). At the point when the Dominionist’s control the judiciary—that judiciary can roll back America’s body of legal jurisprudence to a century or more ago as Law Professor Patricia J. Williams pointed out.

Scalia spilled the beans in his article, “God’s Justice and Ours” when he explained how he would determine whether the death penalty is constitutional or not. His reasoning goes like this: since the death penalty was “clearly permitted when the Eighth Amendment {which prohibits ‘cruel and unusual punishments’} was adopted,” and at that time the death penalty was applied for all felonies—including, for example, the felony of horse-thieving, “so it is clearly permitted today.”<56> Justice Scalia left no doubt that if the crime of horse stealing carried a death penalty today in the United States — he would find that law constitutional.

All a willing Dominionist Republican-controlled congress need do to extend the death penalty to those people who practice witchcraft, adultery, homosexuality, heresy, etcetera, is to find those particular death penalty laws existing as of November 3, 1791, and re-instate them. No revolution is required. That’s why the battle over Bush’s judicial appointments is so crucial to the future of the America we know and love. And that’s why the clock is running out on freedom loving Americans.

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

[scottxyz]

6. If Churches get this involved in politics

...then they should be taxed.

[ithacan]

10. www.TheocracyWatch.org

This is another site that is a must read. It documents how the Religious Right has taken over the Republican Party, and the effects this has had on how this country is being run:

http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

[truth2power]

11. Yikes!

Just finished reading the article and what concerns me more than anything is that I don't think there's a chance in hell of getting the message of their agenda out to average Americans.

I've done considerable reading on the subject of Christian Reconstructioism, including Shadia Drury's book and also Eternal Hostility, both referenced in the article. For an overview, though, this article really lays it on the line. Problem is...we're preaching to the choir here. How does one awaken the masses?

[SpartacusSC]

12. Frightening, maybe not so surprising given the close associations ...

of the right and a very specific interpretation of Christianity. It is indeed a shame that such a group could cause clear-thinking individuals to be suspicious of Christians in general. These folks certainly don't speak for me. Perhaps that is part of their goal to make it "their Christianity" or nothing, and to breed paranoia.

It saddens me that people would be suspicious of me just because I do believe in God and try my feeble best to follow Christ (though my beliefs differ greatly from folks like these, esp. on the tolerance, freedom of will/choice and love thy neighbor fronts).

I also have to agree with a previous poster. Jimmy Carter has set a pretty good example IMHO. You have to remember that almost everyone from his generation is a "reformed racist". In fact, if we all really take a look at ourselves, maybe we'd see "still reforming racists." I think the point is the effort and its sincerity.