the Christ-Fascist faction

[Guest guest]

c

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 06:48:57 -0000

Subject:the Christ-Fascist coup

 

 

the Christ-Fascist coup.. these Christian Reconstructionalist or

Dominion Theologist who own and control the voting machines believe in:

 

" The prison system would be eliminated. A system of just restitution

would be established for some crimes. The death penalty would be

practiced for many other crimes. There would be little need for

warehousing of convicted criminals.

 

Legal abortions would be banished; those found to be responsible for

illegal abortions would be executed.

 

The reinstitution of slavery appears to be a hot button item among

Reconstructionists. We have received a few negative E-mails which

complained that the movement does not recommend slavery. But we have

received many more Emails from Reconstructionists claiming that

legalizing slavery would be good for North America. "

 

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm

 

here are some articles on these people and their hatred of civil

liberties and democracy:

 

 

How George W. Bush Won the 2004 Presidential Election

By Sandeep Atwal

InfernalPress.com

 

Purging voter lists is just the beginning: the U.S. has embraced a

form of electronic voting that is unreliable, unverifiable and funded

by the radical Christian right.

 

ES & S, Diebold and Sequoia may not be household names like Enron or

Arthur Andersen, but these three companies will decide America's next

president. In the 2004 presidential election, the full effect of

electronic voting will be felt for the first time and these are the

companies that will report the majority of the results.

 

Despite assurances from the corporations that own these machines, the

reliability of electronic voting is under intense criticism. One of

the most comprehensive examinations of electronic voting fraud came

from brothers James and Kenneth Collier. In their 1992 book Votescam:

The Stealing of America, the brothers detailed the long history of

voting fraud over the past twenty-five years with a special focus on

voting machines. American politicians and large media outlets have

ignored their book, and their charges remain unanswered.

 

Now, their concerns are being echoed by a new group of writers,

journalists and activists who have raised alarming and explosive

details about electronic voting in America. While academics such as

Professors Rebecca Mercuri and David Dill and organizations like the

Association for Computing Machinery have carefully documented how

voting systems are vulnerable to fraudulent manipulation, journalists

Lynn Landes, Jerry Bowles and Bev Harris are alerting Americans to an

electronic coup d'etat in the making. If their charges are true, and

there is little evidence to contradict their claims, George W. Bush

has already won the 2004 election.

 

***************

 

Florida's Folly Goes National

 

" Given the outcome of our work in Florida and with a new president

in place, we think our services will expand across the country. "

-- Martin L. Fagan, ChoicePoint Vice-President

 

To understand how George W. Bush will win the next presidential

election, it helps to understand how he won the last one. While all

public attention rested on hanging chads, butterfly ballots and a

skewed recount in the wake of the 2000 Presidential election, the root

of the problem has been overlooked. As investigative reporter Greg

Palast uncovered, the state of Florida purged over 90,000 people from

their list of eligible voters under the guise that they were felons.

In fact, almost none of the disenfranchised voters were felons...but

almost all were blacks or democrats.

 

Palast's investigation revealed that at the heart of this ethnic

cleansing of voter lists was the creation of a new centralized

database for the state of Florida. In 1999, the state fired the

company they were paying to compile their " scrub " lists and gave the

job to Database Technologies (DBT, now ChoicePoint). DBT, a private

firm known to have strong Republican ties was paid $2.3 million to do

the same job that had previously been done for $5,700.

 

The first list of felons from DBT included 8,000 names of felons from

Texas supplied by George Bush's state officials. The state government

said they were all felons, and thus barred from voting under federal

law. Local officials complained about the list and DBT issued a new

one, this time naming 58,000 felons. Palast discovered that the one

county that went through the process of checking the new list name by

name found it was 95% wrong.

 

Because of the way DBT compiled its erroneous list, Florida voters

whose names were similar to out-of-state felons were barred from

voting. An Illinois felon named John Michaels could knock off Florida

voters John, Johnny, Jonathan or Jon R. Michaels.

 

DBT didn't get names, birthdays or social security numbers right, but

they were matched for race, so a felon named Joe Green only knocked

off a black Joe Green, but not a white person with the same name.

There was no need to guess about the race of the disenfranchised: a

voter's race is listed next to his or her name in many Southern states

including Florida because racial ID is required by the Voting Rights

Act of 1965.

 

DBT's fee of $2.3 million was supposed to include verification that

the individuals on their list were actually felons, but Palast's

investigation showed that DBT could not provide any evidence that they

made a single phone call to verify the identity of the names scrubbed

prior to the 2000 Presidential Election.

 

Unfortunately, nothing is preventing this purge from taking place

again on a national scale. Due in large part to the attention paid to

butterfly ballots and hanging chads in the fall of 2000, the new Help

America Vote Act (HAVA) demands that every state replicate Florida's

system of centralized, computerized voter files before the 2004

election, presumably to avoid the paper-ballot confusion of the

Florida recount. Martin Luther King III and Greg Palast recently

co-authored a piece on the dangers of such databases, recalling the

Florida debacle. Their conclusion: " Jim Crow has moved into cyberspace

-- harder to detect, craftier in operation, shifting shape into the

electronic guardian of a new electoral segregation. "

 

ChoicePoint already has contracts with numerous states to provide

electronic voter lists purged of supposed felons. They are a natural

choice as one of the U.S.'s largest database companies. ChoicePoint

provides information on federal criminal records by district for 43

states and also provides online access to more than 63 million

criminal records for all fifty states. Who better to provide

HAVA-mandated voter lists to state governments?

 

***************

 

You Voted Republican, Trust Us

 

" It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting. "

-- Tom Stoppard, 1972

 

Purged voter lists are only one method of pre-determining the outcome

of an election. An even more serious problem lies inside the voting

machines themselves. While representatives of Diebold, ES & S and

Sequoia herald the benefits of their systems, not everyone shares

their enthusiasm. Dr. Rebecca Mercuri is an Assistant Professor of

Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College and has been referred to as " the

leading independent expert on electronic voting technology. " Shortly

before the 2000 Presidential election, Mercuri defended her Ph.D.

dissertation on the subject of " Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks and

Balances " at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Mercuri's website is an astonishing checklist of the lack of

safeguards and other failings that plague the current crop of

electronic voting systems. One of Mercuri's primary concerns is that

electronic systems provide no way for a voter, or election officials,

to verify that a cast ballot corresponds to the vote being recorded.

As Mercuri notes on her site, " Any programmer can write code that

displays one thing on a screen, records something else, and prints yet

another result. " There is no known way to ensure that this is not

happening inside of a voting system. Companies such as Diebold, ES & S

and Sequoia, which manufacture the machines and provide the code that

runs them, simply take a " trust us " approach.

 

Mercuri also reports that no electronic voting system has been

certified to even the lowest level of the U.S. government or

international computer security standards such as the ISO Common

Criteria, nor are they required to comply with such standards. Thus,

no current electronic voting system is secure by the U.S. government's

own standards.

 

Electronic voting systems without individual printouts for examination

by voters do not provide an independent audit trail. All voting

systems can make mistakes and the ability to perform manual

hand-counts of ballots is the only way to verify results. Computer

glitches are already cropping up all across the United States.

Numerous irregularities with electronic voting machines have already

been reported:

 

* In Georgia, which recently purchased 22,000 Diebold touch

screens, some voters touched one candidate's name on the screen and

saw another candidate's name appear

* A former news reporter in Florida discovered that votes were

being tabulated in 644 Palm Beach precincts: but Palm Beach only has

643 precincts. An earlier court case in Florida found the same

discrepancy. A reporter in New Jersey observed 104 precincts with

votes in an area that has only 102 precincts.

* Baldwin County results showed that Democrat Don Siegelman won

the state of Alabama. However, the next morning, 6,300 of Siegelman's

votes disappeared and the election was handed to Republican Bob Riley.

A recount was requested and denied.

* In North Carolina, a software programming error caused

vote-counting machines to skip over several thousand votes, both

Republican and Democratic. Fixing the error turned up 5,500 more votes

and reversed the election.

* In Comal County Texas, an uncanny coincidence resulted in three

Republican candidates winning by exactly 18,181 votes each. Two other

Republican candidates outside Texas also won by exactly 18,181 votes.

* In October, election officials in Raleigh, N.C., discovered that

early voters had to make several attempts to record their votes on

ES & S systems. Officials compared the number of voters to the number of

votes counted and realized that 294 votes had been lost.

* A report from the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project states

that an estimated 1.5 million presidential votes were not recorded in

2000 because of difficulties using voting equipment and that

electronic machines have the second highest rate of unmarked,

uncounted and spoiled ballots in presidential, Senate, and governor

elections over the last 12 years.

 

Federally mandated voting machines, almost exclusively manufactured by

ES & S, Diebold and Sequoia are being constructed and tested under

obsolete FEC recommendations. The US has authorized spending of over

four billion dollars on new voting equipment, but as Mercuri notes,

" failed to require or enforce adequate security, usability,

reliability, and auditability controls over the products being

purchased. " The numerous flaws cited above ably demonstrate Mercuri's

point.

 

Her concerns are echoed by Professor David Dill from Stanford

University. He has created a resolution warning of the dangers of

electronic voting machines. " Do not be seduced by the apparent

convenience of " touch-screen voting " machines, or the " gee whiz "

factor that accompanies flashy new technology, " he writes. " Using

these machines is tantamount to handing complete control of vote

counting to a private company, with no independent checks or audits.

These machines represent a serious threat to democracy. "

 

***************

 

Chuck Hagel and Nebraska's Upset

 

" If you want to win the election, just control the machines. "

- Charlie Matulka, Nebraska Senatorial Candidate

 

Chuck Hagel first ran for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska in 1996.

Electronic voting machines owned by Election Systems & Software (ES & S)

reported that he had won both the primaries and the general election

in unprecedented victories. His 1996 victory was considered one of the

biggest upsets of that election. He was the first Republican to win a

Nebraska senatorial campaign in 24 years and won virtually every

demographic group, including many largely black communities that had

never before voted Republican.

 

Six years later Hagel ran again against Democrat Charlie Matulka in

2002, and won in a landslide. He was re-elected to his second term

with 83% of the vote: the biggest political victory in the history of

Nebraska. Again, the votes were counted by ES & S, now the largest

voting machine company in America.

 

While these victories could be dismissed simply as a Republican upset,

a January 2003 article in the independent Washington paper The Hill

revealed interesting details about Hagel's business investments and

casts a different light on his election successes. Chuck Hagel was CEO

of ES & S (then AIS) until 1995 and he is still a major stockholder of

the parent company of ES & S, McCarthy & Company. Hagel resigned as CEO

of ES & S to run for the Senate and resigned as president of the parent

company McCarthy & Company following his election (where he remains a

major investor).

 

Today, the McCarthy Group is run by Michael McCarthy, who happens to

be Chuck Hagel's treasurer. Hagel's financials still list the McCarthy

Group as an asset, with his investment valued at $1-$5 million.

Campaign finance reports show that Michael McCarthy also served as

treasurer for Hagel until December of 2002.

 

ES & S also has a connection to the Bush family. Jeb Bush's first choice

as running mate in 1998 was Sandra Mortham who was a paid lobbyist for

ES & S and received a commission for every county that bought its

touch-screen machines.

 

The Hill's revelations of Hagel's conflict of interest was disturbing

enough to cause Jan Baran, one of the most powerful Republican lawyers

in Washington D.C., and Lou Ann Linehan, Senator Chuck Hagel's Chief

of Staff, to walk into The Hill's offices to " discuss " the story.

According to the author of the article, Alex Bolton, nothing similar

had happened in the three-and-a-half years he's worked for the paper.

It was, no doubt, a story Hagel would rather see go unreported.

 

***************

 

Helping America Vote Right

 

" The Christian worldview is the answer. We need Christian

statesmen who press for the Crown Rights of Jesus Christ in all areas

of life. This isn't political salvation or an overnight fix. It will

take decades of mobilization and confrontation to undo a century of

godless socialism. It must be a grassroots movement that starts in

individual families and churches and then moves outward to take

dominion. It must encompass every area of life and not just the

political arena. Finally, it must start soon, for there isn't much

time left. The Florida elections have taught us that the Democrats

with their liberal/socialistic worldview will stop at nothing to seize

control of the government. "

-- Dr. Val Finnell, published by the Chalcedon Institute

 

If the connections between Hagel and ES & S seem suspect, the origins of

America's largest electronic voting machine companies may be just as

distressing, especially for those who venerate the separation of

church and state. The convoluted system of renaming and buyouts of

America's voting system companies is a complicated story. However,

once the various corporate trails have been followed, a disturbing

picture comes into focus.

 

Brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich founded American Information Systems.

Bob is currently president of Diebold and Todd Urosevich is Vice

President, Aftermarket Sales of ES & S. (In 1999, American Information

Systems, purchased Business Records Corp to become ES & S.)

 

American Information Systems (AIS) was primarily funded with money

from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of the Howard F. Ahmanson

Co. The majority stake in ES & S is still owned by Howard F. Ahmanson

and the Ahmanson Foundation

 

Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy, a hard right

wing organization and also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute. As

the institute's own site reports, Chalcedon is a " Christian

educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and

promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our

emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the

necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a crucial factor in the

challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere... "

Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism, which mandates

Christ's dominion over the entire world. The organization's purpose is

to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society.

 

***************

 

Solutions and Alternatives

 

Few individuals who are trying to alert citizens to the dangers of

electronic voting are against computer voting unequivocally. Rather,

the complaints focus on the lack of a verifiable paper trail and the

inability of the public to examine the code that runs the machines.

Professor Mercuri's October 2002 article, " A Better Ballot Box? "

provides a solution to these concerns. She also poses a series of

questions that she believes must be answered in order to allay

security concerns. Mercuri's work is partly an attempt to design a

machine in line with minimum standards set by the U.S. federal

government, unlike the voting machines currently being installed

across America.

 

The New York State Assembly recently passed legislation that

specifically requires that machines " produce and retain a voter

verified permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity " (but

fails to mention the code that runs the machines). Rep. Rush Holt has

introduced federal legislation, The Voter Confidence and Increased

Accessibility Act of 2003 with similar aims. The measure would require

all voting machines to produce an actual paper record by 2004 that

voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election

officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer

malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity.

 

Other solutions exist to ensure the integrity of voting machines and

address the concerns of people like Professor Mercuri. Jason Kitcat is

the author of the Free e-democracy project, an open source project

that builds Internet voting software. Likewise, Australia makes the

code for their machines available online whereas American companies

jealously guard the code that runs their machines. It seems a fair

question, considering the list of problems that currently plague

voting equipment: why are none of these alternatives being investigated?

 

The 2004 election will be the first to use nation-wide electronic

voting. With the purging of voter lists, secrecy surrounding voting

machines, the lack of a verifiable paper trail combined with voting

machine companies with strong Republican ties and funding from the

radical right, a Bush victory is all but inevitable. Welcome to the

machines.

 

Update: Scoop.co.nz has the latest on an investigation by Bev Harris,

revealing glaring holes in the U.S. election system. Her detailed

account is a must-read.

 

 

--- ENDS ----

 

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00147.htm

 

________

 

 

 

 

CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM, DOMINION THEOLOGY, AND THEONOMY

 

 

History:

 

Christian Reconstructionism, Dominion Theology and Theonomy are not

denominations or faith groups. Rather, they are interrelated beliefs

which are followed by members of a wide range of Christian

denominations. They have no connection at all to Reconstructionist

Judaism, which is a liberal group within Judaism.

 

Generally speaking:

Christian Reconstructionism arose out of conservative

Presbyterianism

in the early 1970's. Followers believe " that every area dominated by

sin must be 'reconstructed' in terms of the Bible. " 1

Dominion Theology is derived from Genesis 1:26 of the Hebrew

Scriptures (Old Testament):

 

" Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and

let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over

the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move

along the ground.' " (NIV)

 

Most Christians interpret this verse as meaning that God gave mankind

dominion over the animal kingdom. Dominion theologians believe that

that this verse commands Christians to bring all societies, around the

world, under the rule of the Word of God.

Theonomy (Greek for " God's Law " ) includes the concept that

" God & #65533;s

revealed standing laws are a reflection of His immutable moral

character and, as such, are absolute in the sense of being

nonarbitrary, objective, universal, and established in advance of

particular circumstances (thus applicable to general types of moral

situations). " 6,7 Thus, each of the 613 laws given to Moses and

recorded in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Hebrew

Scriptures) are binding on people of all nations, cultures, and

religions forever, except for those laws which have been rescinded or

modified by further revelation.

 

The term Reconstructionism has been used to refer to various

combinations of the preceding three terms. This type of confusion is

common in the field of religion. Many words such as Christian,

Fundamentalist, Occult, New Age, Reconstructionism, Unitarian etc.

have been assigned so many different interpretations by different

groups in different eras that they are almost meaningless.

 

Its most common form, Theonomic Reconstructionism, represents one of

the most extreme forms of Fundamentalist Christianity thought. The

followers are attempting to peacefully convert the laws of United

States so that they match those in the Hebrew Scriptures. They intend

to achieve this by using the freedom of religion in the US to train a

generation of children in private Christian religious schools. Later,

their graduates will be charged with the responsibility of creating a

new Bible-based political, religious and social order. One of the

first tasks of this order will be to eliminate religious freedom.

Their eventual goal is to achieve the " Kingdom of God " in which much

of the world is converted to Christianity. They feel that the power of

God's word will bring about this conversion. No armed force or

insurrection will be needed; in fact, they believe that there will be

little opposition to their plan. People will willingly accept it if it

is properly presented to them.

 

All religious organizations, congregations etc. other than Christian

would be suppressed. Nonconforming Evangelical, main line and liberal

Christian religious institutions would no longer be allowed to hold

services, organize, proselytize, etc. Society would revert to the laws

and punishments of the Hebrew Scriptures. Any person who advocated or

practiced other religious beliefs outside of their home would be tried

for idolatry and executed. Blasphemy, adultery and homosexual behavior

would be criminalized; those found guilty would also be executed. At

that time that this essay was originally written, this was the only

religious movement in North America of which we were aware which

advocates genocide for followers of minority religions and

non-conforming members of their own religion. Since then, we have

learned of two conservative Christian pastors in Texas who have

advocated the execution of all Wiccans. Ralph Reed, the executive

director of the conservative public policy group the Christian

Coalition has criticized Reconstructionism as " an authoritarian

ideology that threatens the most basic civil liberties of a free and

democratic society. "

 

Leading writers in the movement are:

Greg L. Bahnsen of the Southern California Center for Christian

Studies.

David Chilton. He adopted hyper-preterism, (a.k.a. full or complete

perterism) a particular belief about end time events. He was basically

ostracized from the Christian Reconstruction camp afterwards.

Gary DeMar.

Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Gary North of the Institute for Christian Economics. He is a

prolific

author.

Larry Pratt: head of the Gun Owners of America and English First, a

group opposed to non-English speaking immigrants and bilingual

education. Author of " Armed People Victorious " which documents

Guatemalan and Philippine militias and para-military death squads.

Campaign co-chair of the Buchanan presidential campaign in 1996.

John Quade.

Rousas John Rushdoony of the Chalcedon Foundation is often

considered

the founder of Christian Reconstructionism. Author of Institutes of

Biblical Law.

Rev. Andrew Sandlin.

 

Beliefs:

 

According to Gary DeMar, a popular Reconstructionist author, the

foundation of Reconstructionism is a unique combination of three

Biblical doctrines:

 

1. Regeneration of the individual, through an intimate relationship

with Christ

2. Individuals guiding their lives closely by following a specified

subset of Biblical laws

3. Promoting of the world-wide Kingdom of God. 2

 

Specific beliefs include

A rejection of Antinomianism: the belief that salvation is obtained

totally through faith and not through performing good works and living

a moral life

Presuppositionalism: the acceptance on faith that the Bible is true.

They do not attempt to prove that God exists or that the Bible is true.

Inerrancy: the belief that the Bible, as originally written, is

totally free of error.

Postmillennialism: the belief that Christ will not return to earth

until much of the world has converted to Christianity. This will not

take place for some considerable time; it will not be a painless

transition. Most Fundamentalists and other Evangelists hold to a

different view. They are Premillenialists and believe that all (or

almost all) of the preconditions of Christ's return have been met.

They expect Jesus' second coming to occur s soon.

The laws contained in the Hebrew Scriptures can be divided into two

classes: moral and ceremonial. Christians are not required to follow

the ceremonial laws, because Jesus has liberated them from that

responsibility. However, all persons must follow those moral laws

which were not specifically modified or cancelled by further

revelation --generally in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament).

(Non-reconstructionist Christians generally divide these laws into

three classes: moral, civil and ceremonial law, and generally believe

that most Old Testament laws are no longer binding on Christians.)

The moral laws given by God to the ancient Israelites reflect of

God's character, which is unchangeable. Most of the laws are intended

for all nations, cultures, societies, religions and all eras,

including the present time. However, there are a few laws, in such

areas as personal safety and sanitation, which are no longer

applicable because of changes in architecture and sewage disposal.

These do not need to be obeyed.

The primacy of the Hebrew Scriptures, relative to the Christian

Scriptures (New Testament). All of the Hebrew Scriptures'

non-ceremonial laws are still in force, unless they have been

specifically rescinded or modified by verses in the Christian

Scriptures. " Only if we find an explicit abandonment of an Old

Testament law in the New Testament, because of the historic

fulfillment of the Old Testament shadow, can we legitimately abandon a

detail of the Mosaic law. " 3 This is largely supported by their

interpretation of Matthew 5:17:

 

" Do you think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;

I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. " (NIV)

 

Civil laws must match the Bible's moral rules. That is, anything

that

is immoral (by their standards) is also to be criminalized.

The only valid legislation, social theory, spiritual beliefs,

economic theory are those derived from the Bible

In every aspect of life, there are only two options: God-centered or

man-centered; Theonomy or autonomy. Their political goal is to ban the

latter, everywhere. Each individual, family, church, government and

society must be reconstructed to eliminate sin. Each Christian has the

responsibility to contribute to this conversion.

They oppose mixed marriages. R.J. Rushdoony wrote about

opposition to:

 

" inter-religious, inter-racial, and inter-cultural marriages, in

that they normally go against the very community which marriage is

designed to establish. " 4

 

Rushdoony's condemnation of inter-racial marriage appears to have been

his own and unrelated to the biblical text. It was not shared by other

Reconstructionists.

 

Reconstructionists regard the Gods and Goddesses of all other

religions to be " the devil, " and their teachings to be false. They

would attempt to replace all religions with their version of

Christianity. For example, David Chilton wrote about Judaism:

 

" The god of Judaism is the devil. The Jew will not be recognized

by God as one of His chosen people until he abandons his demonic

religion and returns to the faith of his fathers--the faith which

embraces Jesus Christ and His Gospel. " 5

 

Of course, there exists diversity of opinion within the

Reconstructionist movement. Not all followers will necessarily agree

with all the above statements of the movement's leaders

 

Practices:

 

If they gained control of the US or Canadian federal government, there

would be many changes:

The use of the death penalty would be greatly expanded, when the

Hebrew Scriptures' laws are reapplied. People will be executed for

adultery, blasphemy, heresy, homosexual behavior, idolatry,

prostitution, evil sorcery (some translations say Witchcraft), etc.

The Bible requires those found guilty of these " crimes " to be either

stoned to death or burned alive. Reconstructionists are divided on the

execution method to be used.

A church or congregation which does not accept the Mosaic Law has

another god before them, and is thus guilty of idolatry. That would be

punishable by death. That would include all non-Christian religious

organizations. At the present time, non-Christians total two-thirds of

the human race.

The status of women would be reduced to almost that of a slave as

described in the Hebrew Scriptures. A woman would initially be

considered the property of her father; after marriage, she would be

considered the property of her husband.

It would be logical to assume that the institution of slavery would

be reintroduced, and regulated according to Biblical laws. Fathers

could sell their daughters into slavery. Female slaves would retain

that status for life. People who owned slaves would be allowed to

physically abuse them, as long as they did not beat them so severely

that they died within three days.

Polygyny and the keeping of concubines were permitted in the Old

Testament. However, Reconstructionists generally believe in marriage

between one man and one woman only. Any other sexual _expression would

be a capital crime. Those found guilty of engaging in same-sex,

pre-marital or extra-marital sex would be executed.

The Old Testament " Jubilee Year " system would be celebrated once

more. Every 50 years, the control of all land reverted to its original

owners. This would require every part of North American land to be

returned to the original Aboriginal owners (or perhaps to those

persons of Aboriginal descent who are now Christians). Hawaii would be

given back to the native Hawaiians.

Governments would all have balanced budgets

Income taxes would be eliminated

The prison system would be eliminated. A system of just restitution

would be established for some crimes. The death penalty would be

practiced for many other crimes. There would be little need for

warehousing of convicted criminals.

Legal abortions would be banished; those found to be responsible for

illegal abortions would be executed.

 

The reinstitution of slavery appears to be a hot button item among

Reconstructionists. We have received a few negative E-mails which

complained that the movement does not recommend slavery. But we have

received many more Emails from Reconstructionists claiming that

legalizing slavery would be good for North America.

 

Joseph Busche and Bill Curry have written a Tennessee Law Book. Their

intent was to show that laws to implement various Old Testament laws

would sound extremely intrusive today. See:

http://www.sullivan-county.com/.

 

Click below to Visit one of our Sponsors:

 

Theological conflicts with other Fundamentalist Christian groups:

 

Theonomic Reconstructionism differs from more common forms of

Fundamentalism in a number of key areas.

 

Reconstructionists:

Emphasize the importance of the Hebrew Scriptures vs. the Christian

Scriptures.

Believe that all Christians must attempt to reconstruct society

along

Biblical lines.

Believe that, once they attain power, they will suppress other

religions through genocide and mass murder, rather than through

proselytizing.

Would require all religious groups to strictly follow the Mosaic

law.

Believe that Jesus' second coming is in the far future.

 

We have a list of recent developments in Christian Reconstructionism

elsewhere on this site.

 

References used for the above essay:

 

1. Rev. Andrew Saldlin, " The Creed of Christian Reconstruction, "

at: http://www.chalcedon.edu/creed.html

2. J. Ligon Duncan, III, " Moses' Law for Modern Government: The

Intellectual and Sociological Origins of the Christian

Reconstructionist Movement " , Premise, Vol II, No. 5, 1995-MAY-27. See:

http://capo.org/premise/95/may/ssha2.html

3. Gary North, " The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten

Commandments, " Institute for Christian Economics (1986)

4. R.J. Rushdoony, " The Institutes of Biblical Law " , Craig Press,

Nutley, NJ (1973), P. 257.

5. David Chilton, " The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book

of Revelation " , Dominion Press, Ft. Worth, TX (1984), P. 127.

6. Rev. Andrew Saldlin, " The Creed of Christian Reconstruction, "

at: http://www.chalcedon.edu/creed.html

7. Greg Bahnsen, " By This Standard, " Pages 345-347. Available free

at http://www.freebooks.com

 

Additional resources:

An essay on Christian Reconstructionism with many links is at:

http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/www/rrr/recon.html

The Chalcedon Foundation of Dr. R.J. Rushdoony is at:

http://www.chalcedon.edu

The Southern California Center for Christian Studies (founded by the

late Dr. G.L. Bahnsen) is at: http://www.cleaf.com/~covenant/

The Institute for Christian Economics, (ICE) founded by Dr. Gary

North, has many Christian books free for downloading. See:

http://www.freebooks.com/

An essay on Christian Reconstructionism with many links is at:

http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/www/rrr/recon.html

The Chalcedon Foundation of Dr. R.J. Rushdoony is at:

http://www.chalcedon.edu

The Southern California Center for Christian Studies (founded by the

late Dr. G.L. Bahnsen) is at: http://www.cleaf.com/~covenant/

The Institute for Christian Economics, (ICE) founded by Dr. Gary

North, has many Christian books free for downloading. See:

http://www.freebooks.com/

Joseph Conn, " Christians Stoning Teens, " at: http://members.aol.com/

 

Books:

G.L. Bahnsen " Theonomy in Christian Ethics "

G.L. Bahnsen " By This Standard "

G.L. Bahnsen " No Other Standard "

David Chilton's " Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt

Manipulators "

Gary DeMar, " Christian Reconstruction: What it Is, What it

Isn & #65533;t "

George Grant and Mark Horne, " Legislating Immorality: The Homosexual

Movement Comes Out Of The Closet. " (This book advocates the death

penalty for homosexual behavior.)

R.J. Rushdoony " Institutes of Biblical Law "

 

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm

 

 

___________

 

 

John Stoos, the Chalcedon Institute, Voting Machines, and Christian

Reconstruction

 

David Neiwert notes some rather disturbing connections between the

Chalcedon Institute, publisher of John Stoos' theocratic gibberish and

Diebold, manufacturer of electronic voting systems of dubious worth:

 

One of the other leading lights at Chalcedon is none other than

Howard Ahmanson ... who also has been appearing in the news recently

connected with the brouhaha over computerized voting technology. Seems

Ahmanson is one of the chief owners of American Information Systems

[now Election Systems and Software—CL]-- which is co-owned by

Diebold's president and vice-president.

 

from " Onward Christian Soldiers " at Orcinus. Permalinks aren't

working, so you'll have to scroll down the page.

 

 

More disturbing than this, however, is what Neiwert tells us about the

Chalcedon Institute itself: it is the leading organization of the

Christian Reconstructionist movement, an unapologetically theocratic

organization:

 

Many of you may already be familiar with what Christian

Reconstructionism is about, but here's the short version: They believe

the vote should only belong to Christians, and that the American

government and laws should be explicitly governed by their

fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture.

 

again, from " Onward Christian Soldiers. "

 

 

For the long version, Neiwert points to a lengthy essay by Frederick

Clarkson entitled " Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism

Gains Influence. " According to Clarkson, Reconstructionist theology

begins with a doctrine called presuppossitionalism, which was

formulated by the Princeton University theologian Cornelius Van Til.

Presuppossitionalism simply states that knowledge itself is impossible

without the revealed word of God as expressed in the Bible. This is an

obviously self-refuting statement—unless, of course, one is unashamed

of stooping to circular argumentation—but one should immediately be

able to see the shadow it has cast over public discourse. The mildest

version is the amusing sophistry that atheists specifically disbelieve

in the Judeo-Christian God; a coarser and more dangerous one—and one

that I admit I entertained for a while—is that the Deism of some of

the Founders and Framers entails that the United States' founding

documents and thus the United States itself are Christian because

Deism is simply a derivative of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

 

If presuppositionalism were all of Christian Reconstructionism, it

would be bad enough. But Reconstructionism goes further: it asserts

the whole of Old Testiment law holds regardless of anything Christ

says in the New Testament, that instead of offering the possibility of

redeeming all men, the coming of Christ inagurated a new chosen

people, and it is the duty of the new chosen—the Christians—to subdue

all the earth and all peoples on it. The following is from the work

The Institutes of Biblical Law, by the principal founder of Christian

Reconstructionism, R. John Rushdoony:

 

The cultural mandate is thus the obligation of covenant man to

subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over it under God (Gen.

1:26-28). The law is the program for that purpose and provides the

God-ordained means of improving and developing plants, animals, men,

and institutions in terms of their duty to fulfil God's purpose. In

every age, men have a duty to obey God and to train and improve

themselves, i.e., to sanctify themselves, in terms of God's law. All

enemies of Christ in this fallen world must be conquered. St. Paul,

summoning believers to their calling, declared,

 

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty

through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down

imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the

knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the

obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all

disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (II Cor. 10:4-6).

 

The Berkeley Version renders verse 6 thus: " We are prepared also

to administer justice upon all disobedience, when your obedience is

fully shown. " Moffatt brings out the force of this verse even more

clearly: " I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains

insubordinate, once your submission is complete. " Moffatt renders

verse 5, " I demolish theories and any rampart thrown up to resist the

knowledge of God, I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ. "

 

St. Paul was talking about the cultural mandate. Before the fall,

the task was less complicated. Now man needs regeneration. Thus, the

first step in the mandate is to bring men the word of God and for God

to regenerate them. The second step is to demolish every kind of

rampart or opposition to the dominion of God in Christ. The world and

men must be brought into captivity to Christ, under the dominion of

the Kingdom of God and the law of that kingdom. Third, this requires

that, like Paul, we court-martial or " administer justice upon all

disobedience " in every area of life where we encounter it. To deny the

cultural mandate is to deny Christ and to surrender the world to the

devil.

 

from The Institutes of Biblical Law, pp. 724-725. My emphasis.

This and other exerpts from the works of Rushdoony and Gary North, his

son-in-law, may be found at " An Anthology of Reconstructionist

Quotations. "

 

 

And once the earth is so subjugated, what previously permitted

activities would be forbidden? What would the punishments be?

 

* Taking the Lord's name in vain or otherwise cursing would be

punishable by death;

* Non-Reconstructionist Christians would be considered idolaters,

and idolatry would be punishable by death.

 

Clarkson lists other capital crimes under a Christian

Reconstructionist regime: adultery, striking a parent, juvenile

deinquency, pre-marital sex (for women only), etc.

 

That someone holding such views—Stoos—could penetrate into the inner

circle of a major politician's campaign apparatus is disturbing. More

disturbing is that a major figure in the voting machine industry also

holds such views. Most disturbing, however, is the Christian

Reconstructionists' strategy of stealthy infiltration of mainstream

churches and organizations. Reconstructionism is not tied to a single

denomination. Clarkson points out that its ideas have enjoyed marked

success among Pentecostal and charismatic churches, but neither the

source nor the totality of Reconstructionist ideology are apparent to

parisioners. Reconstructionists understand that openly agitating for a

reactionary, repressive theocracy would be counterproductive to their

goal. Here is a rough draft of their long-term strategy:

 

...radical ideas must be gently and often indirectly infused into

their target constituencies and society at large. The vague claim that

God and Jesus want Christians to govern society is certainly more

appealing than the bloodthirsty notion of justice as " vengeance "

advocated by some of the Reconstructionists. The claim that they do

not seek to impose a theocracy from the top down--waiting for a time

when a majority will have converted and thus want to live under

Biblical Law--is consistent with Reconstructionists' decentralist and

anti-state populism, which they often pass off as a form of

libertarianism. Even so, there is an inevitable point when the

" majority " would impose its will. North bluntly says that one of his

first actions would be to " remove legal access to the franchise and to

civil offices from those who refuse to become communicant members of

Trinitarian churches. " Quick to condemn democracy as the idea that the

law is whatever the majority says it is, North et al. would be quick

to cynically utilize a similar " majority " for a permanent theocratic

solution.

 

from " A Generation of Reconstructionists, " Part 2 of Frederick

Clarkson's " Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains

Influence "

 

 

To summarize: a principal owner of a major provider of election

machines and software has ties to an organization that seeks to

advance an ideology of disenfrancisement, tyranny, murder, and

expansionism. His firm is providing many of the machines that are

supposed to implement our representative democracy (such as it is.)

Meanwhile, the ideology spreads in a disorganized, partial, but highly

effective way.

 

Alarming, isn't it? But what does it say about you and me? That we've

squandered what rights we have? That we prefered to be entertained

rather than informed? That we took our rights for granted and are now

in danger of loosing them? That time and time again, when the choice

was between organizing and working to shore up our liberties and

turning on the television, we always chose the latter? That given the

choice between self-determination and a garbage disposal, we always

chose the garbage disposal?

 

Computerized voting machines are not universal; Christian

Reconstructionism is not the law of the land; President Bush faces a

serious scandal in the Plame affair—although the real scandal should

be that the major casus belli against Iraq was nothing but lies, lies,

lies. If the Bush administration is turned out in '04 and the number

of Christian extremists in government decreased, that's fine, but

that's only a start. The difference between the Dems and Repubs is one

of degree, not kind. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, and we

need to rouse ourselves. The struggle is only beginning.

Posted by Curtiss at October 03, 2003 05:59 PM

 

http://www.panix.com/~hncl/HectorsJournal/archives/000275.html

 

__________

 

Dominionist Theology Promotes American Theocracy

http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=1277