Sarah Palin described the US military mission in Iraq as a “task that is from God.” (File Photo)
Posted on 07/10/2011 2:59:15 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
In the early days of America’s nascent republic, the founding fathers envisioned a secular government with a wall of separation between the affairs of church and those of the state.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution stipulates that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” and Article VI specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
A growing number of Christian conservatives, apostolics and evangelicals, however, believe the founding fathers got it wrong, that devout Christians have a mandate from God, not only to be active in politics and civil society but also to lead the nation and indeed the world with the Bible, not the Constitution, as their primary guide.
They sometimes are referred to as Dominionists and are America’s version of Islamists. They draw their mandate from the Old Testament Bible passage Genesis 1:26 in which God gives man dominion over the earth. The passage makes no mention of rule by Christians given that Christ would not be born until much later.
American Dominionists come in two flavors, soft and hard. The Website Theocracy Watch describes Soft Dominionists as “Christians who believe Biblically-defined immorality and sin breed chaos and anarchy and worry that liberal secular humanists, feminists and homosexuals undermine America’s greatness as God’s chosen land.”
Hard Dominionists, the Website says, have the same beliefs but also want the US to be a Christian theocracy run by Christian men with certain beliefs as they believe is ordained by God. For them the Constitution and Bill of Rights are but addendums to Old Testament Biblical law.
The political right and faith-based organizations have been working in coalitions for years. The embrace of Dominionists and the growth of the fringe Tea Party wing of the Republican party are but the latest wrinkles.
In 1979, Jerry Falwell, a charismatic minister who earlier had opposed desegregation as a threat to the survival of the “white race,” founded what he called the Moral Majority, an organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees which campaigned and lobbied on issues from its version of morality, which it believe was shared by a majority of Americans.
During the early 1980s it became one of the largest and most effective conservative lobbying groups in the US with millions of members. Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition also was very influential in politics from the late 1980s into 1990s. With activist Ralph Reed the coalition helped usher in a period of Christian activists working mostly on behalf of Republicans to influence legislation and political nominations.
The influence of the Christian Right grew significantly after its founding and played a significant role in the election of Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and George W. Bush as presidents.
The Moral Majority was dissolved in 1989 amid serious financial problems. Falwell sought to put a different spin on it, however, when he declared: “Our goal has been achieved…The religious right is solidly in place and…religious conservatives in America are now in for the duration.”
Indeed they are, and though not as powerful as in the 1980s and 1990s the Religious Right retains great influence in the Republican Party and its candidates eagerly seek its endorsements. A union with the new fringe Tea Party wing of the Republican Party would strenghen their hand.
In 2009 when a coalition of right-wing groups formed the Freedom Federation and sought collaboration with fundamentalist religious groups.
Some were familiar right-wing stalwarts like the Federation members include familiar Religious Right political groups like the American Family Association and the Family Research Council while others are well-known among the Religious Right, such as Generals International and Morningstar Ministries.
Following the horrific 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the US which killed nearly 3,000 people, Mr. Falwell asserted that the US had opened itself to terrorist attacks by incurring God’s anger with the efforts of feminists, homosexuals, abortionists and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The notion that America thus needed to align itself with God’s law to regain its greatness gained currency among Christian conservatives, a point not missed by Republican politicians.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s 2006 book, Rediscovering God in America, argues that the nation’s forefathers wanted God to have a central role in stewarding the country. Now he is running for president.
Representative Michele Bachmann, a darling of the Tea Party and an announced presidential candidate, speaks frequently at conservative Christian events, often offering a prayer and recounting the Biblical story of the woman who gave all to Jesus by anointing his body with expensive oils. She believes politicians should give their all.
Sarah Palin, another Tea Party favorite, former Alaska governor and unsuccessful candidate for vice president in the last presidential elections, told voters she would lead the nation with “a servant’s heart.” That endeared her to evangelicals.
She described the US military mission in Iraq as a “task that is from God” and has said public school students should be taught the creation account from Genesis. She spent nearly three decades aligned with the Assemblies of God church, the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
She has taken a magical mystery bus tour to states in which announced candidates have appeared but she has not formally announced her candidacy.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is expected to throw his hat in the ring in August after a national Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis rally he is co-sponsoring in Houston August 6th. The promotion for the 7-hour event says “We believe that America is in a state of crisis. Not just politically, financially or morally, but because we are a nation that has not honored God in our successes or humbly called on Him in our struggles.”
Governor Perry is quoted as saying: “Right now, America is in crisis: we have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. As a nation, we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy. Some problems are beyond our power to solve, and according to the Book of Joel, Chapter 2, this historic hour demands a historic response.”
On his official governor’s Website, however, Mr. Perry gives credit to his states prosperity and good fortune to his administration’s efforts and blames taxes and regulatory mandates for problems in other states.
“We’ve passed a budget that cuts spending in Texas while maintaining essential services, keeping taxes low and preserving more than $6 billion in emergency funding that’ll be on hand if the national economy continues to slump or if we face a major natural disaster. By balancing our budget without raising taxes, Texas once again will stand in stark contrast to states that choose to burden their residents with higher taxes and onerous regulatory mandates.”
On a visit to Israel in August 2009, Governor Perry reaffirmed his support for the country. “I’m a big believer that this country was given to the people of Israel a long time ago, by God, and that’s ordained,” he said in an interview.
Last October, the Public Religion Research polling organization released a comprehensive survey on the religious and theo-political beliefs of voters aligned with the Tea Party movement.
According to the survey, nearly half of all respondents who considered themselves part of the Tea Party movement also considered themselves part of the religious right.
Whether separation of church and state will become a major issue in the 2012 campaign remains to be seen in the months ahead.
(Nathaniel Sheppard Jr. is a veteran national and foreign correspondent who worked at The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. He can be reached at: natsheppard@gmail.com)
Sarah Palin described the US military mission in Iraq as a “task that is from God.” (File Photo)
You forgot the barf warning.
The American Left — you can’t read it more clearly than this.
That’s three minutes I won’t get back.
No evidence at all provided that anybody is challenging any wall between church and state.
Let’s all ignore that the establishment of this wall by the Founders (at least in the sense meant by the author) is itself mythical.
I’ve been listening to a book on CD that is a bio of Lincoln. The language of politicians of his day would blow this guy’s mind.
“In the early days of America’s nascent republic, the founding fathers envisioned a secular government with a wall of separation between the affairs of church and those of the state. “
Wrong in the very first sentence.
The Left has twisted this to turn Americans against the belief that faith underpins this country.
They want government to be our lord and master.
They’ve pushed this idea of separation of church and state, meaning there should be no talk of faith and government (not the true meaning of “not to establish a religion), in public schools for generations.
For whatever reason the Leftwingtards don't fear the Moslems yet .................. well, back to the pederasty part!
Not, God bless America.
God damn America!
I pray that someday soon all the Christians will be gone from this world, so the liberals and muslims can live together in peace and harmony.
Well, they'll cross that bridge when they come to it, for now they're at the, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" stage.
Wrong in the very first sentence.
Yes. I quit reading at that point.
You should really go further into the article and read what the Left and the Middle East paper think about our GOP primary candidates.
“The Leftwingtards all fear the Catholic church because it condemns their pederasty,”
In fact or in principle. Church and State is a dangerous argument because what is good for the goose is good for the gander under our Constitution. There are much better arguments to use against Muslims in light of the last decades.
The author's implication is that we should establish such a religious Test and keep anybody who is openly Christian (of the conservative variety, anyway) from office.
That is all the reason you need to evict them and keep them out.
On your recommendation I will.
Oh, the irony.
I'm still trying to part in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to have any involvement whatsoever in public education.
P.S.:
In 2010, Barack Obama called for fixing the public education system by giving us the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and “Race to the Top”, which he said would fix the education system already fixed by the 2001 GW Bush and Ted Kennedy legislation called “No Child Left Behind,” which was supposed to fix a system supposedly already fixed by a 1994 piece of federal legislation called “Goals 2000,” which was supposed to fix a system already fixed by America 2000,” which was a 1991 response during the Bush administration to a 1983 federal report on education called “A Nation at Risk, which was published a full four years after Jimmy Carter fixed the nation’s public school system by first establishing a cabinet-level Department of Education in 1979.
And the dim don't see it.
GRRRRRR.....makes me crazy!
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