Christian Reconstructionism
From Julie Ingersoll at Religion Dispatches:
Christian Reconstructionist founder Rousas John Rushudoony is often called the father of the Christian homeschooling movement and convention lectures are frequently informed by Reconstructionist readings of the bible, in which the Old and New Testaments are a continuous narrative, and in which Biblical Law provides the basis for understanding our obligation to obedience, the exercise of dominion, and the purpose and significance of history.
The homeschool conventions also include vast exhibits of curricular materials informed by these perspectives. The recent study released by the Brookings Institute showed widespread support for “American Exceptionalism” (defined as the idea that America has a special place in God’s plan for history) and the influence of the home school movement helps to account for this fact.
So indeed, homeschooling is about much more than “education.” It’s about developing a coherent worldview that is entirely integrated and self-reinforcing; a worldview that sees America as a Christian Nation that should be governed by the bible. Whether or not it’s “good for America” remains to be seen.
And more recently:
As Reconstructionists see it, there are three spheres of institutional authority established by God: the family, the church and that civil government. Each of the institutions has specific responsibilities and when “men” look to the State to meet needs the State was not intended to meet, they are looking to the State for salvation and making the State God.
This is the source of their views on helping the poor (it’s the responsibility of families and churches) and education (a family responsibility). For them the civil government has no legitimate role in either function so they advocate dismantling the welfare system, eliminating the Department of Education, and ultimately “replacing” public schools.
It is also the reason they give for opposing taxation in an amount greater than the tithe (‘he” who has authority to exact the most money has the most authority.) The state makes itself God when it takes more that God requires.
Christian Reconstruction isn’t a secret organization one can join (well I guess you could but few people do). It’s a school of thought that has profoundly influenced contemporary American Conservative Protestantism—especially in its politicized forms.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry.
It appears to be the Christian version of Muslim Sharia Law.
From Sarah Posner at Religion Dispatches:
Bachmann possesses an alarming misunderstanding of the history of slavery that at once celebrates it as a heyday of African-American family life, and engages in revisionism about the founders’ view of it. She recently signed a “marriage pledge” in Iowa that included the statement (since removed): “sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American president.” She has also stated, incorrectly, that the founders “worked tirelessly” to end slavery.
For me, these works tie the ethos of Texanomics to the traditions of the neo-confederacy and the contemporary dominionist movement. With a better understanding, I am even more convinced of their intolerance, and thus my intolerance of them.
