by Larry S. Jones, AU Member
from the Winter 2005/6 issue of the Greater Houston Chapter Newsletter of the Americans United for Seperation of Church and State

The September AU workshop ( Are We Becoming a Theocracy? ( heightened the concern of many of us over moves by the U.S. government toward a fundamentalist type theocracy. The movement is led by those known as Reconstructionists and Dominionists (a name taken from the biblical creation story that humans should have "dominion over ... every living thing that moves upon the William Martin, AU member and Rice University Professor of Religion and Public Policy, in his must-read book, With God on Our Side, provides a frightening glimpse at what America should be like according to Reconstructionist theologians such as Rousas John Rushdoony and Gary North.

"The federal government would play no role in regulating business, public education, or welfare. ... Public schools would be abolished in favor of home-schooling arrangements, and families would operate on a strict patriarchal pattern. The only people permitted to vote would be members of ‘biblically correct' churches. Most notably, a theonomic order [one ruled by God] would make homosexuality, adultery, blasphemy, propagation of false doctrine, and incorrigible behavior by disobedient children, subject to the death penalty, preferably administered by stoning."

The Rev. Joseph Morecraft, pastor of a dominionist church in Georgia, has said that the purpose of civil government is to "terrorize evil doers. And how do you terrorize an evil doer?", he asks. "You enforce biblical law! Nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other God than [our] Jehovah. There ain't no such thing as religious pluralism."

A training manual of the theocratic right says: "We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them."

Religious freedom and pluralism will be in mortal danger if we dismiss all this as the rantings of a fanatical fringe group. Going back some forty years, these people have had a plan and strategy for deceptively moving step by step to insinuate themselves and their theology into the American body politic. Just witness the takeover of the Republican party in Texas by far right religious operatives.

The Bush administration is one of the main audiences of Reconstructionists such as D. James Kennedy of Florida's Coral Ridge Ministries who was one of the people George W. Bush consulted before running for president.

Moderate Republican Catherine Crier, in Contempt: How the Right is Wronging American Justice, wrote about men, whom she calls The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who have a conference call every Monday morning with White House staffers and other conservative leaders, including a Bush PR man who is also a far right fundamentalist and a close friend of Karl Rove.

The four are: Boyden Gray, a big businessman and an heir to the Reynolds Tobacco fortune; Leonard A. Leo, executive of the far right Federalist Society; Edwin Meese, Reagan's controversial Attorney General who was investigated twice for corruption and is now with the ultra conservative Heritage Foundation; and, finally, a colleague of arch theocrat and TV evangelist Pat Robertson named Jay Sekulow. Surely here is a genuine right wing conspiracy made up of big business, big politicians and big fundamentalist religion. And the avant-garde is made up of people like Gary North and Kennedy who once said, "As vice-regents of God we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over ... every aspect and institution of human society."

A national organization called "The World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime" has been exposing the many undemocratic aspects of the administration, including the conscious, albeit behind the scenes, moves toward a theocratic society. Many theocratic fundamentalists are proud to claim President Bush as one of their own, while for political reasons Bush articulates a much more general and pietistic form of faith. The World Can't Wait has been endorsed by hundreds of prominent people, including Nobel winner Harold Pinter, theologian Cornell West, and California Assemblyman Mark Leno. In a December op ed piece in the San Francisco Guardian, Leno wrote:

"Though the darkness has seldom appeared so absolute, the disenchantment of millions of Americans is beginning to find articulation. The World Can't Wait, a national movement to drive out the Bush regime, is exhibiting extraordinary leadership in harnessing and directing the myriad oppositional voices within our land. Having successfully executed numerous street demonstrations across the country Nov. 2 and with a full page New York Times ad [December 12], The World Can't Wait is in need of your immediate attention and support to continue its efforts."

On January 31, 2006, thousands around the country will gather at media centers with instruments of noise to symbolically drown out the President's State of the Union speech as he advances his dangerous program. In Houston we are invited to join them in front of KHOU at 1945 Allen Parkway at 8:00 p.m. The following Saturday, February 4, 2006, there will be a convergence on Washington DC with a single demand: BUSH STEP DOWN and take your whole program with you.

For more information, go to http://www.worldcantwait.net/

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