Stanley Kurtz has a fine spoof of the anti-Christian paranoiacs at Harper's whom he wrote about last week (see here):
What is the real agenda of the religious far Right? I'll tell you what it is. These nuts want to take over the federal government and suppress other religions through genocide and mass murder, rather than through proselytizing. They want to reestablish slavery. They want to reduce women to near-slavery by making them property, first of their fathers, and then of their husbands. They want to execute anyone found guilty of pre-martial, extramaritial, or homosexual sex. They want to bring back the death penalty for witchcraft.
But aren't extremists like this far from political power? On the contrary, the political and religious movement called "Dominionism" has gained control of the Republican party, and taken over Congress and the White House as well. Once they take over the judiciary, the conversion of America to a theocracy will be sealed. The Dominionists are very close to achieving their goal. Once they have the courts in their hands, a willing Dominionist Republican-controlled Congress can simply extend the death penalty to witchcraft, adultery, homosexuality, and heresy. The courts will uphold all this once conservatives are in control, since Scalia himself appears to be a Dominionist.
Shocking as it seems, Dominionists have gained extensive control of the Republican party, and the apparatus of government throughout the United States. Yet Dominionists continue to operate in secrecy. It is estimated that 35 million Americans who call themselves Christian adhere to Dominionism, although most of them are unaware of the true nature of their own beliefs and goals. Dominionism has met its timetable for the complete takeover of the American government.
It would be a mistake, by the way, to think of Dominionists as fundamentalist Protestants alone. Dominionism has stealthily swept over America, incorporating conservative Roman Catholics and Episcopalians within its ranks. And of course, Dominionists are allied with the neoconservative followers of the political philosopher, Leo Strauss. The quest of these neoconservatives for power and world domination is a self-conscious program of pure, unmitigated evil.
You don't believe me? Well, consider the fact that on December 24, 2001, Pat Robertson resigned his position as president of the Christian Coalition. Religious conservatives understood very well that Robertson had stepped aside to allow the new president of the United States to take his rightful place as the head of the true American Holy Christian Church. Robertson openly revealed at least a portion of his Dominionist plans on The 700 Club on May 13, 1986, when he clearly stated: "We can change the government, we can change the court systems, we can change the poverty problem, we can change education...We can make a difference."
What you've just read is a composite I've created (often word for word) by drawing on a couple of web-sites I'll link you to in a moment (See Kurtz's essay at NRO for the links). The disturbing thing is that this sort of conspiratorial nonsense is being taken seriously by real media and political players.
The notion that conservative Christians want to reinstitute slavery and rule by genocide is not just crazy, it's downright dangerous. The most disturbing part of the Harper's cover story (the one by Chris Hedges) was the attempt to link Christian conservatives with Hitler and fascism. Once we acknowledge the similarity between conservative Christians and fascists, Hedges appears to suggest, we can confront Christian evil by setting aside "the old polite rules of democracy." So wild conspiracy theories and visions of genocide are really excuses for the Left to disregard the rules of democracy and defeat conservative Christians - by any means necessary.
The left had largely managed to keep its hostility toward Christianity muted before the November election. Since then, however, things have changed dramatically. They view Bush's victory as a result of the Christian conservative vote, and they realize that a Republican dominated legislature, elected in large part by Christians, is likely to fill the courts with Christian judges. Jurists operating out of a Christian world-view and a broadly conservative ideology will stop, and perhaps even roll back, our heretofore unimpeded slide into the cultural sewer, our march toward a purely secular society, and our growing death fetish. Such restraints drive the left into a rage, and their frustration and detestation of Christian conservatives has reached the point where they're unable any longer to suppress their incandescent hatred.
Hatred ultimately consumes those who yield to it, of course, but our concern is over how much damage these people will do, how many people they will hurt, before they self-immolate.
You can read Kurtz's whole essay here. Interested readers might also check out an illuminating piece on the same topic at Captain's Quarters.
