“This Republican party of Lincoln has become a party of Theocracy.” — Rep. Shays (R-CT)
“Theocracy means God is in control, and you are not.” — Rod Parsley
“I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good…Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want pluralism.”–Randall Terry
“We want…as soon as possible to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of pro-family Christians by 1996.” –Pat Robertson
“No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.” — George H. W. Bush
“I hope I live to see the day, when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!” — Rev. Jerry Falwell
“There should be absolutely no ‘Separation of Church and State’ in America.” — Dave Barton
“So let us be blunt about it: We must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will be get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.” — Gary North
“Yes, religion and politics do mix. America is a nation based on biblical principles. Christian values dominate our government. The test of those values is the bible. Politicians who do not use the Bible to guide their public and public lives do not belong in office.” — Beverly LaHaye
“Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after. World conquest.
That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less… Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land — of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ.” – George Grant
I could have gone on and on with the quotes, as the Dominionists in our society have not been shy about making it known exactly what they want. However, let’s reflect on what makes our country great. Some may say that it is a democracy, and this is what makes it great. I, however, think that is of secondary importance. What really makes America great is the Bill of Rights. Nowhere in history had the liberties and rights of man been encapsulated within a document meant to protect all. While the first draft of the Constitution was by no means perfect, the Founding Fathers created a mechanism in order to amend it and bring it closer to perfection. Hence, the outlawing of slavery, the granting of equal rights to women, due process, and other amendments. Indeed, it is the idea of Liberty that has made this nation great. The second most important characteristic of the Constitution is the limitations of the three branches of government, and the checks that they each applied to the other two. Thirdly, the idea of representative democracy.
However, our system of government is under attack by people who want to impose their vision, their values, and their (im)morality on the rest of us. Specifically, they want to impose their vision of Christian Fundamentalism in the Charismatic flavor on the nation. They would like to abolish teachings of science that contradicts their views of the world and universe, criminalize and execute gays and lesbians, marginalize people of other religious viewpoints to their own. That last is the most important, as they consider all forms of Christianity aside from their own to be perverted, blasphemous doctrines designed to confuse ‘the very elect’. This would mean the trivialization of Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, and so on. Only those who hold to the doctrines according to the Pentecostal Movement, the Word of Faith Movement, Dominion Christianity, Prosperity Doctrine, and other ‘fringe’ doctrines of the Charismatic movement would be deemed worthy in this new world order that they would like to establish in this country.
Don’t believe me? Look at the Terry Schiavo case. Do you think that Congress has more information, more intellect, more pathos when it comes to cases that are as complicated as this one case was? Do they have any right to bring the federal government intruding into a State’s Right matter? That was only the latest taste that actually made it onto the news waves. Look at the Faith-Based Initiatives that George W. Bush enacted. To date, all of the money that has flowed out of his office for these initiatives have only gone to those Christian associations that campaigned, promoted, and helped him in his bids for the presidency. No Muslim, Hindu, Wiccan, or Buddhist charity working with the poor, the elderly, the convicted, or the terminally ill have received any funds from this bureaucracy.
What did the Founding Fathers actually say in reference to the type of government they wanted to see in action?
“The appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies, [is] contrary to the article of the Constitution which declares that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment’” — James Madison, February 27, 1811
“The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine.” — George Washington
“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion …” — from the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams, June 10, 1797
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” – Thomas Jefferson, in his historic Danbury letter, January 1, 1802
“The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of church and state.” – James Madison, March 2, 1819.
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?” — James Madison, in “Memorial and Remonstrance”, 1785
“The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.” — George Washington
”History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose.”–Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Alexander von Humboldt, December 6, 1813
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.” -Benjamin Franklin
“All national institutions of churches, whether Christian, Jewish, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” — Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
