Chalcedon Foundation

"The Scopes Trial, in 1925, of a high school biology teacher (John T. Scopes), who was accused of violating the Butler Act (a Tennessee law which forbade the teaching of the Theory of Evolution in public schools because it was not in agreement with the bible), received international publicity and came to be known as the Scopes Monkey Trials (an allusion, it seems, to the popular but mistaken notion of Evolution that human biological ancestors were monkeys).

"The League of South describes itself as committed to "Defend the historic Christianity of the South," and considers the division in the American polity as one of conflict between orthodox Christianity and anti-Christian forces. The League of the South interprets the conflict between Christian nationalist Right and "left-liberals" as the primary and ongoing thematic issue in American history. The Confederate battle flag is held as a symbol of Christianity and of Western Civilization in general.

"What would a Reconstructionist America look like?  Meet Bobby Franklin and his pastor and advocate Rev. Joseph Morecraft.  In my recent article The Rise of Charismatic Dominionism, I quoted a 1994 series of articles by Frederick Clarkson in The Public Eye which included a section subtitled "The Wrath of Morecraft."  Rev.

""Americans established a Constitutional Republic, a government of law, under God, rooted in Biblical law" - That's from the plank of the Independent American Party of Nevada (IAPN) which, according to Talking Points Memo's Justin Elliot, Sharron Angle was an active member of for much of the 1990's and even played a key role in helping re-launch in 1992.

"There is nothing new about Tea Party ideology as can be seen in an examination of fundamentalist textbooks used to teach students in some private schools and homeschooling. The Tea Party's "Christian Libertarianism" is a creative repackaging of narratives that have become increasingly popular over the last three decades.  These narratives blend radical free market ideology with theocratic ideology.  In other words, regulatory powers of the federal government would be eradicated and the void would be filled and society controlled through adherence to biblical law."

"In Texas tomorrow, there is a run-off election to determine the winner of the Republican primary for a seat on the state's Supreme Court, and one of the candidate is Rick Green, who works with WallBuilders, David Barton's historical revisionist outfit that would have the world (and Glenn Beck) believe the founders planned a theocracy rather than a democracy.

"In their struggle to understand George W. Bush, some liberal intellectuals have looked to the writings of Rousas John Rushdoony, the Armenian-American minister whose championing of a theocratic America influenced some of the nooks and crannies of the Christian Right during its rise to prominence. For example Mark Crispin Miller, in his frontal assault on George W.

"Reconstructionism had been of interest to few outside the evangelical community until the early 1990s, when its political significance began to emerge. At the same time that the Coalition on Revival provided a catalyst (and a cover) for the discussion, dissemination, and acceptance of Reconstructionist doctrine, these ideas have percolated up through a wide swath of American Protestantism. Nowhere, however, is Reconstructionism (sometimes known as dominionism) having a more dramatic impact than in Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

"Reconstructionism's decentralist ideas have led to the creation of a network of churches, across a number of denominations, all building for the Kingdom. One Reconstructionist pastor writes that the leadership of the movement is passing to hundreds of small local churches that are "starting to grow, both numerically and theologically. Their people are being trained in the Reconstruction army. And at least in Presbyterian circles. . .we're Baptizing and catechizing a whole generation of Gary Norths, R. J. Rushdoonys and David Chiltons."