The American Vision, Gary DeMar, Rushdoony, Gary North, Reconstructionism, Dominionism, Homeschool Movement, Quiverfull, Patriarchy, Doug Phillips, Daughters
With the demise of the mministry of Doug Phillips, and now the negative connotations of the word patriarchy, I’ve wondered what would be happening in Reconstructionist/Dominionist circles. It’s been a while since I’ve written about Reconstructionism/Dominionism and how many in the Religious Right have Reconstructionist roots. But this week I read an article and saw a video on the topic, and wanted to highlight a bit from each, showing that Reconstructionism is alive and well.
I’ve written a few posts on Rousas John Rushdoony. He was a Reconstructionist and is considered the father of the Homeschool Movement – the movement of ideologies such as quiverfull (having as many babies as you can, ie, no birth control), courtship, purity/modesty, etc. If you want to understand how Patriarchy and quiverfull ideologies became part of the Homeschool Movement, and furthering the agenda of Reconstructionism, you can look no further than Rushdoony. It’s a fascinating study and explains why so many homeschool leaders (Doug Phillips, Gregg Harris, Kevin Swanson, etc.) jumped on the bandwagon. Many homeschoolers went to homeschooling conventions thinking we’d learn about educating our families, but probably very few of us realized there was an agenda beneath: Reconstructionism. For women, it meant bearing babies to take dominion over the world for Christ.
Daughters: The Key to the Success of the Reconstructionist Movement
One of the issues I’ve discussed about this movement is that the success of it depends on daughters. Without daughters’ participation and agreeing with the principles of these ideologies, Reconstructionism will fail. Reconstructionism/Dominionism relies on keeping daughters at home under their father’s rule. It means that daughters won’t be allowed to go to college outside of the home, they probably won’t be having jobs outside the home. Being away from the home would mean that their minds could be contaminated by the world. For Reconstructionists, it is most important to marry them young, have their fathers select their husbands through courtship (another Homeschool Movement ideology), and start making babies. When Patriarchal fathers select their daughters’ future mates, it is crucial that they make sure their future sons-in-law hold to their spiritual Reconstructionist beliefs. Thus, this cycle of indoctrinating daughters and marrying them off to like-minded men has the highest probability of continuing through the generations.
This ideology was so slick, many of us came alongside and supported parts of or all of it without realizing it, including me, mother of 7. It’s funny, you hardly ever hear “Reconstructionism,” but if you study it, you will see that’s exactly what was going on in the Homeschool Movement.
It’s important to note when I say Homeschool Movement, I’m not talking about the teaching of academics at home, I’m referring to the ideologies that connected with Rushdoony’s vision to perpetuate Reconstructionism through the generations of families.
What does Reconstructionism Look Like?
Here is the basis of Rushdoony’s beliefs taken from the article I read recently, An American Taliban by Alan Bean:
“Rushdoony’s theology was unapologetically patriarchal. Just as Adam took dominion over the birds of the air and the beasts of the field before Eve was created as a help-meet, so the male of the species stood at the heart of God’s plan for reconstruction. Women could play a role in taking dominion, but only by working in partnership with a Christian husband.
First the “dominion man” must reconstruct himself in accord with God’s law (theonomy) revealed in the Bible. Next the family organized around its patriarchal head must be reconstructed. Finally, with the earth brimming with reconstructed families a tipping point will be reached, the Sovereign God will have achieved effective dominion and Christ will return to reign in glory.” Source
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I was glad to see this article and the author’s challenge to read the Bible through the lens of Jesus.
Interestingly, today, James McDonald recommended a video by Reconstructionist Gary DeMar on his Facebook page. James McDonald and his wife, Stacy, are long-time homeschool leaders, who have been involved with Patriarchy and support Reconstructionist ideologies.
Gary DeMar is connected with The American Vision. Take a look at The American Vision’s mission statement below.
Side note: whenever you see the word vision in a title of a Christian organization, make a mental note to get your Reconstructionist dander up — remember Doug Phillips’ Vision Forum? OK, this is taken from American Vision’s About page:
Mission
Restore America to its Biblical Foundation — From Genesis to Revelation — Psalm 11:3Motto
Exercising Servanthood Dominion — Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:18-20Vision
An America that recognizes the sovereignty of God over all of life, where Christians apply a Biblical worldview to every facet of society. This future America will be again a “city on a hill” drawing all nations to the Lord Jesus Christ and teaching them to subdue the earth for the advancement of His Kingdom.Strategy
Just as the Apostle Paul used the Roman highways to spread the Gospel, American Vision uses the Internet, Audio/Video Resources, Publications, and Training Seminars to equip Christians with a Biblical worldview and empower them to fulfill the Great Commission and the Cultural mandate.Major Goals of Outreach
Internet
An Internet leader for disseminating information and distributing educational resources that build a comprehensive Biblical worldview, motivating Christians to engage and reclaim our culture for Christ. Source
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Ok, let me point out some key Reconstructionist buzz words: dominion, sovereignty, Biblical worldview, subdue, vision, advancement of His Kingdom, battlefield, Cultural mandate, reclaim.
Biblical worldview is a big issue – it was a big topic at homeschool conventions and students were encouraged to go to seminars to learn about it.
A second issue is the idea that America’s foundational roots were Biblical and that God had a covenant relationship with America. This notion has been challenged very recently by Russell Moore. Some of the earliest homeschool curricula I used endorsed the idea that America was chosen by God, by his Providence. (Oh, please add Providence and Providential to the Reconstructionist buzz word list.)
In the video clip below, Gary Demar (take a gander at the books he’s written) goes on a familiar bandwagon against public schools. (These folks really don’t like saying public schools, they much prefer saying government schools.)
Here is a screenshot from the video clip and the fear-mongering summary below the video clip:
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Here is the wording from above:
“Now is the time to say: “Government schools are evangelical battlefields for my children”, “Not my kid” or “Not in our government schools”. The simple fact is that 90% of Christians are sending their kids to government schools where they are taught a worldview that is purposed in the destruction of the Christian worldview.”
Notice the buzz words!
And now on to the short video clip:
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At the beginning of this 1-minute 29-second video, be sure to note what it says under The American Vision logo: Exercising Servanthood Dominion. Try to explain what that means to someone!
Many of you know that I homeschooled our 7 children for 23 years. Two years ago, I stopped homeschooling and sent our youngest four children to public schools. Whenever I hear someone like this guy, I want to roll my eyes and say, “What in the world are you talking about?” This is the kind of hype that instilled fear into so many families and kept them/us homeschooling, even when we probably shouldn’t have because of exhaustion, inability, etc. I am sure there are some bad teachers in public schools. I am sure there is bad curricula out there, but the same can be said about some “Christian” homeschool material. I have to laugh at all of the hype because as I have met my children’s teachers, many of them are Christian. I’ve been volunteering in high schools for 7 years and do not see this hidden agenda that these guys rant about.
It’s important to note that this hype is necessary so that you will join their bandwagon to “take back America for Christ,” again, the implication that America belonged to Christ from its beginnings. This hype is what so many of us homeschoolers dealt with when we thought we went to homeschool conventions. Instead of learning about how to teach our children and learning practical helps, we were indoctrinated by this stuff.
It is apparent that Reconstructionism is still alive and kicking. I will continue to speak out about my biggest pet peeve of this movement: the goal of conquering the minds of women and daughters so their bodies and wombs will be used to continue this indoctrination by bearing lots and lots of children.
Can I just say how relieved I am that my eldest is a college graduate and my youngest daughter is now a senior? Let’s go, ladies, while motherhood is absolutely wonderful, you are so much more than your wombs!
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For more info on Reconstructionism, check out this 241-page PDF by Gary North (the Y2K-hype alarmist) and Gary DeMar, CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION What It Is, What It Isn’t.
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Good post, Julie Anne. As part of my dissecting that train wreck I called my ex-NeoCalvinist/9Marxist//John MacArthur-ite church (senior pastor was a grad of JMac’s Master’s Seminary and extremely abusive, dishonest, and manipulative), I hadn’t known about Rushdoony, Gothard, and others until here and over at The Wartburg Watch.
I am so glad that older Christians explained to me the mess that I had gotten into.
Sadly, many bright people working in tech in Silicon Valley, California, are going to my former church, being indoctrinated with these bizarre beliefs, including graduate students and under-graduate students from the elite Stanford University. The church intentionally had a Bible study there, I’m sure to attract potentially high-income earners and their friends. The poorer state university, San Jose State, was passed by for a Bible Study.
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I struggle enough with the whole “servant leadership” shtick, but “servanthood dominion” is just totally whacked!!! (IMO)
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Thank you for the continuing enlightenment I get from this site! I know the fear-mongering first hand regarding sending our children to “government” schools. I homeschooled my daughters for 15 years. We started because the school district we were living in had very poor reading scores, and we no longer could afford the private school my oldest was attending. We attended the yearly homeschool convention and absorbed the rhetoric like sponges. We were ripe for indoctrination since we were already in a very abusive church environment. In 2002, we got the strength to leave our abusive church mostly due to the grace of God using our friends in our homeschool community support group that were not part of the patriarchal mindset. We continued to homeschool until 2009 when the bottom dropped out in our local economy. My husband lost his job, and I needed to help out and return to the working world outside the home for the first time since 1987! I sat with another homeschool friend who also had to return to work, and we wept together! What on earth would happen to our children? We were sincerely frightened. I was able to get a job for a large Christian online distributor working for their homeschooling division. My daughers varied from surviving public school to thriving in it. They had some fantastic teachers, and some awful. We currently have one left in high school, Two in college, and two graduated from college. We enjoyed the years we homeschooled, however, they had a blast having opportunities in the public school settings (prom, drama etc.) that weren’t part of our homeschooling. My lambs, that I was so worried about, turned out to be fierce!
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I’m glad that Julie Anne continues to sound off on Reconstructionism. I didn’t learn about this movement until we’d left our abusive “church.” After reading about this on SSB and a few other blogs, I checked our church’s tome on home education — formerly Who Owns the Children? now Education Exodus — to find it quoted material from Rushdoony and Gary North. This “church” is also quiverfull and held the “worldview” that government schools are evil. I had no idea what was behind all of this. A commenter on another thread, Taunya, also enlightened us on the kinist views in much of this movement.
I’m still homeschooling my kids at present. However, I, personally, don’t think I could do an adequate job without online curriculum. Though, please vet your online sources very carefully. Ron Paul offers an online curriculum that is actually founded and overseen by Gary North. Apparently he’s a real jerk to the students. You can read one student’s account here: https://lilthelovebug.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/the-truth-about-gary-north-the-ron-paul-curriculum/
I want so much more for my daughters and my sons. Mainly, I want them to have the ability to take care of themselves when they’re grown.
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Thank you for sharing your experience, Cathy. I’m glad that your girls have done well in school (and that you’ve done well). Homeschooling can be wonderful, but it is not the only option and parents should not have to feel guilty about making different decisions for their children’s schooling. Those who have followed this blog long enough know very well the harm that can be done to homeschooled kids — harm that is probably worse than kids at public school can face because if the abuse is occurring at home, there is no safe refuge.
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Yes, livingliminal, I can’t even wrap my head around “servanthood dominion.” And that they broadcast it as if it’s normal? hmmmm That’s some weird stuff.
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This is an excellent analysis.
I expect that if you keep tracing these ideas back further, you finally get to “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”
I’ve been perplexed by the idea that the church is supposed to take over the world and once it becomes Christianized, then Jesus comes back. Like it’s up to us to make it safe for poor Jesus to return? I don’t see any hint of this in the scriptures. (If this is how it works, wouldn’t he have come back when the whole world was united under the Catholic church?) But I hear this view from people of very different theological bents. It’s behind many popular movements, including, I believe, national prayer groups.
Also perplexing is the idea of “taking America back,” as if it used to belong to “us” (who? a church? Christianity in general?) All a person has to do is read and be aware of history to refute this idea. If you subscribe to this ideology, you have to start interpreting sinful things done in the past as righteous- such as crimes against the indigenous peoples and buying and selling human beings.
It’s actually quite encouraging to hear that at least 90% of Christians are not listening to this pied piper.
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I came into home schooling through the secular teachings of John Holt and also read a lot of the philosophy of Maria Montessori. Our local school was terrible and I couldn’t afford private school so this was my alternative. I didn’t know anyone else who was homeschooling for a year or two, then suddenly it was a big Christian thing and there was a Christian homeschool group I could join. I was so happy to have the company of others and the options it offered for my kids. We never really fit in there, though. Most of the people seemed to come from one or two churches and only a few people were really open to outsiders.
We went to hear Greg Harris speak when he was first a thing and there were some intriguing ideas but something was unsettling, I couldn’t put my finger on it. It seemed like he and everyone there already shared a bunch of unspoken beliefs we were not privy to. We tried to speak to him during intermission and red flags were all over the place from his attitude. So we did not become involved and dodged that land mine.
But, I did absorb some of the worldview when I started to use “Christian” curriculum instead of what the local school offered me and it took some painful awakenings and time to see where these subtle fallacies had crept into my thinking and sort them out. Eventually I got to where I was finding excellent materials through the library, using the list of subjects the kids were expected to study/master at each grade level.
Some years my kids went to public school, when they wanted to. They all did well and went on to community college. My daughter went on to get her engineering degree, at a time it was unusual for a girl, and I’m so proud of her.
I think we were just a bit before the time these teachings hit full swing. I’m glad because if it had been more prevalent and packaged more slickly, as it is now, I think it could have been much worse for us.
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Thank you for the interesting article. When I lived in Charlotte, NC, I knew quite a few homeschoolers. Some I had great respect for, while others were looney! In the late ’90’s one of the moms told me about a government plot to dumb down our kids in school. Her goal was to convince parents to pull their kids out of school. It was also pre-Y2K in which some of the same homeschool moms believed the world would be tossed into total chaos!
I believe those who demonize public school do so out of fear and control. Unfortunately, they tend to stick with like-minded people who reenforce these paranoid ideas with each other. They are like a “Christian Taliban”.
A big congratulations on your daughter’s graduation!!! Ann
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Off topic, but the WW blog has a piece on the Southern Baptist Convention. I believe they did not officially embrace complimentarianism until 1998!
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I’ve heard the line about government brainwashing centers, and the fears that public schools will enable kids to get into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. We did have the whole take-back-America line, though the belief was Jesus would return after seven years of control by the Antichrist.
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” Many homeschoolers went to homeschooling conventions thinking we’d learn about educating our families, but probably very few of us realized there was an agenda beneath: Reconstructionism.”
This is what turned me off from the Christian homeschool convention. I was serious about my kid’s education and wanted to teach them as best as I could. I found more information about how to teach from online or books than the convention. The last time I went to one was when I worked a vendor’s booth (for a store that was not invited back a second year because it wasn’t “Christian enough.” At leas that’s what I think.) and I had the chance to look at the agenda for the conference. Over 2/3 of the conference seminars were on relationship type of issues and not on teaching. I found that to be very sad.
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After 10 years of homeschooling, I did what I never wanted to do when I first started: I put one kid in public school in 7th grade – the middle of middle school! I at least wanted to get through middle school. But, the fact was that both of my kids were ready for public school by the time they went. Looking back, I was ready too. In fact, I think that I was ready by year 6 or 7, but I hung on trying to make it work.
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Shy1, I, too, read John Holt before beginning our homeschooling. I also heard Gregg Harris speak in the early ’90s. Gregg is from my same hometown in Oregon. It’s interesting, when I went back to Oregon, my homeschooling friends didn’t know who he was. He was quite popular on the East coast. I also agree with you about the “unspoken beliefs we were not privy to.”
Now we know the foundation of those homeschool conferences was Gregg Harris. He and his Reconstructionist friends collaborated, hand-selected the speakers, curricula vendors who promoted their materials, agenda. And I just thought it was a generic “Christian” homeschool convention. Ugh!
What year did you start homeschooling? Good for your engineer daughter! Wonderful!
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Ann,
The very first day I put 4 kids in public school (I watched my youngest child get into the evil yellow school bus filled with demon children – lol), I came back inside my house, and a friend posted on Facebook how parents of public school kids were turning over all of our rights to the government once our children stepped one foot in the door. Thankfully, I had done my research by then, so I was able to roll my eyes.
But the article that she posted got me researching the material she posted, and guess what – – the people behind it were the same that have been promoting Reconstructionist fear-mongering agenda for nearly 3 decades. Go figure.
(And yes, I am still friends on FB with people who still believe this.)
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“…as I have met my children’s teachers, many of them are Christian.” I have a similar story to several of you, regarding homeschooling, although for health reasons, mine was a much shorter stint. I have found your statement to also be true in our school. Where are those evil, atheist teachers we were warned about? They must be in highschool ’cause we’re not there yet…
Congrats to your girls! You go ladies!
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Gary DeMar just isn’t the same as Doug Phillips or Greg Harris. There is more substance to him than reflected in this article. He has books on the defense of the faith which many would likely appreciate. People do not all fit into nice little boxes. He has written 25 books. One is on study tools. He has several on end times hysteria among Christians. Many here would appreciate his research in this area as it exposes how some Christian leaders have made a lot of money with end times predictions.
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Loura, I’ve been volunteering in high schools for the last 7 yrs. I still haven’t seen it there!
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All of these guys had something that we liked or we never would have followed them. That’s the difficulty – – there’s the lure and trap.
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Kay, you are right about Gary DeMar. I am surprised he is being lumped in with the others. Which of his books warrants that?
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Irene, he’s a Reconstructionist. It’s the way he demonizes public schools and is part of the fear-mongering. Did you watch the video?
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We may pursue Jesus. We may pursue political agendas. We cannot do both at the same time. To choose a political cause is to reject Jesus.
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We homeschooled as well beginning in the 90’s and this type of teaching and hype is exactly what you’d find at the local and state Christian homeschool curriculum expo’s. There was always a mentality of “us” versus “them”, fear and pride. Most of us all had good intentions though, we just wanted to do the best for our kids.
The big push when my kids were in high school was instilling in them a “Biblical Worldview”, however it was a specific version of a “Biblical Worldview” that was necessary to keep our kids from going to the dark side (and save America). I had heard the rhetoric for so many years, it just sounded normal to me to associate America with God. It’s been a challenge to detox but there are lots of resources to help, especially the internet. For instance to counter the “take back America for God” Greg Boyd wrote Myth of a Christian Nation. Now looking back, I have to say that in many friends’ families this whole agenda has done more harm than I could have imagined. These kids are so turned off to what they think is the Gospel, but what they’ve really heard is just this type of rhetoric. What they need to hear is the Gospel and it’s not Calvinism or what was being emphasized in this movement.
Also, the White Paper by Raymond Moore (a homeschool pioneer) is eye opening regarding his interaction with Gregg Harris and Michael Farris in the early 90’s.
http://a2zhomeschooling.com/thoughts_opinions_home_school/ravage_home_education_p1/
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What Gary DeMar is doing is to see how God’s word applies to all areas of life. He’s spent a lot of time studying, reading, and helping people. He’s written history curriculum. I am a former public school teacher. I prayed that my classroom would be a haven for my students. I taught special education in a middle school and had many students who were struggling not only with their school work, but with home life. I’ve always maintained that there are many good public school teachers. They are often dealt a difficult hand because of the way public schools currently work. We can see more evidence by the directive just handed out at the federal level that is supposed to apply to local schools. Most teachers just want to teach their students. They want to help them succeed. I keep up with friends with children in our local and surrounding school districts. I also have friends who teach in the public schools. There are consistent complaints which lead me to believe that since I’ve left the public schools, the situation for teachers has not improved. I am aware that parents choose a variety of educational settings for their children. Every family has their own situation. They have to make their own choices for their children’s education. What Gary has said is something to consider.
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Gary DeMar is a long-time, well-known Reconstructionist. That agenda is what he is ultimately pushing by whatever vehicle he can. He can lure people in by his good and sound books. However, the fear mongering is wrong. Reconstructionism lays the ground work for Patriarchy, the devaluing of women and girls, which often leads to abuse, failed marriages, poverty, etc.
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“Give me your children and I will make them mine. You will pass away, but they will remain Mine.”
— A.Hitler, cult leader
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This phrase alone is just mindboggling. What?
I went to Christian schools in elementary and to public school after. Public school was a breath of fresh air, honestly, although I think my elementary education was just fine. (Funny enough, my high school biology teacher completely skipped the chapter on evolution! I didn’t see much indoctrination although this was a mumblemumble number of years ago).
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From the video first sentence:
“We’re fools if we think we’re going to change our society if 90 percent of our children are being educated by the very system that’s the problem.”
I don’t agree from the start with what he has to say. From what I can tell, reconstructionists want to affect change in society by being in power over others and they use OT law to make the case. We’re never to have “dominion” over other people. I just don’t agree that that method is how we as Christians are to affect change and influence the world according to Jesus’ teaching.
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Do you have any evidence that Gary DeMar demeans women? Have you read any of his books? I know it is not possible to read everything. Everyone has a limited amount of time. My husband suspected Doug Phillips from the beginning. He figured him for being in it for the money and fame and in retrospect, power. Not everyone fits into that category.
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“This future America will be again a “city on a hill” drawing all nations to the Lord Jesus Christ and teaching them to subdue the earth for the advancement of His Kingdom.”
These folks always lose me as soon as they trot out a position like that. The U.S. has never been in a covenant relationship with God. No nation has entered a covenant with God in three millennia.
The Dominionists are deluded. The Bible warns about deluded teachers. It’s not pretty.
P.S. I wrote this one a while back: How To Make Sure Your Children Do Not Become Satanists In Public School. It’s not going to please the Homeschool Movement people.
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Kay, I’m puzzled by your defense of a Reconstructionist. This blog will never defend a Reconstructionist. The Reconsructionist system is one of abuse.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/12/nation-under-god
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I don’t agree with everyone in the reconstructionist camp. I’m just troubled by the dismissing of people at times on this blog. Believe me, I do appreciate your exposing of abussive ministries and individuals. I just think we need to be careful of writing people off and not getting the entire story. One can say that Francis Schaffer contributed to the reconstructionist movement, but he likely would not have considered himself one.
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I’m not talking about agreeing with everyone in the Reconstructionist camp. I’m talking about anyone IN the Reconstructionist camp. He is one who defends Reconstructionism. We need to be careful about dismissing someone simply because they do some good work, when their foundational belief system supports harm in the church. That’s how so many of us got trapped in abusive situations.
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This was always my impression of the way homeschool was ‘sold’ in high school in particular. That those kids would be smarter and more knowledgeable than all those dumb public school kids. Turned me off, personally. I can’t recall if I knew anyone homeschooled in high school, though, so I can’t tell you how they turned out.
Gary I agree with this. Not so much your last sentence:
I think we can have many opinions and interests. I just don’t think we should conflate God and politics as if they are the same.
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Something to keep in mind:
RECONSTRUCTIONISM = THE HANDMAID’S TALE FOR REAL.
Take over and return America to the Perfect Christian Nation just like the Ayatollahs returned Iran (and the Taliban returned Afghanistan) to a Perfect Islamic State.
(Oh, and Game of Thrones among the Reverends in Power as to how to bring this about — After the Infidels, start on the Heretics. After the Heretics are no more, start on the Apostates and Lukewarms. What do predators eat when there are no more prey?)
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@Shy1:
Whose history? David Barton’s Official Christian Nation History which Huckabee once said should be taught to every American “at gunpoint, if necessary”?
And “taking America back as if it used to belong to us” is a classic Grievance Culture, i.e. a culture whose only reason for existence is Revenge upon The Other.
A Grievance Culture has three basic axioms:
1) “Once WE were Lords of All Creation and Everything Was Perfect!”
2) “Then THEY came and took it all away from us!”
3) “IT’S PAYBACK TIME! WITH INTEREST!”
Already underway. Remember Douggie Wilson, the Jerk with the Kirk in Moscow, Idaho? And his book Southern Slavery as It Really Was?
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@JulieAnne:
“Sevanthood Dominion”?
Sounds like the same structure as:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
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“WE CONQUER THE LANDS OF THE INFIDEL! OUR WOMBS SHALL BE OUR WEAPONS! AL’LAH’U AKBAR!”
— attr to a radical Jihadi Euro-Mullah
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DeMar views women’s wombs as political weapons of war.
http://politicaloutcast.com/lower-birth-rate-could-be-good-news-for-conservatives/
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That’s a very good example, BTDT. When women are reduced to be objects or wombs, that is devaluing the full potential of womanhood that God created. Contrast that with the value that Reconstructionists give men with Patriarchy. That’s not lining up with Scripture for me.
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HUG, you nailed it with that analogy! Very 1984!
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My parents started homeschooling from purely academic concerns. My mother was a former schoolteacher, and she did an excellent job teaching the elementary grades. It was only later, as we entered the high school level, that my family became enmeshed in the homeschooling-as-restoration-of-a-Christian-nation philosophy. As a result of the academic failures of the homeschooling program we enrolled in, I had to go back later and take real high school courses. In those courses, there was precious little reference to evolution in the science, and the history was pretty much confined to established facts, though it did mention Christian historian Reinhold Niebuhr’s interpretation of history dealing with the problem of evil. It was all very unobjectionable, and I couldn’t help feeling like my parent and I had been hoodwinked by the so-called Christian who sold us an expensive and useless program.
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“We need to take America back”……….the conservative battlecry……back to outhouses and no running water…………………………..
Did that as a child and don’t care to go back……was seriously afraid of those big black arachnids peacefully awaiting their next meal in the dark corners of that old wooden throne room.
I believe history has been so romanticized that if we truly went “back” to that with which our modern day society has emerged from, we probably wouldn’t be able to handle all of the “WORK” involved as a means of survival. And it would be pretty difficult to plant our cornfield with a work horse…..oh, no thank-you. NO Thank-You.
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That’s too bad. I think it would be very hard for one parent to have all the knowledge to keep up with high school education in a variety of subjects. The internet, and all of the wealth of information available today must help, though.
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The strangest thing I saw at a homeschool convention (I went with a friend) was a tape on “Christian Karate” What? Maybe it was a form of protection against the evil public school kids!😳😳😳
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Excellent article, Julie Anne!
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Also, isn’t “militant fecundity” their buzzword for having lots of babies in order to subversively take over? Did that phrase start with this group or grow out of this movement too? Kind of creepy sounding.
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Ohhhh, Monique – – I do remember that weird phrase. You are probably right and I didn’t understand what it meant then. Creepy is right!!!
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I think it has been, and remains a colossal mistake to try and manipulate people into Christian behavior through laws. I’ll give an example of how this failed. In the 1960’s, the Montgomery Bus Boycott led to equality on the buses. Now, consider the bus company was a private company, and the municipal government was trying to prevent the bus company from removing the segregation. However, no laws were required to be changed for this to happen.
However, the “public accommodation” laws were put in place to end segregation. These were pushed by well-meaning Christians, who wanted to use the power of the state to remove this societal evil. However, the same well-meaning Christians could have done what led to successful integration in Montgomery by boycotting restaurants that discriminated against blacks.
The public accommodation laws set a dangerous precedent, which is a “right to service”. That is, any person who enters a restaurant has the same right to service as any other. Or, put conversely, I have a legal requirement, despite my deeply held religious convictions, to serve anyone who walks into my store.
This “right” was established by well-meaning Christians, but I believe the rights theory will be used to force Christians to compromise or suffer undue financial burdens. For example, states have proposed laws requiring Christian pharmacists to dispense any prescribed drug regardless of their beliefs. The argument is, well, you can choose not to be a pharmacist.
I’m a computer programmer. You might think I’m immune, but what if I start a business for software development. An ACLU shill agrees to pay me time and materials for me to build a porn site. Since porn isn’t illegal, and the shill has a “right” to my services at a reasonable rate, how can I legally say no? I don’t agree with people not baking cakes for gay weddings, but I can’t say that my religious views trump theirs.
This is why I think Christian Reconstructionism is an utter failure. They think that they can bring about “restoration” through laws and guns. We know that won’t happen. Restoration can only happen through love and grace, which is exactly what the Reconstructionists seem to despise the most. They essentially want to impose Christian Sharia as the law of the land and start cutting off hands and necks of those who oppose it.
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I must have a different understanding of Christian Restrictionism than many of you. Sure they encourage people to vote. But mostly they (American Vision, Greg Bahnsen when he was alive, and a few others) encouraged people to truly live their lives out as Christians: at work, at home, in the education of their children, how they relate to their neighbors. At least those I read didn’t believe in top down political policies to change people. They saw the gospel going forth as Christians lived as they ought to according to the Bible and their co-workers and neighbors seeing the gospel lived out.
I do think there are people who took this and warped it into their own view. I’m horrified at the people who were building their own kingdoms. Sure some promoted large families (Mary Pride) but I think much of that was a reaction to believers having an unbiblical view of marriage and children. When I think of Mary Pride I think of large families and excellence in education. Her children went on to college and she certainly promoted it.
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Exercising Servanthood Dominion
Some keys to what this means can be found in the MotherJones link provided earlier:
“Reconstructionists aren’t shy about what exactly it is they are pursuing: “The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise,” Gary North, a top Reconstruction theorist, wrote in his 1989 book, Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism. “Those who refuse to submit publicly…must be denied citizenship.”
If that isn’t scary (and waaay off base, I don’t know what is)
and…
“Adam and Eve broke their covenant with God, and Satan seized dominion. Christian Reconstruction claims it has a reconstituted covenant with God and the right to a new dominion in his name.
In this worldview, the mandate for Christians is not just to live right or to help their neighbors: They are called upon to take over or eliminate the institutions of secular government.”
What was also enlightening for me was their agenda. My dad (maybe a reconstructionist and not even aware of it) is very much into over-turning roe v wade and signing the petition re: the transgender bathroom policy. As I read through this post and the MotherJones article, it dawned on me…why are they working SO hard to establish Christ’s kingdom? To what end? Unless…
“Reconstruction’s alternative was “postmillennialism”: Christ would not return until the church had claimed dominion over government, and most of the world’s population had accepted the Reconstruction brand of Christianity. The postmillennial twist offered hope to the pious that they could change things—as long as they got organized. (Reconstructionists angrily denounce end-times visions like those of Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series: If these are the Last Days, American Vision’s website points out, “then why bother trying to fix a broken world that is about to be thrown on the ash heap of history? Why concern ourselves with education, healthcare, the economy, or peace in the Mideast? Why polish brass on a sinking ship?”)”
Bingo. They are postmillennial in doctrine and are working to usher in the millennium. I do not wish to get into a an eschatological debate here. This is simply not how I interpret Revelation. So, our approach to these matters is diametrically opposed. Now it makes sense. I get it.
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The answer to your first question is yes. Thatmom wrote a good basic article on this topic. It seems that Scott Brown may have coined the term.
http://thatmom.com/2011/11/16/militant-fecundity-vs-children-as-a-blessing-part-one/
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Children born to build their parents’ spiritual arsenal just creeps me out – especially knowing the direction these Reconstructionists are going.
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Thx BTDT. So Scott Brown thought it up. Catchy phrase, huh?
I think I did listen years ago to that podcast by Karen (thatmom). Very helpful and eye opening.
It’s hard to believe this movement has any credibility.
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Oddly enough, most of those whom I encountered within the homeschooling circles were not postmillenialists. Most of them would have said that they believed the world would get worse and worse before Christ’s return and held to some kind of tribulation and rapture view. I came to the conclusion that most of this make-the-West-Christian-again movement isn’t to gain any real spiritual goal, but done out of fear of losing religious freedoms. They do not want to be made uncomfortable, and they think that unless they hold the reins of power, there is a risk that they will be made uncomfortable. I appreciated the link in the article to Russell Moore, as his book Onward is a breath of fresh air in the stifling and palpable atmosphere of fear and angst in most conservative Christian circles in North America.
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“The public accommodation laws set a dangerous precedent, which is a “right to service”. That is, any person who enters a restaurant has the same right to service as any other. Or, put conversely, I have a legal requirement, despite my deeply held religious convictions, to serve anyone who walks into my store.” – Mark
The U.S. Supreme Court made a unanimous decision in 1964 that it was constitutional for Congress to use the Commerce Clause to regulate, and enforce, public accommodation in the Heart of Atlanta Motel case (several hundred rooms in which blacks were discriminated against from renting rooms).
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1964/515
The ‘precedent’ is not ‘dangerous’, it is the law of the land as are other cases and laws passed by legislatures.
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You hit on the most severe weakness in academic homeschooling, mainly the reliance/expectancy of one person to teach all grades and all subjects with expertise, which no one is capable of. Add to that the weight of keeping a house going, feeding the family, tailoring subject matter to multiple grades…
Christian homeschooling takes the idea of the one-room schoolhouse overboard!
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I wrote an overly-long blog post about 2 years ago, on the idea that Christians should be, well, rather militant like in Recontructionism/Dominionism. Ever heard of Matt Walsh? I think he’s calmed down just a hair since then, but he inspired my “come back” article: https://llawrenceauthor.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/militant-christianity-and-matt-walshs-misinterpretation-of-the-gospel-of-peace/
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Hmm, something weird happened when trying to comment. My first one was directed @roscuro, the second to @Mark. Sorry about that.
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Excellent article Loura Shares a Story. Thank-you for penning the truth, you get it. The Scriptures you reference in defense of spearing the dominionist movement right out of the water are deeply convicting to the soul/spirit of our being, well, mine anyway, and I truly appreciate you posting this at just the right time.
In my former abusive church, “We are the army of the lord” was the literal battlecry our youth learned at their ‘conferences,’ which was quickly filtered up through the religious process of osmosis, to the leadership within that system. I remember one woman, a manipulative deaconess, always saying, “you must take it to the board for approval” over every simple little thing that we tried to do within that church. And guess who was also a ‘board member?” She was, and highly regarded by the pastor man as well.
I dared not ‘breathe’ unless I ‘took it to the board.” What a way to live in a church!
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@Velour, it’s interesting that the owner of the hotel didn’t argue first amendment rights. Based on the short writeup, it seems that it was argued under the idea that legally forcing someone to do something is a violation of the fifth amendment (unreasonable seizures) or the thirteenth (slavery).
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@Loura, I think we mainly agree. I believe that Christians have used the political realm to try and create a Christian society through laws and regulations designed to manipulate people into a Christian lifestyle. The problem is that those things are now being used against Christians to manipulate people into a Secular Humanistic (sorry, I know this is a buzzword) lifestyle.
In this, I think we are our own worst enemy. The antidote to tolerance is not intolerance, but love, grace and respect. But, somehow the Pharisee leaders among us have convinced us otherwise. Christians aren’t representing Jesus by wearing “God hates gays” t-shirts. If Jesus were alive today, I’m sure the Reconstructionists would hate and oppose him for hanging out with gays, lesbians and transgendered people. I don’t know how we came full circle back to being Pharisees, but the evangelical church seems to be there, and proud of it.
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Not just wombs, but the spawning pits below Isengard, breeding Uruk-Hai for the Culture War.
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@Katy:
Continuing the LOTR theme:
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@JulieAnne:
See the above two LOTR clips…
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@BTDT:
Want to know the real kicker about “Militant Fecundity” (i.e. “Outbreed the Heathen”)?
It’s as DARWINIST as you can get. Charles Darwin’s phrase “Survival of the Fittest” did NOT mean the More Evolved exterminating the Less Evolved (sorry, Adolf…) but referred to relative Reproductive Success over time.
Those who are able to reproduce more (i.e. “more fecund”) pass their characteristics to subsequent generations in greater numbers than those who are less reproductive. Carried over generation after generation, the more reproductively successful characteristics eventually crowd out the less successful. (Or absorb them if the drift is not enough for actual speciation.)
“Think of it as Evolution in Action.”
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“Also perplexing is the idea of “taking America back,” as if it used to belong to “us””
The American Indian is going to be very happy to hear about this, I’m sure, but where are the rest of the people going?????
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They believe America used to belong to God, that until the 60s America belonged to God, and the hippies (many of whom became Pentecostals, ironically) were to blame for America’s moral “downfall”. In order to make America “great again”, we need to return it the Christian nation it was allegedly originally founded as.
All of this is a great and gross misrepresentation of history, but they fixed that by quite literally writing their own version of history (David Barton).
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Why is the unicorn headless?
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Aw, thank you Katy, for your kind words! I remember a popular song now, by Casting Crowns, “What If His People Prayed”. The first line goes, “What if the army of the Lord, picked up and dusted off it’s sword; vowed to set the captives free…”
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/What-If-His-People-Prayed-lyrics-Casting-Crowns/0A859E8C6630CB3248256E9C000DB7C7
I also found a children’s VBS song called “Army of the Lord”, and this interesting article about the concept within the Mormon Church: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1979/04/the-army-of-the-lord?lang=eng
I argued earlier with a dude on SSB’s FB page, who was rather militaristic concerning LGBTQ folks. What he and those like him seem to not understand, is that the Church is not responsible for setting people free, Jesus is. The Church is supposed to minister to people, not free them from sin, not defeat sin and death; all those are things Jesus did/does.
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“What he and those like him seem to not understand, is that the Church is not responsible for setting people free, Jesus is.” – Loura
I came to the same opinion, probably from a different direction. I got tired of spiritual abuse in the form of the pastor/elder is always right. I realized that this not only put the pastor/elder squarely between us and God in the very same work that the Holy Spirit should be doing – convicting of sin and bringing about repentance, but this created a church that was hamstrung. Instead of being taught how use “spiritual warfare” – that is praying that God/Jesus/Holy Spirit would bring about change in the person’s life, and that God would help you to minister to that person – we are taught to use our supposed spiritual intermediaries. We go and talk with the pastors and elders about the situation and expect them to do the work of God, which generally ends up backfiring.
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@HUG, this is another piece of evidence for what I’m saying. When we talk about “Christian Reconstruction”, I think the core idea is using the world’s tools to accomplish the work of the kingdom. So, we try to deliberately flood institutions with like-minded Christians to change them. We try to flood society with Christians. We isolate our children to maintain spiritual purity. We try to pass laws to force kingdom behavior. I don’t see how God would bless this. He blesses the use of the tools he has given us.
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This blog is about helping people who have been abused. I think that Gary DeMar possibly put this new video out in reference to the situation where girls in public schools, some of whom may have been abused in the past, will now possibly be stuck with boys in their restrooms, locker rooms and hotel rooms on school trips. I’m thinking this is something the blog should be concerned about. This did not come out of nowhere. When I was getting my degree in education back in 1984 gender issues were taught. More recently my daughter was surprised at the gender language issues she had to deal with at the community college in her Composition 1 class. The students didn’t care about whether language was sexist and yet the professor made them discuss it day after day rather than teach them to write! Another daughter is constantly bombarded with liberal ideas in her upper level nursing courses at the university.
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@Loura:
Long story.
My real name is “Ken” and I was on a blog years ago with a lot of other Kens so I had to use a different handle to distinguish me from the others.
Around 15 years ago, I did an art piece for a furry con conbook titled “The Age of Reason has No Need of Unicorns”, about a Unicorn mare (classic Western symbol of purity and later archetype of Wondrous Creature) getting the chop during the French Revolution. Image took over my head and didn’t let go until three pictures and a 4000-word fantasy story later. Anything that could take over my head like that had to have power behind it, so I went with it.
Here’s the pic and the story, on a blog of one of my two writing partners:
http://alanloewen.blogspot.com/2016/04/conversation-with-dying-unicorn.html
The beginning (up to the point the imaginary critter breaks the Reality Barrier) is non-fiction; it’s accurate as to how I came up with the original art piece.
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@Loura:
By Force, if necessary.
Loura, THAT is the very definition of a Grievance Culture, a culture whose only reason for existence is Revenge on The Other. Other examples include the KKK, Naziism, Afrocentrism, and the most extreme forms of Islam in the news these days. A Grievance Culture’s ideology is composed of three axioms:
1) Once WE were Lords of Creation, and Everything Was Perfect!
2) Then THEY came and took it all away from Us!
3) IT’S PAYBACK TIME!
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I disagree, Kay. The video clip is him espousing the same ideology Reconstructionists want all Christians to adopt and have been saying for years: “government” schools are evil and no Christians should be turning their children over to evil.
We are going to have to agree to disagree on this. While I agree with you that there certainly are abuses in public schools, there are also abuses in home schools and private schools as well.
His fear mongering puts Christian parents in a complacency trusting that their kids are safer in those environments. I find abuse within faith-based groups to be far more insidious to recover from. The best way to protect all children (regardless of schooling) is to give them tools and awareness.
I’m going to community college and my experience is that people are getting much more intolerant towards sexist conversations. It’s not allowed on campus. I recently had the opportunity to look up school policy due to a situation I was dealing with. There is a no tolerance policy and likely is at your daughters’ school. If they are receiving Title IX funding, the school could be in jeopardy of losing the funding if sexism is reported. They take it very seriously. On the other hand, there are Christian colleges who have chosen to not receive Title IX funding, and young ladies who are sexually abused and report do not have a system in place to get the help they need. The school becomes the judge/moral police, and we’ve seen rapes swept under the carpet.
As far as your daughter dealing with liberal ideas in upper level nursing courses – I’m not sure what that means. But as a nurse, she is going to be in the world and coming very close up and personal with people who are not living godly lifestyles. I hope she’s able to be like Jesus as she cares for people. He didn’t seem to mind liberals.
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@Kay, my wife and I talked about the restroom issue. It seems that abused women are the pawns of conservative Christianity. When they’re abused by their fathers, pastors, boyfriends or husbands, the church doesn’t seem to care about them in any real sense. But how dare we subject them to restrooms with, dare I say, MEN!
Bathrooms should be private and safe regardless of gender. AFA didn’t seem to have a problem with sending boys into men’s restrooms with pedophiles, but now that it might be a girl, seems like a problem, but before we blow our tops:
“The increasing concern about biological factors relevant to sexual perversions mirrors the growing recognition of the importance of biological factors to psychiatric disorders. … certainly a number of biological factors have a bearing on sexual expression; nevertheless, we must always be mindful that, in as complex an organism as the human, sexual expression is influenced by many factors. The need for consequent restraint in drawing conclusions based upon any one set of factors has particular relevance in the area of sexual perversion, because of its inherent vulnerability to misconceptions” (Sexual Perversion: Integrative Treatment Approaches for the Clinician, Protter/Travin)
Essentially, despite the desire of Reconstruction-oriented Christians to do just that, we can’t line all people we accuse of being somehow sexually deviant and apply every label in the book to them. Transgendered people are not automatically pedophiles. In fact, the most likely target remains boys in the men’s restroom, which no one seems to have a problem with.
The best solution is probably having unisex restrooms. That way mothers can take their boys to the restroom and fathers can take their daughters and not hope that there isn’t a predator lurking in there. Family restrooms are also an option in those circumstances.
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@JA: Interesting. I read an article about BYU and Title IX yesterday that might be applicable: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/byu-honor-code-action-rape-victim_us_5714fa82e4b0060ccda3b7fa
The article says that women who were raped were afraid to report it to the police because BYU’s honor code enforcement might kick them out of school. Supposedly, the police are required to keep the information away from BYU, and in one of the two cases, that happened, but in the other case, BYU received a copy of the police report and denied the woman the ability to enroll in the next semester classes pending the outcome of the trial (her rapist needs to be guilty for them to reinstate her).
Apparently, BYU is being sued because the Title IX department and the Honor Code Enforcement are joined at the hip in a way that discourages rape victims from reporting, because they will get expelled.
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@Mark:
We’re talking Provo, in the heart of Utah Mormon Country. (Guess who runs BYU? Hint: the Missionary Training Center (or “Empty Sea”) is on or near the BYU campus.) Yes, the police are required to keep the info confidential, but the Provo Police are also Utah Mormons and there’s a lot of potential for conflict of interest.
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@Mark:
That gives me two very disturbing vibes.
1) A Ku Kluxer going on about “Protect Our White Wimmen”.
2) A dog breeder who’d put down his bitch with pups because she bred on her own with a random male outside of the breeder’s carefully-planned Purebred Breeding Program, contaminating her Purebred status.
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Exactly, Mark. Title IX and BYU’s honor code do not mix well. I’m glad they are getting sued. If you think about it, this is the same line that was crossed with Bob Jones University, Sovereign Grace Ministries sex scandal, and so many others. Faith-based groups are trying to handle the whole situation by themselves, but they can’t, because sex abuse/rape are crimes. They need to butt out of legal affairs, period.
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There is a large LDS population where I live, and consequently, a lot of LDS students at the public high school where I volunteer. You can be sure that I posted about the BYU situation on my Facebook page.
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Both my daughters are already RNs and working in their fields for some time. One is pursing her bachelors in nursing. Of course a nursing job is very earthy, requires compassion and endurance.
I do not have any problem treating anyone with dignity no matter what their lifestyle or worldview. As a Christian of course I view each person as made in God’s image and worthy of respect.
My frustration when getting my BA in Elementary and Special Education was a lot of group think: politically correct ideas that everyone assumes is truth and not to be disagreed with. That type of thinking dominated my university’s education department. I think what frustrates my daughter is that nursing school has its own specialized area of political correctness. Tow the line or shut up. The problem is you have to write papers and apparently you need to write them to please the professors.
My other daughter’s experience in Comp 1 a few years ago involved which pronouns should be used and transgender issues. According to my daughter while the students wanted help in improving their writing and yet the teacher seemed to think class time should be spent in discussion of language and transgender issues.
Jesus did mind the Pharisees. They added extra rules to God’s word and then lorded it over the people. Liberals add rules to businesses, schools, government etc. frequently. The intentions may be good, but the results don’t always work out so well. Christ wants to carry our burdens not add to them.
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@Loura, it is true that academics, especially at the high school level can be difficult for one teacher to handle; but in this case it was the fault of the curriculum. It actively discouraged any systematic grading, meaning that I was left with large holes in my academic learning. The curriculum was from ATI, the educational branch of IBLP.
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@Kay, “The problem is you have to write papers and apparently you need to write them to please the professors.”
Yes, unfortunately this happens everywhere. I went to a conservative Christian college and took a composition class. She claimed that she never graded a paper based on what position we took, but then asked us to write papers on controversial topics. So when I wrote a position on the Biblical role of women (assigned topic), I wrote on complementarianism, which I held at that time. It was a four page max paper, yet she kept writing “need more detail here. need to explain why, etc.” So, I got a C on the paper, even though there were no grammatical errors, because apparently I was supposed to write a dissertation on the topic complete with proofs and citations for a four page paper.
There are two general approaches to abusive professors. One approach is whine about it and write papers that will certainly offend the professor, then choose whether to play the martyr when the professor gives bad grades. The other approach is figure out the game and play it to get the good grade. Neither approach is really good, because, at the root of it is an abusive professor, using fear (the threat of bad grades) to manipulate students.
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@ruscuro, I don’t know that “curriculum” is the proper definition of what ATI produced. It was designed to indoctrinate a certain way of thinking rather than to teach content, from what I’ve heard. It was part of the IBLP system of grooming young women and men to be compliant victims of spiritual abuse.
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Kay, I’m a healthcare worker, and have some knowledge of what you are talking about. I’ve been in a position where I had to choose between accepting the terms of a job and remaining true to my convictions. It would make my life so much easier if more people agreed with my convictions. It is hard being a Christian in the modern healthcare system.
Nevertheless, returning to some kind of nominally Christian nation via the methods of Christian Reconstructionism isn’t the answer. It isn’t just a matter of their flawed methods, although those methods are causing as much spiritual destruction as any secular policy. It is that it won’t work, because God has never intended Christianity to work in that way (John 18:36). We are called to be witnesses to the world from a position of weakness, not of strength (I Corinthians 1:25-29, II Corinthians 12:9-10); because the kingdom is not ours but Christ’s. When our secular governments allow Christians to live in peace and honesty (I Timothy 2:1-2) we can be thankful that God has given that gift to us. When those governments hedge us in with unreasonable and unjust rules, we need not fear, because Christ said that would happen and that He would be with us (John 16:33).
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@Mark, true as regards the indoctrination, but that is what it was marketed as being – an alternative to other curriculums.
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You are correct, roscuo. Not only was it marketed as being high class homeschool curricula, it was highly lauded by parents using the program. In fact, it was so wonderful, my friend refused to let me take a look at it – lol. All the classic markings of cult material if you ask me.
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The whole “Take America Back for Christ” thing is predicated on the notion that God still judges nations. Here is case presented by John Piper. But is that really true?
There are several problems with that notion.
All of the verses cited by Piper are from the Old Testament. He could not quote a single verse from the New Testament to support his narrative.
Today’s nation state model is a modern geopolitical construct which is nothing like the “nations” of the Old Testament world.
Besides, who does God’s judgement on nations work today? In the Old Testament, God showed his displeasure by sending natural and economic calamites to sinful nations. A prophet was always on hand to pronounce the source of and a reason for a each calamity.
So who is going to fill the prophetic role today? John Piper? lol. Pat Robertson? LOLOLOLOL. Franklin Graham? Hahaha.
If not natural calamities in our time life time, then how will it work? When we stand before the Judgement seat of God?
Jesus: “Mr. Johnson. I see that your life as a Christian was pretty unremarkable. But see that you lived in AMERICA from 1880 – 1955 prior to when the liberals destroyed the country with debauchery and rampant homosexuality in the 60’s. Let me tell you how much I LOVED the America of the first half of the 20th century. I’m getting misty eyed even thinking about it. 35 bonus points! ‘Murica!!!”
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Yes. In justice to my parents, they didn’t believe all the nonsense. What they didn’t realize was that their children didn’t have the maturity to filter out the nonsense (and there was nothing of academic or spiritual value left after the nonsense was taken away). They would do things differently if they did it over again.
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LOL, David. You know, I am embarrassed by America Christians who thinks Christianity revolves around them and that they are the movers and shakers of Christianity, etc. Blech, such pride and entitlement.
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I’m not sure what this group’s eschatological views (that Julie Anne is reporting on), but regardless, I cannot think of a single New Testament concept or verse that teaches “bedroom evangelism,” which is what they are promoting.
On the contrary, the NT (New Testament) teaches that people are brought into the Kingdom of God by evangelization (sharing the Gospel message).
There is also nothing in the NT that teaches that any children of a Christian couple are automatically Christian: each and every person, even born to Christians, must decide whether to become a Christian. (I don’t believe in Calvinism, so I don’t think God “chooses” who will be a Christian, either).
Anyway. The Bible says new converts are made by sharing the Gospel, not by producing flesh and blood children.
In the NT, the Apostle Paul actually says that staying single is preferable to marrying (which implies one won’t be having sex (as a single), and therefore, there won’t be any children).
The Gospel is not dependent on natalism or marriage, so these Reconstructionists, with what amounts to their anti-singleness and anti-childless prejudices, can kiss my ___.
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David C. Your comment was hysterical & meaningful. God knows one/me needed a heartfelt laugh in midst of all the madness that parades as Christianity.
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Ah, the irony… 🙂
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Here is another thing. Where do they get off fancying themselves as God’s spokesmen qualified to make sweeping judgements about anything?
For example, how does Gary DeMar know God had his hand in the founding of America? Does he have a direct connection with God? Did God tell him what he was up to in 1776? How does John MacArthur know God has “abandoned” America? Did God tell him? Are these not egregious violations of the 4th commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain?
I don’t think the 4th amendment is just an injunction against silly verbal ticks like “Oh My God.” Granted, that we should avoid careless utterances about God in our speech, but are we seriously to believe uttering “Oh My God” is on par with murder and adultery? Seriously? If so, that means I slept with 5 married women just in the last hour alone.
I have no idea how God feels about America. Heck, I have no idea how He feels about me at a given moment, let alone America. I can’t even tell how my boss feels about me. My last boss gave me glowing reviews only to fire me out of the blue. I have enough trouble reading fellow human beings and my cats but these guys know the mind of the King of the Universe?
They really need to get over themselves. I am tempted to call them clowns, but clowns don’t take themselves seriously. They don’t claim to speak for God.
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Dear Loura,
“What he and those like him seem not understand, is that the church is not responsible for setting people free, Jesus is. The church is supposed to minister to people, not free them from sin, not defeat sin and death; all those are things Jesus did/does.”
AMEN! Thank-you Loura for expounding the truth in a few short sentences. This is precisely why it is so dangerous for the reconstructionist/dominionist false religion to join the ranks of politics here in America, for it is literally forming a third religious/political reich so to speak.
Is it Jesus who is to receive all of the glory, praise and honor for saving man, or is man now boasting and bragging of himself for saving sinners, with a little jesus additive to the mix? Perhaps another form of replacement theology.
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I really appreciated Charis’ comment about postmillenialism here. I would tend to agree that a lot of what we’re talking about here is an outgrowth of the same–even if many people in the movement would not admit to postmillenialism.
It also strikes me that the arguments for “militant fecundity” really come out of previous positions as a state church as well. The church grows as new babies are sprinkled, right? Again, not necessarily the majority position in the churches homeschoolers come from, but it is more or less congruent with the Presbyterianism from whence Rushdoony and others came.
I would also argue that, while I do believe God told us to be fruitful and multiply physically, trusting in that physical multiplication can mean that you’re not going to emphasize spiritual multiplication.
As someone who was NOT led to Christ by his parents, that’s a sobering thought to me. Any of us who have been in churches which used to be state churches can note that there are times when evangelism and discipleship has to be, apart from sprinkling babies and confirmation classes, kick-started. It can be very introspective and even “clannish”. (not like the KKK, but more like the cliques we had in high school)
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Rushdoony argued pretty strongly for postmillennialism, such that some well meaning folks created a directory of churches that were post mil. My old old church ended up on that, even though the denomination does not take an official stand.
I think, though, that ever since the church and state were excessively coupled in the time after Constantine, there has been an unwillingness for Christians to let go of the idea that it’s good to use physical and emotional coercion to attain spiritual ends.
When that fails, as it generally does, the churches then retreat to their city on a hill, supposing that creating a Christian church-nation will somehow set the example for all on how things ought to be. Think monasteries as an early example.
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“ever since the church and state were excessively coupled in the time after Constantine”
Religion + Power = Disaster
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