NationStates Jolt Archive

I posted this question in a thread a while ago, but I figure it would make more sense to give it its own thread.

I have a question some people might know about. I have heard that the US Constitution Party (http://www.constitutionparty.com/) has connections to the Christian Reconstructionists. I am not sure if this is truth or just a rumour, since I didn't catch any names. I haven't been able to find any information on this myself.

Does anybody here know more than I do and might said person be willing to deny/confirm this rumour?

This is the reason Google (http://www.google.com) exists! ;) try looking it up...

This is the reason Google (http://www.google.com) exists! ;) try looking it up...
I spent a while yesterday trying and found nothing useful.

Oddly enough, I found something today.
http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/04/roy_moore/index.html
It appears the connection is not as overt as was claimed, but is still somewhat there.

The CP is scary.

The CP is scary.
Yeah.
From their platform:
The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries.
Oh boy. Fun.
HIV / AIDS is a contagious disease which is dangerous to public health. It should not be treated as a civil rights issue. Under no circumstances should the federal government continue to subsidize activities which have the effect of encouraging perverted or promiscuous sexual conduct. Criminal penalties should apply to those whose willful acts of omission or commission place members of the public at risk of contracting HIV / AIDS.
Because we all know the icky gays cause AIDS!
:rolleyes:
We call attention to the continuing need of the United States for a sufficient supply of energy for national security.

Private property rights should be respected, and the federal government should not interfere with the development of potential energy sources, including natural gas, hydroelectric power, solar energy, wind generators, and nuclear energy.

We call for abolishing the Department of Energy.
:confused:
What? How is abolishing the Dep. of Energy going to help?
We reject the notion that sexual offenders are deserving of legal favor or special protection, and affirm the rights of states and localities to proscribe offensive sexual behavior.
Ouch.
Pornography, at best, is a distortion of the true nature of sex created by God for the procreative union between one man and one woman in the holy bonds of matrimony, and at worst, is a destructive element of society resulting in significant and real emotional, physical, spiritual and financial costs to individuals, families and communities. We call on our local, state and federal governments to uphold our cherished First Amendment right to free speech by vigorously enforcing our laws against obscenity to maintain a degree of separation between that which is truly speech and that which only seeks to distort and destroy.
Yep, it's only free speech when we like it.

Somewhat on topic .... my apologies to Fass for length and lack of etiquette on my part ;)


The Crusaders - p.41-42 Rolling Stone April 21, 2005
...
Meet the Dominionists - biblical literalists who believe God has called them to take over the U.S. government. As the far-right wing of the evangelical movement, Dominionists are pressing an agenda that makes Newt Gingrich's Contract With America look like the Communist Manifesto. They want to rewrite schoolbooks to reflect a Christian version of American history, pack the nation's courts with judges who follow Old Testament law, post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and make it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions. In Florida, when courts ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, it was the Dominionists who organized round-the-clock protests and issued a fiery call for Gov. Jeb Bush to defy the law and take Schiavo into state custody. Their ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of a "faith-based" government that will endure far longer than Bush's presidency - all the way until Jesus comes back.
"most people hear them talk about a 'Christian nation' and think, 'Well, that sounds like a good, moral thing,' says the Rev. Mel White, who ghostwrote Jerry Falwell's autobiography before breaking with the evangelical movement. "What they don't know - what even most conservative Christians who voted for Bush don't know - is that 'Christian nation' means something else entirely to these Dominionist leaders. This movement is no more about following the example of Christ than Bush's Clean Water Act is about clean water."
The godfather of the Dominionists is D. James Kennedy, the most influential evangelical you've never heard of. A former Arthur Murray dance instructor, he launched his Florida ministry in 1959, when most evangelicals still followed Billy Graham's gospel of nonpartisan soul-saving. Kennedy built Coral Ridge Ministries into a #37 million-a-year empire, with a TV-and-radio audience of 3 million, by preaching that it was time to save America - not soul by soul but election by election. After helping found the Moral Majority in 1979, Kennedy became a five-star general in the Christian army. Bush sought his blessing before running for president - and continues to consult top Dominionists on matters of federal policy.
"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost," Kennedy says. "As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors - in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.
...
"We're going to turn you into an army of one," Gary Cass, executive director of Reclaiming America, promises activists at one workshop held in Evangalism Explosion Hall. The Dominionists also attend speeches by supporters like Rep. Katherine Harris of Florida, who urges them to "win back America for God."
...
"The First Amendment does not say there should be a separation of church and state," declares Alan Sears, president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, a team of 750 attorneys, trained by the Dominionists to fight abortion and gay marriage.
..."We have a right, indeed an obligation, to govern," says David Limbaugh, brother of Rush and author of "Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity."
..."Activist judges have systematically deconstructed the Constitution," roars Rick Scarborough, author of "Mixing Church and State." "A God-free society is their goal!"
Activist judges, of course, are precisely what the Dominionists want. Their model is Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice who installed a 5,300-pound granite memorial to the Ten Commandments, complete with an open Bible carved in its top, in the state judicial building.
...Activists at the conference pose for photographs beside the rock and have circulated a petition urging President Bush to appoint Moore - who once penned an opinion calling for the state to execute "practicing homosexuals" - to the U.S. Supreme Court.
...
It helps that Dominionists have a direct line to the White House: The Rev. Richard Land, top lobbyist for the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, enjoys a weekly conference call with top Bush advisors including Karl Rove. ... He takes particular aim at the threat posed by John Lennon, denouncing "Imagine" as a "secular anthem" that envisions a future of "clone plantations, child sacrifice, legalized polygamy and hard-core porn."
...
In the conference's opening ceremony, the Dominionists recite an oath they dream of hearing in every classroom: "I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."
Cass urges conference-goers to stack school boards with Dominionists. "The most humble Christian is more qualified for office than the best-educated pagan," says Cass, an anti-abortion activist who ledd a takeover of his school district's board in San Diego.
...
Amway founder Rich DeVos, a Kennedy ally who's the leading Republican contender for governor of Michigan, has tossed more than $5 million into the collection plate. Jean Case, wife of former AOL chief Steve Case – whose fortune was made largely on sex-chat rooms – has donated $8 million. And Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, is a major source of cash for Focus on the Family, a megaministry working with Kennedy to eliminate all public schools.
...
Kennedy has also created the Center for Christian Statesmanship, which trains elected officials to “more effectively share their faith in the public arena.” Speaking to the group, House Majority Leader Whip Tom DeLay – winner of Kennedy’s Distinguished Christian Statesman Award - called Bush’s faith-based initiatives “a great opportunity to bring God back into the public institutions of our country.”
…
The most vivid proof of the Christianizing of Capitol Hill comes at the final session of Reclaiming America. Rep. Walter Jones, a lanky congressman from North Carolina, gives a fire-and-brimstone speech that would have gotten him laughed out of Washington thirty years ago. In today’s climate, however, he’s got a chance of passing his pet project, the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which would permit ministers to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, effectively converting their tax-exempt churches into Republican campaign headquarters.
BACK CONSERVATIVE AGENDA OR LOSE COURT, EVANGELICAL LEADERS HINT
Peter Wallsten, L.A. Times (Week of April 23, 2005)

WASHINGTON – Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working closely with senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges in the federal courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting jurists and even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.
An audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times features two of the nation’s most influential evangelical leaders, at a private conference with supporters, laying out strategies to rein in judges, such as stripping funding from their courts in an effort to hinder their work.
The discussion took place during a Washington conference last month that included addresses by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who discussed efforts to bring a more conservative cast to the courts.
…
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there’s more than one way to take a black robe off the bench,” said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, according to an audiotape of a March 17 session. The tapes was provided to the L.A. Times by the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
…
“We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse,” DeLay said at an April 13 question-and-answer session with reporters.
The leaders present at the March conference, including Perkins and James Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family, have been working with Frist to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations, a legislative tool that has allowed Senate Democrats to stall 10 of President Bush’s nominations.
Frist is scheduled to appear, via a taped statement, during a satellite broadcast to churches nationwide Sunday the Family Research Council has organized to build support for the Bush nominees.
…
“What they’re thinking of is not only the fact of just making these courts go away and re-creating them the next day but also defunding them,” Perkins said.
He said that instead of undertaking the long process of trying to impeach judges, Congress could use its appropriations authority to “just take away the bench, all of his staff, and he’s just sitting out there with nothing to do.”
These curbs on courts are “on the radar screen, especially of conservatives here in Congress,” he said.
Dobson, who emerged last year as one of the evangelical movement’s most important political leaders, named one potential target: the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court,” Dobson said. “They don’t have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s gone.”
…
A spokesman for DeLay declined to comment.
…
Claiming a role by the movement in the GOP gains, Dobson concluded: “We’ve got a right to hold them accountable for what happens here.”
…
Dobson chided Frist, a likely 2008 presidential contender, for not acting sooner on the filibuster issue, urging “conservatives all over the country” to tell Frist “that he needs to get on with it.”
Dobson also said Republicans risk inflicting long-term damage on their party if they fail to seize the moment - a time when Bush still has the momentum of his re-election victory – to transform the courts. He said they had just 18 months to act before Bush becomes a “lame-duck president.”
…
As part of the discussion, Perkins and Dobson referred to remarks by Dobson earlier this year at a congressional dinner in which he singled out the use by one group of the cartoon character SpongeBob Squarepants in a video that Dobson said promoted a homosexual agenda.
Dobson was ridiculed for his comments, which some critics interpreted to mean the evangelist had determined the cartoon character was gay.
Dobson said the beating he took in the media, coming after his appearance on the cover of newsmagazines hailing his prominence in Bush’s reelection, proved that press will only seek to tear him down.
“This will not be the last thing that you read about that makes me look ridiculous,” he said.

Heh...if they succeed, they can look forward to me, and 500,000 very angry Bostonians marching on Washington.

Well the CP isn't directly connected to the Christian Revisionism/Reconstructionism... Though they have similar outlooks...

The CP is basically like us Libertarians, but with "values" clouding their judgment, and thus ruining their viewpoints. You could call the CP, inconsistent Libertarians... As both subscribe to returning the USA to its constitutional form, just the libertarians tend to take the Constitutional position on freedom of religion, while the Constitutionalists want to impose religious morality upon the populous... They don't do it in the overt way however, like the Reconstructionists (which are typically Conservative/Republican in support)... And attempt to re-write history to conform the US to being a "Christian Nation"...

Heh...if they succeed, they can look forward to me, and 500,000 very angry Bostonians marching on Washington.

500,000 less socialist mouths to feed ;)

500,000 less socialist mouths to feed ;)

You insulting my homeland?

500,000 less socialist mouths to feed ;)
Good luck keeping those farm subsidies without those 'socialist' tax dollars kiddo.

Well the CP isn't directly connected to the Christian Revisionism/Reconstructionism... Though they have similar outlooks...
What I got out of all the info that I've found so far is that the CP isn't directly connected to Reconstructionism, but some Reconstructionists support it as a step towards what they want.
So it appears the rumour that there was a direct connection was a bit of a false alarm.
That doesn't mean I like the CP though.
:D
*SNIP*
They don't do it in the overt way however, like the Reconstructionists (which are typically Conservative/Republican in support)... And attempt to re-write history to conform the US to being a "Christian Nation"...
On the CP's website, they stated that they want to "restore our government to its Constitutional limits and our law to its Biblical foundation." So it appears they do believe the Christian nation thing.

I don't like the CP either (I'm Liberterian)... Even though they have "governmental" views similar to my own... I just don't necessarily buy into the idea that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" crap... If you don't support my ideals, I'm not going to support you just to get some of them... It never works that way...

There are many issues which I agree with Democrats on in matters of civil and social operations... Though I disagree with them on other social and governmental issues... There are certain civil issues I agree with Republicans on, just not on governmental or many social and other civil issues.... There are issues in regards to government I agree with Constitutionalists on, but not on social and civil ideas.... As such, I always vote libertarian, because that is my platform of choice...