Area Meta, Msg#8, Jul-02-94 09:11 AM
   From: W.A.R.D. COLORADO                    
     To: All                                  
Subject: Who Are They (1 of 2)

       THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT WANTS AMERICA

        by John M. Swomley
        from: Civil Liberties; The National Newsletter of the ACLU
        date: June, 1994


   Pat Robertson and his "Christian Coalition" have declared war on a large
  array of orginizations deemed by them to be "irreligious" or "liberal".
  The list of the embattled, which the ACLU heads, includes the American
  Jewish Congress, People For The American Way, the National Orginization
  for Women, and several churches.

   Many people,noting the Coalition's agenda against homosexuality, abortion,
  seperation of church and state, and women's rights, regard Robertson-and-
  company as a disruptive element on the American political scene, but one
  that is temporary and ultimately boand to fail. This interpritation is
  simplistic.

   The Christian Coalition is the largest of many right wing religious groups
  whose members want to reorder United States political affairs under the
  athority of a "Christian" government. Their overarching philosophy,
  alternately called "Christian Reconstuction" and "Dominion Theology" was
  first articulated in 1973 by Rousas John Rushdoony in Institutes of
  Biblical Law. That philosophy is nurtured by the Coalition on Revival (COR)
  a secretive inner circle whose steering committee includes most of the
  nation's right wing Christian leaders. The hard core, which promotes the
  unifying ideology of the Christian right, is lead by Dr. Jay Grimstead.

   Strongly influenced by COR and it's credo, Pat Robertson renamed his CBN
  (Christian Broadcasting Network) University, Regent University, explaining
  that "a regent is one who governs in the absence of a soveriegn." Someday,
  he said,"we will rule and reign along with our soveriegn, Jesus Christ."
  Toward that day, Regent is training gradute students in education,
  religion, law, and communications to build theological and political

  alliences of ready-to-rule folk. Robertson's more immediate goal, control
  of the Republican Party, is seen as a necessary step in pursuit of the
  ultimate prise: a "Christian" United States - meaning his brand of
  Christianity.

   Robertson's writings and speeches reflect essentially theocratic models.
  In his 1991 book, The New World Order, he writes:

    "The founders of America at Plymouth Rock and in the Massachusetts
    Colony felt that they were orginizing a society based on the Ten
    Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount .... They tried their best
    to model their institutions of governmental order after the Bible."

   Of course, the former clergyman romanticizes here. The early American
   leaders to whom he refers were people who burned "witches,"hanged Quakers,
   slaughtered Native Americans, held Africans in bondage and taxed the
   populace to support religion. Summarizing the colonial period, Robertson
   writes:

     " ... for almost two hundred years prior to our Constitution, all of
     leadership of this nation has been steeped with biblical principles
     of the Old and New Testaments. Their new order was a nation founded
     squarely on the concepts of the nature of God, the nature of man,
     the role of family and the moral order as established by the God of
     Jacob."
           ..... continued next.

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 * Origin: The Mountain Oracle, P.O.D.S. for CO. Springs (1:128/101)
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Area Meta, Msg#9, Jul-02-94 09:12 AM
   From: W.A.R.D. COLORADO                    
     To: All                                  
Subject: Who Are They? (2 of 2)

   .... continued.

   What Robertson is extolling, among other things, is a clerical control
  of politics. In the colonial Massachusetts and Connecticut, reports
  William Warren Sweet in The Story of Religions in America, preachers'
  political influence was such that no one could be admitted to church
  membership without their consent, and voting in those colonies "was
  limited to church members." Sweet also describes a morals squad: "The
  tithing man ... was a township official who assisted the constable in
  watching over the morals of the community. There was one such official
  for every ten families, who ... was on the lookout for Sabbath breaking,
  tippling, gaming, and idleness."

   Pat Robertson claims that "... the Supreme Court of the supposedly
  Christian United States guaranteed the moral collapse of this nation when
  it forbade children in public schools to pray to the God of Jacob, to
  learn of His moral law or even to veiw in their classrooms the heart of
  the law, the Ten Commandments."

   Actually, the Supreme Court has never banned private prayer if performed
  silently in class or in the cafeteria over lunch. In 1962, in Engle v.
  Vitale, the Court banned school-sponsored prayer; and in 1963, in
  Pennsylvania case Abington Township v. Schempp, it banned Bible reading as
  worship. The Court has permitted objectively taught courses on the Bible
  as literature, on the philosophy or sociology of religion, and comparitive
  religion. It has also allowed religious clubs to meet after instructional
  hours if other extracurricular clubs are permitted to meet. Moreover, many
  states did not even allow school-sponsored prayers or Bible readings
  prior to 1962.

   The Christian Coalition had become a force in American politics, providing
  the margin for Jesse Helm's re-election. It's Christian Broadcasting
  Network has 1,485 radio stations and 336 television stations (numbers as
  of 1989), with Robertson's "700 Club" - annual income, about $140 million -
  aired daily on TV. In close touch with Robertson are other groups like
  James Dobson's Focus on the Family, which employs about 1,000 people,
  publishes eight periodicals and broadcasts on more than 1,500 radio
  stations.

   Although the bulk of Robertson's support comes from fundamentalist
  Protestants and Catholics, not all fundaqmentalists and evangelists support
  his politics or his theology. Thus the ACLU, in coalition with both
  religious and secular organizations, should strive to reach as many
  people as possible with its message of church-state separation and other
  civil liberties values.

   - John M. Swomley is Secretary of the ACLU's national board and also
     chairs the board's Church-State Committee.

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 * Origin: The Mountain Oracle, P.O.D.S. for CO. Springs (1:128/101)
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