One of the groups that is now being specifically mentioned (including in Bush's speech last night) is the Heritage Foundation. They pass themselves off as a "conservative think tank" but are linked with multiple dominionist/Avengelical groups, including a secretive group called the Council for National Policy:

http://www.theocracywatch.org/yurica_weyrich_manual.htm
http://www.publiceye.org/diamond/sd_domin.html
http://watch.pair.com/freecongress.html
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Council_for_National_Policy

For those who actually *want* to see their plans for NOLA, they have them posted at http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/sr05.cfm

Here's the summary, courtesy of a poster at after_katrina:

1. Waiver on environmental rules
2. Eliminaton of capital gains tax
3. Private ownership of public schools
4. The heirs of any victim worth more than $1.5 million should be exempt from the estate tax.

(This is part of a dominionist platform, as an aside; the "waiver on environmental rules" is supported by dominionist because they either see environmental destruction as something that will make Jesus come back faster, or (in the case of those dominionists into "spiritual warfare/deliverance ministry" type stuff) they actually see environmentalism as a form of devil worship. Dominionists also support destruction of public school systems in the hope that children will be forced to turn to sectarian means to be educated (including dominionist-run homeschooling and dominionist-run private schools; it is ALREADY difficult to find support for homeschooling that is not controlled by dominionists)).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

"The Yurica Report" is an amazing and very thorough compilation of research on the Religious Right, which is very much worth a visit. She updates her site fairly regularly, and sends an email to her subscribers telling us what's up. I've decided to post the latest letter, with links, so that readers here can visit her site and read her latest postings.

Hi again,
Usually we only send out our newsletter once every six weeks or once a month. However, we have been working on the story of Ken Blackwell and the Ohio State legislature for many weeks. Then Hurricane Katrina interrupted the work on this article. But as you will see, this essay is of utmost importance to all Americans. It marks the first time a state has adopted a character code that at its heart is religious and designed to create a docile submissive population easily controlled by leaders.

This story is a scoop.
NEW: Blackwells Un-American Scheme:
Under the Guise of Character and Civic Renewal
Ohio State Foists a Religious Moral Code upon Its Citizens
by Katherine Yurica

J. Kenneth Blackwell has stepped to the forefront of the American culture wars. He has posted his official endorsement of a 20-point religious moral code claimed to be a shared vocabulary of character-building ethics on the Ohio Secretary of State web site. But to a lot of people, civic character renewal means the opportunity to not only religionize our government, but, as we shall see, it is an opportunity to convert our citizens into docile followers of a new authoritarian rule. The essay includes a linked glossary of definitions of terms plus parallel columns that compare the text.

The essay is at: http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/BlackwellsUnAmericanScheme.html

The glossary is at: http://www.yuricareport.com/Strategies_Propaganda/GlossaryOfTermsUncommonSense.html

The parallel columns with annotated text is at: http://www.yuricareport.com/Strategies_Propaganda/UncommonSenseParallelColumns.html

Thanks for reading our stuff! Let me know if you think this is an important news story. Take care, Katherine

It's worth the visit for the glossary alone.

Yurica Report has more info on Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state and a politician linked to the "Ohio Restoration Movement" and its associated groups:

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/BlackwellsUnAmericanScheme.html

Yurica's reported in past on the link:

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/DominionistsTryToControlOhio.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/BlackwellAndChristianRightOhio.html

Other resources:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/6/1/171415/3286
http://kbonline.typepad.com/random/2005/03/the_conservativ.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-02-christian-cover_x.htm
http://markmaynard.com/index.php/2005/06/05/what_is_the_ohio_restoration_project
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050826/NEWS01/508260404

(I note this because, among other things, one of the folks in the Texas-affiliated group--which the Governor of Texas has been at official functions of at least twice--has claimed NOLA deserved to be destroyed :P)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From The Yurica Report:

The Wedge Strategy

How to Win the Scientific War Against Evolution

Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture


NOTE FROM THE YURICA REPORT: Regardless of its subject matter, The Wedge Strategy is an eye-opening example of strategic planning and tactics needed to win the culture wars. And it reveals why the Democrats are losing--they do not have think tanks that produce this kind of practical, cohesive, reproducible insight:

As Christians who have a deep love and respect for science as well as the Bible, we stand in the "Middle Church" again, trying to bring an understanding of both views to our readers. However, our purpose in publishing The Wedge Strategy is to help our readers understand how political movements work. We publish the "Note from Lenny Flank" below to give voice to the religious left in their opposition to the Discovery Institute and its methods without endorsing his statement.

NOTE FROM LENNY FLANK: The Wedge Document is an internal memorandum from the Discovery Institute (the leading proponent of Intelligent Designer "Theory") that was leaked to the Internet in 1999. The Discovery Institute later admitted to its authenticity. Since then, Discovery Institute hasn't talked very much about the document, or the strategy it outlines. The reason is crushingly obvious, since the Wedge Document makes it readily apparent that the Discovery Institute is flat-out lying to us when it claims that its Intelligent Designer campaign is concerned only with science and does not have any religious aims, purpose or effect. Creation Science Debunked ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From the Yurica report:

Grooming Politicians for Christ

Evangelical programs on Capitol Hill seek to mold a new generation of leaders who will answer not to voters, but to God.

By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer

August 23, 2005

WASHINGTON — In the blue and gold elegance of the House speaker's private dining room, Jeremy Bouma bowed his head before eight young men and women who hope to one day lead the nation. He prayed that they might find wisdom in the Bible — and govern by its word.

"Holy Father, we thank you for providing us with guidance," said Bouma, who works for an influential televangelist. "Thank you, Lord, for these students. Build them up as your warriors and your ambassadors on Capitol Hill."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Katherine Yurica writes some very interesting, and damning stuff- with Biblical references- about the Dominionists. Her latest article, The Big Lie GOP Combatants Tell about Democrats pulls no punches, either.

An excerpt:

“Democrats are liberal godless humanists.”

First of all, Republican Combatants—those folks who either have the innate talent to aggressively attack other folks or have been trained to attack Democrats wherever they find one, whether it be on message boards and blogs on the web, over the air waves, in our churches, in the media, and from every dominionist organization and at every family reunion they attend—the first thing is to notice they all have one thing in common: they have to lie about Democrats and liberals,[1] but Democrats don’t have to lie about them! ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

These are some initial thoughts culled from my personal journal. I will be writing about more in-depth things in the next few days.

Oh, yeah- the conference... folks, it's making history. No one has ever gathered together such a comprehensive group of influential thinkers, writers, researchers or ministers, and the Open Center is taping the whole thing and editing it down to make available for PBS affiliates to pick up. I am on the list to get a copy of this disk (and the unedited version) when they produce it. I will personally see that our PBS station picks it up- I know one of the program directors personally. And I have a DVD from Theology Watch for the public access channel, which I plan to get shown when I get home.

Here's some of what I learned while there:

Dialogue is more important than name calling when dealing with the Dominionists. They expect being called freaks and extremists (they are pretty extreme), they tend to play such name calling to their advantage- after all, the Bible, which they hold more important than Jesus himself, says that they'll be persecuted.

So, we have to step beyond the wild claims of their leaders, and engage the followers. They're good people going down a bad road- and some of them don't know how bad it is because of the tactics of deliberate deception, stealth and doublespeak practiced by their leaders. I know that most of them would be loath to execute people who might be their own kin- sons, daughters, siblings- just for being gay. And there are men who are not poisoned by the extreme patriarchy preached to them, who see the women in their lives as equals, not helpmeets.

One speaker said that this movement isn't 'Christianity' at all- it's the wolf of fascism and totaltarianism in Christian sheep's clothing. I think he had a very good point. It isn't about religion, no matter how much they want to claim it is. It's about power and greed.

This whole Dominionist thing has only just breached the surface and touched the minds of those who should be alarmed by now. The 'blue states' are very insular, and have for so long looked at the Dominionist movement as a Southern and Midwestern thing that it hasn't registered how far they've gotten until people started putting the puzzle together in the mainstream media recently. The Dominionists crow that the Schiavo case was a 'godsend' to them. In a way, it was also a godsend to us, as it cracked the facade of the Dominionists and showed us their true colors and chilling ideas for the future of this country. That is, if we don't meet them head on and put an end to it. When Mennonites, gentle, pacific Christian people, start muttering about how awful the president is and want to give him the boot, then there's something afoot. If the ugliness of the extremist Dominionists has trickled into their insular and serene community, that's the canary in the coal shaft.

The conference was sold out. They had an overflow auditorium. People from all over the country came. I met kalibex and Katherine Yurica and several of the major speakers. Fredrick Clarkson and Chip Berlet have gotten together and created a website devoted to dialogue about the Christian Right. It's called Talk2Action. It looks like it is going to be a major nexus of ideas and dialogue.

For this community, I have some ideas and plans for it that I will share with you over the following days. I want to take it to the next level- make it a paid account, and then tweak the interface so that you the readers can have access to an ever growing number of excellent blogs. Blogging is the new media- the mainstream are pretty much rubberstamps of each other.

So, that's my entry for tonight. I am worn out, I have a wrenched arm from a sharp subway braking, and I have a notebook full of goodies to share. Stay tuned!

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I have gotten my plane tickets and reservations to the Examining the Religious Right conference in NYC at the Open Center. I hope to meet Katherine Yurica, and the Theocracy Watch folks and other interested parties.

Of course, I'll report on it for the folks here- and perhaps we can arrange a meetup for those in the NYC area while I'm there. It'll be a whirlwind trip- in Friday, out noon Sunday. My budget is too thin for other plans.

So, in for a penny, in for a pound!

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Katherine Yurica, author of "The Yurica Report" sent me this in an email:

First, we want you to know about the conference being held in New York City on April 29th and 30th. Titled: "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right." It is drawing a lot of media attention and people are signing up from as far away as California! If you live near NYC--don't miss this opportunity!

Co-sponsored by the New York Open Center
and CUNY Graduate Center Public Programs
(At Fifth Ave & 34th St. Manhattan)

Friday Evening, April 29, 7:30-10 pm and
Saturday, April 30, 10 am-5:30 pm

I cannot afford to go (although I would love to, and Session would be over by then!), but I would like someone to make it and report on it. Please! Here's the information page about this conference- it sounds like it's going to be very interesting. If I could make it to this conference, I'd do my 'blogger' thing and post about it. And I am sure that I would have material for weeks of discussion.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This latest Yurica Report decodes the Biblical phrases in Bush's Inaugural Address.

An excerpt:

Lest anyone believe that the scriptures cited in this essay mean what the dominionists say they mean, I offer the following:

First of all we need to discuss the more commonly understood concepts of the Bible in reference to the words “liberty and free.” St. Paul, in his epistle at Galatians 5:2 defines the religious use of “liberty” as follows:

“Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Emphasis author's.) (KJV)

What was the “yoke of bondage,” one might ask especially since a number of the early Christians were slaves. Clearly St. Paul meant something other than the literal meaning of the term. To understand this biblical reference, one has to understand that Christianity was not based upon blind faith. St. Paul used “liberty” as a metaphor. From his perspective, when someone accepted the tenets of Christianity, he or she was stepping out of the bondage of falsity, ignorance, idolatry, and superstition—into the glorious light of Truth. This “truth” was not simply belief in a new god—to the contrary, it was a revolutionary process—a way of not only discovering reality but an insistence that one believe only what is true.

St. Paul elevated reasoning and enlightenment. So profoundly discriminating were the tenets of Christianity, that it required its followers to “prove all things.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV) The new birth experience then was the epistemological reclamation of man, the very opposite of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Combined with Moses’ rules on how to distinguish between science and pseudoscience,[23] early Christians could in a very real sense step from darkness to light: from superstition to enlightenment. Or to put it another way, they began the intellectual journey that demanded honest self examination, acknowledgement of their wrong beliefs and a change towards knowledge and truth and the relinquishing of falsity and superstition. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Yurica Report essay is long, but incredibly thoroughly researched and footnoted. Here's what the email I got introducing this stunning article said:

Everyone we know has been worried sick over what the new Bush administration is going to do to America's environment and what they have in mind for each of us. Mr. Bush and his religious right congressional followers believe that is is immoral to tax the rich to help the poor. They believe the middle class and those living in poverty have exploited corporations and the wealthy with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid--so they want to "privatize" these programs and leave the most vulnerable Americans even more vulnerable. They believe the poor and middle class have exploited corporations with unnecessary lawsuits for injuries. So Mr. Bush's agenda is to cap how much money a physically injured person can collect from those found guilty of having inflicted the injury.

Mr. Bush's agenda is possible because most of the evangelical and Pentecostal churches support whatever he wants. And many Roman Catholics have also granted their support. We thought it was time to expose the facts to American churchgoers.

The Yurica Report has published and updated a unique report titled "The Bloodguilty Churches." It is a carefully researched work (190 endnotes). It reveals the following:

The Bible prohibits: deregulation; vote rigging; privatization of Social Security; tax cuts for the wealthy; invading Iraq; oppressing the Hispanics who cross our borders; cutting Medicaid services; cutting Medicare services; hurting the environment; failing to answer all the questions from the 9/11 families; Tort Reform; torture; lying to congress; bribes; tampering with the justice system; appointing prejudiced nominees to the bench; tipping the scales of justice to favor big corporations.

The article is long, but very eye-opening. I recommend passing it along to Christian friends who are outraged by the damage being done by the Dominionists.

Sunfell

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Although the main thrust of this Seattle Weekly article is a debate on whether Bush is the "AntiChrist" or not, it also hits on the hypocracy, and dare we say, heresy of the burgeoning Dominionist movement:

Bringing Back Heresy

Lang argues that followers of Jesus, not Bush, should call an Antichrist an Antichrist—or rather, its spirit. "The progressive church should bring back—and this sounds so crazy—the word 'heresy.' The end times theology and this other thing called Dominionism or Christian Reconstruction—those are heresies." [emphasis mine] Lang says not to believe Christian Coalition leader–turned–Whore of Enron–turned Bush/Cheney campaign lieutenant Ralph Reed when he claims the Christian right has no plans to upend the Constitution and impose its religion on civic life. "He's a liar," says Lang. "Dominionism is the notion that God has given the dominion, the governance of the world, to the church. And so Christians literally are born to rule, by force if necessary, to bring the Kingdom of God on Earth. I believe that the theology that drives the Bush administration affirms this." When Falwell preached, "We must take back what is rightfully ours," his ambitions did not stop at U.S. borders. This is a Church of a Law Unto Itself.

In the Greek, the word "anti" doesn't just mean "against." It also contains the meanings "equivalent to" or "a substitute for." Nero was anti-Christ because he falsely claimed to be God. The idea of deception is crucial. The Antichrist isn't the devil, the opposite of God. He's an evil human masquerading as a golden god. The Antichrist appears to humanity not as the hideous Beast but as handsome Nicolae Carpathia, who resembles Robert Redford without the facial erosion. "That could be our next Republican president," quips Lang.

In this sense, the Bush church is Antichristlike indeed. It is institutionalized deception, anti-American ugliness with a beguiling face, a neocon job. Only when necessary does it employ the perilous bald-faced lie, the outrageously transparent duplicity—the political equivalent of Robertson arguing that "Do unto others" indicates Christ's support of capitalist selfishness. More often, a smoothly dissembling surface is preferred. Rove notoriously emulates Machiavelli; the Christian right is a stealth movement, infiltrating school boards and mainstream churches and every institution of democracy like a thief in the night—in order to undermine, overthrow, and replace democracy with theocracy. Bush is the father of lies. The Union of Concerned Scientists proclaims Bush's lies about science "unprecedented." In With God on Their Side, Kaplan concludes, on mountainous evidence, "The goal is not to engage your opponents in the public square, but to kneecap them, or send them into exile."

"It is a conspiracy in the sense that they have not been public and accountable to their ideology," says Lang. "Follow the money! The same filthy-rich foundations that have funded the rise of neocons are funding the rise of the religious right." He suggests that you check out the exposé Web site The Yurica Report for the terrifying particulars.

I like the rational tack of this entire article- especially the insight about that the 'antichrist' really is. "Institutionalized deception"- a perfect phrase to encapsule what the next four years will be like if we don't holler "Heretics!" loudly enough to get the sleeping majority's attention. People like us might get kneecapped, but we'll be heard.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The most recent Yurica Report talks about the systematic and deliberate Dominionist takeover of the US military. (Dominionists are extreme hard-right, hard core Christian fundementalists that make the Taliban look like a bunch of sissies.)

This long and very detailed article first discusses the Dominionist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, and how it was accomplished, then goes on with this chilling statement:

The Manifesto of the Dominionist Movement

But are there any other institutions that are either under siege or targets of takeovers by the hard right?

According to the plan proposed by Paul Weyrich, the founder of the Free Congress Foundation, to secure the success of the hard right’s control and domination of the American culture, the subversives must “develop a network of parallel cultural institutions existing side-by-side” with the cultural institutions of America.[16] Eric Heubeck, the author of Mr. Weyrich’s manual wrote: “Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions…” [17]( Long and chilling post snipped for Friends pages )