Today is a good day for democracy and a major setback for dominionism. James Dobson's eight-state campaign to hold onto Congress didn't work. Five Republican incumbents -- Conrad Burns (MT), George Allen (VA), Rick Santorum (PA), James Talent (MO), and Mike DeWine (OH) all received a whopping score of 100% from the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family Voter Scorecards. (Virginia's election hasn't been called yet, but Allen is slightly behind. The other Senators will definitely be leaving the Senate on January 1.)

Dominionists were frightfully close to having control over all three branches of the U.S. government. Then their grip on power began to slip away when the man who held it all together -- former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay -- fell from grace.

Ken Blackwell

In what must be sheer political panic, Ohio's Secretary of State and candidate for governor, Ken Blackwell, just used his office to declare that his opponent is ineligible to run for governor. His opponent, Ted Strickland, has a 28 point lead.  

Blackwell counts himself among the righteous.  His plan for "Character and Civic Renewal," featured on Ohio's official government web site, is a 20-point religious moral code claimed to be "a shared vocabulary of character-building ethics."

Blackwell is the darling of the Ohio Reformation Movement, co-founded by the Reverend Rod Parsley of the Center for Moral Clarity. Parsley told his congregation,

Americans must be 'Christocrats" -- citizens of both their country and the Kingdom of God. And that is not a democracy; that is a theocracy. That means God is in control, and you are not.

Property rights is a hot topic in this November's midterm elections.

Libertarians and land developers have found populist fodder in a contentious Supreme Court decision from last year that favors eminent domain over private property.
This fall, they are trying to harness anger over the ruling in an effort to pass state initiatives in the West and federal legislation that could unravel a long-standing fabric of state and local land-use regulations. Among other things, the rules control growth, limit sprawl, ensure open space and protect the environment. Washington Post, 10/2/06)

Property rights are also a dominionist issue. From The Texas Republican Party Platform, a blueprint for dominionist policies in government:

"We reaffirm an individual's right to own and use property without government interference." P. 10 #16

At the 2006 Voter Values Summit last weekend, I listened as US Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe called Global Warming a UN conspiracy, and a hoax, and then urged conference goers to join the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance and bring the issue to their churches - even petition their church's  parent affiliations. Meanwhile, in a concurrent breakout session, Paul Weyrich protege Connie Marshner was advocating a (quite possibly illegal) plan for activists in attendance to purloin church directories, for fake polling, to better target '06 GOTV efforts ( Rob Boston, writing for Americans United, describes the incident ). But today, as described in an Interfaith Alliance press release, James Inhofe has upped the ante with his submission of S. 3957:

Inhofe's bill, S. 3957, would amend the IRS Code to allow houses of worship to endorse candidates from the pulpit and engage in partisan political activity without harming their tax-exempt status

A full court GOP press, to lock in theocratic legislation in anticipation of possible '06 Democratic Party gains, appears to be underway.

U.S. Representative John Hostettler (R-IN) is a busy man. He has made an impressive career of authoring bills in the U.S. House of Representatives, then getting them out of committee and to the floor for a vote, and finally winning their passage along party lines. His series of bills over the past three years are nothing less than an attempt to defang one whole branch of the federal government - an independent judiciary. His method is called "court stripping."

Rep. Hostettler's most recent bill passed yesterday along party lines. H.R. 2679 is euphemistically called the "Public Expression of Religion Act" and more accurately referred to as the "Christian Supremacy Act."  This bill is consistent with Hostettler's philosophy:

"When the courts make unconstitutional decisions, we should not enforce them. Federal courts have no army or navy. The court can opine, decide, talk about, sing, whatever it wants to do. We're not saying they can't do that. At the end of the day, we're saying the court can't enforce its opinions."

ALEC, one of the least known and most influential corporate lobbying organizations, ties together Christian right social issues with corporate money. One way to understand the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is to look at the titles of articles written about it. Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State;  or Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States, or Ghostwriting the Law.

ALEC is the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and corporate money. ALEC is a public-policy mill that churns out "model legislation" for the states that are unfailingly pro-business. The organization fights against civil rights laws, as well as consumer, labor and environmental initiatives. ( Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State)

This is the sixth in a series on dominionism and the federal government.

"We've gone from a war on poverty to a war on the poor." So Jim Wallis, an evangelical minister, quotes Episcopal Bishop John Chane in an article titled Class Warfare that Wallis wrote for his magazine, Sojourners in 2003. "Most of the country," writes Wallis,

now knows that the $350 billion tax cut passed this spring primarily benefited the wealthiest of Americans. Estimates are that each millionaire will receive $93,000. Yet 1 percent of the total tax cut--$3.5 billion--could not be found for families who struggle mightily just to get by.

When Paul Weyrich joined the Young Republicans in the late 1950s, the Party was controlled by what he called "the Country Clubbers". "I" writes Weyrich, "came from the wrong side of the tracks."

While I was a useful ornament for the Country Clubbers to display, they were glad there were not lots more like me. They were not anxious to have the great unwashed as part of their organization.

One would think that a young man whose father tended the boiler at a Catholic hospital would chose the Party that favored the working class, but not Weyrich. Instead, he played a major role in transforming the Party of "country clubbers" into the Party of "traditional values."

Part III in a series on dominionism and the federal government

As the President threatens to veto a bill authorizing stem-cell research, let's take a look at some other government actions reflecting the so called "culture of life." What does stem cell research have in common with Congressional intervention in Terri Schiavo's death and the death of the Sago coal mine workers in West Virginia? They all spring from dominionist ideology.

Stem cell research holds the potential to cure a host of disabling diseases. The Schiavo case was an attempt to extend a woman's life unnaturally, and the Sago mine accident led to untimely deaths. This so-called culture of life is actually about death -- unnatural or untimely, but all driven by dominionism.

D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries called on his followers to exercise "godly dominion" over every aspect of human society. At the same time as the government has been attempting to exercise "godly dominion," it has also been attempting to remove any regulations that interfere with business. In this spirit, President Bush appointed a coal mining lobbyist to rewrite coal mining regulations which ultimately led to the Sago mine tragedy in West Virginia. "Godly dominion" includes deregulation.

Part I of a series

What do dominionism and the Constitution in Exile movements have in common? Both believe that federal protections along with social programs are unconstitutional. Programs such as social security, public education, protection of the environment, minimum wage requirements or worker and consumer safety are unconstitutional. In otherwords, programs that interfere in any way with free enterprise are unconstitutional.

And, for dominionists, those programs are unbiblical as well. According to a dominionist textbook for Christian schools and the Christian homeschool movement, America's Providential History, "Scripture makes it clear that God is the provider, not the state." (p. 187)

4,500 delegates participated in the biennial gathering of the  Texas GOP this past weekend. As reported in The Dallas Morning News:

The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."
"We pledge to exert our influence ... [to] dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.

The Texas GOP Platform is not merely a document of extremist ideas. The proposals provide the backbone for both Bush administration policies and many legislative initiatives coming from our Republican-controlled Congress. The platform spells out a dominionist agenda , and, as such, is worthy of our attention..

One man was perhaps the most powerful Congressmen in U.S. history, the other was his Chief of Staff. But Ed Buckham was more than just Tom DeLay's powerful Chief of Staff. He was also Tom DeLay's spiritual advisor. They were devoted to bringing the United States "back to God."

Time Magazine reported last March that Ed Buckham, "a licensed nondenominational minister, was also DeLay's pastor... the two of them frequently prayed together privately, joining hands in DeLay's office."

NPR's Morning Edition (May 22) tells the story of Chris Geeslin, an evangelical pastor of a Maryland church, and his wife, who believed that through Buckham and DeLay they would help bring "the United States back to God."