"Constitution" classes are a ploy being used all over the country.  What could be wrong with a class on our nation's Constitution (or state constitutions)?  These classes are taught from the viewpoint of "theocratic libertarianism," the Christian "Dominionist" belief that after the regulatory powers have been stripped from the federal government, society will be kept in check at the local and state level through strict adherence to their narrow interpretation of biblical law.

American's United's Rob Boston (a contributor to Talk2action) and Deborah A. Jeon, of the Maryland ACLU, both commented in the Baltimore Sun article on their respective organizations' opposition to the class. It is being paid for with public funds and public employees are being coerced to attend.

Institute on the Constitution

The Institute producing the Constitution course was co-founded by brothers Michael and Stephen Peroutka and is housed at their law offices.  Michael Peroutka was the 2004 presidential candidate for the Constitution Party. Formerly called the U.S. Taxpayers Party, the party was founded by Howard Phillips, and its goals include restoring "our law to its biblical foundations." Stephen Peroutka is chairman of the National Pro-Life Action Center and on the board of the Conservative Caucus (also founded by Howard Phillips).

The Institute on the Constitution's website is titled "The American View" and media
outreach includes a radio program by the same name hosted by Peroutka and  John Lofton. The theme of the radio show is that it is the duty of civil government to protect "God-given rights," to "acknowledge God" and to "make God known," and the duty of the citizen to oppose or abolish any government that infringes on those rights.

The Institute also offers training on jury nullification, which is encouraging jury members to oppose laws they believe are not valid under their interpretation of the Constitution. David Whitney, who will teach the Carroll County Constitution course, takes credit for training aspiring politicians and a Tea Party leader in New Jersey through the classes offered by the Institute.  

If you browse through the webpages of the Institute on the Constitution, you'll find numerous writings by other leading Christian Reconstructionist writers, including Rushdoony on "The Meaning of Theocracy." Rushdoony wrote,

In reality, theocracy in Biblical law is the closest thing to a radical libertarianism that can be had.

This is the curious draw of theocratic libertarianism - the idea that it will provide freedom from the state.

Whitney, like many Christian Reconstructionists, claims that Abraham Lincoln was a "murderous tyrant" who "fomented" an unnecessary war, including in one of The American View radio programs with Lofton and Whitney.  

They promote a book on Lincoln written by Thomas DiLoreno and marketed at the Institute on the Constitution's online store.  

In DiLorenzo's book, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, DiLorenzo claims that the Civil War was an imperialistic effort of "dishonest Abe" to destroy the free market economy of the South. DiLorenzo is faculty at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a center for Austrian School Economics. (In his first hearing as chair of the House Financial  Services Committe, Rep. Ron Paul had two Austrian School economists speak, including DiLorenzo.)

Like many Dominionists, the Christian Reconstructionists leading and promoted by the Institute on the Constitution have a neo-Confederate outlook.  David Whitney is described by the Baltimore Sun as a "conservative pastor," but he is the chaplain for both the Maryland League of the South and the Southern National Congress. The former is designated as a neo-confederate hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the latter holds annual conferences of delegates from Southern states. The first congress in 2008 was advertised as,

The SNC is a representative assembly of citizens of the Southern States, providing an alternative, legitimate forum to express Southern grievances and advance Southern interests in a way that is no longer possible through today's political process or the major political parties.

The SNC has produced a manifesto including the following.

"We believe the South is not only an authentic nation, but also the last authentic Western civilization in the historic sense of the word, especially in contrast to today's America, with its militant secularism, tawdry commercialism, and infantile celebrity worship that pass for civilization. We have little in common with the people of Boston, New York, San Francisco, or Seattle. If these States want homosexual "marriage," if they want to turn their children over to the government to raise, if they want to sink into socialist dependency, if they want to submerge their communities in aliens from the Third World, if they want to disarm and render themselves helpless before criminals or a predatory state (assuming they can tell the difference), that's their choice. But it's not what we Southerners choose, or would choose if we had the chance.

The manifesto continues, with claims that the "Southern Nation" is oppressed.

130 years ago the last occupying Federal troops left the South after Reconstruction. ("Reconstruction" was the Yankee word for looting what they missed stealing or destroying during the War). Yet today we're still occupied; not by foreign troops, but by an alien and hostile ideology, and by all the commercial and political power it commands. Like any people under occupation, Southerners have shown the usual varied responses. Many of us resist the best we can, keeping the spirit of liberty alive. For every Confederate flag or monument that comes down, we raise a dozen new ones in our hearts. Others are crushed in spirit; and when the conqueror, having taken their goods, then tries to rob them of their dignity, telling them they're worthless, lazy, depraved, bigoted, and ignorant, they believe it and willingly accept second-class status in the Empire.

In an episode of The American View radio, Lofton interviewed Whitney about his attendance at the Southern National Congress in 2009.

The Institute on the Constitution/The American View website has a "Profiles in Courage" page  that includes the late Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Reconstructionist who introduced bills in the Georgia legislature for everything from abolishing drivers' licenses to requirements for women to present evidence that any miscarriage occurred naturally or face felony charges.  

The institute's website includes numerous contributions and links to sermons from other Reconstructionists including William Einwechter and Joseph Morecraft III.  These include claims that women holding public office is a violation of "creation order. Other articles attack public schools as Satan's way of destroying Christianity.

The Institute on the Constitution leaders promote and attend Reconstructionist events. In a 2006 website post, John Lofton summarizes an American Vision Conference, including speeches from leading Reconstructionists Gary DeMar and Gary North.

This is the organization behind a course that Carroll County Maryland is paying for with public funds and coercing public employees to attend. This is a course taught by theocrats - ones who teach that Abraham Lincoln was a monster and that good Americans must oppose our government if it does not enforce their "biblical worldview."  

Also see:
For a better understanding of how Dominionists believe that they will gradually gain control of American society, read a previous Talk2action.org article with quotes from Christian Reconstructionist writer Gary North,  son-in-law of Rousas Rushdoony and a scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute.