A Theocratic Star Flames Out
The fall of Phillips's ministry comes less than a year after the death of his father Howard Phillips, a founder of the contemporary Religious Right, a leading Christian Reconstructionist political leader, and founder of the Constitution Party. The senior Phillips had also served as vice-chairman of the board of Vision Forum. (Doug Phillips' brother Brad Phillips remains involved in theocratic politics internationally via his Persecution Project Foundation and as Sudan country director for Voice of the Martyrs.) Doug Phillips has been a leading figure in the Christian homeschooling movement, conservative Christian film making, and a fixture at state homeschooling conventions for many years. Abby Ohlheiser of The Atlantic Wire has an excellent summary of the Vision Forum situation and what it means.
Vision Forum's work centered around the "restoration of the Christian household." In short, the organization enforced what it would argue is a Biblicly-based family structure where the husband serves as the spiritual and practical head of the household. His wife and children, especially any daughters not yet of marrying age, live under his dominion. Phillips's family, like the well-known Duggars, were also practicing Quiverfull adherents. That movement holds up procreation as the highest calling for (properly married) women, meaning that Quiverfull families grow quite large. Phillips has eight children, and the Duggars have 19 kids. Adherents usually home-school their children, rejecting the notion that anyone but the family and God should have input into a child's education. Family is central to, and the mission of, Vision Forum's entire reason for existence. Indeed. Phillips writes that he is turning his personal blog into the Vision Forum blog, and will publish the writings of others, undoubtedly to draw traffic to the site to sell books, tapes and videos -- for example, novels for boys by neo-confederate theocrat, Douglas Wilson ("three-book treasure chest is packed to the bulwarks with adventure, history, and strong Christian morals"). Whatever else his ministry has been, and no matter how far his fall from grace, he has still got a business to run, providing theocratic products for the Christian homeschooling market.
A Theocratic Star Flames Out | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden)
A Theocratic Star Flames Out | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden)
|
||||||||||||
|