This is in reply to the article, "The Covert Kingdom -
Thy Will be Done, On Earth as It is in
Let's call mine, "Primer on Christian Reconstruction and
Postmillennialism."
Mr. Bageant's piece has more wind than light.
He lumps several religious groups together for
ridicule. These groups share more dissimilarities than
commonalities. For those who will not
take the time to read his article, let me say he criticizes such believers as
the Pentecostals, Bible Baptists, “conservative
and charismatic Christians,” “evangelical
born-again Christians,” fundamentalists like those living in Iraq or Syria,
“with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets,”
believers in “Armageddon and The Rapture,” believers in “Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism,”
the “charismatic movement,” people who allegedly believe that the “Bible
infallibility should be enforced upon all other people,” students of “Jerry Fallwell's
[sic] Liberty University,” people from the Pat Robertson School of Government,
believers in "Confederate
Christian values," readers of “the Left Behind series” -- lumping
them all together as “ignorant,
intolerant voters called ‘the religious right’," the “strategists whose ‘stealth ideology’ managed the takeover
of the Republican Party in the early 1990s.”
Bageant’s stated goal is for the rest of us to
understand these religious types so we can understand American politics. I use quotes liberally, folks, because like
Dave Barry I want you to know I’m not making this up. And I hate to be read as a tacky, stuffy
academic, but if you’re gonna knock Jerry Falwell,
just, please, learn how to spell his name correctly.
But first, my credentials to speak write on this. I am not a senior
editor at any kind of History Group. I got a bachelor's and a law degree,
but didn't learn any of this there.
First of all, I'm a liberal-leaning Democratic county chair in
I became a born-again Christian in 1969 and by 1976 had discovered the
Christian Reconstructionist writings of R.J. Rushdoony, who was a presbyterian,
but was not a fundamentalist or a rapturist or a
charismatic. Rushdoony believed (he died in his 80s a couple years ago) that a
Christian is as a Christian does, that is, you practice what you preach.
I think he'd be a Democrat today.
It is true Rushdoony's writings became more known
after 1973, because he wrote that Christianity should be relevant to all of
life, including politics, but also things like the arts and architecture and
everything else.
Around 1973, American evangelicalism started to awake from what I will call a
fundamentalist slumber in which culture had been abandoned since around 1920,
because all that was considered important during those 50+ years was getting
people saved from the flames of hell. American evangelicalism was
re-introduced to the cultural implications of the Christian gospel by issues
like abortion and home-schooling. The Republicans were more discerning of
the potential strength of these issues than the Democrats and started putting
appealing planks in their platform on such issues in 1980 with Reagan.
But nothing significant was ever done, and the power elites remained in control
of the candidates and the money on the Republican side, just as before.
Newt Gingrich's takeover in 1994 had nothing to do with
Christian values, although his movement conned many Christians to support
it. The only issue since 1994 on which the Christian Right has had any
influence was knee-jerk support for
The pro-lifers on the Republican side have been content with
a plank supporting them although nothing has been done in the 30+ years since
Roe v. Wade. Democrats have missed the boat by failing to point out to
the pro-lifers that both parties are really pro-choice, but only one of them
(us) has been honest about it.
Again, Rushdoony and his Reconstructionist movement was not Rapturist, but
postmillennial. The "postmill" view
had nothing to do with supporting
People like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and most fundamentalists and Rapturists rarely missed a chance to distance themselves
from Rushdoony and Christian Reconstruction. Rushdoony and Reconstruction
would have called them to live too consistently and less hypocritically as
Christians. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstruction would have urged them to
take care of the poor, instead of aligning themselves politically with the rich
power elites in the Republican Party.
People miss the point of Rushdoony and Christian Reconstruction by nit-picking
about strange fringe issues perceived by modern culture as draconian in the
Bible and asking, "What about this?" Bill Moyers
interviewed Rushdoony on a TV special 20 years ago and asked him whether he'd
implement all the Old Testament moral laws. Rushdoony's
presuppositional position was -- how can any creature
improve on God? But he saw Moyers' trap and
said, "No, I wouldn't, because I'm a sinner...." The prospect of a restored Edenic world order overwhelmed even Rushdoony, who
nevertheless dreamed of such things.
All this ranting about Old Testament stoning is an example of such misguided
nit-picking. But let's take a positive example of a Biblical worldview
and see how it applied when this country was founded and still does. The
Old Testament jubilee principle said, basically, all debts are forgiven every 7
years. Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying it was ever followed,
even in Biblical history. Just as it was against the law to murder, when
King David had Bathsheeba's husband killed, but there
was no one available to
punish him. And I won't argue that implementing that now would not cause
vast disruptions in our banking industry today. But there was a principle
there -- debts should be forgiven every 7 years. The founding fathers
were Biblically literate and familiar with that principle, so they put
bankruptcy in the constitution. And it remains our law that bankruptcy
liquidation cannot be taken but once every 7 years. Not everybody does it, otherwise no one would lend any money in the 6th
year. But for those who are hopelessly buried in debt and can never repay
it, the law is there as blessed relief to
them.
Pointing out such parallels was what Rushdoony and Reconstruction were all
about. Parallels that would improve life for all, not
just Christians.
*Attorney/Mediator/Arbitrator
Taylor County Democratic Chair
Writer/Editor/Consultant
3929 N 11th St. (deliveries)
POB 3311 (mail)
(325) 677-4343
Fax 677-5552