I need to talk about the 81% of evangelical voters that elected Trump. I need to ask a few questions without worrying whether someone's religious heresy might take offense. In the same way that modern Islamic fundamentalism distorts and desacralizes the Muslim faith, modern Christian fundamentalism disembowels the tenets of Christianity from within. The main difference is now, our version of extremism has a nuclear-powered government backing it.
Welcome to the United States of Dominion.
Back in 2005, John Sugg reported on the rise of dominionism in suburban Atlanta. As Sugg observes:
Reconstruction’s major impact has been through helping to found and guide cross-denominational and secular political organ-izations. The Council for National Policy—a group that holds meetings for right-wing leaders, once dubbed “the most powerful conservative group you’ve never heard of”—was founded in 1981 as a project of top John Birch Society figures. Its members included Rushdoony, Gary North, Tim LaHaye, former Reagan aide Gary Bauer, and activist Paul Weyrich, who famously aimed to “overturn the present power structure of this country.”
Another group, the Coalition on Revival, brings together influential evangelicals to produce joint statements and theological white papers. North and DeMar are among the coalition’s most influential members; one of its founding documents is signed by 116 Christian right activists, including Rushdoony, mega-evangelist D. James Kennedy, and Roy Jones, a top staffer at the Republican Senatorial Committee.
Since limiting the franchise to Christian dominionist voters is a long-time policy goal, Reconstructionists have been particularly active in reducing voting rights and gerrymandering special districts. Their main think tank, the Chalcedon Foundation, is heavily financed by Howard Ahmanson and Nelson Bunker Hunt, both of whose families played key roles in financing electronic voting machine manufacturer Election Systems & Software.
More recently, Frederick Clarkson tracked the influence of Dominionist extremism in the 2016 election He traces Ted Cruz's rise through extremist camps, noting other prominent politicians in this movement:
Roy Moore, the elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, has been a rallying figure for dominionists of all stripes for the better part of two decades. Most recently, he has led efforts to exempt Alabama from federal court ordered compliance with marriage equality, citing his view of “God’s law.” Moore’s fellow Alabaman, Justice Tom Parker, has been on the court since 2004, and has employed theocratic legal theorist John Eidsmoe as his chief of staff. Others at the top of recent American political life have included Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich. Other prominent elected officials in the dominionist camp include Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX), Gov. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), and Rep. Steve King (R-IA).
As we know from other reporting, this movement has been increasingly normalized, helping to explain rising numbers of American Christians who purport a belief in creationism and young earth theology. Any young pastor that wants to attract new members and get into the pastor network will need money and support from these major groups.
Clarkson notes that "religious freedom has long been seen by dominionist strategists as a weakness of constitutional democracy that they can exploit to advance their agendas." Gary North has repeatedly, across decades and crowds and platforms and podiums, expressed his desire to fix the Constitution and create a neo-fascist Christian nation:
North believes that the Constitution generally, and specifically the proscription against religious tests for public office included in Article 6, are “legal barrier[s] to Christian theocracy.” But he envisions a day when biblically correct Christians gain enough political power to be able to amend the Constitution to limit access to the franchise and civil offices to “communicant members of Trinitarian churches.
On the Reconstructionist view, freedom from religion is its own religion, namely, the religion of Secularism. The stand-off between a "biblical worldview" and "secular humanism" has been drilled into the mind of many young American Christians, many of whom were raised never to question its logic or probe its insane esoterica.
Make no mistake, the 2016 election was conceived as a war to "restore America". Enter David Lane, a stalwart warrior. To quote Clarkson:
David Lane, a leading Christian Right electoral organizer, declared in a 2013 essay that religious war may be on the horizon. Meanwhile he has shifted the electoral emphasis of his Mississippi-based American Renewal Project. (The group hosts all-expenses paid policy briefings for clergy and their spouses, featuring top politicians like Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Gingrich, Huckabee, Cruz, and often David Barton. Republican presidential contender Donald Trump addressed one such event in August 2016.) They are currently recruiting and training clergy with a dominionist vision to run for office at all levels.
Lane shamelessly advertises his ability to influence voting. An April 2017 web article celebrates that American Renewal Project won two Pollie awards for "its evangelical turnout effort." He also authored his own pathetic Wikipedia entry. He makes no secret of his hatred for LGBTQ persons--in fact, he rests his laurels on that hatred.
While self-proclaimed prophet Jeremiah Johnson endorsed Trump as "God's choice" for President, most American evangelicals preferred to assert their beliefs after the election, in tinny statements like "We have to trust God" or "We believe God will work through Trump" or "Do you have a new jalapeno dip because my husband is tired of the old one".
In the same way that a Muslim fundamentalist who wishes to replace the Constitution with Sharia should not be offered a legislative seat, the Christian extremists need to be removed from the US government where they work to undermine civil society, rule of law, basic human rights, and US constitutionalism. Their mission is as clear as al Quada's--they want to destroy the secular West and replace it with a religious theocracy, ordained by God, led by men.
And their followers? Chances are, you will find them hidden behind shopping bags and bible studies, hating Hillary with all their ever-loving hearts, but never once asking G-d to forgive them. Because this is a war. And they are the silent majority.
