Dominionist Christianity
I uploaded yesterday's blog (and found that due to some server glitch it didn't appear). Then, feeling that I had done enough business with one or two of the messages from our lost planet, I took myself a glass of wine and checked to see if Google had indexed g.o.r.i.l.l.a.blog yet (it seems to be taking an age) I searched for a unique piece of my text 'we all live in Israel now' and what came up was this page.
'We all Live on the West Bank'. a blog page by Janine Roberts that is essentially making the same point as my page - that Israel's intransigence has resulted in the export of the style and content of their conflict to the rest of the world.
Some short but eloquent notes follow on the religious discrimination that Israel practices that would, as Janine Roberts points out, be illegal almost everywhere else.
Further down her page I followed this link:
The Despoiling of America - How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
by Katherine Yurica
It's hard to convey the extent to which I felt gobsmacked by this piece, perhaps that was what was intended, and I will be duly sceptical.
However, The Despoiling of America is a long, referenced article. It supports with chapter and verse what I had previously felt were intuitions, lacking in evidence, of the extent to which christian fundamentalism in the US was allied, even fused with neo-conservatives there and pursuing autocratic, world domination agendas. I wouldn't have dared coin the phrase 'Domionism'... but Yurica presents evidence enough.
Here are some quotes from the article: (but do read it for yourself)
As Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court explained ... the Bible teaches and Christians believe "... that government... derives its moral authority from God. Government is the 'minister of God' with powers to 'revenge,' to 'execute wrath,' including even wrath by the sword..."
It is estimated that thirty-five million Americans who call themselves Christian, adhere to Dominionism in the United States, but most of these people appear to be ignorant of the heretical nature of their beliefs and the seditious nature of their political goals. So successfully have the televangelists and churches inculcated the idea of the existence of an outside "enemy," which is attacking Christianity, that millions of people have perceived themselves rightfully overthrowing an imaginary evil anti-Christian conspiratorial secular society.
Dominionism started with the Gospels and turned the concept of the invisible and spiritual "Kingdom of God" into a literal political empire that could be taken by force, starting with the United States of America. Discarding the original message of Jesus and forgetting that Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world," the framers of Dominionism boldly presented a Gospel whose purpose was to inspire Christians to enter politics and execute world domination so that Jesus could return to an earth prepared for his earthly rule by his faithful "regents."
But the Dominionists needed the aberrant extension of Calvinism; they believe as did Calvin and John Knox that before the creation of the universe, all men were indeed predestined to be either among God's elect or were unregenerate outcasts. And it is at this point Dominionists introduced a perversion to Calvinism... its technical name is "supralapsarianism." It means essentially that the man called from before the foundation of the world to be one of the elect of God's people, can do no wrong. No wonder then observers noted a definite religious swing in George W. Bush from Wesleyan theology to Calvinism early in his administration.
All this and the pages listed below look to be essential reading for anyone trying to figure out how anyone could conceivably combine global domination with Jesus-style love. It turns out the recipe, a purified form of Calvinism, is well established, even hugely popular in the US, if also well hidden.
As of today it has the effect of me telling myself that now I can pause, stop digging in this patch and direct you to Katherine Yurica's article and the sites below and doubtless others as they emerge.
Religious Right Watch. More dominion!
...and if this wasn't enough there is 'Christian Reconstructionists - Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence. This is an earlier article, pre-Bush, pre the neo-con infiltration of the US administration, that draws a picture of the origins of US fundamentalism, brought up to date in 'The Despoiling of America'.