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CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM: Threat to Liberty
by Jan Brazill
After the all-too-vivid tragedy of September 11, and the further threats from anthrax, Americans now recognize that our country is under attack. Most citizens want to stand together, supporting each other regardless of differing religious or philosophical beliefs. Displaying the unity of pluralism expressed in our country’s original motto, E Pluribus Unum (out of the many, one), some non-Muslim citizens of Colorado Springs went to the defense of our Muslim community against the threat of religious prejudice.
Now we need to be vigilant for another threat against our nation, coming not from overseas terrorists, but from those within who would change the basic structure of our country, modifying it to reflect one narrow religious view. For years they have opposed the constitutional principle of separating church and state, and now with a religious president and opportunistic friends in Congress, they seek to advance that agenda.
The October issue of Church & State, a publication of Americans United for Separation of Church & State, describes this threat. It shows that many Republican members of Congress are now showing favor to Christian Reconstructionists, the most extreme wing of the Religious Right -- a group whose views would be unbelievable to most Americans. They would impose their interpretation of "biblical law" on our country, replacing democracy with a theocratic state based on a literal reading of the Old Testament’s legal code. Reconstructionism would eliminate many of democracy’s manifestations, such as labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Political leaders would look to the bible, not the Constitution, as the nation’s governing document.
In the 1960’s, the writings of Rousas John Rushdoony made popular some of the more extreme opinions of Reconstructionism, such as advocating the death penalty for a number of offenses, among them striking or cursing a parent, adultery, homosexuality, "unchastity," witchcraft (shades of the Middle Ages!), blasphemy and propagation of "false" religious doctrines. Some of his followers even favor stoning as the biblically preferred means of execution. All would make our country a "Christian Nation," with no allowance for other views or religions.
The Promise Keepers group follows Reconstructionist teachings in their view of the family with wife and children "in submission" to the husband. President George W. Bush’s welfare guru, Marvin Olasky, was clearly influenced by this philosophy in his belief that churches, not the government, should provide for the poor.
The biggest current threat seems to be from the National Reform Association, whose president, Jeffrey Ziegler, is determined to become a political player in promoting Reconstructionism. He has met three times with members of Congress, once with staffers of our own Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. In July 2000 he met with Rep.Tom DeLay to plan an upcoming "biblical worldview" conference for congressional staff on Capitol Hill.
Ziegler feels that the Republican party is the best vehicle to accomplish his goal of establishing an officially "Christian" government, and has begun running Reconstructionist candidates. Observers note that these candidates have learned to downplay the controversial aspects of their philosophy and focus instead on more palatable pocketbook positions that appeal to voters. Thus many voters never realize their true intentions.
Reconstructionism represents a threat to each American’s guarantee of individual religious liberty. Losing that would be a disaster unequaled by any other.
[SOURCES:] Read articles referenced on Americans United’s website, www.au.org , October [2001] issue. For background on [“Christian] Reconstructionism, see Carlson [circa 2001] article on www.publiceye.org .
[Editor’s note.]
The essay, CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM: Threat to Liberty (above) by the long time and late Freethinkers of Colorado Springs member Jan Brazill, was originally published in the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs Freethought Views advertorial column in the Colorado Springs Independent in November of 2001 – about one short month after the religious fundamentalism-based September 11, 2001 attacks upon the American people and the United States of America.
Today, thanks to the January 6, 2021 forgery, fraud, and violence-based attack on the United States Capitol, more and more Americans understand the internal threat that organized anti-American religious fundamentalism in the form of “Christian” Nationalism (aka Seven Mountain “Christian” Dominionism, “Christian” Reconstructionism, “Christian” Dominion ”Theology,” etc.) present to the United States Constitution, the United States of America, and the American people. But as demonstrated by the 2001 article above by the longtime member of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, the late Jan Brazill, the threat that increasingly in-our-faces anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-Christian, and often apparently sex-obsessed “Christian” Nationalists (especially those proud, loud, and self-righteous “Christian” Nationalists who currently act as elected or appointed members of the United States government) remains - and has become even more of a threat some 20 years later.
Specifically, “Christian” Reconstructionists who call themselves “Christian” Nationalists in numerous elected positions in the United States government have passed, or are in the process of passing, numerous federal, state, and local laws regulating and criminalizing many of the American people’s most intimate sexual and reproductive processes such as abortion, gender affirming medical care, and in vitro fertilization, in violation of their oaths of office and in violation of at least the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 13th, and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. As an example, despite the fact abortion is literally life-saving in medical situations such as ectopic pregnancy and that the colloquially termed “miscarriages” and “stillbirths” are in reality spontaneous abortions under both medicine and law, anti-abortion laws in Texas provide for: payments of at least $10,000 to any person in any state who reports anyone who harbors even the intent of seeking an abortion; allows anyone to sue any person in Texas for facilitating an abortion; forces physicians to face loss of their medical licenses, $100,000 fines, and life in prison for performing often lie-saving abortions; the more of less de facto enslavement of pregnant women and underage girls to the deeply anti-Constitution and anti-Christian religious commands of the state; and forcing rape survivors to complete pregnancies for rapists – which basically enslaves rape survivors to rapists for life.
The very serious danger that self-described and “in the closet” “Christian” Nationalists present to the United States Constitution, the United States of America, and the American people have been recognized for decades by defenders of the separation of church and state and many other Americans (including actual Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ) who seek to support and defend our freedom of religion (such as our ability to worship in any way we personally choose or choose not to worship anything at all), our reproductive rights (such as numerous often life-saving medical, gynecological, and obstetric procedures), our personal bodily autonomy (such as the human right to control our own bodies in any way we choose), and many other of our most precious and hard-won civil rights and human freedoms. Today’s Heritage Foundation, “Christian” Reconstructionists and “Christian” Nationalist politicians have even published a 920 page book describing the “Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project” that describes in detail the “Christian” Nationalist plan to concentrate all political and social power in the United States in the hands of the presidency – what James Madison described in Federalist Papers Number 47 as “...the very definition of tyranny.”
In modern America (and especially in this election year), it is crucially and increasingly important that many more Americans be made aware of the serious threats that “Christian” Reconstructionism and “Christian” Nationalism etc. present to the United States government, the United States Constitution, and the precious and hard won civil rights and human freedoms of the American people. Note that “Christian” Nationalist’s “originalist” interpretation of the United States Constitution excludes the Bill of Rights, rejects more than 200 years of American jurisprudence, rejects more than 20 years of American legal precedent, and intends to invoke a form of “Christian” Sharia (religious) Law that is all but identical to Islamic Sharia Law.
Groff Schroeder
Editor, Freethought Views
Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
March 4, 2024
