Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Do The Theocracy Sliiiiiiide/be bop a lou bop

---for class, I was asked...is Nationalism an ideology?---



I say quite absolutely yes. To take even a cursory glance at a google search for ‘Christian nationalism’, for example, would show that a pattern of beliefs and values most certainly coalesce to ‘infect’ the American political process in an attempt to make civil law more like biblical law. Here is an easy example: other students may have walked across the quad over the last two days and seen the Project Truth display that was intended to scare people away from considering abortion as a choice, even though law currently is quite clear, Constitutionally: abortion is legal. 


But in an effort to sway public opinion to the ends of making abortion not only illegal, but, according to at least three of the members I spoke with, a crime punishable by the American legal system, this group continually accosted students with a pamphlet describing abortion as worse than slavery and akin to ‘womb-lynching.’ What is the penalty for the woman who has an abortion prior to 20 weeks? I pressed….God will decide. See where I am going with this? 

Nationalism can be defended as an ideology, as I have shown, but I can agree for the sake of argument that it is a thin ideology in that it does take on characteristics of the ideology it is attached to. I believe my example shows this as well, in that there is a ‘good’ American Nationalism that we can all agree gives us warm fuzzies (national anthem before a game, etc.) but when this is connected at the hip to fundamental evangelical Christianity, it becomes a danger to the legitimacy of our Government. The law is the law; God’s 'law' is for people who believe in him to follow. 

To force American law to bend to Dueteronomy and Leviticus, as this group contends it should, would change us from a democracy to a theocracy.


Nationalism is a component within an individual ideology. I would challenge you, fellow readers and researchers, to look at my example of Christian Nationalism, wherein a strain of Christianity called Dominionism is attempting in America what is essentially a bloodless coup. The strategy is to place 'prayer warriors' in positions of power within society and within the political process, and while it is the Christianity they ascribe to that leads them to pursue this strategy, it is our system of democracy that they use to accomplish this aim (particularly in places like Texas and North Carolina). This is nationalism; they obviously feel an intense sense of belonging and justifiable respect. They even say they are patriots trying to return the country to God.

Dominionists believe strongly that man is not fit to govern man, that government is where evil is either restrained or endorsed. Yet the system they intend to tear down is the SYSTEM they are using. They may not realize it, but this, their USE of democracy is a show of pride in the democratic system we practice in America. 
 
Linked is an amazing story, following is a short quote from within Bruce Wilson's article: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2013/9/11/131924/748

"But North also claims to have helped develop Ron Paul's grand political strategy. According to Dr. North, Ron Paul's presidential runs in 2008 and 2012 were part of a stealth, long term strategy which in 2008 - Phase 1 of the strategy, "raised over $28 million, assembled a huge data base -- a postage-free data base -- and got network TV interviews all over YouTube". North went on to describe "Phase 2" - a stealth strategy with several components. One was for Ron Paul supporters to run for government office, at every level - from town "dogcatcher" and up the line. Another was the creation of a Ron Paul homeschool curriculum. We can see the first in play starting in 2010, with the Tea Party wave that swept far-right Republicans into power in Congress and in many U.S. states."

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