[Vision2020] Christian Reconstructionists Meet in North Carolina

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Good Morning Visionaries:

Note of Warning: this post mentions Doug Wilson, a local pastor who continues to influence the future of Moscow, a favorite topic of Latah Lounger.

Christian Reconstructionists and Dominion Theologians met for a national conference at a Southern Baptist Convention site in Asheville, North Carolina.  A full report from "Church and State" magazine can be read at http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=cs_&page=NewsArticle&id=9212.

Doug Wilson's right-hand theologian wrote a eulogy for Rousas J. Rushdoony, the founder of Christian Reconstruction.  Gary North, Rushdoony's son-in-law, was a keynote speaker. 

North believes that we should return to stoning as a form of capital punishment, even for disobedient children.  He has three main arguments for this: 1) It's biblical; 2) stones are plentiful; and 3) everyone can join in to express God's wrath.

One speaker enthralled the audience with his theory that aliens in UFOs are really angels, which of course come in good and evil forms.  See details below. 

Here are some excerpts from the article:

"Based in Powder Springs, Ga., American Vision also produces reams of material that push Christian Reconstructionism, a form of fundamentalism that argues for a re-writing of American history, dismantling secular democracy and constructing an America governed by "biblical law." Reconstructionists seek to impose the criminal code of the Old Testament, applying the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.
    "Despite its overtly radical theocratic agenda, American Vision is allied with some of the Religious Right's most powerful outfits. This year's conference was cosponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, a well-funded Religious Right lawyers' outfit that James Dobson and other religious broadcasters helped create; Michael Farris's Home School Legal Defense Association; the late TV preacher Jerry Falwell's Liberty University School of Law; and World Magazine, Marvin Olasky's influential evangelical Christian periodical."

North on stoning:

   "His plentiful material has left a track record of extremism. North has called for the death penalty, like Rushdoony did, for youngsters who curse their parents, gays and others who violate his interpretation of biblical law. He has argued that stoning is the preferred means of capital punishment, noting that it is a communal activity and "the implements of execution are available to everyone at virtually no cost." Writing for Reason magazine in 1998, Walter Olson observed that Reconstructionists like North "provide the most enthusiastic constituency for stoning since the Taliban seized Kabul."

UFOs and Angels:

"The evening featured one of the conference’s oddest presentations. Gary Bates, head of Creation Ministries International, spoke for well over an hour about his recent book Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Evolution Connection.

In a nutshell, Bates contends that the UFOs some Americans claim to see are not space aliens, but rather angels. Some of those angels are good, he indicated, and some of them are bad. He said that Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, and the Muslim prophet Mohammed had both been visited by fallen angels."

And we all thought that Gabriel was a good angels!  How foolish of us!