US REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS' LINKS TO 2 PRO-DICTATORSHIP GROUPS

As the 2 pro-dictatorship, far right religious groups which this article discusses have little known close links to former President George W. Bush, I ought to point out first of all, that they are certainly not irrelevant fringe organisations.

In "The Guardian" of November 7, 2006, you could read that, "Kofi Annan will this week put a former leading "Moonie" in charge of the UN's biggest humanitarian aid agency after vigourous lobbying by the Bush administration.

"Josette Sheehan is to be appointed executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), according to diplomatic and UN sources.

"Ms Sheehan, also known by her married name Shiner, was a member of the Rev Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church for more than 20 years. She became one of its most influential figures as managing editor of the Washington Times newspaper, which was founded by Mr Moon."

It is not at all surprising that the Bush Administration should have been lobbying for a former Moonie to be appointed to a top UN job, because the October 1996 issue of the Moon cult's newsletter, "Unification News", reported that then Texas Governor George W. Bush, had sent a congratulatory letter to the Moonies' Women's Federation for World Peace, when they held a large banquet in Texas.

Moreover, the April 29, 2007 issue of the American magazine "Mother Jones", revealed in its article, "Bush Sr. to Celebrate Rev. Sun Myung Moon - Again", that in 1996, George W. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, had given a speech in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to help Reverend Moon to launch his "Tiempos del Mundo" ("World Times") Latin American newspaper, before accompanying Moon to open a seminary in Uruguay; that George W. Bush's brother Neil's educational company was given $1 million by a Moon foundation; and that the "Houston Chronicle" had found evidence that George H. W. Bush's Presidential library was given $1 million by Moon's Washington Times Foundation, via a funding front, the Greater Houston Community Foundation.

The article also discussed other Moonie links to the Republican Party.

Those links explain why in the article, "Moonie leader 'crowned' in Senate" ("The Guardian", June 26, 2004), you could read: "The US Senate was used for a bizarre ritual in which the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the head of the Unification church, was "crowned" and declared himself the messiah in the presence of more than a dozen Republican and Democratic members of Congress, it was reported yesterday."

The involvement of Democrats, who are generally more secular than Republicans, in the "crowning" of Reverend Moon as a new "messiah", might sound strange to some people, but in another "Guardian" article, "France to crack down on sects" (June 14, 2000), you could learn that, "France is to defy President Bill Clinton's appeal to be more tolerant of religious sects and introduce draconian laws, including an offence of "mental manipulation" - brainwashing - which will carry a two-year prison sentence.

"President Jacques Chirac has told Mr Clinton that religious freedom will no longer be a subject for bilateral presidential talks, in the light of what has officially been described as "shocking" White House support for the Scientologists and Moonies."

While the Moonies are a very extreme far right group who advocate the worldwide abolition of democracy, and its replacement with a global Moonie theocratic dictatorship, George W. Bush is also closely linked to an even more sinister far right pro-theocratic dictatorship group than the Moonies, the Christian Reconstruction Movement, a splinter group from the far right wing of Texas Presbyterianism, who are so extreme, because they openly advocate stoning to death people who "Old Testament law", or "Mosaic law" (the law of Moses) says should be killed, that most people who research American Christian far right groups, see them as an irrelevant fringe group, which is a pity, as they have secret supporters at the very top of the Republican Party, and as they influence other, more mainstream right wing Christians.

In his book, "God's Own Country: Tales from the Bible Belt" (Hodder and Staughton, London, 2007), Stephen Bates states: "[The late Rousas John] Rushdoony and his Reconstructionist ideas have had a pervasive background effect on many leaders of the Religious Right, even though they are aware that they are too extreme to be espoused publicly. In a Reconstructionist America there would be no tolerance for other religions, no public education or welfare and public execution by stoning for a range of 'crimes' such as homosexuality and adultery. Even the restoration of slavery - as mandated in the ["Old Testament" of the] Bible [in, for example, "Exodus" 21:1-4, and 21:7, and "Leviticus" 25:44-46] - could be considered. Nevertheless, 'though we hide their books under the bed, we read them just the same', as one evangelical said." (pp.256-257)

Anyone who thinks that the Republican leadership would keep its distance from a crazy group like that, ought to know that nothing could be further from the truth.

Craig Unger, whose "House of Bush, House of Saud" book about the Bush family's close links to the Saudi royal family, another far right group whose holy book also endorses slavery, in, for example, the verses 2:178, 4:92, and 16:95, was the key source for Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11", pointed out in his book, "The Fall of the House of Bush: How George W. Bush and the True Believers Put America on the Road to Armageddon" (Simon and Schuster, London, 2007), that, "To give the benediction at the Fifty-fourth Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, Bush chose Jack Hayford, a California Charismatic who was involved in the the Promise Keepers, the men's revival group, and was a supporter of Christian Reconstruction, or Dominionism. Another Dominionist believer, Anthony J. Evans of of Dallas, served as the speaker at the preinaugural Washington Prayer Luncheon." (p.193)

Did those 2 men get those important jobs by chance? No, of course not, they were chosen because George W. Bush secretly shares their views.

That is why he has also has links to Reverend Moon, who says that "gays will be eliminated" in "a purge on God's orders" when his "peace kingdom" is established, as this article on the American liberal website salon.com points out:

 http://www.salon.com/2004/06/21/moon_7/

If you simply cannot believe that George W. Bush is secretly in favour of stoning people to death, and the reintroduction of slavery, you can read "The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam" (HarperCollins, London, 2001) by Karen Armstrong, who also states that the Reconstructionists support stoning people to death, and the reintroduction of slavery: "...the Reconstructionists are training themselves to take control when the secular humanist state is destroyed. Their vision is a complete distortion of Christianity in its abandonment of the ethos of compassion. When the Kingdom comes, there will be no more separation of church and state; the modern heresy of democracy will be abolished, and society reorganized on strictly biblical lines. This means that every single law of the Bible will be put literally into practice. Slavery will be introduced; there will be no more birth control (since believers must "increase and multiply"); adulterers, homosexuals, blasphemers, astrologers, and witches will all be put to death. Children who are persistently disobedient must also be stoned, as the Bible enjoins. A strictly capitalist economy must be enforced; socialists and those who incline to the left are sinful. God is not on the side of the poor. Indeed, as [Rousas John Rushdoony's Reconstructionist nephew Gary] North explains, there is a "tight relationship between wickedness and poverty." Taxes should not be used in welfare programs, since "subsidizing sluggards is the same as subsidizing evil." The same goes for the Third World, which has brought its economic problems on its own head because of its addiction to moral perversity, paganism, and demonology. Foreign aid is forbidden by the Bible. While waiting for victory - which North admits may be some time off - Christians must prepare to rebuild society according to God's blueprint and must support government policies which approximate to these strict biblical norms." (p.161)

You can also read about Rushdoony's support for slavery on the website of an Alabama civil rights law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center, who monitor hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Reconstructionists, and the Reconstructionists' Chalcedon Foundation think tank, and sue them, and their activists, for huge amounts of compensation if they engage in violent hate crimes:

 http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2005/spring/a-mighty-army?page=0,1

Of course, as a former adviser to President Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, pointed out on page 319 of his book, "The Clinton Wars: An Insider's Account of the White House Years" (Penguin, London, 2003), Rousas John Rushdoony was a Holocaust denier, so it is rather odd that he should have been a supporter of Jewish Old Testament law.

The just cited SPLC webpage, also discusses Rushdoony's Holocaust denial, as well as his general racism, and support for slavery.

Because Gary North believes that, "Christians must prepare to rebuild society according to God's blueprint and must support government policies which approximate to these strict biblical norms", to cite Karen Armstrong again, it is of course not surprising that George W. Bush did what he could when he was in power to make the US more like the kind of theocratic dictatorship that the Reconstructionists want, as Esther Kaplan's book, "With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House" (The New Press, New York, 2004) explains.

Her book mentions a number of Reconstructionist, and Reconstructionism influenced people, including the George W. Bush adviser Marvin Olasky, whose books cite Rushdoony, North, and 2 other Reconstructionists, Gary DeMar and George Grant, and whose "World" magazine employed Grant as a columnist.

Marvin Olasky was described in the pro-evolution, anti-creationism article, "Can chimps stop suicide bombers?", which was published by the Asian branch of the Reverend Moon owned UPI news agency, as "...the "spiritual advisor" of George W. Bush...", which explains why Bush wrote the foreword to Olasky's book, "Compassionate Conservatism: What It Is, What It Does, And How It Can Transform America" (Free Press, New York, 2000).

Because Rushdoony, and other Reconstructionists who Olasky approvingly cites in his books, support the dismantling of the welfare state, "compassionate conservatism" is of course either Orwellian double talk, or simply plain ignorance. Even with a welfare state as weak as the USA's, homelessness, and lack of access to health care, are notorious problems, and they would get far worse if the Reconstructionists were running the government.

Homelessness began of course to rocket after Republicans led by the Newt Gingrich, who wrote the foreword to Olasky's book, "Renewing American Compassion: How Compassion for the Needy Can Turn Ordinary Citizens into Heroes" (Free Press, New York, 1996), introduced the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which introduced new extra time limits for social security payments, and which was signed into law by Democrat friend of the Moonies President Clinton, but Gingrich and Clinton only introduced new extra time limits for social security payments, whereas the Reconstructionists want to end such payments, and all public spending on health care and education. As a result, they are a major influence on the home schooling movement, which is dominated by far right Christian fundamentalists.

George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are of course figures from the political past, as they are no longer politicians, but most of the more recent top Republicans are also allegedly Reconstructionism linked. Sarah Palin for example, allegedly holds Reconstructionist views, according to former religious Right activist Frank Schaeffer:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/killing-ugandas-gays-the_b_378350.html

Sarah Palin also used to be in the same fringe party as Reconstructionism's founder, and another prominent CRM activist.

The "Daily Telegraph" article, "John McCain's running mate was in Alaskan independence party" (September 2, 2008), reveals that Sarah Palin used to be a member of the Alaska Independence Party, and Frederick Clarkson, an American journalist whose research on far right American Christians is often cited in major American newspapers, points out on his blog, that the AIP is the Alaska affiliate of the far right Constitution Party, whose past members include Rousas John Rushdoony, and other Reconstructionists, including Randall Terry, a well known anti-abortion activist, who has said that abortionists should be executed:

 http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/2/1938/63427

As "The Old Testament" says that abortionists should be killed, they are of course also on the death list of the Reconstructionists, who bizarrely claim to be "pro-life", although they are in favour of stoning persistently disobedient children, and other types of people to death, although "The Old Testament" hero Abraham was ready to kill his own own son Isaac in a human sacrifice, until God told him to sacrifice a lamb instead ("Genesis" 22: 1-13), and although an "Old Testament" judge, Jepthah, promises God that he will make a human sacrifice of the first person who greets him after he returns from a battle, which results in him sacrificing his own daughter ("Judges" 11: 29-40).

Another top Republican of today is Mike Huckabee, whose alleged links to 3 different Reconstructionists are discussed in these 3 articles:

 http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2008/01/18/huckabee/

 http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/23/105453/278

 http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/01/06/1249

Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are also allegedly CRM linked:

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/14/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perry-s-dangerous-religious-bond.html

So are Ron Paul and Rick Santorum:

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/02/ron-paul-s-christian-reconstructionist-roots.html

 http://www.politicususa.com/rick-santorum-council-national-policy.html

Up in Canada, the current Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who is seen as more of an American Republican than a traditional Canadian Conservative, is also allegedly linked to the Reconstructionists, through the secretive Council on National Policy, which brings together Reconstructionists, Moonie supporters, and more mainstream top Republicans.

Here is the full text of Harper's speech to a 1997 CNP meeting in Montreal:

 http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SpecialEvent7/20051213/elxn_harper_speech_text_051214/

The involvement of Reverend Moon and Christian Reconstruction Movement founder Rousas John Rushdoony in the CNP is discussed in the below article:

 http://www.au.org/resources/religious-right/council-for-national-policy

This article on an American liberal website, argues that the CRM ("Dominionists") actually set up the CNP, and if that claim is true, it further illustrates the fact that far right extremism is the norm in the higher echelons of today's Republican Party, because the CNP's name, and secretive meetings, indicate that it draws up new policies for more mainstream top Republicans:

 http://www.politicususa.com/rick-santorum-council-national-policy.html

It is not only American and Canadian politics which are being negatively affected by the influence of the Reconstructionists and the Moonies either. The fact that Uganda's Parliament is still considering a bill which would introduce the death penalty for gay sex is well known, but it is far less well known that Scott Lively, an American pastor who runs Abiding Truth Ministries in Springfield, Massachusetts, and who has written several articles for the Reconstructionists' Chalcedon Foundation, has been a key inspiration for the execute gay men bill, as a Southern Poverty Law Center webpage about homophobic hate groups, and an American liberal website reveal:

 http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners

 http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v27n1/ScottLively.html

 http://www.publiceye.org/publications/globalizing-the-culture-wars/index.php

Rick Warren, an American pastor who Barack Obama invited to give the invocation at his 2009 inauguration, refuses to condemn the execute gays bill, and allegedly holds Reconstructionist views, according to former religious Right activist Frank Schaeffer, which again illustrates the fact that the Republican Party does not have a monopoly on links to far right extremism:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/profile-rick-warren

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/rick-warren-refuses-to-co_n_373605.html

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/killing-ugandas-gays-the_b_378350.html

Because the leaders of the American Right have, or allegedly have little known close links to 2 far right groups who want to destroy democracy and kill gay men, it is not surprising that a very right wing US intelligence agency is responsible for the biggest far right, homophobic, covert crime in history, which has been driving people across the entire world in a politically fascist direction for 3 decades, as I explain in this article:

 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/05/496511.html