Emblematic of this goal are the Ten Commandments monuments and posters that are springing up on public property all around the country.   Today, the Decalogue has become the foremost symbol for both American Christian Nationalism and for Dominionist biblical morality.  It is the chief icon of the culture war in this nation.

Southern Baptist political organizers like Rick Scarborough of Vision America have been sponsoring rallies throughout the country around Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument, organizing rallies to influence judicial appointments and legislation in Washington, D.C., and recruiting "patriot pastors" to get out the vote.   Most of his "patriot pastors" come from the ranks of the breakaway Southern Baptists of Texas (-- comprised mostly of the Texas fundamentalist pastors who led the successful takeover of the SBC, but who were prevented by  Mainstream Baptists from taking over the moderate Baptist General Convention of Texas), Independent Fundamental Baptists, and the Assemblies of God.

Baptist denomination executives like Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, are giving weekly advice to the White House and exerting concerted pressure on the judiciary whenever they decide against the elevation of their symbols:

Land said of the Kentucky courthouse decision, "If we allow the continuation of the brazen power grab of this judicial oligarchy masquerading as a Supreme Court, it will fundamentally alter our freedom and liberties. It is time for the American people to rise up and demand that we want government of the people, by the people and for the people back. We have not ceded our freedom and liberty to the imperial Supreme Court."

2)   Strengthen patriarchically ordered families.

In 1998 the Southern Baptist Convention added a statement on the family to the Baptist Faith and Message, a confession of faith commonly accepted in SBC churches.  That statement mandated that wives "graciously submit" to their husbands.  The SBC then enforced that mandate by terminating every professor, missionary and employee who refused to agree with it.

In the secular political realm, Southern Baptists support patriarchically ordered families by opposing legislation affirming equal rights for women.

3)  Close the public schools and make parents totally responsible for the education of their children.

This issue be brought before the Southern Baptist Convention again next week.  For the past three years, denominational leaders have attempted to suppress open discussion of this issue.  Each year, however, advocates for a resolution encouraging all Southern Baptists to exit the public schools have returned with stronger support.  Currently, the most influential SBC leader for this movement is Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who was once described as the "Baptist Pope" by Paige Patterson -- an architect of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

4)  Require "tithes" to ecclesiastical agencies to provide welfare services.

There once was a time when all Southern Baptists were totally opposed to supporting any ecclesiastical agency out of the public treasury.  That was before the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC and before the SBC severed ties with the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty.  

Today some Southern Baptist Churches are enlisting to receive funds made available through President Bush's faith-based initiatives.  Last year, Second Baptist Church in Houston -- whose pastor became President of the SBC after the takeover -- donated a million dollars to help the victims of hurricane Katrina -- under the proviso that the church be given the right to coordinate, and thereby control, all the resources of public relief efforts in Houston.

5) Reduce the role of government to defense of the nation and the defense of property rights.

Southern Baptist political organizers like Scarborough are vociferous about the threat of big government (Enough is Enough, p. 113), about OSHA regulations bankrupting business (p. 109-110), and about the EPA undermining man's right to exercise "dominion over the earth" (p. 110-11).  In a book mailed to every Southern Baptist church in the state of Texas with the recommendation of three former Presidents of the SBC, Scarborough said:    

Carnal laypeople have refused to give God his ten percent in the form of a tithe, often limiting the ability of the church to perform meaningful ministry for lack of funds.  Now these same laypeople find themselves being compelled to give as high as forty to fifty percent of their income through various forms of taxation.  Instead of the church compassionately meeting the needs of people in the name of Christ through freewill offerings, we now have professional bureaucrats doling out confiscated money, without compassion, to people who are largely unaccountable to anyone, in an ever increasing welfare state that is bankrupt, both financially and morally.  If I give my money to the poor, that is compassion.  If I give your money to the poor, that is theft.  Politicians have made careers out of confiscating the money of law-abiding citizens through exorbitant taxation and in turn legitimizing unscriptural behavior with countless government subsidies.  (p. 98-99)

Key denominational leaders have been more subtle in their approach to this issue.  Except for voicing support in 2000 for the tax cut removing the "marriage penalty," Richard Land has said little about tax cuts.  Unlike many other leaders of religious ethical agencies, he has also been largely silent about the effect of tax cuts that enlarge federal budget deficits, lead to reductions in health and social services for the poor, and leave mountains of unpaid bills for future generations.  Land has a simple solution for poverty, "The single most effective cure for poverty among women and children in America is for women to marry the fathers of their children."

Regarding the need for a strong military, for homeland security, and for strict law enforcement Southern Baptist leaders are rarely reticent to express strong opinions.  At a time when the leaders of America's mainline Christian denominations were united in opposition to war, Richard Land's support for President Bush's pre-emptive strike on Iraq was instrumental in garnering public support for the war and earned the SBC the title "America's war denomination."  After the war started, SBC President Bobby Welch toured Baptist churches around the country promoting his book, You the Warrior Leader, with a picture of a camouflaged soldier on the front cover.

6) Close the prisons and reinstitute slavery as a form of punishment and require capital punishment for all of ancient Israel's capital offenses - including apostasy, blasphemy, incorrigibility in children, murder, rape, Sabbath breaking, sodomy, and witchcraft.

While Texas Baptists have issued statements opposing capital punishment, Richard Land and Southern Baptists remain staunchly supportive of it.   At present, few Southern Baptists would interpret the Bible so literally as to support the application of the death penalty in all these cases.  

It appears that Southern Baptist support for Chuck Colson's prison ministries has led to a merger of this goal with their desire to open the public treasury to faith-based initiatives.  Richard Land voiced strong disapproval of the recent decision that ruled Iowa's faith-based prison wing unconstitutional:

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press this is another case where a federal judge "doesn't get it" and "can't see the forest for the trees."

"A federal judge finds a prison rehab program that actually works and has much lower recidivism rates than other programs, and so he declares it unconstitutional because it dares to bring a faith element into the program," Land said.

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