Theocrat of the Week -- UPDATED
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sun Aug 26, 2007 at 03:02:07 PM EST
Our Distinguished Panel of Judges tries to be fair. They really do. They have even been known to pull paper out of the middle of the pile -- just so no one can say that they only pick from the most recent theocrats of note. (There are always so many worthy candidates.) But this week they think there can be no disputing the worthiness of Our Theocrat of the Week.  

Dr. Gary Cass, late of the late Center for Reclaiming America (the former political arm of D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries) is now seeking start-up funds for the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC). Read on to learn how Dr. Cass captured the attention of Our Distinguished Panel of Judges.

Dr. Gary Cass's first mission with the CADC was to join with Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition to lead a "prayer delegation" to Baghdad during which he prayed for and presented Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki with stone engravings of the Ten Commandments -- as a gift to the people of Iraq.

Our Distinguished Panel of Judges is utterly flummoxed -- and impressed! How did they do it? How were these activists -- perhaps best known for their involvement with antiabortion militants from Operation Rescue -- able to score a prayer meeting with the Prime Minister of a nation embroiled in the hottest war in the world -- let alone allowed (as well-known American Christian theocrats) -- to present the Ten Commandments to a Muslim political leader. But they as all good theocrats know, politics is thicker than water.

Such a gesture, even considering that the Ten Commandments were involved, might seem superficial to some -- but not if you have had the chance to know Gary Cass, even from a far.

It was only two-and-a-half years ago when, at a large conference sponsored by Cass's Center for Reclaiming America, Judge Roy Moore displayed the two-and-a-half ton monument to the Ten Commandments that had made him a hero to theocrats everywhere. The Christian Science Monitor reported:  

"If they don't vote our way, we'll change their view one way or another," executive director Gary Cass tells the group. As a California pastor, Dr. Cass spearheaded efforts to close abortion clinics and recruit Christians to seek positions on local school boards. "We're going to take back what we lost in the last half of the 20th century," he adds.

"Taking back" is a major theme - taking back the schools, the media, the courts.

The Monitor further reported.

In material given to conference attendees, the Rev. D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge pastor wrote:
"As the vice-regents of God, we are to bring His truth and His will to bear on every sphere of our world and our society. We are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government ... our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors - in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

(By the way, Our Distinguished Panel of Judges always enjoys a knowing chuckle whenever Dr. Kennedy says he is not a theocrat.)  

Our Distinguished Panel of Judges was also more than a little impressed when Dr. Cass recently turned-up as a featured speaker at one of the most distinctly theocratic conferences in America. Gary Cass joined fellow theocratic Garys -- North and DeMar -- at a "Worldview Super Conference" organized by DeMar's Christian Reconstructionist think tank, American Vision.

Cass was joined in the event by leaders from the Alliance Defense Fund, Liberty University Law School, and other ostensibly non-Christian Reconstructionist groups that not long ago, might not have even been willing to appear in public, let alone cosponsor, an event with one of the most overtly theocratic organizations in America. Gary Cass is a true theocratic hero because he was willing to join, in this way, in the mainstreaming of theocratic ideas.  According to a report on the conference in Church & State magazine, Cass said:

"We need a new American vision... because we've lost our biblical heritage, our Christian birthright, which has been given to us by our founders, we have squandered for a poisonous bowl of atheistic humanism and political correctness.

"And now our culture is experiencing its deadly effects," he continued. "The putrid stench of the culture of death fills our living rooms, coming to us every night on the evening news. And this Worldview weekend, I believe, is the antidote for the culture of death."

He continued, "By God's grace you are here to reclaim our godly heritage and to reassert, without apology to the atheists and the neo-pagans of our day, that this was and is a Christian nation, built on Christian ideals."

Cass's stark call for a fundamentalist Christian takeover of America was later followed by claims that the nation is increasingly hostile to religious people. To some chuckles from the audience, he insisted that the United States is in "great need of a Christian anti-defamation league."

"Defamation," Cass argued, "is the pre­cursor to persecution." Defamation leads to marginalization, he continued, and marginalization sets the "stage for discrimination," which inevitably leads to the final stage of religious cleansing.

"Genocide being the ultimate expression," Cass declared, "the deliberate, systematic extermination of a group of people." Kind of like what is happening in Sudan's Darfur region, he added.

Cass has since started the very project he called for, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission.

Our Distinguished Panel of Judges panel of judges believes in setting acheivable goals along the road to theocracy, and are wary of their opponents -- who by the nature of their democratic pluralism must of course, be hell-bent on slaughter. But they are confident that Gary Cass will succeed in heading-off Darfur-scale genocide against America's Christians (particularly the theocratic kind) -- and wish to hail his crowning acheivement in advance.

And that's why Dr. Gary Cass is our Theocrat of the Week.

Update [2007-8-28 12:15:59 by Frederick Clarkson]: Our Distinguished Panel of Judges has learned of a grievious error I made in reporting their recognition of Gary Cass as Theocrat of the Week, and I am hereby correcting the error. I originally reported that Dr. Cass is starting a Christian Anti-Defamation League (C-ADL) in an heroic effort to save America's Christians from Darfur-scale genocide. This was incorrect. Although in his Worldview Super Conference speech, he did call for the formation of a "Christian anti-defamation league," in the end the organization he founded to save America's Christians from Darfur-scale genocide is the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, (CADC). I regret the error and apologize to Dr. Cass, to our readers and to Our Distinguished Panel of Judges.




Display:
Cass and this C-ADL will certainly be doing nothing benefiting the republic's health.

by IseFire on Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 05:13:15 PM EST

Is there anyone here that think these fine upstanding, self-described "Vice-Regents of God" truly do not know the Founders views on church/state separation? Is it possible that these moral referees for God don't see stretching the truth a tad, as a Sin? They're doing it for the greatest cause of all, right? It's not really pulling the wool over everyone's eyes if they use fleece from the Lamb of God, see?

by trog69 on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 01:53:47 AM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (195 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (110 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (250 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (176 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (156 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (329 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.