The only reference to religion in the entire New York Times article was to acknowledge that Howard Phillips was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity.  That's it.  The mainstream press failed to explore the reasons why a political party with the name "U.S. Taxpayers" was based on the theocratic concept of restructuring America under biblical law, or why its 1992 founding convention featured as  speaker Rousas J. Rushdoony, the founding father of Christian Reconstruction.  (Other Reconstructionists chaired several of the first USTP state campaigns.)

The Washington Post article was equally devoid of substance, including only a brief reference to Phillips' social conservatism. Phillips, Richard Viguerie and Paul Weyrich's are described as leading the "New Right" into social conservative issues such as "abortion, gun control, school busing, prayer in schools and other social issues."  The Washington Post did at least reference a previous quote in which Phillips' Conservative Caucus is described as the "most militant" group of the New Right.

As described in Frederick Clarkson's book Eternal Hostility, Phillips' success was in fusing together "elements of the historic racist right (such as elements of the American Party of George Wallace and the former Populist Party of David Duke and Green Beret veteran Bo Gritz) with the Reconstructionist movement and Operation Rescue," a militant anti-abortion group led at that time by Randall Terry.  Clarkson has described Rushdoony as the "ideological guiding light" of the Phillips-founded USTP.

The preamble of the Constitution Party's platform states,

The Constitution Party gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States. We hereby appeal to Him for mercy, aid, comfort, guidance and the protection of His Providence as we work to restore and preserve these United States.

This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been and are afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries.

The middle paragraph is a quote that was attributed to Patrick Henry by Christian nationalists, including David Barton in his 1992 book The Myth of Separation.  It has since been shown to be one of many falsely attributed to the founding fathers.  (The quote was actually the words of an author of a 1956 issue of The Virginian and repeated in the American Mercury.)

Rushdoony's foundation, Chalcedon, did not hesitate to claim Phillips, describing him as a "longtime Chalcedon colleague and supporter, and close personal friend to R. J. Rushdoony."  Gary North, Rushdoony's son-in-law, also wrote this past week in memory of Phillips.

If asked after 1979 who were the major intellectual influences were in his life, he said this: Leonard E. Read, who founded the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946, and R. J. Rushdoony, who founded Chalcedon in 1965. He was a believer in the free market and in Christianity.

Julie Ingersoll interviewed Phillips in 2009 in preparation for her book on Christian Reconstructionism.  In Religion Dispatches, Ingersoll describes how Phillips told her that he raised his kids on Rushdoony audio tapes.  Today his son Doug Phillips heads Vision Forum, a ministry known for its "Biblical Patriarchy" and described at length by Kathryn Joyce in her book Quiverfull.  

Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin wrote that he was asked by t