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Ron Paul Curriculum Launched by Reconstructionist Gary North and Neo-Confederate Thomas Woods
The plan for a Ron Paul Curriculum has been in the works for several years. American Vision, Gary DeMar's Reconstructionist ministry, was soliciting readers in 2010 to contact Ron Paul and encourage him to support North's curriculum plan. North also wrote about the planned curriculum in 2010 on the blog of Lew Rockwell, founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. [Author's note: Thanks to a comment from Talk2action reader James E. Scaminaci, I'm adding this link showing that the plan for the curriculum dates back to at least 2008, and is part of a larger agenda described by North. The page includes North's statement, "The blinder the mainstream media are to what is really going on here, the better."] The curriculum is going to be released beginning on September 2, 2013, followed by the publication of Ron Paul's new book The School Revolution on September 17, 2013.
Ron Paul is one of the signers of the proclamation of the Alliance for Separation of School and State to "end government involvement in education." According to C. Jay Engel at Reformed Libertarian, Gary North has "given educrats their fatal blow," adding, This is a planned, blueprinted, and excellently marketed revolution. North is advertising the program as home schooling curriculum and also as a way to start a profitable K-12 private school. The curriculum is self-taught, requiring minimal teacher guidance, and North is not charging for K-5 participation. The 6 -12 grade curriculum is marketed for $250 dollars per student per year, plus $50 dollars per course. North describes the coursework as teaching the "Biblical principle of self-government and personal responsibility." North is one of the leading thinkers and writers of Christian Reconstructionism, or the belief that the nation must be "reconstructed" according to biblical law. He advocates the use of the "doctrine of religious liberty" in order to advance theocracy.
"So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God. Murder, abortion, and pornography will be illegal. God's law will be enforced. It will take time. A minority religion cannot do this. Theocracy must flow from the heart of a majority of citizens, just as compulsory education came only after most people had their children in schools of some sort." This quote is from a 1982 Christian Reconstructionist publication, quoted at length in my article, "Theocratic Libertarianism: Quotes from Gary North, Ludwig von Mises Institute Scholar." Like his father-in-law and founder of modern Christian Reconstructionism - Rousas J. Rushdoony - North teaches "Biblical Economics" and blends extreme free market economics with Christian Dominionism, or the belief that Christians must take control over society and government. Both North and Thomas Woods are affiliated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the flagship of the Austrian School of Economics. Woods is from Massachusetts with degrees from Harvard and Columbia, but he has described himself as one of "the founders of the League of the South." He is also affiliated with the Abbeville Institute, described by the Chronicle of Higher Education as a group of 64 sch | |||||||||||