Christian Reconstructionism

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Christian Reconstructionism is a Dominionist movement in the United States initiated by the Calvinist philosopher Rousas John Rushdoony in the 1960s and propagated by the Chalcedony Foundation .

Christian Reconstructionism has nothing to do with American Reconstruction or the Restoration movement . The latter was an ecclesiastical unification movement in the United States in the early 19th century. In Judaism there is the theologically liberal dominionist current of reconstructionism .

environment

Christian Reconstructionism goes back to the book Institutes of Biblical Law , published in 1973 by Rushdoony , according to Ontario Consultants on Religions Tolerance .

After the tele-evangelist scandals in the late 1980s, the dissolution of the influential religious organization Moral Majority and the unsuccessful candidacy of Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition of America for the US presidency, the extreme religious right in the US reconsidered on their roots. The Christian Reconstructionism movement acted as a catalyst for the revitalized circles . This is small in number, but very influential due to the very provocative statements. From the movement emerged the Kinism movement of the extreme right in the United States in the 1990s and 2000s .

The Christian Reconstructionism is particularly common in English-speaking countries, but also has followers in the Dutch and German-speaking countries.

organization

Organizationally, Christian Reconstructionism is expressed in the Chalcedony Foundation founded by Rushdoony in Vallecito / California in 1965 , whose board of directors includes leading Christian reconstructionists such as Rushdoony's son-in-law Gary North, Wayne C. Johnson and Howard Ahmanson Jr. The latter, on the board of directors of the Chalcedony Foundation for about two decades until 2001 , is also known as one of the leading financiers of the intelligent design movement , which is mainly located at the Discovery Institute , of which Ahmanson is also a member.

The name Chalcedony Foundation was chosen after the Council of Chalcedony in 451.

The Views of the Chalcedony Foundation

In the view of Christian Reconstructionism , civil law should be designed in such a way that it encourages people to accept Jesus as their savior and, from a biblical point of view, punishes immoral behavior.

Rushdoony criticizes u. a. the wealth tax and what he sees as the unfair social security system in the USA. He also criticizes atheism, which wants to give the state too much power. Lee Duigon of the Chalcedony Foundation argues in an article for the death penalty against violent criminals.

Michael Wagner of the Chalcedony Foundation notes that homosexuals were persecuted by the Nazis and also harassed by conservative Christians in the United States. However, he rejects the argument by critics that all Christians followed in the footsteps of the Nazis because of this.

Gary North and Gary DeMar point out that the founders and current leaders of the CR are all Calvinists. The authors differentiate themselves from the Arminians , who in their opinion include most of the premillennialists and amillennialists , from whom the CR supporters also distance themselves. North and DeMar criticize what they see as the inescapably pessimistic approach of premillenarianism and its inability to approve of social reforms. Unlike its supporters, the authors do not interpret premillenarianism as a pacifist reaction by Christians to the Great Depression and World War, but as a social theory that is based on belief in the state bureaucracy. You accuse the representatives of Pietism of submission to the humanists on political issues . According to North and DeMar, their movement wants a minimal and decentralized state order, but not as a pure democracy in the sense of a 51 percent dictatorship. They do not want school prayer and Bible reading in public schools like the fundamentalists , but want to abolish the public schools, which in their view are essentially responsible for the spread of a secular worldview, and replace them with Christian schools or home lessons .

criticism

The evangelical Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) judges the CR movement to the end time in their understanding Postmillenarismus was assigned. According to the CARM ruling, some supporters of the CR movement want the death penalty and the like. a. also for abortionists and homosexuals.

According to the dispensationalist Charles C. Ryrie , professor emeritus at the Dallas Theological Seminary , the reconstructionists also represent postmillenarianism . They classified dispensationalism as unbelief and heresy as well as a compromise with theological modernism. A representative of the reconstructionists (Bowman) was very violent in his allegations and put dispensationalism on a par with National Socialism , Roman Catholicism , "Christian Science" and Mormonism .

According to homosexual clergyman and theologian Mel White, Rushdoony and other leading figures in reconstructionism are calling for the death penalty to be applied to homosexuality based on their interpretation of the Bible. For example, White refers to a debate between himself and a reconstructionist pastor on a talk show on a radio station in Seattle , in which he replied to a question about his interpretation of the statements of the 3rd book of Moses on homosexuality (Lev 20:13): "It means you should be killed" (Eng. About "That means you should be killed"). When asked who was supposed to do this, he received the answer that this was the task of the civil authority. Mel White also refers to a letter from Rushdoony, which he wrote to an acquaintance on June 28, 1993, in which he claims that God in his law requires the death penalty for homosexuals.

The religious scholar Karen Armstrong sees Christian Reconstructionism as a totalitarian system with fascist potential.

The CR movement wants to end trade unions, civil rights and public schools , according to Political Research Associates . Women should be banished to the yard and hearth. Are to be prosecuted and severely punished u. a. also blasphemy, idolatry, kidnapping and robbery.

The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, a civil rights organization, put the Chalcedony Foundation on their list of hate groups in 2011.

The Chalcedony Foundation calls for people to leave denominations that are faithful to the Bible and for house churches to be founded, where mainly videos from Rushdoony are watched. Thomas Schirrmacher criticizes a. a. the disdain of the church towards the family and the state by the Recounstructionists, who see the church as just an extension of the family.

literature

  • John R. Pottenger: Reaping the Whirlwind. Liberal Democracy and the Religious Axis. Georgetown University Press, Washington DC 2007, ISBN 978-1-58901-162-5 ( Religion and Politics Series ).
  • H. Wayne House, Thomas Ice: Dominion theology - blessing or curse? An analysis of Christian reconstructionism. Multnomah, Portland, OR 1988, 978-0880702614.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr2.htm (accessed on: March 6, 2012).
  2. ↑ http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisre1.html Frederic Clarkson: Christian Reconstructionism. Public Eye Org., Political Research Associates, Somervile MA 1994 (accessed 7 Mar 2012).
  3. ^ Thomas D. Ice: Christian Reconstructionism. In: Dictionary of Premillennial Theology. Edited by Mal Couch. Kregel, Grand Rapids 1996, ISBN 0-8254-2351-1
  4. ↑ "... civil law cannot be separated from Biblical law, for the Biblical doctrine of law includes all law, civil, ecclesiastical, societal, familial, and all other froms of law." RJ Rushdoony: Institutes of Biblical Law. P. 4.
  5. ↑ http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/christian-reconstruction-5/ (accessed on: March 6, 2012).
  6. ↑ http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/the-trouble-with-social-security/ (accessed on: March 6, 2012).
  7. ↑ http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/the-meaning-of-theocracy-2/ (accessed on: March 6, 2012).
  8. ↑ http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/a-review-of-the-death-penalty-on-trial-taking-a-life-for-a-life-taken/ (accessed on: March 6th 2012).
  9. ↑ http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/reductio-ad-hitlerum-christians-nazis-and-gays/ (accessed on: March 6, 2012).
  10. ^ Gary North / Gary DeMar: Christian Reconstruction. What It Is, What It Isn't. Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler / Texas 1991, ISBN 0-930464-53-2 , p. 62.
  11. ^ Gary North / Gary DeMar: Christian Reconstruction. What It Is, What It Isn't. Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler / Texas 1991, ISBN 0-930464-53-2 , p. 67.
  12. ^ Gary North / Gary DeMar: Christian Reconstruction. What It Is, What It Isn't. Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler / Texas 1991, ISBN 0-930464-53-2 , p. 68.
  13. ^ Gary North / Gary DeMar: Christian Reconstruction. What It Is, What It Isn't. Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler / Texas 1991, ISBN 0-930464-53-2 , p. 75.
  14. ^ Gary North / Gary DeMar: Christian Reconstruction. What It Is, What It Isn't. Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler / Texas 1991, ISBN 0-930464-53-2 , pp. 121f.
  15. ^ Gary North / Gary DeMar: Christian Reconstruction. What It Is, What It Isn't. Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler / Texas 1991, ISBN 0-930464-53-2 , p. 92.
  16. ↑ Frederick Clarkson: "Christian Reconstructionism", The Public Eye Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1994)
  17. ↑ http://carm.org/christian-reconstructionism-theonomy (accessed on: March 6, 2012).
  18. ^ Charles C. Ryrie: Dispensationalism. Moody Publishers, Chicago 2007, ISBN 0-8024-2189-X , pp. 14f.
  19. ^ Mel White: Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America . Plume, New York 1995, pp. 237f., ISBN 0-452-27381-1
  20. ^ Mel White: Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right . Penguin, New York 2006, pp. 109 and 161, ISBN 978-1-58542-531-0
  21. ^ Karen Armstrong: The Battle for God . Ballantine, New York 2001, pp. 361f., ISBN 0-345-39169-1
  22. ↑ http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisre1.html Frederic Clarkson: Christian Reconstructionism. Public Eye Org., Political Research Associates, Somervile MA 1994 (accessed March 7, 2012).
  23. ^ Groups that helped oust Iowa judges earn 'hate group' designation ( October 15, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive ), accessed March 10, 2012.
  24. ↑ Thomas Schirrmacher: 1/1997 cross sections. Publishing house for culture and science, Bonn 1997