Teetering on the Brink
TimeWatch Editorial
September 26, 2016
On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 John Fea, writer for the Religion News Service published an article on the Christian Headlines.com website entitled “The No. 1 Reason Evangelicals Still Put Their Hopes in Trump.” According to the Messiah College website, Dr. John Fea is Professor and Chair of Early America history and pedagogy at Messiah College. He is the author or editor of four books and his essays and reviews have appeared in a variety of scholarly and popular venues. Dr. Fea opens the article mentioned above this way:
“The most important day of Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency was May 18, 2016. On that day, the soon-to-be GOP nominee released the names of 11 judges he would consider nominating to the Supreme Court. The list was put together with input from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank known for defending traditional marriage, opposing abortion and fighting for the right of religious institutions to follow their conscience on these matters (and others) without government interference. By suggesting that he would appoint conservative justices, and actually naming their names, Trump made huge inroads among evangelical voters. This is because many of Trump’s evangelical supporters are still using the 40-year-old political playbook written by Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and other founders of the so-called Christian right.” Dr. John Fea, “The No. 1 Reason Evangelicals Still Put Their Hopes in Trump.” August 10, 2016, Christian Headlines.com
So what is the playbook being referred here? What did the above mentioned founders of the Christian Right seek to lay out as a format for the future? In spite of the fact that there is another generation who has expanded their view of life and issues of importance, there are those who have not abandoned their original agenda. Dr. John Fea continues.
“There is not a lot of nuance or complexity in this playbook. In fact, its approach to presidential politics is quite simple: Vote for the candidate who opposes abortion and will appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that lifted most government-based restrictions on the practice. These leaders are urging evangelicals to look beyond Trump’s character flaws and consider the larger ethical picture. If Hillary Clinton is elected, they argue, the Supreme Court will be lost for multiple generations. Roe v. Wade will not be overturned and Christian institutions will be persecuted for upholding traditional beliefs on marriage.” Dr. John Fea, “The No. 1 Reason Evangelicals Still Put Their Hopes in Trump.” August 10, 2016, Christian Headlines.com
But what seems to be simply a political issue has beneath the surface a far more sinister plot. Dick Polman , author of an article in the Seattle Times on May 1st 2005 revealed the real agenda that has long been the preoccupation of the Religious Right. According to the News Networks website, Dick Polman has covered or chronicled every presidential campaign since 1988, and has blogged on politics five days a week since 2006. His Newsworks "National Interest" blog debuted in 2011. A Center City Philadelphia resident, he's also on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." He has been a frequent guest on C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and various NPR shows — most notably Philadelphia's "Radio Times" on WHYY-FM. The title of his article in the Seattle Times is “Religious right targets church-state separation.” In his two opening paragraphs he says the following:
“Religious conservatives, emboldened by President Bush’s re-election and confident of their political clout, are not interested in merely overhauling the judiciary. Ideally, they are seeking a judiciary that would remove the wall of separation between church and state. This ambition is stated clearly in numerous legal briefs on file at the Supreme Court in connection with a pending case; they seek removal of “a Berlin wall” that is “out of step with this nation’s religious heritage.” Their leaders argue in interviews that the church-state barrier is a “myth” invented by the high court in 1947, thanks to a twisted interpretation of our founding documents.” Dick Polman, “Religious right targets church-state separation,” the Seattle Times on May 1st 2005
So this is it. This is the long term hidden agenda that is not so hidden anymore. Slowy but surely the plot is becoming evident. But what Dick Polman is able to identify is the secret end of all the hopes and dreams of the Religious Right. He quotes a Baptist Minister as he reveals the ultimate goal of the Evangelical Right. Here is what he says: “As Carlton Veazy, a Baptist leader in Washington, charged the other day, “We are being led to this theocracy by the Christian right, who will not stop until they take over the government.” Reverend Carlton Veazey, a minister in the National Baptist Convention USA, has been president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice since 1997. In his article entitled “On the Brink of ‘Theocracy’” published Thursday, May 5, 2005 on the Center for American Progress Website Veazy says:
“Progressives who think warnings about "theocracy" are an exaggeration should take a closer look at "Justice Sunday: Filibustering People of Faith," the Christian Right telethon headlined by Senate Majority Leader William Frist. As a Baptist minister for more than 40 years with a profound respect for religious freedom and pluralism, I fear it will get worse. In fact, I think we are teetering on the brink of theocracy and the Christian Right could conceivably use the battle over the judiciary and weakening support for reproductive rights to push us over the edge.” Carlton Veazey, “On the Brink of ‘Theocracy’” the Center for American Progress Website, Thursday, May 5, 2005
This Baptist Minister recognizes the hidden objective. What is a theocracy? The dictionary definition is a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities. It is a system of government by priests claiming a divine commission. So this is what the Religious Right is really aiming for. This agenda is confirmed in the book The Great Controversy, page 573 and –paragraph 1:
“In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the state, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are opening the door for the papacy to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater significance to this movement is the fact that the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance—a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority. It is the spirit of the papacy—the spirit of conformity to worldly customs, the veneration for human traditions above the commandments of God—that is permeating the Protestant churches and leading them on to do the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy has done before them.” {GC 573.1}
This is indeed a serious warning to consider.
Cameron A. Bowen
