Far right going mainstream

Christian Century, April 19, 2005

FAR RIGHT GOING MAINSTREAM: Joe Bageant, who grew up in a southern fundamentalist family, says that in daily living most fundamentalists are good people. "Conservative Christians actually do what liberals usually only talk about. They visit the sick and the elderly, give generously of their time and money to help those in need, and put unimaginable amounts of love and energy into their families." Nevertheless, many fundamentalists adhere to what is called Christian Reconstructionism, which maintains that until Jesus returns our "satanic humanist state" and federal legal systems should be replaced with pure "biblical law." The Reconstructionist ideal would impose the death penalty--execution by stoning because stones are plentiful and cheap--for a wide range of offenses, from sodomy and adultery to practicing witchcraft or astrology.

And it would do away with labor unions, civil rights laws and public schools (homeschooling is preferred). Lest anyone think this perspective is only on the margins of American life, Bageant notes that 7 percent of all internships in the Bush administration are given to students from Patrick Henry College in Virginia, whose students were all home-schooled, and which promotes a similar "Christian worldview" (Zion's Herald, July-August).