Posted on 10/08/2003 4:12:18 PM PDT by Chancellor Palpatine
This California recall has enabled us to take a close look at the inner workings of California politics, and of some of the shadowy interests which manipulate teh GOP to serve the interests of a numerically small but very noisily ideological group of malcontents from within the party. I have taken the time to come up with links to articles and excerpts of what is contained within so as to provide FReepers with some of the connections which exist between various individuals and groups within the California Republican Party, as well as the beliefs espoused by each.
When reviewing these excerpts (and they are all fairly lenghty, be forewarned), keep this working set of names and definitions in mind:
Howard Ahmanson, Jr. - Heir to vast savings and loan fortune, a 20 year contributor and former board member of the Chalcedon Institute. Prolific donor to campaigns of CRA members, and a particular patron of Tom McClintock.
Mark Rushdoony - Dead pseudotheologian and proponent of doctrine of Christian Dominionism.
Chalcedon Foundation/Institute - "Think tank" which advances the cause of Christian Dominionism in America.
Christian Dominionism - an ideology that the United States shall be governed under a Christian moral code with heavy emphasis on Old Testament rules as a matter of civil and criminal law.
California Republican Assembly - an organization which claims to consist of grassroots California Republicans
John Stoos - Former Vice President of the California Republican Asssembly, long time Chalcedon contributing writer and staffer and now a political aide to Tom McClintock.
Rod Martin - Eastern Region Vice President of the NFRA, Editor-Director of the Vanguard.
NFRA - National Federation of Republican Assemblies, the umbrella organization set up by the founders of the CRA, which is to give the movement a nationwide focus.
Stoos describes how the Dominionists took over the CRA.
Writing in the February 1997 issue [of Chalcedon Magazine], Stoos described how "a small group of Christians" first began to take over the California Republican Assembly in 1988 and came to dominate the state Republican Party itself. Stoos said what happened with the CRA "may well be a good model" to export "to facilitate the same type of successes across the country."
"In recent issues, Chalcedon writers have considered how those who believe in the Lordship of Christ and dominion mandate should involve themselves in American politics," Stoos wrote. "We agreed that Christians should not approach politics as 'wanting a seat at the table' as if the Creator of the Universe or his vice regents need to ask permission to be involved."
Political involvement in a constitutional republic, he continued, "is a natural obligation" for Christians who want the freedom to "preach the Gospel and further God's Kingdom."
How ordinary Republicans see that takeover, and what it means to them, together with their organizational efforts to combat it. (this consists of several excerpts, if I err in splitting them up, accept my apologies in advance):
The CRP debacle began in 1988 when Pat Robertson challenged President Bush in the Republican Primary. Although Robertson lost, he energized the Christian Coalition nationwide. In California they joined with the large and powerful California Republican Assembly and ran an effective though losing grassroots campaign.
After Robertsons loss to Bush, the leaders of the two groups had a meeting to discuss starting a third party. (Well documented in the Chalcedon Magazine by John Stoos.) They decided that as a third party, they could have a lot to say about philosophy but little or nothing to say about governance. They decided instead to take over the California Republican Party, control the party platform and the $20 million budget during each election cycle. The CRA-dominated coalition ran a stealth campaign in County Central Committee elections and was successful at winning a majority. They elected a Chairman and Board of Directors that was so dominated by the radical-right that they did not invite Governor Wilson to the 1992 convention, would not let him attend and demonstrated against our sitting Republican U.S. Senator when he was the keynote speaker. The CRA continued to consolidate its control of the CRP to such an extent that by 1994, every office and board member of the CRP was a member of the CRA and no one else was allowed to run. During the six years they had absolute control, the party suffered the worst three defeats in its history. During that time, CRA members and even officers of the party attacked Republican candidates in General Elections, costing us several seats. Although there were many such attacks, including the CRP Chairman initiating lawsuits against Republican Assembly candidates, the ones that could be the most costly were the attacks by a CRA Unit President and his associates on Congressman Steve Kuykendall and candidate Jim Cuneen. While Republicans in the rest of the country were trying to save our Speakership in the House, they were trying to hand it to the Democrats.
________________________________________
While the CCR was busy getting started and growing to over 25 Chapters around the state by 1997, the CRA had completed its takeover of the CRP to the extent that they outnumbered Mainstream Republicans by about 1200 to 400, and the counties by about 50 to 8.
Chalcedon's notion of religious life in its ideal society:
While belief could not be mandatory in a Biblical society, and unbelievers could live and work among the people of God, not all religious practices would be permitted. A Biblical society would have to restrain religions based on murder, aggressive revolution, or other civilization-destroying practices. Exodus 22:18, 20 and Deuteronomy 18:10-12 indicate that the practice of occultist religions or religions involving sacrifice to idols was a capital crime under the civil law given to Moses. I did not mention this fact in my reply because it would invite hysterics over witch trials rather than an understanding of my broader point — that the state, and therefore the idea of "crime," is necessarily religious. My correspondent evidently wants official state toleration for all religions, including outright paganism, Satanism, and witchcraft. I wanted her to see the impossibility of this pluralism.
Pagans and occultists should not be ignored by Christians as fringe groups of little significance. R. J. Rushdoony, in The Institutes of Biblical Law, pointed out the danger posed by such groups in the past:
At the end of the Middle Ages and in the early years of the modern era, a widespread outbreak and revival of pagan and anti-Christian occultism was responsible for a massive assault on Christianity, an attack on tithing, the mainstay of Christian society, a sexual revolution aimed at destroying the family, and a revival of cannibalism, human sacrifice, and related acts.
John Stoos, on Sacramento bargaining:
A conference committee drew up an agreed-on list of reforms, everyone shook on the deal and it appeared that conservatives had won an impressive victory. The conservative leadership still managed, however, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
First, they sent liberal staff off to draft the details of the reforms, creating over four hundred pages of legal jargon to implement the few simple reforms. The final product actually moved California to the Left of the reforms signed by President Bill Clinton! When this was pointed out to the conservative leadership, they simply said it was the best they could get!
Next came their favorite legislative game: Announcing major reforms, while voting to do just the opposite. There were the obligatory debates, and when the dust had settled, only Senator Dick Mountjoy and Assemblyman Tom McClintock were willing to vote NO, after speaking against the phony reforms in the public debates.
More on Chalcedon's intentions:
Chalcedon and most other orthodox Christian reformers do not undertake to establish a national or state church (and thus do not deny the validity of the separation of church and state, properly understood); rather, we endorse and practice Christian establishmentarianism: the prevalence of historic, Biblical Christianity in all areas of modern life. We advocate a disestablished church but an established Faith.
All consistent Christians are thus intently disestablishmentarian and establishmentarian: To press the claims of Christ in all spheres is necessarily and simultaneously to disestablish Satan’s kingdom and establish Christ’s kingdom.
And it is the establishment of Christ’s kingdom which is destined to prevail.
Lest it be unclear what they believe:
Chalcedon supports only one form of "racism": God blesses, nourishes, and honors the Royal Race of the Redeemed, all of those of whatever physical race that have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and God curses the race of the First Adam, all of those who live in unbelief, rebellion, and work-righteousness (Rom. 5:12-21). This is the only "racial discrimination" the Bible knows anything about. God discriminates in favor of covenant-keepers, and discriminates against covenant-breakers (Dt. 28). Some may object that He favors the race of Israel in the Old Testament era, but it must be immediately noted that His choice was not fundamentally racial, but religious. For this reason, Gentiles could become a part of the Jewish race, and thus a part of the covenant people of God (Gen. 17:12-13). The non-racial aspect of Biblical Faith is clear from Ephesians 2:11-15:
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace....
All converted Jews and Gentiles stand on the same plane of blessing in God's sight, just as all unconverted Jews and Gentiles stand on the same plane of judgment in God's sight. The race God favors is the race of the Second Adam; the race He disfavors is the race of the First Adam. And this has nothing to do with physical race.
John Stoos allows Mother Jones (!) to interview him:
Plan Ahead
From radical fringe to kingmakers in a decade — how did they do it? "Basically, there's two places you have influence: one is in the nominating process in the primaries, where you can elect people in ideological agreement with your views, and the other is in the party structure," says former CRA vice president John Stoos, a former gun lobbyist, member of the fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionist movement, and senior consultant to the State Assembly. "And who pays attention to this stuff? You literally have to plan months and years ahead to know where the openings are."
Larkin felt the wrath of the CRA when he ran for the California Assembly in 1996. In 1992 he had angered the CRA by launching a campaign to wrest control of the party's Ventura County Central Committee away from the conservatives. In reprisal, the CRA backed conservative Tom McClintock, who defeated Larkin in the 1996 primary and ultimately won the general election.
"They're organized and dedicated," says Larkin, "and mainstream Republicans are neither, so a very small group can take over."
Ahmanson's patronage benefits several nonprofit think tanks, including the Claremont Institute, where McClintock worked for two years after losing his 1994 run for state controller, and the Chalcedon Foundation, which promotes a brand of Christianity known as Christian Reconstructionism. Chalcedon produces journals for which McClintock political aide John Stoos routinely writes.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ahmanson served on Chalcedon's board of directors and was its largest benefactor, giving it at least $733,000. He remains a donor to the nonprofit organization, which was founded by Rousas John Rushdoony. Often called theologian to the religious right, Rushdoony, who died in 2001, advocated a nation ruled by Biblical law, a vision that assigned the death penalty for 18 sins, including murder, rape of a betrothed virgin, adultery and sodomy.
[hang on, this is my favorite part]
Ahmanson could not be reached for comment. But at a news conference this week, McClintock said he knew nothing about Ahmanson's theology, other than that he is a Christian. [compiler's note - take from that what you will]
An extract from a statement of the NFRA:
Our Founding Fathers firmly held to the conviction that religious freedom was fundamental to a free society. We also express the conviction that we are a God-fearing people, according one another the equal right of religious freedom and acknowledging with reverence the duty of obedience to the will of God.
Parents bear the final responsibility before God in the rearing of their children. Parents have been commanded by God to love their children and lead them in the paths of truth. Parents must be free to discipline their children in love and direct their education without government intrusion.
We believe with the framers of that document when President Adams stated, "This Constitution will not work except with a religious people."
An official of the NFRA in a candid gleeful boast:
Even these numbers understate the case. In California, for instance, where the study rightly noted reverses, Christian conservatives in the powerful California Republican Assembly were nevertheless able to overturn the “foreordained” outcome of their party’s gubernatorial primary, badly upsetting left-wing Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan with conservative underdog Bill Simon. A Simon win in November would guarantee their dominance in the party, and dramatically increase their influence in both state and nation.
Your kidding right?! Dear God, please tell me you're kidding. I remember the days of old as well when the Pharasies wanted to crucify Jesus for trying to bring prosititutes, and criminals away from their lives and closer to God. I guess they had a problem with the Sonof God because he didn't feel like stoning them that day.
You're supposed to be the fisher of men, not their condemner. But no really share with me this sense of higher morality in which you have that you think a conservative goverment should inact. Because the last time I checked conservatism was about getting goverment out of the lives of consenting adults.
As they proceeded to lead the state GOP into one disaster after another...
D'ye think that, maybe, just maybe, they might have stopped to ask themselves, "Gosh, are we actually accomplishing anything aside from getting Republicans really mad at us and electing Democrats who enact everything we oppose?"
Or are they so sure of what God commands that they'd tell Him where He screwed up?
They didn't. The only thing they were setting up California for was permanent stagnation, because nobody in their right mind was going to invest in the state.
with McClintock as Governor,
That was not going to happen under any circumstances; the man makes Bill Simon look like an effective campaigner.
setting the stage for a massive and long-term turnaround in moving California to a Free Republic,
Actually, it would set the stage for every dollar of investment to leave the state for good.
and the elites pushing Arnold just doomed California to another decade of stagnation?
Schwarzenegger was NOT pushed by "the elites." Hell, a good chunk of the people who voted for him had not been registered in 2002.
You can't judge the success of political efforts in such short run terms.
Actually, you can. In this case, the only thing that was accomplished was convincing MOST of the GOP that the CRA was a dangerously inept bunch of goofballs.
If you can't effectively lead your own damn party, and convince people who mostly agree with you that you're right, you have no frickin' prayer of doing so with those who disagree with you.
Lincoln or somebody said the measure of political accomplishment is turning public opinion completely around in twenty years.
Reagan did that. So did the CRA--but not in the way they intended. So they are, by definition, a failure.
You point out that Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a wealthy man, has contributed to both the Chalcedon Foundation, the California Republican Assembly, and Tom McClintock's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign. You see this as a danger to the Republic. What about the fact that Warren Buffett, a far wealthier man than Ahmanson, supported Arnold Schwartznegger, the successful GOP candidate? Buffett has contibuted to numerous liberal and leftist causes. Can we assume then that Buffett would influence Governor Schwartznegger to run the executive branch of California's government with policies similar to, or even more leftist than the deposed Governor Davis?
I am familiar with the Chalcedon Foundation and their political philosophy, which they call theonomy and their social philosophy, which they call reconstructionism. To say they represent the mainstream among conservative evangelical Christians is nonsense. Indeed, they can best be described as marginal. There are several points that must be remembered:
* The reconstructionist movement is itself splintered. Gary North, of Y2K infamy, split off from the movement founded by his late father-in-law, Rousas Rushdoony, over 25 years ago, mmoving his faction from California to Texas.
* Reconstructionism is a minority position among conservative Reformed believers, being at best tolerated by the larger evangelical Presbyterian denominations, such as the PCA.
* Two major elements in the Reformed belief system, covenant theology and "five point" Calvinism, are rejected by the vast majority of politically active conservative Christian leaders. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the LeHays, Chuck Colson, James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, and Don Wilemon are not Reformed (though I believe Colson, a Baptist, is also a five point Calvinist). The presumptions of reconstructionism and theonomy are rooted in Reformed theology.
* Influential evangelical Christian theologians, including Reformed theologians, have issued numerous books and papers condemning theonomy and reconstructionism.
The bottom line is that Chalcedon is as marginal in American conservative politics and the evangelical churches as "Earth First" terrorists are among environmentalists and Lyndon LaRouche is in trade union ranks.
It's both fascinating and disturbing.
I agree!
Are you kidding me? I would absolutely love this.
That story has haunted me for over forty years and The Chalcedon Foundation brings those fears into focus.
Want more?
"The group's biggest bankroller (both to campaigns and major conservative organizations) is Howard Ahmanson, who with his wife Roberta contributed nearly $2 million to various causes and candidates in 1992 alone. This is significant in part because Ahmanson is a longtime director of a theocratic think tank, the Chalcedon Foundation. The Chalcedon Foundation and its founder, R.J. Rushdoony, call for the abolition of democracy and the installation of a theocratic republic under "Biblical Law." The Chalcedon Foundation's theocratic agenda includes, among other things, capital punishment for such religious offenses as blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy, as well as abortion, adultery, and homosexuality."
You "inadvertantly" forgot to post the source of these quotes.
Thank you! That is a Heinlein quote that I had forgotten and it is very much on target.
I have no idea. I have absolutely no knowledge of the Chalcedon Foundation or of any attempted takeovers by it of the CRA/NFRA organizations. And I believe a lot of fine conservatives associated with the CRA/NFRA are possibly being slandered here by these allegations.
Thank you Jim. I sincerely hope that the takeover stories of the CRA/NFRA organizations are inaccurate. Certainly I don't want to slander anyone but at the same time I am extremely concerned if the accusations are true. Even if they are true I am sure that 99% of the conservatives associated with the CRA/NFRA would not be involved in such a plot.
If you have not read Robert A. Heinlein's "If This Goes On" I highly suggest that you do so. It is a chilling story of the effects of such a takeover of America. I first read it over forty years and it still gives me chills to think about today.
Thank you for your efforts.
LPM
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