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Over the last week Kyle has been rebutting claims by some journalists and Religious Right activists that Dominionism, which contends that fundamentalist Christians must take ‘dominion’ over society and government, is nothing more than a liberal conspiracy. Dominionism has been gaining attention as Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s close ties with outspoken propagators of the radical dominionist ideology come to light.

In a post today, Rachel Tabachnik takes on the Washington Post’s Lisa Miller’s much-discussed article dismissing dominionism. Tabachnik notes that Miller’s article quoted Mark DeMoss downplaying the prevalence of dominionism in the Religious Right - without noting that the DeMoss Group has ties to Bill Bright, the founder of the dominionist Seven Mountains ideology, and Gary DeMar, who is a chief proponent of the Christian Reconstructionism, a hardline dominionist ideology.

As Kyle noted last week, Pat Robertson denied knowing anything about Dominionism, even though he delivered a speech where he urged his audience to “get ready to take dominion!” and Matt Barber of Liberty University School of Law called it a “scary Christian monster that lives under liberals’ beds,” despite the fact the Liberty University School of Law sponsored DeMar’s conference last year, called "2010 Sovereignty and Dominion conference — Biblical Blueprints for Victory!" In fact, the Communications Director of Truth In Action Ministries, which until recently was called Coral Ridge Ministries, claimed that “dominionism is a sham charge-one reserved for Christians on the right,” even though prominent dominionist Janet Porter was once the head of a Coral Ridge Ministries affiliate. So if domininionism doesn’t exist and is merely a construct of the left, then why was Porter fired by two conservative Christian radio stations for promoting…“dominionism”?

Last year, Voice of Christian Youth America (VCY America) fired Porter because of what they called the “drift of [Porter’s] program toward ‘dominion theology.’” VCY America says it is dedicated to “featuring solid Bible teaching programs” and features conservative programming like ‘The Phyllis Schlafly Report’ and ‘Freedom’s Call,’ Liberty Counsel’s radio bulletin.

Listen to VCY’s decision on Porter’s firing, which states that “VCY America does not believe in Dominion theology or waging spiritual war for the establishment of an earthly kingdom of power, that is dominion theology and it is being promoted by many who are guided by their own dreams and visions and not necessarily the Word of God”:

VCY America also hosted Sarah Leslie of the Discernment Research Group and the Herescope blog, who has worked to expose dominionism. Leslie is the former head of Iowa Right to Life, hardly a liberal activist, who talked to VCY America about the rise of Seven Mountains Dominionism:

VCY America wasn’t the only Christian radio station to fire Porter for promoting dominionism. Worldview Radio also dropped Porter for promoting “Dominion theology” and working “with the Dominion theory theology people” during her May Day prayer rally.

Surely, Barber can ask Porter herself why she was fired, since she was a featured speaker at Liberty Counsel’s Awakening 2011 and Liberty Counsel sponsored Porter’s How To Take Back America conference. Or ask Dominionism’s many conservative critics.

If you want a taste of what dominionism sounds like, watch Janet Porter preach with Cindy Jacobs about taking control of the mountain of government:

Mission America’s Linda Harvey dedicated her weekend broadcast to criticizing the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, one of her favorite targets. Harvey was particularly perturbed by the GLSEN Sports Project, which works towards “creating and maintaining an athletic and physical education climate that is based on the core principles of respect, safety and equal access for all students, teachers and coaches regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.” According to Harvey, there is no need for such an effort because gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people simply do not exist.

Listen:

Harvey: There’s one big fact that’s not backed up. There is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human. One of the other things you’re gonna see as I mentioned is a big campaign GLSEN’s gonna roll out this year calling for 'respect,' respect! Not just for people, but for homosexual lifestyle. The PR campaign to hold up gay as a good thing: the lifestyle, not the person, because there are no such humans.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins joined Janet Mefferd yesterday to discuss the campaign progressive groups are leading to get companies drop ties to the Charity Give Back Group (formerly the Christian Values Network). The CGBG is a for-profit company that helps consumers direct a percentage of their purchases at participating retail outlets to a variety of right-wing organizations including the FRC and Focus on the Family. LGBT rights and women’s rights advocates are calling on companies to leave the CGBG over its support for FRC and Focus on the Family. CGBG’s spokesman is also an ultraconservative, anti-gay activist. Perkins told Mefferd that the pressure campaign represents bullying, even though the FRC, Focus on the Family and the spokesman of the CGBG have their own history of using pressure campaigns to influence companies.

Perkins went on to explain that the conflict has a spiritual component, arguing that homosexuality “is essentially man shaking his fist in the face of God”:

Perkins: They will not be satisfied until those who hold to a traditional, natural view of marriage are completely silenced….They are so intent on accomplishing this that anyone and everyone who would challenge them must be silenced. And we are seeing this in the media, and now we’re seeing this into the marketplace. It’s an effort to stigmatize, to marginalize and ultimately to cause people to self-censor.

…

I don’t think you can look at homosexuality and what is taking place without examining the spiritual dynamics here. This is essentially man shaking his fist in the face of God and saying I don’t need you, that we will do it our way. It is the height of humanism.

Wendy Wright, who left her job as president of Concerned Women for America under mysterious conditions, is continuing her right-wing activism by taking the fight to the Girl Scouts of the USA. Wright joined Janet Parshall yesterday on In The Market to discuss their shared antipathy to the Girl Scouts and what parents can do to fight the Girl Scouts.

Wright, who previously argued that the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood were “working together to steal children's innocence and make them vulnerable to the negative consequences of promiscuity thereby creating clients for their abortion and STD services,” highlighted claims by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute that the Girl Scouts advocated for abortion rights and distributed a Planned Parenthood sex-ed brochure at a private United Nations panel. However, Girl Scouts of the USA categorically denied the group’s claims, saying that the brochure was never distributed at the event (where only 30-35 teenage girls were present) and that their organization “does not take a position on family planning.”

On Parshall’s show, Wright said parents should call for an investigation into whether the money from Girl Scout cookie sales goes to teaching “young girls to be activists and advocates for a radical sexual agenda.” She blamed the Girl Scouts leadership for supporting a “radical, feminist, pro-abortion form of activism and training these girls up to be feminist activists.” Wright urged parents instead to have their daughters join a “wholesome, pro-God, alternative to the Girl Scouts” called the American Heritage Girls. The American Heritage Girls was founded by Patti Garibay, who, according to CNS News was “motivated to leave the Girl Scout organization when the group decided it would take no position on homosexuality” and to encourage instruction in “traditionally feminine skills, such as sewing, cooking and laundry.” American Heritage Girls bills itself as a “Christ-centered” group that denounces “moral relativism.”

Listen:

Well they need to be contacting the national leadership and encouraging them to cut-off any ties to groups like Planned Parenthood that advocate abortion on demand, that actually encourages young girls to be sexually active, thereby creating more clients for Planned Parenthood. And I think we need to probably take a look as well to where the funding to those Girl Scout cookies go to. I love those Thin Mint cookies and I love the other cookies they have as well but it’s disturbing enough for me to think that if I were to buy those cookies that they would end up fueling and funding campaigns like this one at the United Nations where young girls are trained to be advocates and activists for a radical sexual agenda.

…

This turnover in the national leadership is one toward activism, a radical, feminist, pro-abortion form of activism and training these girls up to be feminist activists. And so I think parents need to be on the lookout for anything that is being taught their girls through the Girl Scouts to turn them into activists. But I’d also like to make people aware of another organization, an alternative organization, called the American Heritage Girls. In which it was created in order to be a wholesome, pro-God alternative to the Girl Scouts. It was started by parents who were very disturbed by seeing the direction the Girl Scouts were taking so I encourage people to look into the American Heritage Girls as an alternative to the Girl Scouts.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has been ratcheting up his anti-gay rhetoric recently, and finding new ways to blame gays and lesbians for what he sees as society’s problems. Last month, for instance, the Air Force suspended a class on “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare training,” after it was revealed that the class relied heavily on Christian teachings. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation objected to the class and solicited complaints from Air Force officers, who the group says were mostly “practicing Protestants and Roman Catholics.” While the controversy centered on allegations that the class represented an unconstitutional religious test and endorsement of one particular religious viewpoint, Perkins claims (without any evidence) that the class’s suspension was actually the fault of gays and lesbians and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Perkins, who once said that politicians who backed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell have blood on their hands, warned in a radio commentary that the decision to support “homosexuality [when it] clashes with faith” will have dire consequences for the Air Force:

It looks like the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is off to a flying start--at least in the U.S. Air Force. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. Starting this week, the Pentagon's changing some of its policies to make the military more welcoming for homosexuals. In the Air Force, that means dropping the religion from its training course. After 20 years, officials scrapped the Bible verses that had been a part of the "Just War" curriculum since early 90s. Apparently, someone complained that the material was "promoting... right-wing fundamentalist Christianity." The class was suspended the very same day. No questions asked. See, that's what happens when homosexuality clashes with faith. Faith loses. This isn't about political correctness, David French said. "It's about cleansing [God] from the public square and building a completely secular society." Unfortunately for our troops, this is just part of the President's plan to radicalize the military. And if the Air Force is any indication, tradition won't be the only thing taking a nose-dive.

In another news bulletin, Perkins railed against the positive portrayal of gays and lesbians in television shows, arguing that it is ruining television for families. He claims that ABC Family, which received praise from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is now trying to “indoctrinate kids” as they “push the homosexual agenda through characters and storylines.” He suggests that parents should protest such positive portrayals by contacting the network and refusing to watch its programming:

This month, TV's biggest networks aren't telling the story--they are the story. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. Where's the "family" in ABC Family? Parents are wondering after the latest report from GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Every year, GLAAD rates channels on how well they push the homosexual agenda through characters and storylines. This time, ABC Family got top honors--making them only the second network ever to get an "excellent" rating. Michael Riley, ABC's chief executive, said he was "proud" to be honored. Celebrating homosexuality, he said, is "very important to us." That's a serious problem, considering that ABC Family is the highest-rated network for 12 to 34-year-olds. Most parents trust the channel, which used to be owned by Disney. But it's a different story now that the network's going out of its way to indoctrinate kids. That won't change until you get involved. Contact ABC. Tell them what they gain by being gay-friendly doesn't compare with what they'll lose. And that's viewers.

Today on WallBuilders Live, David Barton and co-host Rick Green trumpeted their opposition to gay rights and reproductive rights, as Barton previously argued that God will hold you accountable if you vote for a pro-equality or pro-choice candidate. During the program, Barton tried to distinguish calls for LGBT rights from the abolitionist and civil rights movement. He contends that while the opposition to slavery and segregation was based in the Bible, simplifying a complicated history of racism in America as defenders of slavery and segregation frequently cited the Bible, advocates of LGBT equality are actually violating the laws of God. “I’m sorry, you’re sexual choice is not a God-given right,” Barton said, “You’re talking about a choice and you’re talking about elevating a choice to an inalienable right, which is impossible, you can’t, not under the definition of American documents.”

Barton goes on to say that because there is no species composed entirely of homosexuals that can survive, homosexuality is not a natural right: “When you find homosexuality in nature, it is an aberration, there is no homosexual group in nature that survives, it can’t, it simply can’t, in nature it happens but it’s always an aberration. What is normal is heterosexual, and that is a law of nature and it’s a law of nature’s God.”

Barton later asserts that poverty doesn’t contribute to a higher abortion rate, asking, “is it not the attitude that leads to poverty that also allows abortion and everything else? Is it poverty that causes abortion or is it an attitude?” He claims that there is a “spiritual solution” to poverty and abortion because people of faith do not “choose to live in poverty.” Barton contends that once poor people change their humanistic attitude that tolerates abortion, poverty will end:

If you choose not to advance your life, not to work your tail off, work three or four or five jobs or whatever it takes, if you choose to stay in that lifestyle is that not an indication of an attitude and therefore an attitude, ‘I don’t care about life I don’t care about anything but me, I’m the only thing I care about,’ and that’s why you stay in poverty. Therefore, it’s not a matter that if you eliminate poverty you’re going to eliminate abortion, you got to eliminate the attitude that keeps somebody in poverty and that goes back to a spiritual solution.

Michele Bachmann dropped by "Jay Sekulow Live" today to talk about her win last weekend in the Iowa Straw Poll and her presidential campaign in general.  During the discussion, Bachmann asserted that while the American people are very concerned about the state of the economy, they are concerned about other issues as well like abortion, defending marriage ... and the rise of the Soviet Union:

I would say it's a unified message. It really is about jobs and the economy. That doesn't mean people haven't [sic] forgotten about protecting life and marriage and the sanctity of the family. People are very concerned about that as well. But what people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward. And especially with this very bad debt ceiling bill, what we have done is given a favor to President Obama and the first thing he'll whack is five hundred billion out of the military defense at a time when we're fighting three wars. People recognize that.

Umm ... who exactly are these people that are concerned about the rise of the Soviet Union?  Because last time I checked, it went out of existence two decades ago.

The mainstream scientific community rejects the Religious Right’s assertion that gays and lesbians can change their sexual orientation to become heterosexual: the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychiatric Association all deny the effectiveness, safety and ethics of ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy.

But that doesn’t stop right-wing activists from citing and exaggerating the claims of small, fringe organizations in order to bolster their support of reparative therapy and claim that such “therapy” has extensive backing in the medical community.

Today, Liberty Counsel heads Mat Staver and Matt Barber, who according to their official biographies have no background in psychology, dedicated their Faith & Freedom radio show to assailing the American Psychological Association, arguing that they have more psychological expertise than the APA. Staver pointed to a small, Christians-only psychological group has “the most definitive, most recent research that’s come out that says change is possible” for gays and lesbians:

Liberty Counsel even declared that the American Association of Christian Counselors is “larger than American Psychological Assn”:

In reality, the AACC has just one-third of the membership of the APA, which has 154,000 members.

Staver and Barber are far from the only anti-gay figures to promote the findings of tiny, religious groups over the claims of more reputable and mainstream organizations.

As reported on RWW, David Barton on WallBuilders Live last week falsely described the American College of Pediatricians as “the leading pediatric association in America” as he cited a memo from the group claiming that “most students will ultimately adopt a heterosexual orientation if not otherwise encouraged.” Barton used the ACP’s memo as evidence to show that all children will “end up being heterosexual unless [schools] force them to be homosexual”:

The ACP is not “the leading pediatric association in America,” but a far-right offshoot of the real leading pediatric group, the American Academy of Pediatricians, which vigorously condemned the ACP’s memo. Barton’s co-host Rick Green tried to defend his dishonest representation of the ACP, but as Warren Throckmorton points out, while the ACP has “probably less than 200” members, the AAP has around 60,000.

Moreover, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America frequently cite the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality as a reliable source of information on reparative therapy despite the group’s history of fraud and promotion of anti-gay and racist views.

The argument over the efficacy of ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy mirrors the fight over teaching Creationism and Creationist-influenced Intelligent Design in public schools. Religious Right figures have a tendency to call any study from a leading and mainstream scientific associations biased if it doesn’t reflect their views, and then find (or create) small, non-credible organizations to reflect their viewpoints. Desperate to reject the consensus of the scientific community, like clockwork Religious Right activists try to pass off these tiny groups as large, credible, and legitimate institutions in an effort to lend authority to their foundering arguments.

You have to wonder why Bryan Fischer is writing posts defending the fact that Michele Bachmann is running for president when he has already stated that God has put men in charge of everything and doesn't want women as leaders. 

But he is so that he can explain that marriage is not a democracy and God intended men always have the last say on everything.  And so if Michele Bachmann is running for president, it is only because her husband has given her permission to do so ... and, by doing so, she is really submitting to her husband's will: 

She demonstrates her reverence for Christ by not challenging her husband’s leadership in their home but by supporting him and working with him to help him succeed in shaping and directing the life of their marriage and family.

How does a husband submit himself to his wife? Husbands are told to “love your wives, as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). That is, he submits himself to his wife, not by giving up his headship, but by refusing to use it simply as an excuse to get his own way, or as a cloak for his own selfishness. He submits himself to his wife by making a determination to use the authority God has given him in his home to give his wife and children what they need rather than to get what he wants. He exercises his headship by laying down his life, laying down his self-centered interests, in order to do what is best for his wife.

Marriage is not and can never be a democracy. Somebody has to have the tie-breaking vote when the poll reveals a one-to-one tie. In a Christian marriage, the husband is the tie breaker. The way it is designed to work is that a wife willingly defers to her husband on those rare occasions when they cannot agree on a course of action, and the husband makes the decision that his conscience tells him is best, not for himself, but for her, their marriage, and their home.

If a husband believes before God that the best decision in a given situation is different than the one his wife prefers, he does not order her to follow him, he asks her to. He asks her to defer to him and follow his lead. The decision is then up to her. He’s not forcing her to do anything. He leaves the issue squarely where it belongs, between her and her God.

Now back to the Bachmanns. Ms. Bachmann’s husband Marcus urged her to run for the White House, and enthusiastically and without reserve supports her in her campaign. Bottom line: Horror of horrors to our leftwing friends, Michele Bachmann is in fact submitting to her husband by running for president.

A few weeks back, Fischer mentioned on his radio program that he had actually lost two preaching positions in his career for talking a Biblical stance on the role of women in the church and at home. 

I cannot imagine why.