The theocratic intentions of Christian Right leaders sometimes surface in unexpected ways. Most recently David Lane, a top Christian Right political operative and longtime behind-the-scenes "power broker" called for violent dominionist revolution in an essay published (and then taken down) by World Net Daily.
Lane has, among other things, been the national finance director for The Response, the 2011 prayer rally that served as the de facto launch of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's ill-fated run for president, as well as the organizer of the Texas Restoration Project, which had boosted Perry's political career. He has worked with and for such GOP pols as Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann, and most recently, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Lane currently leads the American Renewal Project of Don Wildmon's American Family Association which is targeting twelve states for political development towards the 2014 elections.
Such nuts and bolts electoral work not withstanding, Lane called in his essay for Christians to "Wage war to restore a Christian America."
The depth and ferocity of Lane's vision is so remarkable that it cannot be explained away by the pundits of pooh pooh. Perhaps that is why it has gone unmentioned in the mainstream press. But Lane's words taken together; in the context of the politics of the moment as he understands it; and in set in the series of epochal historical and biblical moments he invokes -- his meaning is unambiguous.
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He opens by quoting Christian Reconstructionist author Peter J. Leithart:
“Throughout Scripture, the only power that can overcome the seemingly invincible omnipotence of a Babel or a Beast is the power of martyrdom, the power of the witness to King Jesus to the point of loss and death."
Lane goes on, still quoting Leithart, to denounce American Christianity for failing to produce martyrs and for substituting a "heretical Americanism for Christian orthodoxy." He insists that to put things right "Christians must risk martyrdom" to force people to either "acknowledge Jesus [as] an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”
Lane expresses frustration with what he regards as the superficial politics of press releases of "inside the Beltway" Christian Rightists. He calls for "champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see." The champions for Christ of his vision will "wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture."
“America’s survival is at stake," he declares, "and this is not tall talk or exaggeration.”
“If the American experiment with freedom is to end after 237 years," he suggests, "let each of us commit to brawl all the way to the end because," he explains quoting a famous radio address by Winston Churchill during the darkest days of the war with Nazi Germany: “Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.”
"You ask," Lane continued, “What is our goal?” To wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage with all of our might and strength that God will give us. You ask, “What is our aim?” One word only: victory, in spite of all intimidation and terror."
Finally, he calls for a contemporary "Gideon" and a "Rahab the Harlot" to rise to the occasion. Gideon is the Biblical figure who as a young man leads an Israelite army against the oppressive Midianites, who worship false gods. Rahab is revered for sheltering two Israelite spies in preparation for the sacking of the city of Jericho by Joshua's army, which resulted the massacre of everyone but Rahab and her family. That Lane is calling for a network of spies to inform an army aimed at destroying an oppressive, "pagan" government, is also unambiguous.
Almost as revelatory as the content of Lane's essay is the lack of a response from the media and the political community. Even as it was covered a bit in the blogosphere, notably by Denise Oliver Velez, here at Daily Kos and by Right Wing Watch and The New Civil Rights Movement, its been pretty much crickets everywhere else.
Crossposted from Talk to Action
Mon Jul 01, 2013 at 1:48 PM PT:
Noted blogger Digby has expanded the discussion of David Lane and Rand Paul over at Hullabaloo