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This article is on the political-religious concept of dominionism. See Dominion (disambiguation) for other meanings of the word dominion

Template:Dominionism Dominionism is a term used to describe a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism, primarily though not exclusively in the United States, that seeks to establish specific political policies based on religious beliefs.

While the term could be applied to any movement seeking a joining of political and religious power, it is most often used to describe politically active conservative Christians. It should be noted that individuals rarely use the term as a self-description; many feel it is a loaded or pejorative term, and use of the term is primarily limited to critics of the Christian Right.

The term emerged in relation to the Christian Right in the mid-1990s, but became more widely known due in large part to the U.S. presidential election, 2004 where the media attributed Republican wins to "Evangelical" voters in "Red states" who voted for "moral values".

Origin of the Term

Dominion

The dominionist interpretation sees adherents as heeding a command from God to all mankind to subject the world to the rule of the Word of God. The terminology of dominionism, and the broad concept of the trend described by critics, has been taken from the Bible's text in Genesis 1:26

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Christians typically interpret this verse as meaning that God gave humankind responsibility over the Earth, but anti-Dominionist critics commonly point to this passage as a paradigm that influences Christian attitudes of Western domination over the Earth and everything in it.

Christian Right influences

Some influences on the Christian Right acknowledge looking to the New Testament to justify theocracy. In Matthew 28:18, for example, Jesus is reported to have said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. This verse is seen as an announcement by Jesus that he has assumed authority over all earthly authority. In that light, some theologians interpret the Great Commission as a command to exercise that authority in his name, bringing all things (including societies and cultures) into subjection under his commands. Rousas John Rushdoony, for example, interprets the Great Commission as a republication of the "creation mandate" (The Institutes of Biblical Law, p 729), referring to Genesis 1:28:

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

For Rushdoony, the idea of dominion did imply a form of Christian theocracy or, more accurately, a theonomy.

Varieties of Dominionism and Christian Political participation

Some organizations and writers who are targeted with the label of "dominionism", disagree with the categorization of their beliefs as a political ideology. They admit that their Christian beliefs influence their vote but deny that they seek political domination. In fact, many so-called dominionsts see that voting one's moral convictions is entirely consistent with Democracy, and that criticizing Christians for doing so is hypocritical.

There are many varieties of belief described as Dominionism; some of which never refer to the idea of "dominion" at all. Several of the major books on the subject argue that of the varieties of Dominionism, more radical forms have had a direct influence upon the more moderate Christian Right (Diamond, Barron, Clarkson).

Dominionism often has other forms. In the United States, some Christians see an implied obligation to be responsible managers of resources, in various Biblical mandates. On that basis they argue for conservation measures, and believe that the role of caretaker of the earth, and of non-human creatures, rests on all people but especially Christians. For example in the environmental movement, these Christians call for "stewardship" of the planet.

Roots and branches

A variety of forms of Dominionism have appeared in Canada, and several European countries, as well as the United States, where it might at some point raise issues of separation of church and state.

Dominionism as a trend in the late 1970s and 1980s was sparked in part by a series of books and films featuring Francis A. Schaeffer, a popular Evangelical apologist and founder of L'Abri, a Christian community in Huemoz, Switzerland. The theological works of Cornelius Van Til are sometimes cited as inspiring certain proponents of Dominionism or Dominion Theology, although Van Til himself disavaowed entanglement of his work with political movements like these.

In order to encompass most religiously motivated political conservatives within the scope of their criticism, the sociologists suggest that a dominionist-envisioned program can range from urging political activism in civic society under the banner of "family values" or "traditional values", to involvement for more explicitly Christian and biblical reasons. For example, similar agendas are advocated by groups such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Unification Church, and conservative Catholics, with whom most Evangelicals deny religious commonality; however, the Christian Right is a political coalition based on common cause shared by otherwise differently motivated groups.

Dominionism debated

Frederick Clarkson, the author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, is fearful that as this coalition of religious people grows, democracy and pluralism will be increasingly under attack. During the administration of George W. Bush, critics of the Dominionist idea have sometimes claimed the trend is representative of all Christians of a Republican or politically-conservative orientation. New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, for example, has equated the sermons of James Dobson to the rhetoric used in the former Yugoslavia to justify the slaughter of Muslims by Serbian Christians, and he has characterized federally-funded Christian charities as "parallel indoctrination systems."

According to the conservative Washington Times, some "liberal" critics of dominionism express "hostility toward Christian conservatives." .

Stanley Kurtz, in the conservative forum, National Review online, complained that discussion about Dominionism (at a conference in New York and in articles in Harper's Magazine) often linked average Christian evangelicals with extremism, such as views found at the fringes of the very small movement known as Christian Reconstructionism:

The notion that conservative Christians want to reinstitute slavery and rule by genocide is not just crazy, it’s downright dangerous. The most disturbing part of the Harper’s cover story (the one by Chris Hedges) was the attempt to link Christian conservatives with Hitler and fascism. Once we acknowledge the similarity between conservative Christians and fascists, Hedges appears to suggest, we can confront Christian evil by setting aside 'the old polite rules of democracy.' So wild conspiracy theories and visions of genocide are really excuses for the Left to disregard the rules of democracy and defeat conservative Christians — by any means necessary.

One conference speaker criticized by Kurtz is Katherine Yurica, who has written about the rise of Dominionism as a theocratic tendency in the Christian Right. Yurica responded to Kurtz and pointed out that she has not used the term "Christian Fascism" in her writings. Yurica has noted fascistic tendencies in Christian Right Dominionism, but she does not consider the Christian Right to be "Christian."

Christian conservatives, however, are not the only people who suggest that some criticism of dominionism is hyperbolic. Even some progressive researchers warn of the tendency. For example, two progressive websites that challenge the Christian Right but urge respectful rhetoric are Talk to Action and Campaign to Defend the Constitution

Range of Dominionist Ideas

Schaeffer is sometimes called one of the founders of the Christian Right movement, which some have labeled a Dominionist movement. Schaeffer was influenced by the writings of R. J. Rushdoony, the intellectual founder of Christian Reconstructionism, a postmillennialist form of Theocratic Dominionism. Schaeffer and Rushdoony read each others' writings, and even met. Schaeffer led a study of Rushdoony's writings at Schaeffer's institute in Switzerland. Schaeffer and other premillennialists picked up themes of dominionism from the postmillennialist Rushdoony, and adapted them to premillennial theology. Some commentators emphasize Schaeffer's differences with Christian Reconstructionism, and with R.J. Rushdoony. A systematic difference was his rejection of theocracy. In the book, A Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer writes, "There is no New Testament basis for a linking of church and state until Christ, the King returns." Critical writers however, emphasize the similarities and overlapping influence of Schaeffer and the Reconstructionists, on the formation of the Christian Right.

Generic dominionism

Within the Christian Right, concern over social, cultural, and political issues such as abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, sympathy for Israel sometimes expressed as Christian Zionism, the banning of teacher-led prayer in the public schools, and the reduction of overtly fundamentalist Chistian perspectives in the public square has prompted participation in elections since the 1970s. Activists and intellectuals in the Christian Right work in a coalition of religious conservatives, operating through the Republican Party to promote their influence. These dominionists sometimes make the claim that "America is a Christian nation." By this, some mean that, at one time Christian participation, as Christians, was not feared in the public sphere, and was even a norm. Now, they feel shut out, and feel the need to re-assert their presence as religious people with a valid perspective in the democratic political process and the institutions of the culture. Few, however, articulate a position that could be called theocratic.

Critics argue the claim that the United States is a Christian nation is of questionable historic validity (often pointing out the deism of various founding fathers) , is ethnocentric, and reduces secularists and members of other religions (such as Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism) to second-class status. Religious historians, like Nathan Hatch, Mark Noll and others, also suggest that modern fundamentalists are nostalgic for a time that never really existed as they imagine it: a time in the indefinite past, before the turbulent sixties, when wholesomeness, and sanity, and harmony prevailed under a benevolent religion much as they conceive their own to be.

Theocratic dominionism

The terms Theocratic Dominionism or Hard Dominionism, are used by some to describe forms of Dominionism which evidently envision, and work toward, a future in which all the institutions of society will be governed by the principles of their form of Christian faith.

Hard Dominionism is primarily associated with certain Calvinists who hold a postmillennialist eschatology. John Calvin's Geneva, and the Puritans are considered antecedents of this strain. Some Christians who speak of America as a Christian Nation are referring to this theocratic ideal, such as Kevin Clauson of the National Reform Association.

America and other nations can be Christian if they adopt biblical laws in state, church, family, and all other entities and associations. We cannot trust man (individually or collectively); we must trust God and His immutable law. If civil magistrates will not apply the Old Testament law, then what will they apply? The law of man. If we will not be ruled by God, we will be ruled by tyrants. (see p. 67, God and Politics: Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government, ed. Gary Scott Smith (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1989).

In recent years, another type of Dominionism has developed among premillennialist Evangelicals, primarily charismatics. This version is essentially pessimistic concerning general society. Christian activism is seen as a sort of holding action against the inevitable coming of the Antichrist. This group differs from the first in key areas such as support for Israel. (The conservative television personality Pat Robertson is an example of this second type.)

Several small movements fit this description, the influence of one of which began to be noticed in the 1970s, called Christian Reconstructionism. Although the number of ideologically self-conscious advocates is miniscule, this movement, by virtue of the blunt consistency of its rhetoric, has exercised influence far out of proportion to the number of self-identifying adherents.

Christian Reconstructionism

The flag-ship institution of Christian Reconstructionism is the Chalcedon Foundation, founded by R.J. Rushdoony. From their website, Chalcedon answers critics who characterize them as an orchestrator of a clandestine, politically motivated conspiracy:

Our critics sometimes imply or state outright that we are engaged in a subtle, covert attempt to capture conservative, right-wing politics in order to gain political power, which we will then use to "spring" Biblical law on our nation. This is flatly false. We do not believe that politics or the state are a chief sphere of dominion.

Critics note that politics is the chief sphere in which Reconstructionism's influence is perceived, and consequently feel justified in characterizing it as primarily political, in fact even if not in ideal theory. For instance, some critics go so far as to point to a phrase from Chalcedon's website, "“Proclaiming the Authority of God’s Word Over Every Area of Life and Thought.” Catch the vision…" charging that phrases such as this demonstrate nefarious motives on behalf of the Chalcedon Foundation. Critics such as Frederick Clarkson identify it as totalitarian, comparable to other right-wing and political movements inspired by religious fundamentalism. Proponents of Reconstructionism claim that, on the contrary, they stand in opposition to tyranny:

The great problem with modern politics is that it is used as an instrument of social change. We at Chalcedon passionately oppose this. The role of the state is in essence to defend and protect, in the words of the early American Republic, life, liberty, and property. It is to reward the externally obedient by protecting them from the externally disobedient (Romans 13:1-7). Its role is not to make men virtuous; we have a name for civil governments that attempt to create a virtuous society: totalitarian.

Some theocratic Dominionists argue that the United States was originally envisioned as a society based on Biblical law. . They also contend that theonomy is not the same thing as Erastianism or Papalism.

Notes

1. Ellis Henican, "A spiritual olive branch for the far-right faithful," Newsday, May 1, 2005.

References

• Morgan, Edmund S., (ed.). 1965. Puritan Political Ideas. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill.
• Barron, Bruce. 1992. Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agendas of Dominion Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. ISBN 0310536111
• Diamond, Sara. 1995. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 0898628644
• Clarkson, Frederick. 1997. Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage. ISBN 1567510884
• "Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence" by Frederick Clarkson

See also

• Theocracy
• Theonomy
• Dominion Theology
• Christian Zionism
• Christian Reconstructionism
• Christian Supremacy
• Calvinism
• Evangelicalism
• Fundamentalism
• Kingdom Now theology
• Christian Right
• Separation of church and state
• Islamism
• Reconstructionist Postmillennialism vs Revivalist Postmillennialism
• Summary of Christian eschatological differences

External links

• Example of a Proposed Theocratic Constitution (Cotton Mather)
• Article by Sara Diamond
• Theocracy Watch
• Christian Reconstructionism, Dominion Theology, and Theonomy
• The Yurica Report
• Christian Reconstructionism - The Foundation of Modern Conservatism
• The Dominionist (dominionism defined by a dominionist)
• The Chalcedon Foundation
• Religious Movements: Christian Reconstructionism
• Soldiers Of Christ I and Soldiers Of Christ II: articles on militant right-wing activism from Harper's Magazine, May, 2005.

• Dominionism
• Christian eschatology