Dominionism Is Left-Wing Birtherism

Dominionism Is Left-Wing Birtherism

Not only am I a conservative, I’m a Southern Baptist who started going to church when I was knee-high. Moreover, most of my friends could fairly be called Christian conservatives. That being said, the first time I ever even heard the word “Dominionism” was on a left-wing website that was probably about as hostile to Christianity as Andre Carson is to the Tea Party.

Yet and still, if you listen to liberal newspapers, you’d think every other GOP presidential contender is a theocratic dominionist even though I’ve never met a single conservative in my entire life who favors turning the United States into a theocracy.

The Daily Beast/Newsweek recently published an article titled “A Christian Plot for Domination?” claiming that Perry and Bachmann are “deeply associated with a theocratic strain of Christian fundamentalism” known as Dominionism. A widely discussed article in the Texas Observer claimed that Dominionists — a “little-known movement of radical Christians” — are readying an “army of God” to “commandeer civilian government,” with Perry the “vessel” for their ambitions. Finally, the New Yorker published a long article claiming that Bachmann believes “Christians, and Christians alone, are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns.”

Surveying those articles, the executive editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller, concludes that “an unusually large number” of Republican candidates “belong to churches that are mysterious or suspect to many Americans.” Perry and Bachmann, in particular, are connected to “fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity,” which Keller says “has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction.” Fearing that Perry or Bachmann could be a “Trojan horse” for a religious takeover of the government, Keller advocates strict questioning of candidates on doctrinal issues.

If you want to make the 2012 campaign about religion, I have two words for you: Jeremiah Wright.

Beyond that, much time has been spent deservedly mocking “birthers” for pushing the idea that Barack Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii. Yet, the idea that Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are dominionists is every bit as laughable, silly, and unproven as the idea that Barack Obama wasn’t born in America. Yet some of the biggest liberal news sources in America are treating the idea seriously.

What’s next? Is Ron Paul really a moon man? Is Herman Cain bionic? Does Mitt Romney have a secret second wife who’s actually a Bigfoot? Maybe the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the Daily Beast/Newsweek can find out for us right after they get to the bottom of this Dominionism story.

This post originally appeared at The Huffington Post.

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