Chalcedon Foundation: Difference between revisions
Leave it until you made a credible case on the talk page, if you can. |
→Hate group designation: removed misplaced claim - not a SPLC reference at all |
||
| Line 59: | Line 59: | ||
==Hate group designation== |
==Hate group designation== |
||
In 2010, the Chalcedon Foundation was designated an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)<ref name="Lynda Waddington">{{cite news|last=Lynda Waddington|first=Lynda Waddington|title=Groups that helped oust Iowa judges earn ‘hate group’ designation|url=http://iowaindependent.com/47947/groups-that-helped-oust-iowa-judges-earn-hate-group-designation|accessdate=13 September 2012|newspaper=The Iowa Independent|date=23 November 2010}}</ref><ref name=Konecky>{{cite news|last=Konecky|first=Gary|title=2010: A year of religious hate|accessdate=13 September 2012|newspaper=Newark Examiner|date=14 December 2010|location=Newark, NJ}}</ref> for continuing "to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities."<ref name=Schlatter>{{cite web|last=Schlatter |first=Evelyn |url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners |title=18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=November 2010 |accessdate=2012-09-13|quote=Rushdoony’s Reconstruction is indeed radical, even including “incorrigible children” among those deserving death. And virtually all of his works remain for sale on the Chalcedon Foundation website.}} |
In 2010, the Chalcedon Foundation was designated an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)<ref name="Lynda Waddington">{{cite news|last=Lynda Waddington|first=Lynda Waddington|title=Groups that helped oust Iowa judges earn ‘hate group’ designation|url=http://iowaindependent.com/47947/groups-that-helped-oust-iowa-judges-earn-hate-group-designation|accessdate=13 September 2012|newspaper=The Iowa Independent|date=23 November 2010}}</ref><ref name=Konecky>{{cite news|last=Konecky|first=Gary|title=2010: A year of religious hate|accessdate=13 September 2012|newspaper=Newark Examiner|date=14 December 2010|location=Newark, NJ}}</ref> for continuing "to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities."<ref name=Schlatter>{{cite web|last=Schlatter |first=Evelyn |url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners |title=18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=November 2010 |accessdate=2012-09-13|quote=Rushdoony’s Reconstruction is indeed radical, even including “incorrigible children” among those deserving death. And virtually all of his works remain for sale on the Chalcedon Foundation website.}}</ref> |
||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
Revision as of 20:53, 13 September 2012
 | |
| Formation | 1965 |
|---|---|
| Type | non-profit 501(c)(3) |
| Headquarters | Vallecito, California |
Founder | Rousas John Rushdoony |
President | Mark R. Rushdoony |
Vice President | Martin G. Selbrede |
| Website | Official web site |
The Chalcedon Foundation is an American Christian Reconstructionist organization founded by Rousas John Rushdoony. Named for the Council of Chalcedon,[1] it has also included theologians such as Gary North, who later founded his own organization, the Institute for Christian Economics.
The Chalcedon Foundation has been listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).[2]
History
The Chalcedon Foundation, named after a 451 A.D. council that proclaimed the state’s subservience to God,[3] was officially founded by Rushdoony in summer 1965. In 1971, North was hired part-time, and two years later North was hired full-time while Greg Bahnsen was also hired. Rushdoony founded Ross House Books in 1976, the same year in which North and Bahnsen left the Foundation to pursue careers elsewhere. In 1977, the Foundation's first office building was built. A decade later, the organization's Newsletter became a magazine, the Chalcedon Report.
In the 1970s Howard Ahmanson became a Calvinist and joined Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionist movement. Ahmanson served as a board member of Rushdoony's Chalcedon Foundation for approximately 15 years before resigning in 1996. Ahmanson said he had left the Chalcedon board and "does not embrace all of Rushdoony's teachings."[4][5]TIME Magazine covered the Ahmansons in their 2005 profiles of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, classifying them as "the financiers."[6]
Key members of the Chalcedon Foundation over the years have included Gary North, Greg Bahnsen, David Chilton, Gary DeMar, Kenneth Gentry, and Andrew Sandlin. North has defined his politics as Neo-Puritanism. [7]
On February 8, 2001, Rushdoony died. He was succeeded by his son Mark Rushdoony, who continues to run the organization. In 2004, Ross House Books merged with Chalcedon, and in 2005, the Chalcedon Report was renamed Faith for All of Life.[8]
Positions
The Chalcedon Foundation describes itself as a Christian educational organization oriented toward promoting Christian reconstruction, emphasizing the Cultural or Dominion Mandate.[9] The Foundation's founder, Rousas John Rushdoony, who is known as “father of Christian Reconstruction” theology,[3] advocated the imposition of Old Testament laws.[10]
Chalcedon Foundation roots in the late 1960s evolved from Rushdoony's career as an Orthodox Presbyterian pastor. Rushdoony, and a handful of Ph.D.s and ex-seminarians wrote books and articles that were not especially popular at the time. Forty years later, however, secular journalists characterize Rushdoony's movement as "the spark plug behind much of the battle over religion in politics today". Rushdoony's work via the Chalcedon Foundation challenged conservative Christians to "take the whole Bible seriously—including inconvenient verses in the Old Testament that most Christians, even biblical literalists, politely ignore."[8]
Reconstructionism
The Chalcedon Foundation advocates the Christian Reconstructionism movement which "believes Christians must take control of society for 1,000 years before the Second Coming of Christ can be achieved." Rushdoony believed the Bible should be adopted as law,[11] including Scriptures advocating the death penalty for homosexuality, striking or cursing a parent, adultery, and lying. In Rushdoony's book, "The Institutes of Biblical Law," promoted by the Chalcedon Foundation,[12] he wrote that "the Holocaust death toll of 6 million Jews was greatly exaggerated."[13]
According to American journalist Frederick Clarkson, reconstructionism has played an important role in shaping the contemporary Christian Right[8] citing that Reconstructionists who have already moved into positions of significant power and influence are two directors of Chalcedon Foundation, philanthropist Howard Ahmanson and political consultant Wayne C. Johnson, epitomizing the political strategy of the new Christian Right.[14]
Dominionism
Dominionism or Dominion Theology is a grouping of theological systems[15] with the common belief that the law of God, as codified in the Bible, should exclusively govern society, to the exclusion of secular law, a view also known as theonomy. Reconstructionists themselves use the word dominionism to refer to their belief that Christians alone should control civil government, conducting it according to Biblical law.[16][17]
The central biblical text for Dominionists is Genesis 1: 26–28, in which God declares that man shall have dominion over all the earth. This is seen as a mandate for believers to create both a Christian government and a Christian culture. It has been primarily associated with Rushdoony's Reconstructionism movement, as espoused by the Chalcedon Foundation. Rushdoony himself supported the John Birch Society, while North wrote the epilogue to a conspiracist text by the John Birch Society author, Larry Abraham. North went as far as declaring that the enemies of America were “a conspiracy of super-rich and super-powerful insiders.” [18]
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) notes that The Institutes of Biblical Law, written by Rushdoony in 1973, called for strict biblical law that would "mean the death penalty for 'practicing homosexuals', among many other 'abominators'".[19]
Hate group designation
In 2010, the Chalcedon Foundation was designated an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)[20][21] for continuing "to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities."[3]
See also
References
- ^ "Chalcedon Vision Statement". Chalcedon Foundation. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
- ^ Waddington, Lynda (November 23, 2010). "Groups that Helped Oust Iowa Judges Earn 'Hate Group' Designation; SPLC Adds American Family Association, Family Research Council to List". Iowa Independent. Retrieved November 25, 2010.
- ^ a b c Schlatter, Evelyn (November 2010). "18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
Rushdoony's Reconstruction is indeed radical, even including "incorrigible children" among those deserving death. And virtually all of his works remain for sale on the Chalcedon Foundation website.
- ^ Reason, Nov. 1998
- ^ Flank, Lenny (2007). Deception by Design: The Intelligent Design Movement in America. St. Petersburg, FL: Red and Black Publishers. p. 52. ISBN 0-9791813-0-5. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ The 24 most influential Evangelicals in America. Time. February 7, 2005.
- ^ Waskey, Andrew (2010). Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
- ^ a b c Worthen, Molly (June 1, 2008). "The Chalcedon problem: Rousas John Rushdoony and the origins of Christian reconstructionism". Church History. Retrieved September 12, 2012. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
- ^ "Our Ministry". Chalcedon Foundation. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
- ^ Ostling, Richard N. (May 7, 2005). "Religious right accused of pushing for theocracy". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. Associated Press. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
- ^ Hinch, Jim (15 October 2003). "hurch drive has O.C. roots". Orange County Register.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ "Biblical Law". Chalcedon Foundation. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
- ^ Bee Staff Reports (17 February 2012). "Home-School Backer Rev. Rushdoony Dead at 84 - Ultraconservative Views Aired In Media". The Modesto Bee.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Clarkson, Frederick (1994). "Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence". Christian Reconstructionism. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Barron, Bruce A. (1992). Heaven on earth?: the social & political agendas of dominion theology. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-53611-1.[page needed]
- ^ Sandlin, Andrew. "The Creed of Christian Reconstructionism". Archived from the original on 28 March 2005. Retrieved 23 September 2007.[self-published source?]
- ^ Sandlin, Andrew (1998). "A Reconstructionist Manifesto". Retrieved 23 September 2007.
- ^ Knight, Peter (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History. ABC Clio.
- ^ "A Dozen Major Groups Help Drive the Religious Right's Anti-Gay Crusade". Intelligence Report (117). 2005. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Lynda Waddington, Lynda Waddington (23 November 2010). "Groups that helped oust Iowa judges earn 'hate group' designation". The Iowa Independent. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
- ^ Konecky, Gary (14 December 2010). "2010: A year of religious hate". Newark Examiner. Newark, NJ.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help)
Further reading
- Diamond, Sara. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. New York: Guilford, 1995.
- House, H. Wayne, Ice, Thomas, and Morris, Rodney L., eds. Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse? An Analysis of Christian Reconstructionism. Portland, , OR: Multnomah Press, 1988.
- Rushdoony, Rousas J. Roots of Reconstruction. Vallecito, , CA: Ross House Books, 1991.
- Rushdoony, Rousas J. The Nature of the American System. Vallecito, , CA: Ross House Books, 2002.