christian reconstructionism

Christian Reconstructionism is movement which has been quietly but steadily gaining influence these days. They believe "that every area dominated by sin must be 'reconstructed' in terms of the Bible." More specifically they want society to be run according to their understanding of Old Testament law. So some of the leaders of this Christian movement have openly called for establishing the death penalty for actions such as sodomy, blasphemy, and being a rebellious offspring (And they endorse stoning as their prefered method of execution.) They even talk about legalizing slavery and flirt with Holocaust revisionism. The more hard-core end of the movement blurs into the racist and militant right-wing of the Christian Church but their ideas (not always under the label of "Christian Reconstructionism") are still influencing more mainstream Christians.

They are sometimes called the "American Taliban" by their critics but I'm not sure who should be more insulted by the label. The existence of groups like these help to show that just as there are also many different kinds of Muslims, there are also many different kinds of Christians. And instead of painting all "Christians" or all "Muslims" or "Buddhists" with the same brush, we should look examine why a particular set of conditions (whether economic, political, historical or social) might tend to produce different kinds of believers (from the deeply spiritual philanthropist to the deely troubled fanatic)

Here is a short, relatively "neutral" overview of Christian Reconstructionism from the Religious Movement Homepage.

To learn more about the mainstreaming of Reconstructionist ideas you can read Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence by Frederick Clarkson

Here is a categorized list of statements by Reconstructionist leaders on various subjects including "the Indian", "the Negro", "stoning" and "world conquest". (Links to more extensive critical discussions of the movement are available from the homepage)

And just to be fair, here is what the movement is about, straight from the horse's... mouth. The most prominent Christian Reconstrctionist organization is called the Chalcedon foundation and here is their website.