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EXCERPTS FROM "GOD'S VICE-REGENTS" by MoJo Wire reporter Suzanne Herel:
"A faction of right-wing Republicans who believe in governing by
the Bible has already taken control of the California Republican Party. Now
they're poised to duplicate that feat in 35 other states - and counting -
under the banner of the new National Federation of Republican Assemblies.
Their immediate goal: to cultivate a Reaganesque candidate who can win the
presidency in 2000. Their
long-term goal: an America ruled by the word of God," Herel reported.
"NFRA membership now stands at about 15,000, says NFRA president
Stephen Frank, a former president of the California Republican Assembly who
advocates legislating by biblical principles," Herel wrote.
"'Legislation should be biblical principles put into action,' Frank
says. Asked about the differing versions of the Bible used by various
religions, he contended that every religion - even Buddhism - espouses a
set of principles similar to the Ten Commandments," Herel reported.
John Stoos, a former gun lobbyist, is a senior consultant to the
California organization and member of the fundamentalist Christian
Reconstructionist movement, according to the MoJo Wire.
In an article for the Chalcedon Report, a journal of the radical
Christian Reconstructionist movement, Stoos "goes so far as to call
Christian politicians God's 'vice-regents'...those who believe in the
Lordship of Christ and the dominion mandate.
"The 'dominion mandate,' Stoos told the MoJo Wire, is that
individuals are impacted by salvation. You will want to obey God's
commandments, and to the extent you do that, you start being a better
person...If there are enough of these groups in a community, the community
is different. If government has a rule of law that is biblical justice, you
will have freedom and liberty."
Journalist Herel added that the California Republican Assembly
"...now champions the English for Children initiative, which would end
bilingual education, and the Payroll Protection for Unionized Workers
initiative, which would abolish the automatic payroll checkoff for union
dues...They condemn the separation of church and state, abortion,
affirmative action, women in combat, and homosexuality. And members — even
Frank, who is Jewish — advocate legislating by the Bible."
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