A few weeks ago, I had posted on a thread in regards to the Duggar family a rough model plan on fighting dominionism--I had originally intended to put it as the final post on my series on the dominionist parallel economy, but due to popular request, I'm moving it up.
In essence, I've come up with the initial stages of a model plan (and yes, it is initial, and yes, I appreciate constructive criticism) to try to essentially "send dominionism into remission".
The thing is, it's just big enough I need each and every person reading this to help out. And get their friends to help out. And get their friend's friends to help out...if we all work together, I really do think we can save the country.
How things got so bad in the first place
The main difficulty we have in fighting dominionism is multifold:
a) Dominionist groups have been around for decades, a lot longer than most folks give credit for--dominionist media alone has been around for almost 80 years.
b) Dominionism, in general, has been seen more as a political movement with religious aspirations than as a coercive religious movement with political aspirations. (This is starting to change, however.)
c) Dominionist churches, increasingly, are targeting mainstream churches and political parties with the same tools that were invented to control their own flocks--tools that are part of a particularly nasty toolset.
d) There is an increasing emphasis on militarisation, including religious boot camps, paramilitary training, domestic terrorism, and--disturbingly--increased infiltration of the US Armed Forces with the ultimate goal of coups de etat, if necessary, to gain control.
e) Dominionists have been very organised about this for around eighty years, with flareups and die-downs but never a complete extinguishing of dominionism (I am not sure this is entirely possible, as much of dominion theology's favourite conspiracy theories have been literally the basis of the movement and are part of their core theology).
f) Increasingly, dominionists have an entire "parallel economy" feeding them propoganda and steering them towards an ever more hardline approach.
I do think it's possible to fight, though. (I wouldn't be posting on here and researching if I didn't think it was possible to take our country back--I'd be having a permanent vacation in Stockholm. :D)
We are all going to have to work like hell, though--all of us.
Backgrounder
One of the bigger mistakes, IMHO, has been in treating dominionism like a political movement or even a mainstream religious movement rather than as a coercive religious group with some very strong political aspirations (as part of a general theology of "naming and claiming" everything).
In truth, we are dealing with essentially an authoritarian mindset. (It's not an entirely hopeless situation--there are enough of us multigen walkaways out there to prove that--but distressing nonetheless.)
Sara Robinson has written two particularly good series--"Cracks In The Wall" and "Tunnels and Bridges"--over on orcinus which are (IMNSHO) an essential read for anyone who is not a walkaway from dominionism to understand the mindset. (Of note, part two of "Cracks In The Wall" is a definite must-read for people curious as to the psychology of dominionism, and part 3 of that series is especially good IMHO in describing the RL process us walkaways do go through in escaping--and the best ways to encourage independent thought. Part 4 of "Tunnels and Bridges" is also very good in this respect.)
One thing--and I'll admit, this is in part fueled by things I've dealt with--it is refreshing to see that walkaways are finally being taken seriously. In all truth, a walkaway may well be one of your best sources of info re dominionism--and a lot of the early anti-dominionist activism has been from walkaways. Listen to our stories, and you might well learn something new--and something vital.
The multipoint plan
Most of my plan, admittedly, is aimed at immunising society against dominionism's effects whilst trying to mitigate damage. Due to how long the "infection" has set in, I'm not sure we can get rid of it entirely at this point--still, putting it in remission will do much to help America recover from its nightmare.
One of the things I've tried to take into consideration is not feeding into the dominionist "martyr complex"; another thing I've tried to take into consideration is preserving liberty as much as possible whilst making it hard in practice for dominionists to operate. (I'm not entirely convinced I've got this to a good balance, so suggestions from Kossacks are appreciated.)
Anyways, my plan:
a) Making damn sure that churches are not hijacked (this is one of their biggest things now--infiltrating mainstream churches and hijacking them). This would involve, among other things, educating pastors and church boards of mainstream congregations of tactics used in steeplejacking; informing them on the groups largely participating in steeplejacking; and warning signs in their congregations. This would also involve churches toughening up their own internal regulations, allowing them to dissolve or kick out steeplejacking groups.
Church groups, this means learning everything you can about the steeplejacking efforts of the FGBMFI and the Institute for Religion and Democracy and learning how they work. (The book "Steeplejacking" is a particularly good resource re the IRD; my diary entries re cell churches pretty much explain how the FGBMFI works.) You will especially want to keep very careful eyes on "small church groups" and "home churches", because steeplejacking groups like to set up shop in small groups in churches and spread from there.
b) A major emphasis all around in educating people on the tactics used in coercive religious groups (this would have the effect of starving them of much of their membership, and would also innoculate against a lot of authoritarian movements in general). Preferably in elementary school. Maybe even in Sunday school, too.
A very good resource on the tactics taken by coercive religious groups is in Steven Hassan's essay Spritual Responsibility, and this can be adapted for use in schools and even covering non-spiritual groups (thus "immunising" against coercive motivational groups).
c) Revoke 501(c)3 status for both churches and, where necessary, entire organisations and denominations that have shown patterns of supporting specific candidates, parties, or specific bills (all of which are illegal--we just don't enforce the laws). This would pretty much collapse a lot of the worst offenders--the Christian Coalition and PTL pretty much folded as distinct bodies when their 501(c)3 was revoked, Focus on the Family split when its 501(c)3 was threatened (and with a second threat has tried to put more of its political stuff under FotF Action, a 501(c)4) and much of the present dominionist political lobbying has been specifically to try to preserve their tax exemptions and even attempt to shield them from investigation. I promise you, if we started yanking 501(c)3s from Focus on the Family, the Assemblies of God, the SBC, and so on--you'd see a LOT of political dominionism going away and fast. Even more so if one started charging back taxes as well.
This is an area where the IRS is paying a bit more attention, but not nearly enough. It even would not really require new laws--just enforcing the ones we have (at most, maybe a law requiring the IRS to investigate and deal with complaints).
In related enforcement, we also need to focus on enforcing 501(c)4 regulations prohibiting advertising donations as tax deductible and prohibiting them from endorsing specific candidates (501(c)4s can lobby for specific causes, but when they endorse specific candidates they cross the line to being a formal PAC).
d) Educate social welfare groups about religiously motivated child abuse and get them serious about removing kids in danger due to dominionist parents. (This would break a lot of the cycle of abuse, even with the present problems in CPS.)
One of the most serious problems we have is the general unwillingness of CPS workers to investigate religiously motivated child abuse (either because they are unaware of it, they may support it, or they may be afraid of a lawsuit from a dominionist legal firm).
One child welfare item that would definitely kick the legs out from that portion of the dominionist "parallel economy" that promotes religiously motivated child abuse--make regulations requiring mandatory removal of licensure for any professional found to be promoting religiously motivated child abuse or failing to follow their duty as a mandatory reporter (there are already fines for this, but some states don't debar those protecting religiously motivated child abuse).
Also (in relation to "legit homeschool friendly" regs below) make decertification of state homeschool associations a penalty for promoting religiously motivated child abuse (a lot of the material by the Pearls, Tedd Tripp, et al are distributed in "Christian homeschooling" associations run by HSLDA-linked dominionist groups).
e) Make damn sure that state medical boards do not allow alternate certification, and petition medical associations to pass binding ethics guidelines prohibiting certain forms of "therapy" only promoted in dominionist groups (like "reparative therapy" and religiously motivated child abuse). Furthermore work with legit medical associations and state medical boards to make it a binding ethics violation (punishable by decertification and removal of medical license) to knowingly promote this stuff. Furthermore make it illegal to promote one's self as a mental health professional without formal licensure. (This would pretty much destroy the dominionist "medical associations".)
As an aside, also require specific state certification and licensure of all mental health and "behaviour modification" facilities as well as children's homes in the state and make it illegal to knowingly send a child outside of the United States to be enrolled in a behaviour modification clinic (and mandate funding for repatriation assistance for kids already caught overseas). This will pretty much shut down the dominionist "degaying" industry as well as the abusive "Bible boot camps".
(There has been a bill proposed in this regard--HR 1738 would have mandated states to license children's homes and "behaviour modification" facilities and would make it illegal to send kids overseas to places like WWASPS' Tranquility Bay facility. The bill seems to have died in committee but can always be reintroduced.)
f) Require minimal curriculum requirements for all private and home education programs. (I'm not saying a formal board. I'm saying "Here is a list of stuff that MUST be included in a basic curriculum package, no ifs, ands or buts". Things like basic maths including set theory, science courses that at least discuss evolution even if they don't necessarily agree with that particular theory of descent of species, a factual American History curriculum, and so on.) As dominionist correspondence-schools are getting so bad that state university systems are starting to refuse high school credits for their courses, this IS going to become an increasing concern; it can even be promoted as making sure all schools have minimal requirements.
Yes, dominionist groups will scream bloody murder (they already are screaming bloody murder at a Washington State bill requiring a minimal level of sex education in private and public schools, including dominionist home education systems). Couch it as making sure all kids are "college ready", though, and pretty much everyone but the dominionists will be inclined to go along with it.
For legitimate home educators, this should allow accreditation of a curriculum by the state or allowing a state inclusive homeschooling association to accredit (emphasis on inclusive--perhaps even formally requiring that any homeschool accreditation board would be required to not discriminate on the basis of religion); there should, likewise, be formal moves to not allow recognition of non-inclusive homeschooling groups for state recognition. (Homeschooling Is Legal has noted how HSLDA has tried to shut out legit homeschooling associations, so a specific block against exclusive orgs is a necessary evil.
This would shut out HSLDA and their groups whilst allowing legit home education to continue, for example, with unschoolers, etc.--preferably parents should be able to list how they are meeting educational requirements for curricula programs (for example, an unschooling family could note "For the 'evolutionary science' requirement we watched 'Walking with Dinosaurs' and read Robert Bakker's 'The Dinosaur Heresies' before our field trip to the science museum" and send it to a state-recognised unschooler support group, and this would count as their "evolutionary science" requirement for their biology curriculum).
One possible way (in fact, one very good way) of doing this is to require private schools to be formally accredited. (The legit private and religious schools will be willing to do this; this will also pretty much block out dominionist curricula programs, as practically all of them are from unaccredited colleges that brag about their unaccredited status or are certified with known accreditation mills like ACSI.)
Most dominionist "homeschool" programs are in fact legally considered correspondence schooling (in fact, to be specific, they are considered "satellite schools" of dominionist private schools that host "homeschooler ministries"), which would cover them--but possibly leave it more open for "unschoolers" who could send a planned semester or yearly curricula list to a state educational department or homeschool liason office.
g) Require all colleges issuing degrees to be formally accredited with a body recognised by the US Department of Education or a state or regional accreditation board, and make the use of "degrees" from a non-accredited institution illegal. (This is already the case in Oregon and several other states.) This will pretty much shut down dominionist accreditation and diploma mills.
Encourage state governments to aggressively shut down both diploma mills and accreditation mills; start requiring religious colleges to have a formal certification from a legitimately recognised accrediting body if they offer any non-ministerial degrees.
Require all accreditation boards to maintain minimal educational standards (similar to those used in the "minimum mandatory curriculum" proposed) to be recognised as legit. (This avoids a "TRACS situation"; TRACS is technically considered a legit accreditation board by the US Department of Education, but in large part operates as a dominionist accreditation mill and has in fact had its status as an accreditation board threatened twice. Increasingly, dominionist colleges like Patrick Henry College and Liberty University have gone to TRACS as a "last chance" attempt at legit accreditation.)
h) Increase awareness of the isolation and authoritarianism of dominionist groups in general. Support initiatives of victims of abusive groups in general (not restricted to dominionists) to gain damages in courts from abusive groups. Push for PTSD and complex PTSD to be formally recognised as disorders under the Americans with Disabilities Act (this would help survivors a LOT). Support community services for survivors.
One thing that everyone can do to help is to support associations devoted to helping walkaways and survivors--Safe Passage Foundation is a particularly good org to support, as they help out multigenerational walkaways.
Possibly expand RICO to cover any form of targeted harassment of a business or person which would "knowingly cause that person to be in fear of losing their life or property". (This pretty much gets rid of dominionist flashmobbing, things like pickets of people's houses and worse, etc. There is court precedent for this with RICO having been used to control anti-abortion dominionist groups which were engaging in attempts to assassinate clinic personnel and harassing patrons.)
i) In a related note, get the government to start taking religiously motivated domestic terrorism seriously. All you have to do is say "Al Quaida" or "bomb" in an airport or be of unusually dark complexion and TSA goes apeshit; meanwhile, dominionist "Army of God"-linked groups are reenacting assassinations in front of women's clinics (and occasionally committing assassinations), committing simulated anthrax attacks, stalking people, and bombing and committing butyric acid attacks (and similar instances of chemical warfare) against women's clinics--and in recent years, these tactics are now being adapted against adult bookstores as well. The instances of domestic terrorism related to dominionism aren't restricted to sex anymore, either; domestic terrorists related to "Christian Patriot" militia groups have started explicitly targeting moderate Christian churches for invasions during church services due to their tolerance of LGBT people (and the invasions are being conducted by Joel's Army groups with close links to the Army of God terrorist network).
Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which has successfully shut down Ku Klux Klan organisations via lawsuits by targets of domestic terrorism, has documented nearly 60 domestic terror plots they found out about between 1995 and 2005--over half of which would technically have been covered under the PATRIOT Act as terrorism--and a decided bias towards prosecuting acts of domestic terror by left-wing groups.
Why the hell aren't we freezing funds of Operation Save America, for instance, as "supporting terrorism" (especially as their leaders are connected to the Army of God terror network and they have invaded the halls of Congress for the specific purpose of disrupting a Hindu giving invocation)?
j) For that matter, start enforcing fraud laws against dominionist groups using "bait and switch" evangelism stuff, especially "bait and switch" aimed at vulnerable populations. Start charging "pregnancy counseling centers" with fraud by deception. Charge the Assemblies of God for fraud for promoting the Seven Project (which is in fact a youth ministry deceptively promoted as a program for "at-risk youth" to keep kids off drugs). Shut down "faith-based community alternative groups" that are evangelism programs falsely being run as rehab groups (we have court precedent already for this--the US District Court effectively did this to Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries in Iowa's prison system and is making them pay back all the money the state paid them). Charge Ted Haggard with fraud by deception for his little "Please feed me whilst I work in the faith-based rehab" bit.
k) Get the US Senate to formally ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ICC jurisdiction. (The US is the only country with a functional government that has not ratified the former--largely because of pressure from dominionists who are very frightened that ratification could open them up to lawsuits.)
l) Specifically call for human rights tribunals against parties known to have engaged in genocide and/or crimes against humanity. (This pretty much busts one of the Assemblies' frontgroups, the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International, all over the place. Lots of FGBMFI men involved in grave human rights abuses, including Gen. Rios Montt (wanted for genocide) and former Gen. William Boykin (linked to the Abu Ghraib and Gitmo torture scandals as the asshat who authorised torture and likely connected to the "extraordinary rendition" gulag system as well)...again, there is precedent dating all the way back to Nurenburg and before for this.)
Pass legislation formally defining the Trading with the Enemy Act to include any group specifically linked to domestic terrorism, known genocide, or crimes against humanity. (Yes, this will kill our trade with some countries as well. It also pretty much prohibits funding of dominionist groups that have supported genocide.) There is precedent for this as well--ironically, via our own government's prohibition of funding of various Islamic charities suspected of being fronts for funding terrorism (and this dates far before Bush the Younger or even Bush the Elder).
m) One way to minimise infiltration of the military--close the chaplaincy loophole that the Assemblies of God and Campus Crusade in particular have used to attempt steeplejacking of the chaplaincy program. (Both these groups have used a backdoor way of getting in (originally initiated due to a shortage of Catholic chaplains)--using their own churches to get them registered as pastors in a way so loose as to constitute an ordination mill and then using your tax dollars to get a formal seminary training to complete the military's requirement for a formal divinity degree.)
Final words, and more that you can do personally
Note that in each of these cases I am not specifically banning dominionism. I am advocating, if anything, a combination of tactics designed to inoculate churches and other groups against further spread along with enforcement of present laws we have on the books--and in a few cases, tightening up of laws to enforce standards across the board to effectively starve most funding for dominionist incentives, essentially make it much harder for dominionists to operate (I do not hold pretenses we'll ever get rid of dominionism entirely) and protect kids in particular against further abuse. (In a security context, I'm basically proposing a combination of antivirus and firewalling, along with prosecution of the guys who are actually writing the malware.)
One of the most important things that people can do for all of this:
a) Get the word out. Get the word out. GET THE WORD OUT about dominionism and what it is, what it does, who funds it, who runs it.
b) Work like hell to get out the vote and make sure the vote isn't tampered with. This includes not only getting in people into Congress (and state legislatures) who will approve the tweaks to laws, but (in states where this is open to vote) getting in Attorney-Generals who will enforce laws and so on. This includes not only doing major league GOTV, but also specifically including vote monitors in states and counties to make sure nothing funny is going on. This includes lobbying your state to ban those fucking Diebold POS black-boxes and all other voting machines without a secondarily and independently verifiable paper trail. This includes raising fifty kinds of holy hell if something IS found to be off.
c) Make sure that the Democratic Party is educated on this and made into a force where we CAN work for this change. There are people even among the Democrats who are afraid of pissing off the dominionists or being seen as "anti-religion", and we've seen the problems with "blue dog" Democrats in past. If they won't listen, vote the bums out and get some better bums :3