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The Far-Right, Totalitarian Origins of GW Bush’s & David Cameron’s “Compassionate Conservatism” Orwellian Double-Talk Slogan

Alex Constantine - October 5, 2012

By Ian Wilkinson

The Constantine Report, October 4, 2012

David Cameron tells us that he is a "compassionate conservative", but that is a deception. As this article will explain, "compassionate conservatism" is an Orwellian double talk slogan which was coined by a pro-dismantling welfare states writer, who supports a pro-dictatorship, far right religious group who advocate stoning disobedient children to death, and the relegalisation of slavery.

To understand why David Cameron is using an Orwellian double talk slogan like "compassionate conservatism", it is first necessary to explain the links between the American Republican Party, which the Conservatives often borrow their latest far right ideas from, and 2 totalitarian far right religious groups, the Moonies, or Unification Church, and the Christian Reconstruction Movement.

As both of those groups have little known close links to George W. Bush, I ought to point out first of all, that they are certainly not irrelevant fringe organisations.

In "The Guardian" of November 7, 2006, you could read that, "Kofi Annan will this week put a former leading "Moonie" in charge of the UN's biggest humanitarian aid agency after vigourous lobbying by the Bush administration.

"Josette Sheehan is to be appointed executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), according to diplomatic and UN sources.

"Ms Sheehan, also known by her married name Shiner, was a member of the Rev Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church for more than 20 years. She became one of its most influential figures as managing editor of the Washington Times newspaper, which was founded by Mr Moon."

It is not at all surprising that the Bush Administration should have been lobbying for a former Moonie to be appointed to a top UN job, because the October 1996 issue of the Moon cult's newsletter, "Unification News", reported that then Texas Governor George W. Bush, had sent a congratulatory letter to the Moonies' Women's Federation for World Peace, when they held a large banquet in Texas.

Moreover, the April 29, 2007 issue of "Mother Jones" magazine revealed in its article, "Bush Sr. to Celebrate Rev. Sun Myung Moon - Again", that in 1996, George W. Bush's father had given a speech in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to help the late Reverend Moon to launch his "Tiempos del Mundo" ("World Times") Latin American newspaper, before accompanying Moon to open a seminary in Uruguay; that George W. Bush's brother Neil's educational company was given $1 million by a Moon foundation; and that the "Houston Chronicle" had found evidence that George H. W. Bush's Presidential Library was given $1 million by Moon's Washington Times Foundation, via a funding front, the Greater Houston Community Foundation.

The article also discussed other Moonie links to the Republican Party.

Those links explain why in the article, "Moonie leader 'crowned' in Senate" ("The Guardian", June 26, 2004), you could read: "The US Senate was used for a bizarre ritual in which the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the head of the Unification church, was "crowned" and declared himself the messiah in the presence of more than a dozen Republican and Democratic members of Congress, it was reported yesterday."

The involvement of Democrats, who are generally more secular than Republicans, in the "crowning" of Reverend Moon as a new "messiah", might sound strange to some people, but in another "Guardian" article, "France to crack down on sects" (June 14, 2000), you could learn that, "France is to defy President Bill Clinton's appeal to be more tolerant of religious sects and introduce draconian laws, including an offence of "mental manipulation" - brainwashing - which will carry a two-year prison sentence.

"President Jacques Chirac has told Mr Clinton that religious freedom will no longer be a subject for bilateral presidential talks, in the light of what has officially been described as "shocking" White House support for the Scientologists and Moonies."

While the Moonies are a very extreme far right group who advocate the worldwide abolition of democracy, and its replacement with a global Moonie theocratic dictatorship, George W. Bush is also closely linked to the even more sinister Christian Reconstruction Movement, a splinter group from the far right wing of Texas Presbyterianism, who are so extreme, because they openly advocate stoning to death people who "Old Testament law", or "Mosaic law" (the law of Moses) says should be killed, that most people who research far right Christian groups, see them as an irrelevant fringe group, which is a pity, as they have secret supporters at the very top of the Republican Party, and as they influence other, more mainstream right wing Christians.

In his book, "God's Own Country: Tales from the Bible Belt" (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2007), Stephen Bates states: "[The late Rousas John] Rushdoony and his Reconstructionist ideas have had a pervasive background effect on many leaders of the Religious Right, even though they are aware that they are too extreme to be espoused publicly. In a Reconstructionist America there would be no tolerance for other religions, no public education or welfare and public execution by stoning for a range of 'crimes' such as homosexuality and adultery. Even the restoration of slavery - as mandated in the ["Old Testament" of the] Bible [in, for example, "Exodus" 21:1-4, and 21:7, and "Leviticus" 25:44-46] - could be considered. Nevertheless, 'though we hide their books under the bed, we read them just the same', as one evangelical said." (pp.256-257)

Anyone who thinks that the Republican leadership would keep its distance from a crazy group like that, ought to know that nothing could be further from the truth.

Craig Unger, whose "House of Bush, House of Saud" book about the Bush family's close links to the Saudi royal family, another totalitarian, far right group whose holy book also endorses slavery, in, for example, the verses 2:178, 4:92, and 16:95, was the key source for Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11", pointed out in his book, "The Fall of the House of Bush: How George W. Bush and the True Believers Put America on the Road to Armageddon" (Simon and Schuster, London, 2007), that, "To give the benediction at the Fifty-fourth Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, Bush chose Jack Hayford, a California Charismatic who was involved in the Promise Keepers, the men's revival group, and was a supporter of Christian Reconstruction, or Dominionism. Another Dominionist believer, Anthony J. Evans of Dallas, served as the speaker at the preinaugural Washington Prayer Luncheon." (p.193)

Did those 2 men get those important jobs by chance? No, of course not, they were chosen because George W. Bush secretly shares their views.

That is why he has also has links to Reverend Moon, who says that "gays will be eliminated" in "a purge on God's orders" when his "peace kingdom" is established, as this article on salon.com points out:

http://www.salon.com/2004/06/21/moon_7/

If you simply cannot believe that George W. Bush is secretly in favour of stoning people to death, and the reintroduction of slavery, you can read "The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam" (HarperCollins, London, 2001) by Karen Armstrong, who also states that the Reconstructionists support stoning people to death, and the reintroduction of slavery: "...the Reconstructionists are training themselves to take control when the secular humanist state is destroyed. Their vision is a complete distortion of Christianity in its abandonment of the ethos of compassion. When the Kingdom comes, there will be no more separation of church and state; the modern heresy of democracy will be abolished, and society reorganized on strictly biblical lines. This means that every single law of the Bible will be put literally into practice. Slavery will be introduced; there will be no more birth control (since believers must "increase and multiply"); adulterers, homosexuals, blasphemers, astrologers, and witches will all be put to death. Children who are persistently disobedient must also be stoned, as the Bible enjoins. A strictly capitalist economy must be enforced; socialists and those who incline to the left are sinful. God is not on the side of the poor. Indeed, as [Rousas John Rushdoony's Reconstructionist nephew Gary] North explains, there is a "tight relationship between wickedness and poverty." Taxes should not be used in welfare programs, since "subsidizing sluggards is the same as subsidizing evil." The same goes for the Third World, which has brought its economic problems on its own head because of its addiction to moral perversity, paganism, and demonology. Foreign aid is forbidden by the Bible. While waiting for victory - which North admits may be some time off - Christians must prepare to rebuild society according to God's blueprint and must support government policies which approximate to these strict biblical norms." (p.161)

You can also read about Rushdoony's support for slavery on the website of an Alabama civil rights law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center, who monitor hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Reconstructionists, and the Reconstructionists' Chalcedon Foundation think tank, and sue them, and their activists, for huge amounts of compensation if they engage in violent hate crimes:

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2005/spring/a-mighty-army?page=0,1

Of course, as a former adviser to President Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, pointed out on page 319 of his book, "The Clinton Wars: An Insider's Account of the White House Years" (Penguin, London, 2003), Rousas John Rushdoony was a Holocaust denier, so it is rather odd that he should have been a supporter of Jewish law.

The just cited SPLC webpage, also discusses Rushdoony's Holocaust denial, as well as his general racism, and support for slavery.

Because Gary North believes that, "Christians must prepare to rebuild society according to God's blueprint and must support government policies which approximate to these strict biblical norms", to cite Karen Armstrong again, it is of course not surprising that George W. Bush did what he could when he was in power to make the US more like the kind of theocratic dictatorship that the Reconstructionists want, as Esther Kaplan's book, "With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House" (The New Press, New York, 2004) explains.

Her book mentions a number of Reconstructionists, including the George W. Bush adviser Marvin Olasky, whose books cite Rushdoony, North, and 2 other Reconstructionists, Gary DeMar and George Grant, and whose "World" magazine employed Grant as a columnist.

Marvin Olasky was described in the pro-evolution, anti-creationism article, "Can chimps stop suicide bombers?", which was published by the Asian branch of the Reverend Moon owned UPI news agency, as "...the "spiritual advisor" of George W. Bush...", which explains why Bush wrote the foreword to Olasky's book, "Compassionate Conservatism: What It Is, What It Does, And How It Can Transform America" (Free Press, New York, 2000).

Because Rushdoony, and other Reconstructionists who Olasky approvingly cites in his books, support the dismantling of the welfare state, "compassionate conservatism" is of course Orwellian double talk. Even with a welfare state as weak as the USA's, homelessness, and lack of access to health care, are notorious problems, and they would get far worse if the Reconstructionists were running the government.

Homelessness began to rocket after Republicans led by Newt Gingrich, who wrote the foreword to Olasky's book, "Renewing American Compassion: How Compassion for the Needy Can Turn Ordinary Citizens into Heroes" (Free Press, New York, 1996), introduced the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which introduced new extra time limits for social security payments, and which was signed into law by Democrat friend of the Moonies President Clinton, but Gingrich and Clinton only introduced new extra time limits for social security payments, whereas the Reconstructionists want to end such payments, and all public spending on health care and education. As a result, they are a major influence on the home schooling movement, which is dominated by far right Christian fundamentalists.

George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are of course figures from the political past, as they are no longer politicians, but most of the more recent top Republicans are also allegedly linked to the totalitarian religious far Right. Sarah Palin for example, allegedly holds Reconstructionist views, according to former Christian Right activist Frank Schaeffer:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/killing-ugandas-gays-the_b_378350.html

Sarah Palin also used to be in the same fringe party as Reconstructionism's founder, and another prominent CRM activist.

The "Daily Telegraph" article below, "John McCain's running mate was in Alaskan independence party" (September 2, 2008), reveals that Sarah Palin used to be a member of the Alaska Independence Party, and Frederick Clarkson, an American journalist whose research on far right American Christians is often cited in major American newspapers, points out on his blog, that the AIP is the Alaska affiliate of the far right Constitution Party, whose past members include Rousas John Rushdoony, and other Reconstructionists, including Randall Terry, a well known anti-abortion activist, who has said that abortionists should be executed:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/2667214/John-McCains-running-mate-Sarah-Palin-was-in-Alaskan-independence-party.html#

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/2/1938/63427

As "The Old Testament" says that abortionists should be killed, they are of course also on the death list of the Reconstructionists, who bizarrely claim to be "pro-life", although they are in favour of stoning persistently disobedient children, and other types of people to death, although "The Old Testament" hero Abraham was ready to kill his own son Isaac in a human sacrifice, until God told him to sacrifice a lamb instead ("Genesis" 22: 1-13), and although an "Old Testament" judge, Jepthah, promises God that he will make a human sacrifice of the first person who greets him after he returns from a battle, which results in him sacrificing his own daughter ("Judges" 11: 29-40).

Another top Republican of today is Mike Huckabee, whose alleged links to 3 different Reconstructionists are discussed in these 3 articles:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2008/01/18/huckabee/

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/23/105453/278

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/01/06/1249

Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are also allegedly CRM linked:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/14/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perry-s-dangerous-religious-bond.html

So are Ron Paul and Rick Santorum:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/02/ron-paul-s-christian-reconstructionist-roots.html

http://www.politicususa.com/rick-santorum-council-national-policy.html

Up in Canada, the current Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who is seen as more of an American Republican than a traditional Canadian Conservative, is also linked to the Reconstructionists, through the secretive Council on National Policy, which brings together Reconstructionists, Moonie supporters, and more mainstream top Republicans.

Here is the full text of Harper's speech to a 1997 CNP meeting in Montreal:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SpecialEvent7/20051213/elxn_harper_speech_text_051214/

The involvement of Reverend Moon, and Christian Reconstruction Movement founder Rousas John Rushdoony in the CNP, is discussed in the below article:

http://www.au.org/resources/religious-right/council-for-national-policy

Another article argues that the CRM ("Dominionists") actually set up the CNP, and if that claim is true, it further illustrates the fact that far right extremism is the norm in the higher echelons of today's Republican Party, because the CNP's name, and secretive meetings, indicate that it secretly draws up new policies for more mainstream top Republicans:

http://www.politicususa.com/rick-santorum-council-national-policy.html

This article in "The Canadian" newspaper discusses Stephen Harper's past membership of a very pro-American fascist group, the Northern Foundation, whose other members have included media mogul Conrad Black, so his involvement with the far right American CNP is hardly surprising:

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2011/04/19/03610.html

It is not only American, British, and Canadian politics which are being negatively affected by the influence of the Reconstructionists and the Moonies either. The fact that Uganda's Parliament is still considering a bill which would introduce the death penalty for gay sex is well known, but it is far less well known that Scott Lively, an American pastor who runs Abiding Truth Ministries in Springfield, Massachusetts, and who has written several articles for the Reconstructionists' Chalcedon Foundation, has been a key inspiration for the execute gay men bill, as a Southern Poverty Law Center webpage about homophobic hate groups, and the Public Eye website reveal:

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v27n1/ScottLively.html

http://www.publiceye.org/publications/globalizing-the-culture-wars/index.php

That is why the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York is suing Scott Lively in the US on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda. The lawsuit alleges that he has been involved in drawing up homophobic legislation, and fomenting violence against sexual minorities:

http://ccrjustice.org/LGBTUganda/

Rick Warren, the pastor who Barack Obama invited to give the invocation at his 2009 inauguration, refuses to condemn the execute gays bill, and allegedly holds Reconstructionist views, according to former Christian Right activist Frank Schaeffer, which again illustrates the fact that the Republican Party does not have a monopoly on links to far right extremism:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/profile-rick-warren

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/rick-warren-refuses-to-co_n_373605.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/killing-ugandas-gays-the_b_378350.html

As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, Canada has a lot more Christian fundamentalists than is generally realised, so it is also hardly surprising that Stephen Harper is linked to the CRM through the CNP, but Britain exported the bulk of its fundamentalists to the US and Canada, so it is a sinister, though not unexpected development that David Cameron is now borrowing ideas from a pro-stoning children to death, and pro-slavery fundamentalist group.

After all, there would be nothing like as many American and Canadian Christian fundamentalists if this country, and especially Northern Ireland, had not spawned so many of them in the first place. Some of those people were so extreme in the 17th Century, that even the Taliban type ideas, murderous dictator Oliver Cromwell, who David Cameron's Foreign Secretary William Hague is a big fan of, vetoed some of their more extreme Taliban type ideas.

2 comments.

  1. Both parties are corporate and so both parties are getting more both removed from their mass bases and constituencies and also from basic reality. The power of money to unite weird opposites is renowned; also all fundamentalists unite on the idea of killing off the demonized outgroups; they make even more money that way, eerrr, rather can give themselves a license to steal, why, jest like that there drug war, huh.

  2. This shows how it is that the right wing craps out completely on fulfilling God’s actual call to love and serve. See? Not one right winger understands drug addiction, poverty, hatred, love, and what Jesus Christ was really about at all. This is why it is that we were warned about false prophets and false teachers in the end times. These are the Anti-Christians that put Jesus on that cross that time. And look at how they torture and enslave all over the world now in complete opposition to God’s will. Huh. . . .

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