The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
- 作者: Karen Armstrong
- 出版社/メーカー: Ballantine Books
- 発売日: 2001/01/30
- メディア: ペーパーバック
- クリック: 43回
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Karen Armstrong The Battle for God*1から。
米国における右翼として、所謂ネオコンと基督教原理主義（宗教右翼）、それから経済的右翼であるネオリベは区別しなければならない。しかし、1980年代にテクサスの経済学者Gary Northとその義父Rousas John Rushdoonyが創始したReconstruction movementには基督教原理主義とネオリベの一体化という趣がある。
Karen Armstrongの本から抜き書きしてみる；
Karen ArmstrongはReconstruction movementをはっきりと「全体主義的」と言っている（ibid.）。彼女は、これが米国でメジャーになる可能性はかなり小さいけれど、こうした運動の駘蕩は”in the event of an environmental or major economic catastrophe, an authoritarian state church could replace the liberal polity of the Enlightenment.”を示唆しているという（p.362）。
(…) Reconstructionists have abandoned the old premillenial pessimism for a more galvanizing ideology. Like Muslim fundamentalists, North and Rushdoony are principally concerned about the sovereignty of God. A Christian civilization must be established that will defeat Satan and usher in the millennium Kingdom. The key concept of Reconstructionism is Dominion. God gave Adam and later Noah the task of subducing the world. Christians have inherited this mandate and they have the responsibility of imposing Jesus’ rule on earth before the Second Coming of Christ. There will be no need, however, for Christians to take action to achieve this, since God himself will bring the modern state down in a terrible catastrophe. Christian will simply reap the victory that God will effect.
In the meantime, the Reconstructioninists 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 must be put literally into practice. Slavery will be reintroduced; 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 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 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 demontology. Foreign aid is forbidden by hthe 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.361)
因みに、Karen Armstrongが直接参照しているのは、Gary Northの２冊の著書；
In the Shadow of Plenty: The Biblical Blueprint for Welfare(1986)
The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten Commandments(1986)
文献目録によれば、Gary Northの著書はこのほかに、
Unconditional Surrender: God’s Program for Victory(1981)
Honest Money(1986)
Inherit the Earth: Biblical Blueprint for Economics(1987)
Is the World Running Down? Crisis in the Christian Worldview 1988
がある。
また、Rousas John Rushdoonyの著書としては、
This Independent Republic: Studies in the Nature and Meaning of American History(1964)
The Kingdom Come: Studies in Denial and Revelation(1978)
Politics of Guilt and Piety(1978)
God’s Plan for Victory: The Meaning of Post-Millenialism(1980)
