Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction, at least as perceived by members of a culture removed from a particular truth. Today's strange truth is the fact of the Christian dominionist influence on the beliefs of right-wing evangelicals, and in particular, on the worldviews of Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas gov. Rick Perry, two top-tier contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.
Dominionism, an academic term for a strain of evangelical Christianity that mandates believers to take over the institutions of society in order to implement God's law on earth, flows from the theology of Christian Reconstructionism, whose proponents see as their ultimate goal the reconstitution of biblical law as the law of the land. Although usually less literal than Reconstructionism in its interpretation of God's law, dominionism can vary from sect to sect in its severity. A common thread in the fabric of many right-wing evangelical sects, dominionism is nonetheless generally viewed as exotic by those mainstream media journalists who dare to describe it in their coverage, while progressive reporters see it a danger to the body politic.
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