“America has no king but Jesus!”

– Attorney General John Ashcroft

I guess it turns out that when “small-government” conservatives are not out preaching about the beauty of “small-government,” they’re out finding better ways of expanding it. In fact, a new bill in Congress has been specifically written to do just that. And, as expected, conservatives are using God as their excuse for considering a bill that specifically “promotes federalism.”

And right on queue, we see that they give it a benign, yet catchy title: the “Constitution Restoration Act of 2004,” the newest if-you-say-no-you’re-unpatriotic bill on the floor of Congress these days. Hey, what kind of patriot are you if you don’t want to “restore the Constitution …” right?

If passed, the bill (HR3799) will restrict the Supreme Court from reviewing any case where any level government or officer had acted on the “acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty or government.”

According to Rep. Robert Aderholt, who introduced the bill, it “would preserve and restore the acknowledgment of God to our law and government.” Don’t forget, everyone, only Communists hate God.

This poor excuse for a bill is actually a bi-product of the Roy Moore fiasco some months back, involving a judge who erected a monument of the Ten Commandments outside of a courthouse, refused to take it down, and lost his job along the way. Although it was something that every radio-crackpot in the country bought into for a while, it soon became old news.

Apparently, not for everyone.

With the help of groups like the Christian Coalition, Roy Moore penned the bill for Aderholt to put on the House floor. The claim is that this law will simply settle problems without the jurisdiction of “activist judges”- Bush’s domestic “axis of evil.” But is there ever a sole ulterior motive? Even just looking at the people behind this should give you an idea.

Moore and Aderholt are working alongside the Christian Coalition, founded by America’s legendary, redbaiting fanatic, Pat Robertson. Robertson is probably known best by his claim that he’s been able to control storms. Recently, he even claimed that Hurricane Isabel was the wrath of God, angry at U.S. policy toward Israel. He once proclaimed, “The Antichrist is probably a Jew alive in Israel today.”

These days, he’s been working for the Council on National Policy, a group highly financed by Sun Myung Moon. You may remember him as the leader of a cult called the Unification Church, or “Moonies.” Moon believes that “we must have an autocratic theocracy to rule the world,” adding, “the separation between religion and politics is what Satan likes most.”

In fact, if there is anything that the CNP is best known for, it’s that many of its top members are known “Dominionists,” strongly advocating for American totalitarian theocracy. They believe that only when America has turned into a “New Jerusalem,” Jesus will come back to earth.

According to “Institutes of Biblical Law,” written by the movement’s founder R.J. Rushdoony, “The fulfillment of that covenant is their great commission: to subdue all things and all nations to Christ and His law-word.”

“Jesus,” according to Rushdoony, “is head of the New Race.” Rushdoony, along with politicians and convicted traitors like Oliver North fill the seats of the Council on National Policy.

Alongside stoning homosexuals, enslavement and the establishment of a Christian vanguard leadership, Rushdoony’s book also proclaims that women are generally unhappy because they have assumed the dominating role of men. Women will be liberated only when they are “permanently in subjection.”

Dominionist influence in Washington is overwhelming and I guarantee that this is not the first or the last time that any of these “patriots” have worked for “arbitrary rule” in the United States. In fact, one of the largest investors in the “electronic voting” craze that has gripped the White House is Howard Ahmanson, a prominent Dominionist who openly admits his goal of “total integration of biblical law into our lives.”

If this bill is passed, John Ashcroft could finally be getting what he wants: the green light to federally “legislate morality.” (Whatever that could turn out to mean!) And no pesky Supreme Court “activist” could stop it. The scary part in all of this is not that Jesus would set the basis of rule of law, it’s that people who fetishize about Jesus would set this basis.

From simply looking at how deep-rooted a bill like this is, it’s bound to stretch far beyond its little purpose of letting fanatical government officials put up biblical monuments on a whim. In fact, Rushdoony himself advocates that lying about your intentions is not sinful when you are “fighting a spiritual battle against the Covenant breakers, the enemies of God.”

That just about lets everyone in Washington off the hook, doesn’t it?

Mark Ostroff is a Collegian Columnist.