While some in the Tea Party are trying to define their movement as concerned about limited government and free markets--and indifferent about social issues--the Central Minnesota Tea Party's blog soldiers on, posting about religion and sex.
The latest post, What’s Up With The ELCA Lutheran Church?, is a guest column by David Barnhart, who runs the Abiding Word Ministries in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Formerly of Eagan, "Pastor Barnhart withdrew from the Lutheran Church in America and united with the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC)" in 1984.
Since the 2009 decision of the Evangelic Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) to permit noncelibate LGBT people serve as pastors, Barnhard has urged congregations to leave the ELCA and join with Lutheran organizations that do not welcome all people. In What’s Up With The ELCA Lutheran Church?, Barnhart quotes Romans 1:26-28, then recommends that readers check out Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.
The verse from Leviticus may ring a bell for Bluestem's readers, as they were involved in a notorious chapter in the 2012 drive to restrict the freedom to marry by defining the institution of marriage in the Minnesota state constitution.
Leviticus 20:13, which calls for LGBT people to be put to death, appeared on the Facebook page of the group advocating voting for the amendment; the group claimed that its page had been hacked and that it did not want gay people to be killed.
With that recent history in Minnesota, we're surprised to see the verse show up on a political website.
The Skousen Connection
It's not an isolated example. The article posted before the good pastor's column, Pulling the Masks off the Communists & the Muslim Brotherhood, by Sid Wolf at Freedom Outpost, appeared on Thursday. The main premise of the article is drawn from a Glenn Beck favorite:
Walking down memory lane brought back some other memories and books read through the years. Recalling one in particular was a publication written by Dr. Cleon Skousen in 1958 called “The Naked Communist.” Skousen held a law degree from George Washington University, served many years as FBI agent, was Chief of Police of Salt Lake City and national editor of leading police magazine “Law and Order.”
Book was based on background and information obtained as an FBI agent where he was familiar with plans and goals of the Communist/Marxist or Socialist Party. Most of the goals subtly and quietly follows “Gramsci” model. Gramsci outlined a method for the Marxist, Communist, Socialist takeover of an advance capitalistic country, theorizing that in order to accomplish this it would be necessary to undermine the culture and morality – working from within via “progressivism – liberal ideology.” These goals were established over a century ago.
Writing for Salon, AlexanderZaitchik checked Skousen out in Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck’s life:
. . .When Skousen’s books started popping up in the nation’s high-school classrooms, panicked school board officials wrote the FBI asking if Skousen was reliable. The Bureau’s answer was an exasperated and resounding “no.” One 1962 FBI memo notes, “During the past year or so, Skousen has affiliated himself with the extreme right-wing ‘professional communists’ who are promoting their own anticommunism for obvious financial purposes.” Skousen’s “The Naked Communist,” said the Bureau official, is “another example of why a sound, scholarly textbook on communism is urgently and badly needed.” . . .
By 1963, Skousen’s extremism was costing him. No conservative organization with any mainstream credibility wanted anything to do with him. Members of the ultraconservative American Security Council kicked him out because they felt he had “gone off the deep end.” One ASC member who shared this opinion was William C. Mott, the judge advocate general of the U.S. Navy. Mott found Skousen “money mad … totally unqualified and interested solely in furthering his own personal ends.”
When Skousen aligned himself with Robert Welch’s charge that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy,” the last of Skousen’s dwindling corporate clients dumped him. The National Association of Manufacturers released a statement condemning the Birchers and distancing itself from “any individual or party” that subscribed to their views. . . .
Readers will get the drift. It's worth reading the entire article to get a sense of what the Central Minnesota Tea Party takes as a sound intellectual underpinning.
Those inclined to dismiss the Central Minnesota Tea Party should consider the fact that nearly all of the leading Republican candidates for the United State Senate, the open seat in MNCD6, and Minnesota Governor appeared before the group in 2013. It's not a fringe for Republican candidates. It's a must.
Photo: Pastor David Barnhart and his wife in Israel.
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