Kirk Cameron: Christian Reconstructionist

I’m unfamiliar with the filmography of Kirk Cameron — haven’t seen a-one of them.

I’m similarly unfamiliar with Christian Reconstructionism. But it seems that I should be afraid of both, especially when they’re put together.

Julie Ingersoll provides a helpful primer on Christian Reconstructionism, using Cameron’s new documentary about…HIMSELF…as a foil. Good reading:

Christian Reconstruction promotes a “biblical worldview” with three interlocking theological notions that, while framed in technical language, have been popularized for over half a century in simple terms and slogans that are now familiar to watchers of the religious right.

Presuppositionalism stipulates that all knowledge is understood to begin with the acceptance of unprovable assumptions. For Reconstructionists only two, mutually exclusive, starting points are possible: the true sovereignty and authority of the god of the Bible or the false claim of the supremacy of human reason. This point has found a voice in the ubiquitous critique of “secular humanism” and the argument that religious neutrality is impossible.

Postmillennialism, an end-times theology that challenges contemporary rapture theology, claims that the kingdom of God was established at the resurrection and is being realized as Christianity spreads across the world through the exercise of dominion. Its popularized versions are “dominion theology” and the effort to “restore America’s foundation” as a “Christian nation.”

Theonomy is the view that all law must be based in God’s law, which is to say biblical law. Reconstructionists look to ancient Israel as the model for society and to the Puritans as an exemplar of the modern application of biblical law. They argue for a distinction between theonomy and the more commonly used theocracy on the basis of what they claim is a biblical division of earthly authority set forth by God.

Read the rest: Kirk Cameron’s Monumental Reveals Subtle Influence of Christian Reconstructionism | (A)theologies | Religion Dispatches.