Center For Reclaiming America Closes:

This is big news. The political arm of D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge has closed. As their name indicates, they are a "dominionist" group; they want to "reclaim" America as though they -- conservative fundamentalist Christians -- once "owned" it. According to their mythological view of history, America was founded by fundamentalist Christians for fundamentalist Christians and the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are Biblical documents. (Perhaps they did "own" many of the colonies, but not the Founding from 1776-1791 which, in many ways, repudiated the dominionist colonial charters.)

I'm not sure what to make of this. On the one hand, I think much of the fear of "dominionism" is overblown. It's true that a great many of them -- most of the followers of RJ Rushdoony -- have given up on the GOP entirely and vote for the inaptly named "Constitution Party" candidates. On the other hand, the right wing of the politically viable religious right are both dominionists and GOP stalwarts. I've typically used David Barton's Wallbuilders and D. James Kennedy as poster boys for GOP dominionist types. And one of those poster boys has just gone under.

Christian conservatives who simply want their values reflected in the civil laws and who would have no problem voting for Romney or someone not of their religion probably don't meet the definition of a "dominionist." Though many of them do believe in the Christian Nation fraud, which misunderstanding of history inspires their political activism.

This development may signify a softening of the GOP's religious right base; we can only hope.