Freedom Writer - April 1995 [ref001] John Stoos reveals ...A hidden agenda? By Jerry Sloan

Freedom Writer - April 1995

[ref001]

John Stoos reveals ...A hidden agenda?

By Jerry Sloan

Remarks by a leading figure closely associated with the Christian 
Coalition have fueled more accusations of anti-Semitism within that 
organization.

John Stoos, former head of the 55,000-member California Gun Owners 
Lobby, frequently represents and speaks for Sara DiVito Hardman, executive 
director of the California Christian Coalition.

Although Stoos is widely speculated to be a board member of the California 
Christian Coalition, no evidence confirming that has surfaced. According 
to the state office of charitable trusts, the California Christian 
Coalition has filed no records since 1991 -- an apparent violation 
of state law.

Speaking at a February forum sponsored by the Center for Ethics and 
Social Policy of Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union, Stoos revealed 
that Jews would probably feel out of place in the Christian society 
he and others are working to implement. Stoos' comments apparently 
cost him his job with the gun owners group.

"There is no such thing as a pluralistic society," Stoos was quoted 
as saying in a write-up of the forum published in _The_Contra_Costa_
Times_. "You can't say we are all going to agree to disagree and go 
on our way because that [leads] to relativism and chaos."

Those quotes are relatively benign. What got Stoos into trouble was 
his statement that American society should be founded on Christ's 
kingship and Biblical law. Stoos also said that Jews and other non-Christians 
would be "tolerated." His comments were challenged by Marty Kassman 
of the ACLU, who is also a board member of the American Jewish Congress.

"I don't wish to be tolerated in this country," Kassman said. "I was 
born in this country. I don't think it is any more your country than 
mine. Or any more a Christian's country [than] a Jew's."

Stoos shot back that in the Christian society he envisions "you would 
not have total acceptance. You would feel more at home in Israel."

These remarks may seem shocking, but they came as no surprise to those 
who have followed the rise of the Christian Coalition and the radical 
Religious Right.

Stoos is a Christian Reconstructionist and one of the most astute 
Republican political strategists in California. His credentials and 
connections read like a who's who of the radical Religious Right and 
social conservative politics.

Stoos started out as a aide to retired State Senator H.L. (Bill) Richardson, 
himself a former John Birch Society field organizer (and radical Religious 
Right person before there was a radical Religious Right). Stoos heads 
up the California chapter of Newt Gingrich's Conservative Opportunity 
Society, which this year raised nearly $300,000 to help elect social 
conservatives to the California legislature. He is also a vice president 
of the California Republican Assembly, the largest Republican volunteer 
organization in the state.

Stoos, along with Republican campaign consultant Wayne Johnson, attends 
Covenant Reform Church in Sacramento. Johnson sits on the board of 
trustees of Chalcedon, the country's leading Christian Reconstructionist 
think tank.

The statements Stoos made at the forum are similar to the ones he 
made during a conversation with this writer as our plane sat on a 
Sacramento runway awaiting departure for Los Angeles. Stoos was seated 
in front of me, and I tapped him on the shoulder to introduce myself.

We made some small talk about our opposing political views and then 
I said, "You know, I have been reading [R.J.] Rushdoony and I don't 
see that in Rushdoony's society there is much room for Buddhists, 
Moslems, Jews, or atheists."

He replied with a chuckle, "Well, Rush would say it is better to obey 
God's 600 laws than man's 6000 laws." Then, with another chuckle, 
he continued, "No, there would be room for Buddhists. I just don't 
know how much."

At that point our plane started to take off and we terminated our 
conversation and did not speak during the rest of the hour it took 
to get to LA. Besides, I was fascinated by the book I brought along 
to read on the flight: _The_Blue_Book_for_Grassroots_Politics:_Proven,_
Election-Winning_Strategies_for_Supporters_of_Traditional_Values_Candidates_.

Stoos' position on religious minorities in the society he envisions 
are based on the theology of Christian Reconstructionism which would 
reconstruct society from a democracy, which Rushdoony refers to as 
a "heresy" into a theocracy. Rushdoony has matter of factly written 
in _The_Institutes_of_Biblical_Law_, his 1500-page, two-volume treatise 
on the Ten Commandments:

"Every social order institutes its own program of separation or segregation. 
A particular faith and morality is given privileged status and all 
else is separated for progressive elimination [emphasis added]."

And: "Every faith is an exclusive way of life; none is more dangerous 
than that which maintains the illusion of tolerance."  

The Christian Reconstructionist society would have no tolerance or 
illusion thereof. Such a society would be intolerant not only of other 
other religions, but homosexuals or anyone who deviated from societal 
rules and values. Only "godly" families would be permitted to continue 
to live in a "Christian" society. All others would fall into one of 
the 18 categories of capital crimes and would be dealt with by being 
stoned to death.

In his book _Victim's_Rights_, Rushdoony's son-in-law Gary North writes 
that stoning is a communal activity, something in which all the members 
of the family can participate. The purpose of this communal activity 
is to instill fear in the community so that if they deviate from the 
theocratic rules laid out by the elders, stoning would be their fate.

In _Mein_Kampf_, Hitler wrote: "It is not necessary that every individual 
fighting for this philosophy should obtain a full insight and precise 
knowledge of the ultimate ideas and thought processes of the leaders 
of the movement. What is necessary is that some few, really great 
ideas be made clear to him, and that the essential fundamental lines 
be burned inextinguishably into him, so that he is entirely permeated 
by the necessity of the victory of his movement and its doctrine. 
The individual soldier is not initiated into the thought processes 
of the higher strategy either. He is, on the contrary, trained in 
the rigid discipline and fanatical faith in the justice and power 
of his cause, and taught to stake his life for it without reservation."

What Stoos has done with his comments is to betray the higher strategy 
of the radical Religious Right leaders by revealing that a Christian 
America would be intolerant of all but the fervent faithful.

Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson and the Free Congress Foundation's 
Paul Weyrich, among others in the radical Religious Right, have sold 
their faithful followers on a few "really great ideas." Abortion is 
wrong, unborn babies must be saved at all costs, and baby killers 
must be punished. Sodomites must be driven from the land. Prayer and 
the teaching of creationism must be restored to public schools.

In the last two years we have seen a few foot soldiers be willing 
to die or at least suffer prison time for acting upon some of these 
"really great ideas." Rest assured, in the coming years more incidents 
of violence will occur as more foot soldiers are recruited from evangelical 
churches to become Christian soldiers in their citizen militias until 
America will, once again, be in the midst of a civil war.

Right now, sitting comfortably in their sanctuaries, most churchgoers 
haven't a clue as to what their leaders are up to. Not once have they 
stopped to think or ask the question, "It's a Christian America, now 
what?"

Maybe -- if they really listen to men like John Stoos and got up off 
of their blessed assurance to read the likes of Rushdoony and North 
-- they will be repulsed and take a stand for true tolerance. Maybe 
then, America would truly become a land with liberty and justice for 
all.

_Jerry_Sloan_is_co-chair_of_the_Sacramento-based_Project_Tocsin,_the_
research_branch_of_the_newly_formed_Sentinel_Institute_for_Research_
and_Education._ 

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