Category: League of the South

North Carolina GOP Senate Candidate Bill Flynn Is Institute On The Constitution Host

So says The American View website:

Our Institute On The Constituion Host Bill Flynn in Triad region of North Carolina announced his candidacy for the United States Senate race this past Sunday. Bill hosts a morning radio show on WEGO (980 AM). Bill has not only taught our U.S. Constitution course he was my co-host on the Constitutional Cruise, All Aboard America this past March. Bill is a good friend and patriot.

The Institute on the Constitution is directed by Michael Peroutka, a board member of the neo-Confederate and secessionist group the League of the South. The League has been toxic to at least one sitting Senator (Rand Paul) and may be for Flynn as well. The IOTC displays website articles which defends racial discrimination, promotes a justification for slavery, savages Abraham Lincoln, and claims that the Confederacy was in the right. The GOP field is crowded with Flynn being a later entry so it is unclear if he will get much traction.
 
 

Michael Peroutka: Civil Rights Laws Should Never Have Been Passed

Speaking on the Steve Deace Show Tuesday, Institute on the Constitution Director and League of the South Board member Michael Peroutka criticized the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which adds sexual orientation to existing civil rights protections. However, his criticism did not end there. He added at 30:22 into the first hour:

The civil government has no authority to tell any private employer what kind of employees to hire and fire, or what constitutes discrimination. And obviously, I do mean and I would include the so-called civil rights laws are not law, they never should’ve been passed, they’re not law now, they weren’t law then, they aren’t law now because there is no such thing as a civil right.

Despite Peroutka’s past efforts to wrap himself with the legacy of Martin Luther King, here Peroutka’s views of King’s work and discrimination more broadly come through.  Peroutka has gone so far as to claim that King did not seek civil rights. However, King clearly rejected Barry Goldwater’s view of the Civil Rights Act which is a position quite similar to the one Peroutka espoused on the Deace program. Peroutka’s views expressed on this radio show are consistent with an article on his website which justifies discrimination based on race, religion and/or nationality.
One might dismiss Peroutka as without much influence, however, to me, this would be shortsighted. Peroutka’s organization Institute on the Constitution continues to make inroads in the tea party and religious right. Furthermore, Steve Deace, while far to the right in relation to the rest of the nation, seems to be mainstream in Iowa. It is alarming and disappointing to hear a voice of the right wing of the GOP in IA lament the passage of civil rights laws which protect the civil rights of all Americans.
HT: Right Wing Watch.

Wheaton's Inhabit Conference: Race and the Christian Nation Question

I am hearing good things about the Inhabit conference held at Wheaton College this past weekend. I had wanted to attend but couldn’t due to a previous commitment. One topic of discussion at the conference was the problem of the Christian nation concept.
John Fea notes that the Christian nation theory is offensive to many African-American evangelicals. Here is a taste:

On Friday evening I was inspired by the Wheaton Gospel Choir and messages by Pastor Ray, Chris Beard of Peoples Church in Cincinnati, and Bryan Loritts, the pastor of a multiracial church in Memphis.  (Loritts is a big Jonathan Edwards fan and was very excited to meet Marsden.  He had just finished Marsden’s biography of Edwards and was now reading some of Noll’s work). The evangelical African-American community is deeply offended by the notion, made popular by Christian nationalists such as David Barton, that the United States needs to somehow “return” or “go back” to its so-called Christian roots.  They view America’s founding as anything but Christian.  Many of the founding fathers owned slaves.  When the founders had the chance to choose the nation over the end of slavery (1776 and 1787) they always chose the former.  Slavery is embedded in the Constitution. Indeed, the entire debate over whether the United States is a Christian nation is a white Protestant evangelical issue.  One would be hard pressed to find an African-American evangelical who wants to return to what Christian Nationalists often describe as the golden age of American Christianity.

Rev. Beard’s experience as a minister in Cincinnati illustrates Fea’s observations:

Beard’s Peoples Church seems to have made the most striking reversal on the Christian America question.  As a member of the Assembly of God denomination, Beard taught his congregation that the founders were Christians, that America was a Christian Nation, and that patriotism was almost inseparable from the Kingdom of God.  He even had David Barton speak at his church.  But after reading folks like Noll and Marsden, and looking more closely at the historical record, Beard changed his mind.  He made a deliberate attempt to reject Christian nationalist teaching, build an international and multiracial congregation, and subordinate his patriotism to the Kingdom of God.  He lost a lot of his church in the process, but he has rebuilt it into an even stronger congregation.

Beard’s views certainly motivated his opposition to The Jefferson Lies when it came out, as well as to the recent surge of interest in the Institute on the Constitution and League of the South.

League Of The South President: Study The Constitution To Understand Government's Contempt For Law

The Institute on the Constitution’s Michael Peroutka offers a course on the Constitution in his Maryland office and via a series of resources to trainers throughout the nation. The latter approach has spread rapidly, especially in Southwest Ohio.
In their courses, IOTC leaders and trainers portray the current government as out of touch with the Constitution. Given that message, one might think that the IOTC leaders want people to study the Constitution in order to restore the nation to Constitutional roots. However, IOTC founder and League of the South board member Michael Peroutka has expressed doubts about the viability of the current government. He even reassured his secessionist League of the South earlier this year that he did not believe the current regime could be reformed. At their national conference, Peroutka said:

I don’t disagree with Dr. Hill at all, that this regime is beyond reform. I think that’s an obvious fact and I agree with him…I am saying that because I don’t want the League of the South, for one minute to think that I am about reforming the current regime, and that studying the Constitution is about reforming the regime.

Current IOTC instructors might be surprised to learn about the League’s aim to abandon the current republic and start over. I have provided the video of Peroutka’s League of the South comments below with full transcript.
To be sure, the League of the South leadership doesn’t think very highly of the Constitution. On twitter, League president Michael Hill (who Peroutka agrees with about the government) recently expressed his disdain for the Constitution and preference for the Articles of Confederation.
https://twitter.com/MichaelHill51/statuses/390680766482370560
Twitter user Scott Moore than asked Hill what would take the place of the Constitution:

So then last night, I asked Hill why his fellow League board member Michael Peroutka taught the Constitution if indeed the League has no confidence in it. His answer:

According to two League board members, one of which developed the materials, the reason to study the Constitution is to illustrate what they consider to be fundamental principles. The League believes this republic is beyond reform but knowing fundamental law will be important for the survival of an independent white Southland. If I am understanding Hill correctly, perhaps he hopes students will form an impression that the nation has drifted so far from what calls “fundamental law” that secession will seem like a better alternative to reform.
I am sure many IOTC instructors believe they are helping to restore something about the current republic when they teach their classes. Unfortunately, they may not realize what aims they are advancing.
2013 League of the South annual conference:

Here is a transcript of his comments:

We have a basic Constitution course, now again I don’t disagree with Dr. Hill at all, that this regime is beyond reform. I think that’s an obvious fact and I agree with him. However, I do agree that when you secede, or however the destruction and the rubble of this regime takes place and how it plays out, you’re going to need to take a biblical worldview and apply it to civil law and government. That’s what you’re still going to need to do. Whether we’re going to have to have this foundational information in the hearts and minds of the people, or else liberty won’t survive the secession either. You see what I’m saying? So this view, I am saying that because I don’t want the League of the South, for one minute to think that I am about reforming the current regime, and that studying the Constitution is about reforming the regime. I like many of you, and like Patrick Henry, probably have come to the conclusion that we smelled a rat, smelled a rat from the beginning. However, we believe that it is essential to take a biblical view of law and government and then make those applications so we publish actually three courses of instruction.
I’m in the commercial mode now, this is a commercial. We publish a course on the U.S. Constitution. We feel like it would be a great builder for you in your workshops, in your, when Dr. Hill said somebody called and said, ‘nothing’s going on.’ Well this could be going on. This is something you could do. You could be discussing with your neighbors a true American view of law and government, and then discussing how that could be applied. And then you could be reading the Grey Book too as well which is also a great vision for how, for what a civil government should look like in America. This is a 12 week course of study, excuse me, it is 12 lectures, we do it every 12 weeks but you could do it faster or slower. But it is I believe a great party building or organization building tool because it creates the commonality of understanding on which we’re going to march forward, that is to say, there is an American view of law and government and a biblical view that we need to understand. So that’s what our U.S. course is about.
We actually conduct it three ways, we conduct it live in person in Pasadena, MD, Pastor David Whitney, myself and some other instructors give this class. It’s conducted around the country by people who take this kit itself and do it. This is like a turnkey operation here, you can take this and use the student manual, there’s a teacher’s manual, it’s like a home school course on the U.S. Constitution and American history. We rehearse what an American view of law and government looks like, like I’ve just been doing. We talk about the religious belief of the founders, we talk about the biblical beliefs of the founders and the political philosophy of the founders. Then we talk basically about the Constitution in the words of the Constitution itself. In other words, ‘thou shalt know the rules.’ And then we talk about how courts have degradated and moved away, and subverted the Constitution, and we talk about ways we can move back to this biblical understanding.

When Peroutka says American view of law and government, let’s recall who he calls “American.” In an editorial on his website, Peroutka referred to the Confederate troops as the “American forces.”

League Of The South President: Ethnic Nationalism Better Than Democratic Process

Yesterday, I posted a tweet from League of the South president Michael Hill concerning the options non-white Southerners would have if Southern states secede. Hill again identified true Southerners as being of European descent, and added:

To us, “Southerners” are of European descent. They [referring to non-whites] can either go along with it, fight against it, or get out.

Hill’s answer was not enough for the Twitter user Jimbo. He then asked Hill what would happen when the non-white people refuse to turn over their homes to the whites.

At the time, Hill did not answer. Last night, I asked Hill if he would answer Jimbo’s question. What will happen when non-whites vote no on secession? Hill’s answer was evasive but it may indicate something about his political philosophy.
https://twitter.com/MichaelHill51/statuses/392444347901169665
Hill seems to argue against the vote of all people as a means of taking power but rather hopes for a society run by a single group which, according to his prior statements, would be Southern whites. This is still vague because we don’t hear from him about how he would accomplish this victory for Southern whites.