American Vision: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox non-profitorganization

'''American Vision''' is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by [[Steve Schiffman]]. It operates as a [[Christianity|Christian]] ministry, and calls for "equipping and empowering Christians to restore America’s biblical foundation." The organization promotes [[Christian reconstructionism|Christian Reconstructionism]] and [[Postmillennialismpostmillennialism]], and opposes [[dispensationalism]]. [[Gary DeMar]] was the organization's president from 1986 to 2015. From 2015 to March of 2019 [[Joel McDurmon]] was president, during which time DemarDeMar was Senior Fellow. Gary DemarDeMar returned as president in March of 2019 when McDurmon resigned.<ref name="change">{{cite web|last="DeMar|first=Gary|author-link=Gary DeMar| url=https://americanvision.org/17861/change-of-leadership-at-american-vision/|title=Change of Leadership at American Vision|date=March 19, 2019|website=The American Vision|access-date=March 12, 2021}}</ref>

American Vision publishes books "primarily for use in [[Christian school]]s and for [[Homeschooling|home schoolers]]."<ref>{{cite book|last=Apple|first=Michael W.|author-link=Michael Apple|title=Educating the "Right" Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality|year=2001|publisher=[[Routledge]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415924627/page/260 260]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415924627|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0-4159-2462-7|access-date=April 17, 2021}}</ref> The group is active in the [[Creation science|creation science movement]].

American Vision trains parents, teachers, pastors and activists "in developing family-oriented [[Christian worldview|biblical worldviews]]."<ref>{{cite book|first=Julie|last=Ingersoll|author-link=Julie Ingersoll|editor1-first=Steven|editor1-last=Brint|editor2-first=Jean|editor2-last=Reith Schroedel|title=Evangelicals and Democracy in America. Volume 2: Religion and Politics|chapter=Chapter 6: Mobilizing Evangelicals: Christian Reconstructionism and the Roots of the Religious Right|year=2009|publisher=[[Russell Sage Foundation]]|page=197|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3flSfjLfYNEC&pg=PA197|isbn=9780871540683978-0-8715-4068-3|access-date=April 17, 2021}}</ref> It hosts an annual "Worldview Conference", which has featured speakers such as [[Herbert Titus]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Flanders|first=Laura|author-link=Laura Flanders|title=At the Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right... and Why We Should Take It Seriously|year=2010|publisher=[[OR Books]]|page=118|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo0tBT7RpC0C&pg=PA118|isbn=9781935928232978-1-9359-2823-2|access-date=April 17, 2021}}</ref>

American Vision is opposed to [[abortion]].<ref>{{cite web|last=DeMar|first=Gary|author-link=Gary DeMar|date=December 14, 2010|title=A Modern Crime from the Bible|url=http://americanvision.org/3829/a-modern-crime-from-the-bible/|work=American Vision Blog|accessdate=FebruaryApril 419, 20122021}}</ref> The group maintains that the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment's]] demand that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" means that Congress may not establish a state religion. The group maintains that the First Amendment does ''not'' prohibit members of Congress from making laws that are in submission to the [[Bible]]. DeMar has said that not all homosexuals would be executed under a "reconstructed government" but that he did believe that the occasional execution of "sodomites" would serve society well because "the law that requires the death penalty for homosexual acts effectively drives the perversion of homosexuality underground, back into the closet"<ref name="CS021201" /><ref name="SPLC"/>

DeMar also wrote a "long-term goal" should be "the execution of abortionists and parents who hire them".<ref name="CS021201">{{cite journal | title=Pa. congressman skips radical right meeting after AU complaint. (People &amp; Events).(Joseph R. Pitts)(Americans United for Separation of Church and State) | journal=Church and State | date=December 1, 2002 | quote=In his 1987 book, Ruler of the Nations, DeMar advocated executing gay people, abortion providers and women who obtain abortions. "The law that requires the death penalty for homosexual acts effectually drives the perversion of homosexuality back into the closet," he wrote. A few pages later, DeMar added, "The long term goal [is] the execution of abortionists and parents who hire them. If we argue that abortion is murder, then we must call for the death penalty."}}</ref><ref name="SPLC"/><ref name="Hawker">{{cite news | title=Healing, feeding and loving, not nationalism | date=September 29, 2006 | author=Hawker, Katherine | location=St. Louis, MO | quote=In the name of Jesus, American Vision's leader, Gary DeMar , writes that another "long-term goal" should be " the execution of abortionists and parents who hire them." | newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch}}</ref> [[Islam]] is another enemy; in August 2010 he said that "the long-term goal of Islam is the abolition of our constitutional freedoms."<ref name="SPLC"/><ref>{{cite web|last=DeMar|first=Gary|author-link=Gary DeMar|date=August 24, 2010|title=The Left is Now Interested in ‘Constitutional'Constitutional Freedoms’Freedoms'|url=http://americanvision.org/3416/the-left-is-now-interested-in-‘constitutional-freedoms’/#.UD657ELlf0c|publisherwebsite=American Vision|accessdate=AugustApril 3020, 20122021|quote=The long-term goal of Islam is the abolition of our constitutional freedoms since the majority of them are an affront to the fundamental tenets of Islam.}}</ref>

In 2010, the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] designated American Vision as an anti-gay hate group because of its purported support of the "[[Capital punishment|death penalty]] for practicing homosexuals."<ref name="SPLC">{{cite web|last=Schlatter |first=Evelyn |url=http://splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners |title=18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda &#124; Southern Poverty Law Center |publisherwebsite=Splcentersplcenter.org |accessdate=2011-09-19April 20, 2021 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129185413/http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners |archivedate=2010-11-November 29, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=DeMar |editor-last=North |first=Gary |editor-first=Gary |author-link=Gary DeMar|editor-link=Gary North (economist)|title=Ruler of the Nations |url=http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/pdf/ruler_of_the_nations.pdf |format=PDF |publisher=Dominion Press |accessdate=August 27, 2012 |year=1987 |location=Fort Worth, Texas |isbn=978-0-930462-19-2 |page={{page needed|date=August 2012}} }}</ref> However, inJoel 2016McDurmon, Americanthe Vision,former underpresident Joelof McDurmon'sAmerican leadershipVision, moved the organization away from this position, stating that "Biblical law has transferred First Table punishments from earthly civil governments to the throne of heaven", and that right now only the moral principles are still binding.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://americanvision.org/14114/what-is-not-theonomy/|first=Joel|last=McDurmon|title=What is NOT Theonomy|date=3 February 3, 2017|website=The American Vision|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211044911/https://americanvision.org/14114/what-is-not-theonomy/|archivedate=February 11, 2017}}</ref>

* [[TheonomyTheoconservatism]]

[[Category:Organizations that oppose LGBTLGBTQ rights in the United States]]