The Christian Reconstructionism political movement

NPR broadcasts a show called No Compromise (NC). It is a series of programs that deal with aspects of modern society and politics and their origins. The 45 minute NC broadcast below, Building the Kingdom of God, starts out with comments about the Dorr family, a radical pro-gun and anti-public school family that travels all over the Midwest as paid agitators for various clients. One of the things they get paid to do is protest against funding of public schools. Their clients sometimes want to block school funding to keep their property taxes low. 

After meandering somewhat confusingly for ~10 minutes, the program finally turns to the topic of Christian Reconstructionism (CR). CR appears to be some form of Christian fundamentalism. Extreme biblical beliefs are at the core of this religious political movement. CR adherents want to establish Old Testament law as American law. Homosexual sex and adultery would be capital offenses punishable by death. The movement wants to establish Christianity and Christian law as the world's religion and law, starting with the US. Those laws will be imposed by by force according to God's sacred, righteous will. These people are terrifying in their ice-cold nonchalance and absolute moral certainty about the righteousness of what they are trying to do.

Wikipedia gives some definitions:

Christian reconstructionism: a fundamentalist Calvinist theonomic movement.[1] It developed under the ideas of Rousas Rushdoony, (1916 - 2001) Greg Bahnsen and Gary North[2] and has had an important influence on the Christian right in the United States.[3][4] In keeping with the cultural mandate, Christian reconstructionists advocate theonomy and the restoration of certain biblical laws said to have continuing applicability.[5] These include the death penalty not only for murder, but also for propagators of all forms of idolatry,[6][7] open homosexuals,[8] adulterers, practitioners of witchcraft and blasphemers.[9] .... Christian reconstructionists are usually postmillennialists and followers of the presuppositional apologetics of Cornelius Van Til. .... Christian reconstructionism's founder, Rousas Rushdoony, wrote in The Institutes of Biblical Law (the founding document of reconstructionism) that Old Testament law should be applied to modern society, and he advocates the reinstatement of the Mosaic law's penal sanctions. .... Rushdoony wrote in The Institutes of Biblical Law: “The heresy of democracy has since [the days of colonial New England] worked havoc in church and state” [citation needed] and: “Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies,” and he said elsewhere that “Christianity is completely and radically anti-democratic; it is committed to spiritual aristocracy,” and characterized democracy as “the great love of the failures and cowards of life.” .... Some sociologists and critics refer to reconstructionism as a type of dominionism. .... religious author, feminist, and former Roman Catholic nun, Karen Armstrong sees a potential for “fascism” in Christian reconstructionism, and sees the eventual Dominion envisioned by theologians R. J. Rushdoony and Gary North as “totalitarian. There is no room for any other view or policy, no democratic tolerance for rival parties, no individual freedom.”

Theonomy: Christian reconstructionists advocate a theonomic government and libertarian economic principles. They maintain a distinction of spheres of authority between self, family, church, and state.[14][15] For example, the enforcement of moral sanctions under theonomy is carried out by the family and church government, and sanctions for moral offenses are outside the authority of civil government (which is limited to criminal matters, courts and national defense). .... Reconstructionists also say that the theonomic government is not an oligarchy or monarchy of man communicating with God, but rather, a national recognition of existing laws (Germaine: whatever that means, if anything). 

Presuppositionalism: a school of Christian apologetics that believes the Christian faith is the only basis for rational thought. It presupposes that the Bible is divine revelation and attempts to expose flaws in other worldviews. It claims that apart from presuppositions, one could not make sense of any human experience, and there can be no set of neutral assumptions from which to reason with a non-Christian. .... Presuppositionalists compare their presupposition against other ultimate standards such as reason, empirical experience, and subjective feeling, claiming presupposition in this context is:
a belief that takes precedence over another and therefore serves as a criterion for another. An ultimate presupposition is a belief over which no other takes precedence. For a Christian, the content of Scripture must serve as his ultimate presupposition… This doctrine is merely the outworking of the lordship of God in the area of human thought. It merely applies the doctrine of scriptural infallibility to the realm of knowing.

Dominion theology or dominionism: a group of Christian political ideologies that seek to institute a nation governed by Christians based on their understandings of biblical law. Extents of rule and ways of achieving governing authority are varied. For example, dominion theology can include theonomy, but does not necessarily involve advocating Mosaic Law as the basis of government. The label is applied primarily toward groups of Christians in the United States.

The flaw running through all of this gobbledygook and nonsense is the fact that for any of it to make any rational sense, a person has to have faith and believe in what the Christian elites and leaders are telling them is true. Actual facts and logic are absent and scorned whenever they are inconvenient.

Some key points in the broadcast:

10:20 CR believes that Christianity and its laws will come to dominate all people everywhere on Earth and non-believers will be suppressed

11:05 Just waiting for the 2nd coming of Christ will not work, and instead it will be necessary for Christians to get involved in politics and change secular laws to Old Testament Biblical laws

13:40 In 2018, Paul Dorr, patriarch of the Dorr family (11 home-(un)schooled kids), burns children's library book that discuss homosexuality and other forbidden subjects and streams the book burning live on Facebook; he is convicted of criminal mischief 

15:40 The Dorrs do not appear to be just grifters, the money they take in isn’t great, but instead are motivated by radical Christian belief, e.g., hate of feminism, abortion, drag queens, false Christian churches and Jews; Dorr says he is advancing Christ's kingdom via the law of God

Paul Dorr

17:20 On the reconstructionist radio program, the War Room, Dorr advocates RC propaganda, lies and tactics for living a strategic Christian life

20:26 Paul’s main focus is on dismantling public education funding because it is secular and pluralistic and thus not biblical, while his sons focus on opposing gun regulations; Paul is paid by anti-school tax people to set up opposition to proposed local school funding ballot measures; he spreads disinformation and foment fomenting irrational distrust; Paul sets up local Facebook sites and focuses on deceiving, angering and/or scaring local voters into opposing school; the NC program asserts that Paul's efforts are successful about 70% of the time 

23:30 CR (like Christian nationalism) is a political movement, not a specific religious denomination; it wants to literally reconstruct all of American society according to its radical Christian vision, which is a necessary prelude for the 2nd coming of Christ

24:50 The closest thing to a leader that the CR movement has is Rushdoony; his Chalcedon Foundation think tank (for example, this blast on dominionism) advocates CR dogma and propaganda:

25:21 Rushdoony argues this: “Thus the goal of modern politics is to make man guilty in order to enslave him and to have people themselves demand an end to liberty. To have the people demand of Washington and of the UN ‘here are our hands, put the chains on, we are afraid of liberty’. .... This, then is our destiny as Christians. Freedom. And Christians are the only true freedom fighters the world has ever had. The rest offer slavery.”  There Rushdoony argues that humans do want liberty, not secular government and its spiritual slavery; that is something that Christians cannot allow because only Christian government, and God’s law or theonomy (not sinful human or secular law) can free people 

30:05 CR dogma is patriarchal and women serve their men, say home and have lots of babies; women who have power are cruel, brutal and oppressive 

31:55 a core CR goal is to completely eliminate public or “government schools” and replace them with Christian schools, hence constant attacks on public school funding; the public school system causes mass shootings because there is no right or wrong

34:15 CR wants to end all government spending on anything that is not biblical, including social security and highways

34:45 CR dogma is includes a core belief that people have a divine right, or actual moral obligation, from God to carry guns, which are needed for defense of family

37:10 current CR propaganda argues that the BLM movement is intensely racist and a political front for sodomy and transgenderism and committed to ending the family

38:05 a lot of people who hold core CR beliefs do not know they are Christian constructionists or what CR is or who Rousas Rushdoony was; there is no church of Christian reconstructionism, just like there is no church of Christian nationalism; in addition, there is a lot of ignorance going on here; some of the more informed Christian reconstructionists deny that they are Christian reconstructionists because they know how radical and crackpot their beliefs are usually seen to be in our secular, multiracial and multiethnic society

39:15 a former Christian reconstructionist pastor abandoned CR because it was too hard, too out of step with modern society, too divisive within some Christian denominations and, with Google available, it is too easy to find out just how crackpot and hateful the CR movement is, e.g., Rushdoony was a holocaust denier and a staunch defender of American Black slavery because it was good for Black people and for society, i.e., textbook racism

41:45 some modern CR pastors simply ignore the hate, racism and crackpottery that underpins CR ideology; they keep quiet via lies of omission, so that average many or most parishioners are unaware that their church donations are going to support the CR political movement; these preachers do not use inflammatory terms that accurately describes the CR movement to keep the cash flowing and minds deceived; millions of conservative Americans hear the ideas of Rushdoony and his CR movement without understanding what they are being told is God’s word and will; ignorance is dangerous and IMO, inherently theocratic, anti-democratic and pro-authoritarian

42:50 Rushdoony’s main legacy today is home schooling and conservative religious opposition to funding public schools, expansion of gun rights and White nationalism

It is unclear how many Americans are Christian reconstructionists. Probably not a large number. What is hard to asses is how much poison the movement injects into government, religion and society.