Rick Santorum’s Ties to Shadowy Right Wing Council for National Policy

Last updated on February 9th, 2013 at 07:51 am

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum is building momentum and he is unabashedly flying his Dominionist flag high. He is pulling the Dominionist leaders and their mega-millionaire backers out of the brush and into the light. Like Santorum, they all appear to have the same faulty “edit” switch – preventing them from keeping their extreme rhetoric in check. These zealots are so filled with adrenaline and a sense of divine authority that they are charging boldly into the deep well of political Christianity for all to see.

Over the years that I have been writing about the bible-based cult of Dominionism and their adherents, I have been routinely met with doubt that Dominionists actually exist; and if those I tell grasp their existence at all – then the reactions are usually nonchalant, believing that Dominionism in American politics is not a force to be concerned about. That perspective has made sense in the past, because unless you are a researcher, politico or an activist on church and state concerns, most Americans just aren’t aware of how infested our political landscape is with this extremism.

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In the 1980s we began to hear the rumble of this group during the Reagan years and the emergence of the Religious Right. Most of us saw this as the efforts of well-meaning Christians but not as the beginning of the March of the Theocrats. Organizations were forming all over the nation’s map – many of them unnoticed by not only the general population, but by mainstream Christians as well. These organizations spanned the gamut from ultra-conservative political to Dominionist and are still well-supported, funded by enormously wealthy patrons and whose meetings are faithfully attended behind closed doors.

Today’s political Christians are the Religious Right on steroids. They are determined, self-anointed and dangerous to our democratic republic. Nearly three decades later this Movement has grown in numbers, wealth and agenda. Not all members involved in this religio-political conservative wave are Dominionists, but they are aligned in similar goals to disband government, deregulate and privatize. On those points alone it has created a cross-pollination that must be discussed openly and taken seriously.

In the need to keep this to a post and not turn it into a tome, let’s pick one coupling for this post – Santorum and Freiss. As I write this the media is buzzing over the rise of Santorum in the polls. His survival has depended on the financial backing of Foster Friess, a man worth an estimated $250 million. So who is this guy? The mundane details can be read here. For a treasure trove of information go to Hart Williams articles on Friess that date back several years. Williams says:

Who is Foster Friess? I did an entire series on him, which revealed some chilling […] Return with us to the thrilling days of yesteryear, where, astride his faithful steed Hedgefund, the fake cowboy/real gazillionaire from Wyoming spurred into the sunset and rode valiantly to Salt Lake City, Utah. ~ Hart Williams

Additionally, we need to pay attention to the fact that Friess was president of a Dominionist club known as the Council for National Policy, a secret cabal that was started by Tim Lahaye in the 1980s. LaHaye is a known leader of Dominionist politics as well as author of the book, “Left Behind” that made converts of more than a few of its 65 million readers who got the crap scared out of them, giving them nightmares of the end of the world and promising them salvation and ever-lasting life. (Fear and paranoia have been working for them for years as a message that keeps their followers in line).

In an article for Penthouse in 2000, Skip Porteus wrote the following about the CNP:

Founded in 1981, under the inspiration of the Rev. Tim LaHaye, and funded by some Texas billionaires, the little-known CNP exists as a networking vehicle for right wing leadership. CNP meetings enable members to become acquainted with one another and plan short-term and long-term strategies. Morton Blackwell, CNP’s executive director, stated that the rules governing the meetings are designed “to allow open, uninhibited remarks from our speakers” (emphasis added). These remarks are “off the record and not for circulation…”

CNP meetings are, in fact, “closed to the media and the general public,” according to documents obtained by Penthouse. The group makes every effort to conceal from the media when or where it meets, or who participates in its programs. Any member desiring to bring guests may only do so in advance of the meeting, pending the unanimous approval from CNP’s Executive Committee. Members are issued special badges which are emblazoned with holograms. Uniformed guards posted at the doors carefully scrutinize each person entering the meeting hall.

The organization’s “confidential” membership is a virtual Who’s Who of the religious and political right wing in the United States. Among the approximately 500 members are: Senator Jesse Helms; Congressmen Dick Armey and Tom Delay; Rich DeVos of Amway; the Rev. Jerry Falwell; Oliver North; Beverly LaHaye; Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum; the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association; James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Gary Bauer, formerly of the Family Research Council, and recent presidential candidate; the Rev. Pat Robertson of the “700 Club” and Christian Coalition; Ralph Reed; and Christian Reconstructionist Rousas John Rushdoony.

As recently as 2007 we were able to go to the web site for the CNP and see their membership list, but it didn’t take long for that to get closed off for public viewing. Before they had a chance to scrub it from the net, it was copied and preserved at a Christian Canadian access to the CNP membership list. We also maintain an archive list in pdf. I encourage you to take several moments to peruse this extensive list and click on the individual names where you can read their CNP profile. Here is a snippet from Foster’s profile:

Republican Foster Friess […] breathes more than business. “The most important thing in his life is his belief in Christ as his savior,” says friend Art Brosius, who met Friess at Bible study.”

“And faith influences his politics. He’s vice president of the Council for National Policy, the secretive group headed by former Attorney General Edwin Meese that includes Oliver North and Pat Robertson and influenced the fundamentalist planks in the GOP’s 1996 platform.”

…and that quote was from 1996…now here we are in 2012 facing these same secretive zealots. It matters not whether it is a combination that has Friess backing Santorum – or LaHaye backing the Eye of Newt…they are out there working behind the scenes with their millions in one hand, wrapped in the flag and waving their bibles.

About the Author, Leah L. Burton.

Image: Americans United.Org



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