American Vision

Not to be confused with Vision America.
American Vision
Founded1978 (1978)
FounderSteve Schiffman
TypeNonprofit 501(c)(3)
58-1374143 (EIN)
Location
  • 3150-A Florence Road
    Suite 2
    Powder Springs, GA 30127
Members5
Key people
Gary DeMar, President[1]
Revenue$1,315,150 (2010)[2]
Employees12
Websiteamericanvision.org

American Vision is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by Steve Schiffman. It operates as a Christian ministry, and calls for "equipping and empowering Christians to restore America’s biblical foundation." The organization promotes Christian reconstructionism and postmillennialism, and opposes dispensationalism. Gary DeMar was the organization's president from 1986 to 2015. From 2015 to March 2019 Joel McDurmon was president, during which time DeMar was Senior Fellow. Gary DeMar returned as president in March 2019 when McDurmon resigned.[1]

Activities

American Vision publishes books "primarily for use in Christian schools and for home schoolers."[3] The group is active in the creation science movement.

American Vision trains parents, teachers, pastors and activists "in developing family-oriented biblical worldviews."[4] It hosts an annual "Worldview Conference", which has featured speakers such as Herbert Titus.[5]

Beliefs

American Vision is opposed to abortion.[6] The group maintains that the 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"[7]

DeMar also wrote a "long-term goal" should be "the execution of abortionists and parents who hire them". Islam is another enemy; in August 2010 he said that "the long-term goal of Islam is the abolition of our constitutional freedoms."[7][8]

In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated American Vision as an anti-gay hate group because of its purported support of the "death penalty for practicing homosexuals."[7][9] However, Joel McDurmon, the former president of American Vision, 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.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b DeMar, Gary (March 19, 2019). "Change of Leadership at American Vision". The American Vision. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  2. ^ "Nonprofit Report for American Vision". GuideStar. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  3. ^ Apple, Michael W. (2001). Educating the "Right" Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality. Routledge. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-4159-2462-7. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  4. ^ Ingersoll, Julie (2009). "Chapter 6: Mobilizing Evangelicals: Christian Reconstructionism and the Roots of the Religious Right". In Brint, Steven; Reith Schroedel, Jean (eds.). Evangelicals and Democracy in America. Volume 2: Religion and Politics. Russell Sage Foundation. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-8715-4068-3. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  5. ^ Flanders, Laura (2010). At the Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right... and Why We Should Take It Seriously. OR Books. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-9359-2823-2. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  6. ^ DeMar, Gary (December 14, 2010). "A Modern Crime from the Bible". American Vision Blog. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Schlatter, Evelyn. "18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda | Southern Poverty Law Center". splcenter.org. Archived from the original on November 29, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  8. ^ DeMar, Gary (August 24, 2010). "The Left is Now Interested in 'Constitutional Freedoms'". American Vision. Retrieved April 20, 2021. 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.
  9. ^ DeMar, Gary (1987). North, Gary (ed.). Ruler of the Nations (PDF). Fort Worth, Texas: Dominion Press. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-930462-19-2. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  10. ^ McDurmon, Joel (February 3, 2017). "What is NOT Theonomy". The American Vision. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017.