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EXCERPTS FROM "GOD'S VICE-REGENTS" by MoJo Wire reporter Suzanne Herel:

"A faction of right-wing Republicans who believe in governing by the Bible has already taken control of the California Republican Party. Now they're poised to duplicate that feat in 35 other states - and counting - under the banner of the new National Federation of Republican Assemblies. Their immediate goal: to cultivate a Reaganesque candidate who can win the presidency in 2000. Their long-term goal: an America ruled by the word of God," Herel reported.

"NFRA membership now stands at about 15,000, says NFRA president Stephen Frank, a former president of the California Republican Assembly who advocates legislating by biblical principles," Herel wrote.

"'Legislation should be biblical principles put into action,' Frank says. Asked about the differing versions of the Bible used by various religions, he contended that every religion - even Buddhism - espouses a set of principles similar to the Ten Commandments," Herel reported.

John Stoos, a former gun lobbyist, is a senior consultant to the California organization and member of the fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionist movement, according to the MoJo Wire.

In an article for the Chalcedon Report, a journal of the radical Christian Reconstructionist movement, Stoos "goes so far as to call Christian politicians God's 'vice-regents'...those who believe in the Lordship of Christ and the dominion mandate.

"The 'dominion mandate,' Stoos told the MoJo Wire, is that individuals are impacted by salvation. You will want to obey God's commandments, and to the extent you do that, you start being a better person...If there are enough of these groups in a community, the community is different. If government has a rule of law that is biblical justice, you will have freedom and liberty."

Journalist Herel added that the California Republican Assembly "...now champions the English for Children initiative, which would end bilingual education, and the Payroll Protection for Unionized Workers initiative, which would abolish the automatic payroll checkoff for union dues...They condemn the separation of church and state, abortion, affirmative action, women in combat, and homosexuality. And members — even Frank, who is Jewish — advocate legislating by the Bible."

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