By: Daniel Nardini
Despite its name, the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) is not really about the impartial study of the U.S. Constitution. The NCCS is actually about an ultra-conservative, religious-themed interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. If this sound bizarre, I will provide a short history of the National Center for Constitutional Studies if this will help my readers with a clear picture of what it really is all about. The National Center for Constitutional Studies was founded in 1971 as the Freemen Institute. Its founder was Cleon Skousen—a former professor at Brigham Young University and political right wing extremist. Skousen actually defended the John Birch Society’s assertion that former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a “Communist agent” and also the Church of Latter Day Saint’s position on why African American men should not be ordained priests in the Mormon Church back in 1970. The center eventually changed its name to what it is now.
The NCCS teaches the U.S. Constitution from the viewpoint that it and the founding fathers created the U.S. Constitution according to “God’s divine will.” The center teaches that the writers of the Constitution found their inspiration from the Bible and that the Constitution is actually a modern day document of the biblical teachings. This theme of the Bible being the catalyst for the U.S. Constitution is popular among many people in America today, and the NCCS provides material and even teaches classes on this view that the U.S. Constitution and indeed the whole history of the United States is the story of “God’s will.” One book published by the center, The 5,000 Leap Year, was actually on Amazon.com’s best seller list for 2009. The book, first written and published by Cleon Skousen in 1981, received new life when right wing extremist Glenn Beck wrote the forward for a new edition of the book in 2009. Ironically, Glenn Beck, through his radio and TV talk shows, has heavily promoted the NCCS’s books, CD’s and DVD’s.
While the National Center for Constitutional Studies has been around for over 40 years, it really remained outside the limelight until fairly recently. What happened was that with the founding of the Tea Party many within that movement have become new and willing recruits to the NCCS’s viewpoint of a “divine America.” Every week NCCS classes are held across the country and hundreds of thousands of books and CD’s and DVD’s are sold across the country every month. What is truly frightening about this whole thing is that it will implant into the minds of ordinary people that America should become a Christian theocracy, or that each and every state should become a theocracy. If there is no separation of church from state then more than just the U.S. Constitution will be affected. It will be our whole way of life. In ways that is what is happening now, and we may all regret such religious non-sense being put into the interpretation of the one document that is the law of the land.
National Center for Constitutional Studies
By: Daniel Nardini
Despite its name, the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) is not really about the impartial study of the U.S. Constitution. The NCCS is actually about an ultra-conservative, religious-themed interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. If this sound bizarre, I will provide a short history of the National Center for Constitutional Studies if this will help my readers with a clear picture of what it really is all about. The National Center for Constitutional Studies was founded in 1971 as the Freemen Institute. Its founder was Cleon Skousen—a former professor at Brigham Young University and political right wing extremist. Skousen actually defended the John Birch Society’s assertion that former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a “Communist agent” and also the Church of Latter Day Saint’s position on why African American men should not be ordained priests in the Mormon Church back in 1970. The center eventually changed its name to what it is now.
The NCCS teaches the U.S. Constitution from the viewpoint that it and the founding fathers created the U.S. Constitution according to “God’s divine will.” The center teaches that the writers of the Constitution found their inspiration from the Bible and that the Constitution is actually a modern day document of the biblical teachings. This theme of the Bible being the catalyst for the U.S. Constitution is popular among many people in America today, and the NCCS provides material and even teaches classes on this view that the U.S. Constitution and indeed the whole history of the United States is the story of “God’s will.” One book published by the center, The 5,000 Leap Year, was actually on Amazon.com’s best seller list for 2009. The book, first written and published by Cleon Skousen in 1981, received new life when right wing extremist Glenn Beck wrote the forward for a new edition of the book in 2009. Ironically, Glenn Beck, through his radio and TV talk shows, has heavily promoted the NCCS’s books, CD’s and DVD’s.
While the National Center for Constitutional Studies has been around for over 40 years, it really remained outside the limelight until fairly recently. What happened was that with the founding of the Tea Party many within that movement have become new and willing recruits to the NCCS’s viewpoint of a “divine America.” Every week NCCS classes are held across the country and hundreds of thousands of books and CD’s and DVD’s are sold across the country every month. What is truly frightening about this whole thing is that it will implant into the minds of ordinary people that America should become a Christian theocracy, or that each and every state should become a theocracy. If there is no separation of church from state then more than just the U.S. Constitution will be affected. It will be our whole way of life. In ways that is what is happening now, and we may all regret such religious non-sense being put into the interpretation of the one document that is the law of the land.