Where Evangelicals, Zionists and NeoCons Meet: The Council for National Policy

Hillary's "Final Solution" to the Persian Problem

Predictably then, when Hillary Clinton or John McCain threaten to obliterate Iran, or any predominately Muslim country in the Middle East, with nuclear weapons, the primary audience for their saber rattling is not the Muslim “evildoers” but is, instead, the pro-Israel lobby and the Christian Zionist muscle in America who are willing to see the “ultimate evil” committed to further their ideological and eschatological agenda.

Nowhere does “ultimate evil” play a more prominent role than in the End Time machinations of two well-connected Christian Zionists, Tim LaHaye and John Hagee.

Tim LaHaye is least known as the founder and first president of the secretive Council for National Policy. The CNP was formed in 1981 as an umbrella organization to advance an ultra-conservative, right wing Christian agenda. LaHaye’s particular agenda items include replacing U.S. secular law with Old Testament biblical law and a Middle East foreign policy that expedites the Second Coming.

According to the New York Times, the CNP consists of “a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country” who meet “behind closed doors at undisclosed locations…to strategize about how to turn the country to the right.” Though the membership of the CNP is a guarded secret, a list of those known to have been associated with it reads like a who’s who of Christian Zionists and neocon ideologues whose passion is to see the Middle East in flames and in chains.

A short list includes: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, the late Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, and Oliver North—the guy who sold weapons to Iran using Israel as the middleman.

John Hagee, televangelist and pastor of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, is the founder of Christian United for Israel. Hagee formed CUFI in 2005 following the publication of his book, The Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World, which sports a mushroom cloud on its cover and argues for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West.

The following is located at Source Watch

The Council for National Policy is a secretive forum that was formed in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a networking tool for leading US conservative political leaders, financiers and religious right activist leaders. The group, which meets three times a year, promotes "Educational conferences for national leaders in the fields of business, government, religion and academia to explore national policy alternatives. Weekly newsletters are distributed to all members to keep them apprised of member activities and public policy issues. A semi-annual journal is produced from membership meeting speeches."[1]

In 2001, ABC News reported: "The CNP describes itself as a counterweight against liberal domination of the American agenda."[2]

Others are not so kind to the organization and its motives. Mark Crispin Miller states that the CNP is a "highly secretive... theocratic organization -- what they want is basically religious rule" (A Patriot Act). Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the New York Times about the CNP meeting ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention, "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week."[3]

An example of the group’s far-reaching influence on the conservative movement in the United States is their May 9, 2006, meeting where speakers included NRA President Sandra Froman, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Heritage Foundation president Edwin Fuelner Jr., Phyllis Schlafly, Grover Norquist, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, Oliver North and Robert Bork.[4]

Membership

"The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting," the New York Times reported in August 2004.[3]

Board of directors

The 2002 calendar year Form 990 return filed with the IRS lists the board of Directors as:

Donald Paul Hodel President (former Secretary of Energy and former president of the Christian Coalition)
T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Vice President
James C. Miller, III, Chairman
John Seribante, Secretary/Treasurer
Robert Fischer, Director,
Dr. Dal Shealy, Director
Howard Phillips, Director
Ken Raasch, Director
Mary Reilly Hunt, Director
Stuart W. Epperson, Director
Ann Drexel, Director (also a Red Cross board member)
Becky Norton Dunlop, Director
Jerome Ledzinski, Director
Grover Norquist, Director
E. Peb Jackson, Director

Staff members of the Board of Directors are:

Steve Baldwin, Executive Director (paid $157,391 in 2002)
David Fenner, Director of MIS & Programs (paid $89,088 in 2002)
Jennifer Rutledge, Director of Finance & Administration (paid $57,504 in 2002)

Other Members

Several groups have listings of CNP members on websites. However, the primary source documents for these lists are not included. Some listsings are at:

Council for National Policy membership roster, last updated July 2001:
Member Directory.
CNP Members Database.

A copy of the membership roster obtained by Institute for First Amendment Studies, listed current and former members as including:

Attorney General John Ashcroft (former member)

Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services Secretary (former member)

Holland Coors and Jeffrey Coors of the Coors brewing company

Richard DeVos, founder of Amway and Orlando Magic owner

John Ankerberg, who believes that biblical prophecies were literal promises and are coming true;

Dave Breese hosts The King Is Coming, a show devoted entirely to Christian eschatology

Chuck Missler, an Idaho radio host who has predicted an imminent invasion of Jerusalem by forces guided by the Antichrist

Pat Robertson, former presidential candidate and Christian Coalition founder

Steve Stockman, former Texas Republican Representative

Rev. Don Wildmon of the American Family Association

Rev. Rousas J. Rushdoony, founder of Chalcedon
Foundation (deceased)

Williams, the founder of BAMPAC, a political action committee that promotes black conservatism

Sam Moore, president of Thomas Nelson, the country's most successful Christian book publishing company

Henry Morris, prominent creationist

Dora Kingsley, political scientist

John W. Whitehead founder of the Rutherford Institute

Bob Jones III, President, Bob Jones University

Phyllis Schlafly

Oliver North

Other members who list their membership in their biographical profiles include:

John Taylor, the chairman and president of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy[5]

Brent Bozell[6]

Charles W. Jarvis, chairman and chief executive of USANext and United Seniors Association

Mark Crispin Miller adds the following members:

Tom DeLay
Trent Lott
Lauch Faircloth
Ed Meese
Howard Ahmanson
Jerry Falwell
Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind Series,
James Robison
Lou Sheldon, traditional values coalition
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Addressed the CNP:

John Ashcroft
George W. Bush, 2000