Today's Christian Science Monitor has an article about a gathering of evangelicals that took place last month at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale. Most of what's in the article is what you'd expect -- but this jumped out at me:

In material given to conference attendees, the Rev. D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge pastor wrote: "As the vice-regents of God, we are to bring His truth and His will to bear on every sphere of our world and our society. We are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government ... our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors - in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

Yikes. That isn't Christian conservatism -- it's Christian fascism.

Here's more information about the conference; this mini-manifesto, "The Cultural Mandate," is, I assume, what the Monitor is quoting. According to "The Cultural Mandate," that quote from Reverend Kennedy is a gloss on Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

I know that passage. I've always assumed it meant God was putting human beings in charge of plants and animals -- I never thought it meant God was pitting Christians in charge of other human beings. But that's what Reverend Kennedy thinks. Scary.