The seven mountains of the Book of Revelation in the Bible refer to seven heads of a beast in Revelation 17:9, which are interpreted by some as seven hills of Rome or seven ancient world powers. This biblical passage has also inspired the modern “Seven Mountain Mandate,” a movement encouraging Christians to influence and gain dominion over seven societal spheres: family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, business, and religion.

In 2022, The Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank, and 140 former Trump staffers authored Project 2025 -- a roadmap for how to replace the rule of law with right-wing ideas. Project 2025’s largest publication, “Mandate for Leadership,” is a 900-page manual for reorganizing the entire federal government agency by agency to serve a conservative agenda.

Project 2025 includes a long list of extreme policy recommendations touching on nearly every aspect of American life, from immigration and abortion rights, to free speech and racial justice. A number of its recommendations rely on support from the executive branch and from Congress. Many other initiatives are outright unconstitutional.

In addition to detailed plans to stop abortion and to increase mass deportation, the project also includes steps affecting ordinary Americans:

The Plan

• Exploit the executive branch’s vast and unprecedented power to spy on Americans
• Dismantle guardrails that prevent the president from abusing the executive branch’s power. This includes…
• Abusing Warrantless Surveillance (undue invasion of privacy).
• Unleashing Undue Force on Protestors (restricting freedom of assembly)
• Severely Limiting Voting Access (Voting Rights Act)
• Censoring Critical Discussions in Classroom (freedom of speech).
• Rolling Back Trans Rights (Bill of Rights).
• Censoring of the Media (Bill of Rights).

Project 2025, Explained. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website

The topic of censorship was addressed in the August 18th issue of The Raleigh Rant.

How does all this come under the topic of Religion? Because the Constitution requires the separation of church and state. This broad restructuring of government goes beyond mere politics. These policy directives are trying to impose a religious catechism on government functions. In fact, they are creating a theocracy. The definition of which is the Religious Rules are the primary governing authority, including all branches of government.

It may seem an extreme example, but we have a living state with a theocracy in Iran. The Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei’s tenure of 36 years makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East. He outranks the President, who serves an elected term of four years. He can be re-elected once (the same as the US). Our current president is discussing serving a third term, which is prohibited by our Constitution.

The U.S. Congress either has been ignored or has rubber-stamped all the orders of Trump. The Courts have been the only branch of government that has resisted his orders. Thousands of protestors have been arrested. Our democracy is under threat.

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