The Institute on the Constitution is a pro-Confederacy, Christian reconstructionist organization based in Pasadena, MD. Recently, they have promoted clubs in high schools and colleges called American Clubs. IOTC makes the ACs sound like an all-American enterprise but the presentations promote the merger of Christian reconstructionist religious views and civil government. Peroutka teaches that any law not in line with the Bible is not a real law. IOTC also promotes nullification which proposes that states and local jurisdictions can ignore federal laws if officials in the local jurisdictions believe the law to be unconstitutional. They are certainly entitled to their views and apparently these clubs have equal access, but parents should be aware of what the IOTC is bringing to school.
I don’t know how these clubs are being received in schools. There is one in Spanish River High School in FL. And Peroutka recently put pictures on his Facebook page of what he said was a high school in Hudsonville, MI. Other pictures of the same school room had a caption placing the school in nearby Grand Rapids. While in Michigan, he also visited Calvin College and according to his Facebook page said an American Club had been established. However, according to Calvin College representatives, there is no approved American Club on campus. A group of students heard a talk but there is no officially recognized club at Calvin College.
That fact hasn’t stopped IOTC from using the picture of the Calvin College students as a promotional picture on their website for the American Clubs. See below:
Now compare this picture with the Facebook picture of the Calvin College group. They are the same.
In a way, it is fitting that IOTC is pretending that the Calvin group is a club. IOTC pretends to be a pro-American group when in fact Peroutka is a former board member of the League of the South, a group that advocates for the South to secede from the nation and set up a white Southern homeland. Senior instructor David Whitney at IOTC is the chaplain of the VA/MD branch of IOTC. Peroutka called the Confederate army the real American army in a op-ed on the IOTC website. Articles on the IOTC website justify discrimination and Southern slavery and attack Lincoln. As with the picture, there is a lot of pretending going on.
Tag: Calvin College
Calvin College Says Institute on the Constitution American Club is Not Recognized on Campus
Last week, I reported that the Institute on the Constitution had visited Calvin College in late April. According the IOTC Facebook page, Peroutka spoke to an American Club on Calvin’s campus.
Because the existence of such a student group at Calvin did not ring true, I asked Calvin College about it. As I suspected, Calvin does not have an approved American Club on campus.
Bob Crow, Dean of Student Development, informed me that the Institute on the Constitution’s Director Michael Peroutka met with a small group of students when he visited campus. However, about an American Club, Crow said, “I can confirm that no such student organization exists at Calvin College.” Furthermore, given the affiliation of Mr. Peroutka with the neo-Confederate League of the South, Mr. Crow said, “it is unimaginable that such a group could exist here.”
As is true of most colleges, Calvin requires recognized student organizations to go through an application process prior to approval. IOTC’s Facebook posting is misleading in that it implies the American Club is an approved Calvin College organization. According to Mr. Crow, the future does not look bright for the IOTC at Calvin.
Since I posted the information about IOTC at Hudsonville, MI and Calvin, a couple of the IOTC posts regarding Peroutka’s visits to the schools have disappeared from the Facebook page. Still can’t find out what high school in Hudsonville Peroutka visited; perhaps he was in nearby Grand Rapids.
Institute on the Constitution Promotes Indoctrination of Students; Calvin College Has an American Club?
At least that is what this Institute on the Constitution’s Facebook post says:
Founder of the neo-Confederate Institute on the Constitution, Michael Peroutka, is here speaking to high school students in Hudsonville, MI. Watch the video below:
Post by Institute on the Constitution.
Peroutka tells the students that the American view is based on a biblical view of law and government. He then sets up a straw man by contrasting what he considers to be the biblical view with the pagan view of law and government. He says you can call it socialist or communist, but it is the view which is marked by teaching evolution. He says this kind of government will give you health care, retirement and “put an RFID chip in your wrist to, we want to know where you are all the time.” The contrast drawn by Peroutka is apparently designed to scare the kids into buying into his Christian reconstructionist view of government. They look a little bored so maybe very little of the stuff is getting through.
About two weeks ago, I wrote about how Liberty University’s Liberty Counsel plans to defend the IOTC’s American clubs in public schools. It seems clear from a review of the IOTC Facebook page that Peroutka and staff are serious about starting these clubs in local schools.
While in Michigan, Peroutka apparently stopped in at Calvin College to promote the American Club there. This, to me, is a shocker. I didn’t think there would be a taste among that many students for what Peroutka is selling.