We recently learned the history behind the John Birch Society's name. The following fills in some history on their ideological stance.

Of the movie Invictus, the JBS called Mandela "nothing more than a communist terrorist thug."

In 2007, they introduced the Public Service Edition of the "Overview of America" as a tool to indoctrinate middle-school thru college students with their anti-democracy, anti-historical program. (http://bit.ly/eWH39u) As of October 2008 over 60,000 DVDs had been distributed.

They still believe the Illuminati, created in 1776, is an active conspiracy out to destroy America. (http://bit.ly/gZeBwY) I wonder if that includes the Bush family, Lady Gaga, maybe even the JBS itself? They do believe that it includes many corporate and government officials such as J.F.K., and they called President Eisenhower "a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist Conspiracy". They now say they never said that though their own newsletters show differently (http://bit.ly/9LCxLd). What they haven't said is that they no longer believe those things.

They were so against the Civil Rights Act they bought billboards calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and they didn't much like the League of Women Voters, either. After all, the Constitution didn't give women the right to vote in the first place. The vote was reserved for elite, white, landowning men.

And adding fluoride to drinking water was a Communist mind control plot, after all.

The Republican Party eventually distanced themselves from JBS for many of these beliefs but it appears that many TEA Party adherents have taken up the banner. Learn more at http://bit.ly/bAhd0x - Gordon Clay