Book Review of "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America"

Baltimore Sun ^ | January 13. 2007 | Jon Wiener

[freedomdefender]

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America Chris Hedges

reviewed by Prof. Jon Wiener

Free Press / 256 pages / $25

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America is a call to arms against what Hedges sees as the efforts of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the operators of Trinity Broadcasting Network, among others, to turn the United States into a Christian nation.

...In American Fascists, Hedges reports in fascinating detail what goes on inside the churches, conventions and meeting halls of the Christian right. He attends a "Love Won Out" conference in Boston, sponsored by James Dobson's Focus on the Family, held to "cure" those who are afflicted by "same-sex attraction." He visits the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., where he finds a display describing evolution as the "big lie." ... If the conservative Christians come to power, Hedges asserts, evangelical leaders such as Kennedy, Falwell and Robertson could be "calling for the punishment, detention and quarantining of gays and lesbians - as well as abortionists, Muslims and other nonbelievers." Thus, Hedges concludes, the United States today faces an internal threat analogous to that posed by the Nazis in Weimar Germany.

...Hedges concludes that the Christian right "should no longer be tolerated," because it "would destroy the tolerance that makes an open society possible."

Hedges advocates passage of federal hate-crimes legislation prohibiting intolerance, but he doesn't really explain how it would work. Many countries do prohibit "hate speech." Holocaust denial, for example, is a crime in Germany, Austria and several other European countries. But does this mean that Hedges favors prosecuting Christian fundamentalists for declaring, for example, that abortion providers are murderers or that secular humanists are agents of Satan? He doesn't say.

[kb2614]

...Hedges concludes that the Christian right "should no longer be tolerated," because it "would destroy the tolerance that makes an open society possible."

LOL!!! If this statement is read enough times, it would induce vertigo. I wonder if he realizes he just contradicted himself?? Silly man.

[Criminal Number 18F]

It takes a mind like Jon Weiner's to boil one of Chris Hedges's concepts down to brass tacks like this:

Hedges concludes that the Christian right "should no longer be tolerated," because it "would destroy the tolerance that makes an open society possible."

...and completely miss the irony.

Now, what kind of mind that amounts to, is a question I will leave for others to sort out.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[CheyennePress]

I wonder if this dimwit even begins to acknowledge the kind of stock our country was formed by?

Or is that inconvenient truth worth forgetting?

Please, if this moron had tried this junk 50 years ago, he'd be tarred, feathered, and thrown out of town. And he knows it.

Sorry, but the "Christian right" hasn't changed. It has just organized from a state where it wasn't previously needed. Until monsters like Hedges started sprouting up.

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

Interesting how god hating former Communist Russia is now full of Christians. Jesus wins again, and again, and again, now, and forever and ever!

[Richard Axtell]

From the style of his rhetoric, I suspect that Hedges is more Hitlerian in his apocalyptic visions than any member of the Christian Right he might cite. Hedges seems to be a quite accomplished "fragmentary" man; someone that flits wildly from one pole of thought to another, racing from experience to experience, but never building anything like a consistent view of the world. Such fragmentary vision is what causes Fascism, as the narrowed views and prejudices Hedges proclaims become the kind of intolerance that lead to the suppression of rational thought.

[Lexinom]

It's quite inconvenient and moreover I do not believe most Christians understand the significance: Take away all moral axioms, for which atheism is unable to account, and you cut all moorings for a just society. The atheist in this case is attempting to claim victory not realizing even the very laws of logic he must use to make his case cannot be accounted for under his worldview. Game over.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Lt. Dan: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?

Forrest Gump: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.

[Cacique]

ping

[weegee]

From Dictionary.com

fas·cism [fash-iz-uhm]
–noun
1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter) the philosophy, principles, or methods of fascism.
3. (initial capital letter) a fascist movement, esp. the one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922–43.

[Origin: 1915–20; < It fascismo, equiv. to fasc(io) bundle, political group (see fasces) + -ismo -ism] Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. fas·cis'tic (fə-shĭs'tĭk) adj. Word History: It is fitting that the name of an authoritarian political movement like Fascism, founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, should come from the name of a symbol of authority. The Italian name of the movement, fascismo, is derived from fascio, "bundle, (political) group," but also refers to the movement's emblem, the fasces, a bundle of rods bound around a projecting axe-head that was carried before an ancient Roman magistrate by an attendant as a symbol of authority and power. The name of Mussolini's group of revolutionaries was soon used for similar nationalistic movements in other countries that sought to gain power through violence and ruthlessness, such as National Socialism.

(Download Now or Buy the Book) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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It would seem that the bigots (including the editor and the publisher) are engaging in antiChristian rhetoric to squash what they see as political enemies. In short, they are Fascists. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for their violent hordes.

[tcrlaf]

We now live in an upside-down Bizzarro World, where our media reinforces daily that being Christian, Pro-Family, Anti-Death, and Pro-American is "Extremeist", while Baby-killing, and hatred of the Family Unit and America is "Mainstream"...

I fear for my daughter's future......

[amchugh]

While I agree that leftists can be authoritarian, fascism is historically identified as being anti-liberal or anti-communist. It seems to be trendy now to use the term to define any authoritarian movement or figure that the labeller dislikes.

[garylmoore]

turn the United States into a Christian nation

Gee, I thought we were.

[amchugh]

If your are painting the former populace of the Soviet Union as homogenously god hating, you do a disservice to the Christians who always existed in the Soviet Union maintaining their beliefs under harsh conditions.

I trust you were merely referring to the Soviet regime.

[Bittersweetmd]

Just what I was thinking also.

[Bittersweetmd]

Who does he hope to alarm with these absurd charges? Those that would eat it up are already on his side and have been for a long time.

The "Religious New Evangelicals". They work Real hard at people pleasing and being culturally relevant. ie. not offending anyone EXCEPT fellow believers that are involved in politics (conservative politics of course) or working to reach out to those caught up in various sins and vices such as homosexuality, abortion, prostitution, gambling, etc. You should have read the interview one of our very very liberal socialist local free newspapers had with the pastor and attender of a large/mega evangelical church in Madison, Wisconsin. I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or puck. The newspaper is called the Isthmus which is read by lots of people in Madison as it is everywhere you go and it is free.

[Lurker]

Hedges advocates passage of federal hate-crimes legislation prohibiting intolerance, but he doesn't really explain how it would work

Perhaps a law requiring us to sew yellow crosses onto our clothing would be appropriate.

L

[Lexinom]

There's sadly very little theological content in many of these churches. The style of worship backs this up, and is a sad testament to how far we've fallen in the last 200 years.

You may enjoy this periodical for an informed, contemporary treatment of these issues.

[Cindy]

ping

[wodinoneeye]

REMEMBER : You run out of secret police very fast, when every door they kick in they are met with a shotgun blast.


Our Founding Fathers were very wise.....

[cgbg]

Hedges concludes that the Christian right "should no longer be tolerated",..." "Hedges advocates passage of federal hate-crimes legislation prohibiting intolerance..." LOL!

If Hedges were dictator you wouldn't be laughing at the contradiction--you would be crying as your children returned home from the state school and recited it to you. :-(