Posted on 01/14/2007 8:29:25 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
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
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.
Interesting how god hating former Communist Russia is now full of Christians. Jesus wins again, and again, and again, now, and forever and ever!
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.
Lt. Dan: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?
Forrest Gump: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.
ping
fas÷cism [fash-iz-uhm]
ÃÂnoun
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 1922ÃÂ43.
[Origin: 1915ÃÂ20; < 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, é 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 Heritageî Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright é 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
-------------
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.
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......
turn the United States into a Christian nation
Gee, I thought we were.
I trust you were merely referring to the Soviet regime.
Just what I was thinking also.
Perhaps a law requiring us to sew yellow crosses onto our clothing would be appropriate.
L
You may enjoy this periodical for an informed, contemporary treatment of these issues.
ping
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.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.