THE REAL DANGER: The Rise of Christian Fascism and Its Threat to American Democracy

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted February 8, 2007.

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We must attend to growing social and economic inequities in order to stop the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- or face a future of fascism under the guise of Christian values.

Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age -- he was then close to 80 -- we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."

The warning, given 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and television evangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts toward taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global Christian empire. This call for fundamentalists and evangelicals to take political power was a radical and ominous mutation of traditional Christianity. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible.

The unchecked rape of America, which continues with the blessing of both political parties, heralds not only the empowerment of this American oligarchy but the eventual death of the democratic state and birth of American fascism. <<snip

Link to entire article: http://www.alternet.org/story/47679/

many, jews especially, have made it a mission to ensure that "it can't happen here". we have understood that this meant constant vigilence. but along the way, we explained WHY we can't let it happen here, and the answer became, because hitler was a monster.

as a result, no one recognizes the formation of the monster. they only recognize the finished product -- the dictator with complete control and a completely silenced opposition. we have unwittingly undermined our mission by making people blind to the path that leads to fascism. everyone knows hitler the monster, but few people know how to recognize hitler the budding politician and hitler the press called a leader who made the trains run on time and who promised to preserve the institutions of democracy.

probably should be looking over their shoulders. Us buncha non-Christian oppressed might be gaining on them........

fasten your safety belts-it's gonna be a wild ride.

They are sending their kids to camps in order to get them to be little evangelical "soldiers" and get them primed to go out and change the world politically. Those poor kids. I think what they do is child abuse. No kid should grow up that way.

Rent it today. You must see it.

You can find the video pretty easily. He said it was the greatest threat this country faced.

that are a threat. 'Christian' fascists will always be a stupid, greedbag, hypocritical, or fanatical puritan, minority. I have much more faith in the reasoning powers of the human race than to believe that the majority can be hoodwinked by such brainless propaganda and personal powermongering.

The real threat is the use of this minority by the Corporate Rulers and War Profiteers, and it is THEY whom we must CONTROL, by collective democratic action. We can't and won't argue down this tiny nutball minority. What we have to realize is that they have been given a BIG TRUMPET by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies FOR A REASON--and it is to convince US, the progressive majority, that we are the minority--and to disempower, demoralize, and disenfranchise us.

Take a look at the polls recently? What do you make of the stark contrast between what the polls say--for instance, 74% of the American people opposed to the Iraq War, and a whopping 84% opposed to any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war--and what you see and hear in the war profiteering corporate news monopolies? Just the opposite! The views of the minority 26% to 36%!

The 'christian' rightwing is not now, and never has been, a threat. It is ONLY when billionaires and the CEO's of giant multinational corporations and fascist warmongers UTILIZE that 'christian' rightwing mode to create a narrative--an ILLUSION--of what we, as a people, think, that it becomes a dangerous thing. And, again, it is not inherently dangerous--the majority of people would NEVER choose to be that stupid, or to be ruled by anyone that stupid. It is the power of the Corporate Rulers that is the REAL danger.

As to that, the fact that rightwing Bushite electronic voting corporations have gained control of our election system, and are "counting" all our votes with "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, should give us much more alarm than "Jesus Camp."

I went to a sort of "Jesus Camp" when I was young. A very rightwing Catholic grammar school, and a Catholic girls' high school that, actually, at one point, had a nun/principle who was a member of the John Birch Society (very rightwing group in the '50s/'60s). And we were definitely being trained to be "soldiers of Christ."

It turned me into socialist radical. I could sense, even at age 10, the pack of lies they were shoveling down my throat. Couldn't quite analyze them yet--but knew they were lies. And, the moment I got out of high school, their mental hold over me was broken. I dropped their whole ideological line of crap--outright. The psychological/emotional hold was harder to dump. I'm still working on that.

So, I say, have some faith in the human brain, and human adaptability. Our brains WANT TO BE FREE. We are born that way. And the only way that that can be changed is by an actual physical lobotomy. You CAN'T STOP the human brain from thinking, and seeking freedom--invention, creation, alternative thoughts, independent thoughts, objectivity, analysis, different points of view, variety--oh, variety! what a wonder of nature, and of the needs of the human brain! Hammer the human brain with the same propagandistic crap, day after day, and it WILL rebel. It CAN'T STAND hearing the same lies and half-lies, over and over. Fascists do try--with guns, and prisons, and more subtle techniques. It takes entire humongous military machines and billions and billions and billions of dollars to subdue the human brain, and even then, they fail. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of the American people oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war. Why are THESE peoples' views being suppressed, and fanatical minority views being blown up into some sort of insanely conceived "mandate"?

Again, I say, believe in yourself. Believe in your mind. And the minds of others. Let these weird rightwing 'christians' stew in their own juices--and lose their own children to rebellion--and concentrate on the important thing: WHO is giving rightwing crazies this Big Trumpet, way out of proportion to their numbers, and how to stop those who are cynically using, and hiding behind, these views? How to stop the Corporate Rulers and the War Profiteers?

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Solutions gained from my study of the awesome democracy movement that is sweeping South America:

1. TRANSPARENT elections.
2. Grass roots organization.
3. Think big.