<p>Chris Hedges (former Pulitzer prize-winning NYTimes reporter) is “ahead of everyone” in defining the danger of the Christian Right in remaking American society, with the ultimate goal of creating a “global Christian empire” in his new book, <em>American Fascists.</em></p>
<p>Here he discusses this frightening development, which has disturbing similarities to the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party.</p>
<p>Allmusic - maybe hh just wanted share something he/she found interesting… I appreciate the link…and don’t need to know where hereshoping stands when deciding if I want to check it out (which I plan to do when I have 30 solid minutes of free time).</p>
<p>As a Christian, I find myself concerned with the direction taken by some who share my faith. Just yesterday, as I was sitting in the car reading a book (my quiet time), while my son was having a percussion lesson, I was mesmerized by the flashing digital mega-sign in front of a non-mainline (independent) Bible church. The sign implored all to bring their children to a seminar to learn to be a ‘Warrior for Christ’. It may have been innocent (or not), but that sort of language is divisive and threatening in my opinion. </p>
<p>I do think there is too much Christian-bashing going on these days; and in this bashing, too many people lump all Christians together and refuse to listen to what makes them different. But, just as pacifist Muslims are taken to task for not condemning extremists, so should be Christians who don’t speak out when the message of Jesus Christ is distorted to serve a manmade agenda.</p>
<p>“who don’t speak out when the message of Jesus Christ is distorted to serve a manmade agenda”</p>
<p>Couldn’t agree more. It’s not the message, it’s the messenger that has always concerned me. It is far too easy to turn some’s worship of god into worship of a self appointed “messenger” and influence people to do and say things they never would on thier own.</p>
<p>If you haven’t seen the movie Saved! yet, please do.</p>
<p>I had read that the movie bad-mouthed Christians and was blasphemous. So, I was really worried about watching it, but gave it a chance this weekend (it was on Oxygen). I was pleasantly surprised to see a witty, well-done movie, that brought to light the non-accepting stereotypes of many (not all) fundamentalist Christians but also showed that some fundamentalist Christians are actually really good and accepting people.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link hh. Seems to be a fair and balanced site respectful of everyone’s opinions and representative of a broad cross-spectrum of America. ;)</p>
<p>Very interesting and disturbing info. Thanks, hh!</p>
<p>I looked up his book on amazon.com. Here is a review:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In many of my previous posts on other threads in which I spoke of ‘fundamentalist Christians’ this is exactly what I was referring to. Not all fundamentalists are as extreme as this. Maybe ‘Christian Fascists’ is a better term.</p>
<p>I think this is a very real thing, and it’s gaining momentum. I’ve seen it in my own community.</p>
<p>So, any ideas as to what can be done about it?</p>
<p>Truly, “there’s a sucker born every minute."</p>
<p>Stalin = Falwell
Hitler = Dobson</p>
<p>and
“American Advocate president and Christian Dominionist Gary DeMar” is a Christian icon of such influence that no one but the quaking-left blogesphere and chicken littles have ever heard of the infamously pugnacious putz.</p>
<p>Thanks. I was looking for this info awhile back while discussing this topic in another thread. Some didn’t believe me when I said there were factions of fundamentalism that were pushing for a theocracy.</p>
<p>Thanks, allmusic! I knew there was, but when people asked me to prove it I found I didn’t have the resources to back it up. So this is very useful!</p>
Funny how the left refers to the “scare tactics” of the right concerning terrorism and then dredge up this dreck. Compare the laws associated with issues which are presumably hot-button issues for the religious right as they stand now versus any time in the past and tell me which side has the most to be concerned about:</p>
<p>abortion - never been more free and getting even more crazy with freedom for such things as partial birth abortion</p>
<p>gay marriage - already legal in several states and domestic union laws being enacted in other states.</p>
<p>displays of anything smacking of the religious nature off Christmas on public property - more being closed down every year</p>
<p>prayers in public schools - certainly nothing in the last X decades in the classroom with more restrictions being placed every year on even extra-curricular events.</p>
<p>teaching of creation as an additional concept to evolution - nope</p>
<p>pointing out the holes in evolution and indicating that intelligent design may answer these questions - nope</p>
<p>While I don’t necessarily endorse these things, if I were an unbiased observer from outer space, I would hardly look at the trends over the last 50 years in this country and conclude that the US was headed for theocracy. The logical conclusion from looking at events would be just the opposite.</p>
<p>Abortion: Never been more free? Outside of major cities and coastal states, it’s often unavailable as a practical matter. There are entire states without any physicians who are willing to perform abortions on a regular basis. The total number of abortions performed in this country has been declining steadily over the past decade, and is about 70% of what it was 10 years ago. “Partial birth abortion” is new only as an anti-abortion slogan. It refers to a method long used for a small fraction of abortions, usually late term and last-resort. No one is “getting crazy” with freedom to perform such procedures.</p>
<p>Prayers in public schools? Happens all the time. Someone has to complain for it to stop. Often someone has to go to court for it to stop. If they go to court, they win, but how many people are willing to do that. And prayers in non-public schools? Increasing every day.</p>
<p>Ditto creation and “intelligent design”. If a public school board enshrines them as official policy, and someone takes it to court, it will probably lose. But the concepts are taught every day in public school systems, and have not been more popular in decades outside the public school systems.</p>
<p>Does any of this make me think a Christian theocracy is imminent? No. But you would have a hard time proving that the forces of secularism are winning in American public life.</p>
<p>one reason some of the things that FF mentioned did not take a firm foothold, ie creationism in the classroom, is that people spoke up…and things that in the past might have slipped through, well, now the world nows in an instant what is happening in places</p>
<p>a stratgey of fundamentailists or extremeist is not to take big steps, but little ones, inserting religious beliefs when they can</p>
<p>Kansas very well could have continued its wanting to teach the bible-science or whatever, BUT because people are more aware and vigilant, it did not work</p>
<p>see, even using the term “partial birth abortion” is a way of phrasing the medical term in a way to insite the right</p>
<p>are we supposed to just say,okay, all peachy keen, no need to pay attention because the religious right didn’t get their way this time</p>
<p>nope</p>
<p>when you have groups fighting the national parks because they don’t want literatiure out there that says the world is like you know REALLY old, and that the park system should put out literature that says the world is like know 10,000 years old or less, guess we should not be concerned…</p>
<p>well, I am concerned and will continue to be if things like that are done</p>
<p>see, just throw around the God or Bible and everyone is suppsed to step back and go, okay, whatever</p>
<p>JHS, the fact that some regions do not have abortion available to them says nothing about a theocratic movement. The point is that abortion laws that exist now are significantly more liberal than they were in previous years - not that long ago they were totally illegal. To take abortion rate data and use that to support the notion that the secularists “aren’t winning” is an interesting concept. Perhaps you are speaking the truth that no liberal would dare to actually admit - that they are not just “pro-choice” but actually pro-abortion and that a lower abortion rate means that they are losing. If that’s not what you meant, why bring it up since a lower abortion rate certainly is not the result of any laws that have been enacted by the “Christian fascists”.</p>
<p>Likewise for your other points - the mere fact that some prayers or teaching of intelligent design can be found is not an argument that the secularists are not winning - it just means that they haven’t completed their effort to stamp out religion from all aspects of public life. As you correctly point out, a Christian conservative would have no chance taking their point to court - yet the only impediment to a secularist is chosing which item to target.</p>
<p>The fact remains that looking at the data, it would be hard to conclude that there is any movement toward a theocracy that is gaining any sort of momentum in this country. Rather than being being on the offensive, the data points would argue that conservative Christians are fighting a defensive and losing battle.</p>