Aug 26 2007
I eat Fascists for breakfast
Mr. Carvar said - Has anybody read [American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America] & if so, was it a worthwhile purchase & a worthy addition to any Freethinker’s library?
Thanks
I said - I’ve got one more chapter to go. It’s pretty good, though it’s preaching to the choir and doesn’t present any real solutions. It’s not hard for anyone to see the problems we face from asecular madness. The author graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School so I assume he is a faith head. I’ve held a slight prejudice against the author because, although I despise invalid religious reasoning, I have more respect for a person who uses the complete “word of god” as their base, than I do from the religious that pick and chose “their word of god.” If one believes in gospel, it should be gospel. The god of the bible is certainly not liberal and claiming that he could be only encourages faithers to put on humanities specially designed blinders.
Insert: “We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the dangers liberal democratic societies face when they tolerate the intolerant.”
Call me intolerant, but I don’t have respect for those who pick only the “good” things from their faith or collective and claim that the bad elements are a perversion of it’s true form. Nor do I believe that the people who pump out the religious media are responsible for the idiots who turn it on and listen to the drivel. Like the invisible watch maker of evolution who is guided by survival pressure, the market is dependent on the demand of the “belief consumer.” Collectivism is an insult to the individual. God bless democracy and the gang wars that follow. I’ll donate it to the library next meeting.
Bill said - I have not read this book, but I’ve read a number of books quoting pre-WWII European leaders and followers who in one way or another could be described as fascists. Fascists overwhelmingly came out of the ranks of conservative Christians. Fascism reflects many Christian beliefs and attitudes. Many fascist leaders, both laity and clergy, especially hated/feared “atheism” as they defined it, which included church-state separation, political liberalism/socialism and the alleged immoralities of societies. Fascists believed Jews, more than any other gorup, were behind atheism. This fear of atheism likely was a major, if not the primary reason European Christians committed the Holocaust. The full chain of evidence/argument is too much to go into, but it’s probably safe to assume that most conservative Christians are fascists, and vice-versa. Hatred of church-state separation is a particularly strong indicator of fascist attitudes.
