American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On AmericaTwenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society. Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government to subvert it. The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the curriculum in Christian schools. The movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America. American Fascists, which includes interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion techniques, examines the movement's origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power. The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement is not yet revolutionary. But the ideological architecture of a Christian fascism is being cemented in place. The movement has roused its followers to a fever pitch of despair and fury. All it will take, Hedges writes, is one more national crisis on the order of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted drive to destroy American democracy. The movement awaits a crisis. At that moment they will reveal themselves for what they truly are -- the American heirs to fascism. Hedges issues a potent, impassioned warning. We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the dangers liberal, democratic societies face when they tolerate the intolerant. |
From inside the book
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... Faith 1 The Culture of Despair 37 Conversion 50 The Cult of Masculinity 73 Persecution 95 The War on Truth 113 The New Class 129 The Crusade 148 God: The Commercial 164 Apocalyptic Violence 182 Notes 209 Bibliography 223 Acknowledgments ...
... Faith 1 The Culture of Despair 37 Conversion 50 The Cult of Masculinity 73 Persecution 95 The War on Truth 113 The New Class 129 The Crusade 148 God: The Commercial 164 Apocalyptic Violence 182 Notes 209 Bibliography 223 Acknowledgments ...
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The Christian Right and the War On America Chris Hedges. CHAPTER ONE Faith Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant ... faith saved CHAPTER ONE Faith.
The Christian Right and the War On America Chris Hedges. CHAPTER ONE Faith Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant ... faith saved CHAPTER ONE Faith.
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... faith saved us from despair, self-righteousness and the dangerous belief that we knew the will of God or could carry it out. We were taught that those who claimed to speak for God, the self-appointed prophets who promised the Kingdom of ...
... faith saved us from despair, self-righteousness and the dangerous belief that we knew the will of God or could carry it out. We were taught that those who claimed to speak for God, the self-appointed prophets who promised the Kingdom of ...
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... ). Amid the carnage God orders Moses to loot all the clothing, jewelry, gold and silver from the Egyptian homes (Exodus 12:35–36). God looks at the devastation and says, “I have made sport of the Egyptians” (Exodus 10:2). While Faith 3.
... ). Amid the carnage God orders Moses to loot all the clothing, jewelry, gold and silver from the Egyptian homes (Exodus 12:35–36). God looks at the devastation and says, “I have made sport of the Egyptians” (Exodus 10:2). While Faith 3.
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... faith. In this vision, only the faithful will be allowed to enter the gates of the New Jerusalem. All others will ... faith. Many of the suppositions of the biblical writers, who understood little about the working of the cosmos or the ...
... faith. In this vision, only the faithful will be allowed to enter the gates of the New Jerusalem. All others will ... faith. Many of the suppositions of the biblical writers, who understood little about the working of the cosmos or the ...
Contents
1 | |
CHAPTER TWO The Culture of Despair | 37 |
CHAPTER THREE Conversion | 50 |
CHAPTER FOUR The Cult of Masculinity | 73 |
CHAPTER SEVEN The New Class | 129 |
CHAPTER EIGHT The Crusade | 148 |
The Commercial | 164 |
Notes | 209 |
Bibliography | 223 |
Acknowledgments | 233 |
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American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America Chris Hedges No preview available - 2007 |
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