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UFPPC (www.ufppc.org) Digging Deeper XXIX @ Mandolin Café (Tacoma, WA) March26, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
Chris Hedges,
 American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
(New York: Free Press, 2007).Epigraph:
Pascal [vii].Umberto Eco, “Eternal Fascism: FourteenWays of Looking at a Blackshirt” [ix-xiv].[An excerpt from a 5,300-word essaypublished in the
New York Review of Books
on Jun. 22, 1995, under the title“Ur-Fascism.”]
Ch. 1: Faith.
Epigraph: Karl Popper (1).Summary of Hedges’s Presbyterian faith,full of doubt and respect for mystery, butwhich affirms the value of love andcompassion (1-8). Those who claim toknow worship idols (9). “God has notchosen Americans as a people aboveothers.” (10). Dominionism is a radicalfascist movement seeking political powerthat “seeks to cloak itself in the mantleof the Christian faith and Americanpatriotism” (10; 10-12). Its “mostimportant book” is R.J. Rushdoony’s
TheInstitutes of Biblical Law
(1973) (12-13).It is “a huge and disastrous” mutation of fundamentalism (13-14). Words like“liberty” and “love” are being redefinedthrough “logocide” (14-18). Dominionistsare only “a tiny minority” of the 70million evangelists in the U.S.—perhaps7-12% of the U.S. population—but “thisminority is taking over the machinery of U.S. state and religious institutions” (19;18-19). It exists as a “core group” withinthe evangelical movement (20-21). Itsanctifies ruthless capitalism (21-22). Ithas “seized control of the RepublicanParty” (22-23). It has received billions of dollars from the U.S. government (23-24). Kenneth Blackwell, secretary of state of Ohio, is an example of itsinvolvement in manipulating electionresults (24-26). It is encasing believersin a non-reality-based hermetic world(26-27). Its enemy list has beenextended from “secular humanism” toinclude gays, liberals, immigrants, andMuslims (27-28). It is infatuated withmilitarism and apocalyptic violence (28-30). Its has psychological appeal (30-33). Its success depends on the “moralfailure” of those who fail to confrontthem (33-36).
Ch. 2: The Culture of Despair.
Epigraph: Fritz Stern(37). JenieceLearned of Youngstown, OH, convert topro-live movement, encountered atValley Forge, PA, meeting of thePennsylvania Pro-Life Federation (37-41). The decimation of the middle class dueto loss of manufacturing jobs (42-44)“[D]espair . . . is the fuel of themovement” (44). Belief in Rapture goesalong with hostility to social welfareprograms (45-46). June Hunt, daughterof H.L. Hunt, speech to Christianbroadcasters in Anaheim, CA (46-48).
Ch. 3: Conversion.
Epigraph: DietrichBonhoeffer (50). Conversion techniquesas taught by Dr. D. James Kennedy,founder of the
Coral Ridge Hour 
anddirector of the Center for ReclaimingAmerica and the Center for ChristianStatesmanship (50-72).
Ch. 4: The Cult of Masculinity.
Epigraph: Klaus Theweleit. RobertaPughe of Fort Lauderdale, FL (73-78).“Hypermasculinity” of movement is“compensation” for “emasculation” (78-80). James Dobson’s sexism (80-83).Freudian interpretation (83-85). Thepsychology of the movement is fear-based (85-86). The need for obedience isinculcated (87-88). Churches promotemale dominance and femalesubmissiveness (89-90). Karen Santorum(90-91). Televangelists as patriarchalpotentates (91-92). Danuta Pfeiffer,
 
heretic (formerly co-host of 
The 700Club
)
 
(92-94).
Ch. 5: Persecution.
Epigraph: TonyKushner (95). Report on a Dobson-sponsored Love Won Out conference inBoston on overcoming homosexuality(95-112).
Ch. 6: The War on Truth.
Epigraph:Hannah Arendt (113). Creation Museumin Petersburg, KY (113-16; 120-23; 126;128). The creationist movement (116-17). Review of the modern debate overevolution (117). Darwinism seen as athreat to the Christian mythos (117-18).Demonizing Darwin and his effects (118-19). The pseudoscientific veneer of creationism (119-20; 122-24). JohnWhitcomb, co-author of 
The GenesisFlood 
(1961) (124-26). Dr. Jason Lisle(126-27).
Ch. 7: The New Class.
Epigraph: KarlPopper (129). Report on NationalReligious Broadcasters annual conventionin Anaheim, CA (129-46). A celebrity-driven culture that regards capitalism asdivinely sanctioned (131-33). Politicalthemes (134-36). Ties to whitesupremacists (136-37). Anticommunistantecedents (137). Dominionists controlorganization (138-40). Luis Palau, a BillyGraham associate, is a dissenter (140-42). Christian Zionism; vituperationagainst Muslims (142-46). QuotesSimone Weil in
Gravity and Grace
: “Evilwhen we are in its power is not felt asevil but as a necessity, or even a duty”(147).
Ch. 8: The Crusade.
Epigraph: EliasCanetti (148). Pastor Russell Johnson’sOhio Restoration Project (148-50).Rhetoric of depersonalizationdehumanizes opponents: only fellowChristians matter (150-52). “Themovement is creating a parallel systemof institutions”—education, media (152-54). J. Kenneth Blackwell, secretary of state in Ohio and Republicangubernatorial candidate (154-58). RodParsley, head of the World HarvestChurch, speaks in prophetic tones with“crossover appeal among AfricanAmericans (158; 158-63). “Parsley is oneof the masters at peddling this messageof greed, hatred and intolerance asgospel truth. The Christian rhetoric, onthe surface, is the same. . . . But theheart of the Christian religion . . . hasbeen tossed aside . . . Only the shell, theform, remains, its empty carcasswrapped around these wolves like acloak. Christianity is of no use to Parsley,Blackwell and the others. In its namethey kill it” (163).
Ch. 9: God: The Commercial.
Epigraph: Walter Lippmann (164).Miracle saving Arthur Blessit claimed by Jan and Paul Crouch of TrinityBroadcasting Network (164-70). Thevenal Crouches’ opulent lifestyle (170-71). TBN broadcasts “some of themovement’s most reactionary andbizarre preachers” (like Benny Hinn) in 75countries (171-73). Scandal &controversy have not impeded TBN’ssuccess (173-74). Mindlessness of TVmakes it “the perfect medium” for themovement’s “destruction of criticalthought” (174-75). Devotee interviewedin TBN’s gift shop in Costa Mesa, CA(175-79). Crouches’ theologyundermines support for social programs(179-81).
Ch. 10: Apocalyptic Violence.
Epigraph: Stephen D. O’Leary (183). Timothy LaHaye, author of the
Left Behind 
series (62 million copies in print)depicting an apocalyptically violent“stygian nightmare,” speaks at a daylongEnd Time conference at Gilead BaptistChurch in Detroit (182-94). A predictionof Christian fascism “nearly 25 yearsago” by Harvard Divinity School Prof. James Luther Adams, who worked in NaziGermany in 1935-1936 and was a friendof Paul Tillich (194-201). “Those arrayedagainst American democracy are waiting
of 00

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Madz Ahmadul

Tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance coupled with passivity is a vice” (207). thanks

reply09 / 13 / 2010
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