false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170703203m/69095.jpg 69095 10 Twenty-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 <I>American Fascists,</i> Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist <I>War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,</i> 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. <P><P>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.<P><P><I>American Fascists,</i> 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 <P><P>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.<P><P> 500520 9 1 2007 American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America total:410|5:103|4:171|3:101|2:31|1:4| 410 1568 694 111 4 3 false false Wed May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 15:10:17 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 15:35:14 -0700 2008
Chris Hedges describes the idealogy of the extreme Christian Ri...more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Jun 02 08:20:11 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 02 08:46:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Oct 04 05:40:43 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 04 05:50:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 true false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Mar 09 11:56:52 -0800 2007 Fri Mar 09 12:23:14 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 22 19:21:06 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 22 19:31:16 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Mar 13 15:13:43 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 15:13:43 -0700 2009
...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Aug 02 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 04 11:54:20 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 11:54:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Aug 17 15:11:23 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 15:17:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 01 16:59:50 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 07:23:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Nov 15 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 04 23:13:02 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 23:13:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 12:48:40 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 12:55:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 29 19:58:02 -0700 2009 Thu Nov 12 18:35:32 -0800 2009 Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told us that when we were his age-(he was then close to 80)-we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists." The warning, given to me near...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 15 14:41:33 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 06:08:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 17:10:48 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 22:17:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 15:08:26 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 23:02:17 -0700 2009
We all know th...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Nov 30 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 00:04:14 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 00:29:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 3 false false Wed Nov 19 03:04:41 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 19 11:56:16 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 25 22:48:29 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 03 11:19:34 -0700 2008 Chris Hedges paints a rather frightening, regressive, misogynistic view of the underground Christian Right, a fundamentalist movement he alleges is closely linked to neo-conservatism and the American Republican party. Citing a plethora of anecdotal evidence -- which, I feel, both makes his thesis o...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Dec 07 08:47:48 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 10 21:47:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 06:58:08 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 06:58:34 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=69095