5/9/05
HOLY COW
The Rise of the Christo-Fascists
Over the last few years, a band of conservative Christians has been quietly waging a religious war on American society
that only recently has broken out into a full-fledged "hot" war.
These bigots, not to be confused with mainstream Christians, have decided that the government, indeed all of American society,
must be organized around their brand of Christianity, with no deviation allowed whatsoever. We refer to these fundamentalists
as "Christo-fascists."
YOU MIGHT BE A CHRISTO-FASCIST IF…
Believing that God created individually each life-form that ever
existed on Earth is not Christo-fascist.
Trying to alter the definition of science so that religious-based theories
of the origin of species can be taught alongside the theory of evolution in high school biology classes, as the state of Kansas
is currently considering doing, is.
Believing that abortion is a sin against God is not Christo-fascist.
For a pharmacist to refuse to dispense legally-prescribed
"morning after" contraception – because it violates his religious beliefs – and expect to keep his job, as several
around the country are currently doing, is.
Believing that certain people would be better judges because of their religious beliefs is not Christo-fascist (though
it comes close).
Accusing a political party of being against certain judicial nominees because of those nominees’
religious beliefs, as a major gathering of Christian leaders did last month (with the participation of the Republican U.S.
senate majority leader), is.
Airing a commercial produced by a Christianity-based organization is not.
Airing a culturally conservative commercial
by a Christianity-based organization, while refusing to air a culturally liberal one by another Christianity-based
organization (and lying about the reason why), as the ABC television network is doing, is.
Celebrating a "culture of life" by trying to keep a brain-dead woman alive, even in contradiction to her expressed wishes,
is not.
Celebrating a "culture of life" by sitting idly by while hundreds of thousands of people get slaughtered for being
of an ethnic-religious group different from those in power, as is currently happening in Sudan; or while tens of thousands
of people are destroyed in an unprovoked war you launched, as is currently happening in Iraq; or while hundreds of people
are slaughtered for their politics following the destruction of the government which your actions precipitated, as is currently
happening in Haiti; or while countless people are sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, as is currently happening
in the United States, is.
Believing that homosexuality is a sin against God is not.
Trying to cancel an entire sex-ed curriculum because
one section of it (accurately) cites certain religious groups as being non-receptive to gays, as is happening in Montgomery
County, Maryland, is.
Airing television dramas with explicitly religious themes, like "Joan of Arcadia" or "Touched By An Angel," is not.
Pandering
to a revivified fundamentalist audience with mediocre and corny melodrama like "Revelations," as the NBC television network
is doing, is.
Voting for one presidential candidate because you believe he is a "better Christian" than the second is not.
Excommunicating
people from your church because they voted for that second candidate, as took place last week in East Waynesville, North
Carolina, is probably the hallmark of Christo-fascism.
This current wave of fundamentalists follows in a long, sad tradition of the perversion of Christianity for socially destructive
purposes. To the Spanish Inquisition, the European Crusades, the African slave trade, the hanging and burning of women at
the stake in Europe and the U.S. for various forms of heresy, pre-Renaissance attacks on European helio-centric scientists,
and Southern Baptist participation in Jim Crow segregation in the American South, we may some day wind up adding the turn-of-the-21st-century
American Christo-fascist movement.
One particularly unnerving aspect of this current wave is that it has managed to co-opt for exploitation by the Republican
Party a sliver of the otherwise most loyal Democratic voters: African-Americans. Pandering to strong antipathy in the black
community towards gays with feints toward amending the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage, and exploiting the lesser financial
resources available to the Black Church with "faith-based" payoffs, the GOP peeled off a handful of black voters from the
Democrats in the 2004 election. In a time when the president struggles to gain the support of half of the voters, this accomplishment
looms particularly large.
Those of us who hadn’t realized that the war was on, and would prefer that the influence of these radicals advance
no further, would do well to take up verbal and ideological "arms" against the invading army, lest we awake one morning to
find that the United States has been transported back to the 17th century.
Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them
or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions
of their own minds."
- Jeremiah 14:13
Knowledge Is Power
© 2003-2005 The Intelligence Squad
