American Fascists

OK, this book speaks for itself.....err....yep.....read this one and it will make sense!

Democracy is something you either participate in, value and defend, or you will find one day that you don't have it anymore. This book provides a comprehensive description and insight into the organisations presently active in the determined attempts to obliterate the Democracy you take for granted. This is a war that the Christian Fundamentalists are hoping to win by stealth. In this war the application of knowledge is power and they are depending on your ignorance that their ultimate objective that one day you will wake up and find that you are in a totalitarian state governed under the rule of a book of magic.

An interesting analysis of the mutual interests of the religious right,big business and right wing politics in the US.It also examines the hidden anti-democratic agenda of the religious right as well as the alleged subterfuge used in attempting to realize its vision for setting up a christian theocracy in America and what it might mean for those who do not share its values.

Now this is a book everyone should read

Well worth a read. As relevant today as when it was written.

america seems to have its own logic system an this is a very scary look at right wing christian who have there own hate filled view of the word,from tawdy preachers with tv scams who think god will give cash rewards to believers to homophobic klan loving bible bashers.these folk are organised and powerful and will be knocking on our doors

In this hard-hitting book, Chris Hedges attacks head-on the Christian Right and their ideology, dominionism, which calls for the church to take political and institutional power and install a theocracy in the US. The movement has very wealthy backers for two main reasons, politically, the assault on democracy and economically, the promotion of unfettered capitalism. Assault on democracy The Christian Right calls for the destruction of an open and pluralist society with its civil-rights laws, trade unions and public schools teaching secular humanism. Education and welfare should be handed over to the churches. `Tithes' should be paid by the population. The movement is anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-liberal, anti-immigrants, anti-Hindu, anti-Muslim and for severe sexual repression. Chris Hedges accuses one of its members as being the mastermind of vote counts manipulation in recent elections. Unfettered capitalism (the gospel of prosperity) Unfettered capitalism allows the exploitation of human workers by paying less than living wages, thereby generating billions of dollars of profits for the corporatocracy. Political influence The Christian Right controls a big part of the Republican Party. Its organizations received billions of dollars under the Bush II administrations. It has representatives in the Supreme Court, in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It can spread its message through its own TV channels, radio stations and newspapers. Social influence The Christian Right tries to create a political mass movement with people, who are, in fact, victims of this unfettered capitalism (see also, T. Frank: What's the Matter with Kansas.) On the other hand, it is a money machine for its preachers (`Let me be very clear. I want your money. I deserve it.'). (Un)scientific influence Its belief system and its handbook (the Bible) are the basis for understanding the world. Facts are treated as opinions (`Why condoms aren't safe'). It believes in and supports the anti-Darwinian gospel of creationism (Intelligent Design). Chris Hedges's crystal clear book shows ominously the dangers of the Christian Right for democracy. His book is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

Thank dog religion is on the way out is all I can say. Frightening.

This is doubtless one of the most frightening but truest, most thought-provoking, most important books I have read this year, right alongside Al Gore's The Assault on Reason The Assault on Reason . It confirmed, with extensive citation and quotes from the very ones propagating this dangerous agenda, what I was already aware of, but try my best to assume more benevolence of. I have long been conscious of the intolerance of the Christian right of those who are different from themselves, who have differing beliefs or customs or backgrounds or desires. I had no idea how much political influence they had until the 2004 election; I was so sure that Kerry had it in the bag, when I heard how many people had gone out to vote, until I learned that the bulk of those unexpected voters were evangelists who cared more about making sure homosexuals were denied equal rights and eradicating the right to choice than protecting their own rights as workers and as citizens, protecting their own financial interests, ending a senseless and costly war. That election sent shivers down my spine, and indeed I left the country for a year and a half after that--for unrelated reasons, but it made me glad to leave. Now I am back; a new election is underway, and I see the Christian Right's influence more and more every day. They are the largest special interest group in the country, and they seek to destroy American democracy and the Constitution in its very name. I am terrified that if McCain and his right-wing VP pick win, we will be making still more concessions to this group whose ultimate goal is the repression and eventual eradication of all people who are not among their ranks. Hedges does nothing to assuage my fears--indeed, he stokes them. I am more afraid than I have ever been. Reading the way Christian textbooks have rewritten history and science to make it agree with their narrow beliefs, the way they promote intolerance towards other countries and other religions--there could not be a more appropriate title for the book than the one it has. His comparison of the dominionists to other totalitarian movements, including Islamic fundamentalist movements, communism, Nazism, Mussolini-fascism, ring extremely true. The parallels are clear, and he supports his claims with quotes from the mouths and the literature of those in charge of these movements, as well as including plenty of insight into the minds of those following blindly in these movements that seek to subjugate them and remove their rights. They fight avidly for their own repression. It's incredible, yet true. An excellent book. I highly recommend it to anyone. The fact that Hedges comes from a religious background himself--having completed Harvard Divinity seminary--makes it all the more credible; one cannot dismiss it as a mere attack on religion by an atheist fundamentalist. I myself am an atheist, but I have always respected the rights of others to practice their own religions, whether or not I feel they actually benefit society in any meaningful way when compared to their destructive force. Then again, equally repressive regimes have been built in opposition to religion, so I suppose it is human nature ultimately that makes man strive for his own subjugation and destruction. A must-read...especially in these crucial times, when yet another President is about to be elected. I only wish it would be read more widely before November than it probably will be.

More relevant now than when it was written.

Thank you

I found this book to quite frightening because while being a christian myself I have often found the hard line views of the christian right to be not only repugnant but a violation of democratic ideals. They propose returning to what they call is a christian nation and yet fail to misunderstand that the founding fathers of America put a barrier between church and state for the very protection of the nation itself for hat I believe was to ensure that all human being irregardless of their race or religion would be treated equally and if one religion organisation was running of the country it would automatically see those a not of their own religion as a threat to there authority just like the catholic church saw the Cathars and the idea of living in a world run by these christian fundamentalists is quite scary considering what some of them propose. The book begins with the author stating out by talking about his early life and about how his father was a priest who supported the civil-rights movement which was highly unpopular in his rural area and who then worked a gay-rights activist and who found out when his son's college had no gay and lesbian organization he got his son (the author of this book) to setup a gay and lesbian organization even though he wasn't gay himself. In the same chapter it also talks about faith and how there are many violent passages in the bible and how these passages are used by bigots to justify their bigotry and how until the Church's of the world step in to the debate that these passage will be used evil people to promote evil things. The book then moves on to how the Christian right helped to get George W Bush elected and the power and political influence that it has within the republican party and how they promote a culture of despair that prey on the disillusioned and troubled people of society but offering them the solutions to their problems if only they listen to their pastor or donate money to the tv pastors who themselves are rich and take money of these poor people give in the hope that God will help them. It talks about how this new culture of dominionist are attempting to destroy democracy from within (hence the title America fascist) and replace it with a totalitarian one in which the male pastors are seen as the leader of society and represent gods authority and as such we are supposed to do what they say. Dominionism is a ideology that proposes that all Christians should work towards either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by conservative christian understanding of Biblical law and considering the things I have heard conservative christians say like for instance the Westboro Baptist Church I shudder to think what it would be like to live in society dictated by these people. It also talks about how the reason that gay and lesbians are hated within the christian right is because they violate their idea of what a man and woman should be and sign a man is supposed to masculine the idea of a gay man is repugnant to them. One of the most explosive truths present in this book is the christian right relationship to white supremacist groups including individual such as Jerry Falwell who was a racist who in his sermon attacked not only the civil rights movement but also promoted racism against African Americans who in the 90's conveniently changed his tune. The crescendo of this book is the leadup to apocalyptic violence that this group proposes and what it will lead to. These dominionists promote a violent end of times war and that the whole non-christian world is against them creating an ideology to the followers that they are under attack by the whole world and how someone cannot be a liberal and a christian at the same time which is very similar to the belief that the wahhabi extremist terrorist groups (such as al qaeda) and there followers propose. The books then ends with by with a letter by Mr Hedges ethics teacher who in a letter about WW2 pointed that American who had resisted the Nazi Regime but who were racist against african american and Jews hada very similar if not the same racial ideologies of racial superiority and thus if it was so what was the point in them having fought against the Nazis if not to topple their government based on racial superiority. The reason the above letter is so important is because the christian right has often promoted intolerance towards homosexual, Muslims, Jews and used this idea of values just like the Nazi's used in Germany to undermine the civil rights of the people in order to promote their view of how a government should be and pass marshall law. These right wing dominionists are a threat to America's democracy and are trying to undermine it at every turn and they use the ideology of values to do just like the nazi's did to promote their violently intolerant views on issues and call for exclusion, intolerance and cruelty all in the name of God. All in all this was a great book and essential to understanding how dangerous and pervasive this ideology really is.

Chris Hedges is one of the most perceptive and provocative cultural critics on the scene today. I have devoted much of my Summer reading this year to his works, and have come away from them rather shell-shocked, but exercised in all the right ways by his insights into the various threats to Shalom posed by the hard right and its alliance with "corporate culture" and militarism. That having been said, I have discerned that Hedges sometimes misses important distinctions and nuances, and can fall into the very binary thinking he often excoriates. This fine exposé of the fundamentalist-Christian agenda provides salient examples (though others may be found elsewhere in his extensive corpus of writings). Though Hedges has a seminary education and seems to have authentically Christian bearings, I found that he often ignores alternatives that lie between the extremes of biblical literalism and a wholly "de-mythologized" modernism. However, there are many theological and ecclesiastical traditions that sport a robust Trinitarian theism while affirming progressive social causes such as gender equality and gay marriage, and embracing the discoveries of modern science, including evolution. In short, he tends to ignore an option of what might be called "progressive orthodoxy." And that is not an oxymoron, but a living faith for many, including this writer. So the choice, religiously speaking, is not a binary one, nor do all fundamentalists wear black hats and all theological "liberals" white ones (though to his credit, Hedges gives sympathetic portrayals of individual fundamentalist believers and their existential predicaments, while occasionally giving a nod to the older, less politicized evangelicalism in the person of Luis Palau). This caveat aside, I would strongly recommend this book, and indeed all of Hedges' works, to those who are dismayed by current and alarming symptoms of cultural decline and socioeconomic injustice in the USA. With a presidential election year on the horizon, it is imperative that thoughtful voters be made aware of the "totalitarian" tendencies inherent in the Christian right's pernicious (and historically insupportable) myth of a "Christian America." Postscript: After writing this review it occurred to me to put in a plug for an author who exemplifies the fast-vanishing "center" of the religious spectrum. Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) was one of the great Christian thinkers of recent times. The fact that he was a Catholic and a Jesuit might arouse the suspicions of some readers, but a serious encounter with his massive contribution to philosophy and theology will richly reward the effort to persevere through his often difficult but profoundly insightful writings. In particular, he develops a method for diagnosing and reversing cultural dysfunction that explains more fully our current situation than Hedges' thoughtful, but more "ad hoc" (and occasionally tendentious) analysis. Furthermore, Lonergan's way of showing how seamless is the connection between the dynamics of scientific understanding (as it is practices by the mainstream disciplines) and a theistic worldview provides an antidote to both fundamentalist obscurantism and the despair engendered by a naturalism that must confront an inexplicable and indifferent cosmos. Finally, i would encourage readers who are not theologically inclined to check out Lonergan's magnum opus, *Insight*; a properly philosophical inquiry into the dynamics of human understanding that does not presuppose commitment to any "historical faith." Lonergan's effort was always to inhabit a "not too numerous center" avoided by the "hard right" and "scattered left." If a commentary or general introduction to his thought is desired, I can strongly recommend Joseph Flanagan's *Quest for Self-Knowledge*.