Next book I'd like to read: The Christian Right and the War on America

[Keith P]

Yes I saw the author on The Colbert Report. Nonetheless this book sounds very interesting and I'm glad someone is tackling this subject matter for a mainstream audience. Now I don't see how anyone could find middle ground on this topic but if you've read it or may have an opinion based solely on the title...shoot.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Fasci.../dp/0743284437


"Book Description
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 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."

[KING SIZE]

i wouldn't disagree with anything in that book description really, as it sounds pretty interesting.. although i think the the only major trigger in igniting something as serious as that in america is radicalized islam which is the "source" of the problem at the current point in time. one could argue that its americas fault for sparking their hatred but ultimately that's bullshit because they attack and kill all over the world. is a holy war underway if something drastic goes down here? i don't think all out but in a way i suppose it's possible. the fact is the middle east can't and never has been able to get their shit together.. and it's also interesting to look to the bible at similarities in our current situation as compared with biblical prophecies. i think at this point regardless of religious belief that shit is going to get a whole lot worse.. and yes that will indeed lead to a more radicalized america. i don't think anyone would look forward to a situation like that but if something worse than 9/11 goes down.. the hammer will be dropping hard here on anyone who isn't on the side of america, whatever that entails.

[PETA]

The book's title is meant to be provacative and the subject matter may be interesting - but the title's claim is farsical in concrete terms

Originally Posted by boobie f baby

the fact is the middle east can't and never has been able to get their shit together..

"let's face it, only the Romans could bring order to a place like this."

Originally Posted by boobie f baby

i think at this point regardless of religious belief that shit is going to get a whole lot worse.. and yes that will indeed lead to a more radicalized america.

what shit and what evidence do you have for it?

[MattM]

LOL at the first review at Amazon:

A good book for those who hate everything about this nation. I also love the fact that this guy has absolutely NO CONCEPT of Christianity.

His links to Nazi Germany were entertaining even though he also proved that he has no concept of history.

As a history professor, it is always fun to read hateful personal opinons lined with historical information. (Da Vinci Code, etc.) The problem is that when they go to prove it, it always falls short.

A fun read if you are drunk.