The Rise of the Christian Fascists —RW\/OR ONLINE\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Rise of the Christian Fascists\nThe Spector of a U.S. Theocracy and Why the People Must Stop It\n<\/p>
by Larry Everest<\/p>\n
Revolutionary Worker #1263, December 26,\n2004, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\n
After the elections a friend of mine, with long experience following\nU.S. politics, said he felt like he was living in 1930s\nGermany—right after Hitler became chancellor but before the Nazis\nburned down the Reichstag and used the incident to consolidate power,\ncrush opponents, and institute fascism. Then he said that if we\ndon’t have courage and resist now, in a year or two—maybe\nsooner—it might be too late.<\/p>\n
I agreed.<\/p>\n
Bush’s re-election represents a major leap in the power of the\nextreme right-wing centered around Bush—the dominant core of\nwhich are Christian fascists—and in their determination to\naggressively escalate their reactionary agenda globally and\ndomestically.<\/p>\n
The agenda of Bush and the Christian right is not limited to\ncriminalizing abortion, outlawing gay marriage, forcing children to\nrecite prayers in school, and mandating the teaching of Biblical\ncreationist ignorance. Their ultimate goal is Christian fascist\ntheocracy. Now, following the election, they feel emboldened—and\ncompelled—to take their theocratic project to a whole new\nlevel.<\/p>\n
\"They want to see a religious rule in this country,\" RCP\nChairman Bob Avakian argues, \"a rule that...entirely throws out\nthe separation of church and state—insists that this is a\nChristian nation, and forces a fundamentalist view of Christianity...as\nthe official basis for law in this country and for rule in this\ncountry... If that’s not fascism, it’ll do.\"\n(\"Christianity and\nSociety—The Old Testament and the New Testament, Resistance and\nRevolution,\" Summer 2004).<\/p>\n
There is an overall consensus among the various factions of the U.S.\nruling class over their savage campaign to reorder the whole world\nthrough intervention and war—and lock in and extend U.S. global\nhegemony. The rulers as a whole also see a need and opportunity to\naccelerate the political, economic, legal, cultural and ideological\nrestructuring of U.S. society in order to serve the lean, mean,\nkilling-machine needs of their global capitalist empire.<\/p>\n
At the same time, there has been much struggle within the ruling\nclass over just how to accomplish these sweeping goals. But within the\ncurrent governing mix (which includes neocons, more\n\"traditional\" Republicans, and others), the Christian\nfascists have gained enormous momentum. They are setting the political\nand ideological terms within the bourgeois order. Their people are\nincreasingly situated at key points in government, media, and other\naspects of society. They have organized a social base of unthinking\nfollowers. They have a coherent, all-encompassing agenda. And they have\nthe Christian fascist-in-chief, George Bush, sitting in the White\nHouse.<\/p>\n
The theocratic agenda of the Christian fascists aims to transform\nlife in this country in unprecedented ways—ripping up the\nexisting social compact and overturning the previously accepted\nlegitimizing norms of bourgeois democratic society, some of which have\nbeen in place since the U.S. was established: the rule of law, the\nseparation of church and state, the right to privacy and certain\npolitical rights, and the notion that decisions are based on reason and\nscience, not superstition. (The U.S. Constitution never mentions\ngod.)<\/p>\n
After the election, New York Times columnist Thomas\nFriedman (who supported Bush’s invasion of Iraq) wrote that Bush\nsupporters \"don’t just favor different policies than I\ndo—they favor a whole different kind of America... It felt as if\nwe were rewriting the Constitution, not electing a president. I felt as\nif I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional\nConvention broke out.\" (11\/4\/04).<\/p>\n
New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg wrote (11\/11\/04) that\nBush’s plans for tax and social security restructuring\n\"constitute a fundamental revocation of an American social\ncontract that was hammered out 70 years ago during the New\nDeal.\"<\/p>\n
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich made a very heavy comment\ncomparing the divisions today to the situation leading up the Civil\nWar: \"It’s like the 1840s and 1850s. This is going to go on\nand on. This is genuine disagreement over the future of the country.\nThis isn’t a divided government—it’s a divided\ncountry.\" (Cited in Matthew Continetti, \"An Uncivil\nWar,\" Weekly Standard, November 11, 2004)<\/p>\n
The U.S. is not yet a theocracy, but many elements are already in\nplace. And if the Christian fascists are able to fully implement their\nagenda, the U.S. would be plunged into a high-tech Dark Ages—a\nnightmarish combination of modern weapons and police-state technology\ncoupled with medieval ideology which has the potential to wreak far\nmore death and destruction than anything history has yet seen. (Note:\nHitler didn’t have nuclear weapons.)<\/p>\n
This must NOT be allowed to happen.<\/p>\nChristian Fascist Theology\n
The Revolutionary Communist Party’s new statement \"The\nBattle for the Future Will Be Fought from Here Forward!\" begins,\n\"You think you know...but you have no idea...just what Bush has in\nstore for...you...us...the world...our future!\" (see rwor.org\/future)<\/p>\n
That’s true. Even many with a deep gut-hatred of Bush\ndon’t fully understand—or are in denial about—the\nfull extremity of the right-wing fundamentalist agenda and just how far\nadvanced that agenda is.<\/p>\n
The RCP statement points out, \"Bush and his people aren’t\njust ordinary Republicans. And they’re not ordinary Christians\neither.\" They’re biblical literalists—for them, every\nword of the Bible is god’s truth and the highest authority,\ntrumping law, treaty, reason, logic, and history.<\/p>\n
What are these \"biblical norms\" that these forces believe\nin? Bob Avakian has been calling attention to the dangers of the\nChristian right ideology and agenda for years (in works like\nLiberation Without Gods and Preaching From a Pulpit of\nBones ). In a new talk, \"Christianity and Society — The\nOld Testament and the New Testament, Resistance and\nRevolution,\" Avakian breaks down how the Bible was written by\nhumans, not any imaginary god, thousands of years ago, long before the\nrise of science and modern technology. This was a time when cities and\nagriculture had just begun to emerge and most people were part of\ntribes of clans frequently at war with one another and subject to the\nhorrors of war, starvation, famine, and disease. Life for most was\nbrutal, ignorant and short.<\/p>\n
The Bible reflects and supports all that goes along with these class\nand social relations: wars of conquest and pillage; traditional\nrelations of patriarchy and male domination; the division of society\ninto rich and poor, exploited and exploiter; and the absolute power of\nrulers over ruled. Avakian points out that as one example of all this,\nthe Bible calls for the death penalty for many things that most people\ntoday would not even consider crimes—let alone a crime worthy of\nthe death penalty—defiance of parents by their children,\nworshipping of \"pagan\" gods, working on the Sabbath, and\nhomosexuality.<\/p>\nDominionism—Imposing the Biblical Nightmare on the World\n
The Christian fascists don’t believe religion should be an\nindividual choice. They believe all of society, and indeed the whole\nworld, must be ruled according to biblical law—in short, they\nbelieve in a theocracy with no separation between church and state.<\/p>\n
Very powerful figures in the U.S. ruling class are proponents of\nthis program. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of Bush’s\nfavorites and possible replacement for Chief Justice Rehnquist, has\nwritten that \"government...derives its moral authority from God.\nIt is the ‘minister of God’ with powers to\n‘revenge,’ to ‘execute wrath,’ including even\nwrath by the sword.\"<\/p>\n
In a speech at Christian fundamentalist Bob Jones University, former\nAttorney General John Ashcroft declared, \"Unique among the\nnations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly\nand eternal, not being civic and temporal....we have no King but\nJesus.\" He called the separation of church and state \"a wall\nof religious oppression.\"<\/p>\n
A leading organizer of this movement writes that \"Christians\nhave an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to\nreclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil\nstructures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness....\nWorld conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to\naccomplish.\" (George Grant, The Changing of the Guard,\nBiblical Principles for Political Action , pp. 50- 51, cited on theocracywatch.org)<\/p>\nAccumulating Power Under the Radar\n
The Christian right has been around for years, but most people\ndon’t realize how much power they have accumulated, how much\nbacking they have from powerful factions of the imperialist\nestablishment, and the degree to which they have marginalized their\nopponents.The Christian fascists are deeply dug in at every level of\ngovernment—from local school boards, to state legislatures, to\nthe courts, the military and the Congress.<\/p>\n
Bush’s government appointments look like a who’s who of\nreligious obscurantists. David Hager—a doctor who refuses to\nprescribe contraceptives to unmarried women and who has written that\nChristian prayers can be used to treat PMS, headaches, and\ncancer—was named to the Federal Drug Administration’s\nReproductive Drug Advisory Committee. James Leon Holmes —who has\nstated \"Christianity transcends the political order and cannot be\nsubordinate to the political order\"—was appointed to an\nArkansas federal court. William Pryor—who declares \"God has\nchosen, through his son, Jesus Christ, this time and this place for all\nChristians to save our country and to save our courts\"—was\nappointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11thDistrict.<\/p>\n
Such outrageous appointments will no doubt skyrocket in the coming\nmonths.<\/p>\n
The religious right now dominates the Republican Party, which has\nsavaged and emasculated the Democrats—via everything from public\nscandals to legislative gerrymandering—and is now attempting to\ninstitutionalize its dominance.<\/p>\n
Esther Kaplan’s book, With God on Their Side, details\nhow the Bush administration has systematically used its control of the\nstate apparatus to organize and strengthen the Christian fascist\nmovement. This in- cludes Bush’s \"faith-based\ninitiative,\" which has been used to fund and organize right-wing\nreligious groups as well as place religious fundamentalists in key\npositions throughout government. To take one example, Kaplan describes\n(p. 64) how the Bush regime has targeted its opponents by removing\nmainstream scientific, professional and policy organizations from\ninfluential advisory boards and replacing them with right-wing\nideologues. The American Medical Association no longer advises U.S.\ndelegations to UN summits on children’s issues—a right-wing\nfamily values group does. And the American Bar Association no longer\nvets judicial nominees—the right-wing Federalist Society\ndoes.<\/p>\n
The effort to organize and promote the religious right extends well\nbeyond government. For instance, the New York Times reports\nthat over the last decade Christian publishers \"forged closer\nrelationships with stores like Wal-Mart and Costco; Wal-Mart carries\n1,200 ‘inspirational titles’ (i.e., religious tracts) at\nany given time.\"<\/p>\n
The Christian fascists have infiltrated the armed forces and now\nhave enormous influence in the military. In his 1998 article on the\nClinton impeachment, \"The Truth\nAbout the Right-Wing Conspiracy...And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are\nNo Answer,\" Bob Avakian cites from the book Making the\nCorps by Thomas Ricks. Ricks writes that \"the military\nincreasingly appears to lean toward partisan conservatism\" and\npoints to high-ranking officers who denounce \"cultural\nradicals\" and \"people who hate our Judeo-Christian\nculture\" and feel that \"the next real war we fight is likely\nto be on American soil.\"<\/p>\n
Since then, things have gone further. Army General William Boykin,\nopenly and in uniform, calls the Iraqi people the \"face of\nSatan,\" declares that the Christian god is the only true and\n\"real\" god, and says that \"god himself\" put Bush in\nthe White House.<\/p>\n
Those who don’t believe the Christian fascists will \"get\naway with\" their extreme agenda because the majority doesn’t\nshare it should think long and hard about the strength of the Christian\nright in the military (and in the right-wing militia movement) and\nunderstand that they are preparing to forcibly ram their agenda down\nour throats if need be.<\/p>\n\"Now Comes the Revolution\"\n
Bush’s re-election signals a leap in the power of the\nChristian fascist forces within government and society. They’re\nemboldened and on a roll. And they feel they have a window of\nopportunity, with their man in the White House, to make big advances in\nconsolidating their hold on power and society. Christian right guru\nRichard Viguerie declared while watching the election returns,\n\"Now comes the revolution. If you don’t implement a\nconservative agenda now, when do you?\"<\/p>\n
This arrogance is mixed with a concern and a perceived need to move\nquickly and forcefully, bullying and bludgeoning their way, including\nin relation to other sections of the bourgeoisie. The leadership of the\nreligious right is very much aware that hatred of Bush and their agenda\nis massive and deep. The U.S. is in the midst of an unbounded global\nwar of empire—and Iraq, while not yet a total disaster for the\nU.S., has the potential for becoming one.<\/p>\n
Bush’s supporters—who have never politely accepted their\nopponents’ electoral victories—now basically tell anyone\nwho questions any of Bush’s policies: \"Shut up, the election\nis over, we have a mandate to do whatever we want.\" One of their\nfirst targets after the elections was Republican<\/em> Senator Arlen\nSpecter, who had to make humiliating pledges of total support for Bush\nbefore he was allowed to take his position as chair of the important\nJudiciary Committee. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd\ncharacterized the prevailing political mood as having the \"feel of\na vengeful mob— revved up by rectitude—running around with\ntorches and hatchets after heathens and pagans and infidels.\"<\/p>\n Here are some telling snapshots of a few things that have taken\nplace just since the election:<\/p>\n Without hearings or debate, the Republicans grafted an\n\"Abortion Non-Discrimination Act\" onto the budget bill,\nwhich, according to the Los Angeles Times (11\/28\/04),\n\"legalizes discrimination, allowing any physician, hospital or\nhealth insurer [or employer] to refuse to perform or pay for abortions\nand even to tell pregnant women that the option exists.\"<\/p>\n In early December, the Bush administration filed a brief in a case\nconcerning two Kentucky counties, urging the Supreme Court to permit\nTen Commandments displays in courthouses, stating that religion\n\"has played a defining role’’ in U.S. history.<\/p>\n The New York Times (12\/13\/04) reports that\n\"conservative Christian advocates across the country are pushing\nahead state and local initiatives on thorny issues, including same-sex\nmarriage, public education and abortion.\"<\/p>\n On the local level, one right-winger in Ohio talks of \"building\nan army\" of Christian cadres and running school boards, town\ncouncils and county prosecutors’ offices within several years. (\nNYT,<\/em> 11\/26\/04)<\/p>\n In his December 12 column, the New York Times’ Frank\nRich cites numerous instances of the Christian right openly\nintimidating any opposition or criticism in the media—and the\nmedia going right along, including a New York public TV station killing\nan ad for the movie Kinsey , a North Carolina public radio\nstation telling an international women’s rights organization they\ncouldn’t use the phrase \"reproductive rights\" on air,\nand the major TV networks refusing to broadcast a paid ad \"in\nwhich the United Church of Christ heralded the openness of its 6,000\ncongregations to gay couples.\"<\/p>\nLunacy with an Imperialist Logic\n Some people simply can’t believe the idea that the\npowers-that-be in an advanced capitalist country in the 21st century\nwould actually impose a biblical-literalist, Christian fascist\ntheocracy. It seems like lunacy, not politics. It is<\/em> lunacy,\nbut it’s lunacy with an underlying capitalist-imperialist\nlogic.<\/p>\n Deep forces, emerging from the compulsions of global capitalism and\nempire, are driving this Christian fascist agenda—in particular\nthe profound changes in U.S. society and the world, especially after\nthe fall of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n Bob Avakian analyzes this in depth in \"The Truth\nAbout Right-Wing Conspiracy...\" He shows how the logic of\nworld domination and global capitalism demands ongoing war abroad and\nwrenching changes in this country. In these unprecedented\ncircumstances, powerful forces in the U.S. ruling class feel that only\nan extreme version of Christianity can be the ideological and political\nglue that holds the fractious and diverse USA together. As Avakian\nwrites:<\/p>\n\n \"[I]n the present period and the present ‘global\nenvironment,’ the requirements of the capitalist economic and\nsocial system not only demand that the lords of capital be able to\ncarry out their supreme commandment, ‘let us prey,’ in a\nmore unrestrained and more ‘mobile’ way, on a world scale.\nThey also demand, within American society itself, a slashing of major\nsocial programs and a heightening of the repressive powers of\ngovernment, along with the fostering of a repressive social atmosphere.\nThey demand what the organization Refuse and Resist! has called the\npolitics of cruelty, or the politics of poverty, punishment, and\npatriarchy.\"<\/p>\n\n Avakian argues that these developments, together with the sweeping\nsocial, cultural, and demographic changes that have taken place in the\nU.S. over the past decades, have caused a great deal of turmoil and\nupheaval while eroding the basis for the traditional patriarchal family\nand \"traditional family values.\"<\/p>\n There has been much struggle within the imperial establishment over\nhow to respond to these transformations and contradictions (struggle\nwhich continues). Over time a force has emerged that insists that the\nold legitimizing norms and ideological glue—including different\nvariants of pluralism (such as \"multi-culturalism\")—was too loose, too inclusive, too expansive,\nand too hopeful. Instead, Avakian explains, those who have gained\ndominance among the U.S. rulers are those \"political leaders and\nforces who insist that ‘traditional morality,’ as embodied\nin the patriarchal family as well as ‘right or wrong’\npatriotism—and rationalized in terms of fundamentalist\nChristianity—must be the basis for maintaining the cohesion and\nsolidity of American capitalist society and the dominant position of\nimperial America in the world arena. In the vision these people\nprofess, contemporary America —not just the government but the\nsociety as a whole—is in cultural and moral decline. More, it is\nin danger of disintegration and destruction.\"<\/p>\n What better ideology for a time of unbounded war, demanding enormous\ncarnage and demanding unthinking, cold-blood killers and heavy\nsacrifices, than Christian fundamentalism, which celebrates vengeance,\ncruelty, punishment, and mass murder, and demands unquestioning,\nunthinking obedience? As New York Times columnist Nicholas\nKristof has pointed out (11\/24\/04), the Christian fundamentalist\n\"Left Behind\" book series \"enthusiastically depicts\nJesus returning to slaughter everyone who is not a born-again\nChristian.\" And in this period of lean, mean global capitalism and\nfinancial turmoil that demands slashing wages, benefits, job stability\nand social services, what better justification than Christian\nfundamentalism, which locates the source of suffering not in capitalist\nexploitation and oppression, but in sin and abandoning traditional\nvalues?<\/p>\nThe Urgency of Resistance—and of a Whole Different Future\n America’s theocratic fascists must be not simply denounced or\nprotested—they must not be allowed to have their \"Reichstag\nfire.\" They must be stopped from consolidating their power and\nimplementing their whole agenda. It is not hyperbole to say that the\nconsequences of failure to stop them are too horrific to contemplate,\nand that it could well take generations to reverse their course.<\/p>\n But at the same time, the very extremity of the changes demanded by\nthe Christian fascists and their rupture with the current legitimizing\nnorms of U.S. society greatly heighten the potential for major crises\nto erupt, including sudden intensification of contention and conflict\nwithin the ruling class. And such developments could create openings\nfor mass upheaval—even revolution—from below. Sudden crisis\ncould create the basis for an eruption of opposition unlike anything\nthis country has ever seen.<\/p>\n But first we must soberly confront what we are up\nagainst—including how late it is in the game and how difficult it\nis to \"undo\" a fascist regime once it becomes established. In\nshort, time is not on our side. As one Nation editorial put\nit, concerning the course Bush is on, \"Somewhere along that road\nlies a point of no return.\"<\/p>\n Right now, to be frank, Bush and the Christian fascists have the\nmomentum—and the power of the state behind them—and the\npeople are woefully behind where we need to be in stopping this\nnightmare from becoming even darker. The Bush gang is not going to be\nstopped without the most energetic, self-sacrificing, determined, and\norganized struggle. And it won’t be stopped without a major,\nmajor leap beyond past—albeit very important—forms of\nopposition and protest. We need a whole new level of resistance.<\/p>\n As the RCP statement put it, what is needed is \"resistance, in\nthe words of Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist\nParty, ‘that refuses to be bound by the terms of mainstream\npolitics or the notion that this politics represents the \"ultimate\nword\" on the \"will of the people.\" Resistance that will\nnot just protest the juggernaut of war and fascism but go all-out to\nSTOP it. Resistance that will reach out and win over people who have\nbeen deceived by this madness but whose deepest interests are opposed\nto it. Resistance that will be united—but will still include\nspace for dreams and debate.’\"<\/p>\n There is an urgent need for many people, of diverse viewpoints, to\ncome together—right now—to strategize, transform the\ncurrent situation, and forge such a resistance, including by mounting a\nmajor society-wide rejection of the Bush inauguration\/coronation on\nJanuary 20.<\/p>\n This current juncture in human history screams out for a whole\ndifferent vision of how society and the world should be organized, a\nwhole different conception of what life is about and the morals and\nvalues that reflect that, and a whole different envisioning of how the\nfuture should unfold.<\/p>\n Bob Avakian has developed a deep analysis of the current order,\nincluding the particular juncture we confront today, as well as a\nprofound and sweeping vision of a radically different and truly\nliberating future. This too is something that many, many people, of\ndiverse viewpoints, need to come together—right now—to\ndiscuss, strategize about, and boldly take up.<\/p>\n Our future—the future of humanity—depends on stopping\nBush and the Christian fascists from determining the future.<\/p>\n This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary\nWorker Online
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