Christian Anti-Fascism

[Octafish]

We need to address some truly scary people -- the Christian Reconstructionists and Christian Dominionists. These folks believe it's OK to rule over the earth, destroy its resources and kill the infidels. Oh, yeah. They're also into Bush, Big Time.



Rev. Rich Lang: 'George Bush and the rise of Christian Fascism'

By Rev. Rich Lang

The Imperial Presidency

Christian Fascism

This country, like it or not, is overwhelmingly dominated by the ideology of the Christian story. It is not so much that our founders were all Christians. Rather, they lived in an atmosphere which was visioned through the lens of Christian thought and rhetoric. What they saw was that America had become the New Israel (the new Promised Land) of God. America was a benevolent nation seeking only the good of all. Our wealth is a blessing given to us as a sign that we are a "chosen, special people" whose larger meaning is to help the world into an era of peace, prosperity and justice. Every politician draws on this "civil religion story" of benevolence which gives authority to the politicians ambition and agenda. Another way of saying this is: every nation needs sacred legitimation. It needs the authority of transcendence: of a story larger than itself ... a story that connects past with present and future. An Empire needs an even broader story: one that connects with cosmic and/or historical redemption and new creation.

Martin Luther King understood this sacred American civil religion and was able to wed it brilliantly with the prophetic religious teachings of the Bible. He drew upon Biblical narratives which limited the power and authority of the elite while calling for economic redistribution of wealth. He drew upon teachings rooted in the personal morality of nonviolence and compassion. George Bush, on the other hand, also understands this sacred American 'civic gospel' and has brilliantly merged it with Biblical Holiness and Holy War traditions. These traditions call for the emergence of the Righteous Warrior who will cleanse the land of its impurity. These traditions are rooted in the personal morality of righteous zeal and obedience.

SNIP...

Reconstructed Fascism

First and most basic is that Dominion Theology wants to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern according to a very literal and peculiar interpretation of Biblical law. The disciples of Jesus are to have "dominion" over all of creation. It is the role of the Church to rule over the wicked and bring them into the obedience of faith.

In a "reconstructed society" democracy would be heresy. The division between sacred and secular would be abolished. A new insistence on conformity to moral rules would replace the pluralism we now know. The purpose of the Federal government would be to enforce morality through military and police functions. Society would be regulated by a theocratic elite: in the words of Pat Robertson: "just as the Supreme Court justices place a hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution, so they should also put a hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

SNIP...

The point I'm trying to make is that we are not dealing simply with politics when it comes to the Bush administration. The progressive left, which often pays little attention to Christianity, and the moderate middle, which thinks "these things will balance out"; will be making a huge mistake if they overlook the religious ideology at the core of Mr. Bush personally and the movement he represents. And we are talking about a "movement" (a movement of 'the people' not just the elites). We are seeing today the emergence of a "fascist movement". It is bankrolled and organized by Corporations, and articulated through the ideology of neo-conservatism. But the troops come out of the right wing church. And that church, drawing upon the Holiness/Holy War Biblical narratives of Apocalyptic-Dominionism theology, is growing in this country. This is not a battle between intellectual and institutional elites. It is far more intimate than that. It's a battle in our homes, our families, friendships, neighborhoods and within our faith communities. Let me make a rather audacious prophecy: WHOEVER CONTROLS THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE WILL CONTROL THE FUTURE OF THIS NATION. In other words it's the vision of Pat Robertson or Martin Luther King.

CONTINUED...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=15261

An almost perfect essay, with just a single phrase that needs editing. Some of the first people to oppose Hitler included Germans who were Christians. Perhaps today more Christians can be found to oppose the new Hitler? From Counterpunch:

"Fighting for the Work of the Lord"

Everybody's Talkin' About Christian Fascism

By GARY LEUPP

EXCERPT...

Christian Anti-Fascists

On the other hand, some Christians rejected the exploitation of their faith. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran cleric who died in a concentration camp at age 39 in 1945, was the antithesis of the Christian fascist. In his book Ethics, he charged that fellow Christians failed to directly attack the specificity of evil in his time. Bonhoeffer was executed for his involvement in a heroic attempt to assassinate Hitler. He was, in the then-respectable view of the fascists, a terrorist. Martin Niemoeller, another Protestant pastor, was interned in a prison camp for eight years, freed in 1945. He had sermonized against aspects of the regime. After his liberation he suggested he and other Protestants hadn't done enough. Although the quotation is disputed Niemoeller is said to have stated, "First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp01132005.html

Wake up, America! They're Chosen Ones who'll be saved. The rest of us are detritus.

[Karenina]

1. Been slapping my forehead

and asking myself for DECADES, "WHAT WILL IT TAKE???"

[Octafish]

2. E-Vote Counters are Dominionist Turds o' the BFEE

Don't you worry, ma'am. Remember what Dorothy Parker said when asked in an impromptu moment to create a sentence containing the word "horticulture."

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think."

Gee. That's like what my dad says about me:

"You're as strong as a horse and twice as smart!"

More food for thought from our good Friend Faun Otter:


Did God tell them to steal the votes?

by Faun Otter (with postscript by Rowan Berkeley) 06 Nov 2004 10:27 GMT

Discussion of relationship between Christian Reconstructionists (Calvinist theocrats) and the electronic voting industry.

by Faun Otter

I have been digging about the web for sometime looking at the companies that make our vote casting and counting machines. These are not always the same thing but are equally as important.

One question haunts me as I do this research and that is WHY? What could make such a huge vote rigging scheme palatable to a group of individuals? The money to be made is large but the illegality is enormous. Subverting the electoral process in the US is illegal in and of itself but could also constitute treason, a RICO offense, fraud and so on for several pages on a charge sheet. I personally believe that stealing votes is a breach of ethics and common decency. The answer I came up with was that perhaps a group driven by a belief that they were doing God's work and that Democracy should be demolished would have the gall to carry out such a plot.

Meet John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute and a key player in the Arkansas 'Project to 'get' Clinton by any means possible. He is a high ranking Christian Reconstructionist:

 http://www.barf.org/articles/0015/

"Whitehead shares with Rushdoony, along with many other far-right members of the Biblical America establishment, membership in the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP). As of 1996, both Whitehead and Rushdoony, along with others such as Pat Robertson, Howard Phillips of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, Oliver North, Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth, were members of the CNP."

"We note that John Whitehead and R.J. Rushdoony, along with Rutherford founding board member Howard Ahmanson, are members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive organization that has been called the "virtual who's who of the Hard Right." Two members of the CNP, Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth, were seen lunching with a member of the judicial panel that appointed independent counsel Ken Starr. We see that allegations of abuse by Starr and his staff - the kinds of abuses that one might expect from people who have demonized their opponents, resorting to any means necessary to bring them down - are now surfacing."

CONTINUED...

http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/11/813679.shtml

[DearAbby]

3. Just when are those that profess to actually follow the teachings of Jesus

Going to stand up and denounce this, Their continued silence is deafening

[Octafish]

4. These appear not to know the true Golden Rule...

... the one that is universal in all the world's religious traditions: Treat others as one's self would be treated.

Those who call themselves Christians because they believe Christ died for their sins and yet forget His message are among those who should be most frightened of what awaits them.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.

Gee. That doesn't sound like W Bush or Dick Cheney or Grover Norquist remember that part of the Bible.

BTW: Here's a really cool site in New Zealand where the Church is working to put the Word into practice.

http://www.ake.quik.co.nz/termon/

[Octafish]

8. "Sin is defined in terms of man's inhumanity to man."

Liberation Theology

General Information

Liberation theology, a term first used in 1973 by Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian Roman Catholic priest, is a school of thought among Latin American Catholics according to which the Gospel of Christ demands that the church concentrate its efforts on liberating the people of the world from poverty and oppression.

The liberation-theology movement was partly inspired by the Second Vatican Council and the 1967 papal encyclical Populorum progressio. Its leading exponents include Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff of Brazil, and Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay. The liberationists have received encouragement from the Latin American bishops, especially in resolutions adopted at a 1968 conference in Medellin, Colombia; others in the Roman Catholic church have objected to their use of Marxist ideas, their support for revolutionary movements, and their criticisms of traditional church institutions. Two members of Nicaragua's Sandinista leadership belonged to the Roman Catholic clergy, a Maryknoll and a Jesuit. Vatican authorities censured Boff in 1985 but in a 1986 document supported a moderate form of liberation theology.

SNIP...

Liberation theologians agree with Marx's famous statement: "Hitherto philosophers have explained the world; our task is to change it." They argue that theologians are not meant to be theoreticians but practitioners engaged in the struggle to bring about society's transformation. In order to do this liberation theologyemploys a Marxist-style class analysis, which divides the culture between oppressors and oppressed. This conflictual sociological analysis is meant to identify the injustices and exploitation within the historical situation. Marxism and liberation theology condemn religion for supporting the status quo and legitimating the power of the oppressor. But unlike Marxism, liberation theology turns to the Christian faith as a means for bringing about liberation. Marx failed to see the emotive, symbolic, and sociological force the church could be in the struggle for justice. Liberation theologians claim that they are not departing from the ancient Christian tradition when they use Marxist thought as a tool for social analysis. They do not claim to use Marxism as a philosophical world view or a comprehensive plan for political action. Human liberation may begin with the economic infrastructure, but it does not end there.

CONTINUED...

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/liberati.htm

You can see why the Capitalists and the Church are against this, the actualization of Christ's teachings. From their twisted thought processes, Christ was a Commie.

[Tux]

5. Christians

Get out there and fight these guys! As Gandalf once said in the holy films, "Send these foul beasts into the Abyss!"

[Karenina]

6. Kick!

:kick:

[Octafish]

11. Here's One German Christian Who Fought Hitler...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906 - 1945

"The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live." {Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years (December 1942)}

In the years since his death, the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has become widely known as one of the few Christian martyrs in a history otherwise stained by Christian complicity with Nazism. Executed in the Flossenburg concentration camp for his role in the resistance against Hitler, Bonhoeffer's letters and theological works still influence Christians throughout the world. He wrote The Cost of Discipleship, and authored an incomplete work simply known as "Ethics". His "Letters and Papers from Prison" were published posthumously. He reflected deeply on the existence of Christianity vis-a-vis the remainder of humanity and considered the moral, ethical life to be utterly at risk. Either Christians risk themselves or the Gates of very Heaven shut to humanity forever. Bonhoeffer could not surrender his Christian faith. As the Jewish theologians must consider the meaning and continuity of covenant in the light of the Holocaust, so too, Bonhoeffer reflected on "religionless Christianity" and how Christians may continue to live their faith in face of such an horrendous moral collapse. Is it a faith without the trappings of ritual, dogma and Church (which had failed to stand opposed to Fascism and proclaim the Gospel value of "all are welcome in the Kingdom of God"). Religionless Christianity is a challenge the Church plainly admits it is still trying to understand. Bonhoeffer is now recognised as one of the architects of the resistance.

"I HAVE HARDLY EVER seen a man die so submissive to the will of God", wrote an SS doctor of the last moments of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hanged in 1945 for taking part in the bomb plot against Hitler. His last recorded words were for his friend Bishop George Bell of Chichester: "This is the end . . . but for me the beginning of life."

SNIP...

With Hitler's ascent to power at the end of January 1933, Bonhoeffer's church entered the most difficult phase in its history. Since its inception, the German Evangelical Church (the main Protestant church in Germany) had been shaped by nationalism and obedience to state authority. Influenced by these traditions, and relieved that a strong new leader had emerged from the chaos of the Weimar years, many Protestants welcomed the rise of Nazism.

In particular, a group called the Deutsche Christen ("German Christians") became the voice of Nazi ideology within the Evangelical Church, even advocating the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible. In the summer of 1933, citing the state Aryan laws that barred all "non-Aryans" from the civil service, the Deutsche Christen proposed a church "Aryan paragraph" to prevent "non-Aryans" from becoming ministers or religious teachers.

CONTINUED...

http://www.geocities.com/ganesha_gate/dietr.html

PS: Thanks, Karenina!

[Octafish]

9. Founding Father Didn't Put Much Faith in Kings, Priests and Preachers..

...for a reason. They put themselves in positions of authority between the People and ultimate authority -- God. So the modern Reich pretends no one watches as they assume the mantle. Rid all who do not believe in Democracy through incarceration, exile and whatever means necessary.

DOMINIONISM

(A.K.A. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM, DOMINION THEOLOGY, AND THEONOMY)

History:

Dominionism, Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism, Theocratic Dominionism, and Theonomy are not denominations or faith groups. Rather, they are interrelated beliefs which are followed by members of a wide range of Christian denominations. They have no connection at all to Reconstructionist Judaism, which is a liberal group within Judaism.

Generally speaking:

Dominionism & Dominion Theology are derived from Genesis 1:26 of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament):
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'" (NIV)

Most Christians interpret this verse as meaning that God gave mankind dominion over the animal kingdom. Dominion theologians believe that that this verse commands Christians to bring all societies, around the world, under the rule of the Word of God.

Theonomy (Greek for "God's Law") includes the concept that "God’s revealed standing laws are a reflection of His immutable moral character and, as such, are absolute in the sense of being nonarbitrary, objective, universal, and established in advance of particular circumstances (thus applicable to general types of moral situations)." 6,7 Thus, each of the 613 laws given to Moses and recorded in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures) are binding on people of all nations, cultures, and religions forever, except for those laws which have been specifically rescinded or modified by further revelation.

CONTINUED...

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm

[FlemingsGhost]

7. The inevitable backlash will be harsh on BushCo. "Christians."

Organize and speak out true Christians. Your fascists brothers and sisters are setting up a world of shame for all of your futures.

[Octafish]

10. We've seen these turds before -- NAZI Germany.

You pegged it, FlemingsGhost. There WAS a group who previously faced these turds, in Germany, back in 1934.

Christian Reconstruction

God's Glorious Millennium?

In a few years Christians will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Barmen Declaration. In 1934 the Confessing Church in Germany gave unforgettable voice to its central allegiance. Confronted by a "German Christian" reinterpretation of the gospel, Barmen asserted:

Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and beside this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation.

These things must be said again a half century later in another land. No "blood and soil" philosophy or nationalist movement comparable to German Nazism imperils the United States right now, contrary to the inflated rhetoric of some critics of the right. But the perennial temptation of confusing God's word with one or another human word is very much with us in the Religious Right.

In this book I have tried to lay bare the theological presuppositions of the political and moral programs of the Religious Right. In every doctrinal area we have seen loyalty to important aspects of classical Christian conviction. At the same time, each of the chapters of the Christian story has told of basic distortions which warrant Senator Mark Hatfield's evangelical indictment:

As a Christian, there is no other part of the New Right ideology that concerns me more than its self-serving misuse of religious faith. What is at stake here is the very integrity of biblical truth. The New Right, in many cases, is doing nothing less than placing a heretical claim on Christian faith that distorts, confuses, and destroys the opportunity for a biblical understanding of Jesus Christ and of his gospel for millions of people.

CONTINUED...

http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/cr.htm