There's A Reason No One Else Would Print This

There's an article by Chris Hedges making the rounds on the intertubes. Posted by Christianleft.org, it's entitled The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism. Beginning with a statement from revered Christian ethicist James Luther Adams, Hedges praises Adams' perspicacity a quarter century ago identifying the rise of "American fascism" carrying a Bible.

Like the dire warnings about our Kenyan Muslim Socialist Atheist President, the article is a hodgepodge of dire warnings rooted in beautiful clouds floating in the ether above Neverland.

I'm hardly of fan of the politics of the Christian right. That doesn't mean I'm going to succumb to the panic induced by dire warnings of networks of people on the right doing what Americans do in politics: joining in coalitions to enact policies they support. This isn't conspiracy; it's working out of Federalist #10.

Hedges is a very good writer, to be sure. The piece is carefully crafted to demonstrate the accumulating power and influence various right-wing organizations use to create favorable conditions for the crafting and enacting of legislation. The list of organizations he cites is wide, their concerns dovetailing on matters of faith and private piety undergirded, in this case, by the strong arm of the state. Their goal, a kind of crypto-Protestant Republic similar in many respects to the original mandate of The Massachusetts Bay Colony, would hardly be a place in which I would enjoy living.

Except, of course, none of it's true. There is no conspiracy afoot to rob us of our basic liberties and strip away American pluralism in the name of something called Christian Fascism. While certainly extreme, the actions of the Christian right have a place in our society just as much as those of the Occupy movement. The hints and allegations Hedges uses to create the image of imminent danger are little more than everyday, normal, American politics.

To repeat: I'm no fan of the Christian right. I am also no fan of the kind of overheated rhetoric that would take the banal political and social organizing that all sorts of like-minded groups and sectors of society engage in and turn it in to some giant conspiracy against the American polity itself. It's insulting, it's as dangerous as any of the legislation being proposed, and it is also factually inaccurate.

With all due respect, Chris Hedges, you're just full of crap.