American Fascists by Chris Hedges

In his latest book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, former New York Times foreign correspondent Hedges takes on what he identifies as a concerted effort by the Religious Right to control America's political landscape.

Hedges, the son of a Presbyterian minister, graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity and served as a foreign correspondent for almost 20 years. He was part of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer for its reportage on global terrorisim. His published books include War is a Force that Gives us Meaning (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction) and Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America.

In order to consider his arguments, it is important to understand what Hedges means by the term "Religious Right" - and what he does not. In Chapter One of American Fascists, Hedges distinguishes Christians, persons of faith and traditional evangelicals from the neo-con dominionist evangelicals who he warns are seeking to subvert democracy. It is the latter who fall under his definition of the Religious Right.

In ten easy-to-read intelligent chapters, Hedges breaks down elements of fascism as methods employed by the Religious Right ranging from the institution of a "Culture of Despair" to the promulgation of wealth as a path to righteousness for "The New Class." His is an impassioned request of people of all faith and no faith to think about how the loss of democracy could impregnate our government under the guise of Christianity, and to take a deeper look at how the Religious Right operates. As someone who has participated in their conferences, healings, educational programs and more, he offers facts and insights that support his argument.

This book is not one that merely preaches to the proverbial choir but rather exposes some lesser known truths and tactics and begs the reader's attention. Hedges writes:

"Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age—he was then close to 80—we would all be fighting the “Christian fascists.”

He was not a man to use the word fascist lightly. He had been in Germany in 1935 and 1936 and worked with the underground anti-Nazi church, known as the Confessing Church, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Adams was eventually detained and interrogated by the Gestapo, who suggested he might want to consider returning to the United States. It was a suggestion he followed. He left on a night train with framed portraits of Adolf Hitler placed over the contents of his suitcases to hide the rolls of home-movie film he had taken of the so-called German Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi, and the few individuals who defied the Nazis, including the theologians Karl Barth and Albert Schweitzer. The ruse worked when the border police lifted the tops of the suitcases, saw the portraits of the Führer and closed them up again. I watched hours of the grainy black-and-white films as he narrated in his apartment in Cambridge.

Adams saw in the Christian right, long before we did, disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party, similarities that he said would, in the event of prolonged social instability or a national crisis, see American fascists rise under the guise of religion to dismantle the open society. He despaired of U.S. liberals, who, he said, as in Nazi Germany, mouthed silly platitudes about dialogue and inclusiveness that made them ineffectual and impotent..."

As the chapters in this book each deserve their own conversation I will try to offer more details in future articles.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
ISBN: 0743284437
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2007

Order it now from Borders, Powell's or Amazon.com.