c. 2007 Religion News Service

TORONTO _ A hard-core minority of evangelicals is actively working to create an American theocracy and to eliminate non-believers. Mainstream Christians _ even some evangelicals _ governments and the media stand by and watch in the name of tolerance.

So says Chris Hedges, a former New York Times correspondent, who evinces some frightening scenes in his new book, “American Fascists.” A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Hedges draws alarming parallels between 20th-century totalitarian movements _ particularly in pre-World War II Europe _ and the highly organized, well financed “Dominionist movement,” an influential theocratic sect within the large U.S. evangelical population.

Hedges says Dominionists wait only for a fiscal, social or political crisis, or another terrorist terrorist strike on American soil, to establish an American theocracy _ a Christian fascism _ in which the Bible is the sole guiding principle.

That day, he warns, could be sooner than many think.

Q: You don’t pull any punches with the word “fascist” in the title. Is it deliberate?

A: Yes, and it wasn’t an easy choice because fascism conjures historical images of Nazis and swastikas. But fascism as an ideology has generic qualities which … I try to match with what I think are the fundamental tenets of the radical Christian right in the United States. The match was significant enough to warrant the word.

Q: You do not indict 100 million Americans who consider themselves evangelicals. It’s only a small part of this group that you discuss.

A: It’s a tiny part. We use the terms “evangelicals” and “fundamentalists,” but I think incorrectly. Traditional fundamentalists have always called on their followers to remove themselves from the contaminants of secular society and to shun involvement in political power.

This is a new, radical mutation, a drive to seize political power and create a so-called Christian state. It’s a mutation that makes this movement unlike any other religious movement we have seen in American history, and ultimately, the most dangerous mass movement we’ve seen in American history.

Q: Can you explain the difference between Dominionism and traditional evangelicalism?

A: Dominionism, or Christian Reconstructionism, is a movement … which argues that Christians have been anointed by God to create the Christian state and ultimately, a global Christian empire. The Ten Commandments should be the basis for the legal system. The federal government should be disempowered, reduced to issues of homeland security, defense and property rights. Social welfare agencies, along with educational systems, should be turned over to these churches.

Q: If it’s such a small fringe group, why is it so dangerous?

A: Well, let’s name names: (Evangelical leaders) James Dobson, Pat Robertson, (“Left Behind” co-author) Tim LaHaye _ they’re very well funded, very well organized and they have taken over virtually all of Christian radio and broadcasting. They’ve taken over denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention. They have managed to make huge inroads into the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.

Q: What similarities do you see between this militant Christianity and militant Islam?

A: Many. It’s a binary view of the world _ good and bad. Those who are not with them have no real legitimacy, either religious or political _ they are agents of Satan (and) must be destroyed. A total hostility toward the role of women, a war on modernism, a cult of masculinity, the belief that apocalyptic and catastrophic violence can act to cleanse and purge the world and create a utopia of believers.

Fundamentalist movements, regardless of the religious systems they come out of, are strikingly similar. Much of (their) work is to disempower the moderate center (and) make people afraid.

Q: Are traditional evangelicals in danger of being drowned out by these Dominionists?

A: They already are. Because the movement has learned to speak so well in traditional and comfortable vocabulary, they have huge numbers of people, both in and out of the faith, who don’t understand the threat.

Tens of millions of Americans see them as a traditional group that promotes family values. The most potent opposition to the movement will come out of the evangelical community _ people who have remained loyal to core values of the Gospel and understand this manipulation and callousness, and strike back against it.

Q: You say debate with this radical Christian right is “useless” because they don’t want dialogue; you say they are “bent on our destruction.” How do we then engage them and move forward?

A: The movement is built on the personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans. The American working class has been decimated. Fewer than 10 percent of jobs are in the manufacturing sector. Whole sections of the United States look the developing world. And that has thrust people into this despair.

The only way to blunt this movement is to begin to develop systems where (the poor) are reincorporated into American society, given secure and decent jobs and certainly social benefits, and given hope.

At its core, this is a theology of despair. It says that the highest event in human history is the destruction of the planet on which we live. And then there’s a strange spiritual Darwinism: Believers will be raptured up into Heaven and the rest of us will get what we deserve. In that kind of theology, wars in the Middle East are a good thing, global warming doesn’t matter, poverty is fine, especially since they’ve embraced this world of magic and miracles. People are poor because they’re not right with Jesus.

Q: If Dominionists exploit the poor, how are they so well funded?

A: Corporate America loves them. You have huge companies (like) Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club (which) have evangelical chaplains among their work forces just to bait their workers. There’s also quite a vigorous and effective system of sucking in believers. If you ever watch these (television) shows, you have (text) at the bottom of the screen with an 800 number where you can call in and make your love offering. People are encouraged to send their rent checks and everything else because God will reward them a hundred, nay, a thousandfold.

None of these movements can come to power unless there’s a prolonged period of instability or a crisis. But that could very well come in the United States through an economic meltdown, a series of environmental disasters or another catastrophic terrorist attack.

Then I think these people are really poised to reshape American society in ways we have not seen before.

KRE/LF END CSILLAG

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