Sharon, a friend of mine as well as one of the editors over at TS-SI suggested that perhaps I should define “Christo-fascism” as people react rather harshly to my using that phrase.
I am an atheist. That means I think the very idea of their being an invisible patriarch in the sky or for that matter an invisible matriarch in the sky is pretty absurd. I don’t take the cop out of declaring myself spiritual rather than religious because I find all the New Age stuff equally absurd.
Christo-fascists behave in a manner that makes them virtually if not literally identical to Islamo-fascists. Both demand that the state impose harsh religion based laws that impinge upon the human rights of minority groups within their cultures as well as misogynistically denying women both equality and the right to control their own bodies.
One element of Christo-fascism is the giving of primacy to the fetus over the mother in matters of health and well being, denying abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman carrying the fetus. Thus reducing the value of women’s lives to their bearing of children and justifies all sorts of discrimination based upon the expectation of that being their primary role in life.
At the store where I work I see women and girls clad in the Christian version of the burqa, similar cult like costumes including anachronistic skirts down to the ankles and identical hair styles trailing their home schooled or religious schooled quiver full behind them.
While this can be dismissed as simple cultist behavior, rabid right wing Christianity is impacting our ability to learn actual science in public schools due to their demands that creation mythology be given equal weight to birth of the universe physics and evolution. Christo-fascism is present in the attempts to rewrite history and present a revisionist version with the founding fathers as Christians when many were Deists at most and were quite likely agnostic free thinkers or even atheist the way Ethan Allen and Thomas Paine were.
Fascism is characterized as a totalitarian form of government with a close partnership between the state and corporations. Religious fascism be it Christo-fascism or Islamo-fascism can be characterized by the destruction of any wall of separation between church and state. Religious law is seen to define civil law.
In the past the anti-sodomy laws were an example of such interaction between church and state as are censorship laws.
The anti-abortion, anti-sex education and anti contraception movements led by the rabid right wing Christianist factions are some examples of Christo-fascism.
Christo-fascists are leading the fight against marriage equality. They are the ones who libel marriage equality with lies, fiction and hyperbole.
They use and abuse their tax exempt status to campaign and raise money to pass laws that deny LGBT/T folks their Constitutionally guaranteed rights. Their representatives in congress further their goal of the establishment of a theocratic state governed by Biblical Law rather than the Constitution as set forth by our founding fathers.
LGBT/T folks are used as scapegoats utilizing the same playbook and much the same rhetoric found in anti-Semitism and racism with the additional language of perversion and pathology.
The alliance with the rabid right wing politics espoused by the Republican Party is as overt as it is repellent. Since the years of FDR the conservative movement has aligned itself with policies that closely resemble those of the Axis Powers of WW II. Open racism, homophobia and misogyny are used as tools to stir near lynch mob violence as a campaign tool.
One sees it in the rhetoric directed towards President Obama by Tea Baggers and Birthers alike. It is as though the Catholics, the Fundamentalists, the John Birchers and KKK have formed a party based on hate.
The Christo-fascists are the storm troopers.
When they oppose same sex marriage they are acting in a manner that is un-American in that they are denying their fellow citizens equal rights as guaranteed in the 14th amendment to the Constitution. Their lies are of the same nature as the lies propagated in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Now many think I am over reacting. Yet every day I hear or read a fresh hate spiel.
One of the big stories this year has been regarding “The Family”, a secretive Christo-fascist cabal of ultra right wing Republicans documented by Jeff Sharlet in his book, “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power”.
Members of this cabal have been caught supporting the proposed law in Uganda that would make homosexuality a capital offense. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, there are American Christian ministers calling for the same thing. I am not speaking of the self anointed Fred Phelps and his Klan of inbred neo-Nazis for Jesus. No, I am speaking of ministers with huge McMega Churches like the ones found in the suburbs of metroplexes across America.
They call for Biblical law and death for homosexuals. Although that call is remarkably silent when it comes to calling for a death penalty for pedophile priests/ministers.
These calls for Biblical Law are also rather selectively chosen from books like Deuteronomy and Leviticus. They tend to ignore other equally emphatic prohibitions found in verses surrounding the few minor references one finds to homosexuality.
Fighting the homosexual agenda has become a major fund raiser for these churches in the same manner as fighting women’s access to safe and legal abortion has been. I believe we ignore at our own peril the precedent that has been set by the words of support and lack of condemnation regarding the misogynistic pro-life movement people who have actually gone out and murdered Doctors who provide legal and safe abortions.
Any Christian organization with “Family” in its name is probably a proponent of Manson Family Values and not any sort of valuing of the rights of people. The only people whose rights and families they value are those they consider the chosen, the elect, the saved.
“Born again” bears a startling resemblance to the old battle cry, “The south will rise again!” While the text features misogyny, homophobia and trans phobia writ large and filled with blood libels the subtext contains the racism and hatred of the poor that so characterize right wing totalitarian ideology.
Pam’s House Blend often gives me all the illustrations I need to make my point regarding Christo-fascism. Here are a couple of examples I recently gleaned from her blog:
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15382/know-your-smear-campaign-how-the-catholic-hierarachy-lies-claims-gays-attack-religious-freedom
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15380/catholic-charities-of-washington-cuts-off-its-nose-to-spite-its-face
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15374/gary-randall-opposing-death-sentence-for-gays-is-perverted-tolerance
I could go on and go to other references. But here are some names to watch for, people who are clearly Christo-fascists and are very powerful:
Pope Benedict, William Donohue, Tony Perkins, Donald Wildmon, James Dobson. The list could go on and on, filling this blog for days.
I could back my claims with You Tube videos of their calls for atrocities.
You can live in denial just as people in the 1930s did when Sinclair Lewis wrote “It Can’t Happen Here” or one can be forewarned and forearmed. I exercise my rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and legally own a firearm for self defense. Perhaps others who can legally do so should also consider that as an act of prudence.
Women Born Transsexual 