'A Christian thing'

Of all the detail that emerged about the Michigan so-called militia, which hoped to start an uprising against the government by killing a police officer and then bombing the funeral, two stand out. One was when a neighbor, asked about such groups, their heavy armament and violent beliefs, responded that it was "no big deal" around there. Another came from the ex-wife of the accused ring leader, who told the Associated Press, "It started out as a Christian thing. You go to church. You pray. You take care of your family. I think David started to take it a little too far."

Ya think?

As a Christian, it's painful to hear the media incessantly describe this as a "Christian militia." Being a Christian is about far more than going to church, praying and taking care of your family. It's not about premeditated murder. It's not about revolution against the government, for Christianity in practice is revolutionary enough (e.g., love our enemies, such as Osama bin Laden). It is about helping the least, the last and the lost. It is about social justice, and forgiveness, and grace. Jesus ministered to the poor, ate with sinners and didn't deny healing based on pre-existing conditions. The faith is, in other words, about many things that American right-wing Christianity despises — a Christianity not merely preached in snake-handling backwoods outposts but in some of the largest mega-churches. Better to pick highly selectively from the Old Testament: keep women down, stone gays, smite and slay mercilessly in the name of the Lord, overthrow the government (of the Antichrist!) and establish a theocracy. So in Holy Week, these so-called Christians would have Jesus suffer yet again.

Countless crimes have been committed in the name of religion. Today, these teachings fit seamlessly with talk radio and Fox "News" in the gamma burst that is creating not merely a climate of hate and intolerant rhetoric, not merely fundamental misunderstandings about American history and government, but the kind of proto-fascist terror organizations such as the one busted in the exurban Midwest. And, yes, they are fellow travelers of the Tea Party. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of white "militia" and "patriot" organizations has increased 244 percent in the past year, adding 363 new groups in just 12 months.

The mainstream media, which still commands the most readers and viewers, as well as respect, have been afraid to take on the white-right acts of violence that have occurred since an African-American became president. Each happens in isolation — the young gunman in Pittsburgh, the Austin tax protest airplane killer, the maniac at the Pentagon subway stop, etc. etc. — and is allowed to fade away. The Michigan group is so lurid in its bloody ambition that is has claimed more of the nation's tiny attention span. But where are the stories delving into the racism, hate, intolerance, anti-government and theocratic ambitions that bind these acts together? Imagine if this was being done by the New Black Panthers or...Muslims. Nor are the multi-millionaire right-wing talk radio stars, the Fox faux journalists, the hate preachers or the Republican politicians who gin up and hope to profit from this "energy" called to account.

More than one commentator has made the connection between the current climate of insanity and Weimar Germany, Jim Kunstler doing so eloquently. I am mindful of Mark Twain, that history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. As I've written before, we face difficult days ahead. I have spoken to a number of notable political leaders and observers in recent years, people now out of the spotlight and able to speak frankly. The common theme is almost always expressed this way: "I am afraid for our country." Me, too. The climate of madness — Obama is not merely misguided, he is a "socialist," a "fascist," a "communist," "the Antichrist" — is especially ill-timed considering the vast challenges facing the nation.

So ignorant is the white-right that is doesn't realize that its anxieties are largely driven by Republican and "conservative" policies. It was George W. Bush who bailed out the banks and Republicans who now oppose even modest financial reform. It was 30 years of "conservative" ideology, including that implemented by Bill Clinton trying to be so triangulatingly smart, that has hollowed out the American economy and set the middle class into a nosedive, especially in places such as Michigan. It was "conservative" policies that kept Arizona, another den of hate, from creating high-wage jobs, while encouraging employers to lure illegals and drive down wages even further. Hedge funds and private equity outfits of the kind once run by Mitt Romney and currently Dan Quayle have destroyed millions of good jobs through their rip, strip and flip merger deals. "Conservative" policies led to the end of pensions and decent benefits, plus the tax cuts for the rich that have driven income inequality to the highest levels since at least 1929. Seventeen percent real unemployment? The cons own it.

And the white-right proles want to vote for more of the same.

If one wants to use the Weimar analogy, these are the same kinds of people who did indeed vote most heavily for Adolf Hitler. (And I don't use Nazi analogies lightly). Two other parallels: Weimar institutions had lost credibility, and the German/Junkers corporate elite was happy to go along with National Socialism (think the Family). But, remember Twain. Think of another calamity, such as World War I. In The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell writes that we can't really understand much of that age, when men went willingly "over the top" to their deaths — by the millions — motivated by something such as honor. But for them it was as real as our time is to us. Still, some things rhyme if one turns off the television long enough. The men who brought on and waged the war were in many cases the best and brightest of their time (as with the Depression and Vietnam). They had gone to the best schools. They were part of the elite. They shared the same conventional wisdom. All of it paved the path to doom.

This is not to say such a dolorous fate awaits us. But we're playing with fire as a society. And even without a 1933, the white-right rage being stirred by "mainstream conservative" leaders will lead to another Oklahoma City, perhaps far worse. The Great Disruption has just begun.

Comments

[Patrick]

I share your fears, but also hope that somehow these idiots might see the light of day and recognize the vile nature of what they preach. But then again, I was party to a civil conversation with friends the other night about whether it's better to have food, guns, or gold when the economy collapses.... credibility lost.

[soleri]

Weimar and our current malaise also have this in common: a treacly nostalgia for former glory. In the American version, it's Mayberry where small-town virtues and all-white townfolk weave a comfort blanket of "family values". When Glenn Beck emoted on Fox News a couple of months back about the TV commercials we don't see anymore (the 1983 Coke commerical and a Kodak ad), the point was to suggest a lost Eden from which we, the good people, had been expelled. By liberal snakes. Weimar's "snakes" were more varied, but one ethnicity led the way.

Nostalgia is not a plan. It is, however, a great way to avoid reality. That's why Republican nihilism is so disturbing. They poked and prodded the resentment of working-class whites. Now they have a party that is in full thrall to the dramaturgy of a Total Explanation. Liberals ruined America. They've gone way past the point of no return.

Given the extraordinary challenges this nation faces, this political paralysis - or low-boil civil war - suggests a breaking point not seen since 1860. A country caught in the delusions of the past cannot effectively engage either present-day reality or the future. At a minimum, we the people cannot hold ourselves accountable for truthful arguments since every skirmish is now Armageddon in the Culture War.

I used to hope that demographic change would rescue this nation. But it seems, instead, that it's heightening the contradictions faster than we can resolve them. Something is happening. The change Obama promised has become the last-ditch stand of "real" Americans. Maybe blood will flow or perhaps not. But we know who the losers will be. We've seen the movie.

[soleri]

From Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/:

Nine members of a Christian militia group were taken into federal custody this week, based on evidence that the group was poised to launch a deadly plot. One of the nine was apparently enraged by a bogus claim she received a right-wing chain email. (via Justin Elliott)

A member of the Hutaree militia charged with federal crimes was upset because she thought that President Barack Obama had signed into law this month a bill that would spend $20 billion to help the terrorist group Hamas settle in the U.S.

There was never any such legislation, but Tina Stone believed it was the truth, according to her Facebook account.

Not quite two weeks ago, the woman posted to Facebook, lamenting the fact that H.B. 1388 passed. She wrote, "I'm peeved,,, when people in this country is getting kicked out of there homes everyday and our government passes a bill to spend more then 20 billion dollars to bring Hamas here and supplies them with food and homes that just wrong." [grammatical errors in the original]

Soon after, she added, "I'm so stressed I could KILL someone!!!!!!!"

For the record, H.B. 1388 was a national service bill, expanding AmeriCorps. It included no money for Hamas.

[Jim Hamblin]

My reading comprehension is fading; however one snippet of Jon's wisdom stands out . . . that we're about addressing the needs of the "least, last and lost". For some, this is woven into their religious beliefs. For others, it raises questions about what irresponsible mistakes these folks have made to be (for example) members of the working poor.

This is the chasm that needs to be recognized and bridged . . any ideas?

[AWinter]

The other side of the medal is the "happy-go-lucky" self-help brand of "Christianity" practiced and preached in some megachurches. "God wants you to have a big house (and an adjustable rate mortgage)!". It's the extension of the secular religion "positive thinking" aka delusion preached by Oprah & Crapola.
It pretends to be positive and all about happiness but it is no less vicious, insidious and dangerous than the angry, judgmental side.
The "reasoning" is: the power to achieve happiness and our material wants is in our minds alone. Money etc will flow to us if we only think positive, perpetually.
That pretend-happiness requires a lot of energy and the mental facade is held up even when people objectively shouldn't be happy. "I lost my job -- What a great opportunity for growth!" A great way to sell layoffs. "I lost my healthcare coverage -- There is a godgiven blessing in there!" "The Iraq war is a hell disaster -- Through darkness we prevail!"
Furthermore, it necessitates the active avoidance of reality. "We shouldn't read the news. So much trouble in the world. Happy thoughts!" The bleak economic and political results are all over the place.
Finally, who is to blame? "Of course, me! I didn't try hard enough to be positive, competitive and what not. Of course, politics had nothing to do with it..." That's where it gets vicious. Pacify enough people and make them blame themselves for problems largely outside of their control -- so that business as usual may continue in all eternity.
You could blame people for believing all that claptrap and succumbing to this social phenomenon. Even now, I don't think they are waking up to reality and trying to do something about it. But who is blaming the cheerleaders, false prophets, and disaster profiteers? Who is calling out the Kooks who are possessed of their own arrogant self-righteousness?

[Tracy Clark]

It is a sad day when we have to point out that this is what Jesus calls us to do. I read the other day about a legislator who explained his vote by saying that "sometimes my Christianity trumps my libertarianism" Sometimes?

[Emil Pulsifer]

Several interesting points here.

First, the term "antichrist" occurs only four times in the Bible, all of them in the book of John, and there is no individual, single figure referred to as "The Antichrist".

In 1: John 2:22 (New International Version) we find this:

"Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son."

In 2 John 1:7 the verse is similar:
"Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist."

That last sentence is worth quoting again: "Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist". Note that this refers not to Satan or the Son of Satan or any such thing, but to anyone who denies Christ or denies Christ as having manifested "in the flesh".

The Book of Revelations does not use the term. It mentions a Dragon and a False Prophet and a Beast but no "antichrist" much less "The Antichrist". Look it up in your favorite Bible version here:

http://www.biblegateway.com

The whole concept of "The Antichrist" (in the popular sense of the term) seems inextricably bound up in popular fiction (whether books or movies).

Second, the comparison to Islamic fundamentalism is instructive. Many Christians would no doubt rush to distance the militia conspirators from their religion; but so too would many Muslims rush to distance their religion from those who attack marketplace shoppers with explosive vests of C-4 and ball-bearings. The difference is that, being familiar with Christianity, we immediately grasp the essentially alien nature of the Michigan cult; whereas Islam, being itself alien to most Americans, is easily lost in a sea of popular misconception.

Third, the Weimar parallel, though not without validity, is severely strained. The inter-war Germany was threatened by a vigorous Communist Party directed from Stalinist Moscow: during the Weimar period the KPD polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in both the Reichstag and in state parliaments. Street battles between Communist and Nazi/right-wing militias were a daily occurrence. The country was laboring under burdensome reparations requirements from WW I, not to mention (by the early 1930s) a worldwide Great Depression.

As badly as the talk-radio kooks and their adherents want to portray the centrist Obama administration as the vanguard of international communism, neither the Republic Party nor the vast majority of the American public regards such comparisons as plausible, despite the isolated propaganda message from fringe members of the party -- though the party as a whole is perfectly willing to make cynical use of this message for agit-prop purposes.

On the other hand, the Nazi Party began as an equally absurd fringe. Sophisticated, educated people could only laugh at its crude caricatures and propaganda. Yet, it grew into something considerably broader than a splinter faction. Again, however, I suggest that without a palpable threat to the bourgeoisie, from a foreign-sourced, well-funded, domestically active RADICAL opposition party, there is no threat sufficient to overcome innate common sense and caution. The Michigan cult was composed of half a dozen or so members.

There are no torchlight processions with tens or hundreds of thousands of individuals organized by a revolutionary political party (Nazis). Healthcare reform just won't cut it as a boogeyman, as hard as a handful of nincompoops try. A party (any party, or both) that bails out Wall Street, is not going to be opposed by the Establishment -- and that's where the ultimate support for right-wing revolution must come from: and if it doesn't exist, it must be engineered.

Rather more plausible, in my humble opinion, is the "Friendly Fascism" of Bertram Gross.

There's never a fiery crack of doom around when you need one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMm-7RFsm0

Personally, I think that the desire for cataclysm comes from an instinctual knowledge that "the end of the world as we know it" has ALREADY occurred.

[Buford]

Patrick-

Your parlor game seems to look at having only one of guns, gold or food. All of those options are weak in some way - like rock, paper, scissors. The intelligent person would have some of each, a balanced portfolio, if you will.

This is similar to what we need to dig out of the crisis. Some conservation of the good we have, some return to wisdom of the past (wise regulation and taxation) and some new thinking for the current and future worlds.

It seems to me that Republican Big Business interests don't actually understand how they got rich. They think it is low taxes and low regulation, etc. But in fact it was having a middle class with the resources to purchase the goods and services that they control. If they actually achieved the elite small upper class and huge poor lower class that they are working so hard for, they will see their own worth plummet, unless they are allowed to plunder other countries who still have treasure. But that is only a temporary plan as the Romans learned (or, rather, didn't learn)

Herodotus speaks of a Libyan (north African) tribe who experienced some years of drought. They declared war on the south wind and charged into the desert only to be swallowed up by the sand, one and all. I'm so glad we;ve come so far- Oh wait, the Republican Tea parties are doing the same thing right now!

[Victoria Silvers]

Hi,

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Victoria Silvers
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