Christofascist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Religion in government |
|---|
|
This article is part of |
| Politics Portal · |
Christofascist is a term coined by theologian Dorothee Sölle in 1982 to describe fundamentalist Christians.
"Christian fascism" or "Christofascism" is a term used primarily on the political left, as well as by some libertarians, to describe what they see as an emerging proto-fascism in the United States; such critics typically warn that action is needed to stop the possible emergence of a theocratic/fascist society and government.
[edit] Overview
During the late 1960s and 1970s, leftists sometimes described a wide range of governments and public institutions as fascist. In the 1980s the term was used by leftist critics to describe the Ronald Reagan administration and recently used by critics to describe the presidency of George W. Bush. In her 1982 book Beyond Mere Obedience activist and theologian Dorothy Soelles, coined the term "Christofascist" to describe fundamentalist Christians.
The term "fascist" was revitalized following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when a number of right wing commentators, particularly in the United States, began using the term "Islamofascism" to describe Militant Islam. On August 10, 2006, in the wake of an alleged terror plot foiled in London, George W. Bush described the war on terror as a war against "Islamic fascists."
The linking of Christianity with historic fascism or neofascism has generated contentious debates among scholars and in the media; and is considered by some to be offensive to Christianity. Discussions of how Fascism and Christianity were linked in some European countries between World War One and World War Two can be found at Clerical fascism.
Some place Christofascist in the context of a claim that the United States itself is heading toward fascism. Advocates of this view include Carl Davidson, who has written an essay: Globalization, Theocracy and the New Fascism: Taking the Right's Rise to Power Seriously This view is dismissed as hyperbolic by many scholars of neofascism, while some scholars support this hypothesis. David Neiwert has two essays that discuss these debates in detail.
Calling some portion of the Christian Right "Fascist" has become an increasingly popular tendency in the political Left, including the Christian Left. For example, the Reverend Rich Lang of the Trinity United Methodist Church of Seattle, gave a sermon titled George Bush and the Rise of Christian Fascism in which he said "I want to flesh out the ideology of the Christian Fascism that Mr. Bush articulates. It is a form of Christianity that is the mirror opposite of what Jesus embodied. It is, indeed, the materialization of the spirit of antichrist: a perversion of Christian faith and practice...".
