Christofascism
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Christofascism is a neologism coined in response to two trends:
- The use of the word "Islamofascism" to describe a group ranging in size from a few fundamentalist Islamic theocratic leaders to the entire religion of Islam.
- The observation that in the West (particularly in the United States), there are demagogues who seek to replace the established secular governments with theocracies built on their version of Christianity.
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[edit] Terrorists or just entertainers?
The argument may be made that the Western examples are just harmless preachers, or even amusing nutjobs - but many of them speak to huge audiences, including even impotent powerful politicians like ex-president George W. Bush, and their views are aired on television and radio with little initial (if any) criticism of their radical nature.
[edit] Infiltrations and attempts
The intelligent design (née creation science) movement has been fighting to have fundamentalist religion taught in public schools as science for decades.
When a Muslim was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, his patriotism was questioned based on his religion. There were even calls for legislation to force him to be sworn into office on a bible[1], despite the fact no congressperson takes the actual oath on any book[2]. Like most Congresspeople, he later had a private ceremony where he reiterated the oath on a religious text, and took it on a copy of the Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Recently, there has been an uproar because the Council of American-Islamic Relations said that it was attempting to get some of its young members internships on Capitol Hill, like most other lobbying groups in the country. Certain members of the House took it as a an attempt to "spy" on Congress, a charge that is not leveled at any other group trying to do the same thing.
[edit] Christofascism in action
Examples include:
- Conservapedia (admittedly of little real influence, but a window into how these people "think")
- Pat Robertson, a presidential candidate in 1988, claiming that God smote the U.S. with the 9/11 attacks due to some things he doesn't like.
- Fred Phelps claiming that dead soldiers and natural disasters are the result of America's tolerance for homosexuals
- Ann Coulter calling for the invasion of Muslim countries and the forced conversion of their populations to Christianity.
- Mike Huckabee, a presidential candidate in 2008, wishing to change the constitution to conform to God's standards. i.e. to create a theocracy.
- The Fellowship, a fundamentalist organization with a number of members in political power including infamous wingnut Jim Inhofe.
- Francisco Franco, probably the most literal example.
[edit] See also
- Jerry Falwell
- Dominionism, the particular strain of militant Christianity espoused by many Christofascists