Christian fascism

Christian fascism denotes the intersection between fascism and Christianity and it also encompasses the fascistic, totalitarian, and imperialistic aspects of the Christian church. It is sometimes referred to as "Christofascism", a neologism coined by liberation theologist Dorothee Sölle in 1970.[1][2][3]

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Interpretation of Sölle

Tom Faw Driver, the Paul Tillich Professor Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary, expressed concern "that the worship of God in Christ not divide Christian from Jew, man from woman, clergy from laity, white from black, or rich from poor". To him, Christianity is in constant danger of Christofascism, stating that "[w]e fear christofascism, which we see as the political direction of all attempts to place Christ at the center of social life and history" and that "[m]uch of the churches' teaching about Christ has turned into something that is dictatorial in its heart and is preparing society for an American fascism".[4][5]

Christofascism "disposed or allowed Christians, to impose themselves not only upon other religions but other cultures, and political parties which do not march under the banner of the final, normative, victorious Christ" – as Knitter describes Sölle's view.[6][7]

George Hunsinger, director of the Centre for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, regards the conception of Christofascism as being an attack, at a very sophisticated level of theological discourse, on the biblical depiction of Jesus. He equates what is viewed as Christofascism with "Jesus Christ as depicted in Scripture" and contrasts it with the "nonnormative Christology" that is offered as an alternative by some theologians, which he characterizes as extreme relativism that reduces Jesus Christ to "an object of mere personal preference and cultural location" and that he finds difficult to see as not contributing to the same problems encountered by the Christian church in Germany that were noted by theologian Karl Barth.[8]

Christomonism

Douglas John Hall, Professor of Christian Theology at McGill University, relates Sölle's concept of Christofascism to Christomonism, that inevitably ends in religious triumphalism and exclusivity, noting Sölle's observation of American fundamentalist Christianity that Christomonism easily leads to Christofascism, and violence is never far away from militant Christomonism. (Christomonism only accepts one divine person, Jesus Christ, rather than the Trinity.) He states that the over-divinized ("high") Christology of Christendom is demonstrated to be wrong by its "almost unrelieved anti-Judaism". He suggests that the best way to guard against this is for Christians not to neglect the humanity of Jesus Christ in favour of his divinity, and remind themselves that Jesus was also a Jewish human being.[2][9][10]

Historical examples

American history and politics

American historians and political commentators have also used the term to refer to politico-religious tendencies in American society.

Chris Hedges and David Neiwert contend that the origins of American Christofascism date back to the Great Depression, when Americans first espoused forms of fascism that were "explicitly 'Christian' in nature".[11]:88 Hedges writes that "fundamentalist preachers such as Gerald B. Winrod and Gerald L. K. Smith fused national and Christian symbols to advocate the country's first crude form of Christo-fascism".[12] Smith's Christian Nationalist Crusade stated that a "Christian character is the basis of all real Americanism".[12] Hedges also believes that William Dudley Pelley was another prominent advocate of Christofascism.[11]:88

By the late 1950s, adherents of these philosophies founded the John Birch Society, whose policy positions and rhetoric have greatly influenced modern dominionists.[12] Likewise, the Posse Comitatus movement was founded by former associates of Pelley and Smith.[11]:90 The 1980s saw the founding of the Council for National Policy[12] and the Moral Majority[13][14] carry on the tradition, while the patriot and militia movements represented efforts to mainstream the philosophy in the 1990s.[11]:90

Incidents of anti-abortion violence, including the Atlanta and Birmingham bombings which were committed by Eric Rudolph and the assassination of George Tiller at his Wichita, Kansas church in 2009, have also been considered acts which were motivated by Christofascism.[11]:90–91[15]

The term caused controversy in 2007, when Melissa McEwan, a campaign blogger for then-presidential candidate John Edwards, referred to religious conservatives as "Christofascists" on her personal blog.[16][17]

In the 2010s, the movement became linked to objectivism, particularly in the economic sphere, in direct contravention of such Biblical passages as Luke 16:19-31 and (especially) Matthew 25:31-46, prompting allegations of hypocrisy from progressive critics. Ayn Rand's name frequently came up during the 2012 U.S. Presidential election as the inspiration for the economic policies of the Republican Party.

See also

Christian fascist movements in Europe dating to World War II:

References

Notes

  1. Sölle, Dorothee (1970). Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House.
  2. Hall, Douglas John (November 6, 1999). "Confessing Christ in a Post-Christendom Context". 1999 Covenant Conference, Network of Presbyterians. Atlanta, Georgia: Religion Online. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved December 21, 2007. ...shall we say this, represent this, live this, without seeming to endorse the kind of christomonism (Dorothee Sölle called it 'Christofascism'!...
  3. Pinnock, Sarah K. (2003). The Theology of Dorothee Soelle. Trinity Press International. ISBN 1-56338-404-3. ...of establishing a dubious moral superiority to justify organized violence on a massive scale, a perversion of Christianity she called Christofascism....
  4. Driver, Tom Faw (1981). Christ in a Changing World: Toward an Ethical Christology. Crossroad. pp. 19. ISBN 0-8245-0105-5. We fear Christofascism ...
  5. Knitter, Paul F. (July 1983). "Theocentric Christology". Theology Today. 40 (2): 142. doi:10.1177/004057368304000204. Dorothee Soelle can even describe much of Christology as "Christofascism" in the way it has disposed or allowed Christians to impose themselves upon not only other religions but other cultures and political parties which do not march under the banner of the final, normative, victorious Christ
  6. Hoffman, John Charles (1986). Law, Freedom, and Story: The Role of Narrative in Therapy, Society, and Faith. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 127–28. ISBN 0-88920-185-4.
  7. Wildman, Wesley J (1998). Fidelity With Plausibility: Modest Christologies in the Twentieth Century. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-3595-4. Driver argues that traditional Christology fosters what he calls ‘Christofascism.’ He means by this, first, the absolutizing of the past in order to...
  8. Hunsinger, George (2001). "Where the Battle Rages: Confessing Christ in America Today". Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth. Wm B Eerdmans Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 0-8028-4940-7.
  9. Rhee, Helen (2005). "Superiority of Christian Monotheism". Early Christian Literature: Christ and Culture in the Second and Third Centuries. Routledge. p. 80. ISBN 0-415-35487-0.
  10. Hall, Douglas John. "The Identity of Jesus in a Pluralistic World". Archived from the original (Microsoft Word) on 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  11. Neiwert, David A (May 1, 2009). The eliminationists: how hate talk radicalized the American right. PoliPoint Press. pp. 88–90. ISBN 978-0-9815769-8-5.
  12. Hedges, Chris (2008). American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Simon & Schuster. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-7432-8446-2.
  13. Welch, Sharon (2007). "Dangerous Memory and Alternate Knowledges". In Lawrence, Bruce B; Karim, Aisha (eds.). On violence: a reader. Duke University Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-8223-3756-0.
  14. Sölle, Dorothee (1990). The window of vulnerability: a political spirituality. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-2432-3.
  15. Zerbisias, Antonia (June 2, 2009). "Doctor's killing is domestic terrorism". The Star.
  16. Broder, John M. (February 9, 2007). "Edwards gets lesson in reconciling Internet culture with presidential campaign". The New York Times.
  17. Cooperman, Alan (June 2, 2007). "Obama Web Site Seeks to Rally The Faithful". The Washington Post.

Further reading

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