Too many Americans didn’t pay attention in their high school history classes, and therefore aren’t all that clear about what fascism is. Which is understandable: Too few history books define it, and too many historians insist, “Well it’s not really that; it’s more like this.”
- NATIONALISM—defining “Italian” by race, and insisting all “non-Italians” conform or get out;
- AUTARCHY—a self-sufficient economy which needs nothing from other countries;
- HIERARCHY—the wealthy or noble are the proper leaders of society, men should rule over women, and traditional gender roles should be enforced;
- CONTINUAL WARTIME STATUS—the nation should be on high alert against any enemies, with everyone contributing to national defense;
- LIMITED RIGHTS—and in some cases eliminated rights for undesirables.
In general, fascists think we have too much freedom, and this freedom permits people to be immoral. Well they wanna fight “immorality”—however they define it, and they have some really wide definitions. They’ll consider entire religions and entire political parties, “immoral.”
If you grew up
And if you didn’t flee those cults and their fruitless, godless behavior, but instead adopted their mindset, and even try to perpetuate it in your own family and church, you might even think it’d be good for the country as a whole. In other words, you’d be fascist too.
This is why fascism has always had a foothold in the United States. Always; the mindset predates Mussolini. It’s been around since the very beginning, when some of the first English colonies were created to be little religious oligarchies where Puritans (or Baptists, or Catholics) ruled. Thankfully the United States ultimately adopted the Quaker worldview of religious freedom. But y’notice a lot of Fundies chafe at this idea—because to their minds, the Puritans, not the Quakers, had the right and “biblical” idea. The U.S. was founded as, and oughta still be, a Christian nation, with all non-Christians required to either conform to Christian principles or get out. And the government should have the power to enforce it—a power which includes imprisonment and death.
Now don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not writing this to alarm you—“The fascists are coming—the fascists are everywhere!—we gotta fight them before they gain power!” They’ve always been here. But way more Americans are antifascist (“antifa” for short) than not. I’m writing this to inform you. Like herpes, fascism is a problem which will never really go away, but there are steps we can take to tamp it down really hard, and make sure it doesn’t consume us.
And it starts by knowing about one of its most popular breeding grounds: Cults.
Cults aren’t democratic, y’know.
The Fundamentalist church I grew up attending, practiced direct democracy. We had monthly membership meetings, and voted on stuff. Everybody had a say in how things ran. True, democracy isn’t a church governance structure described in the New Testament… but when your church members are
Now that’s my old Fundie church. Not every Fundamentalist church lets people have a say. Cults absolutely don’t. Sometimes they pretend everybody can speak their mind, but that’s
And no surprise, it’s a fascist dictatorship. It’s got tight borders, and won’t allow just anyone to join the church. It’s got a hierarchy, and with very rare exceptions (say, when the dictator’s a woman—and not always even then!)
It gets away with being authoritarian and fruitless, by pointing to
No surprise, the head pastor is nearly always
And if that doesn’t work… cheat. Because we gotta stop America from being destroyed by its enemies within. So (exactly like all the Christians in popular End Times novels who regularly lie, cheat, and steal in order to battle
Yeah, cults and fascists aren’t all that moral either. Should this surprise us?
Enemies to Christianity.
While a lot of Christians might unthinkingly figure, “Well what’s so bad about becoming a more Christian nation? What’s wrong with the government promoting Christian morals, brotherly love, more piety, more devotion, more compassion?”
Oh there’s nothing wrong with those things! But if you think that’s what Christian nationalists are all about, man alive do they have you fooled. They don’t pursue power, by hook or by crook, so they can promote
Take a look at the Christian nationalists we’ve already elected to office. You see any good fruit in them?—that is, assuming you’ve taken an honest, fair look at them, and aren’t looking at them
When they talk about promoting Christianity, and demoting other religions, is this the sort of behavior which demonstrates any form of love towards the people of those other religions? Any sort of grace, which might get pagans to compare the absence of grace in their own lives, and be drawn to Jesus as a result? Any sort of kindness, which—even if they never become Christian themselves—makes them say, “Oh, Christians are the kindest, most generous, most forgiving, most amazing people”? It’s the reputation we absolutely should have, but is this the Christianity we see among cultists? Not in the slightest. Nor is it the Christianity we see among fascists either.
So it’s all kinds of stupid for us to vote them into power. They’re just gonna spread more
