“When
fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
That phrase is often attributed to Sinclair Lewis,
although it doesn’t appear in any of his writing, or any recorded interview. It
might be a paraphrase of similar words from Huey Long, governor of Louisiana (1928-1932),
and a US senator thereafter until his assassination in 1935. But anyone who has
read Lewis’s books Elmer Gantry and It can’t happen here can easily believe
the quote came from him.
Regardless of who wrote or said it, he or she
couldn’t have been more prescient.
Most
people in the West have bemoaned the rise of religious extremism in Muslim
countries, largely because they haven’t been paying attention. Extremism
throughout the Muslim world has a long history – we just didn’t hear about it
much because no one in those countries flexed their muscles in a way that
bothered us. Once they did, we suddenly realized there might be a problem. Some
Westerners have started, then, to breathe a sigh of relief with the
pro-democracy movement sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East, and stemming
almost entirely from secular forces.
And
that makes it easier for the real threat to be ignored.
The
real threat is us – North Americans - more in the United States than Canada,
but present to a very uncomfortable degree in both places. The US might not yet
have reached the Western equivalent of a Muslim tyranny, but it’s well on the
way. In a smaller, and less obvious, way, Canada is in lock step right behind
them.
Bible
thumping zealots fill both houses of Congress in the US, and it’s not altogether
certain that it doesn’t also fill the White House. Ronald Reagan was a
right-wing religious zealot, and so was his successor George Bush. Bill Clinton
might have been an anomaly, but I expect he could proselytize with the best of
them. George Bush, the second coming, was quite clear that he ran for the
presidency because of a calling from God. Well, hallelujah; nice call, God.
Only the heavens know what Barack Obama thinks. And what of possible candidate
Sarah Palin? If God has called on her, that should be clear proof that there IS
no God.
It
isn’t hard to see that the dividing line between church and state has been
smudged in the US. And, every day, it is estimated that at least 140 million
Americans are listening to, or watching, more than a thousand revivalist hellfire
and damnation broadcasters. And these men and women aren’t just preaching the
‘good book’ – they’re dictating politics. How much longer can it take before
these god-fearing pilgrims turn the US into a theocracy?
Even
the casual observer can see that the US is in the throes of a Christian furor
that grips the country’s daily life, that leads it into wars that have no other
purpose than to export a crazed Christian ideal, that demands any candidate for
public office declare obeisance to some severe interpretation of the Bible. And
in the hands of the zealots, we can see concrete evidence of the adage that
‘the Bible is just like a man; torture it long enough and it will tell you whatever
you want to hear.’
In
Canada, the message is much quieter – but every bit as insistent. Many
Canadians look smugly toward our southern neighbours, grateful that the pastor-driven
politics of the US isn’t happening here. And our lamestream media misses the
story altogether. They are all wrong.
We
have our own form of Christian nationalism, and while it might not be quite so
loud and raucous, it is every bit as pernicious and dangerous. Our current
prime minister, Stephen Harper, has opened wide the door to conservative
evangelism. Canadian investigative journalist Marci McDonald believes Harper
and his acolytes will not stop short of “a
Christian nation [in which] non-believers … have no place, and those in
violation of biblical law, notably homosexuals and adulterers, would merit
severe punishment and the sort of shunning that once characterized a society
where suspected witches were burned.” [1]
McDonald plots Harper’s decade-long dance on the political
tightrope, leading to the majority government he finally achieved last month. A
former party leader, Stockwell Day, watched his credibility dissolve when he
publicly announced that he was a Creationist. But from that fiasco, Harper rose
as the voice of secularism and tolerance. He is anything but, as he soon began
to build a coalition that would bring together libertarians and evangelicals,
and would steal away Catholics and ethnic conservatives from the traditional
Liberal Party ranks [note that’s the name of the party, not an indicator of its
views]. He has appointed evangelicals to key positions within the government
and advisory bodies, and manipulated judiciary panels to influence the law.
What is particularly worrisome is that before the end of his current term, he
will have the opportunity to replace seven of the nine Supreme Court judges
with people of his choosing. Justices here do not have to endure the scrutiny
that similar appointments in the US must endure, they just go through a
friendly chat with a small group of Parliamentarians – it’s almost like a
welcoming committee.
Evangelical Christians in Canada maintain a distance
from their American counterparts. But there are Canadian parallels to the
university programs in the US that funnel their minions into government. The
schools in each country bristle at the comparison, but they are strikingly
similar.
Now all of this might not matter a great deal,
except for one thing: The evangelists are eager for the end of the world. And
they are going to do their level best to get us there, dammit. This is true on
both sides of the border.
One of the core beliefs of these folks is that the Armageddon
foretold in the Bible is almost here and will soon explode in a
world-destroying conflict between good and evil. The upright (them) will be
spared the dreadful fate of the evildoers (all the rest of us) and they’ll rise
up to Heaven where they can sit at God’s side and snicker gleefully as he
annihilates all those enemies down here on Earth. If you believe this, you are
likely to think a nuclear holocaust is a good thing and should be encouraged,
not prevented.
This is one of the primary, if seldom articulated,
reasons for the unquestioning support both the US and Canada give to Israel.
They see a conflagration in the Middle East as getting us to that promised land
of the final destruction.
While we’re still awaiting that glorious day,
though, the upright are committed to perpetuating God’s divine free-market
capitalism. After all, God smiles on the billionaires and the industrialists
while condoning the poverty of billions of people, whom he purportedly loves.
Clearly, hunger and poverty befall working people as the punishment for their
weaknesses and their lack of virtue.
And who are we to argue with the Creator himself?
But f you want a ticket on the rapture bus, you’re
going to have to sign up pretty soon.
[1] The Armageddon Factor - Marci McDonald, 2010
Paul Richard Harris is an Axis of Logic editor and
columnist, based in Canada. He can be reached at paul@axisoflogic.com
Read the Biography and additional articles by Axis
Columnist, Paul Richard Harris