So...leftists are increasingly insufferable lately with their shrill accusations and hostility to anyone who doesn't think exactly like them. And we all know their latest rallying cry against the right. "Christofascists". "Christian nationalists." Even MTG embraced the term as a positive, causing the elft to think she's a nazi.
I am not intending to actually DEFEND any of these people. My stance on the Christian worldview should be clear. I fundamentally reject it. BUT, as an ex adherent to fundamentalist christianity, and arguably a former "Christian nationalist", I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding of terms here.
"Christian nationalists" want a CHRISTIAN NATION. They want us to be explicitly Christian, and have at minimum christian cultural influences permeating every aspect of society, if not an outright theocracy. David Noebel seemed to stop short of calling for an outright theocracy, pushing the "small government" mentality of "power is like the ring in the lord of the rings, you don't want to wield it or it will corrupt you."
But...we all know how well that works in practice. The christian right has been calling for the banning of abortion for 50 years. They've been calling for bringing prayer back into schools. They've continuously been against LGBT+ people in general. They do want to push their little agendas on us. In the school system. In society as a large. Even if they may not want an outright national church like the church of England, well, let's just say they stop JUST SHORT of that.
They believe that America is a Christian nation. They believe the founding fathers were christian and have a revisionist idea of history. And when people talk about "Christian nationalism", this is what's likely to come to mind when the name comes up.
But let's be honest, THIS IS NOT "FASCISM." The nazis were an explicitly racist movement that wanted an ethnostate. Now, that's not to say they can't form a coalition WITH christians. I mean, the nazis in germany did that. And nazism was once very popular in the US too, before WWII broke out.
BUT, as I understand the Christian worldview, they aren't going to be explicitly calling for racism in and of itself. Christians are going to say: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28). That's what Christians believe. Most of them anyway. Sure, you will get SOME who overlap with the nazi stuff. It happens. But on a fundamental level, the two are distinct ideologies. One is about religion. The other is about race.
Now, that's not to say that there can't be some overlap. The modern christian movement arose in the 1970s and 1980s around the same time period dog whistle politics became popular. And of course, given how wedded the Christian worldview is to conservatism, there is going to be some overlap there. It might come in the form of talking about how welfare and the breakdown of the traditional family unit are disasters for this country. And of course, given they're going to be talking about ghettos with families full of single moms collecting welfare, yeah, there are going to be some racist caricatures associated with that. I will concede that. BUT...again. That stuff isn't really the same kind of racism as FASCISM. They're not going to be calling for the extermination or removal of minorities or a white ethnostate.So let's not even conflate them in that sense.
Here's the thing. As we discussed, with understanding the times, Christians are insane individualists. All social problems are personal problems, with the answer to everything being we need more obedience to god in society. They literally reject the entire discipline of sociology. They don't believe social problems exist. They reject post modernism on principle. And this is where the left loses their crap. Because the left is very sociological. Especially the post modernists. Who are the ones most likely to run around screaming everything they don't like is racism. Because to them, racism is a structural problem with society, and if you aren't 100% on board with their ideology you're complicit and therefore a racist.They literally will say anyone who isn't actively anti racist is racist, which is why I get in so much trouble with them. Because how dare nuance exist.
Again, that's not to say overlap doesn't exist. It definitely does. I just feel like people are too quick to associate fundamentalist Christianity and crap like the recent ban on abortion with LITERAL FASCISM. They're two distinct movements and ideologies.
Quite frankly, this obsession on the left freaking out about fascism is just the same crap as the right screaming liberals are communists.
Now, can there be overlap between marxism and stuff like atheism, or some forms of liberalism? I mean, sure. But that doesnt mean that they aren't also distinct. Just as the right treats the various factions on the left as a multiheaded hydra, the left is doing the same, throwing accusations that everything they don't like is fascism.
Please don't make me have to defend the fundamentalist nutcases again. Seriously. I hate the fact that I have to actually stick up for one of my ideological enemies here, being a humanist who rejects organized religion and its belief systems with a passion, but...if yall are going to screw up THIS BAD, it will have to be done.
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