How A Couple Of Errors Can Sabotage Several Truths

Chris Hedges (click here for a bio) has recently written an article for Truthdig where he attempts to warn us of the dangers of Christian Fascism that he sees as being a significant movement in the Trump Administration. It isn't that we have reached a state of Christian Fascism now, it is that such is the goal of quite a few in that Administration and many of his supporters(click here for the article).

He blames this movement toward Christian Fascism on liberal Christianity for its tepid response to those religiously conservative Christians who support Trump.  By tepid he means any response that falls short of denouncing those Christians as heretics. They are heretics, according to Hedges, because they have sacrificed the core message of the Gospel, which, according to Hedges, is 'concern for the poor and oppressed,' for  promises of 'material wealth and power.'

At this point we need to stop because that is Hedges's first error. According to liberal Christianity, Hedges is correct. But liberal Christianity denies God's supernatural redemptive intervention in the world as recorded in the Scriptures and culminating with Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again from the dead. Because of that supernatural redemptive intervention, the core of the Gospel is God reconciling His people to Himself.

It isn't that concern for the poor and oppressed has been displaced by the Christian Gospel. Jesus instructs us to give to those who cannot give back because we are to lay up treasures in heaven. In addition, giving to the poor and oppressed is a reflection of how God has redemptively treated us. But concern for the poor and oppressed is the core of the liberal gospel because they do not believe in God having supernaturally redeemed His people.

Because of this error in defining the Gospel, Hedges has sabotaged his words from reaching the people who need to hear them the most: the religiously conservative Christians who support Trump. That is because of the authoritarianism in those believers. Hedges's error has totally discredited what else he has to say regardless of how true it is. What else does he say? He describes many of the religiously conservative Christians who follow Trump. He states that:

• they believe that God has used the white race as His agents
• they believe that imperialism by His agents partially cleansed the world of 'infidels' and evil
• they believe that God used Capitalism to bless the faithful
• they believe that God's use of Capitalism made it free from abusing others
• they conflated American nationalism and their faith
• and their narcissistic 'mega-pastors' became rich and ruled over their followers as cult leaders by using heresies

In addition,  he states that Trump is a reflection of his religious base. And his descriptions of both include a belief in 'white supremacy,'  having 'unfettered greed,' and a longing for violence.

For each of those descriptions listed above, there is at least a significant amount of truth. And yet those descriptions will never have a chance to be considered by those who need to hear them the most--the members of Trump religiously conservative Christian base.

The rest of the article speaks about the Christian fascism being ushered in by Trump's Administration. That is the second error in Hedges's article. It is not as critical an error as the first one. But it can be credibly denied by those Hedges regards as guilty.

I, myself, think Hedges goes to far in describing what is occurring as the beginning of Christian Fascism. It isn't that he is totally wrong, he just uses the wrong description when he calls it 'fascism.' It isn't that some religiously conservative Christians are not seeking places of significant control in order to expand the rule of their Christianity, they are. It is that I view what Hedges describes signs of a coming Christian fascism as just bones tossed to the religiously conservative Christian community to keep them in the fold. In other words, these religiously conservative Christian followers of Trump are being played. That is because, as usual, money rules the government, not people or their beliefs.

Yes, we could be heading toward a fascism. But what we are heading toward is not a Christian Fascism, but the kind of autocratic strongman rule that we see in Russia today. Basically, Russia is our future. And Russia does not have an Orthodox Christian Fascism exerting power over the country despite the close ties between the Orthodox Church and Putin's government.