American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

I found this book to quite frightening because while being a christian myself I have often found the hard line views of the christian right to be not only repugnant but a violation of democratic ideals.They propose returning to what they call is a christian nation and yet fail to misunderstand that the founding fathers of America put a barrier between church and state for the very protection of the nation itself for hat I believe was to ensure that all human being irregardless of their race or religion would be treated equally and if one religion organisation was running of the country it would automatically see those a not of their own religion as a threat to there authority just like the catholic church saw the Cathars and the idea of living in a world run by these christian fundamentalists is quite scary considering what some of them propose.The book begins with the author stating out by talking about his early life and about how his father was a priest who supported the civil-rights movement which was highly unpopular in his rural area and who then worked a gay-rights activist and who found out when his son's college had no gay and lesbian organization he got his son (the author of this book) to setup a gay and lesbian organization even though he wasn't gay himself.In the same chapter it also talks about faith and how there are many violent passages in the bible and how these passages are used by bigots to justify their bigotry and how until the Church's of the world step in to the debate that these passage will be used evil people to promote evil things.The book then moves on to how the Christian right helped to get George W Bush elected and the power and political influence that it has within the republican party and how they promote a culture of despair that prey on the disillusioned and troubled people of society but offering them the solutions to their problems if only they listen to their pastor or donate money to the tv pastors who themselves are rich and take money of these poor people give in the hope that God will help them.It talks about how this new culture of dominionist are attempting to destroy democracy from within (hence the title America fascist) and replace it with a totalitarian one in which the male pastors are seen as the leader of society and represent gods authority and as such we are supposed to do what they say.Dominionism is a ideology that proposes that all Christians should work towards either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by conservative christian understanding of Biblical law and considering the things I have heard conservative christians say like for instance the Westboro Baptist Church I shudder to think what it would be like to live in society dictated by these people.It also talks about how the reason that gay and lesbians are hated within the christian right is because they violate their idea of what a man and woman should be and sign a man is supposed to masculine the idea of a gay man is repugnant to them.One of the most explosive truths present in this book is the christian right relationship to white supremacist groups including individual such as Jerry Falwell who was a racist who in his sermon attacked not only the civil rights movement but also promoted racism against African Americans who in the 90's conveniently changed his tune.The crescendo of this book is the leadup to apocalyptic violence that this group proposes and what it will lead to. These dominionists promote a violent end of times war and that the whole non-christian world is against them creating an ideology to the followers that they are under attack by the whole world and how someone cannot be a liberal and a christian at the same time which is very similar to the belief that the wahhabi extremist terrorist groups (such as al qaeda) and there followers propose.The books then ends with by with a letter by Mr Hedges ethics teacher who in a letter about WW2 pointed that American who had resisted the Nazi Regime but who were racist against african american and Jews hada very similar if not the same racial ideologies of racial superiority and thus if it was so what was the point in them having fought against the Nazis if not to topple their government based on racial superiority.The reason the above letter is so important is because the christian right has often promoted intolerance towards homosexual, Muslims, Jews and used this idea of values just like the Nazi's used in Germany to undermine the civil rights of the people in order to promote their view of how a government should be and pass marshall law.These right wing dominionists are a threat to America's democracy and are trying to undermine it at every turn and they use the ideology of values to do just like the nazi's did to promote their violently intolerant views on issues and call for exclusion, intolerance and cruelty all in the name of God.All in all this was a great book and essential to understanding how dangerous and pervasive this ideology really is.

I wish I had written this book: It is so good and its about time. For years I've been watching the war of attrition against the United States of America waged by Christofacist fanatics, and growing too, and not found a way to do anything about it. One's life as a citizen is personal, not theoretical. I know it, but for years as I've traveled back and forth across the country, I've felt out of place, out of step, and since it is virtually impossible for me to hold my tongue in any dispute, I've withdrawn into a shell rather than offend a widening group of citizens who simply refuse not only to see the danger, but refuse to act. You cannot cope with a danger if you do not recognize its existence."There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies." Walter Lipmann.That's only one of the many quotes Hedges uses in this book. The Bibliography is wonderful, and as a kind of demonstration of the depth of Hedges' inquiry, I want to cite some of the books from which he quotes.THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: Karl PopperINSTITUTES OF BIBLICAL LAW: RushdoonyANATOMY OF FASCISM: Robert O. PaxtonTHE POLITICS OF CULTURAL DESPAIR: A study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology, by Fritz SternLEFT BEHIND: A series of apocalyptic Christian novels, by Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. JenkinsLIFE TOGETHER: Dietrich BonhoefferMALE FANTASIES: Klaus TherweleitTHE BOOK OF JERRY FALWELL: Susan Friend HardingTHE RAPE OF THE MIND: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing, by Joost A. M. MeerlooANGELS IN AMERICA: Tony KushnerA PARENTS GUIDE TO PREVENTING HOMOSEXUALITY: Dr. Joseph Nicolosi & Linda Ames NicolosiTHE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM: Hannah ArendtCROWDS AND POWER: Elias CanettiETERNAL FASCISM: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt, by Umberto EcoTHE GREAT AWAKENING: Stephen D. O'LearyI wish I could fund a movement to give copies of this book to every student that enters any Civics class. (Assuming Civics is still taught. I'm fairly sure it is in public schools, though I doubt it is in private or parochial ones. I don't imagine Home Schoolers teach anything like Civics. Why would you when you're teaching your children to avoid society?) Is it an angry book? Michelle Goldberg, interviewing the author for SALON suggests to him that it well may be. He responded: "Good. My father remains the most important influence on my life, an he was a Presbyterian minister, a devout CHristian. I quote Reinhold Niebuhr saying, 'Religion is a good thing for good people and a bad thing for bad people.' I wouldn't describe myself as paricularly pious but I certainly would describe myself as religious. And when I see how these people are manipulating the Christian religion for personal empowerment and wealth and for the destruction of the very values that I think are embodied in the teachings of Jesus Christ, I'm angry." I'm angry too, for though I'm not a Christian, I always try to behave like one. And, because I love Democracy I'm afraid I'm in for a rough (or rougher) time with the Christofascists on the march. Well, the first Christians found the strength to face lions. Having lived for a time in the Bible Belt, I guess I can face down a few fanatics. Time to get busy.

Chris Hedges is one of the most perceptive and provocative cultural critics on the scene today. I have devoted much of my Summer reading this year to his works, and have come away from them rather shell-shocked, but exercised in all the right ways by his insights into the various threats to Shalom posed by the hard right and its alliance with "corporate culture" and militarism.That having been said, I have discerned that Hedges sometimes misses important distinctions and nuances, and can fall into the very binary thinking he often excoriates. This fine exposé of the fundamentalist-Christian agenda provides salient examples (though others may be found elsewhere in his extensive corpus of writings). Though Hedges has a seminary education and seems to have authentically Christian bearings, I found that he often ignores alternatives that lie between the extremes of biblical literalism and a wholly "de-mythologized" modernism. However, there are many theological and ecclesiastical traditions that sport a robust Trinitarian theism while affirming progressive social causes such as gender equality and gay marriage, and embracing the discoveries of modern science, including evolution. In short, he tends to ignore an option of what might be called "progressive orthodoxy." And that is not an oxymoron, but a living faith for many, including this writer. So the choice, religiously speaking, is not a binary one, nor do all fundamentalists wear black hats and all theological "liberals" white ones (though to his credit, Hedges gives sympathetic portrayals of individual fundamentalist believers and their existential predicaments, while occasionally giving a nod to the older, less politicized evangelicalism in the person of Luis Palau).This caveat aside, I would strongly recommend this book, and indeed all of Hedges' works, to those who are dismayed by current and alarming symptoms of cultural decline and socioeconomic injustice in the USA. With a presidential election year on the horizon, it is imperative that thoughtful voters be made aware of the "totalitarian" tendencies inherent in the Christian right's pernicious (and historically insupportable) myth of a "Christian America."Postscript: After writing this review it occurred to me to put in a plug for an author who exemplifies the fast-vanishing "center" of the religious spectrum. Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) was one of the great Christian thinkers of recent times. The fact that he was a Catholic and a Jesuit might arouse the suspicions of some readers, but a serious encounter with his massive contribution to philosophy and theology will richly reward the effort to persevere through his often difficult but profoundly insightful writings. In particular, he develops a method for diagnosing and reversing cultural dysfunction that explains more fully our current situation than Hedges' thoughtful, but more "ad hoc" (and occasionally tendentious) analysis. Furthermore, Lonergan's way of showing how seamless is the connection between the dynamics of scientific understanding (as it is practices by the mainstream disciplines) and a theistic worldview provides an antidote to both fundamentalist obscurantism and the despair engendered by a naturalism that must confront an inexplicable and indifferent cosmos. Finally, i would encourage readers who are not theologically inclined to check out Lonergan's magnum opus, *Insight*; a properly philosophical inquiry into the dynamics of human understanding that does not presuppose commitment to any "historical faith." Lonergan's effort was always to inhabit a "not too numerous center" avoided by the "hard right" and "scattered left." If a commentary or general introduction to his thought is desired, I can strongly recommend Joseph Flanagan's *Quest for Self-Knowledge*.

I will never forget my first impressions of a multi-level marketing rally I attended in 1982. It was a warm and sunny late summer day. I was surrounded by hundreds of clean-shaven young men wearing navy-blue sport coats, white shirts and red ties. Sporting a beard and wearing a brown sweater over a yellow golf shirt, I felt completely out of place. The rhetoric of the speakers was intense, the reactions of the audience members were equally intense. It was clear that we weren’t merely talking about the prospect of making a few extra dollars by selling household products. It was a poignant lesson in the power of top-down conformity and group-think.Chris Hedges wrote about top-down conformity, group-think, faith, conversion techniques, hyper-masculinity and other timely topics in American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Published in 2006, American Fascists, is a snapshot of the evangelical Christian movement at the beginning of the new century. There have been dozens of books and scholarly articles written about Christian fundamentalism in the past quarter century – but American Fascists is well researched and organized into ten chapters built upon common traits that all right-leaning theologies have in common.Hedges, a classic American Sourpuss – has the man ever cracked a full smile? – paints a dire picture of America’s future, IF the leaders of Christian fundamentalism ever get a firm grip on the levers of political power. Given the benefit of hindsight, Mr. Hedges may have overstated the size, scope and influence of the religious right. Church attendance continues to decline, both in terms of real numbers and the percentage of the overall population.However. Alabama lawmakers are set to allow a church to create its own police force, which might be the first such law enforcement organization in the country. A bill in the Alabama Legislature would let a church in suburban Birmingham make an unprecedented move - establish its own police force. Critics say the bill isn't constitutional and vow to fight it.Furthermore: The first clue that Donald Trump would embed the extremist views of Christian fundamentalism in his Cabinet was his appointment of the utterly unqualified Betsy DeVos to the post of Education Secretary.Robert P. Jones (The End of White Christian America) believes the influence of the religious right is slowly waning. Their leaders will still be able to influence elections in the deep south and rural Midwest, but, hopefully, their national power will be neutralized by newer, more rational voices emerging from the evangelical ranks and by the implosion of the Trump Presidency.American Fascists is a very polarizing book, as evidenced by the one-sentence negative reviews posted here. Nonetheless, it is an important addition to our understanding of religion, religious leaders, people of faith and the relationship between religion and politics in America.

This is doubtless one of the most frightening but truest, most thought-provoking, most important books I have read this year, right alongside Al Gore's The Assault on Reason The Assault on Reason. It confirmed, with extensive citation and quotes from the very ones propagating this dangerous agenda, what I was already aware of, but try my best to assume more benevolence of. I have long been conscious of the intolerance of the Christian right of those who are different from themselves, who have differing beliefs or customs or backgrounds or desires. I had no idea how much political influence they had until the 2004 election; I was so sure that Kerry had it in the bag, when I heard how many people had gone out to vote, until I learned that the bulk of those unexpected voters were evangelists who cared more about making sure homosexuals were denied equal rights and eradicating the right to choice than protecting their own rights as workers and as citizens, protecting their own financial interests, ending a senseless and costly war. That election sent shivers down my spine, and indeed I left the country for a year and a half after that--for unrelated reasons, but it made me glad to leave.Now I am back; a new election is underway, and I see the Christian Right's influence more and more every day. They are the largest special interest group in the country, and they seek to destroy American democracy and the Constitution in its very name. I am terrified that if McCain and his right-wing VP pick win, we will be making still more concessions to this group whose ultimate goal is the repression and eventual eradication of all people who are not among their ranks. Hedges does nothing to assuage my fears--indeed, he stokes them. I am more afraid than I have ever been. Reading the way Christian textbooks have rewritten history and science to make it agree with their narrow beliefs, the way they promote intolerance towards other countries and other religions--there could not be a more appropriate title for the book than the one it has. His comparison of the dominionists to other totalitarian movements, including Islamic fundamentalist movements, communism, Nazism, Mussolini-fascism, ring extremely true. The parallels are clear, and he supports his claims with quotes from the mouths and the literature of those in charge of these movements, as well as including plenty of insight into the minds of those following blindly in these movements that seek to subjugate them and remove their rights. They fight avidly for their own repression. It's incredible, yet true.An excellent book. I highly recommend it to anyone. The fact that Hedges comes from a religious background himself--having completed Harvard Divinity seminary--makes it all the more credible; one cannot dismiss it as a mere attack on religion by an atheist fundamentalist. I myself am an atheist, but I have always respected the rights of others to practice their own religions, whether or not I feel they actually benefit society in any meaningful way when compared to their destructive force. Then again, equally repressive regimes have been built in opposition to religion, so I suppose it is human nature ultimately that makes man strive for his own subjugation and destruction.A must-read...especially in these crucial times, when yet another President is about to be elected. I only wish it would be read more widely before November than it probably will be.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on AmericaDuring the tenure of George W Bush, after a group cycling effort, a conservative friend (I am liberal) asked me if I knew why we went to war in Iraq. I muttered something about muddled intelligence to which he replied, “no, your wrong.” He said we were in Iraq because of abortion. Incredulous, I asked how. He replied that Bush received the evangelical vote because he was pro-life rather than the Pro-choice of Gore. In that contested election, it was all that mattered.We have just had another contested election where the winner received the electoral vote majority, but not the popular, with the evangelical block and the forgotten remnants of much of middle America voting for the current occupant of the Oval Office. In Chris Hedges American Fascists The Christian Right and the War on America, he explains the mobilization of the evangelicals as a gigantic religious block. When one understands this book was published in 2006, it becomes rather frightening to see how far we have since slid.Hedges Ethics professor at Harvard, Dr James Luther Adams wrote, “Human history is not the struggle between religion and irreligion, it is veritably a battle of faiths, a battle of the gods who claim human allegiance. Almost 40 years ago, “Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion...who’s stated goal was to use the United States to create a global Christian empire.”There is appeal in this movement to the disavowed and forgotten in our society. There is a despair and loss of hope that leads those desperate in life into the embrace of those who promise miracles and glory. When there is nowhere else to turn, these desperate Americans are turning to the world of miracles and magic “mediated by those who grow rich off those who suffer.”Years ago, I accompanied a friend to the Willow Creek mega church in South Barrington, Illinois. It was my first, and next to last visit to what I refer to as industrialized religion. These mega churches are becoming more and more prevalent in our country, and Hedges documents the hypocrisy of their pastors and the message they emit. Hedges submits that the”business” of Trinity Broadcasting, and the partners who have become rich, such as the Paul and Jan Crouches, Pat Robertson, and Benny Hinns have grown wealthy, building extravagant “media and personal empires on the gospel of prosperity.” Young believers are indoctrinated to follow biblical rather than secular law.The Ohio pastor Rod Parsley lives in a 7500 square foot house worth more than $1,000,000. He collects millions by promoting a gospel of prosperity, and has written, “one of the first reasons for poverty is a lack of knowledge of God and His word, and the Bible says that to withhold the tithe (Parsley collects ten percent of the salaries from his flock, a majority who live modestly)is to rob God.” Parsley also sells covenant swords and prayer cloths which he claims, “will bring the buyer freedom from financial troubles as well as from physical or emotional ailments.”Hedges exposes the chicanery of those promoting religion and exploitation of those who follow them. Though the pages of American Fascists Hedges guides the reader through the wreckage of what was once good and compassionate about Christian religion and how those at the tiller, “this group of religious utopians, with the sympathy and support of tens of millions of Americans, are slowly dismantling democratic institutions to establish a religious tyranny, the springboard or an American fascism.” Using the 2008 Obama quote in its full context, “You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” The religious right capitalizes not on the quote, but parasitizes the people who have fallen upon long hard times. Hedges documents this tragedy in a very readable book, that has foreshadowed our last presidential election.As an aside, though never very religious in the past, nor at all now, I wonder what the Jesus of whom I was taught, would have to say about the current leaders of the religious right, and the splendor in which they live, all the while exploiting those who have fallen upon hard times. “It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (This quote is found in Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, and Luke 18:25.)

An important book with a message that needs to be heard. Unfortunately, this book alternates between a lengthy jeremiad against against religeo-fascism and a much needed inside look at the personalities and politics of the movement. I wish there was less of the former and more of the latter, since most who read this book wouldn't bother if they weren't already in complete agreement that religeo-fascism is an alarming trend in America.I bought and am reading this book because I want to know exactly who these people are who claim to speak for/with G-d and call for a "Christian America" and what exactly that term means to them. The pages that address those topics are what make this book worthwhile. Unfortunately, the author also takes many pages to describe his own upbringing and faith in a more mainstream "liberal" church. He seems to do this in part to establish his credentials, and in part to serve as a backdrop with which to compare the churches and doctrines of the radical religious right. I consider both unecessary and wish he had instead used that space to tell us more about the history of the radical Christian right, its people, and its plans to overtake America, because the sections that do deal with this tend to be very good indeed. I found that this constant mixing of hard journalism with what amount to essays on the author's on views about religion and political life distract the narrative and make it seem haphazard in places.This book leaves me especially hungry to learn more about the ties between the radical Christian right and large corporate interests. The book reminds us of this connection repeatedly, even mentioning a "vast underground network of support", but leaves my hungry for specific examples. The paragraphs on secretive Council for National Policy is a good start, but only leaves me hungry to learn more. I wish that Mr. Hedges might have followed the stereotypical advice of the good detective and devoted a little more space to "following the money". The fine book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) also mentions ties between the radical Christian right and the food processing industry and again, I am especially hungry to learn more about this connection between the large corporations, especially in industries that exploit cheap labor, and the radical Christian right. Let's have details, names and numbers! (Just kidding, I don't want anyone to get hurt; I just want to know what brands and franchises to avoid giving my business to. ;)So this book is both a must-read for what it contains and frustrating for what it doesn't go into enough detail about. Nevertheless, I'll give it five stars because I want as many people as possible to read it.

I have mixed feelings about this and so makles it hard to rate. Some things are clearly wrong, but other things it is right on. I am a true bible believing christian myself, but this author doesn't believe the bible and attacks some of the major core beliefs about it, like creation. But this was right on when exposing the dominionists as frauds who twist the bible for their own purpose. The bible itself exposes Satan as the original twister of scripture like when Satan tempted Jesus to jump from a high pinacle because God's angels would protect him from dashing his foot against a stone to which Jesus countered by saying not to put God to the test. So these dominionists who pretend to be christian truly serve Satan by how they try to twist scripture to fit their agenda. I do recommend this book not for the author's own beliefs, but only as far as exposing the theocratic right agenda. The last chapter is really great in such parallels by comparisons to the nazis. I can vouch for that stuff as I had been reading up on Hitler, and had been finding out through various sources. Hitler's regime was basically a rightwing theocracy. I have found out that 95% of the german churches supported him. In all intellectual honesty you cannot get that much support from churches if you are a professed atheist or whatever. I have seen websites that show pictures of the religious nazi propaganda, like beltbuckles that say "God with us" in german. So these lying revisionists not only lie about the american past but also about Hitler, as well as the dark ages. You can recognize these liars by what they choose to avoid and try to cover up. Like that saying goes that those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. I have grown up in both christian and public schools and all their history are nearly all lies of propaganda. In fact in some christian schools you never seen such idolatry of the american flag. But as author Sinclair Lewis warned that when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. But despite the author's unbelief in the bible ironically defends it by exposing how the dominionists are themselves unbiblical, without love. All throughout the new testament there are no such commands to dominate or to kill, but the exact opposite of willing to give our lives, and as Jesus said that no servant is greater than his master. These religious liars think they are better than Christ and they arrogantly defy him at every point. Even Paul instructed us to live at peace with all men as much as possible. But these imposters know no peace because they are not of God and do not have the peace of God. Nor do they have any fruits of the Spirit. How can such deceive anyone who truly reads the bible and not see the glaring contradictions? And even though the book of Revelation is about the judgment of God, it is God alone who executes wrath. He doesn't need help from hypocrites like these dominionists. Like Jesus said that he that is without sin cast the first stone. God is without sin and therefore has the right to judge. These abomnations don't but they themselves will face a most severe judgment as in Matthew 24:51. So it is ironic that those who claim to act as the wrath of God are themselves the very target of his wrath when he returns. What poetic justice for such abominable hypocrites.

OK, this book speaks for itself.....err....yep.....read this one and it will make sense!

Thank you

Now this is a book everyone should read

An interesting analysis of the mutual interests of the religious right,big business and right wing politics in the US.It also examines the hidden anti-democratic agenda of the religious right as well as the alleged subterfuge used in attempting to realize its vision for setting up a christian theocracy in America and what it might mean for those who do not share its values.

We might assume that the right-wing Christian nationalist dream is waning in America, but Chris Hedges does not. Touring around the country he finds an undimminished movement for a full-blown theocratic state. As he quotes James Kennedy,"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As vice-regents of God, we are to execize godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports areanas, our entertainment media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society" (p. 58)Hedges travels widely to hear great speakers, attend seminars and visit with radical fundamentalists. He offers some understanding, or perhaps pity, towards these people's needs for order, direction, certitude and righteousness in a chaotic society. But this sympathy is limited by a conviction that these people are pushing his country towards totalitarian fascism. He notes that the Dominionist agenda calls for a restoration of harsh ancient laws from before the time of Jesus or of modern Judaism: the death penalty for adultery, homosexuality, blasphemy, incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, unchastity before marriage. Beyond this Hedges sees a regressive agenda to make Christianity more supportive of powerful economic interests:"... When it is faith alone that will determine your wellbeing, when faith alone cures illness, overcomes emotional distress, and ensures financial and physical security, there is no need for outside, secular institutions, for social service and regulatory agencies to exist. ... To put trust in secular institutions is to lack faith, to give up on God's magic and miracles. The message being preached is one that dovetails with the message of neoconservatives who want to gut and destroy federal programs, free themselves from government regulations and taxes and break the back of all organizations, such a labor unions, that seek to impede maximum profit." (p. 179)Naturally, in attacking the intollerance of particular people Hedges seems to accuse all serious Christians of harboring fascist tendencies. But while sometimes scattering his shots widely, he usually tries to distinguish among different kinds of Christians, and he affirms those who respect religious freedom:"While traditional fundamentalism shares many of the darker traits of the new movement -- such as blind obedience to a male heirarchy that often claims to speak for God, intollerance towards non-believers, and disdain for rational, intellectual inquiry -- it has never attempted to impose its' belief system on the rest of the nation. And it has not tried to transform government, as well as all other secular institutions, into and extension of the church." (p.13)Most interestingly, Hedges seems to dismiss liberal Christians as ineffectual in the fight to preseve freedom. He looks instead to Christians of a more traditional nature, such as evangelicals the likes of Billy Graham, who value compassion, mercy, and personal faith over self-righteous intollerance:"The most potent opposition to the movement may come from within the evangelical tradition. The radical fundamentalist movement must fear these Christians, who have remained loyal to the core values of the Gospel, who delineate between right and wrong, who are willing to be villified and attacked in the name of a higher good and who have the courage to fight back. Most liberals, the movement has figured out, will stand complacently to be sheared like sheep, attempting to open dialogue and reaching out to those who spit venom in their faces." (p.34-35)--author of Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing the Story