A New American Fascism?
How Christian reactionaries threaten democracy
Go far enough left or right and fall into the abyss.
The far left has gained many victories over the years, and therefore many critics. Those include progressives and conservatives. But, they also include reactionaries.
Some fixate on the far left and are blindsided by the menace on the other side.
Revolution breeds reaction. For every revolutionary, there will be a reactionary. They oppose each other, as well as any form of moderation.
To avert extremists onslaught, progressives and conservatives must cooperate.
They do not only compliment each other but require each other. Without a culture to build upon, progress is impossible. Without progress, culture cannot be created, and never preserved.
Unfortunately, revolutionaries and reactionaries are also symbiotic.
The far left and far right dislike one another, but rely on the other side to radicalize their own. Antipathy towards communists breeds fascists, and vice versa. They are akin to a codependent couple of which the one eventually subdues the other.
Busy “woke”-bashing, conservatives overlook their own traitors.
A serious threat lurks amongst the Right. In the Weimar Republic, the National Socialists claimed to offer the sole alternative to communism. In the United States, reactionaries claim to offer the sole alternative to “wokeness”.
They have bound together under a surprising institution: Christianity.
“Wokeness” pursues a future utopia that will never be realized. Christian nationalism pursues a past utopia that never existed. Both are inherently misguided.
Although it has yet to become a unified movement, Christian nationalism has a core tenet.
It elevates religious orthodoxy over individual freedom.
This explains their hostility to secular government. In a liberal society, individuals may choose their belief systems. Christian nationalists wish to infringe upon this right.
Since they believe the only good life is a Christian life, anyone they impose it upon is held to be done a favor.
It is typical of the reactionary to regard present culture as a sickness, and the culture of old as its only antidote. To Christian nationalists, enforced faith is the only remedy for modern decadence. This requires abolishing the separation of church and state.
Andrew Torba and Andrew Isker, authors of the book Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations, preach:
“We can and must reclaim and maintain our townships, school boards, and counties. Then our state legislatures. Then the entire nation.”
They continue:
“In order to do so we must exit the beast system completely and build our own parallel Christian society, lying in wait for their system to collapse which is when the Godly infrastructure we have built will fill the vacuum.”
This implies political insurrection through (cultural) warfare.
Torba and Isker are not Christian nationalism’s only gurus.
Charles Haywood, a shampoo mogul, founded the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR). He is the central node in an informal network of ideologues with increasing influence. Haywood’s outlook is not dissimilar to that of Torba and Isker.
He bases his politics on a 20th-century German theorist: Carl Schmitt.
Schmitt deplored democracy, modernity, and liberalism. He was a defender of dictatorship, believing anything else to impede decisive leadership. His approach was collectivist. Schmitt distinguished between political friends and enemies: opposed in-groups and out-groups that cannot co-exist. Befittingly, he served as a jurist under the Nazi regime.
Haywood applies the friend-enemy distinction to the modern Left.
He categorically denounces the Left and categorically affirms the Right. The Left – in which he includes all fruits of the Enlightenment – must be defeated. The Right – which implicitly includes fascism – must be victorious.
Unsurprisingly, Haywood refers to himself as Maximum Leader (and openly admires Francisco Franco, the far-right dictator of Spain.)
Within this ideology, there is no true political center.
To Haywood, all philosophy downstream from the Enlightenment is leftist ideology. Since today’s far left is as anti-Enlightenment as one gets, this is easily refuted. Although communism and liberalism both spawned from the Enlightenment, they have rarely gotten along since.
If you go far right enough, all on the Left begin to look equally distant.
Haywood describes his ideology of foundationalism as “a politics of future past”. In other words, it attempts to revive the past into the future. This succinctly captures the reactionary enterprise.
Its values include the execution of abortionists; the legitimization of all hierarchies (which implicitly includes oppressive ones); and a government of unlimited means, or: totalitarianism.
These theories may be taken as cooky, and therefore harmless.
This would be a mistake. Haywood is a multimillionaire. SACR is a network of opinionated men who convene, converse, and potentially conspire.
Joshua Abbatoy, another Christian nationalist, is the Executive Director of American Reformer: an organization whose mission statement is the reshaping of Christian institutions.
One of its articles expresses skepticism of the Constitution:
“It is an open question whether Americans possess the requisite morality and religious habits that are required for constitutional government.”
This is a common belief among Christian nationalists. To them, the United States is not liberal but Christian in essence. Secularism – as laid down in its founding documents – is what started the trouble.
Also invoking Franco, Abbatoy argues a protestant dictatorship is both inevitable and necessary to reestablish order in America.
Christian nationalism has a fundamental flaw:
They assume religious freedom to be antithetical to Christianity. In truth, it is its natural result. During the Enlightenment, Christian forgiveness was liberal tolerance’s chief ingredient.
Liberalism is (or, at least: was) rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
One can trace its origins back to the Bible:
Mark 12:17 states: “Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they marveled at him.”
Saint Ambrose of Milan too opposed worldly impositions upon the spiritual:
“The emperor is in the church, not above it.”
In fantasy, Christian nationalists are like the Holy Roman emperors of old. They desire dominion over the church, only to strangle it once it is attained. Much like the secularists they detest, Christian nationalists elevate the worldly over the spiritual.
Their political ambitions trump others’ religious freedoms.
Matthew 6:14 states: “If you forgive people their sins, your Father in heaven will forgive your sins also.”
The forgiveness of sins implies the forgiveness of unbelief. Christ’s message of universal love requires setting others free. Christian nationalists wish to punish them instead.
They sacrifice their own Christianity to evangelize others in vain.
In their obsession with the unholy, Christian nationalists invite unholiness.
Instead of looking within, they judge others and play God. Hence, their prime motivation cannot be universal love. It is likely vengeance.
Revolutionaries and reactionaries are commonly fueled by resentment.
Since it threatens their way of life, reactionaries resent progress. This renders them categorically hostile to change. Their willingness to defend tradition at all costs makes turning the other cheek impossible.
Hence when conservatives turn reactionary, their culture ends up demolished in rage.
If given the chance, Christian nationalism will undo Christianity in its nation. It has already betrayed the Constitution. A movement could hardly be more unconservative.
True conservatives - who wish to preserve what is dear to them - should acknowledge the threat.
There are some serious enemies to their right.
Their rhetoric of unification, violence, and grandeur is deeply reminiscent of 20th-century fascism. The term stems from the fasces: an Italian symbol of wooden rods bundled together – often with an axe in the middle. It symbolizes military might by forming a collective.
Christian nationalists are collectivist, call for crusades, and pursue (religious) utopias.
They check the boxes. Although working within a religion of forgiveness, the movement itself is anything but forgiving. The mask of compassion has served the far left well and now does the same for the far right.
A novel specter is haunting America.
The question is how corrosive it becomes. Christian nationalists move on the fringes, but all extremists do. They just vary in influence.
The German Führer was once a failed painter.
“Wokeness”, no matter how you define it, has peaked. But, the reaction against it has yet to fully arrive. It has momentum on its side.
Moderates, particularly conservative ones, must remain vigilant.
Hatred of the Left may blind those on the Right. But, if its destruction becomes their sole priority, they will sacrifice themselves to achieve it. The reactionary enterprise is inherently self-destructive.
In a far-right dystopia, nothing is worth conserving.