American Fascists for Christ

Political historian Robert Paxton defines fascism as:

“a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cultures of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elitist, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”

The Cleansing

The cleansing must begin with a small group that the majority dislikes. In the United States that is the trans community. An easy target to begin the cleansing with. Also included are the immigrants, the stranger in our midst.

Widespread Ignorance

Most Americans are ignorant of the organizations who are behind this hostile government takeover. They know nothing of the Heritage Foundation, Christian Nationalism, or Project 2025. They are completely ignorant of the history of the rise of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. They don’t know what fascism or oligarchy are

The fact of the matter, they don’t understand how the United States government is supposed to work, how propaganda works, and how they have been manipulated by big money. They have bought into conspiracy theories, trust media outlets, and believe they’re lying politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.

Corporatists and Oligarchs

Democrats are just as guilty as Republicans. They both work for big money. Bernie Sanders is one of the only people telling the truth. The Democrats work for the corporatists and the Republicans for the oligarchs. With Donald Trump, the oligarchs won.

The Plan

The plan is simple, the United States government is being dismantled so that the rich are no longer taxed or regulated. Elon Musk is not the solution, he is the problem. Him and his other billionaire friends. They are no longer behind the curtain pulling the strings, they have stepped out of the shadows to take control. They are the owners of this country that George Carlin told you about.

Everything will be privatized and sold to the highest bigger. Democracy in the United States is dying. The Democrats helped weaken it, but the Republicans are driving the stake right into the heart.

Response

I am not optimistic. But we must do what we can to fight against the move to a fascist government. We need to protect the right of the LGBTQ+ community and the immigrant community. Other minorities will follow.

Christian Nationalism

My main concern is the misappropriation of the name of Christ and Christianity to sanction racism, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and hatred. This is wrong. This is slandering the Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. I denounce it in the strongest terms possible. It is reprehensible!

But the fact is, as Chris Hedges explains, our Christian values “are being dismantled often with stealth, by a radical Christian movement, known as dominionism, which seeks to cloak itself in the mantle of the Christian faith and American patriotism.” This group is Christian Nationalism and have taken over the Evangelical leadership.

Recommend Reading
  • American Fascist: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris hedges
  • The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta
  • The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy by Matthew D. Taylor
  • Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry
  • How the World Works by Noam Chomsky

Pray Three Times a Day

Why should you pray three times a day? Because David, Daniel, and Peter prayed three times a day. They set a model for us to follow.

David said, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17 NKJV). Here it specifically says David prayer three times a day

The Prophet Daniel also got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously (Daniel 6:10). This was a habit of the devout.

In Acts 2:15, it says that Peter prayed with the church at “nine o’clock in the morning.” In Acts 3:1, “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon.” And in Acts 10:9, Peter went up to the housetop to pray at “about noon.”

This practice was passed down to the early Church. The Didache, the earliest document after the New Testament about Church practice. It says to pray the Lord’s Prayer “three times a day” (Didache 8:2-3).

Here we see a set prayer was repeated three times a day. Hence, the foundation for the liturgy of the hours, also known as the Divine Office.

The Ten Commandments of Conservative Christianity

I write this a little tongue-in-cheek. It is a parody of Michael J. Kruger’s book, The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity.

But take note, each of these commandments is partially true. And it is a master class in half-truths that actually sound appealing on the surface.

1. Jesus is an object of worship, not a person we should imitate.

2. Affirming people’s depravity is more important than reminding them of their potential.

3. Making judgments is more important than reconciliation between people.

4. Right belief is more important than kind and compassionate behavior.

5. Supplying answers is more valuable than asking uncomfortable questions.

6. Group uniformity is more important than a personal search for truth.

7. Maintaining institutions is more important than meeting actual needs.

8. Taking power is more important than peacemaking.

9. We should care more about what people do in their sex life than about love.

10. The afterlife is more important than life in this world, therefore forget about the environment.

This Is not Christianity

If Michael J. Kruger believes “liberal Christianity is not Christianity”, then equally true, is that conservative Christianity is not Christianity. And can you really be a Christian if you do not follow Christianity?

Of course, I don’t believe either statement. Christians can be both liberal or conservative and still be Christians. What matters is whether they love God and have made Jesus their Lord and Savior. After all, you can be right in your heart and wrong in your head.

Christianity is the religion of Christians, and there is no perfect theology. Conservative Christianity and liberal Christianity are both imperfect. Progressive Christianity just tries to be honest and acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. But we are constantly seeking the truth in love. We are progressing “until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). We are not there yet. Let’s be charitable.

The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity

The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity are found in Exodus 20:1-6 in the Bible. As a Progressive Christian theologian, we do not have any other 10 commandments.

Michael J. Kruger

Michael J. Kruger, like other authors, confuses liberal Christianity with Progressive Christianity. Progressive Christianity is halfway between conservative Christianity and liberal Christianity. We use different terms to mean different things.

The Middle Way

Think of progressive Christianity as the middle way, between ultraconservative and ultraliberal. Truth is not conservative or liberal, but is that claim that best matches actual reality.

Liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity is dedicated to liberal values, in opposition to conservative values. Both are a bias, one for change and one against change. I believe both are mistaken.

Richard Rohr

Michael J. Kruger also makes the mistake of identifying Richard Rohr as a progressive Christian. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and doesn’t typically use the term “progressive Christian” to describe himself.

Philip Gulley

Philip Gulley, from whom he takes this list, is a Quaker pastor, not a Progressive Christian. So it is unfair to use his list as representative of Progressive Christianity. It is not.

Nicene Creed

Progressive Christianity is committed to the essentials of the Christian faith, which are innumerated in the Nicene Creed. But it is committed to growing in the knowledge of God and his creation. It is reformed, always reforming.

St. Augustine

You could say that the guiding principle of progressive Christianity is that, to paraphrase St. Augustine, we should have unity in essentials, Liberty in non-essentials, but love in all things.

Progressive Christianity is not Liberal Christianity

Many people confuse Progressive Christianity with liberal Christianity. They’re not the same thing. Progressive Christianity is halfway between conservative Christianity and liberal Christianity.

Liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity is committed to changing things according to a liberal perspective. Conservative Christianity is very resistant to changing anything, and wants to keep things the same.

Progressive Christianity

Progressive Christianity is the middle way that follows the evidence where it leads. It conserves what needs to be conserved, and changes what needs to be changed.

Think of progressive Christianity as the middle way, between ultraconservative and ultraliberal. Truth is not conservative or liberal, but consists in the claims that match actual reality.

Unity in Essentials

The guiding principle of progressive Christianity is, to paraphrase St. Augustine, in essentials let there be unity, in non-essentials let there be liberty, but in all things let there be love. The essentials are spelled out in the Nicene Creed.

Progressive Christianity

Lots of differnt people claim the same label. I can only tell you what I mean by the term. I do not have the authority or the desire to police the term. People can call themselves whatever they want.