Calling a Spade a Spade

In today's NY Times Metro section, the Public Lives column has an interview with historian Fritz Stern in which Dr. Stern compares today's political climate to that which allowed the Nazi party to take power in Germany. The Times says, "He stops short of calling the Christian right fascist but his decision to draw parallels, especially in the use of propaganda, was controversial." John R. MacArthur, author of a book on wartime propaganda, is quoted in the column saying, "The comparison between the propagandistic manipulation and uses of Christianity, then and now, is hidden in plain sight. No one wants to look at it."

There are many similarities between Christian fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism, and facism. During a very powerful sermon at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin a few weeks ago, Joel Clark Mason spoke about these similarities. All these thought systems provide a (false) sense of security from the many fears people face in their lives, and a sense of community, at the cost of requiring adherence to rigid thoughts and beliefs, which include the subjugation of women and demonization of people who do not think according to the prescribed beliefs. These systems all hearken back to an idealized past and requires that true believers work toward restoring that past.

The Times columnist writes that Nazism was so horrendous that "it often seems to defy the possiblity of repetition or analogy." We had better wake up to the fact that we are already torturing people, holding American citizens and others without charges and without hope for legal representation, and waging a war without the moral justification of self-defense. In short, we had better stop worrying about political correctness and call a spade a spade, because being able to label something correctly is the first step in challenging it.