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January 05, 2007

Theocratization of Military and Police

Chris Hedges, the former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief and author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, has an article posted on Common Dreams this week entitled "America’s Holy Warriors." In it, he warns America "that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country’s military and law enforcement." This is not a knee-jerk conclusion. Hedges was raised a Christian and understands the faith. And he spent two years traveling around the country seeing with his own eyes the efforts underway to use the military and police to turn America into a Christian theocracy.

Of his two-year study, Hedges writes:

I repeatedly listened to radical preachers attack as corrupt and godless most American institutions, from federal agencies that provide housing and social welfare to public schools and the media. But there were two institutions that never came under attack—the military and law enforcement. While these preachers had no interest in communicating with local leaders of other faiths, or those in the community who did not subscribe to their call for a radical Christian state, they assiduously courted and flattered the military and police. They held special services and appreciation days for all four branches of the armed services and for various law enforcement agencies. They encouraged their young men and women to enlist or to join the police or state troopers. They sought out sympathetic military and police officials to attend church events where these officials were lauded and feted for their Christian probity and patriotism. They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as “satanic.” All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society.

Where could this lead, and how close are we to a theocratic takeover?

If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown or a series of environmental disasters, these paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the police and military, could swiftly abolish what is left of our eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to businesses and right-wing interests that often help bankroll the Christian right, could become a permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses [the Christian Blackwater mercenaries] who appeared on street corners in Baghdad and New Orleans could appear on streets across the U.S. Such a presence could paralyze us with fear, leaving us unable to question or protest the closed system and secrecy of an emergent totalitarian state and unable to voice dissent.

“The Bush administration has already come close to painting our current wars as wars against Islam—many in the Christian right apparently have this belief,” Ratner said. “If these wars, bad enough as imperial wars, are fought as religious wars, we are facing a very dark age that could go on for a hundred years and that will be very bloody.”

Deanna Spingola, a writer on the conservative website News with Views, has just posted part 17 in her ongoing series on "The One World Order" – this one entitled, "The Theocrat in Washington." She shares Hedges's concerns and cites potent examples of how theocratic language has lured the naïve Christian community into the fold. Particularly powerful is this section:

General William G. “Jerry” Boykin, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, appeared at the Good Shepard Community Church in Boring, Oregon in June 2003, not the first or last of such events. During his multimedia presentation he stated: “Now ask yourself: Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? … He’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this. God put him there to lead not only this nation but to lead the world in such a time as this.”

He further stated, “We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God, have been raised for such a time as this.” This is reminiscent of the Old Testament phrase: “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Some commentators, like Patrick Buchanan, saw nothing wrong with what Boykin said. Others viewed any hint of criticism as an attack on Christian values by the allegedly devious Democratic Party.

The concept that “God installed Bush” was disseminated by naïve pastors to numerous congregations. Consequently, prior to the Iraqi invasion, James Merritt, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, confirmed Bush’s self-proclaimed status as “God’s man for this hour” particularly because of the events of 9/11. So God installed Bush as a defender, someone to lead Americans into an immoral war? Yet this concept was disseminated throughout Christendom and Bush became the new leader of the religious right in America.

Both articles should be read carefully if we are to understand where we might be headed, how we got there, and how we can preserve our democracy and Constitution.

Posted by Becky at January 5, 2007 10:31 AM