Christofascism and the Sanctity of the "Preborn"
December 4, 2002
By Bob Nichols

Why are fetuses and embryos more important than non-born again humans outside the womb? Or, what is it that makes the "pre-born" sacred and the "post-born" unworthy of unconditional Christ-like love and caring?

A part of the answer is that the Christian Radical Right believes in the anti-gospel doctrine of Original Sin. This was not part of Jesus' teachings, but invented a few centuries later by a helpful "Saint" Augustine.

So "pre-born" embryos and fetuses are sinless, just like Jesus, and then are sinful at the moment of birth and are believed to be going straight to hell. Unless, of course, they are among the 144,000 saved ones (see the Book of Revelation for the predicted total) who have been "born again" and have "Jesus as their personal savior," whatever that means. The Christofascists stand in trembling ecstasy ready to be raptured up when Armageddon erupts in the MidEast - and soon, they hope. Dialing up global thermonuclear war is their fondest desire.

But they are also totally ignoring Jesus' life, his ministry and his teachings: unconditional love of friend and enemy, unending mercy to the "least of these," forgiveness 70 X 7, non-judgementalism, release to the captives not just visiting them in jail, total prohibition of violence, the clear condemnation of excess luxury wealth for his followers - and more.

Christofascists are consumed by their constant conservative desire for absolute, authoritarian certainty rather than truth. Their grasping belief in the pre-Christian view of God as a vengeful, arbitrarily violent Yahweh sets them up perfectly to follow the commands of any authoritarian leader. These triumphant and confidant sounding leaders are always God-ordained and are granted strict unconditional obedience from the sheep in the pews. The Christofascists leaders are all too willing to be judges, juries, and executioners of the unsaved non-believers.

This makes them very dangerous to the rest of us. That is, if we are not born again as they define it right down to the last dotted "i" and crossed "t." The Christofascist Christian Fundamentalists seem more certain of the existence of Satan than of the Christ-like merciful God that Jesus revealed.

Because we are sinful unbelieving "pagans" we will be condemned to the mythical hell fires and suffer the mythical eternal damnation we abundantly deserve. Thus, we will get no mercy from them in the "endtime" battles to come. So, the Christofascists are giving Christianity a bad name, yet again. Recall the Scope's Monkey trial of 1925 when they embarrassed themselves into near oblivion over creationism.

It is quite clear that the Bush administration is into brutal economic and military domination. What the Bushistas are espousing demonstrates very few core differences from those of Hitler's economic and military policies of the 1930s. Except ours is a more subtle, sophistocated, post graduate school form of fascism. Our own form puts the real premium on close, friendly "co-operation" by government with big corporations.

The appropriate politico-religious term for the Compassionless Christianity of Constatine, Augustine, the Crusaders, Torquemada and the Grand Inquisitors, Stalin, Hitler, most of the Christian bishops, Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, Jerry Falwell, and the other anti-Christic pro-war types is Christofascism. It is a religion that goes 180 degrees contrary to the teachings and model of Jesus and his manifesto in the Sermon on the Mount (read Matthew 5, 6 and 7).

Theirs is a powerful political movement that brainwashes its followers into being bothered only by selected hot button single issues like Roe vs. Wade, school vouchers, "death to fags", condemnation of non-Christians, xenophobia, and pro-Armageddon foreign policies. They conveniently ignore the great social problems of poverty, hunger, war, racism, environmental degradation and other types of violence.

The most frustrating thing about all this is that these anti-intellectual fundamentalists and their absurdities are given free rein by the press to take "the moral high ground" by being concerned about the "un-born."

The psychology behind the so-called sympathy for the fetus needs to be understood; and it is this: all their punitive and conservative political agenda items are pro-death.

That means: pro-mass slaughter in war, pro-capital punishment, death to gays, lesbians and adultresses while totally ignoring what must be done for the sustainability of the human race. Remember, they know they will be safely in the mythical bosom of Jesus after the mythical Rapture saves them from the mythical Armageddon, so they couldn't give a rip about those of us who are "Left Behind."

And a major unspoken (think: plausable deniability) reason behind their anti-choice stance is not sympathy for the fetus; rather, they want punishment for the woman who sinned by having filthy sex.

Filthy sex acts are often performed out of wedlock and therefore represent a huge dilemma for the pregnant woman and her unplanned pregnancy. She knows that she may not be able to adequately care for the baby. But, she has been brain-washed to think that she will feel guilty if she chooses even a first trimester termination of the pregnancy. And thus, she is essentially coerced to have the baby against her will. This even if there is no future for either of the victims of the pregnancy. The Christofascists demand, like Torquemada, the suffering of sinners. Christian mercy is not important to them, their devil, or their punitive god.

Between the Time of Jesus and the time of Constantine, Christofascists developed punitive politics, punitive theologies and punitive parenting methods from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus. The punitive parenting of punitive conservative Christian parents comes from the "Spare the Rod/Spoil the Child" injunction in the pre-Christian scriptures. Note that the anti-gospel doctrine of biblical inerrancy completely overshadows and conveniently crushes the beautiful, highly ethical Sermon on the Mount.

The Bushistas are worthy sucessors to Herr Goebbels with the magical propaganda machine Karl Rove inherited. The creation of a totalitarian mass psychology is a fact. The terrorist wing of the Repug party has control.

They must be stopped. We must own and control our own media just to start. All across America, progressive and radical people are starting to think and say the same thing.

Bob Nichols is a writer working in Oklahoma. He can be reached at [email protected].