Chris Hedges (American Fascists) with Cody's Books March 30, 2007

Friday, March 30 - Chris Hedges
7:30 PM at First Congregational Church of Berkeley

CHRIS HEDGES on AMERICAN FASCISTS: The Christian Right and the War on America. "What is happening in America is revolutionary. A group of religious utopians, with the sympathy and support of tens of millions of Americans, are slowly dismantling democratic institutions to establish a religious tyranny, the springboard to an American fascism," writes Chris Hedges. Over the last two decades, the Christian Right has exerted an extraordinary influence on US politics. There are now more than 70 million evangelical Christians living in America, many of whom have established their own set of media outlets, schools, and communities. A large majority of evangelical Christians embrace a conservative social agenda with a focus on "moral values," but a small minority of that group has started a radical movement that is working to create an intolerant and theocratic version of America. In his fascinating exposé, award-winning journalist Chris Hedges, himself a former seminarian and the son of a minister, documents the rise of the Christian fundamentalist movement in the United States and argues that it is a threat to our society. Hedges draws parallels between the fascist movements of the early twentieth century and the influential new sect of the movement known as Dominionism. He contends that the dominionist movement has many of the same characteristics as fascism: a claim for moral and physical supremacy of a master race, in this case American Christians; blind obedience to a male hierarchy that often claims to speak for God; intolerance towards non-believers; and disdain for rational intellectual inquiry. This movement's goal is for America to become a theocratic, totalitarian country. Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times and other newspapers and is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, What Every Person Should Know About War, and Losing Moses on the Freeway. Hedges is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School and a former seminarian. He is a senior fellow at the Nation Institute and teaches in the Program for American Studies at Princeton University; he is also the recipient of this year's Lannan Literary Writing Fellowship. 7:30 PM at First Congregational Church of Berkeley (2345 Channing Way at Dana) This program is free of charge.

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