Subject: Re: [AthofSV] Lecture by author of "American Facists"

From: Walter Hecker <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:43:34 -0700

Bing Gibbs wrote:
> > Very good speaker and topic, Chris Hedges
> > 
> > http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18274.htm
Thank you, Bing,

for pointing us to this great talk that no one should miss.  It should 
convince the last one among us that we have to cooperate with moderate 
xians like Hedges if we want to survive as atheists in a semblance of a 
free society.  It is almost an hour, but time well spent, IMHO.

Born German but living in America and, therefore, under frequent attack, 
I had to learn everything I could about the Nazi regime and how it came 
about.  As a result of that I cannot help but see horrifying parallels 
between the early days of Nazism and what is happening in the U.S. 
today.  I therefore think that we're making a mistake if we treat all 
xians the same, rather than cooperate with moderate xians to defend  
against the takeover of the country by the cross clutching neonazis.

Already in his 1935 book "It Can't Happen Here" Siclair Lewis wrote:
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying 
a cross."

The immediate enemy is not xianity as such but the fascists that usurp 
it for their unappetizing political ends.  It is those right wing idiots 
that brought many of us to see a need to become active as atheists, not 
the moderates who, I hope, are still the majority among xians.  We need 
to prevent that the right wingers convert more moderates to their 
extreme views, not impose a second front on the moderates.  Naturally 
moderate xians are susceptible to the propaganda from what they might 
perceive as their more dedicated brethren, especially if they find no 
friend in us.

Walter Hecker