"Clerical fascism"

[Chip Berlet]

Hi,

Fundamentalism is exactly NOT

"religious based resusciations of their
antique socio-political orders"

All contemporary scholarship on fundamentalism
describes it as a MODERN response to change
that calls for a return to a mythical non-existant past.

See: Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God. Book Jacket Blurb:

"Armstrong characterizes fundamentalism as one of these new ways of being
religious that have emerged in every major faith tradition. Focusing on
Protestant fundamentalism in the United States, Jewish fundamentalism in
Israel, and Muslim fundamentalism in Egypt and Iran, she examines the ways
in which these movements, while not monolithic, have each sprung from a
dread of modernity -- often in response to assault (sometimes unwitting,
sometimes intentional) by the mainstream society."

"Armstrong sees fundamentalist groups as complex, innovative, and modern --
rather than as throwbacks to the past -- but contends that they have failed
in religious terms. Maintaining that fundamentalism often exists in
symbiotic relationship with an aggressive modernity, each impelling the
other on to greater excess, she suggests compassion as a way to defuse what
is now an intensifying conflict."

http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=543

and an excerpt:

http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=543&view=excerpt


-Chip "get a library card" Berlet


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Chuck Grimes
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 3:32 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: "Clerical fascism" was Re: Steve Perry weighs in
>
<<SNIP>>

>
> There is something distinctly different going on in the various
> religious based resusciations of their antique socio-political orders,
> that the term fascism doesn't address. Don't ask me what, I don't
> know. Maybe after reading some more it will become more tangible to
> me.
>
> Chuck Grimes
>
>
>