Religion and the American right

A guest post from Jogo

From an op-ed review of the Hobsbawm lecture at Barclay's:

The discussion [between Simon Schama and Eric Hobsbawm] moved onto religion. Schama said that the collusion between the American right and fundamentalist Christianity was "not much more frightening than Islamic fundamentalism, but not much less frightening either." Hobsbawm said he thought the Persian Revolution of 1978/9 was probably comparable with the French revolution in terms of lasting significance.

Schama is nuts. The Am-Right/Christian axis is obnoxious, but it's not permanent. It is overturnable by elections -- and very likely will be overturned. Not only that, at least 50% of American people don't agree with it, and aren't afraid to say so. Christian-Mockery is almost an industry in this country. There is no Am-Right/Christian police force. We don't have Brixton Mosques here, we don't have Izzadeens running around.

Well, I mean, we do have Brixton Mosques and Izzadeens, but not the Christian equivalents of them. Jerry Falwell was NOT an Izzadeen. Anyone who thinks that he was, doesn't have the right to call himself a social observer of depth, quality and subtlety.

Not only that, the Am-Right is not entirely on the Christian program. McCain isn't. Giuliani isn't. The National Review and Weekly Standard aren't. Horowitz isn't. Lot's of 'em aren't. There is a Secular Right, too, don't forget.

Schama, for all his erudition, is one of those Jewish secularists whose fear of Christianity blinds his reason. With their shallow Christian/Islamist equivalencies, he and his fellow liberals/jews/commieprofs, etc, will get us all killed.