Christianists,Christianism and the Chraxi Party

I've been done in again, I was over at the Psych Pat's Pad and once again Mr. Raven links to a cool blog place I wasn't aware of -- thing is, I haven't time to read/parse any more blogs or I'll likely blow out like Mr. Creasote from Monty Python.

Anyway, the discussion here is about the meaning and use of the terms "christianists" and "christianism". There's a pundit guy who stakes a claim to inventing the terms, but according to Avedon (the blog mentioned above) the terms were already in circulation in the late nineties. She says that Digby was probably one of the first to use it and Dave Niewert at Orcinus probably has done the most to spread its use.

In a sense, the question is moot, I doubt that words are necessarily coined by single individuals. It's more like they crystalize out of a need in the language to express something more clearly.

In this case, "christianist" replaces "fundamentalist" on the one hand and is a parallel to "islamist" on the other.

I've always had a problem with "fundamentalist" because of the built-in spin implying that it is something basic at the root of Christianity -- I deny that this correct. Christianist fundamentalists do more than throw the baby out with the bath water -- they throw out the baby, keep the dirty water and muddy it up even more.

As for the other meaning: a word was needed to match "islamism".

Islamism and islamist refer not to Islam and Muslims, but rather the practice and those who practice paying lip service while perverting Islam for the sake of specific political agendas.

Islam was long noted for its tolerance, which is why the Sephardic Jews fled to Islamic lands from persecutions in Spain.

Islamists are not tolerant and the same goes for christianists.

An example from Tristero: Senator Barak Obama thinks that Democrats need to reach out to the evangelist movement and, prepared to lead the way, he accepted an invitation to speak at one of these mega-churches in California. Christianist leaders, smelling blood, immediately stirred up a storm demanding that the mega-church dis-invite Obama.

An open letter signed by a number of christianist leaders, including Phylis Schlafly and Tim Wildmon was sent out. The National Clergy Council, led by Rob Schenck said that "Obama's policies represent the antithesis of biblical ethics and morality, not to mention supreme American values".

The point is, christianists do not hear, they do not listen, you cannot debate with them. The same goes for islamists -- and judaists, to coin yet another term.

At the moment, radical islamists are more actively dangerous than christianists. The reason is that they have converged with and assimilated strong currents of eliminationism.

However, this is precisly the danger of the christianist movements in America. Dave Niewert has documented for years the rise of eliminationist rhetoric, movements and activity in the US. Should this converge with and be assimilated by the christainist movement we will see the rise of what might call itself "Christian Nationalist".

They're welcome to the Craxi Party as a name -- but they've already got flags, and a pledge of alligience so they don't need my help there!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, to express deeply my feelings on all this I give you Mr. Creasote, mentioned earlier in this post: