Table of Contents
Volume 41, Number 4
July - August 2010

Goose-stepping to Zion
Ken Ham and Mark Looy

Goose-stepping to Zion?

By Ken Ham and Mark Looy, AiG-US

Creationists are seen as playing a major part in an alleged fascist takeover of America.

Who are the world's “new fascists,” according to a just-released Simon and Schuster book (composed by a former New York Times correspondent)?

Well, the new fascists are … Bible-believing Christians! And the growing legions of creationists are on the frontlines, implies the author in chapter 6.

But that’s not all. Chris Hedges in American fascists: the Christian right and the war on America declares that evangelical Christians are poised to take over the country! He writes: “Those arrayed against American democracy [i.e., evangelical Christians] are waiting for a moment to strike, a national crisis that will allow them to shred the Constitution in the name of national security and strength” (pp. 201-202). 

Already, declares Hedges, “this minority … is taking over the machinery of U.S. state and religious institutions” (p. 19). We guess someone started the revolution without us.

This new book by a Harvard Divinity School graduate essentially labels Answers in Genesis and its supporters with that fascist label. He even draws several comparisons between Bible-believing Christians and the Nazis of Hitler’s time.

Hedges see creationists as playing a major part of this alleged fascist takeover. He especially highlights AiG’s Creation Museum near Cincinnati, which he describes as a place that “presages a society where truth is banished” (p. 128).

Chapter 6 devotes huge chunks to AiG and the museum. Hedges views AiG as a group that proclaims a “subversive message … that it’s OK to believe what we want, to believe lies” (p. 115). More dangerously, he says, is that the goal of the creationists “is the destruction of the core values of the open society” (p. 116). 

How ironic, we should note, that today’s so-called "open society" won’t tolerate any questioning of the evolution belief system and its millions of years in schools and other public places.   

Think about it: how often do you hear of a Bible-believing Christian committing an act of violence against society? It does not happen often. That’s a powerful counter to Hedges’ claim that we are Nazi-like.

There are several factual errors about AiG in his chapter on creationists (see our expanded review of the book at www.answersingenesis.org/american-fascists). Some are so egregious that they only help to expose how biased he is towards biblical Christianity.

In one small example (yet it shows how continually careless he is), Hedges describes our museum's “towering” animatronic T. rexes (p. 113) and that they hover over the animatronic children in our museum’s main hall. But the dinosaurs, while very realistic-looking, are perhaps only 2-feet high! 

Although Hedges insinuates that the creation movement (especially AiG, for he spends most of his chapter on us) is a part of America’s religious right and its fascist tendencies, AiG is apolitical. It avoids the political arena. It's not our job to change the culture – it's our job to disseminate information, proclaim the gospel, and stand on the authority of God's Word … and THEN see hearts changed for the Lord. 

Now, if these changed lives impact the culture, and if God blesses that, then we're happy to see it. But we're not going to be an activist ministry in the sense of legislating, litigating, or lobbying key leaders to mandate change in society.

Who are the people manifesting fascist tendencies 60 years after Nazi Germany? It’s those who, in the name of tolerance, will refuse to tolerate those who are perceived as intolerant (i.e., those who hold to absolute standards, such as Bible-believing Christians).

In fact, Hedges quotes (sympathetically) the late philosopher Karl Popper, who once wrote that we can “therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to be tolerant of the intolerant” (p. 1).

The inconsistency is so glaring to us. Yet Hedges’ self-proclaimed open-mindedness and tolerance absolutely falls apart when he attempts to rationalize his (clearly obvious) hypocrisy. He has even publicly chastised liberal humanists (of which he is one) who believe in inclusiveness and who express any willingness to dialogue with evangelicals.

He also does not appear to understand that while he howls at Christians’ attempts to impose their views on society, Hedges wants to see that it’s his views that should be imposed. 

It is Hedges and his ilk who see Christian boogeyman lurking around every corner. These are the people Americans should fear, for they manifest an intolerance of anything that goes against their evolutionary, humanistic worldview.

1.  Dr. David Menton’s fascinating DVD “Inherently Wind” shares the truth about this famous trial.

2.  George Barna, “The Second Coming of the Church: Blueprint for Survival”   

     Nashville: Word, 1998), p. 122.