Cosmic evil and terrorism
Fred Hutchison, RenewAmerica analyst
Originally published August 26, 2006
The war by America, Britain, and Israel against Islamist terrorism is destined to be a long war in which all the depths of good and evil will be sounded. This essay concerns the question of whether or not Islamist terrorism is a "cosmic evil."
There is no doubt that World War II was a war against cosmic evil. Today's Islamist terrorists are clearly evil – but are they a cosmic evil on the order of the Nazis?
To answer that, let's first go on a whirlwind tour of the history of Western terrorism, so we can find a place for Islamist terrorism in modern history. We shall see that although early Islamic history included instances of terrorism, the present Islamist terrorism is a synthesis of elements from both the jihadist tradition of Islam and the more recent Western revolutionary tradition.
Subsequently, we shall consider the idea of cosmic treason from the standpoint of theology and moral philosophy.
Robespierre: The father of Western terrorism
In 1793-4, The French Revolution had a "Reign of Terror" through the vigorous use of the guillotine. Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was a leading spirit of the Committee of Public Safety that supervised the terror. The Committee lasted less than a year (9/13/93-7/28/94). Robespierre himself went to the guillotine when the National Convention suddenly toppled him from power.
Robespierre used terror to further four goals: 1) totalitarian power, 2) ideological purity, 3) public genocide, and 4) murdering personal rivals and fellow terrorists who disagreed with his program.
The terror focused on systematically exterminating the aristocracy of France, along with many of its agents and sympathizers. The stifling of reason that coincided with this genocide was an attack upon civilization itself. Murdering aristocrats who sponsor high culture and set the patterns of the civilizing graces, and replacing them with narrow-minded ideologues, inflicts deep wounds upon civilization. Such terrorism and anarchy are the enemies of civilization.
Russian anarchists
Russian anarchists in the decades following the French Revolution would prove to be particularly hostile to civilization. Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), a Russian intellectual, was the father of modern anarchism. As a young man, he was attracted to socialist and revolutionary thought as a leftist admirer of Hegel. Karl Marx, four years younger than Bakunin, also began his intellectual journey into revolutionary ideology from the Hegelian left.
Georg Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) stands out from the other nineteenth century German Idealist philosophers by making the strongest case for the inevitability of progress caused by impersonal historical forces. More than any other philosopher, Hegel emphasized the historically pivotal role of the totalitarian ruler. He argued that all political power should be concentrated in the head of state. Hegel's authoritarian imperative attracted right-wing ideologues, on the one hand, and his theory that social conflict is necessary for progress was of special interest to leftist anarchists, on the other.
Bakunin was a pioneer of the idea of socialist revolution through anarchy. He said: "The passion for destruction is a creative passion."
Bakunin's notion that social creation comes from social destruction was pure Hegel. Hegel's idea was a strange transmogrification of Immanuel Kant's theory of the progression of ideas through "thesis, antithesis, and synthesis." Hegel's misapplication of this dialectic to political theory and social progress was a perfect muddle. Both Bakunin and Marx took these jumbled notions seriously, as did many left-leaning intellectuals of the following century. The crackpot left is now and has always been intellectually dazed and confused.
Bakunin had the idea that instead of waiting upon the forces of history, the anarchist could seize the day, go out and commit acts of terror, and hasten the destruction that precedes social creation and progress. Robespierre did the much the same thing, but Bakunin provided a philosophical rationalization for a program of terror.
The right-wing Hegelians in Germany, who would pave the way for Hitler, respected authority, especially in the person of the national leader, or fuehrer. In contrast, the left-wing Hegelians in Russia were rebels against authority. Bakunin announced his "rejection of every authority including that which sacrifices freedom for the convenience of the state."
The student rebels of the late sixties were vaguely Bakuninite. The campus activists were leftist, anarchist, bohemian, and anti-social because the movement was a rebellion against authority. In contrast, fascist subversives like the brown shirts of that era were regimented. Even their street thugs liked to wear uniforms, click their heels, and salute.
Bakunin's young protege Sergey Nechayev (1847-1876) was more radical than his mentor. Nechayev's motto was "the ends justify the means," a manifesto of unbridled ruthlessness. He put forward a "program for the merciless destruction of society and the state." He pushed his ruthless anarchism to functional nihilism, an extreme that Bakunin could not accept. Nechayev realized, as Bakunin did not, that the nature of anarchism is to destroy civilization.
Hegel, Marx, Bakunin, and Nechayev built the intellectual foundations for the revolutionary philosophy called Marxist-Leninism, which would be popularly called "Communism."
Marxist-Leninist terror and genocide
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) developed the radical ideology called "Marxist-Leninism." Joseph Stalin (1878-1952) institutionalized Marxist-Leninism and applied it on a massive scale. His program became known as "Stalinism."
Marxist-Leninists used the methods of Bakunin and Nechayev to overthrow weak governments. Their operatives became adept at seizing power at opportune moments.
Clawing their way into power was, for Communists, a dirty business that often included assassinations and betrayals. Ho Chi Minh betrayed his Vietnamese nationalist allies to the French colonialist government, to give his Marxist-Leninist movement a monopoly of anti-colonial sentiment. Communism became a synonym for treason, a richly deserved epithet. Nechayev's absolute ruthlessness had become their standard procedure.
New Communist regimes used blood purges to consolidate power, as Robespierre had done. As all political power was concentrated in the central organs of the state, a secret police would remove political opponents and silence independent organizations of power and influence.
Sometime after the first blood purge, Marxist-Leninist governments engineered the mass extermination of the bourgeoisie (the middle class) in order to accelerate the "forces of history" (as per Hegel's theory). Programs of systematic genocide were used by Communist regimes in Russia, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia to murder millions of innocent civilians, whose only crime was their social class. Marxist-Leninist regimes waged war against humanity and civilization.
Nazi terror and genocide
The Hegelians of the right proved to be just a bloodthirsty as the Hegelians of the left. Left-leaning Communist genocide was joined by Nazi genocide to form the twin horrors of the twentieth century.
Nazi Germany used most of the same tactics as the Marxist-Leninists. Anti-authoritarian nihilism was abhorrent to Nazi dogma, so when the Nazis burned down the Reichstag (Parliament) they blamed it on the Communists, who were the usual suspects of sabotage. Nazi propagandists rationalized their brutal tactics by claiming to be the forces of order fighting anarchy and Communism. The first Nazi blood purge was called "the night of the long knives." Their systematic program of genocide was aimed at the Jews and not the bourgeoisie.
The Nazis were not as anarchistic or nihilistic as the Bolsheviks during their revolutionary phase, but they were more nihilistic in their scorched earth policies during the war. Hitler assumed his regime was strengthened by pruning out the Jews and that the Soviet regime was weakened by destroying the Russian middle class. Therefore, he was optimistic that his invasion of Russia would succeed. Initially, many Russians and Ukrainians rallied to the Germans as their liberators, but the scorched-earth and vicious anti-Slavic policies of the German army produced a remarkable solidarity of the Soviet peoples in opposition to the invader.
Hitler's slavophobia was incredible because Germans and Slavs are ancient racial, tribal, and linguistic cousins. In like manner, the anti-Semitism of Islamo-fascists is incredible, because the Semitic Jews and the Semitic Arabs are ancient, racial, tribal, and linguistic cousins.
Islamo-fascists
Islam emphasizes submission to Muslim authority. Therefore, authoritarian fascism has greater appeal than communism to radical Islamists. The Arab Semitic race and the Arabic language have a special status in Islam, which has a parallel to Nazism that gives special status to German ethnicity. Both Nazism and Islamo-fascism are anti-Semitic. The various Islamo-fascist groups are united in their commitment to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jews.
Saddam Hussein lived the life of a perfect fascist. As a young man, he joined the Baath Party – which had absorbed and internalized Nazi dogma during World War II. As a leader of the Iraqi secret police, Saddam rose to power through the assassination of rivals and political opponents. Saddam consolidated his power with an Iraqi version of the "night of the long knives." He also used poison gas to wipe out entire villages of Kurds. Saddam built a gigantic canon for shelling Israel. Israel bombed Saddam's atomic weapon factory in the belief the bombs were intended for them. He financed terrorism against Israel and trained al-Qaida members in the use of poisons.
Saddam was militaristic and imperialistic, like a good Nazi. He seized Kuwait, just as Hitler seized Czechoslovakia. Saddam bit off more than he could chew when he invaded Iran, just as Hitler bit off more than he could chew when he invaded Russia. Saddam was the Iraqi fuehrer complete with a public cult of personality.
Now that we have established a plausible link between Islamist radicalism and the cosmic evil of Nazism, let us take a closer look at the idea of cosmic treason.
Two definitions of cosmic treason
Theologian R. C. Sproul regards all sin against God as "cosmic treason," a theory that deserves respect. Unfortunately, Sproul's theory can be used to obscure the distinction between the degrees and kinds of evil.
In contrast, Dante Alighieri (1265-1361) carefully demarcated degrees of evil and punishment in hell. He regarded traitors as the worst of sinners. In this essay, I shall follow Dante's idea that some forms of evil are more accursed than others.
Dante's Inferno
In his epic poem Inferno, Dante's tidy schematic of hell was founded upon his belief that the punishment must fit the crime. The nature, quality, and intensity of the punishment must correspond to the essential quality of the sin. His idea resonates with C. S. Lewis's speculations about particular qualities of eternal woe that are unique to the sin-pattern of the doomed individual. Dante's rigorous concern for the equity and harmony of eternal judgment is typical of Medieval scholasticism.
Dante described the regions of despair as an enormous funnel that contains a series of nine concentric circles. As one journeys downwards into the realms of despair, the sinners are more wicked and the punishments more horrifying at each successive circle. The ninth and lowest circle of damnation at the tip of the funnel was reserved for the punishment of traitors of four different categories.
The ninth circle of hell was frozen over, with traitors eternally frozen out of the world they had betrayed. At the bottom of the funnel was a frozen lake, where Satan, the Prince of Traitors, stood waist deep in the ice.
Although Dante did not mention "cosmic treason," he ranked the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot as the worst act of treason ever committed by mortal man. Since Christ was God incarnate and the Creator and Redeemer of the cosmos, the betrayal of Christ to his very face was blatant cosmic treason.
Surprisingly, Dante depicted the betrayal of Julius Caesar by Brutus and Cassius as the second worst treason in history. In the mind of a medieval Italian like Dante, the Roman Imperium was the center of the cosmos, and the betrayal of Caesar amounted to betrayal of the cosmos.
Now let us consider how cosmic traitors behave in practice.
Cosmic treason by proxy
Most traitors do not have the means, as Judas did, of striking a direct blow upon God's incarnate person. Therefore, cosmic traitors might try to get revenge on God by assisting in the destruction of His creation, which is the cosmos. Lacking the power to demolish the sturdy cosmos, the cosmic traitor seeks the overthrow of civilization, which is fragile and vulnerable.
But why would a cosmic traitor be interested in destroying civilization? In what way is a blow against civilization also a blow against the cosmos and a blow against God?
In defense of civilization
Proposition: There can be no civilization without the implicit principles of God's order and harmony. Man, who is made in the image and likeness of God, cannot develop into the many splendored being that God designed, apart from His saving and sanctifying grace, and apart from His civilizing principles of order and harmony. Civilization and high culture are precious gifts of God.
When the fading remnants of order and harmony are lost, civilization must fall. Civilized culture in Russia was poisoned by atheistic Marxist-Leninist rule and perished, leaving the hollow shell of the Soviet Regime to collapse from its own dead weight.
When civilization perishes and barbarism prevails, the remnants of God's order and harmony in human society can be extinguished. When the light of civilization goes out, God's works among men are trampled underfoot.
Civilization can be crushed under the jackboot, shattered in the rubble of anarchy, or lost in degrees to creeping urban barbarism. Totalitarian regimes preserve the veneer of civilization, but are a form of barbarism. The Taliban and Saddam's Iraqi regime were barbarous, even though they retained the veneer of order.
For all its decadence and folly, the West still embodies much of what is left of civilization in this dark world. Al-Qaida's determination to destroy the West goes beyond the hatred of decadent infidels. Osama bin Laden, a terrorist barbarian, hate[d] the West because it represents civilization. He gleefully celebrated as the twin towers in New York were collapsing. As a misanthrope and cosmic traitor, he delight[ed] in the destruction of civilization.
The alien and the misanthrope
In my teen years, I read a science fiction story in which an invader from outer space planned to destroy the planet earth. He recruited the most evil man he could find, a perfect misanthrope, to assist him in destroying the earth. The alien assumed that such a man would be glad to betray his world.
At an arranged meeting, the alien wondered why the man was looking at his watch. The man replied, "I am looking to see how many seconds you have to live. You were a fool to think that any man, no matter how evil, would betray his whole world." Then a bomb that the man had hidden nearby exploded and killed them both.
Is this story true about the implications of a misanthrope?
Materialistic blindness to cosmic evil
Soft-hearted sentimentalists and hard-headed materialists would agree that no man would betray his whole world. Materialism presupposes that all beings in a materialistic closed system must be an integral part of the system. A closed system cannot be divided against itself. If man is entirely a creature of this world and is completely at home on earth, he has no interest in seeing his earthy home destroyed.
Cosmic treason requires a radical alienation from this cosmos produced by a transcendent evil. That kind of evil cannot exist in a closed system.
Liberal Modernists do not believe in the existence of evil. They view ostensible evil as temporary maladjustment, disequilibrium, and disharmony within a closed system. They are incapable of viewing misanthropists and hardened criminals as enemies of the cosmos. For this reason, liberals will never stop trying to make deals with terrorists, or trying to win their cooperation with appeasement.
After British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to appease Hitler, Hitler asked, "Why must I deal with nonentities?" A cosmic traitor is not sociable or clubbable, he does not play fair, he cannot be appeased, and he cannot be enticed by affable blandishments to play by the rules or assume a harmonious role in the cosmos.
Evil is unbelievable to the liberal, and mysterious to the conservative. To make it more believable and less mysterious, let us consider the developmental program of the cosmic traitor.
Cosmic traitors are made and not born
Man is born with original sin and can be seduced by evil, but cosmic traitors are made and not born. Just as the process for making a saint is a difficult one and only a few reach the goal, the road to cosmic treason is long and hard. Only a few aspiring malefactors reach their diabolical goals. The Jesuits, the U.S. Marines, and the Communist recruiters once had the same motto: "All we need is a few good men."
As we consider the development process of cosmic treason, grades in school will be a metaphor for stages of development.
Grade one, the making of a parasite
First grade in the school of cosmic treason is about the making of a parasite. One need not be a criminal, con-man, or moocher to be a parasite. One can be an emotional parasite who feeds off the gang, the family, or a host personality in a co-dependent relationship.
In the Hollywood movie "Cool Hand Luke," the prisoners in a chain gang vicariously lived through the capers of Luke, a vivacious, showboat narcissist, played by Paul Newman. Eventually, Luke got exhausted and screamed at them, "Stop living off me." As an exhibitionistic narcissist, he came alive as the center of attention, but was emotionally drained by the burden of living to sustain emotional leeches.
The narcissistic Hollywood film-maker was sympathetic to Luke, of course. Newman, trained to be a method actor, excelled in the portrayal of narcissism. The existentialist film critics praised the obnoxious Luke because he was "authentic."
If we reduce this existential fallacy to its ultimate absurdity, we could say that Hitler was authentic in his malevolence and Chamberlain was inauthentic in his goodness. Existentialism makes one blind to good and evil.
Grade two, the making of a narcissist
After one becomes a parasite, he can aspire to be a narcissist.
The transition from emotional parasitism to narcissism is not easy. The emotional parasite feeds off someone else who is the center of attention. The narcissist himself is the center of attention.
As the prisoners lived vicariously through Luke, they had a center of attention outside themselves, which protected them from absolute self-absorption. Most emotional leeches prefer to remain in this state of co-dependency. However, a few of them might internalize Luke's game, and become a narcissist like him.
Some terrorist propagandists, like the late Yasser Arafat, were showboat narcissists. Many of Arafat's fawning groupies lived vicariously through Arafat's showy antics, just as the prisoners lived through Luke. Islamo-fascist terrorists often start out as the emotional groupies of an Islamist cult leader.
Most of the followers of a cult guru are permanent groupies. Only a few become gurus themselves. There cannot be two cult gurus in the commune, two Cool Hand Lukes in a chain gang, or two Arafats in the Islamist community, because they would become rivals for attention. The senior disciple in a cult will invariably have conflict with his guru – just as Malcom X inevitably fell out with Elijah Muhammad. In sharp contrast to a narcissistic guru, a selfless mentor will promote his star protege above himself.
Karl Jung was the protege of Sigmund Freud. When Jung started to emerge with a voice of his own in the field of psychology, Freud and Jung had a terrible fight and were permanently alienated from one another. Freud was a narcissist and behaved like a dictator in his treatment of upstart proteges. His psychology, now discredited, appealed to a decadent subculture of narcissism.
Grade three, the making of a conspiracy theorist
After one has become a narcissist, he can aspire to be a conspiracy theorist. He is ready for the class in conspiracy theory – third grade in the school of cosmic treason.
A narcissist never accepts responsibility for his actions, but shifts the blame to others. Finding a scapegoat is one way of shifting the blame. Conspiracy theories are dependent upon scapegoats.
Conspiracy theories are often void of intelligent ideas. The ideas are focused upon the scapegoat. A self-absorbed narcissist is exactly the kind of person who can conceptually sustain a narrow, reductionist, and paranoid focus on the scapegoat.
It is easy for a narcissist to shift the blame upon a personal scapegoat – since his self-absorbed thinking makes it difficult for him to blame a cosmic scapegoat for the evils of society. Whereas it is initially difficult for the narcissist to see the cosmic big picture, it is easy for him to hate. If you offend the self-love of a narcissist, he will hate you forever. Conspiracy theories harness the power of hatred to teach the narcissist to raise his hatred to the level of a cosmic scapegoat.
The historically-favorite cosmic scapegoats of Europe were the Jews, and anti-Semitism is returning to Europe once again. The cosmic scapegoat of the Communists was the bourgeoisie. During Jim Crow America, the Negro was the scapegoat. Overly-simplified "one world" conspirators are the frequent scapegoats for elements of the American right. America itself is the scapegoat for American leftists.
Grade four, hatred of civilization
Conspiracy theorists sometimes come to hate civilization itself, which is fourth grade in the school of cosmic treason. Two of the cults of modernism teach the educated man to hate civilization.
During the middle of the eighteenth century, Jean Jacques Rousseau, a narcissist and misanthrope if ever there was one, blamed all the ills of humanity on civilized society – which he saw as corrupt, artificial, and unnatural. He thus spawned two cults of Modernism: a) a call to civilized man to "return to nature;" and b) the blaming of human evil on the "root causes" of society.
The "cult of nature" claims that civilization is the enemy of nature. The "cult of root causes" claims that civilization is the enemy of man. Both cults encourage the irrational hatred of civilization – hatred that is still running rampant in academia, the last bastion of the myths and follies of Modernism.
The leftist academic hates the very civilization that makes college professors possible. In turn, the Islamo-fascist hates the West as the standard bearer of civilization. Both the professor and Islamist share the same scapegoat – the West.
The idealization of barbarism
Before we proceed to fifth grade in the school of cosmic treason, let us consider the cult of the barbarian that is counterpart to the hatred of civilization.
The idealization of barbarism rises in direct proportion to the hatred of civilization. Hollywood, as the bellwether of a decadent culture, is determined to demonize the sophisticated, civilized man and to lionize the barbarian.
Barbarism is the worst of all possible worlds for men who have developed their reason and will in a disciplined manner. Even Rousseau, an admirer of barbarians, reluctantly admitted that we had developed too far as the children of reason and civilization to return to nature and become the "noble savages" of romantic myth. Just as it is too late to go back to nature, it is too late for us live under a barbaric Islamo-fascist regime. That would be a living death for one raised in the West.
Grade five: Training for a war against civilization
Grades one through four can produce a misanthrope of a lazy, self-indulgent kind. Further training is needed to produce a man capable of hurting civilization.
Part of the reason is that an individual who hates civilization is impotent as a solo agent to inflict much damage upon civilization. He must be trained and united with others in a common cause.
The training programs in Communist cells over the years have been astonishingly rigorous. The training in some elite Islamist cells occasionally approaches that level of intensity. Such training produces efficient and obedient soldiers for the terror war against the West.
The Communist cells were once controlled from Moscow, whereas Islamist terror cells today are under decentralized command and are coordinated in loose networks. The advantage of the decentralized approach is that the cells are hard to find and can multiply like cancer cells. The disadvantage of decentralization is that terror cells can fall short of the discipline and coordination of the old communist cells.
Grade Six: The school of genocide
Is a terror war against civilization – of itself – cosmic treason? Yes, but not at the level of the French reign of terror or of the Marxist-Leninists, Nazis, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Genocide must be added to realize the twentieth century's full measure of evil.
Only passionate and obsessive hatred for a scapegoat group of people can lead one to actively promote genocide. Note that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the leaders of Iran openly advocate the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jews.
Cosmic evil must control the levers of power of the state in order to carry out systematic genocide. The irony of genocide is that it is always performed by haters of civilization. Yet genocide cannot be performed without the offices of the modern state that is built upon the wealth and organizing power of civilization.
Evil cannot create. It can only seize control and misuse that which has been created. The school of genocide requires training in how to seize and abuse government power.
Grade Seven: The destroyers of civilization
Some Nazis applauded genocide, but stopped short of seeking the end of civilization. What is the difference between those who stop short at grade six, and those who go on to grade seven?
Al-Qaida, the group that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York, advocates the destruction of the West. Why? Because Westerners are infidels, in terms of Islamist doctrine? No. There are plenty of infidels around the world that al-Qaida is ignoring. Is it because of America's friendship with Israel? Not entirely. Al-Qaida wants to destroy Europe where many of the nations are not friends of Israel. Is it about envy of and bitterness against the West? Not entirely. The Arab world has plenty of non-Western enemies to preoccupy their animus. Is not a war between Islam and the West suicidal for Islam? Possibly. But cosmic traitors have a suicidal streak. Some of the suicide bombers are eager for death.
In the end, the barbarous al-Qaida wants to destroy the West because the West is CIVILIZED! Al-Qaida wants to destroy civilization and install throughout the world a Taliban-style of barbarism. As such, al-Qaida is comparable to the worst of the Nazis and the Stalinists in its program of cosmic treason. Fortunately, Americans went to Afghanistan, and al-Qaida has less control of a base from which to organize terrorism.
Unfortunately, a regime reminiscent of the Taliban controls Iran – a large, powerful oil-rich state, which will soon have nuclear weapons. Iran wants to destroy Israel, but it is not yet clear that Iran wants to destroy the West, which purchases their oil. The Iranian leaders belong to a Messianic brand of Shiite Islam that anticipates the return of the "Mahdi" (the guided one), a Muslim messiah of sorts, who is prophesied to bring the whole world under perfect Islam. This implies the destruction of the West.
We have not yet answered the question of why some cosmic traitors go from stage six to grade seven in the school of cosmic treason. The answer lies in the intervention of satanic power as discussed in the conclusion.
Conclusion
Islamo-fascist terror represents the greatest unleashing of cosmic evil since the Communists and the Nazis. Islamo-fascists seek nothing less than the destruction of civilization, the destruction of the West, and bringing the entire world under barbarous, totalitarian, Islamist regimes.
Are the Islamo-fascists mad-men? Only in the madness of great evil. Men functioning at the level of cosmic treason walk in satanic energy and inspiration. Mad men would be no threat to us, but satanically energized men are very dangerous.
It was up to America with help from Britain to defeat the cosmic evil of German and Japanese fascism and Soviet Communism. Now it is up to America with help from Britain to save civilization from the cosmic evil of Islamo-fascism.
Unfortunately, America is divided about whether or not to fight the war on Islamo-fascist terror. Many do not yet see the terrorist movement as a cosmic evil that threatens the existence of civilization. The liberals do not believe it, because they do not believe in evil on a grand scale. Some conservatives agree that the terrorists are evil, but do not see them as a cosmic evil. The main objective of this essay is to persuade fellow conservatives and some moderates that the Islamo-fascists are a cosmic evil, and are therefore a threat to everything we hold dear.
Americans! Your destiny and purpose as a nation are to once more rescue civilization from a cosmic evil that is inspired and energized by satanic forces. In order to fight diabolical forces, we must be spiritually renewed and armed with the spiritual weapons of faith and truth that God provides.
God has a controversy with the dark heresy of Islam against which He will one day unleash his wrath. He also has a controversy against America for forsaking His moral laws. Let us fear him, repent, and turn back to His ways so that He will be close beside us in the terrible battles against cosmic evil that are to come.
May 16, 2013
Originally published August 26, 2006
The war by America, Britain, and Israel against Islamist terrorism is destined to be a long war in which all the depths of good and evil will be sounded. This essay concerns the question of whether or not Islamist terrorism is a "cosmic evil."
There is no doubt that World War II was a war against cosmic evil. Today's Islamist terrorists are clearly evil – but are they a cosmic evil on the order of the Nazis?
To answer that, let's first go on a whirlwind tour of the history of Western terrorism, so we can find a place for Islamist terrorism in modern history. We shall see that although early Islamic history included instances of terrorism, the present Islamist terrorism is a synthesis of elements from both the jihadist tradition of Islam and the more recent Western revolutionary tradition.
Subsequently, we shall consider the idea of cosmic treason from the standpoint of theology and moral philosophy.
Robespierre: The father of Western terrorism
In 1793-4, The French Revolution had a "Reign of Terror" through the vigorous use of the guillotine. Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was a leading spirit of the Committee of Public Safety that supervised the terror. The Committee lasted less than a year (9/13/93-7/28/94). Robespierre himself went to the guillotine when the National Convention suddenly toppled him from power.
Robespierre used terror to further four goals: 1) totalitarian power, 2) ideological purity, 3) public genocide, and 4) murdering personal rivals and fellow terrorists who disagreed with his program.
The terror focused on systematically exterminating the aristocracy of France, along with many of its agents and sympathizers. The stifling of reason that coincided with this genocide was an attack upon civilization itself. Murdering aristocrats who sponsor high culture and set the patterns of the civilizing graces, and replacing them with narrow-minded ideologues, inflicts deep wounds upon civilization. Such terrorism and anarchy are the enemies of civilization.
Russian anarchists
Russian anarchists in the decades following the French Revolution would prove to be particularly hostile to civilization. Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), a Russian intellectual, was the father of modern anarchism. As a young man, he was attracted to socialist and revolutionary thought as a leftist admirer of Hegel. Karl Marx, four years younger than Bakunin, also began his intellectual journey into revolutionary ideology from the Hegelian left.
Georg Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) stands out from the other nineteenth century German Idealist philosophers by making the strongest case for the inevitability of progress caused by impersonal historical forces. More than any other philosopher, Hegel emphasized the historically pivotal role of the totalitarian ruler. He argued that all political power should be concentrated in the head of state. Hegel's authoritarian imperative attracted right-wing ideologues, on the one hand, and his theory that social conflict is necessary for progress was of special interest to leftist anarchists, on the other.
Bakunin was a pioneer of the idea of socialist revolution through anarchy. He said: "The passion for destruction is a creative passion."
Bakunin's notion that social creation comes from social destruction was pure Hegel. Hegel's idea was a strange transmogrification of Immanuel Kant's theory of the progression of ideas through "thesis, antithesis, and synthesis." Hegel's misapplication of this dialectic to political theory and social progress was a perfect muddle. Both Bakunin and Marx took these jumbled notions seriously, as did many left-leaning intellectuals of the following century. The crackpot left is now and has always been intellectually dazed and confused.
Bakunin had the idea that instead of waiting upon the forces of history, the anarchist could seize the day, go out and commit acts of terror, and hasten the destruction that precedes social creation and progress. Robespierre did the much the same thing, but Bakunin provided a philosophical rationalization for a program of terror.
The right-wing Hegelians in Germany, who would pave the way for Hitler, respected authority, especially in the person of the national leader, or fuehrer. In contrast, the left-wing Hegelians in Russia were rebels against authority. Bakunin announced his "rejection of every authority including that which sacrifices freedom for the convenience of the state."
The student rebels of the late sixties were vaguely Bakuninite. The campus activists were leftist, anarchist, bohemian, and anti-social because the movement was a rebellion against authority. In contrast, fascist subversives like the brown shirts of that era were regimented. Even their street thugs liked to wear uniforms, click their heels, and salute.
Bakunin's young protege Sergey Nechayev (1847-1876) was more radical than his mentor. Nechayev's motto was "the ends justify the means," a manifesto of unbridled ruthlessness. He put forward a "program for the merciless destruction of society and the state." He pushed his ruthless anarchism to functional nihilism, an extreme that Bakunin could not accept. Nechayev realized, as Bakunin did not, that the nature of anarchism is to destroy civilization.
Hegel, Marx, Bakunin, and Nechayev built the intellectual foundations for the revolutionary philosophy called Marxist-Leninism, which would be popularly called "Communism."
Marxist-Leninist terror and genocide
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) developed the radical ideology called "Marxist-Leninism." Joseph Stalin (1878-1952) institutionalized Marxist-Leninism and applied it on a massive scale. His program became known as "Stalinism."
Marxist-Leninists used the methods of Bakunin and Nechayev to overthrow weak governments. Their operatives became adept at seizing power at opportune moments.
Clawing their way into power was, for Communists, a dirty business that often included assassinations and betrayals. Ho Chi Minh betrayed his Vietnamese nationalist allies to the French colonialist government, to give his Marxist-Leninist movement a monopoly of anti-colonial sentiment. Communism became a synonym for treason, a richly deserved epithet. Nechayev's absolute ruthlessness had become their standard procedure.
New Communist regimes used blood purges to consolidate power, as Robespierre had done. As all political power was concentrated in the central organs of the state, a secret police would remove political opponents and silence independent organizations of power and influence.
Sometime after the first blood purge, Marxist-Leninist governments engineered the mass extermination of the bourgeoisie (the middle class) in order to accelerate the "forces of history" (as per Hegel's theory). Programs of systematic genocide were used by Communist regimes in Russia, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia to murder millions of innocent civilians, whose only crime was their social class. Marxist-Leninist regimes waged war against humanity and civilization.
Nazi terror and genocide
The Hegelians of the right proved to be just a bloodthirsty as the Hegelians of the left. Left-leaning Communist genocide was joined by Nazi genocide to form the twin horrors of the twentieth century.
Nazi Germany used most of the same tactics as the Marxist-Leninists. Anti-authoritarian nihilism was abhorrent to Nazi dogma, so when the Nazis burned down the Reichstag (Parliament) they blamed it on the Communists, who were the usual suspects of sabotage. Nazi propagandists rationalized their brutal tactics by claiming to be the forces of order fighting anarchy and Communism. The first Nazi blood purge was called "the night of the long knives." Their systematic program of genocide was aimed at the Jews and not the bourgeoisie.
The Nazis were not as anarchistic or nihilistic as the Bolsheviks during their revolutionary phase, but they were more nihilistic in their scorched earth policies during the war. Hitler assumed his regime was strengthened by pruning out the Jews and that the Soviet regime was weakened by destroying the Russian middle class. Therefore, he was optimistic that his invasion of Russia would succeed. Initially, many Russians and Ukrainians rallied to the Germans as their liberators, but the scorched-earth and vicious anti-Slavic policies of the German army produced a remarkable solidarity of the Soviet peoples in opposition to the invader.
Hitler's slavophobia was incredible because Germans and Slavs are ancient racial, tribal, and linguistic cousins. In like manner, the anti-Semitism of Islamo-fascists is incredible, because the Semitic Jews and the Semitic Arabs are ancient, racial, tribal, and linguistic cousins.
Islamo-fascists
Islam emphasizes submission to Muslim authority. Therefore, authoritarian fascism has greater appeal than communism to radical Islamists. The Arab Semitic race and the Arabic language have a special status in Islam, which has a parallel to Nazism that gives special status to German ethnicity. Both Nazism and Islamo-fascism are anti-Semitic. The various Islamo-fascist groups are united in their commitment to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jews.
Saddam Hussein lived the life of a perfect fascist. As a young man, he joined the Baath Party – which had absorbed and internalized Nazi dogma during World War II. As a leader of the Iraqi secret police, Saddam rose to power through the assassination of rivals and political opponents. Saddam consolidated his power with an Iraqi version of the "night of the long knives." He also used poison gas to wipe out entire villages of Kurds. Saddam built a gigantic canon for shelling Israel. Israel bombed Saddam's atomic weapon factory in the belief the bombs were intended for them. He financed terrorism against Israel and trained al-Qaida members in the use of poisons.
Saddam was militaristic and imperialistic, like a good Nazi. He seized Kuwait, just as Hitler seized Czechoslovakia. Saddam bit off more than he could chew when he invaded Iran, just as Hitler bit off more than he could chew when he invaded Russia. Saddam was the Iraqi fuehrer complete with a public cult of personality.
Now that we have established a plausible link between Islamist radicalism and the cosmic evil of Nazism, let us take a closer look at the idea of cosmic treason.
Two definitions of cosmic treason
Theologian R. C. Sproul regards all sin against God as "cosmic treason," a theory that deserves respect. Unfortunately, Sproul's theory can be used to obscure the distinction between the degrees and kinds of evil.
In contrast, Dante Alighieri (1265-1361) carefully demarcated degrees of evil and punishment in hell. He regarded traitors as the worst of sinners. In this essay, I shall follow Dante's idea that some forms of evil are more accursed than others.
Dante's Inferno
In his epic poem Inferno, Dante's tidy schematic of hell was founded upon his belief that the punishment must fit the crime. The nature, quality, and intensity of the punishment must correspond to the essential quality of the sin. His idea resonates with C. S. Lewis's speculations about particular qualities of eternal woe that are unique to the sin-pattern of the doomed individual. Dante's rigorous concern for the equity and harmony of eternal judgment is typical of Medieval scholasticism.
Dante described the regions of despair as an enormous funnel that contains a series of nine concentric circles. As one journeys downwards into the realms of despair, the sinners are more wicked and the punishments more horrifying at each successive circle. The ninth and lowest circle of damnation at the tip of the funnel was reserved for the punishment of traitors of four different categories.
The ninth circle of hell was frozen over, with traitors eternally frozen out of the world they had betrayed. At the bottom of the funnel was a frozen lake, where Satan, the Prince of Traitors, stood waist deep in the ice.
Although Dante did not mention "cosmic treason," he ranked the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot as the worst act of treason ever committed by mortal man. Since Christ was God incarnate and the Creator and Redeemer of the cosmos, the betrayal of Christ to his very face was blatant cosmic treason.
Surprisingly, Dante depicted the betrayal of Julius Caesar by Brutus and Cassius as the second worst treason in history. In the mind of a medieval Italian like Dante, the Roman Imperium was the center of the cosmos, and the betrayal of Caesar amounted to betrayal of the cosmos.
Now let us consider how cosmic traitors behave in practice.
Cosmic treason by proxy
Most traitors do not have the means, as Judas did, of striking a direct blow upon God's incarnate person. Therefore, cosmic traitors might try to get revenge on God by assisting in the destruction of His creation, which is the cosmos. Lacking the power to demolish the sturdy cosmos, the cosmic traitor seeks the overthrow of civilization, which is fragile and vulnerable.
But why would a cosmic traitor be interested in destroying civilization? In what way is a blow against civilization also a blow against the cosmos and a blow against God?
In defense of civilization
Proposition: There can be no civilization without the implicit principles of God's order and harmony. Man, who is made in the image and likeness of God, cannot develop into the many splendored being that God designed, apart from His saving and sanctifying grace, and apart from His civilizing principles of order and harmony. Civilization and high culture are precious gifts of God.
When the fading remnants of order and harmony are lost, civilization must fall. Civilized culture in Russia was poisoned by atheistic Marxist-Leninist rule and perished, leaving the hollow shell of the Soviet Regime to collapse from its own dead weight.
When civilization perishes and barbarism prevails, the remnants of God's order and harmony in human society can be extinguished. When the light of civilization goes out, God's works among men are trampled underfoot.
Civilization can be crushed under the jackboot, shattered in the rubble of anarchy, or lost in degrees to creeping urban barbarism. Totalitarian regimes preserve the veneer of civilization, but are a form of barbarism. The Taliban and Saddam's Iraqi regime were barbarous, even though they retained the veneer of order.
For all its decadence and folly, the West still embodies much of what is left of civilization in this dark world. Al-Qaida's determination to destroy the West goes beyond the hatred of decadent infidels. Osama bin Laden, a terrorist barbarian, hate[d] the West because it represents civilization. He gleefully celebrated as the twin towers in New York were collapsing. As a misanthrope and cosmic traitor, he delight[ed] in the destruction of civilization.
The alien and the misanthrope
In my teen years, I read a science fiction story in which an invader from outer space planned to destroy the planet earth. He recruited the most evil man he could find, a perfect misanthrope, to assist him in destroying the earth. The alien assumed that such a man would be glad to betray his world.
At an arranged meeting, the alien wondered why the man was looking at his watch. The man replied, "I am looking to see how many seconds you have to live. You were a fool to think that any man, no matter how evil, would betray his whole world." Then a bomb that the man had hidden nearby exploded and killed them both.
Is this story true about the implications of a misanthrope?
Materialistic blindness to cosmic evil
Soft-hearted sentimentalists and hard-headed materialists would agree that no man would betray his whole world. Materialism presupposes that all beings in a materialistic closed system must be an integral part of the system. A closed system cannot be divided against itself. If man is entirely a creature of this world and is completely at home on earth, he has no interest in seeing his earthy home destroyed.
Cosmic treason requires a radical alienation from this cosmos produced by a transcendent evil. That kind of evil cannot exist in a closed system.
Liberal Modernists do not believe in the existence of evil. They view ostensible evil as temporary maladjustment, disequilibrium, and disharmony within a closed system. They are incapable of viewing misanthropists and hardened criminals as enemies of the cosmos. For this reason, liberals will never stop trying to make deals with terrorists, or trying to win their cooperation with appeasement.
After British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to appease Hitler, Hitler asked, "Why must I deal with nonentities?" A cosmic traitor is not sociable or clubbable, he does not play fair, he cannot be appeased, and he cannot be enticed by affable blandishments to play by the rules or assume a harmonious role in the cosmos.
Evil is unbelievable to the liberal, and mysterious to the conservative. To make it more believable and less mysterious, let us consider the developmental program of the cosmic traitor.
Cosmic traitors are made and not born
Man is born with original sin and can be seduced by evil, but cosmic traitors are made and not born. Just as the process for making a saint is a difficult one and only a few reach the goal, the road to cosmic treason is long and hard. Only a few aspiring malefactors reach their diabolical goals. The Jesuits, the U.S. Marines, and the Communist recruiters once had the same motto: "All we need is a few good men."
As we consider the development process of cosmic treason, grades in school will be a metaphor for stages of development.
Grade one, the making of a parasite
First grade in the school of cosmic treason is about the making of a parasite. One need not be a criminal, con-man, or moocher to be a parasite. One can be an emotional parasite who feeds off the gang, the family, or a host personality in a co-dependent relationship.
In the Hollywood movie "Cool Hand Luke," the prisoners in a chain gang vicariously lived through the capers of Luke, a vivacious, showboat narcissist, played by Paul Newman. Eventually, Luke got exhausted and screamed at them, "Stop living off me." As an exhibitionistic narcissist, he came alive as the center of attention, but was emotionally drained by the burden of living to sustain emotional leeches.
The narcissistic Hollywood film-maker was sympathetic to Luke, of course. Newman, trained to be a method actor, excelled in the portrayal of narcissism. The existentialist film critics praised the obnoxious Luke because he was "authentic."
If we reduce this existential fallacy to its ultimate absurdity, we could say that Hitler was authentic in his malevolence and Chamberlain was inauthentic in his goodness. Existentialism makes one blind to good and evil.
Grade two, the making of a narcissist
After one becomes a parasite, he can aspire to be a narcissist.
The transition from emotional parasitism to narcissism is not easy. The emotional parasite feeds off someone else who is the center of attention. The narcissist himself is the center of attention.
As the prisoners lived vicariously through Luke, they had a center of attention outside themselves, which protected them from absolute self-absorption. Most emotional leeches prefer to remain in this state of co-dependency. However, a few of them might internalize Luke's game, and become a narcissist like him.
Some terrorist propagandists, like the late Yasser Arafat, were showboat narcissists. Many of Arafat's fawning groupies lived vicariously through Arafat's showy antics, just as the prisoners lived through Luke. Islamo-fascist terrorists often start out as the emotional groupies of an Islamist cult leader.
Most of the followers of a cult guru are permanent groupies. Only a few become gurus themselves. There cannot be two cult gurus in the commune, two Cool Hand Lukes in a chain gang, or two Arafats in the Islamist community, because they would become rivals for attention. The senior disciple in a cult will invariably have conflict with his guru – just as Malcom X inevitably fell out with Elijah Muhammad. In sharp contrast to a narcissistic guru, a selfless mentor will promote his star protege above himself.
Karl Jung was the protege of Sigmund Freud. When Jung started to emerge with a voice of his own in the field of psychology, Freud and Jung had a terrible fight and were permanently alienated from one another. Freud was a narcissist and behaved like a dictator in his treatment of upstart proteges. His psychology, now discredited, appealed to a decadent subculture of narcissism.
Grade three, the making of a conspiracy theorist
After one has become a narcissist, he can aspire to be a conspiracy theorist. He is ready for the class in conspiracy theory – third grade in the school of cosmic treason.
A narcissist never accepts responsibility for his actions, but shifts the blame to others. Finding a scapegoat is one way of shifting the blame. Conspiracy theories are dependent upon scapegoats.
Conspiracy theories are often void of intelligent ideas. The ideas are focused upon the scapegoat. A self-absorbed narcissist is exactly the kind of person who can conceptually sustain a narrow, reductionist, and paranoid focus on the scapegoat.
It is easy for a narcissist to shift the blame upon a personal scapegoat – since his self-absorbed thinking makes it difficult for him to blame a cosmic scapegoat for the evils of society. Whereas it is initially difficult for the narcissist to see the cosmic big picture, it is easy for him to hate. If you offend the self-love of a narcissist, he will hate you forever. Conspiracy theories harness the power of hatred to teach the narcissist to raise his hatred to the level of a cosmic scapegoat.
The historically-favorite cosmic scapegoats of Europe were the Jews, and anti-Semitism is returning to Europe once again. The cosmic scapegoat of the Communists was the bourgeoisie. During Jim Crow America, the Negro was the scapegoat. Overly-simplified "one world" conspirators are the frequent scapegoats for elements of the American right. America itself is the scapegoat for American leftists.
Grade four, hatred of civilization
Conspiracy theorists sometimes come to hate civilization itself, which is fourth grade in the school of cosmic treason. Two of the cults of modernism teach the educated man to hate civilization.
During the middle of the eighteenth century, Jean Jacques Rousseau, a narcissist and misanthrope if ever there was one, blamed all the ills of humanity on civilized society – which he saw as corrupt, artificial, and unnatural. He thus spawned two cults of Modernism: a) a call to civilized man to "return to nature;" and b) the blaming of human evil on the "root causes" of society.
The "cult of nature" claims that civilization is the enemy of nature. The "cult of root causes" claims that civilization is the enemy of man. Both cults encourage the irrational hatred of civilization – hatred that is still running rampant in academia, the last bastion of the myths and follies of Modernism.
The leftist academic hates the very civilization that makes college professors possible. In turn, the Islamo-fascist hates the West as the standard bearer of civilization. Both the professor and Islamist share the same scapegoat – the West.
The idealization of barbarism
Before we proceed to fifth grade in the school of cosmic treason, let us consider the cult of the barbarian that is counterpart to the hatred of civilization.
The idealization of barbarism rises in direct proportion to the hatred of civilization. Hollywood, as the bellwether of a decadent culture, is determined to demonize the sophisticated, civilized man and to lionize the barbarian.
Barbarism is the worst of all possible worlds for men who have developed their reason and will in a disciplined manner. Even Rousseau, an admirer of barbarians, reluctantly admitted that we had developed too far as the children of reason and civilization to return to nature and become the "noble savages" of romantic myth. Just as it is too late to go back to nature, it is too late for us live under a barbaric Islamo-fascist regime. That would be a living death for one raised in the West.
Grade five: Training for a war against civilization
Grades one through four can produce a misanthrope of a lazy, self-indulgent kind. Further training is needed to produce a man capable of hurting civilization.
Part of the reason is that an individual who hates civilization is impotent as a solo agent to inflict much damage upon civilization. He must be trained and united with others in a common cause.
The training programs in Communist cells over the years have been astonishingly rigorous. The training in some elite Islamist cells occasionally approaches that level of intensity. Such training produces efficient and obedient soldiers for the terror war against the West.
The Communist cells were once controlled from Moscow, whereas Islamist terror cells today are under decentralized command and are coordinated in loose networks. The advantage of the decentralized approach is that the cells are hard to find and can multiply like cancer cells. The disadvantage of decentralization is that terror cells can fall short of the discipline and coordination of the old communist cells.
Grade Six: The school of genocide
Is a terror war against civilization – of itself – cosmic treason? Yes, but not at the level of the French reign of terror or of the Marxist-Leninists, Nazis, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Genocide must be added to realize the twentieth century's full measure of evil.
Only passionate and obsessive hatred for a scapegoat group of people can lead one to actively promote genocide. Note that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the leaders of Iran openly advocate the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jews.
Cosmic evil must control the levers of power of the state in order to carry out systematic genocide. The irony of genocide is that it is always performed by haters of civilization. Yet genocide cannot be performed without the offices of the modern state that is built upon the wealth and organizing power of civilization.
Evil cannot create. It can only seize control and misuse that which has been created. The school of genocide requires training in how to seize and abuse government power.
Grade Seven: The destroyers of civilization
Some Nazis applauded genocide, but stopped short of seeking the end of civilization. What is the difference between those who stop short at grade six, and those who go on to grade seven?
Al-Qaida, the group that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York, advocates the destruction of the West. Why? Because Westerners are infidels, in terms of Islamist doctrine? No. There are plenty of infidels around the world that al-Qaida is ignoring. Is it because of America's friendship with Israel? Not entirely. Al-Qaida wants to destroy Europe where many of the nations are not friends of Israel. Is it about envy of and bitterness against the West? Not entirely. The Arab world has plenty of non-Western enemies to preoccupy their animus. Is not a war between Islam and the West suicidal for Islam? Possibly. But cosmic traitors have a suicidal streak. Some of the suicide bombers are eager for death.
In the end, the barbarous al-Qaida wants to destroy the West because the West is CIVILIZED! Al-Qaida wants to destroy civilization and install throughout the world a Taliban-style of barbarism. As such, al-Qaida is comparable to the worst of the Nazis and the Stalinists in its program of cosmic treason. Fortunately, Americans went to Afghanistan, and al-Qaida has less control of a base from which to organize terrorism.
Unfortunately, a regime reminiscent of the Taliban controls Iran – a large, powerful oil-rich state, which will soon have nuclear weapons. Iran wants to destroy Israel, but it is not yet clear that Iran wants to destroy the West, which purchases their oil. The Iranian leaders belong to a Messianic brand of Shiite Islam that anticipates the return of the "Mahdi" (the guided one), a Muslim messiah of sorts, who is prophesied to bring the whole world under perfect Islam. This implies the destruction of the West.
We have not yet answered the question of why some cosmic traitors go from stage six to grade seven in the school of cosmic treason. The answer lies in the intervention of satanic power as discussed in the conclusion.
Conclusion
Islamo-fascist terror represents the greatest unleashing of cosmic evil since the Communists and the Nazis. Islamo-fascists seek nothing less than the destruction of civilization, the destruction of the West, and bringing the entire world under barbarous, totalitarian, Islamist regimes.
Are the Islamo-fascists mad-men? Only in the madness of great evil. Men functioning at the level of cosmic treason walk in satanic energy and inspiration. Mad men would be no threat to us, but satanically energized men are very dangerous.
It was up to America with help from Britain to defeat the cosmic evil of German and Japanese fascism and Soviet Communism. Now it is up to America with help from Britain to save civilization from the cosmic evil of Islamo-fascism.
Unfortunately, America is divided about whether or not to fight the war on Islamo-fascist terror. Many do not yet see the terrorist movement as a cosmic evil that threatens the existence of civilization. The liberals do not believe it, because they do not believe in evil on a grand scale. Some conservatives agree that the terrorists are evil, but do not see them as a cosmic evil. The main objective of this essay is to persuade fellow conservatives and some moderates that the Islamo-fascists are a cosmic evil, and are therefore a threat to everything we hold dear.
Americans! Your destiny and purpose as a nation are to once more rescue civilization from a cosmic evil that is inspired and energized by satanic forces. In order to fight diabolical forces, we must be spiritually renewed and armed with the spiritual weapons of faith and truth that God provides.
God has a controversy with the dark heresy of Islam against which He will one day unleash his wrath. He also has a controversy against America for forsaking His moral laws. Let us fear him, repent, and turn back to His ways so that He will be close beside us in the terrible battles against cosmic evil that are to come.
A message from Stephen Stone, President, RenewAmerica
I first became acquainted with Fred Hutchison in December 2003, when he contacted me about an article he was interested in writing for RenewAmerica about Alan Keyes. From that auspicious moment until God took him a little more than six years later, we published over 200 of Fred's incomparable essays — usually on some vital aspect of the modern "culture war," written with wit and disarming logic from Fred's brilliant perspective of history, philosophy, science, and scripture.
It was obvious to me from the beginning that Fred was in a class by himself among American conservative writers, and I was honored to feature his insights at RA.
I greatly miss Fred, who died of a brain tumor on August 10, 2010. What a gentle — yet profoundly powerful — voice of reason and godly truth! I'm delighted to see his remarkable essays on the history of conservatism brought together in a masterfully-edited volume by Julie Klusty. Restoring History is a wonderful tribute to a truly great man.
The book is available at Amazon.com.
© Fred HutchisonI first became acquainted with Fred Hutchison in December 2003, when he contacted me about an article he was interested in writing for RenewAmerica about Alan Keyes. From that auspicious moment until God took him a little more than six years later, we published over 200 of Fred's incomparable essays — usually on some vital aspect of the modern "culture war," written with wit and disarming logic from Fred's brilliant perspective of history, philosophy, science, and scripture.
It was obvious to me from the beginning that Fred was in a class by himself among American conservative writers, and I was honored to feature his insights at RA.
I greatly miss Fred, who died of a brain tumor on August 10, 2010. What a gentle — yet profoundly powerful — voice of reason and godly truth! I'm delighted to see his remarkable essays on the history of conservatism brought together in a masterfully-edited volume by Julie Klusty. Restoring History is a wonderful tribute to a truly great man.
The book is available at Amazon.com.
The views expressed by RenewAmerica analysts generally reflect the VALUES AND PHILOSOPHY of RenewAmerica — although each writer is responsible for the accuracy of individual pieces, and the position taken is the writer's own.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)