Bill Kinnon at achievable ends links up to the National Post coverage of a debate between  home grown Charles McVety of Canadian Christian College and Chris Hedges who was in Toronto to promote his book: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.

 Chapter One is available online.

Hedges was on The Colbert Report last week - he is not a TV kind of guy. He is a writer, and is far more competent at making his case in print, his message is lost when he is in front of a camera. He comes across like a burned out reporter, and he is not.

Kinnon put up his post on the McVety/Hedges debate less than 12 hours ago, and he has already had a McVety follower comment.
Who decided McVety was going to debate Hedges? Why? Someone thought this was important enough to send out a reporter.

Canadians like to comfort themselves by believing we don’t home grow our own religious right or that we won’t or can’t. From the National Post:

Rev. McVety, for his part, scored points by pointing out that corporate America is “deeply secular,” not Christian, and he won a hearty ovation after Mr. Hedges described Christian media as a “hermetic” system of propaganda that promotes an unhealthy self-image, to which Rev. McVety quipped, “Are you talking about Hollywood?”

What you just heard is the Gospel according to Chris Hedges, and because someone died and made him king, we need to walk in lockstep,” Rev. McVety said, his bottled rage building before the television cameras. “You come here from Hah-vahd, you call me a bigot. Prove it. Prove that I’m a bigot.”

Head over to achievable ends and read what Bill Kinnon put up. I find it interesting that academics continue to dismiss McVety and his friends for various reasons. McVety may well come across as our evangelical buffoon, it suits his purposes and the purposes of those who align with him.

Whatever one thinks about Chris Hedges, (and he is getting his share of flack) he is in good company. Top journalists in the US have made their case about the US religious right: Fredrick Clarkson, Michelle Goldberg, Bill Moyers, Mel White…
McVety is correct though. Hedges flown into Toronto like it is a US audience and then not being prepped for a debate makes him look silly and easy to brush away.

Marci McDonald’s piece on Canada’s religious right in The Walrus Magazine was criticized by many Canadian political pundits, partly because Stephen Harper may well be the one to pull back from associations with the hard line religious right in Canada. But I believe we make a mistake dismissing some of the dots she did connect, particularly the para church money and resource tie ins between Canada and the US.

While it is common practice for McVety and his coalitions to inflate their numbers and their rhetoric, to seek the spotlight and go on the attack, some numbers don’t lie. Want people out for a rally supporting Israel? McVety and his friends deliver. When it’s time to petition MP’s, the evangelical and catholic coalition get it done. 

The ideologies that drive the religious right do resonate in Canada, with believers and in politics. The Miracle Channel (which McVety broadcasts on) on is thriving financially. Interesting that piece is in the National Post, the same paper that dismisses him.

We think because we don’t believe something, others simply won’t either.

Hedges - Letter from Canada  The Nation, November 2006
Hedges on CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos