By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Rerserved. Used by Permission.
Whatever I might eventually say about Marci McDonald’s new book, The Armageddon Factor, which I have two days before its release on the 11th, I have to admit that she has a heck of an ear for a newsworthy quote.
So much so that I almost called this post “Why Faytene Kryskow may sue Marci McDonald for libel.”
I’ll explain about what I found in McDonald’s new book attacking Canada’s Christian right….
I’ll need to preface this by saying that I would categorically say that neither Faytene or her followers are Nazis in any way, shape, or form. What follows is a ghastly gaffe on Kryskow’s part.
But her luck run out. Assuming that McDonald heard her correctly, assuming that she was rolling tape and has proof that that was what was said, assuming that Faytene Kryskow didn’t apologize then or later…well McDonald has caught Kryskow in an act of dumbness that may cause her carefully cultivated Tory friends to start backing away from her.
To reiterate, Kryskow does not sit around her house wearing lederhosen and reading Mein Kampf. But McDonald is quite right to cite her for being very very thoughtless.
McDonald is in the audience at the March 2008 Toronto Missionfest. Faytene Kryskow is speaking to a large plenary audience as McDonald recalls on page 152 of her book:
Winding up her spiel at Missionfest, she summons the crowd to political activism with an unusual pitch. “Imagine an army of young people, five million strong,” she says. “Imagine their passion to arise as a youth force that effectively decided who would get elected to political office–a force so powerful that it literally began to change their nation.” Her audience is warming to her message when it takes a bizarre turn. “This actually happened,” They called themselves the Hitler Youth and they changed the face of their nation and the world.” As her listeners sit in stunned silence, she delivers her closing call to arms: “If they could mobilize their cause to become that mighty with the power of evil backing them,” she tells the crowd, “how much more could we accomplish with the power of God backing us up.”
You could argue that she is trying to use a variant of the “Hitler built the autobahns, so we, being good…” argument. But these days, and properly so, any comparison to the Nazis invites thinking of evil, diabolical cunning and such is both parts of your comparison. That’s why Stephen Harper, say, wouldn’t use it.
Why mention this?
If Kryskow is not quoted totally accurately, I would predict that McDonald and her publishing company will probably be sued for libel. If that were to happen, sales of the book would be hampered, as Random House Canada either refused to ship the book, to save their necks, or started pulling it off the shelves.
Truth is an ironclad defense, but you’d be left wondering “What happened to that book that I read about on BDBO?”
Kryskow is not going to comment on the book at all. Watch for her to issue an apology for this–if she hasn’t already done so–and disappear for a bit. (Yes, the quote is a couple years old, but I don’t think you can brazen it out…)
(“Why did she cancel her appearance at my church the week after that book came out?”)
Her carefully cultivated allies, mostly in the Tory Party, are going to wonder what goes on in her head, if nothing else.
The left, either in blogdom or in the newsroom, would, I am sure, have noticed this. I just happened to do so first.
Bloggers on the right might be tempted to say “This is a clear case of bias. She talks about so many things that McDonald saw, and this is what she quotes. Hardly representative. Not objective at all.” And they might be right…but at the same time anyone who has worked in a newsroom would say: “I would say that it is newsworthy to compare what you hope for, in a left-handed way–to the Nazis.”
McDonald, for her part, hates the Christian Right, it is fair to say.But she must have seen Kryskow as a godsend for her thesis. Want someone to say that the Christian right wants to take over the world? Kryskow  obliges. And any left leaning reporter would jump all over a reference to the Nazis by a conservative person if it is not handled exactly right. (I bet that Kryskow will learn this now, the hard way.)
Well, if libel writs start flying, or Kryskow decides that she needs an immediate vacation, you will know exactly why.
I’m just curious, does the book say anything about Craig Chandler and the Progressive Group for Independent Business? There is a guy you could fill a chapter about! There are so many people in Calgary who have their own ‘interesting’ Chandler stories.
I’m not too worried about revivalists building up an army of youth, or people of any age. They always prophesy that they are going to have this amazing growth, but of course it never happens. The goings on are so bizarre that they only attract a marginal group of people lacking critical thinking skills.
The comment re; Hitler Youth (Joels Army) has been made on other occassions by Preachers in the pulpit within NAR territory and in some parts of America has been openly ‘hinted at’ as being a very good example to follow!
Not such a Holy Spirit ……………..in some places
One day a younger person might say something to their parents.
The parents and or someone or others they know might have some influence.
Then they might try to get Faytene Kryskow to explain about some things.
How will she explain?
Then what will the parents do?
Although it might be fun to see a few Word of Faith wackos attacked, writers should be held accountable for their lack of journalistic integrity. Because she is targeting Christians, she likely will not be, and I suspect she knows it.
http://ezralevant.com/2010/05/does-joseph-benami-wear-a-yarm.html
Funny how the attacks are out already before the book. I appreciate that Rick Hiebert at least expresses his potential differences/biases in his reporting in an honest manner without attacking McDonald.
To clear things up a bit Rose, you may want to see McDonald’s response concerning the CCF which is posted as a comment here: http://noapologies.ca/?p=8344&cpage=1
It was a mistake by The Star, not Mcdonald!
I also don’t know how you can think she’s just targeting “Christians”. I think she’s probably reporting on several other groups just so the “Christians” can’t feel singled out. McDonald isn’t as dumb as you try to make her out to be. I personally don’t believe Random House would allow her to go to press with so many “apparent” inaccuracies as what already appear in the Star article. With that many errors already, I can only imagine the law suits both she and Random House would face. I’ll make a suggestion at this point and that is to hold your criticisms until you have the book in hand and have read it over enough to understand it in its entirety.
Eating crow is usually best when prepared correctly and roadkill is not the first choice ingredient.
I think she was saying in different words, “it’s happened before that youth were this important an electoral force. Just look what evil resulted because of who was leading that electoral force. There would be as much good results as we had evil results in Germany (and the world) if God lead youth with that much voting muscle.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve read about this stuff, but its lingered in my mind that young voters favored the Nazis strongly in their electoral victories leading up to the complete takeover of Germany. I seem to remember that in the referendum in Austria about joining with Nazi Germany the Austrian government tried to restrict the minimum voting age to a very high one in order to better their chances. I think there were some other important cases like these.
I want to add to my earlier comment that I don’t really see what’s wrong with what was said.
@North South
First off, what’s wrong with this is that Missionfest is a registered charity and as such, is not supposed to be political:
http://www.missionfest.org/index.asp?pid=476
Secondly, relating Hitler to any modern day organization and using that reference in a positive light is just simply, stupid.
A libel threat is easily avoidable;
The sad point is that she is thinking the same way that Hitler thought, using the same methods – he understood the way to power and keeping it was through indoctrinating the youth as well. The bible has a lot to say about trusting in flesh and fleshly methods..it’s not the way of the Spirit, it’s the way of religion, which eventually leads to inquisitions and witch-hunts.
..I should add….and holocausts.
11 Therese
Re: you comment Faytene Kryskow thinking like Hitler and using the same methods
Yes, I can see what you mean.
I’ve dealt with Faytene Kryskow 1st hand and was treated very badly by her.
Faytene Kryskow is a very, very, very nasty person.
Another one is her close friend Ed Rubuliak who is the Moderator for Worship Invasion and was treated very badly by his group too.
Ed Rubuliak and the Worship Invasion Team are very, very, very nasty persons too.
These people are New Apostolic Reformation behind the veil of Evangelical Charismatic Christianity so nobody can touch them.
To Dan, Post 2
You are right on. The only thing you are missing is that critical thinking skills are forced out of you through gross fear tactics. You are taught that if you don’t accept everything the leader says, it’s the same as being in the occult. You have to believe every prophecy, every word that every leader speak. They still blame Todd Bentley’s fall on witches praying in the fields surrounding the tent in Lakeland. If you speak something negative about a leader, God will judge you and punish you. If you question a healing, you’re told that you have a spirit of unbelief. Rick Joyner said anyone who believed the media over Todd Bentley about healings, needed deliverance from demon spirits. If this group is all you’ve known because you grew up in it, you live in torturous fear most of your life. When you come out of it, it’s very hard to accept reality. It takes a long time to get over.
To Dan, Post 2 Me, Post 14
They look for that marginal group lacking critical thinking skills.
They can tell if a person has those skills or not
This is the only clientelle that would be compatible with their leadership
If a person comes in there with critical thinking skills out comes all the games to get rid of them
Very nasty games
One of Faytene Kryskow’s friends Ed Rubuliak the Moderator of Worship Invasion. He has a person named Tyler Wright who knows mixed martial arts. He helps lead the youth.
If a young critical thinker comes in, Tyler Wright and group deals with the situation.
They back up each other and would not admit to anything.
They would all have to be put on lie detectors
These groups are like cults
They are cults.
If they are operating in the spirit of nazi……………… then whats the reason! ………………….
For whom are they ‘gathering youth’ into that place
IN OTHER WORDS WHO’S PULLING THE STRINGS!
A dictator, a despot, a manipulator, a fortune maker! …………..
Anyone come to mind who fits that description!!
and with what end result ‘other than torture, and hatred, and hell!
is the ultimate destination…………………
A sick mind (to say the least) manifested itself here on earth, ‘it would appear his spirit ‘nudges’ some ‘ to do the same.
TIME TO UP THE ANTI LORD ‘let your light so shine’ THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS not…………………… those who would deny us even a scrap from under their tables!!
I note that the lack of critical thinking skills is probably why these people seem to be so prone to fall into investment scams. The latest example can be found at http://tiny.cc/smpug
It seems a high proportion of this company’s fans seem to be either Chrisitian or members of the PGIB, or both. I was even attacked by their leader for reposting the decision.
(Hi Dan – I tiny URL’d the link for you – BD)
Wow, lies have an easy way of finding themselves on the blog!!
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