The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed 
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

For the complete explanation, go to
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Lawrence Britt

Equality?

It is not time to eliminate meritocracy. It is time to stop deliberately suppressing those who are for one reason or another lower on the merit scales. Fairness does not equal elimination of income differences or incentives.

But what is unfair is shifting the burden of taxes from corporations and the wealthy onto the middle class, paying poverty wages, and making too many things for-profit such as healthcare, education, justice, and politics.

Take the rich man's hand out of the poor man's pocket. Stop putting the interests of corporations and religion ahead of people. Class warfare is not envy, it is the suppression of the rights and opportunities of the poor, the disabled, elderly, minority, non-Christian, by those with economic clout.

Fairness is not socialist or communist. Fairness is having compassion and a sense of morality and justice. It is recognizing that those who contribute to one's success should not be treated as unworthy or inhuman or undeserving or as obstacles to greater profits at the top.

Unregulated free markets are not fair markets. This is not Ayn Rand's world of laziness, greed, indifference, and 100% transparency in business transactions. Pure capitalism ignores social responsibility. The awareness that air, water, and soil need protection. That workers, consumers, voters, the disabled and elderly, children, students, Native Americans and racial minorities, the poor, LGBT, and people who don't want lead poisoning deserve to be treated fairly and to be protected from those who would harm them.

Equality does not mean eliminating differences. Equality is having the same rights and responsibilities.

Conservative? Hardly.

Conservatives? I never call them conservatives, because they are not. I prefer to call them radical conservatives. 

They think government should not regulate unless it's about regulating people. Then its regulate our sexuality, our religion, our minds, and our bodies.

They judge people by the color of their skin, the size of their breasts, their looks, their age, their gender, their disabilities, and the amount of money they have. Their concept of sexuality is binary and genetic; anything else on the sexual spectrum is ungodly and an anathema.

These radical conservatives have no sense of social responsibility, integrity, compassion, honesty, fairness. They are not even fiscally conservative. They are radicals in every sense.

Celibacy and the Church

"Be celibate or leave the priesthood, pope tells gay priests." ¹

"Men whom God has not gifted or called to be celibate (1 Corinthians 7:7) are being required to be celibate, and the result is tremendous failures in the areas of adultery, fornication, and the sexual abuse of children." ²

Who made up the celibate rule and who made up the staying single rule for Church officials?

Celibacy is not a requirement in the Bible. The celibacy rule is from three "pontifical decretals" in AD 385 and a canon of the Council of Carthage of AD 390. Notably, they did not forbid marriage, they only decreed that church officials be celibate within the marriage. Church officials were often married with children.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1579) regarding celibacy only quotes two passages from the New Testament. The first is in Matthew 19:22, where Jesus mentions some men who, 'for the Kingdom of God', became eunuchs. The second is 1 Corinthians 7:32-35,

"the Pauline text . . .where the Apostle speaks of those who are called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the Lord and 'his affairs'; and adds by way of conclusion that 'embraced with a joyful heart, it (the celibate life) radiantly proclaims the kingdom of God'." ³

 Celibacy may have been recommended, but it was not required in the Bible.

Today, the Catholic Church has married celibacy and being single for Church officials. The idea was that "the Church is the bride and Christ is the bridegroom." (How that was translated to priests being married to the Church instead of just Jesus being married to the Church is beyond me.) But any actual references to "purity" in the New Testament are not restricted to preachers or to priests. And the reference in Matthew 19:12 about eunuchs, even if it was more broadly interpreted to mean celibacy, is not a requirement.

New Testament passages do not even forbid marriage, they only encouraged remaining single. "In 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9, the Apostle Paul seems to assume that elders, bishops, overseers, and deacons will be married. Notice the phrases “the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6), “he must manage his own family well” (1 Timothy 3:4,12), and “his children obey him with proper respect” (1 Timothy 3:4; Titus 1:6)." ²

In the Catholic Church, a requirement to stay single was added because of problems with nepotism. Unqualified children were being given positions in the church and sometimes were given Church property. ² Most other Christian religions do not have that prohibition. For the Catholic Church, the consequences of that requirement have become obvious.

Today, celibacy for priests is too often interpreted to be a ban on marriage, but they are two different issues, with two different origins, neither of which was required in the Bible.

¹ Be celibate or leave the priesthood, pope tells gay priests

² Does the Bible teach the celibacy of priests?

³ The biblical foundation of priestly celibacy