The Rise of the Fourth Reich - ThereAreNoSunglasses

294 THE RISE OF THE FOURTH REICHhappen.” He was found dead in his office of heart failure on May 15,2007.Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, is the founder of Blackwater USA, aprivate security contracting firm that has grown into one of the largestprivate armies in the world. In 2007, Blackwater came under criticism andcongressional scrutiny following more than two hundred shooting reportsin Iraq, one in September of that year that left seventeen Iraqis deadand more than two dozen wounded.Prince’s father, Edgar, a self-made millionaire from selling auto parts,supported the Family Research Council (FRC), a right-wing fundamentalistChristian group close to the Bush administration. Both men weresignificant contributions to the elections campaigns of George W. Bush.Edgar’s widow served on the boards of FRC and another heavyweightChristian right organization, Dobson’s Focus on the Family. She runs theEdgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, of which Erik is a vice president. Thefoundation gave more than $1 million to the Christian right from July2003 to 2006.Author Jeremy Scahill compared Prince’s private army to Hitler’s“Brownshirt” storm troopers.It has been noted that prewar Germany and the United States bothhad Christian roots, a widespread acceptance of biblical social values, anda basic commitment to private virtue. Pastor Lutzer pointed out thatAmerica has differed from Germany in that it has benefited from a constitutionalguarantee of the separation of church and state, as well as its historyof democracy. But he warned: “Despite the differences, the Americanchurch, like that of Nazi Germany, is in danger of wrapping the cross ofChrist in some alien flag.”Like so many in modern America, most Germans of the 1930s offeredno resistance to the ever- encroaching fascism of National Socialism. “Manywelcomed the abolition of individual responsibility for one’s actions; forsome it is easier to obey than to accept the dangers of freedom,” wroteGerald Suster in his 1981 book Hitler: The Occult Messiah.No one in the area of religion seems able to get a clear picture of what ishappening in modern America. The push-pull between liberty and security,scripture and social consciousness appears to have created a stultify-