Terror Suspect a Christian Nationalist Who Advised 'Honorable' & 'Decent' Behavior ?
Bruce Wilson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Mon Nov 13, 2006 at 03:03:46 PM EST
On Saturday, the FBI arrested a Californian man the agency suspected of causing an Anthrax scare by mailing envelopes containing unidentified white powder to Keith Olbermann, Nancy Pelosi, John Stewart, and other public figures. A member of the Democratic Underground website has found evidence that the suspect - a California man by the name of Chad Castagana - may have been commenting, under the pseudonym "Marc Costanzo", on the website Free Republic  ; as Evan Derkacz, writing for Alternet, observes, that connection - even if true - would hardly be surprising and should not be abused through broad brush smears against American conservatives generally. A notable aspect of the developing story - and which should be also taken with the same caution - is a statement that the Free Republic member "Marc Costanzo" seems, as evidenced in a comment on the site, to hold pronounced Christian nationalist sentiments characteristic of views held by many on the American Christian theocratic right. ( see inside )
Liberals and Lefties everywhere in America's institutions are trying to slowly but increasingly ban Christianity from America, from our site, from our discourse !

They have already succeded in banning any sign of Christianity from ourPublic Schools ! !

If THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST were released today for the first time, it would be slapped with an NC-17 rating ! [ source ]

The historical revisionist claim of  "America The Christian Nation" - as advanced by Texas GOP Vice Chairman David Barton and others -  is one of the central underpinnings of Christian nationalist ideology, and claims that unnamed "secularists" have driven Christianity from "the public square" have become culturally and politically ubiquitious and increasingly have been picked up by leaders of the American religious left and even by prominent politicians from the Democratic Party, but those claims - never substantiated - amount to a demonization of the left that can be seen most nakedly in some of "Marc Costanzo's" comments, especially in his use if the term "DemonCrats" ( ! ) .

If "Marc Costanzo" and Chad Castagana are indeed the same person, the following of "Marc Costanzo's"  comments -  on exhortating conservatives to act "honorably and decently" -  would hold a special irony. In Free Republic discussion thread following a September 6, 2006 post entitled "Understanding Katherine Harris, why she is the good choice, why she deserves our support !, "Costanzo" wrote :

Rep Katherine Harris is human, like us all, and like all of us, she makes mistakes, we can be difficult to work with, intemperate, short with others .

For all good conservatives and all good people in Florida, let us not fall down the DemonCrat path of petty spite over past slights ~ lets us all join together to fight the good fight, win or lose - -

let us act honorably and decently,

Do not let what the Libs and Lefties have done to so many of us decent Americans corrupt us into their way of thinking and doing ~ let us prove we are the Good People, The Crats are The Bad .

As Talk To Action contributor Chip Berlet notes ( as part of an ongoing series on Christian right ideology ), a number of leaders on the American Christian right  hold conspiracy theories that ascribe "satanic" origins to political liberalism and secular government and allege vast shadowy plots, by Illuminati, or other sinister forces,  to dominate the world : some of these conspiracy theories have deep roots in antisemitism as well.

But, allegations of nefarious plots against the American family and American Christianity, and of shadowy schemes to "drive God from the public square", are  not restricted solely to the American Christian right and - indeed, as  Talk To Action co-founder Frederick Clarkson notes - it can often be next to impossible to distinguish between statements by leaders of the Christian left and Christian right, or American politicians from the left and the right, on the subject. For those who doubt that assertion, Clarkson has devised several quizes :  quiz one, quiz two, quiz three.

UPDATE:

David Neiwert, at