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(Seems to have a very long history)

The name C.W.Burpo rings no bells to speak of - other than the fact that he was a "radio minister" who was virulently anti-communist and died in 1982. One of the things I've noticed, in researching a lot of these "radio ministers" who preached a steady stream of right-wing extremist diatribe during their "messages to the children of God" is that not many of the recordings seem to exist. Certainly, the Library of Congress has a policy not to accept recordings of any of those broadcasts, with the possible exception of Father Coughlin, who was something of a pioneer of the form.

But C.W. Burpo hosted a daily program, heard over a large number of radio stations in middle and Southern America for a number of years, beginning in the late 1950's and going to the late 1960's. After the first few minutes of citing scripture and praying for God's guidance, he launched into a tirade over the perilous nature of our lives here in America.

As sampled by this 1965 broadcast dealing with the Civil Rights Movement.

C.W. Burpo: “I’m talking about real, red-blooded patriotic Americans, and I say there’s no doubt in the minds of those Americans that Nazism and Fascism are evil, and that we want no part of it. And yet with increasing intensity, we observe references in the press to Nazis and Fascist activities in our country. Now there’ve been no exposures of such activity, just references veiled insular references, as far as we’ve been able to learn there is no real Nazi or Fascist threat within America, but we have during the course of investigation learned something very revealing. And that is, that there is a Communist conspiracy against this nation, against the churches, against the homes, against the schools and against your very life. And as a major tactic of this conspiracy – well AS a major tactic of this conspiracy is to smear the opposition with a Nazi or Fascist label. But let’s look at the real trouble that we’re facing today. Communist infiltration into the Race Revolution is becoming evident as investigation exposes leaders and organizations. A partial list of organizations involved in the Civil Rights Movement, which reportedly has Communist or Communist fronters in its leadership are . . .now I have a copy of this so I’m going to give it and I want every station to hold steady because we’re not going to incriminate you.

Now here are some fronters – The Southern Conference Educational Fund Incorporated, The NAACP, The Montgomery Improvement Association, The National Council of Churches, The Young Socialist Alliance, The militant Labor Forum, The Congress On Racial Equality, The Communist Party U.S.A., and other movements that I’m not allowed to mention, but we have it in print. A thorough probing of some leaders in the forefront of racial agitation has brought to light the following – according to Frank A. Capell, editor of the Herald Of Freedom and Metropolitan Review, he says, and I quote: ‘Adam Clayton Powell is an immoral clergyman and Congressman from Harlem New York City. He has been affiliated with a hundred and fourteen Communist causes, he works in close cooperation with all agitation groups, including Malcolm X and his Riflemen and the Black Muslims who have over 100,000 members’. Mister Capell continues; Martin, and I quote ‘Martin Luther King has been working with the Communists for years, a fact which has finally been admitted by even liberal writers. Carl Prussian (sp?), a friend of mine and FBI counterspy made a sworn affidavit which clearly proves this and it has been unchallenged.”

He makes numerous references to a journalist "friend" of his, Frank J. Capell who, it turns out was something of an extreme nutcase and wild-eyed ultra-conspiracy theorist.

And all under the guise of religion.

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18 Comments

Christofascism was America's biggest threat then and it still is today.

sassafra's picture

this isn't a flippant or snarky question, i really am puzzled. jesus i'm quite sure if he was prescient went to his death somewhat more comfortably knowing the abominations that would be called forth in the future in his name.
what is it within christianity that gives rise to such terminally putrid expressions of hate, or is it a manifistation of something witin the human animal generically that warps all religions equally?

Maybe it is those who are inherently delusional will more easily succumb to the aggrandizing trappings of religion. In this case, they wield religion like a tool.

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Yes.


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

yellowdog's picture

When Fidel wanted to stir up the crowd and draw them close, he told them the US was poised to invade. When Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden want to recruit those willing to strap on a bomb, they invoke the threat of the west, when Robertson or Pastor Billy Bob Joe see donations dropping off they scream about commie pinko libruls (sic) and the unassailable fact that the anti-Christ is in the WH.

Create a threat and those normally more interested in NASCAR, church socials or a cold long neck beer will sit up and take notice.

Anger is born of the fear of loss or of not getting what you want. The Beckerheads and their Teaparties are the manifestation of that anger. They're afraid of losing their place (as white men) at the top of the heap.

treestump's picture

once boiled it all down to this:

Nice people have nice Gods and mean people have mean Gods.
Loving people have loving Gods and hateful people have hateful Gods.

God is just a projection (and maybe a narcissistic and selfish projection) of ourselves.

It's said that "God" created us in 'his' own image but it seems to be a little more likely, given our cultural landscape, that the opposite is true.

I wish I could say that I thought this up myself but the credit goes to somebody else and I've carried this little nugget around with me for decades. It offers me perspective when I start going off the deep end with worry about what I see going on in our country. That doesn't mean that we're safe from anything; it just means that there's a simple reason why people go nuts with their 'religious' beliefs.

$0.02

This is a fairly common observation-- warlike people have warlike gods, people by the water have water gods... peace-loving pacificts worship pacifist gods, etc...

I'm pretty sure one person to make this observation was Joseph Campbell... but I've seen it several places.

W

Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits (May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was a Jewish-American politician who served as United States Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. A moderate Republican, he was originally allied with Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, fellow U.S. Senators Irving Ives and Kenneth Keating, and New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay.

Before the Cuban Missile Crisis, Senator Keating accused the Soviets and Cuba of building IRBMs in Cuba, and urged President John F. Kennedy to take action. Keating was defeated for re-election in 1964 by Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, after a campaign in which Keating labelled Kennedy as a "carpetbagger." Keating's campaign slogan was "Keep Keating."

[In 1963, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who hated civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and viewed him as an upstart troublemaker, presented Kennedy with allegations that some of King's close confidants and advisors were communists.]

Keating was defeated for re-election in 1964 by Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, after a campaign in which Keating labelled Kennedy as a "carpetbagger." Keating's campaign slogan was "Keep Keating."

Secular America recognizes radical religion only when it marches into the public square, bellowing its intentions. When Charles Finney built the nation's first megachurch 170 years ago--at Broadway and Worth**, in lower Manhattan—he understood that making a spectacle of faith provided a foundation for power.

Jacob K. Javits Federal Building Following some names in Jeff Sharlet's The Family:


Study the symptoms not the virus...

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Diabolus est Deus Inversus

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Diabolus est Deus Inversus

stewartm0205's picture

If you speak about Christ many religious people will start to listen to you. Once they believe in you, you can then manipulate them. Some will figure it out but you call them traitors and force them out. The rest will follow you to hell.

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

I think those kind of images are illegal now.


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

richxxiii's picture

Almost as freaky as the late Rev. Estus Pirkle, from which Negativland sampled the Christianity is Stupid line.
Check out his Christian, anti-communist splatter film If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horsemen Do? It's a hoot!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=45251...

You know part of me is curious as to what right-wing fanatics used to scare people with back before communism.....but I already know, in the late Victorian era until the end of the First World War it would have been Anarchist, a real threat back then. Communism popped up in Russia and gave all of the reactionaries something they could really sink their dull little teeth into and they havent looked back since, not even after international Communism (namely the Soviet Union)finally fell.


When angry, count four, when very angry, swear.
-Mark Twain-

Daverz's picture

C. W. Burpo?! Come on, you got this out of a Vonnegut novel, didn't you?

MikeD's picture

people like Burpo at least had a real enemy to be afraid of. There WAS an international communist movement and they did try to take over some governments from within and there was a US communist party. Of course they were never anything close to the threat that they were painted to be by lunes like Burpo, especially as we now know that the US communist party and much of the violence committed in Europe in the name of radical communists were controlled and instigated by infiltrators from the FBI at home and CIA abroad. This isn't conspiracy theory, or actually it is it just also happens to be documented and true -- look up Operation Gladio But my point is that as much as people like Blapo were fear mongers they at least had some grounding in reality, some real thing that they were responding to. In the case of the tea baggers its just completely insane. There is no international communist movement anymore, the idea that Obama is a communist is just insane (if only he were), and the tea baggers don't even understand the basic terms they throw around as they conflate communism and facism as if they were the same thing.

Dark_Hawk_98's picture

Although a psychologist or psychiatrist might not agree, to my tin ear CW sure sounds like he has a fixed delusion that he articulates with nonsensical language. To my mind it sure does sound like word salad articulations to me. Kind of like Glenn Back and all the rest today!

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