Jewish and Christian (Baldwin 2001). As Coughlin – following the wave de-
vice – raised his rich baritone voice, he reminded his audience of more than
three million listeners, that since the time of Christ, Jewish persecution only
followed after Christians had been persecuted first by the Jews: the Ecclesia
by the Synagogue. Coughlin continued to say that students of history rec-
ognized that Nazism was only a defense mechanism against communism.
Seen from this historical-logical perspective, so Coughlin argued, the atone-
ment fine levied by Hermann Goering paled in significance, when measured
against the forty billion dollars worth of Christian property appropriated by
the Lenins and the Trotzkys, the Zinovieffs and the Kameneffs, the Liotvinoffs
and the Lapinskys: by the atheistic Jews and gentiles. His voice permeated
with sarcasm, Coughlin concluded:
By all means, let us have the courage to compound our sympathy, not only
from the tears of Jews, but also from the blood of the Christians.For Coughlin, the Crystal Night was not an irrational release of pent-up hates,
but it was, rather, justified by past events (Warren 1996; Schornick 1996;
Baldwin 2001).
Anti-Liberalism
Today – in 2006 – religious-fundamentalist anti-liberalism masks the politi-
cal neo-conservativism or neo-liberalism. Likewise, according to Adorno, reli-
gious authority functioned psychologically as a substitute for the political
authoritarianism to come on the way to alternative Futures I and II. In Adorno’s
view, within the framework of general anti-liberalism, however, Thomas drew
upon Protestant orthodoxy – in particular Southern fundamentalism – as well
as upon evangelism and revivalism, while Coughlin depended on Catholic
orthodoxy. In November 2004, anti-liberal Catholics and Evangelicals gave
the war-President his electoral victory. In the meantime they have concluded
a formal alliance. In Adorno’s view, this orthodox theological attitude was
furthered by the fact that these trends had many likenesses, since both were
positive in contrast to enlightened religion, i.e., the so called modernism in
Europe or Americanism in the USA: religious positivism. According to Adorno,
Thomas’s nondiscriminatory attitude and his neutralization of religious teach-
ings went so far, however, that he did not make the slightest objection to
blatant contradictions between the religious trends, which he exploited. Thomas
sometimes posed as a defender of the Church. He appeared to identify himself
Toward a Dialectical Sociology of Religion • 93