The biggest Christian movement of the 1940s was supporting Nazis… who knew…

I started listening to a new podcast that talks about Sen Lundeen, who died in mysterious plane crash, but was apparently a secret Nazi who even had the speeches he delivered in the US written by German agents of Hitler… he was on his way to deliver one such speech when his plane crashed, with him and apparently some FBI and DOJ agents who had been tailing him onboard.

Episode two switches gears and talks about a group called The Christian Front, which was lead by a Catholic priest named Father Coughlin. He Hosted a show that was the most popular show in America … that show called for Nazi like fascism to rule America. I’m not using hyperbole here, there are tapes of his radio show being played in the podcast where he is literally praising Nazis and saying he wants fascism like that in America. He hated Jews the most, blamed them for all the world’s problems, and said whatever Hitler was doing to them, they deserved it. Did I mention this was the most popular show in the US in 1939/1940, with 30 million listeners?

The Christian Front formed chapters all over the country, and came up with a handsmaids tale like plot to overthrow the government, end democracy, and install a Christian dictator. They had insiders in the National guard who stole machine guns and ammo, they built bombs. The FBI, through a plant, collected info and eventually raided their NY branch and made arrests. They think they were just one week away from launching an attack in Washington where they planned to kill dozens of congressmen and take control of multiple government institutions.

The pod cast has been fascinating so far. It seems they are going to tie Sen Lundeen to this group and mentioned there were as many as 24 congressmen secretly working for the Nazis at that time.

it’s the “Racheal Maddow presents” podcast, if anyone is interest.

Here’s a link about Father Coughlin and the Christian Front, for some background information.

The Forgotten History of the Far-Right, Pro-Nazi, Anti-Semitic “Christian Front”

 

I know, I can’t link a podcast… that is just some additional info…

 

Sorry, I misunderstood. I guess you quoted someone in this post but I can't see that person's message...

 

Not freaking out, just never heard about this part of history. People have done a good job of burying it. I always pictured the late 30s, early 40s, between the wars, being about American pride. Instead, there was apparently a yuge number of people following this guy who was openly calling for an end to democracy and installing a dictator. 30 million listeners is about 20% of the population back then.

And so far, Maddow seems to be intentionally downplaying all the similarities between then and now, causally mentioning things like during their trial, the Christian Front members said they were the real American patriots who were trying to save the Country, and their leader called the trial "a hoax". Sure, she could have pointed out the obvious there ... but she didn't...