How the Republicans Stole Christmas
Why the Religious Right is Wrong about Faith & Politics and What We Can Do to Make it Right
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- 4,49 €
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- 4,49 €
Publisher Description
In the wake of an election seen by many as a triumphant victory for “moral values,” political commentator and one-time seminarian Bill Press launches a counteroffensive against the so-called religious right.
For decades, Press argues, conservative preachers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson—joined by most Catholic bishops—have defined religion so narrowly that Democrats and liberals have been pushed outside the fold. According to their narrow gospel, God put George Bush in the White House to deal with gays, guns, and abortion—and those who don’t agree are on the sure road to hell.
Bill Press says it’s time to take religion back: “Who gave this gang the inside track on religion, anyway? The way I read the Gospels, Jesus was as liberal as Paul Wellstone. He sure as hell wouldn’t have been a registered Republican. One other thing’s for sure: if Jesus ever came back to earth, there’s one gang he wouldn’t hang out with; and that’s this phony bunch of pious, puffed-up preachers who wear religion on their sleeves.”
How the Republicans Stole Christmas is also Press’s fervent call to Democrats and liberals to reclaim religion and return it to its basic principles of social justice, charity, and tolerance. Press argues that the Right didn’t just steal religion, the Left let them have it, offering no resistance as conservatives dictated what’s right and what’s wrong. But on today’s social issues, according to Press, religious conservatives have gotten it all wrong. They have turned Jesus from a loving Messiah who championed the poor and dispossessed into a cold-blooded advocate for the rich and powerful. Press does not confine his criticisms to so-called Christian leaders; he uncovers the same wrong-headed tendencies in other faiths and among nonbelievers, who even today cling to the Old Testament as an appropriate code of behavior.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this readable piece of punditry, Press, who happens to be not only a pundit but also a former seminarian, preaches to the Democratic Party choir, addressing such topics as abortion, separation of church and state, homosexuality and stem cell research. While impassioned, entertaining and sure to please loyalists, Press's arguments do not always bear much scrutiny. For example, when discussing abortion, he resorts too often to the extreme cases of rape and incest, although (as he ultimately acknowledges) only a tiny percentage of abortions are performed for those reasons. More compelling is his argument for the separation of church and state, which thoughtfully reminds readers how and why religion and government need to be protected from each other in order to flourish. After spending most of the book arguing against the political positions of the religious right, Press ends with suggestions to the Democratic Party for taking back religion from the small band of evangelical Christians that now wields power. Though somewhat uneven, this interesting book joins the recent work of Jim Wallis, John Shelby Spong and Charles March in articulating alternative visions of Christianity that are consonant with progressive values.