Home › Books › Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Ove…
Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America
by
10/99
Critics
81/99
Readers
n/a
Scholars
4/99
Rating
15/99
Volume
76/99
Rating
86/99
Volume
—
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
An investigation into the rise of the Christian right over the last half-century that lays out the grim vision Evangelicals are enforcing on our democracy. All across America, a storm is gathering: from book bans in school libraries to anti-trans laws in state legislatures; firebombings of abortion clinics and protests against gay rights. The Christian Right, a cunning political force in America for more than half a century, has never been more powerful than it is right now—it propelled Donald Trump to power, and it won't stop until it's refashioned America in its own image. In Wild Faith, critically acclaimed author Talia Lavin goes deep into what motivates the Christian Right, from its segregationist past to a future riddled with apocalyptic ideology. Using primary sources and firsthand accounts, Lavin introduces you to "deliverance ministers" who carry out exorcisms by the hundreds; modern-day, self-proclaimed prophets and apostles; Christian militias, cults, zealots, and showmen; and the people in power who are aiding them to achieve their goals. Along the way, she explores anti-abortion terrorists, the Christian Patriarchy movement, with its desire to place all women under absolute male control; the twisted theology that leads to rampant child abuse; and the ways conspiracy theorists and extremist Christians influence each other to mutual political benefit. From school boards to the Supreme Court, Christian theocracy is ascendant in America—and only through exploring its motivations and impacts can we understand the crisis we face. In Wild Faith, Lavin fearlessly confronts whether our democracy can survive an organized, fervent theocratic movement, one that seeks to impose its religious beliefs on American citizens.
Preview
Reviews
"Pairing their stories with an examination of the Christian right's promotion of 'parental rights,' Lavin convincingly positions child abuse as a central tenet of the Christian far right's extremist politics...Though Lavin's account is limited by her focus on ex-evangelicals, whose '90s-era recollections give the narrative a throwback sheen, and her understanding of Evangelicism at times feels sensationalized, her reporting on child abuse is important and shocking."
"And the author's prose, while largely energetic and often elegant, sometimes verges into hyperbole...burying well-honed arguments under waves of outrage that will turn away some readers ..."
"Still, her overall points are well worth noting, particularly when it comes to looking at the long game: the evangelicals, allied now with supremacists and nationalists, have been concentrating quite effectively on transforming key aspects of American governance, especially the judiciary, into which the Trump administration has rushed to appoint lifetime judges committed to preserving 'religious liberty,' which according to Lavin means 'anything they did or said came under the stamp of morality, because it was they who were saying it.' Often repetitive, but with a point: the culture war is a real war, and the fundamentalists have their eyes on the prize."
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!