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Close Encounters With the Religious Right: Journeys into the Twilight Zone of Religion and Politics
What does Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition really want? What secret agenda lies behind radio counselor James Dobson's Focus on the Family? Who are the Promise Keepers and what are their ultimate goals? Why do so many leaders of the religious right engage in gay bashing? What would these groups do to our public school system, or to our government, if they were in power? Close Encounters with the Religious Right takes you behind the scenes to answer these questions and gives the reader a rare glimpse of a world the average American may not even realize exists.
Author Robert Boston, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has spent the past twelve years doggedly tracking the religious right. As a "permanent resident alien" he has attended their meetings, read their publications, watched their videos, and debated their leaders in the national media. Boston contends that despite claims to the contrary, the religious right is not dead as a political force and may be stronger than ever. Backed by millions of dollars, powerful television and radio ministries that reach every corner of the nation, and slick magazines, zealous right-wing groups are still very much involved in politics and are determined to convert America into a fundamentalist "Christian" nation that conforms to their narrow definition of Christianity. The next few years, says Boston, could determine the fate of traditional American liberties like separation of church and state and freedom of the press.
Close Encounters with the Religious Right is an eye-opening expose, revealing a sometimes funny but more often disturbing world of fanaticism and extremism.
Author Robert Boston, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has spent the past twelve years doggedly tracking the religious right. As a "permanent resident alien" he has attended their meetings, read their publications, watched their videos, and debated their leaders in the national media. Boston contends that despite claims to the contrary, the religious right is not dead as a political force and may be stronger than ever. Backed by millions of dollars, powerful television and radio ministries that reach every corner of the nation, and slick magazines, zealous right-wing groups are still very much involved in politics and are determined to convert America into a fundamentalist "Christian" nation that conforms to their narrow definition of Christianity. The next few years, says Boston, could determine the fate of traditional American liberties like separation of church and state and freedom of the press.
Close Encounters with the Religious Right is an eye-opening expose, revealing a sometimes funny but more often disturbing world of fanaticism and extremism.
289 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2018
I enjoyed the chapters in which Mr Boston described sitting in on meetings and rallys with the Christian Coalition and the Promise Keepers. The chapters on Falwell and Dobson are just plain scary. Good advice is given in the final chapter "What's to be Done". Advice that was good in 2000 and just as good today.
January 10, 2015
I'm no Charismatic Christian. I am not a fan of Pat Robertson (or others listed in this book). And I am an independent, Constitutional Libertarian politically. I preface this review with those remarks to make it clear that I am no CBN 700 Club member or Republican shill, but I found this book disturbing.
Rob Boston pretends to be a liberal. But this book demonstrates that liberals are becoming self-appointed guardians, NOT of the Constitution or of human rights, but of their FASCIST political correctness dogma.
Instead of becoming concerned for my freedoms that, according to Boston, are supposedly being threatened by "the religious right", I felt like I was reading the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic.
The background you need before reading this book (IF you choose to waste a portion of your life on this nonsense) is to know that Mr. Boston is Director of Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Editor of Church & State magazine. In other words, he spends his life promoting extra-Constitutional, liberal doctrines of "separation of church and state".
There is NO "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. The originator of that phrase, Thomas Jefferson, used it in CONTEXT to assure the Danbury Association of Baptists that the State would not interfere with the Church.
Boston and his liberal fascists have turned Jefferson's phrase upside down and are using it in the exact OPPOSITE manner that the founders intended (as can seen by any honest student of history who notes their words AND their actions).
And this book (diatribe and rantings) by Boston is nothing more than a hit piece to try and bully "the religious right" from acting exactly in the same manner as Boston's AUSCC, the NOW, the NAACP, Stonewall Union, the Teamsters, the Cathoic League, the NEA and thousands of other idealogical organizations do. It's a smear campaign against those the Boston hates and despises.
If you are a liberal, read this with popcorn and soda and enjoy yourself. If you are not a liberal, then you have a brain and should use it for more constructive and beneficial pursuits.
Rob Boston pretends to be a liberal. But this book demonstrates that liberals are becoming self-appointed guardians, NOT of the Constitution or of human rights, but of their FASCIST political correctness dogma.
Instead of becoming concerned for my freedoms that, according to Boston, are supposedly being threatened by "the religious right", I felt like I was reading the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic.
The background you need before reading this book (IF you choose to waste a portion of your life on this nonsense) is to know that Mr. Boston is Director of Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Editor of Church & State magazine. In other words, he spends his life promoting extra-Constitutional, liberal doctrines of "separation of church and state".
There is NO "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. The originator of that phrase, Thomas Jefferson, used it in CONTEXT to assure the Danbury Association of Baptists that the State would not interfere with the Church.
Boston and his liberal fascists have turned Jefferson's phrase upside down and are using it in the exact OPPOSITE manner that the founders intended (as can seen by any honest student of history who notes their words AND their actions).
And this book (diatribe and rantings) by Boston is nothing more than a hit piece to try and bully "the religious right" from acting exactly in the same manner as Boston's AUSCC, the NOW, the NAACP, Stonewall Union, the Teamsters, the Cathoic League, the NEA and thousands of other idealogical organizations do. It's a smear campaign against those the Boston hates and despises.
If you are a liberal, read this with popcorn and soda and enjoy yourself. If you are not a liberal, then you have a brain and should use it for more constructive and beneficial pursuits.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews