Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism

by Jason C. Bivins

Conservative evangelicalism has transformed American politics, disseminating a sometimes fearful message not just through conventional channels, but through subcultures and alternate modes of communication. Within this world is a "Religion of Fear," a critical impulse that dramatizes cultural and political conflicts and issues in frightening ways that serve to contrast "orthodox" behaviors and beliefs with those linked to darkness, fear, and demonology. Jason Bivins offers close examinations of several popular evangelical cultural creations including the Left Behind novels, church-sponsored Halloween "Hell Houses," sensational comic books, especially those disseminated by Jack Chick, and anti-rock and -rap rhetoric and censorship. Bivins depicts these fascinating and often troubling phenomena in vivid (sometimes lurid) detail and shows how they seek to shape evangelical cultural identity.

As the "Religion of Fear" has developed since the 1960s, Bivins sees its message moving from a place of relative marginality to one of prominence. What does it say about American public life that such ideas of fearful religion and violent politics have become normalized? Addressing this question, Bivins establishes links and resonances between the cultural politics of evangelical pop, the activism of the New Christian Right, and the political exhaustion facing American democracy.

Religion of Fear is a significant contribution to our understanding of the new shapes of political religion in the United States, of American evangelicalism, of the relation of religion and the media, and the link between religious pop culture and politics.

Genres: Religion, Politics, Nonfiction, Horror

336 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 2008

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bivins explores a dramatic side of modern American religion, where the emphasis is on winning souls through fear. Rather than just preaching hellfire and Armageddon in church, these Christians engage all the arts of mass media to drive their warnings home. As Bivins quotes Christian tract cartoonist Jack Chick, "I want to shock people. I want to make them physically sick when they see this".

Bivins points out that the vast majority of conservative Christians in the USA were non-aggressive during the decades of America's world supremacy. But as American dominance waned, many conservatives blamed the forces of sin, and devoted themselves to a victory for God. Bivins details many of their major media efforts such as Christian cartoons, attacks on popular music, "hell house" dramas, and apocalyptic novels. He finds the level of vindictive violence, blood, and horror in these productions almost stupefying. Instead of offending the religious authorities of his day by daring to forgive sinners, the Jesus portrayed in these productions is bound to execute vengeance for sin. As Jesus says in the Left Behind novel "Glorious Appearing," "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that is justice, and that is your sentence."

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book exposes some of the most disputable tactics of fundamentalist Christianity as faithful extremists try to scare the innocent into converting, plus control and motivate the faithful. Bivins reaches these conclusions quoted from pp. 234-5. "The religion of fear has slowly constructed a frame through which pubic life is seen in terms of conflict rather than cooperation and dialogue. . . A politics articulated through visions of destruction, vengeance, punishment, and gore is one that . . . signals that American public life is troubled. This approach to questions of democratic legitimacy, pluralism, public speech, and the role of religion in politics is no substitute for genuine political conversation and participation. . . This discourse now normalizes and naturalizes ideas that are antithetical to the kind of pluralism on which democracies thrive. . . . its architects are convinced that they are locked into a battle of absolutes," which makes those of us who disagree the dangerous enemy.

It is interesting that this book was published in 2006. It mentions Christian extremist Judge and child molester Roy Moore twice, and when you remove the religious element, this book could describe some of the tactics of President Trump as he tries to make America a more rewarding place for himself and his family. The writing style is a trifle stodgy, but read it anyway. This is an important book.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up in a very secular household. My parents likely considered themselves Christians, but we attended church only for weddings and funerals. My brother starting going to church as a teenager, but I kind of think that was more about a girl than any religious epiphany. Despite all of this, I grew up surrounded by 1980s evangelical fundamentalism and its apocalyptic doomsday preoccupations. I remember friends who weren't allowed to listen R.E.M. or The Cure and girls who had to wear t-shirts while swimming. I once spent the night with a school friend at a youth group lock-in (there were girls and I was probably 12 or 13) where we watched some way-over-the-top rapturesploitation film from the 70s, and I definitely remember Chick Tracts: those ubiquitous comics of the era in which a person commits some minor infraction like listening to Slayer or something and then is cast into the flames to writhe and burn in graphic, near-pornographic detail. It was these kitschy pop culture relics that brought me to this book, an exploration of how evangelical Protestants both coopt and seemingly revel in the tropes of horror fiction to make larger points about our fallen world and contemporary godless culture. In the words of the author:

"In the politically coded drama of Hell Houses, in the pages of apocalyptic novels or Jack Chick’s cartoon tracts, and in the public denunciations of popular music, there is far more at work than simply Christian kitsch or crude anti-modernism. Creators provide for audiences and readers an interpretive template that posits demonological causes for political decline, and they situate readers in a historical framework and define for audiences a coherent, unchanging place therein."

All this makes for an interesting book that explores not only Chick's morbid oeuvre but also fearmongering about satanic heavy metal music, the "Hell House" (fornication equals damnation, also AIDS) alternative to Halloween haunted houses and that Left Behind series of novels my mom and her sisters started reading around the millennium without bothering to finish. It's a great topic, but it would be better served with a less impenetrable, academic register than this, which has clearly not been written for a popular lay audience. The author's analysis is great and claims are well supported, but it's hardly the definitive look at evangelicals and their theocratic forays into American politics. A more essential book would have to explore the demographic's inexplicable alliance with white supremacy or their inordinate affinity for murder toys guns not to mention the fact that everyone seems so obviously to be worshipping Mammon rather than Christ (or that this group is so rabidly and hypocritically devoted to the most immoral president we've seen in our lifetime), but for its particular focus, it's a pretty good read.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would give this a 3.5 but the rare information bumps it up a bit. I used this for research, which was an appropriate use of this book. It isn't an easy or titillating read, but very dense and academic. While it covered the important topics, I was disappointed by how shallowly some subjects were covered, giving the history but little meat. More original research would've brought this to five stars, more interviews and anecdotes from the important figures and the consumers of what they preach. Certain subjects begged for it, if one wanted to understand the phenomena on a personal level, rather than just a societal one.
Still, this is a good overview for someone wanting to read about this subject from a calm, rational source, rather than wade through the heaps of sensationalist and dubious semi-fiction. The author is a professor of religious studies, and gave a surprisingly even and impartial view.
If you're looking for more on this topic, Google David Raeburn's the Imp for an entertaining and informative read about Chick Tracts in particular.

[Ryan Coons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially, a compilation of book reports.