If you've ever wanted to understand Evangelical Christians...

[oxbow]

then I have a book for you...



Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

I just finished reading it and was really impressed with her understanding of the "Christian Nationalist" worldview, as she calls them. For those of us who never got why so many would buy into the "War against Christmas," why they would think that this myth is more important than the catastrophe happening in Iraq, global warming or any of the other important issues we are grappling with, this book is a really good read.

It gives you a back-stage view of many of the struggles we at DU have been intimately involved in the last few years, including the intelligent design school-controversy, Terri Schiaivo, the gay marriage fight and the filibuster of Bush nominees. If you couldn't understand what the hell the other side was even thinking when these things happened to our country, then you could benefit from reading this book.

I want to share one or two particular sections that I like from towards the end:



"Both the American electoral system and the country's demographic's are on the (evangelical) movement's side. There's an antiurban bias built into the structure of our democracy that overrepresents people who live in small, rural states, which tend to be more conservative. Because each state has two senators, the 7 percent of the population that lives in the seventeen least-populous states control more than a third of Congress' upper house. Conservative states are also overrepresented in the electoral college....In America, conservatives literally count for more."



And this section about the disenfranchisement of liberals during the last few years:



"Today, there also exists a group whose values are routinely trashed by the country's rulers. They are dismissed as dinosaurs, out of touch with "the people" and the inevitable pull of history. They are considered an embarassment by many of the leaders of their own party, and casually slighted by commentators. People at the highest levels of government blithely accuse them of treason.

I'm talking, of course, about liberals, especially liberals of the urban, secular variety. Progressives, intellectuals, denizens of the most creative and vibrant parts of the country, freethinkers and cosmopolitans are constantly marginalized and defamed by those who believe "America" is a synonym for the nation's most devout crimson corners. The obloquy that the right pours on America's founding cities and the people who live in them is remarkable, even though the media rarely remarks on it...

....With conservatives already indulging in fantasies of victimization at the hands of of a maniacal Northeastern elite, it will take a monumental movement to wrest power away from them. Such a movement will come into being only when enough people in the blues states stop internalizing right-wing jeers about how out of touch they are with "real Americans" and start getting angry at being ruled by reactionaries who are out of touch with them."



So, happy reading. I found it in my library, but I think I might buy a copy of my own now that I finished it.

oxbow

[C_U_L8R]

1. I'll wait for the sequel

King Done Gone - how George Bush single handledly
imploded the christian conservative movement,

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Sounds like a good read!

[MountainLaurel]

3. Saw her on BookTV

And this one looks like a winner.

[Auntie Bush]

4. Thanks for that interesting report on the riDICKulous right

wingers. I'd have time to read it...if I spent less time on DU.