Kingdom Coming - a review

[Warren Stupidity]

I recently picked up a copy of Kingdom Coming The Rise of Christian Nationalism, by Michelle Goldberg, W.W.Norton & Company. This short book is mostly a well documented essay on the major features and practices of the 'religious right' and in particular the dominionists and reconstructionists: who they are, what they believe, what their goals are and how they are moving towards implementing their vision of a future american christian republic.

Ms. Goldberg goes out of her way to avoid hyperbole, stating and restating her opinion that 'it isn't theocracy yet', but while doing so she also documents just how close we are to the theofascist state that the christian nationalists that are the subject of her book intend to make a reality.

While most of the book is descriptive, the last chapter, aptly titled 'Exiles in Jesusland' starts with this:

Whenever I talk about the growing power of the evangelical right with friends and acquaintances, they always ask me the same question: What can we do? Usually I reply with a joke: Keep a bag packed and your passport current. I don't really mean it, but my underlying anxiety is genuine. It's one thing to have a government that shows contempt for civil liberties; America has survived such men before. It's quite another to have a mass movement - the largest and most powerful mass movement in the nation - rise up in opposition to the rights of its fellow citizens. The constitution protects minorities, but that protection is not absolute; with a sufficiently sympathetic or apathetic majority, a tightly organized faction can get around it.

Goldberg goes on to point out that, in her opinion, the effective response to the threat of theocracy, a very real threat amply documented in the first part of her book, is to organize a grass roots movement of secular progressives, to counter the mega churches and their militant base with our own. In other words we have to fight them school board by school board, initiative by initiative. She is right, this is what must be done, but she is also clear that there is no guarantee of success and that we are at a perilous crossroad in our nation's history.

The book is a wealth of background information on the dominionists. It is worth buying simply as a research tool, a who's who of the religious right and their tactics. It is also one very disturbing read. Her joke about keeping a bag packed and a passport current is not so funny.

[eallen]

1. The religious right is the greatest threat to this nation since Cold War.

I might have to check out that book.

:hippie:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Know your enemy.

The Despoiling of America
How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy."
http://www.theocracywatch.org/

Christian Reconstructionism
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/ChRecon.html

Another Reconstructionist/Dominionist Distinction
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2005/11/28/145118/14

The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy - Part One
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2005/11/28/172929/14

"Religious Wrong"
http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/politicalmenu.htm

A Compendium of all the Articles Written on or as a result of
The 2005 New York City CUNY/Open Center
Conference on the Religious Right Agenda
http://www.yuricareport.com/Religion/DirectoryArticlesOnCUNYConference.html

Globalization, Theocracy and the New Fascism: Taking the Right's Rise to Power Seriously
http://www.net4dem.org/cyrev/editorials/carl_editorial5.htm

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Wow! Great list. This should be made permanent somewhere.

This is why continue to love DU.

[alfredo]

8. Include on that list:

"American Theocracy" by Kevin Phillips.

He speaks of the unholy alliance between big oil, the theocrats, and the financial sector.

[az chela]

3. The times they are a changin

Bush and his cohorts will not win!!!!They are evil and dark and the light will prevail.
They are falling apart NOW

[Warren Stupidity]

5. I wish that I shared your optimism.

But I don't. We are not nearly organized enough to defeat them. I'm afraid that even a victory at the polls in 06, which I do not think is a sure thing at all, might not be as transforming as we hope.

[ldf]

6. agreed.

if, and that's a BIG IF, we WERE to win back control, democrats would do what we always do, which is try to be conciliatory to our opponents and inclusive of those very interests that need to shoved out the door, door locked, and left to starve.

but no, we would once again compromise, thereby creeping even further right, all in an effort to be a big tent.

some beliefs were never meant to be part of the political discussion.

[Maat]

7. "Secular progressives?"

Does she mean only non-believers should battle the Relgious Right? I've always thought that PROGRESSIVES, be they believers or non-believers should gather together to battle the RR.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. Uh no I wouldn't think so.

I would think that term means 'those who believe in a progressive secular society', one where religion is not part of the political equation.

[Maat]

10. That's what I was hoping was meant.

I must have interpreted things incorrectly. My bad.

My favorite researchers of the RR post on the "Talk To Action" website; some of them were heard on Dr. Gaddy's "State of Belief" program last Sunday talking about the RR's effort to take control of the more progressively-minded churches.

I'm a proud member of the Interfaith Alliance, Talk To Action and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I, along with my two wonderful co-founders, started a website, www.circleofdivineenergy.com , and we cooperate with other progressively-minded folks who are also spiritual and 'believers.' Moreover, we cooperate with all, including our humanist-non-believer friends to address the Religious Hardright. All progressives, particularly DUers, need to put aside any conflicts and unite to address this problem (of the RR), in my humble opinion.