The threat from the Religious Right is ominous, and requires immediate attention before their ideologies gain more power and control. It is not too late. Within this book you will gain the tools to understand the threat to your life, liberty, family, neighborhood, and country. The multi-pronged agenda of the Religious Right is carefully explained, and their tactics revealed. You will be given various ways to make a difference in your home, school, neighborhood, state, and country. It is time to turn off the celebrity news and find out how you can preserve this great democracy, and strengthen it for the next generation.
Who am I to write a book on the Religious Right? I was a member of the Religious Right, graduated from a church-sponsored Bible institute, sat in Religious Right pews, taught Sunday school to their children, and was a church secretary, and even wrote for the church’s monthly publication, and became its editor. Even in my college years, I was an early Religious Right follower, and was fully integrated into its culture. Because of this unique rank-and-file perspective, I delve into the rationale behind the movement’s agenda as only an insider can understand it. This allows me to explain, authentically, their worldview and tactics. I relate what this means to the larger picture of our country, and its future -- from our First Amendment struggles, to the public-square arguments, and even the historical record of the conflict between church and state, from the perspectives of both.
When I shared with a Buddhist acquaintance that I was writing this book, I was asked if I was writing it with love. I vow that this is the case, through a great love for democracy and its continued vitality in this country that I dearly love. If you love democracy and want to participate in making this country the best it can be, with “justice and liberty for all,” please keep reading.
About This Book
The book is divided into six sections. Section One, “The Critical Issue,” presents an overview of the importance of the separation of church and state.
Section Two, “Who They are and How We Got Them,” comprises a history of the rise of the Religious Right from their origins, to their joining with the Republican Party; there is information about Dominionists and Reconstructionists, and the Religious Right’s tactics are detailed. Key players in this ongoing threat are named. Section Three is “The Resulting Worldview,” including discussion of the importance of End Times to the Religious Right, higher law ethics, and the religious caste system. Section Four is entitled “The War is On,” and presents a detailed discussion of six of the Seven Mountains of Influence strategy for achieving Christian dominion. The seventh Mountain, that of the family, is discussed in Section Five – “The Family Mountain.” Included in that section is information about the Religious Right and the role of women, abortion, birth control, the Quiverfull movement, attitudes about gays and gay marriage, and the war for children’s minds and beliefs. Section Six, “The Past and the Future,” presents ideas about the church in history, and the penalties for a lack of separation of church and state. Also in this section are positive suggestions about how to become active in preserving that vital church and state separation in the U.S. government, including an array of resources and useful techniques for fighting back. The final chapter is a summation of the concepts in this book.
I provide many quotes throughout the book. Rather than a works-cited page, footnotes, or endnotes, each work is cited within the text, because it’s often useful to see the source in proximity to the quote. I have followed a simplified MLA 7th Edition format. The citations do not provide page numbers. A bibliography is provided at the end of the book, with books (but not articles), listed in MLA format.
I hope you take from this book a greater understanding of the risks of losing the separation of church and state, the history of the Religious Right in this country, and the methods they are using. It is not enough to watch this unfold in a passive way, and so the book includes positive steps one can take to counteract this growing threat to democracy.