The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right [Hardcover]

Didi Herman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226327647 | ISBN-13: 978-0226327648 | Publication Date: May 15, 1997 | Edition: 1

In The Antigay Agenda, Didi Herman probes the values, beliefs, and rhetoric of the organizations of the Christian Right. Tracing the emergence of their antigay agenda, Herman explores how and why these groups made antigay activity a top priority, and how it relates to their political history.

"A penetrating analysis of the Christian Right's antigay agenda and of how that agenda is derived from the Christian Right's peculiar vision of American history and the Christian faith."—Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Boston Book Review

"Public intellectualism at its best. . . . A comprehensive summary of the conservative Protestant worldview."—Michael Joseph Gross, Boston Phoenix Literary Section

"Presents considerable information not previously part of the nation's political discourse. . . . [Herman] dissects the Christian Right's antigay stance dispassionately giving, as it were, the devil his due. For anyone on either side of this passionate and important conflict, that is an impressive accomplishment."—Hastings Wyman, Jr., Washington Post Book World

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right by Didi Herman is a smart, thorough, concise book describing why and how conservative Protestant evangelicals employ antigay rhetoric in politics, journalism, and worship. Herman--a legal scholar at Keele University in Great Britain--has a convincing mastery of sociology, theology, rhetoric, and politics, in addition to her field of specialty. Herman deploys all these talents in an introduction that puts such phenomena as "ex-gay ministries" in the context of the conservative Protestant worldview. Most valuable may be her explanation one of the most fundamental and least understood tenets of the Christian right, called premillennial dispensationalism, which describes the conditions of Christ's return and the apocalypse, ending with the destruction of sinners and this world. To Herman, the forward thrust of premillennial dispensationalism suggests that the Christian right is not merely a backlash against liberal society. Therefore, she notes, ardent conservatives believe that fighting gay-rights initiatives is a battle of cosmic significance. Herman sees conservative Christianity as a form of progressiveness in its own right, with a mission to prepare the world for Christ's return--no small job, considering the mess they say we're in right now. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Herman (Law/Keele Univ., England) offers a thorough critique of the positions taken by American conservative Protestantism since the '50s on the issue of gay rights. Over the past 40 years, homosexuality's legal status in the US has passed from decriminalization to highly contentious demands for equality, such as spousal rights and other forms of social entitlement based on heterosexual partnership. Herman has long been a promoter of this development, and she now turns her attention to the thinking and aims of the Christian Right's opposing stance. In an area where name-calling is rife, she maintains a careful, scholarly approach and succeeds in bringing out some of the positive values and vision of her opponents. She defines the Christian Right as mainly white evangelical Protestants, whose Utopian brand of Christianity focuses on the Second Coming of Christ at the culmination of a fearful battle between the forces of good and evil. In this scenario, gay rights legislation, like international communism, takes on an apocalyptic significance and must be resisted by the Elect. Herman's work is well researched and draws heavily on the journal Christianity Today as a contemporary chronicle of Christian Right attitudes. She is good at teasing out well-known tensions, e.g., between the views of government as having a minimal role and as the theocratic enforcer of morals. But Herman also shows that Christian Right thinking has varied over the decades, and she outlines tensions within the Christian Right about how to define homosexuality (lifestyle choice or immutable trait) and the implications of that for the antigay rights battle. A special chapter is devoted to the unsuccessful 199192 Colorado battle against gay-rights legislation. Deserves to be read by both sides in this passionate controversy. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (May 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226327647
• ISBN-13: 978-0226327648
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,699,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Critical Review of Modern Issues, January 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right (Paperback)

It is only through discussions and printed works that both sides of this issue can fully explain their positions and help those of us in the middle understand what are the underlying issues and points of contention. Without inflammatory rhetoric...the learned among us can have true discussions about the impact of both sides of this issue. It is only by reading this type of book that one can come away with a better understanding of the nature of the underlying issues related to homosexuality and the modern Church's opposition to it. Anyone who considers himself or herself to be against homosexuality would do well to truly research this subject and not just rely on theologians who would have you beleive that while the Bible calls for us to "love one another," that this call to action does not include homosexuals. This book will help one's understanding of how homosexuals view the Church and would be very helpful to all.

17 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TELLS THE TRUTH!, December 13, 1999

By 

"ddw11" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right (Hardcover)

My husband and I were thrilled to see this truth telling novel here up for sale. Its an unbelieveably good book. It exposes the anti-gay agenda and defines how the so called "christian" right oppresses others.

18 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Religious Right Revealed, April 19, 2000

By 

Jay Hubbell - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right (Paperback)

This is a shocking expose of the conspiratorial networking of a broad array of religious fanatics who are striving to deny a significant portion of our citizenry their rights as human beings simply because of their desire to practice their individual and personal sexual preferences.

This is a who's who of the personalities behind the multitude of America's extremist and cultic Christian fronts. It's a handy reference guide to those groups who have a hidden final solution for their intended victims.