Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All - and What We Can Do About It by Sean Faircloth
"Attack of the Theocrats" is the brief yet effective book on how the religious right has used their political clout to cause harm to the rest of us. Sean Faircloth's interesting secular manifesto is a product of an interesting background that includes: his formal education as a lawyer, his years as a politician serving five terms in the Maine Legislature, his leadership and vision led to the creation of a children's museum in Maine, executive director of the Secular Coalition of America, and most recently director of strategy and policy for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. This 168-page book is composed of ten chapters: 1. Introduction: The Crumbled Wall between Church and State, 2. Our Secular Heritage: One Nation under the Constitution, 3. Religious Bias in Law Harms Us All, 4. Genital Morality vs. Real Morality, 5. Two American Traditions: Religious Huckster and Secular Innovators, 6. The Theocrats (aka the Fundamentalist Fifty), 7. The Secularists, 8. Secularism - Born Again, 9. Our Secular Decade: A Strategic Plan, and 10. A Vision of a Secular America.
Positives:
1. Well written, engaging prose.
2. Great defense of secular principles.
3. Insightful, eye-opening accounts on how religion harms us. Accounts involving dangers to our children are most troubling.
4. Thought-provoking quotes, "Fundamentalists tell us to fear the specter of special rights for gay citizens, though of course gay Americans aren't after special rights - merely equal rights. The irony is that special rights actually do exist in this country - for religious groups."
5. The special rights of religious groups in detail.
6. American exceptionalism in proper perspective.
7. A brief look at our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson a personal favorite.
8. A look at how fundamentalists obtained political clout.
9. How tax money to religious organizations violate our Constitution's central principles.
10. Many great examples of how religious bias hurts us all. Great stuff!
11. Interesting court ruling decisions.
12. Religiously motivated policies that focus on sex. Sexual morality discussed.
13. Amusing stories. My favorite, the story of radio station KLUE.
14. Politicians and religion, such a dangerous mix.
15. The chapter on the Fundamentalist Fifty is priceless and disturbing.
16. Congressman Stark.
17. In defense of America as it was designed, a secular, constitutional Republic.
18. Secular strategy and vision in detail including the Ten Guiding Principles of a Secular America.
19. An inspirational plea for action.
20. A brief discussion on how secular societies around the world flourish.
21. A brief discussion about the ten groups that today form the Secular Coalition.
22. A bibliography.
Negatives:
1. A couple of mistakes of little consequence. As an example, Governor Sanford from SC was canoodling with a woman from Argentina not Brazil.
2. No notes or links.
3. The book may be a little preachy in the latter chapters.
4. The book's focus is on recent history and the future of secularism in America. For more in depth look at the history of secularism, I highly recommend Susan Jacoby's masterpiece, "Freethinkers".
5. I really didn't like the cover. A serious and inspirational topic deserved better.
In summary, I enjoyed this book. Sean Faircloth makes an inspirational plea to defend our secular Constitution. The book is thought-provoking, enlightening, and makes sound arguments based on reason. I recommend this book.
Further recommendations: "
Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" by Susan Jacoby, "
Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment" by Phil Zuckerman, "
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present" by Howard Zinn, "
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson" by Jennifer Hecht, "
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America" by Chris Hedges, "
Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party..." by Max Blumenthal, and "
The Conservative Assault on the Constitution" by Erwin Chemerinsky.
