Customer Reviews

Casting the First Stone: The Hypocrisy of Religious Fundamentalism and Its Threat to Society

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RA Gilbert's book claims to be a "startling expose". It is hardly exciting or novel enough to qualify for such an overexaggerated description. Nor does it particularly live up to its title - it doesn't really say a great deal about hypocrisy as such (though it might be inferred), and by the author's own admission it critiques the behaviour of only one segment (albeit a large one, perhaps) of (Protestant) fundamentalism. It is, however, generally insightful and accurate.

The main focus of Gilbert's book is on the attitude demonstrated by many fundamentalist Christians towards other religions and groups, but mostly practitioners of the (notoriously difficult-to-define) "New Age" and "occult". He details practices and arguments with which I am well acquainted: I spent most of my Christian life in a milieu where Christians felt it their duty to picket psychic fairs, to publicly oppose any expression of other religions, faiths or spiritual beliefs (usually in the belief that government were morally bound to take their side), and to be among the foremost of those propogating any one of endless myths and sensational fabrications about Satanism and witchcraft. Gilbert competently assails the legends and folklore that make up fundamentalist opposition to "demonic forces". In this I am with him.

He is noticeably sympathetic to New Age practices, and gives short shrift to skeptics who deny such things on a scientific basis. This is perhaps the fatal blow to his critique: He gives alternative health and spirituality a credibility that would make skeptics wince, and this enthusiasm frequently sends him off on a tangent, with criticisms of newspapers and medical doctors (among others) that take him somewhat away from his original "expose" of fundamentalism. This line of attack detracts from his central thesis and, I fear, is rather detrimental to his overall credibility, at least in the eyes of some.

Nevertheless, I wish all fundamentalists would read this and learn from it. Perhaps no other aspect of fundamentalism has annoyed me so much as the gullibility demonstrated in the immediate swallowing of every morsel of gossip that might possibly provide useful ammunition against "the enemy". Unfortunately for all of us, rebukes like Gilbert's tend to fall on deaf ears.