The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition [Hardcover]

Prof. Justin Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1997

The mobilization of politically conservative followers of the Christian religion into a single lobbying force is perhaps the most unique feature of American politics in the late 20th century. The group most frequently associated with this movement is the Christian Coalition (CC), founded by talk show host and past Presidential candidate Pat Robertson. In The Christian Coalition, Justin Watson provides an unflinching look at the underpinnings of this remarkable organization. Watson examines the CC in the context of religious and political history in the United States, offering theories which help to explain its purpose, its popularity and its power. He argues that the two main motives for its existence are 1) a longing for the restoration of America to a “purer,” homogeneous nation under God and 2) a desire for widespread recognition of conservative Christians as a victimized minority by a socially liberal world. Including a fascinating conclusion which sheds light on what the future might hold, The Christian Coalition is an engrossing study of a phenomenal political movement.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book began as the author's doctoral dissertation at Florida State University, where he was an instructor in the Department of Religion. The book examines the aims of the Christian Coalition (CC) to restore America to its Christian roots, the organization's history since its 1989 founding, and contentions that evangelical Christians are often persecuted in our society. Chapter 2 probes the goals and purposes of the CC within the context of evangelicalism and its struggle within the pluralism of modern America. Watson also sketches the lives, careers, and thought of CC leaders Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed and looks at the restoration both men seek. A later chapter deals with the claims of victimization. Watson's narrow focus will limit the applicability of his findings; yet he is very clean in his intent to promote reasonable discourse about matters of religion and politics. Public libraries intending to stay current on contemporary American religion will find this title a helpful addition.?Leroy Hommerding, Citrus Cty. Lib. System, Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

This meticulously documented study of the Christian Coalition illuminates for the general reader the goals and motives of one segment of the religious right. Watson (Religion/Florida State Univ.) finds a mixed message in the public pronouncements of the Christian Coalition leadership. Is their hope to restore to America the Christian character they believe it once had or merely to assure that, among the many movements competing for roles in the nation's public life, the Christian voice is recognized? After a brief opening chapter on the history of evangelicalism that helpfully recalls its 19th-century social activism, its conservative turn in the 1920s, and its public resurgence in the '70s, Watson narrows his focus to the coalition founded in 1989 by Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed. The study, based on the published writings of the two men, is an institutional biography, tracing the life of the coalition from its origins in ideals of a Christian nation through to its successful (and self-compromising) accommodation with political reality. Watson distinguishes the coalition's hope of overcoming the separation between private and public religious life from the aim of kindred religious-right movements legally to establish Christianity as the state religion. Part of the Christian Coalition's overt rejection of statist Christianity is, according to Watson, a cherished self-conception as outsider, even martyr, which serves to enhance its sense of moral purity. Watson shows intriguing parallels between this aspect of the organization's rhetoric and similar language among multiculturalists at the opposite end of the political spectrum. The drama of the movement lies in what Watson takes for an honest and unresolved tension within it between ideals of cultural dominance and of holy martyr. Though repetitive and overly detailed in parts, Watson offers both friend and foe of the Christian Coalition an impartial look at its institutional psychology. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312172362
• ISBN-13: 978-0312172367
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,999,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good., June 7, 2003

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sara (DENMARK, Europa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition (Paperback)

Brilliant. Very fair and resonable. not judgementiv. not embracive. Just as a book by at scholar of religion should be. Finaly something I could use, insted of the endless stream of unscientific books about NCR and Christian Coalition. Thank you.
Sara from Danmark (scandinavia)

3.0 out of 5 stars The good, the bad and the ugly of the Christian Coalition, January 2, 2012

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E. Finney (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition (Paperback)

I bought this book for a class project on community organizing. Our specific organization we examined was the Christian Coalition and their organizing tactics. It was quite interesting and useful to our paper and presentation. The book is not pro or con Christian Coalition but more a statement of facts on how the work, organize and where they get their money.

5 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Secular but fair analysis of the Christian Coalition, July 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition (Hardcover)

This book, while not written from a Christian perspective, gives a fair summary of the challenges facing the Christian coalition and religious conservatives. The book stresses the observed dichotomy between Christians' understanding that we want the country to return to its religious roots and yet we also want our right to be heard recognized in a pluralistic society. My own reconciliation of this restoration versus recognition dilemma is that conservative Christians believe in the rightness our ideas and that if we are given a fair chance to share our ideas with others, eventually our message will become a powerful force in our culture. Take for example, the issue of school choice, or vouchers. We believe that all ideologies, philosophies and religions should be able to set up private schools with the parents being reimbursed for a significant part of the tuition. In the short run this system will allow us to educate our children the way we wish. In the long run, tho! se schools with the ideas that work the best will eventually become predominant. We Christians have no fear of such competition. It is the left that insists on maintaining a government monopoly so that their ideas can dominate through the force and power of the teachers' unions and the educational bureaucracy. In the short run we demand recognition of our rights. In the long run the result, we hope, will be the restoration of our Christian heritage, not through the intrusive power of the state, but through the power of the gospel and the fact that good ideas work better than bad ideas.