Customer Reviews

Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me About Sex, God, and Fury

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Journalist Minkowitz goes undercover in different Religious Right groups (including the Promise Keepers and a Christian ladies' makeover seminar) and compares the desires she sees expressed in these groups to those she sees expressed among her own queer Left. She starts out seeing the Religious Right as enemies, and without changing her fundamental political views, she discovers that desires for connection, unconditional love, ecstasy, transcendence and transformation shape both of these opposing movements. A fascinating and interesting read!

I can't remember the last time I read a book that I immediately wanted to read again. Minkowitz's narrative of sex, gay rights and the Christian Right is one of those books that you could read twice in a row and be enriched in new ways the second time. It would have been easy for Minkowitz to bash the Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family -- instead, she seeks connection with them on matters of faith, healing and exctasy. She also makes startling connections between S/M and Christianity that will surprise you and make you think. Minkowitz never falters in her condemnation of the Right for its stance on matters of the family, sexuality and gay rights -- yet her ability to find connections with her political enemies and discover common ground are inspiring. Hands down the smartest, funniest and most moving book I've read all year. A must read for anyone interested in religion, love, sex, violence, anger and forgiveness -- in other words, just about everyone.

Whew, Minkowitz really bit off a huge chunk here. From infiltrating the Promise Keepers (and oh what a controlling bunch that is!), to interviewing the right wing "Focus" staff, she leaves no stone unturned and no sacred cow undefiled. As a lesbian and a writer, she sought to expose the right wing ultraconservative religious factions, but ended up identifying with them on many levels.

I got this book because I wanted to read her explorations and hopefully, her exposing of their frailties .... but was disappointed that she did little exposing. The christian groups she visited seemed more pitiful than volcanic.

I wanted more in the way of bashing, I guess. As a survivor of sexual abuse at the hand of an evangelical minister, I wanted her to say more about the hypocrasy that exists in right wing christian churches, not to identify with them. I wanted more of a down and dirty expose' of their manipulation and scare tactics. I wanted her to validate what I had experienced in the guise of religion. I wanted her to stand up in the "glamour" workshop and get that makeover, and proclaim that she is lesbian.... and she didn't.

Her juxiposition of an S/M lifestyle with the ultraconservative religious right seemed out of place, but gave the reader an insight as to where she is as an individual.

Intersting read, great prose, excellent imagery, but I hoped for more.

Wow. I was impressed with her williness and ability to see the best in the religious right extremists, but when she revealed from how far on the other end of the spectrum she was writing I was dumbfounded. Her personal immersion in Sadomasochism juxtaposed against the controlling sweetness of the far right was jarring. I have long considered myself liberal but living as I do in the Bible belt I now find myself up on the fence fighting vertigo.

Thank you Donna! Your book was so brave and so smart

This book has gross errors. The woman's organization to which the author refers, is not what she made it out to be at all. What she actually attended was a church. The church invited a woman's ministry from else where in the country to come in and, both speak to the woman who attend the church and to do a teaching that might benefit woman as they seek employment. One reviewer accepted the author's perverse depiction and reaction to this event and called what really was a church as "a kaffeeklatsch of Christian women." Factual errors lead to the spreading of misinformation.

Another disturbing thing is that she day dreamed of taking a knife and cutting a woman minister's body up into little pieces.
Also in error is the idea that she was so courageous that she walked into the far right's territory. The author isn't as brave as one might think: she had her parents standing on either side of her!Also, the event which she attended was in a church where many of the ministers and leadership voted for Clinton! This she depicts as the "far right?"

I'm a member of one of the churches mentioned in this book. I am both perplexed and bewildered at how a church with Democratic ministers and congregates who voted repeatedly for President Clinton, can be considered "Right Wing" as the title of Ms. Minkowitz book would suggest. Therefore, at the outset, I realized that factually this book had problems.

The bizarre account of the author's sexual thoughts while a female soloist was singing a classic gospel hymn are disturbing. Her jest regarding laying a woman pastor down on the floor and cutting her up with a bread knife is alarming. My advice is to put your [money] to a better purpose.