The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate [Paperback]

Dan Wakefield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2007

Christianity in America has become almost synonymous with right-wing fanaticism, conservative politics and — courtousy of Mel Gibson — a brutally sadistic version of the religious experience. Millions of devout Christians, like Dan Wakefield, are appalled by this distortion of their faith, which only three decades ago stood for peace, equality, healing, and compassion for society's outcasts — the issues that made up the Ministry of Jesus. How did it come to pass that the Jesus of the New Testament, the Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount, has in effect been hijacked by right-wingers and the Republican Party? How is it that mainline Christian denominations and leadership, both Catholic and Prostestant, have remained remarkably silent on the issues of the war in Iraq, the civil rights erosion of the Patriot Act, the growth of poverty and the fact of over 40 million people without health insurance? The Hijacking of Jesus tells the whole sorry tale, from the Goldwater campaign of 1964 to George Bush's stunning re-election in 2004.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By his own admission, Wakefield, a journalist, novelist, screenwriter and Protestant who comes from several generations of Baptist ministers, was "one of the great slumber party of mainline American Protestant 'liberals'... whose response to the outrages of those who stole our identity as Christians was the cheap and comfortable scorn and smugger-than-thou ridicule of the disengaged." This patchwork of interviews on topics ranging from megachurches to the "wedge issues" of abortion and homosexuality, stitched together with rather snide commentary, does little to convince us that his thinking has evolved. Despite decrying the religious right's use of military terminology to establish its position, Wakefield posits that in crafting a meaningful response to the "Christian jihad," liberal Christians must similarly procure "ammunition, troops and a battle plan, a strategy." Disappointingly absent of journalistic distance, this diatribe fails to provide constructive suggestions for change. Any hopes for a refreshing ecumenical Christian defense of the true ideals of Jesus—the Jesus of the Gospel who "had no possessions, ministered to the poor and the sick, befriended societies outcasts, [and] blessed 'the peacemakers'..."—have been bitterly suppressed by a derisive, condescending tone. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Dan Wakefield has had a long career of fair-minded, important, and meticulously researched journalism. And he crowns that career with as complete an account and analysis as one could wish of the capturing of Jesus Christ as a totem for a few powerful Americans, intent on becoming powerful all over the world, and by violent and corrupt means which are anything but Christ-like. The very last words in this fine book are not by Dan Wakefield but Jesus, his Sermon on the Mount, not what you would want to call Pat Robertson or Dick Cheney stuff." -- Kurt Vonnegut

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (January 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560259566
• ISBN-13: 978-1560259565
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,070,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every American should read this book!, April 3, 2006

By 

Helen Weaver (Woodstock, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate (Hardcover)

Dan Wakefield has written an important and eye-opening book about the Religious Right in

America. Liberal and proud of it, Wakefield has been concerned with social justice since the

fifties when, as a young reporter for The Nation, he published his ground-breaking study of

Spanish Harlem, Island in the City. Some time in the eighties this hard-drinking non-believer

experienced a spiritual awakening and returned to the Christian faith of his Indiana boyhood, a

journey he recounts in Returning.

But unlike some who turn their lives around when they accept Jesus Christ as their personal

savior, Wakefield did not abandon his commitment to the liberal causes of his non-believing

years. On the contrary, his faith is rooted in the ethical teachings of the Jesus who preached

peace, tolerance, and compassion for the poor: the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount.

As an articulate political liberal who is also a devout Christian, Wakefield is uniquely qualified

to comment on the co-opting of the Christian faith by the eerily well-organized juggernaut that is

the Religious Right, whose leaders preach war, intolerance, and hate and who believe that the

Sermon on the Mount is "no longer relevant for our times." Their political agenda is nothing less

than the replacement of what's left of our democracy by a theocracy, and their "wedge" issues are

anti-abortion and anti-gays, which are far more important to them than peace, social justice, or

the environment, for the simple reason that those two hate issues are the ones that get votes, that

get an increasingly impoverished and uninformed electorate to vote against their own self-

interest.

This is an angry book, but beneath the anger is the pain of a man who loves his country deeply and watches in horror as he sees it torn apart and in danger of losing the very values on which it was founded. He traces the gradual Republican takeover of our government -and the exponential growth of the religious right that supported it-to the election of 1964, when Barry Goldwater suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Lyndon Johnson with his New Deal-like War on Poverty and Great Society. That's when the forces of reaction began to get organized.

The great mistake of the left, as Democrats are only beginning to realize, has been their blindness

to the importance of religion and spirituality in American life. The brilliant political satirist Bill

Maher has a blind spot when it comes to religion, and in this he is typical of the American left.

Well, Bill Maher should read this book, because Dan Wakefield is just as mad as he is at the

hawkish, sexist, gay-bashing evangelicals who don't give a damn about global warming because

Armageddon is right around the corner and we're all going to die anyway-but Wakefield is a

man of faith who hasn't lost his mind. Every Democrat should read this book. Every American

should read this book!

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars responding to publisher's weekly review, March 3, 2006

By 

A.D. "humblelion" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate (Hardcover)

Great book. Essential read.

Journalistic Distance? Discretion please! After reading the Publisher's Weekly review of this book, I had to respond.

The Publisher's Weekly review of this book misses the point. It wreaks of the sentiment in which "journalistic distance" and the pursuit of objectivity is the one and only noble literary path.

Perhaps the books sipmly violates the reviewers sense of genre and style. Spare the public the small mindedness.

The author is a veteran writer, and in this time when the country has fallen over to the Right, there is no time to stand on the fence (or write from it). It has all happened and is well personal... and for the most part our (US citizens) heads are deep in the sand. "Distance" is what got us in trouble.

What nobility, or value, was there in those German journalists who pursued "distance" or objectivity during the rise of Nazism?

When things become as extreme as they have, it's time for some scholastic subjectivity. Tell it from the heart. No more ivory tower b.s.

I write this assuming that the reviewer has a solid knowledge of history, and not only the versions written by the victors. The consequences are too dire not to learn from history.

This is a crucial book in this time. The mechasnisms which those in power employ to control and manipulate the public must be made transparent. This is where change begins. This particular method, through co-opting Christianity, is by no means original though. After all, Emperor Constintine gave new meaning to the winter solstice.

Stand for something! Truths and rights eternally!

Don't hide behind "journalistic distance". Make it personal, intelligent, immediate and from the heart. Come full blast and let the professional reveiwers struggle with their own sensibilities and alien perspectives.

The book itself is an important read. Respect to the author of the book... Dan Wakefield.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About time!, March 9, 2006

By 

Dr. Richard Moore (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate (Hardcover)

Finally! Someone has documented the distortion of Christianity practiced by the Bush administration. Bush divides up people and countries into "you are for us or you are against us" and into those that are good and those that are "evil." This is the opposite of what Jesus taught. Mr. Wakefield brings out a lot of history about how the religious right have "hijaacked" and distored the Christian message. I especially liked the last chapter where the author educated me about a counter movement aimed at bringing out the more authentic aspects of Christian - and Jewish - spirituality.