There are 80 million born again Christians of voting age in the United States, including George W. Bush. Jesus Christ is a personal friend of every one of them. They know that Jesus wants them to vote Republican. Since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Evangelical Christians have constituted one of the most powerful interest groups in the USA. Their money and their energy have helped to drive a socially conservative agenda to the centre of American national life. They wield veto power over the Republican party's presidential candidates and decide the outcome of elections across vast areas of the political landscape. And they have begun to play an important role in America's foreign policy. Despite a history of robust anti-Semitism, they have built a powerful alliance with the Israeli right. From financial aid to Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories to the religious rhetoric of the War on Terror, Evangelical leaders are blithely creating a world fit for Apocalypse. Their brand of Christianity is the fastest-growing social movement in the slums of Africa and Latin America. Barbara Victor explores the changes in the American political system that evangelical Christianity has already wrought and the changes it is likely to bring in the years ahead. She reveals a complex and contradictory political process in which secular neo-conservatives have allied themselves with fundamentalists to pursue an agenda of aggression overseas and repression at home. It is a process in which religious sentiment miraculously transforms into money and political advantage, in which private virtues become public vices, and the founding principles of a free republic are attacked by self-declared patriots.
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About the Author
Barbara Victor is an American investigative journalist and author with more than 20 years experience of reporting in the Middle East. She was one of the first to report on the massacres in Lebanon at the Sabra and Shatila camps in 1982. She is the author of four novels and six works of non-fiction including: A Voice of Reason, a biography of Hanan Ashrawi (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize), The Lady, a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, and most recently Army of Roses, a study of Palestinian women suicide bombers (published by Constable & Robinson). She divides her time between Paris and New York.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seminal review of the wisdom of 'Separation of Church and State',
By
This review is from: Last Crusade (Paperback)
Barbara Victor's editorial reaction to a political revolution that has occurred in the United States over the last three decades draws strength from first-person interviews and experiences with people of all stripes. It is a book from which both religious and secular can learn. Or, one can chose to interpret it in support of whatever one favors.
Victor's bias is the inappropriateness of religious dogma driving political governance. Those on a frenzy of self-feeding, absolute certitude are dangerous be they Islamic fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, or whoever. It is interesting that a political cartel is subverting the deliberate structure of the American democratic republic and calling itself patriotic. Somehow, that which made the United States great for 200 years is no longer appropriate and is deemed weakness. We are in the process of no longer being "a Government of the People, by the People, and for the People" but instead "a Nation under God." I suppose it does sound better. However, separation of church and state was installed by wise Founders to unite a diverse populace into a great nation, unity considered critical to survival of the Republic. Consequently, We have had the freedom to be a God-full people who could trust in God without fear of intimidation by the God of others. Victor believes what has been happening in the United States in her lifetime is not in Our interest. The Founding Fathers feared that the greatest threat was from within, the potential of a single, powerful group to dominate governance, quite simply the breakdown of democracy when 'ins' are more worthy than 'outs.' Democracy is fragile, and most have failed. The brilliance of American democracy is the complex mechanism of safeguards built into the Constitution. Some of Us still cherish the notion. Victor believes the United States is in peril. Even Righteous special interest cannot be given the nation. This book is her educated and experienced interpretation. She should be able to express her opinion without being labeled a conspirator. The book is well-done and important. Brava!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written political potshot against born-again Christians,
By Tim Talbot "Tim T." (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Last Crusade (Paperback)
This is a fascinating history of the rising influence of evangelical Christians in American politics. There are 80 million born-again Christians of voting age in the United States, including George W. Bush, who became President only because he gained their support.
Author Barbara Victor is not an evangelical herself, and her book suffers from an anti-Christian bias. She reports on Christian influence as though it is a bad thing. She mentions powerful Christians, wealthy Christians, and influential lobbyist Christians as though someone should stop these people having influence because they are Christians. But from the Christians' view, of course, a strong Christian influence will ensure a better society. For them, it is a good thing. Even though I disagree with the author's fears, and her bias, I think this is a good book for Christians and non-Christians alike. I learned a lot from her research. I learned about Christian people and organizations I had never heard of before, and it made me realize there is a lot more good going on in the world than I thought. As we would expect in the rapidly changing world of politics, some of the information Victor presents is already out of date in the short time since the book came on sale in 2005. Some of the key players have died, some have retired or stepped down because of illness, and some of the support has changed in some areas. Even so, it is still a reasonably up-to-date account of evangelical influence in politics. I think it is good reading for anyone who wants to find out some little-known facts about why Christianity has become a growing influence in American politics since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the increasing power of Evangelicalism ...,
By FrizzText "frizz" (Wuppertal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Last Crusade (Paperback)
Barbara Victor has written about MADONNA (GODDESS, Inside Madonna ) or about the plagued Burmesian politician Aung San Suu Kyi (The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi: Noble Laureate and Burma's Prisoner), she investigated to the topic "marital force" (Getting Away with Murder: Weapons for the War Against Domestic Violence ) as well as about Islamistic female suicide assassins (German: SHAHIDAS, the daughters of terror; English: ARMY OF ROSES - Inside The World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers -- also as a TV documentation ). Now Barbara Victor starts to discuss the fundamental American Christian crusade, which spreads from Washington (The Last Crusade: Religion and the Politics of Misdirection). The book author and journalist Barbara Victor worked for 15 years for the TV-channel CBS, in addition for U.S. News and World Report, Elle, Femme (she lives in Paris at times) or Madam Figaro. She has interviewed many important politicians in the Middle East and in the USA (among other things the legendary Libyan tent enthusiast Moammar Ghadaffi). So she splits gradually between the description of Islamistic rage on the one hand and on the other hand of mentioning the missionary Texan evangelicalism. Besides the inestimably dangerous foreign policy consequences an analysis is definitely worth what donation monies arises and is moved in the inner American cultural war. Barbara Victor lines up many involved by: the evangelical preachers Billy and Franklin Graham, the strictly religious John Ashcroft etc.- Next to the known backgrounds (the "immoral" Bill Clinton was brought into discredit by the moralists well versed in the Bible with his liberal political direction, there is order again now: against abortion is proceeded and against stem cell research or against the nature scientifically oriented biology lesson) - next to the known backgrounds there are discussed less known but nevertheless very informative topics: With God at their side (such an also interesting book title of the author Esther Kaplan) the religious right-wings have the veto power over the president candidates of the Republican party. One can absolutely comprehend in the course of the reading: The " September Eleven " is sorted as God's alarm call - and the Evangelicals (Bush belongs to these people all the time) feel now particularly motivated, to support Israel against the Islam. (Evangelicals support ideologically and financially [ annual approx. a billion Euro ] for example the incorrigible settler movement which was not easy to send away of the Gaza-era.) Mainly well known for their lively rhetoric regarding a war against the evil ones has to be said at the side, moreover, the influence of these 80 million U.S. fundamental Christians will also noticeably gradually in Africa and Latin America and perhaps one will soon have to add that: also in Europe ...
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