Customer Reviews

Live From the Gates of Hell : An Insider's Look at the Anti-Abortion Movement

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I could not put this book down when I read it. It is told in such a fast-moving way that I could not wait to see what was going to happen next the weekend I read it. The book shows what scary characters are out there behind the scenes in the culture war, which Reiter shows us is now very clearly a shooting war. When the book covered the section on what motivated Paul Hill, who opened fire on three unarmed senior citizens, I was blown away by the insights. Live from the Gates of Hell gave me the kind of view I would have had if I was a fly on the wall of the radical gatherings, and the stuff about the militias merging with the militant anti-abortionists is shocking. Like a lot of people, I'm on the fence when it comes to abortion, but that's not what this book is about. It's about people who use intimidation and sometimes violence to get their way, and there is an important lesson here for all of us who sometimes get frustrated with the way things are. The characters in this real-life story become three-dimensional as we read their words and hear their explanations of what motivates them. The story has a plot line like a novel would, and that makes it so much more interesting than a book trotting out the old abortion arguments would be.

This story moves along like a Mack truck but when the dust cleared I suddenly realized I had learned some things I did not know before. I never saw a connection between the radicals in the little fringe groups and the more respectable conservatives, from Pat Robertson and George W. Bush to Pat Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh. As a writer myself, I admired the good pacing of the story and the way Reiter shares his up-close anecdotes. "Live from the Gates of Hell" is a bit like a good Grisham novel in that you want to keep turning the pages. Maybe because Reiter was a journalist, he could pull it off as he mixed important facts with personal observations. Many others have tried but without as much success as Reiter. I think anyone who likes a good dramatic story will enjoy this true life thriller.

I've been recommending this book to everyone I know---it's non-fiction, but reads like a suspense novel. Regardless of which stance you take on abortion, the insights will turn your preconceptions upside-down and may even make you reconsider which "side" you take. With a solid background working for the Religious Right, Jerry Reiter is the perfect guide to the underground antiabortion movement which flourishes across the U.S. today. Everyone should read this book before heading off to the polls this year---what it has to say about George W. Bush and the politics of the Republican party may make you change your vote! Highly recommended to anyone who is involved in the politics of abortion, as well as to all thinking people!

Kipling's poem, "IF," must have had a place of honor on Jerry Reiter's wall when he was growing up, just as it did on the walls of the bedrooms of many young Christian boys when I was a child. Reiter, raised Catholic but "born again" as a teen and recruited by the extreme religious militants of the anti-abortion movement, came to his senses when faced with the true nature of all too many of the militant anti-abortion religious fundamentalists. For those of us who have been involved in providing abortions for the past 30 years, Reiter's revelations come as no surprise. What is surprising is that Reiter (like David Brock, who wrote "Blinded By The Right," was for the extreme right wing of the Republican party), one of the movement's own and thus given great access to the crazy plans and insane paranoias of the extreme anti-abortion movement, was able to break away from the clutches of the cult-meisters of the antiabortion movement and all the other fringes composed of Christian religious nuts and the "rightious wing" of the Republican Party and reveal their secrets from the perspective of an insider. (And like Brock, he will be viciously attacked by the "ditto heads" of the Right without a single relevant fact being refuted.) What I want to know is, where are the terrorist hunters of the Bush administration and Ashcroft's FBI when murderers-by-proxy (in the mold of Osama Bin Laden and Charles Manson, the Helter Skelter guy) and terrorists who have been responsible for multiple deaths, grave injuries, and property damage in the millions of dollars are exposed for what they are. I suppose Ashcroft and our terror czar, Tom Ridge, and their witch hunters are so busy chasing their own tails and lighting red, yellow and orange caution lamps, and out hounding innocent ethnic Americans who happen not to be fundamentalist Christians -or indeed Christians of any type - that they will never have time to investigate the characters exposed in Reiter's book. Jerry Reiter is a rare Human. He may be "my kind of Christian."
If you really want to know something about the anti-abortion movement in this country and what it has whelped, read "Live From The Gates Of Hell." And if you want to know how poor Michael Griffin, whose trial is exposed in this book and who was convicted of murder in the first abortion related killing in this country was driven mad enough to kill for the Svengali's of the truly Insane-Religious-Right, go to a fundamentalist Christian church "pastored" by an anti-abortion preacher and ask to see his copy of the video "Hard Truth;" which is truly hard, but a very long way from truth. And should you desire to know the hard truth about "Hard Truth," e-mail me. wfh

I found this book enthralling, and difficult to put down! To quote the book jacket, it "reads like a gripping murder mystery", and while that is certainly true, it is much more! The author, Jerry Reiter, was an early member of the Christian Coalition. As a member of the Buffalo, NY, church lead by the Reverends Paul and Rob Schenk, he was involved in anti-abortion protests. This is an insider's story of how a potential crime was prevented, but it is also a first-person account of Mr. Reiter's own journey as a self-described Reagan Republican and Ditto-head who developed into a tolerant Christian, who still seems to believe abortion is wrong, yet can call himself "Pro-Choice". This transformation began with a feeling of horror at the extreme tactics employed by others who opposed abortion, leading to his disillusionment with much of the movement due to their silent acceptance of those who were willing to use terrorism to achieve their objectives.

I was especially interested in the author's conclusions about the connections between militant anti-abortion groups, right-wing militias, and the NRA, along with more mainstream religious groups and the Republican Party. In reference to this, I found two chapters of the book to be particularly chilling: Chapter 13, "Fingers Point to One Man" and Chapter 26, "Pat Buchanan and I Come Face to Face". These chapters describe goals of these groups and methods for achieving them, and show a logical relationship linking them.

This book is full of very critical information, yet the author narrates it in an appealing style that will hold the interest of anyone, even those who are completely uninterested in politics or the abortion debate.

From his start in a local community christian church, through a growing indignation of abortion, to alliances with all the right players in the religious right (Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell), Jerry Reiter hides nothing in this remarkable page-turner. No atheist could convey a truer sense of dismay and disgust that the religious right could have done so wrong. His willingness to put himself in a position of real danger by revealing the darker side of gun-toting, hate-monging, anti-everything "christians" goes beyond journalism and into the most revealing anthropological view of reborns I've read.

The reader follows Reiter through his former days as a Operation Rescue worker to finding out a terrorist plot that was being kept mum by some of the biggest anti abortion rights leaders in the nation! Along the way he becomes acquainted with future shooters and the radical Christian Right. Eventually his eyes open to what is really happening and he involves himself with the FBI as an an informant.Throughout the whole book Reiter has to walk the thin line of not being outed while getting close enough to get information. Being outed could put him and his family at risk. He uses his former times in his previous life to open doors to the anti abortion movement. The book was even written as a way to put it all 'out there,' so that they would not be able to kill him to keep it all a secret. His journey became a personal growth and took alot of bravery. This book is indispensable for those who are trying to understand the players in the antiabortion rights movement, how they got started, what techniques they have used and common threads between them all including many Right wing militias. I loved the book and recommend it to anyone who wants to get informed about the antiabortion rights moevment.

The leaders of the religious right and "mainstream" anti-abortion groups may try to distance themselves from acts of violence committed against reproductive clinics, but in the greatest of ironies, they themselves are often the catylsts for such zealotry.

Demanding the birth of babies while cutting the safety net designed to care for them after they are born is only one of the contradictions surrounding this movement grounded in hate for women. The predominantly male movement has formed alliances with conservative political groups that condem whichever option women ultimately chose. The real goal is creation of a theocracy where women do not have control over their own lives.

The political leaders know their language stirs up passion in people, and therefore have not stopped using it yet. The "crazies" are the shock troops in their holly war, and will never be silenced, despite media assurances to the contrary.

Reading this book is an eye opening experience for anybody who is undecided about the abortion issue, or people who believe that the "right-to-life" movement is really about compassion and protecting lives. Reitter has background in the conservative movement, and his credentials lend a considerable amount of weight and influence to this expose.

I like a good murder mystery story, and for the most part, I thought that "Live from the Gates of Hell" delivered, especially when you consider that the author was working with factual material rather than making something up. I was shocked at how such a huge murder plot almost happened, and the horrors of the actions taken by ministers and others who claimed to be conservatives and Christians. As a former sidewalk counselor for the pro-life side, I did not enjoy seeing how far gone some of my supposed allies had gone, but I think this is an important story for pro-life people to read. Most of us deplore the murders and bombings that Reiter details in his book, but the tale is effective at showing that we must not rationalize that the "ends justifies the means." And I found the experiences about the Common Ground Network for Life and Choice fascinating, I just wish more pro-life people would take part. I have seen acts of ugliness on the pro-choice side, and Reiter does not talk as much about that as he might have. I read the book in just 2 days, though, because it was hard to put down. I think people should put this in their local libraries and schools because it covers both sides of something that is so important.

This book was based (subjectively) on what is undoubtedly a fascinating subject and casts welcome light on the darker side of the Christian Right. However, I found Reiter's style of writing somewhat sanctimonious and self-promoting. Never missing an opportunity to state how wonderful others thought he was, how brave he was, and how attractive he was rendered what should have been an enlightening and enjoyable read into a book that was quite frankly, simply irritating.