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Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right

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Mel White's brand new book, Religion Gone Bad is his latest intimate analysis of the intentions of the extreme religious right-wing of Christianity that's been setting the national agenda for over a decade.

Most well-known for his "coming out" story, Stranger at the Gate (1998), White has the deep insider knowledge of the Christian right-wing that makes his own stories insightful, even crucial, reads for the rest of us. As a former ghostwriter for some of the biggest names in Christian bigotry today, and as someone who remains in touch with the thinking and feeling of the usual culprits behind Republican Party Christianity, his warnings and analyses provide a sobering look into the totalitarian goals of the radical right-wing.

Close followers of the right-wing won't be surprised by his sense of alarm. They'll find new evidence to back up their concern here.

Those who still think that these authoritarians should be valued for their sincerity, made objects of laughter on Comedy Central, pitied for how persecuted they feel, or enabled by the usual liberal attempts to "understand" them better, will need this wake-up slap. The only danger is that these people won't want to face Mel White's sobering analysis head on.

Though the book has broader implications for all progressive Americans, White intends to persuade his readers that "the struggle for `gay rights' is the next stage in the broader struggle for civil rights" as well as other progressive struggles in this country.

"Consciously or unconsciously, fundamentalist Christians are using their anti-homosexual campaign," he writes, "to test how much intolerance the American people will tolerate. . . . It is a struggle against fundamentalist Christianity (to use their words) `for the heart and soul of the nation.' It is a struggle we dare not lose."

White sees the struggle as a war. He documents, again with much inside information since he knew most of the protagonists personally, their call to war, its warriors (Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson), its enforcer (Focus on the Family's James Dobson) and its extremist (Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church's D. James Kennedy).

Part Two discusses how fundamentalists fight and win their battles beginning with an analysis of the May 1994 summit of 55 fundamentalist leaders at the Glen Eyrie conference center outside of Colorado Springs. His chapters on the meeting that set the tone and agenda for the right-wing takeover document the setting of the "fascist" strategies and authoritarian goals we've since seen put in place.

In the final section, White fights back with his recommendations for resisting the looming fundamentalist take-over of the country. Taking back progressive constitutional political values and reclaiming the progressive moral values of Jesus and the Bible are central to his argument.

At this point some may be tempted to leave White, but this may be the most important time to continue reading. White still sees himself as an "evangelical" but one in no sense like those who claim the term. He really believes that the "good news" is really good news for everyone, inclusive of all religious and non-religious people.

In my mind, the last few pages of Religion Gone Bad are worth the price of the book in themselves, though they end too soon. As White tells how Gandhi's and Martin Luther King, Jr's method of "Soul Force" grabbed him, and how he has evolved after discovering and practicing for over ten years this life-style of "out-loving" the enemy, we find the activist-tested wisdom he has for us today.

Though he learned from King how morally important it was not to write off the fundamentalists or give up on them, his activist "Soul Force" experience and principles have brought him to the point today where he sees that the time to negotiate with them is over.

"For decades we've tried to negotiate with fundamentalists to end their antihomosexual campaign. They've refused. It's time to take the next step," this front-line fighter against the Christian right-wing advises. "Agape love demands it."

What follows are exciting paragraphs advising what "love demands" we do or, as I would put it, how to step out of the victim role toward the Christian right-wing, in order to stop enabling their addiction.

"Love demands we take it to the street," he writes. It also demands that LGBT people stop agreeing to participate in church debates and studies of issues that discuss LGBT people as if they're lab rats and specimens. Out of the dysfunctional emotional need to be accepted by the religious institutions in order to feel better about themselves, LGBT have agreed to have their humanity analyzed -- "the ultimate act of self-denigration."

Such actions, White argues, not only contribute to the postponing of justice but actually further prop up the very structures that promote religion-based bigotry. Continuing to support institutions that oppress one after already expressing concerns and demonstrating ones case is what Gandhi would call "cooperating with evil."

How many continue to give money to and continue as active members of institutions that respond only by abusing them? How many continue to believe that more cooperation will change their hearts even while the leaders harden their hearts further?

There will be people who will respond that White is too much of an activist for them, no matter how extensive now White's experience of the Christian right-wing's real threat is. They might settle instead for check-book activism or something much safer. They might prefer to hide in their relationships far away from the world out there.

It's fear that keeps us from doing what will fully change things. So, the ultimate beneficiary of stepping out of the victim role is always the person who does it.

In White's terms it's not just about changing the world out there. "The person who benefits most from demanding justice is the person who demands it....Win or lose, we take it to the streets because just being there enriches and empowers our lives."

It's a mistake to start reading this book because it's hard to do anything else. It's a banal statement to say one is impressed with a book for, say, it's style of writing or it's content or because he/she may say something with which you wholeheartedly agree, but I wholeheartedly agree with the Reverend White's words and I confess, it has put fear in my heart. His incredible objectivity--and it cannot have been easy--make it clear that there's a lot of vigilance one is going to need in the days ahead on any number of issues. It was especially helpful to me since I am not a protestant, to know the difference between evangelicalism and fundamentalism. I have a divinity school degree from Berkeley but cannot remember any time the meaning of these two words/concept became an issue.
Thank you, Reverend White for what you've done.

I like to read in twos or threes, and in this case the two books I read on the religious right were Reverend Barry Lynn's "Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freeedom," and this one. Lynn's comes in first by a nose, but they are both excellent primers on everything going wrong both within the extreme right, and between the church and the state.

The author is a gay Christian minister who was uniquely privileged as a ghost writer for the heavy hitters on the extreme right from Jerry Falwell to Pat Robertson, work done prior to his realizing he was gay.

The author provides a useful distinction, one I often forget, between fundamentalists who are driven by fear and focused on imposing their strict version of faith on others, and evangelicals who are more reasonable and tolerant.

This book is richer in historical content than Lynns, and for that reason alone should be considered a "must read" along with Lynns' book. In addition to history the author describes a broad concern over two Americas emergent, one fundamentalist and one normal. The author takes care to discuss how Bible-based fear and loathing come from the fundamentalists, themselves, not from the Bible.

The author ends the book compassionately and intelligently. I am beginning to see a convergence between the literature on Collective Intelligence, and the literature on non-violent resistance as well as secession from the Union. I see a real possibility of the USA breaking up into at least four pieces (see my review of Joel Garreau's The Nine Nations of North America; Tom Atlee's The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All; and Thomas Naylor's The Vermont Manifesto.

See also (with reviews):
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Plus)
Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom
Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury

Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Religious Right by Mel White.

Mel White was a ghostwriter for many of the well-known fundamentalist ministers such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Some 25 years or so ago, not only did he became to realize he was gay, but also being gay is something to celebrate. Dr. White gives us some insight into the world of ghostwriting. One example was when he wrote one of Pat Robertson's books. Rev. Robertson never read the book he was supposed to have written. Never.

Today Dr. White is in a 25-year plus relationship with another man, has children from a previous relationship and still considers himself an evangelical Christian. He regularly attends Jerry Falwell's church in silent protest.

I read his first book, Stranger at the Gate: To be Gay and Christian in America, many years ago. He is co-founder of an organization called Soulforce, which is made up of gay and their supporters who are also religious. [...]

His new book, Religion Gone Bad, I could hardly put down. Every page seems to speak exactly how I felt about issues regarding religion, spirituality, gay rights and the people who fight gay rights.

The first section of the book is titled, "My Friends, The Enemy". Since he had been raised as a fundamentalist Christian (his father was a fundamentalist Christian minister), Dr. White knew many of these anti gay ministers on a personal basis. He considers them his friends, but also his enemies for the damage they are doing to gay folks.

Dr. White believes many fundamentalists have perverted and dishonored the teachings of Jesus. They have "emasculated Jesus". "They have broken the covenant of love and grace and tacked up in its place the old covenant of law and order". Jesus hung out with the outcasts not the respected people of the community.

Instead of trying to take the speck out of other's eyes, perhaps they should take the log out of theirs.

What school has more suicides of more gay men than any other religious institution in the country? Brigham Young University (Mormon). What group is more likely to get divorced? Christian "born again" conservatives. They have a higher divorce rate than other faith groups, atheists or agnostics.

However, these folks want to protect the "sanctity" of marriage as it has been for "hundreds of years". However, their concept of traditional marriage is a myth. Originally, marriage was not based on love, but on economic issues. Husbands traded cattle for wives. Marriage to a non-Jew was prohibited. Children of interfaith couple were considered illegitimate. Brides considered not being virgins were stoned to death. The Old Testament talks about polygamous marriage where a man marries and lives with as many women as he can afford. Many men in the Old Testament had many wives any where from two (Jacob and Ashur) to Solomon who had at least 700. Abraham had a wife, a concubine or other wives who either were slaves or purchased. Many women were raped and then forced to marry their attackers. Jewish history tells us when a woman was widowed without giving birth to a son, she was required to marry her brother-in-law. If she did not love this guy, she would have to put up with rape. So much for traditional marriage and so much for taking the Bible literally.

Dr. White finds it very ironic that many of these folks use the King James Version of the Bible, since history indicates James was gay and had a lover who is buried with James at Westminster Abbey chapel.

Fundamentalists want to change American "back to the Christian nation that it once was". However, it never was a Christian nation. Dr. White provides many examples showing many of the Founding Fathers who were worried about many of the ideas that Religious Right folks espouse today. In spite of what they say, there is no mention of God or Jesus in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, nor the Federalist Papers. Our Founding Fathers wanted a clear separation of church and state.

When Dr. White was a high school senior, he was chosen by AFSC (American Friends Service Committee --a Quaker organization) to spend a week with Dr. Martin Luther King. He quotes King, "Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial".

Throughout his book, Dr. White makes several mentions of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Both were my childhood heroes. One of the bits of wisdom he learned from Gandhi is be clear as to what we believe, be totally accepting of people who believe differently, and trust that the Spirit of God "will teach us both in the process". It is not our responsibility to convert others to our way of thinking; our responsibility is to the love others regardless of their views and hope each person will learn from the other.

Dr. White wants to remind us that even these anti gay ministers are Children of God. We must not caricature or condemn them as they do us. They can call us "faggot" and we can them "fascist", but where does that leave us. "Someone has to stop this cycle of fear, anger and violence against one another, because the suffering will not end until we do."


Gary Miller
Bud4jo@yahoo.com

This is a fascinating book. The Reverend gives an honest portrayal of religious fundamentalism in America. He details how these fanatics preach their hate towards decent and hardworking homosexual people and try to use the pulpit to preach politics. Anyone that preaches bigotry in the name of religion should read "Religion Gone Bad" with an open mind and open heart.

Mel White tells politically moderate Christians to reclaim the Bible from certain fundamentalist Christian leaders. They are using it to promote an unChristian agenda based on cherry-picked excerpts from the Bible. They have somehow gained strength in numbers - more poetically called gang mentality - and have become powerful enough to influence the White House and Congress.

In 1994, a bunch of fundamentalist leaders got together in Colorado Springs and made long term plans to do something about the homosexual problem that was threatening American values. How ridiculous! The gay community is about as threatening to the usual marriage as an ant bed in the next county - and these guys are basing their paranoia on a very few selected sentences out of a book written during the Bronze Age. Although it's easy to write them off, White says not to underestimate their political power: "These are not just Neocons dressed in religious drag. These men see themselves as gurus called by God to rescue America from unrighteousness. They believe this is a Christian nation that must be returned forcibly to its Christian roots."

White is a gay minister who has seen these guys up close. He served the evangelical movement as a pastor, professor, filmmaker, TV producer, author, and ghostwriter for Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, and others. Now that he's out of the closet, the author documents that this plan has been and is being slowly carried out and is gathering momentum. He includes in his book about 100 hate-mongering quotes gleaned from our Christian friends live from their TV ministries. Moderate, reasonable, critical-thinking people have been out-numbered, out-financed, and out-organized by these fine gentlemen. The anti-gay crusade goes hand in hand with plans intended to derail ungodly aspects of science, influence foreign policy, and eventually demolish the separation of church and state. Tens of millions of dollars and millions of votes are being extracted for these political purposes.

White is understandably and justifiably ticked off about their anti-gay stance, and his minority group should have our support in this conflict. Meanwhile, I have been disgusted by the treatment science has gotten since the fundamentalists have infiltrated every nook and cranny of the Bush administration. I agree with White that something needs to be done. Hopefully, the tide will turn and this era will be looked back on like McCarthyism is today.

While I completely support the political objectives of the author, Mel White, regarding liberty and equal protection for all Americans; this book is a partially flawed effort in terms of its warnings of doom regarding the Christian Right's political objectives. Not because White didn't convince me of their leaders' willingness to destroy American values; White was unable to convince me they are able to destroy those ideals. So while I can't unequivocally recommend purchasing this book, I do recommend purchasing under certain conditions I'll describe below.

Mr. White's main thesis is to correlate the Nazis' treatment of Jews to the American Christian Right's treatment of gays. White warns us that the trail the Nazi's led Germany down is a possibility for America if the Christian Right maintained and enhanced its control of our government.

I don't believe Mr. White is able to convincingly make his case that gays are at the same threat level of risk that Jews were in Germany in the early 1930s; however he does make the case the leaders of the Christian Right are theocratic fascists that are directly opposed to our founding American ideals (while disingenuously claiming those ideals for themselves). White provides strong corroborative evidence justifying the use of terms such as theocracy, dominionism, and fascism in terms of their political objectives though this book is not designed to be a good source to analyze the Christian Right's ideals vs. the founding ideals of the framers (see Randy Barnett's "Lost Constitution" for an indirect, but devastating take-down of authoritarian ideologies like the Christian Right's).

Mr. White begins by describing his ideological enemies, from Francis Schaffer and Billy Graham to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and D. James Kennedy. Mr. White describes these men as true believers who are not hypocritically in the game for money and power but instead because they actually believe in the hatred and bigotry they propagate.

White's past provides a unique and valuable perspective, having served as a ghost writer for Billy Graham (whom White holds out as example of a good evangelical though still a man of his time), as well as ghost writing for Pat Robertson, and also having worked with Jerry Falwell and Kennedy on a variety of media events published by these people. In terms of "know thy enemy", the book fails due to White's obsessive focus on their hatred of gays at the cost of a broader analysis of these men and their objectives given his exposure to them.

Are the Christian Right political leaders and nationally known figures proto-fascists setting the table for future fascists, or are they fascists themselves willing to destroy our Constitution and implement a Christian Dominionist government? I would have liked to have reviewed some differentiation in White's analysis between the leaders and their objectives and the willingness of their followers to support these efforts if they gained enough power to implement their policy objectives.

While I understand and agree to a point that White's position is that the fundamentalist perspective and policy positions on gay people is a key to understanding their bigger objectives regarding the control of our government; I would have preferred White dedicate more time on other issues as well, especially the Christian Right's leaders' perspective on how they plan to maintain their numbers of adherents in this country given their future inability to keep their followers ignorant of the corruption of early dogma as the Internet provides access to all people on the actual history of the corruption of the Canons as they developed along with Science continuing to destroy Christian myths prevalent in the Bible as we learn more about our Universe and its laws (the retreat since Galileo is actually accelerating which may be why these men have a sense of desperation to their rhetoric).

I would have also liked a better discussion of how they control the media in terms of continuing to be allowed the moral equivalence of their opposing positions (e.g., "right to die", stem cell research, their attacks on Science) relative to overwhelming opposition along with reason and evidence directly contradicting their claims. Just recently the far right lost its ability to frame the ID v. Evolution debate as competing theories as the media wised up on the actual controversy that there is no scientific controversy but instead this an attack on science by religious ideologues. How will they continue to threaten our country and make things worse if they lose their moral authority in the media as they have been recently as their ideals are scrutinized and found morally repugnant and/or easily disproved? White doesn't elaborate and yet we're supposed to worry they are the next coming of Hitler, sorry but I can't make that leap based on White's book, I need more evidence, especially given the explosion of information becoming available that will make it easier to discredit their propaganda efforts along with young people in general, even young Evangelicals, rejecting their parent's hatred of homosexuals, intellectualism, and the scientific method.

White provides a section of the book to show how the Christian Right's leaders fight and have won some of their wars, especially by hiring discredited "scientists" to create "research" that allows them to communicate "facts" to support their conclusions. While the Christian Right argues that their policy positions are supported with sound data, the media has caught on that wackos like Paul Cameron, David Barton and William Dembski are illegitimate conveyers of "truth" and instead incompetent hacks paid to create propaganda for people like James Dobson and D. James Kennedy. So the question again is raised, why should I continue to be concerned about these nut cases, won't they die out just like the people that stopped people of color from having equal rights and marrying between the races died out? Nowadays Christian Right zealots like Sen. Brownback hypocritically claim the civil rights movement as their legacy, why won't the Brownbacks in two generations claim the fight for gay rights as their heritage as well? White provides no preemptive argument for these obvious challenges to his premise. A great book on this topic is Mooney's "The Republican War on Science".

The next two sections of the book are like a complete reversal and highly enjoyable reading and why I conditionally promote purchasing this book. White defines 14 aspects of fascism and does a convincing job of showing that at the least, the Christian Right leaders possess fascist tendencies by showing examples, sometimes multiple anecdotes, to corroborate an aspect of fascism with a policy position supported by the Christian Right. Once again though, White fails to convince this reader that these leaders would have the ability to enjoin their followers to actually make the leap to theocratic fascism if provided the opportunity - its one thing for a populist Christian to rail against the peccadilloes of Pres. Clinton's sexual scandals or an atheist trying to get "under God" out of the Pledge, its quite another to vote to amend the U.S. Constitution to prevent judges from protecting the rights of Americans from its government when your side is in power. President Bush learned this lesson in 2006 when 1/3 of evangelicals rejected his party and voted for Democrats, i.e., that ideology at the extreme end is shared by an insufficient number for an automatic quorum; a lesson Liberals learned in the 80s.

I also like Whites' thesis that people who truly aspire to live up to the principles of the two greatest commandments and aspire to live a life where grace is superior to justice is contained within the founding American civil ideals espoused historically by freethinkers and liberal Christians, a concept currently demonized by Fox News (as secular progressivism). White, like Jim Wallis, has the moral high ground but hasn't figured out how to get their message out into the media effectively; the knee-jerk reaction by the mainstream media is that the Dobson's speak for Christians when in fact, millions of Christians reject his message of dominionism and hatred. White's movements' effectiveness will be measured in getting media access like Dobson, Falwell, and Robertson, an effort in which he's currently failing.

I had one inspiration reading Mr. White's book, the gay rights movement needs a Martin Luther King. It needs a person who is charismatic enough while possessing the humble dignity and obvious wisdom, like Dr. King, to immediately remove the Christian Right from its unearned moral high ground. Mr. White, after having seen him speak at a book review broadcast on CSPAN II, is not that person nor does he seem to aspire to that position. I hope and pray Mr. White's movement finds its Dr. King; Mr. White will be a very able disciple to such a person and movement.

A warning about the huge danger the American "christian" right poses to the rest of the world. While most of us in Europe regard the medieval belief systems of the American Heartlands, with a mixture of disbelief and bafflement. This timely expose from an individual who has been at the core of their operations for many years, serves as a wake up call, a warning of the very real threat to the environment and world peace these people pose.

I have to say I only recently discovered Mel White's website, Soulforce, and his books, but I am very glad I that I did. I am currently reading this book (I'm currently on page 257) and it is very hard to put down. I knew that these people calling themselves "Christians" were dangerous, but I honestly had no idea the extent of it. It's absolutely horrifying, these people are so sick! White bares all in great detail for the reader, as only someone who was once on the inside could do.

I am finding it very hard to wrap my brain around the fact that there are people out there that actually believe the filth that people like Paul Cameron, Fallwell, Dobson, etc spew forth at their congregations. And it's even more digusting to realize that these people are daring to call themselves "Christian." I was just absolutely floored and shocked by the truths about these people that White exposes.

I highly recommend this book, regardless of your political or religious background, the information in this book is VITAL to EVERYONE in understanding these people and how to combat their messages of hate with messages of love. I am a very spiritual person, and I find it absolutely abhorrent that people use religion to hide behind their hateful agendas. It is very sad that so many have been brainwashed. This book is very good, and even those who are familar with or already know a great deal about the "Christian" extremists will find something new that they didn't know prior to reading. I thought I knew a lot about them, I was shocked how much I still had to learn.

Excellent book, highly recommend. Once you've read it, pass it on to family and friends, share it with everyone you know.

This book is a detailed account of how the big names in Evangelical Christianity are also waist deep in the political process and how they use fear and misinformation to line their pockets. It is a picture of the problem on grand scale rather than personal.

It's worth reading by everyone, the problem is the people who are funadamentalist anything, rarely think for themselves. Still, lots of good information in this book.