Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right (S U N Y Series in Queer Politics and Cultures) [Paperback]

Cynthia Burack (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0791474062 | ISBN-13: 978-0791474068 | Publication Date: April 17, 2008

Explores the Christian Right's use of tailored rhetorics to advance multiple and varied antigay political projects.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

While the Christian Right has spearheaded a variety of antigay projects over the past fifteen years, including interventions in public schools, antigay-rights initiatives, and support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, observers of the institutionalized Christian Right have also noted a softening of antigay public rhetoric. Sin, Sex, and Democracy analyzes these two ostensibly conflicting phenomena. Examining Christian witnessing tracts, the ex-gay movement, and recent linkages between gays and terrorists, Cynthia Burack argues that as the Christian Right has become a more sophisticated interest group, leaders have become adept at tailoring different messages for mainstream audiences and for the internal pedagogical processes of Christian conservatives. Understanding the rhetoric and the theological convictions that lie behind them, Burack claims, is essential to better understand how American politics work and how to effectively respond to exclusionary forms of political thought and practice.

"This book offers a meticulously detailed account of the way in which antigay discourse is constructed and employed by the Christian Right and those closely associated with it. It is a topic of significance and central to the academic study of politics and cultural practice of politics, particularly in the United States." -- Angelia R. Wilson, author of Below the Belt: Sexuality, Religion, and the American South

"The appeal of this book is the niche it fills: at a time when critics take well-worn and cheap shots at the Christian Right ill fitting the seriousness of the times, this author demands that critics take the Christian Right seriously, not only politically, but theologically." -- Amy E. Ansell, editor of Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Cynthia Burack is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the Ohio State University. She is the author of Healing Identities: Black Feminist Thought and the Politics of Groups and coeditor (with Jyl J. Josephson) of Fundamental Differences: Feminists Talk Back to Social Conservatives. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (April 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791474062
• ISBN-13: 978-0791474068
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sin, Sex, and Democracy, September 18, 2010

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K. OBrien "Cameragirl" (St. Charles, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right (S U N Y Series in Queer Politics and Cultures) (Paperback)

In "Sin, Sex, and Democracy" Dr. Burack systematically discusses rhetoric of the Christian Right, specifically as that rhetoric is used for anti-gay communications, publicity, and politics. Although I am a graduate student, I did not read this book because of a class requirement. I chose to read it, because the topic was of interest to me. I appreciated the writer's admonishment to people from within the Christian Right and to those who are not part of the Christian Right, to learn to listen to one another, rather than being critical without understanding the layers beneath what appears on the surface of communications from leaders of the Christian Right. Therefore, of particular interest to me was her exploration of in the difference between communications of Christian Right leaders to those within the Christian Right, and how that communication becomes vague and diffuse when those same leaders communicate with people who are NOT of the Christian Right.

Chapter 2, specifically related to "Chick Tracts," is something I think would be interesting to tract collectors, to those who distribute the tracts, and to those who are on the (sometimes unhappy) receiving end of them.

I think the book could be of great interest and information to those from the Christian Right, those who are on the opposite extreme, and anyone in between who seeks to understand.