Customer Reviews

Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Dr. Meyers' new book is a citizen's outrage with a minister's passion, a mentor's intervention against power and hypocrisy. The book is scathing but not lecturing; it's more like a parent reminding a child that there are two sides to everything and it's not safe or smart to take up action without realizing the whole picture. Dr. Meyers has a gift for eloquence, directness, and wordcraft that all allow him to communicate a message both beautifully and bluntly.

As a liberal and a Christian, it speaks words to my feelings about the hypocrisy of our government, and the books presents a compelling and full spectrum of information that should tug at the conscience of the true Christians in this country - conservative, liberal, or other. It serves as a reminder that "Republican" and "Christian" aren't necessarily the same thing, and that proclaimed "Christian" policies certainly don't reflect the message of a prophet who gave to the poor and pardoned the sinful. In fact, as Dr. Meyers points out, Jesus saved his white-hot anger for the sins of religious hypocrisy.

After a couple of decades of hijacking of the Christian faith by people with a right-wing political agenda, it is refreshing to see Christian authors with a different perspective being published. I think we may be on the cusp of a new "Awakening" in America, when Christianity can again stand for love, compassion and social justice. Read Dr. Meyers' book and any others like it that you can get your hands on. And for another book on liberal Christianity with a less political perspective, look for "Think Again: A Response to Fundamentalism's Claim on Christianity."

"Why the Christian Right is Wrong" is based on thoughts contained in an 11/04 presentation to an anti-war group. The essence of that presentation (and the book) is that most of those (eg. Christian fundamentalists) claiming moral values are on their side support a morally bankrupt administration and President that:

1)started a war on false pretenses and then acts as if they're doing God's will, while critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith,

2)arrogantly breaks the international rules for waging a just war that our nation helped establish,

3)claims Jesus is the Lord of his life, yet fails to acknowledge that his policies ignore Jesus' essential teachings,

4)found a way to avoid combat in Vietnam and then questions the patriotism of thos who did,

5)talk constantly about Jesus, healer of the sick, but do nothing to ensure that anyone who is sick can see a doctor,
and

6)dismantles countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth, God's gift to us.

Meyers goes on to expound on these points, with chapters titled "Christians Don't Start Wars - They Try to Stop Them," "Rich Chicken Hawks for Jesus," and "'Pro-life' Should Include Mother Nature."

The most startling chapter, however, has has more of a political than religious focus. Titled "Christian Fascism and the War on Reason" it includes 14 characteristics of fascism: 1)Powerful nationalism (we have knee-jerk patriotism), 2)disdain for recognition of human rights (eg. torture, long imprisonments), 3)identifying enemies and scapegoats as a unifying cause (eg. liberals, terrorists), 4)supremacy of the military (see our budget), 5)rampant sexism, 6)control of the mass media, 7)obsession with national security, 8)religion and government intertwined (use religion to manipulate public opinion), 10)suppression of labor power, 11)disdain for intellectuals and the arts, 12)obsession with crime and punishment, 13)rampant cronyism and corruption, and 14)fraudulent elections (eg. smear campaigns, manipulation of boundaries).

A lot to think about!

This is an infectious call to arms that renews my long ago lost faith in Christians and Christianity. Robin Meyers is a combination of the radical preacher from the sixties and a level-headed professor of rhetoric morphed into a man for the current season of moral crisis in America.

Included in the book is the text from his now famous speech given in Norman, Oklahoma in 2004 in which the refrain (coyly addressed to President George W. Bush) "...you are doing something immoral" rained down on a crowd of University of Oklahoma students, faculty and others like wisdom in the form of manna from heaven. Professor and Pastor Meyers has a way with words, to put it mildly. That speech is one of the best I have ever heard (actually I didn't have the opportunity to hear it, but I read it). I believe that even Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. would be impressed.

Here's a bit of it:

"When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching or turn them on their head...you are doing something immoral.

When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the Gospels, which say that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so that the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral."

This book is organized around this speech with chapter titles like "Christians Don't Start Wars, They Try to Stop Them," Missing in Action: The Sermon on the Mount," "Rich Chicken Hawks for Jesus," and "Christian Fascism and the War on Reason."

Meyers goes deep into the moral issues of today and exposes the hypocrisy and sheer stupidity of fundamentalist Christianity and its two-faced and power hungry leaders. His message is that America is in crisis and the only way out is a reaffirmation of real American values which include separation of church and state and the rule of reason as guided by the scientific method and genuine Christian spirituality.

I hope this book somehow finds its way into the White House and the halls of the Congress because if our leaders don't find their lost moral compass and use the intelligence and courage God gave them and soon, we will become not only a second-rate nation, but a nation as corrupt as a fascist banana republic.

Dr. Meyers provides a clarion call for the many millions of Americans who are weary of the judgmental, narrow, rigid, and essentially anti-Christian religious leaders and movements who seem to have assumed control of American policy and culture. This well-written, scrupulously documented manifesto provides positive steps for taking action and reclaiming the values Christ taught. Highly recommended.

Dr. Meyer's book makes bullet points out of the incendiary speech that he gave to a group of people on the campus of Oklahoma University during the last presidential campaign. That speech found it's way onto the internet and provided a compassionate, logical and prophetic voice for what many of us feel concerning the current direction of the politcal powers that be. This book is a must read for those, like me, who sense that Christianity has been co-opted and sold out in the name of greater personal power and wealth. At a time in my life, when I am first experiencing a move towards spirituality from a previously agnostic (and admittledly, apathetic) posture, Dr. Meyers and his voice provide the logic and reason that I can wrap my mind around. This book is full of insights into a different way of thinking; a way of thinking, that to my mind, may be the best way to approach today's world and its problems. In closing, I want to repeat one of my favorite passages from the book where Dr. Meyers is speaking of government entitlement programs and the notion that they run counterproductive to the prevailing ethic of pulling oneselves up by their own bootstaps. He describes the most powerful governmental advocates of this ethic as "being born on third base and thinking they have hit a triple". Priceless!

A brilliant and thought provoking "manifesto" for Christians written by a United Church of Christ minister. This book challenges the reader to reassess the actions of our government leaders and the Christian Right and to hold them to a higher ethical and moral standard...a standard established by the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Prince of Peace. A "must read" for thinking people of faith and a "should read" for all others.

I finished reading the book fairly quickly after I picked it up, which is due to a combination of factors; it was somewhat short and sweet but at the same time it was hard to put down.

I must say that as a person who has been able to listen to Meyers talk on numerous occasions, I felt truly thankful that someone finally had the guts (and the background) to launch a well meaning investigation into the hypocrisy of the Christian Right. Meyers is a very smart man and truly is a spiritual man; he's a man who can bridge the gaps between Unitarians and traditional Christians by reassuring us that not all of Christianity has gone off the deep end.

The most important piece of this book is the informative viewpoint presented by the author on Christianity being a guide rather than a cure.

Still, I unfortunately had to give the book a four because of a lot of typos that really should have been fixed in editing (A very blatant one takes away from the strength of the book's final line) and because the beginning feels like a rant to me. And regardless of the fact that I agree with him and think his rant was totally justified, it isn't appealing in the sense that it takes away from the quality of the book and the reliability of his later arguments.

However, if you have been looking for sanity for the past 6 years, you just found it.

WHY THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT IS WRONG BY ROBIN MEYERS is a thoughtful and carefully researched, insightful look into the errant rhetoric of the Christian Right, which has become intertwined with the Republican Party. The author, a Biblical scholar and obviously a Christian, shows throughout the book the contrast with what this administration has done compared to what Jesus teaches and prompts the reader to ask continuously, What would Jesus Do? The book grew out of a speech made by this college professor in Oklahoma of which many people requested a copy. Those people copied it onto the Internet and emailed it to friends, unbeknownst to the author, who was then bombarded with thousands of emails in support of his tenets and asking for more. The book is very well written and is deeply Christian in content, with a slant which does not support big money or big business and has no intent to use its audience for personal gain, as do the people who have blinded the American public with carefully crafted rhetoric and lulled them into supporting so many changes in the American Way which would have distressed our founding fathers and which, although done with a Christian tag have so gone against Jesus' teachings. The book is EXCELLENT and shoud be read by ALL Christians, Republican or Democrat. It allows you to think instead of just being fooled by wordcraft and posturing. It also reminds us that our country was founded on the principles of separation of church and state, but this administration has intertwined the two for advantage of the wealthy and corporations and at the great expense of our freedom and our conscience.

A mind provoking commentary on the standards and lack thereof at work in our present goverment and across the country in general. Stirring and soothing in that one feels less isolated with their thoughts that something is truly amiss in our nation. The effects of the extreme right wing relgious advocates and the reality of their beliefs as it affects Americans and the nation as a whole. Provides many hours of contemplative ruminations.