Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right (Hardcover)

by Mel White (Author)
Key Phrases: relentless nonviolent resistance, progressive moral values, antihomosexual campaign, Glen Eyrie, Pat Robertson, James Dobson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The bestselling author of Stranger at the Gate provides an inside exposŽ of the Christian Right's agenda-and a playbook in how to resist it.

This Fall's midterm elections will see much discussion about the enhanced power of the Christian fundamentalist Right, leaving many people to wonder: just who are these people and what exactly do they want? What are their ultimate goals? The Reverend Mel White, a deeply religious man who sees fundamentalism as "evangelical Christian orthodoxy gone cultic," believes that it is not a stretch to say that the true goal of today's fundamentalists is to break down the wall that separates church and state, superimpose their "moral values" on the U.S. Constitution, replace democracy with theocratic rule, and ultimately create a new "Christian America" in their image. White's new book, Religion Gone Bad, is a wake-up call to all of us to take heed.

White is singularly qualified to write this exposŽ of the Christian Right because he himself was a true believer who served the evangelical movement as pastor, professor, filmmaker, television producer, author, and ghostwriter for such fundamentalist leaders as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Billy Graham, all of whom he got to know well. As he writes, "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."

He is also a gay man, who made news when he came out more than twelve years ago. White has gained a unique understanding of the fundamentalist agenda because, since the fall of "godless Communism," homosexuality and abortion have become the primary targets through which fundamentalists have created fear, raised money, and mobilized recruits. Religion Gone Bad documents the thirty-year war that fundamentalist Christians have waged against homosexuality and gays and lesbians and offers dramatic, heartbreaking evidence that fundamentalist leaders-Protestant and Catholic alike-are waging nothing less than a "holy war" (jihad) against sexual minorities. By focusing on the current plight of gay people in this country, White addresses the wider issue that fundamentalist Christianity-like fundamentalist Islam-has become a threat not just to gays, but to all Americans who disagree with fundamentalist Christian "values."

About the Author
Mel White leads the charge against Christian fundamentalism in America. A former ghostwriter, consultant, and confidant to figures such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Oliver North, White famously broke with the Christian Right in the 1990s, coming out as a gay man and writing his popular memoir, Stranger at the Gate. White lives with his partner in Lynchburg, Virginia-across the street from Jerry Falwell's church.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (September 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585425311
• ISBN-13: 978-1585425310
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,197 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Insider Takes Us Deeper Into the Danger of the Christian Right-wing, September 27, 2006

By	Robert N. Minor "The Fairness Project" (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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."

33 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twin to Reverend Lynn's "Piety & Politics", October 26, 2006

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read, November 14, 2006

By	Gary Miller "Gary Miller" (Roseville, Ca.) - See all my reviews

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
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