Follow the author

With God On Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, And Democracy In George W. Bush's White House Paperback – Bargain Price, November 22, 2005

by Esther Kaplan (Author)

3.8 21 ratings

The book Amy Goodman hailed as "classic muckraking at its best."

When asked which single issue most affected their vote in the last presidential election, more than one in five Americans said "moral values"and 78 percent of these voters chose to reelect President Bush. Indeed, Christian fundamentalists made up close to 40 percent of the president's electorate in 2004, and their turnout increased by some four million voters over 2000.

As Esther Kaplan shows in her richly detailed investigation, it's no wonder the Christian right voted for Bush in drovestheir loyal support in 2000 produced fantastic results. While organizations that offer abortion counseling and services or help to prevent HIV see their funds cut, church groups receive millions in federal dollars to promote sexual abstinence and marriage (provided, of course, it is heterosexual). Bush has appointed a Christian right dream team to the federal courts, dedicated to tearing down what one such judge calls "the so-called separation of church and state." Religious zeal even shapes Bush's foreign policy, as Christian belief in the end times spurs the administration's support for hard-line policies in Israel.

A prescient study of the Christian right's growing political clout, With God on Their Side is essential reading for anyone concerned about America's direction.

Review

A call to arms to battle those forces who want to return America to the dark ages. -- Janeane Garofalo

A riveting account of the radical right's assault on science and family planningA frightening and necessary read. -- Ms.

A truly shocking dossier of recent religious fundamentalist incursions into the soul of American democracy. -- Tony Kushner

Kaplan's exposé is welcomeand alarming. -- Mike Marqusee, The Independent [London]

Scrupulously researched and documented, and enlivened by Kaplan's trenchant reportage[a] journalistic masterpiece. -- Mark Crispin Miller, Globe and Mail

About the Author

Esther Kaplan is a radio and print journalist and a community activist. She was acting senior editor at The Nation and features editor at POZ, the national AIDS magazine; she has also written for the Village Voice, Out, and The Nation. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

New Press, The
Publication date

November 22, 2005
Dimensions

7.46 x 5.36 x 1.02 inches
See all details

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008SM0I5Y
Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Press, The (November 22, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.46 x 5.36 x 1.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,427,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,125 in Church & State Religious Studies
- #10,514 in Democracy (Books)
- #25,221 in Deals in Books

Customer Reviews:
3.8 21 ratings

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Esther Kaplan

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5

21 global ratings

2 star

0%

1 star

14%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Michele

A must-read book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2004

Still looking for evidence to give your family and friends that George W. Bush has got to go? This book doesn't take cheap political shots, it just lays out all the connections between the Religious Right and everyday activities at the White House -- from John Ashcroft leading morning prayer sessions for the people who report to him at the Department of Justice to a battle over creationist psuedo-science books being promoted in a Grand Canyon park service store.

It may seem like George W. Bush's major effects on American life has been in the area of foreign policy, but Kaplan's well-reported, well-written book shows how political appointees from the country's most conservative groups are filling advisory councils and approval committees -- and, often unseen, making shocking changes to our national policies about condoms, access to contraception, and healthcare research and funding. As even the Reagans know, this administration is hazardous to your health!

I'd recommend this book to anyone who cares about the future of science policy, education, and health research in the United States -- which is probably everyone reading this review.

112 people found this helpful

Helpful

David Swan

Bowing to ther Religious Right

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2006

Verified Purchase

Perhaps the best quote ever to describe the Bush administration came from George W. Bush's original pick for Faith Czar, John DiIulio, who said, "What you've got is everything - and I mean everything - being run by the political arm" The Bush administration has wrote the book on abusing Democracy and circumventing checks and balances. Rather than worry about governance the Bush Admin runs a 24/7, year in year out campaign to appease its base, satisfy the lobbyists and find wedge issues to lure new constituencies. One of the most disgusting incidents of pandering was the reinstatment of the "Mexico City Policy" which forbid any foreign organization from receiving U.S. dollars if they so much as mention anything concerning abortion even if it's done with their own money. It wasn't so much the reinstatement that was foul it was Bush's ignorance of the policy itself as Esther Kaplan wrote, "It seemed that President Bush, in an effort to offer a `symbolic gesture' to his domestic political supporters, had casually imposed an international policy he hadn't bothered to read - one that would have profound effects on women around the globe"

This is essentially everything that's wrong with the Bush presidency. He just doesn't appear to care. It doesn't matter that "six years after Texas mandated abstinence, teen pregnancy rates were one and a half times the nation average" It doesn't matter that discouraging the use of condoms has led to a rise in STD's and in countries like Romania an increase in unwanted pregnancies and YES an increase in abortions. John DiIulio made the mistake of believing that the efficacy of Bush's faith based programs was important. It isn't. Results are irrelevant. Satisfying the base and maintaining ideological purity is the ONLY important thing. Every day government health and science experts are replaced by political hacks. What happened with Michael Brown and hurricane Katrina was only one high profile example of Bush placing totally unqualified supporters into important government positions. Rather than show contrition over the debacle he almost immediately nominated the embarrassing Harriett Miers to the Supreme Court.

The author points out that George W. Bush saw himself as a man of destiny even before he was elected as he was quoted telling televangelist James Robison, "I feel like God wants me to run for president. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me" The fact that he won despite losing the popular vote only increased his belief that his position as president was a divine appointment. It's no wonder that Bush has so little patience for dissenting opinion when his efforts are guided by God. On the Iraq war the author writes, "Each scrap of intelligence that supported invasion would have leaped from the page, an affirmation of God's will, while any intelligence that refuted such a necessity would have been received with suspicion" This pattern of infallibility is likely behind Bush's constant appointment of unqualified candidates often done by making an end run around Congress. Candidates are appointed to reflect Bush's godly worldview.

"With God on Their Side" focuses on the appointments of conservative evangelicals to policy making decisions particularly in the areas of health care, science and foreign policy making. (For a more detailed view on the science portion read `The Republican War on Science' by Chris Mooney) Political ideologues have been inserted while experienced professionals are pushed out the door to the detriment of everyone. The `Left Behind' book series by Tim LeHaye casts the United Nations as the villain in Satan's plan. Unfortunately many Evangelicals take the fictional series seriously and thanks to their influence in government the United States has been sending more than a few anti-UN representatives to the UN. The U.S. has been pushing for abortion and contraceptive rules overseas that are far more restrictive than anything in the United States, so restrictive in fact that the United States was forced to create alliances that "included nations suspected of supporting or harboring terrorist operations, such as Sudan, Syria, and Libya, along with `axis of evil' member Iran" In trying to strong arm Asian countries "not a single Asian country backed the extreme U.S. stance, even nations with conservative abortion laws such as the Philippines and Iran" Yes, the United States is sometimes too restrictive even for Iran.

This book is a must read for those who have any concern over the direction the United States is headed in. The author writes, "The Christian right movement, as a whole, is not enamored of democracy" and this would apply to tradition conservativism as a whole (just read The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk to see a 600 page attack on Democracy). On the Republican tactics Kaplan writes, "The goal is not to engage your opponents in the public square, but to kneecap them or send them into exile" The goal is to entrench Conservativism through the courts and in public funding to the point where Republican's will own policy long after Bush's term is over. "With God on their Side" isn't a short book but it's packed with plenty of info to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who believes that an American theocracy is a path we seriously need to avoid.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Adequate as a warning against dangerous influences

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2004

Verified Purchase

Is the Bush administration packed with "fundamentalist" Christians whose goal is to bring the United States closer to a theocracy, or is it instead packed with Christian reactionaries who are fed up with "liberal" points of view, the latter of which have been well-funded by the United States government for the last four decades? If the former is true, this is a very dangerous development that must be countered by anyone interested in freedom of thought and inquiry. But if the latter holds, then the complaints of these reactionaries justify some legitimate sympathy. After all, their tax dollars are spent funding abortion and other activities or concepts that they do not agree with, such as the theory of evolution. Their presence in government is more to counter the trend, as they see it, to use government funding that is opposed to their chosen moral concepts. Therefore, they are deliberately seeking federal funds to enhance what they understand to be activities or doctrines that would enhance the well-being of society.

Since the intentions of these individuals are unknown, it remains an open question as to whether the above alternatives, or others, are really true of them. From the reading of this book, it is fair to say that the author of this book is arguing, using mostly anecdotal evidence, that the first alternative holds. She gives many examples that seem to support this position, but she frequently is unable to refrain from the vituperation that is characteristic of political pamphlets and books of late. Contentious issues like religion and its relation to government frequently generate dialog that would be totally unacceptable in rigorous, scientific discussion. Unfortunately the author has chosen to depart from sound analysis at various places in the book.

The book though is interesting to read, and will provoke readers to investigate the claims further. It would take many weeks, even months, to verify the assertions made in the book, but she does give many references for the dedicated reader who desires to dig deeper. Again, an organized movement to morph America into an oppressive theocracy must be countered very aggressively. One can therefore view the book as a warning, as a book that projects a possible future that is extremely dangerous. The examples, events, and pronouncements from public figures that the author includes serve as siren calls, however loosely the correlation between these events may be.

But again, one can bring oneself to have some empathy with the Christian fundamentalists. With their worldview challenged by science, with the concept of the soul being superseded by results from neuroscience, with the age of the Earth being overwhelmingly at odds with their claims, they are struggling to keep their heads above the waters of knowledge. It is no surprise that they are acting as they do, with their zealous attempts to prove `intelligent design' and with their peculiar views of medical science, they are attempting to be scientific, forgetting that the methodologies of science do not permit the leaps of faith that they profess. You cannot go halfway with scientific research. Their attempts to do so are immediately exposed. The science of the twenty-first century will end whatever remnants of the Christian worldview are left as of now. The fundamentalist Christians no doubt see this, even though many do not want to admit it to themselves, and are making one desperate last stand.