Download or read book Close Encounters With the Religious Right written by Robert Boston and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-04-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having spent the last 12 years doggedly tracking the religious right, Boston now offers revealing insights about its message and intentions, including its campaign to do away with separation of church and state, privacy rights, and religious liberty. Photos.
Download or read book Close Encounters of the Divine Kind written by Che Ahn and published by Charisma Media. This book was released on 2007 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using analogies from popular science-fiction movies, Close Encounters of the Divine Kind shows you a world that will satisfy these longings. A world that is more real than this physical world. A world with a real extraterrestrial who is waiting to be contacted. Close Encounters of the Divine Kind is not about religion. It is about having a real encounter that will transform your life. So if you are searching for truth and meaning, if you want purpose in your life, read on, and may you too have an encounter with God, the ultimate extraterrestrial. Welcome to the real world. Book jacket.
Download or read book Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State written by Robert Boston and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning journalist Robert Boston lambastes the zealots of the Religious Right for spreading misinformation about the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. Boston reveals how a band of ultraconservative religious groups with a political agenda - led primarily by televangelist Pat Robertson - is conducting a systematic war aginst the separation of church and state. The tactics of these groups are designed to exploit unfounded fears and turn the American people against the separationist principle. They will not rest, Boston says, until the United States has become a theocracy. To expose the Religious Right's blatant distortions of U.S. history and correct its skewed analysis of legal rulings, Boston objectively reviews the evolution of church/state relations in the United States and looks at how the separation principle has been applied by the courts. He also examines efforts by sectarian groups to win government support for their schools, the school prayer issue, the history of the free exercise of religion, and the controversial role of religion in the public square. Published in cooperation with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
Download or read book Why Smart People Do Stupid Things written by Gene F. Ostrom and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2001-06-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things addresses a question that’s frequently on our minds. When Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was exposed many people were utterly astounded. How could he? Most of us were asking. Answers aren’t easy to come by because we have spent considerable time building on our strengths to the neglect of our dark side. We aren’t only puzzled when we see friends, co-workers, or public leaders engage in stupid, unseemly, unexplainable acts, we are personally threatened by it. If them, why not still others or perhaps ourselves. This book looks at numerous examples of apparently unexplainable stupidities with particular focus upon Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Every mindless act doesn’t turn out wrong. There are occasions when the outcome greatly benefits us. On the other hand, there are many times when the result goes against us to our disadvantage if not to the point of tragedy. Why? This book addresses the complex issues involved in making rational decisions, including excusable error. Analyses are offered in a readily understandable style. Potential solutions are described. The topic is of vital interest to us individually as well as to the nation.
Download or read book The Christian Right in American Politics written by John C. Green and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-06 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the first rumblings of the Moral Majority over twenty years ago, the Christian Right has been marshalling its forces and maneuvering its troops in an effort to re-shape the landscape of American politics. It has fascinated social scientists and journalists as the first right-wing social movement in postwar America to achieve significant political and popular support, and it has repeatedly defied those who would step up to write its obituary. In 2000, while many touted the demise of the Christian Coalition, the broader undercurrents of the movement were instrumental in helping George W. Bush win the GOP nomination and the White House. Bush repaid that swell of support by choosing Senator John Ashcroft, once the movement's favored presidential candidate, as attorney general. The Christian Right in American Politics, under the direction of three of the nation's leading scholars in the field of religion and politics, recognizing the movement as a force still to be reckoned with, undertakes the important task of making an historical analysis of the Christian Right in state politics during its heyday, 1980 to the millennium. Its twelve chapters, written by outstanding scholars, review the impact and influence of the Christian Right in those states where it has had its most significant presence: South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Maine, and Oregon and Washington. Since 1980, scholars have learned a good deal about the social characteristics, religious doctrine, and political beliefs of activists in and supporters of the Christian Right in these states, and each contribution is based on rigorous, dispassionate scholarship. The writers explore the gains and losses of the movement as it attempts to re-shape political landscapes. More precisely, they provide in-depth descriptions of the resources, organizations, and the group ecologies in which the Christian Right operates-the distinct elements that drove the movement forward. As the editors state, "the Christian Right has been engaged in a long and torturous 'march toward the millennium,' from outsider status into the thick of American politics." Those formative years, 1980-2000, are essential for any understanding of this uniquely American social movement. This rigorous analysis over many states and many elections provides the clearest picture yet of the goals, tactics, and hopes of the Christian Right in America.
Download or read book Liberty Means Freedom for All written by Steven H. Propp and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-11 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Anderson has just graduated from CSU Stentoria, with his degree in Political Science. It's an election year, and as a young "progressive" in California who has been raised by equally progressive parents, he is very much concerned with the political issues currently being discussed in the mass media. A chance encounter with a fellow graduate named Kelly Kelso, however, shakes up his sett led view of the world. He is challenged to examine the rising number of alternatives to the two-party system presented by "third party" movements such as the Libertarian Party and the Green Party, and is forced to acknowledge that there is far more to politics than simply Democrat versus Republican, and liberal versus conservative. Thomas delves energetically into not only the growing Libertarian movement, but the free market perspective of the Austrian School of economics, as well as the rigid yet compelling view of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. His explorations grow wider, now encompassing the Tea Party movement and the Christi an Right; tax resisters and gun rights advocates; survivalists and militia members; anarchists, communists, and Democratic Socialists; as well as the Occupy Wall Street movement. He debates the radical environmental views of animal welfare and animal rights advocates, and challenges opponents of corporate globalism as well as deniers of global warming, as he struggles to reformulate and articulate his own developing beliefs, while coping with a sea of conflicting ideas and opposition. But this abstract political theory is brought into sharp encounter with concrete political reality, when Thomas hears a news report of an armed conflict with authorities taking place just outside of town, involving someone with whom he has become emotionally involved...
Download or read book Suing for America s Soul written by R. Jonathan Moore and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2007-06-25 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When John W. Whitehead founded The Rutherford Institute as a Christian legal advocacy group in 1982, he was interested primarily in the First Amendment's religion clause, serving clients only when religious freedom was at stake. By the mid-1990s, however, religious rights were but one subset of all the freedoms that he saw threatened by an invasive government. In Suing for America's Soul R. Jonathan Moore examines the foundation and subsequent practices of The Rutherford Institute, helping to explain the rise of conservative Christian legal advocacy groups in recent decades. Moore exposes the effects -- good and bad -- that such legal activism has had on the evangelical Protestant community. Thought-provoking and astute, Suing for America's Soul opens a revealing window onto evangelical Protestantism at large in late-twentieth-century America.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Church and State in the United States written by Derek H. Davis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-18 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study of church and state in the United States is incredibly complex. Scholars working in this area have backgrounds in law, religious studies, history, theology, and politics, among other fields. Historically, they have focused on particular angles or dimensions of the church-state relationship, because the field is so vast. The results have mostly been monographs that focus only on narrow cross-sections of the field, and the few works that do aim to give larger perspectives are reference works of factual compendia, which offer little or no analysis. The Oxford Handbook of Church and State in the United States fills this gap, presenting an extensive, multidimensional overview of the field. Twenty-one essays offer a scholarly look at the intricacies and past and current debates that frame the American system of church and state, within five main areas: history, law, theology/philosophy, politics, and sociology. These essays provide factual accounts, but also address issues, problems, debates, controversies, and, where appropriate, suggest resolutions. They also offer analysis of the range of interpretations of the subject offered by various American scholars. This Handbook is an invaluable resource for the study of church-state relations in the United States.
Download or read book The Hammer of God written by Stephen Andrew Missick and published by Xulon Press. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ celebrated the Festival of Hanukkah (John 10:22). Hanukkah celebrates the heroic exploits of Judas Maccabeus and his battle for religious freedom. These events occurred during the four-hundred silent years between the Old and New Testaments. The Seleucid Greeks that ruled over the Jewish people made observing Judaism a capital offense and ordered all copies of the Bible to be collected and burned. In the year 167 Before Christ, Judas Maccabaeus led the Jewish people into battle to preserve the Holy Bible and to establish religious liberty. Judas was called Maccabeus which means "the Hammer" in Aramaic. Centuries later, in the year 732 A.D, Charles Martel, known as "Charles the Hammer," fought to defend the religious liberties of the Christians and Jews in Europe when an army of Islamic terrorists threatened to eradicate Christianity in France. In The Hammer of God learn about the history of the battle for religious freedom, a battle that continues today. Reverend Stephen Andrew Missick is the author The Words of Jesus in the Original Aramaic: Discovering the Semitic Roots of Christianity and Christ the Man. He is an ordained minister of the gospel. He graduated from Sam Houston State University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Rev. Missick has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and has lived among the Coptic Christians in Egypt and Aramaic Christians in Syria. He served as a soldier in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004 and as a chaplain in the Army National Guard in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010. While serving as a soldier in Iraq he learned Aramaic from native Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christians. Rev. Missick is the writer and illustrator of the comic book series The Hammer of God which dramatizes the story of Judah Maccabeus and Charles Martel.
Download or read book Conservative Christians and Political Participation written by Glenn H. Utter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-11-23 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely exploration of the political history, growth, and impact of one of the most powerful religious groups in the United States. Conservative Christians and Political Participation examines the involvement and influence of the growing number of Conservative Christians in America. A historical overview of the interaction of religion and politics from colonial times to today sets the stage for a deeper exploration into the demographics of this group, the concerns they share, and the creative methods they employ to achieve their goals through protests, political activity, leadership, and group organization. Case studies tackle highly emotional issues like same-sex marriage, decency in the mass media, school prayer, euthanasia, and American foreign policy toward Israel. The book also covers leaders such as Pat Buchanan and Ralph Reed, and discusses how they have been effective in their lobbying efforts through organizations like the Christian Action Network and the American Family Association.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics written by Corwin E. Smidt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past three decades, the study of religion and politics has gone from being ignored by the scholarly 7ommunity to being a major focus of research. Yet, because this important research is not easily accessible to nonspecialists, much of the analysis of religion's role in the political arena that we read in the media is greatly oversimplified. This Handbook seeks to bridge that gap by examining the considerable research that has been conducted to this point and assessing what has been learned, what remains unsettled due to conflicting research findings, and what important questions remain largely unaddressed by current research endeavors. The Handbook is unique to the field of religion and American politics and should be of wide interest to scholars, students, journalists, and others interested in the American political scene.
Download or read book Religion and Democracy in the United States written by Alan Wolfe and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-30 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States remains a deeply religious country and religion plays an inextricably critical role in American politics. Controversy over issues such as abortion is fueled by opposition in the Catholic Church and among conservative Protestants, candidates for the presidency are questioned about their religious beliefs, and the separation of church and state remains hotly contested. While the examination of religion's influence in politics has long been neglected, in the last decade the subject has finally garnered the attention it deserves. In Religion and Democracy in the United States, prominent scholars consider the ways Americans understand the relationship between their religious beliefs and the political arena. This collection, a work of the Task Force on Religion and American Democracy of the American Political Science Association, thoughtfully explores the effects of religion on democracy and contemporary partisan politics. Topics include how religious diversity affects American democracy, how religion is implicated in America's partisan battles, and how religion affects ideas about race, ethnicity, and gender. Surveying what we currently know about religion and American politics, the essays introduce and delve into the range of current issues for both specialists and nonspecialists. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Allison Calhoun-Brown, Rosa DeLauro, Bette Novit Evans, James Gibson, John Green, Frederick Harris, Amaney Jamal, Geoffrey Layman, David Leal, David Leege, Nancy Rosenblum, Kenneth Wald, and Clyde Wilcox.
Download or read book How the Republicans Stole Religion written by Bill Press and published by Image. This book was released on 2010-02-17 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, Press argues, conservatives have defined religion so narrowly that Democrats and liberals have been pushed outside the fold. According to their narrow gospel, God put George W. Bush in the White House to deal with gays, guns, and abortion—and those who don’t agree are on the sure road to hell. How the Republicans Stole Religion is Press’s fervent call for the left to reclaim religion and return it to its basic principles of social justice, charity, and tolerance.
Download or read book Jack Nichols Gay Pioneer written by J. Louis Campbell III and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the founders of the gay and lesbian liberation movement, Jack Nichols was a warrior for gay equality. Recounting his life and work, Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: “Have You Heard My Message?” skillfully weaves the story of a man, a movement, and a moment that shaped gay and lesbian history. This powerful biography captures the wisdom, passion, and spirit of a prolific activist and inspirational human being who refused to be silent in a society that considered homosexuality to be sinful and criminal. As a journalist, activist, and editor of the first gay weekly newspaper in the United States, Jack Nichols left a legacy of gay rights, gay pride, and tremendous courage. Covering episodes before and after Stonewall, during the AIDS epidemic, and beyond, Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer charts the life of this pivotal figure from his childhood in the suburbs of Washington, DC, to his final impassioned days in a Florida cancer treatment center in 2005. This book also explores Nichols’ family history and its unique influence on his activist tendencies, as well as his revolutionary relationship with Lige Clark and their status as “the most famous homosexuals in America.” Thoughtful and moving, Jack Nichols: Gay Pioneer also includes the ideas Nichols used to bring the movement to critical mass, and the sources that were influential to his work. Some of the topics detailed in this book are the early influence of Burns and Whitman on the homosexual movement, the integration of androgyny and anarchism into his activist philosophy, his attack on the psychiatric establishment’s theory of homosexuality as a “sickness”, and his work and vision in men’s liberation. Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: “Have You Heard My Message?” offers a compelling look at the man and the movement, as well as a wealth of hard-to-find summaries on underground gay journalism, detailed references, personal photographs, and a complete bibliography of Nichols’s major writings. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the history and future of LGBT movements, as well as students, educators, and researchers seeking a comprehensive and thorough treatment of this revolutionary figure.
Download or read book Onward Christian Soldiers written by Deal W. Hudson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-03-11 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like a mighty army moves the church of God; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. We are not divided, all one body we. One in hope and doctrine, one in charity. -- From the nineteenth-century hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" What keeps America a country of religious practice and traditional values? How has the U.S. avoided suc-cumbing to total secularism? The answer to these provocative questions is found in the religious commun-ities of America today: In the past thirty years, the religiously active voter has migrated to the Republican Party, and the story behind this shift, evidenced in the emergence of Evangelical dominance over mainstream Protestantism and the defeat of liberal Catholicism, is at the heart of this fascinating cultural history. In Onward, Christian Soldiers, the Washington insider who was at the vanguard of the sea change in religious and political history that propelled George W. Bush into the White House offers an intimate perspective on those remarkable years -- and their influence over the ones to come. Deal W. Hudson analyzes how, steadily over-coming age-old misjudgments and misunderstandings that separated them, conservative Catholics and Evangelical Christians drew together because of what they viewed as profound assaults on shared core beliefs. They became allies to battle the forces of secularization, relativism, and atheism. And together they forged a grassroots movement across America that astonished political activists and surprised commentators as well as members of traditional religious organizations. How, exactly, was this coalition achieved and who were its movers and shakers? What enabled them to deepen, enrich, and activate the resurgence of traditional values in society to make America radically different from the secularized Europe that was so widely believed to be on the verge of becoming the model for the United States? Deal W. Hudson details this phenomenon by examining the leading figures and institutions on both sides of the debate, exposing the dramatic encounters between those espousing fundamental Judeo-Christian beliefs and those heralding the "death of God" and the new age of secular humanism. Dealing with today's hot-button issues, Onward, Christian Soldiers provides an unprecedented look at the confrontation of the religious right with secularists in America, a confrontation that is not only timely but also timeless in its impact.
Download or read book Pat Robertson written by David John Marley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A portrait of the 700 Club host and co-founder of the Christian Coalition considers his role as a reviled figure in the secular world and a formidable role model among Christian fundamentalists, in a profile that lauds his achievements while questioning some of his decisions.
Download or read book How the Republicans Stole Christmas written by Bill Press and published by Image. This book was released on 2005-10-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of an election seen by many as a triumphant victory for “moral values,” political commentator and one-time seminarian Bill Press launches a counteroffensive against the so-called religious right. For decades, Press argues, conservative preachers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson—joined by most Catholic bishops—have defined religion so narrowly that Democrats and liberals have been pushed outside the fold. According to their narrow gospel, God put George Bush in the White House to deal with gays, guns, and abortion—and those who don’t agree are on the sure road to hell. Bill Press says it’s time to take religion back: “Who gave this gang the inside track on religion, anyway? The way I read the Gospels, Jesus was as liberal as Paul Wellstone. He sure as hell wouldn’t have been a registered Republican. One other thing’s for sure: if Jesus ever came back to earth, there’s one gang he wouldn’t hang out with; and that’s this phony bunch of pious, puffed-up preachers who wear religion on their sleeves.” How the Republicans Stole Christmas is also Press’s fervent call to Democrats and liberals to reclaim religion and return it to its basic principles of social justice, charity, and tolerance. Press argues that the Right didn’t just steal religion, the Left let them have it, offering no resistance as conservatives dictated what’s right and what’s wrong. But on today’s social issues, according to Press, religious conservatives have gotten it all wrong. They have turned Jesus from a loving Messiah who championed the poor and dispossessed into a cold-blooded advocate for the rich and powerful. Press does not confine his criticisms to so-called Christian leaders; he uncovers the same wrong-headed tendencies in other faiths and among nonbelievers, who even today cling to the Old Testament as an appropriate code of behavior.
