Onward Christian Soldiers

by Clyde Wilcox

They have money, influence, power-and they turn out to vote. They are credited with delivering a significant part of the Republicans' stunning 1994 electoral success, foreshadowed their status as major players in the elections of 1996. "They" are groups like the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and the religious right. But are they the greatest threat to liberty since Hitler or the last defenders of religious freedom and family values in America? In this revised and updated second edition of Onward Christian Soldiers Clyde Wilcox tells us who they are, what their history has been in twentieth-century American politics, and how they might organize themselves for future political effectiveness. He tackles the sticky political dilemma of the proper role of religious groups in American politics and government while showing how the contemporary religious right does-and does not-fit into that context.

Genres: Religion

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Composed by a Christian liberal and a Christian conservative, this book attempts to give a balanced, factual account of the religious right in the United States. The tone is academic. The arguments are buttressed by polling. This, the fourth edition, takes their account into the beginning of the Obama administration.

What this books fails to consider is what I'd term the psychotic strata of many religions. By this I mean a more or less diminished capacity, or willingness, to accept real facts and to recognize that doing so is absurd. Kierkegaard, a man with many incredible beliefs, was not psychotic by this definition in that he appreciated the absurdity of his faith. A biblical inerrancist, however, is psychotic for a number of reasons. A foundational one is simply that there is no single 'bible' but rather a host of textual traditions and their interpretations.

It is one thing to be a Christian in the sense of being informed by Christian traditions, another to be a Christian in some absolutist ideological sense. A Christian might very well be rational and conservative politically and socially. Many of those I term psychotic would justify their politics and social practices by metaphysical references to supposed divine revelations. They might, further, characterize their opponents as being Satanically motivated. And, yes, many, if not most, of those Christian rightists discussed by the authors are, or pretend to be, psychotic in the sense described. As individuals they are pathetic. As a movement they are dangerous.