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

Table of Contents:
Preface vii Introduction: The 9/11 Effect xi Part One: The Speech Heard Round the World 1 Part Two: The Sin of Hypocrisy: Line by Line 11 1. Christians Don’t Start Wars, They Try to Stop Them 13 2. Missing in Action: The Sermon on the Mount 29 3. Rich Chicken Hawks for Jesus 45 4. Terminal False Dichotomies 63 5. The National Debt, Family Values, and Why They Hate Us 73 6. Homosexuals and the Politics of Death 87 7. “Pro-Life” Should Include Mother Nature 105 8. We Have Met the Enemy 117 9. Cleansing the Temple of U.S. Health Care 131 10. Christian Fascism and the War on Reason 141 Part Three: A Call to Nonvolent Resistance: How to Save the Country and the Church 157 Notes 189 The Author 203

About the Author :
Robin Meyers is a United Church of Christ minister and a nationally known preacher and peace activist. A syndicated columnist and award-winning commentator for NPR, Meyers has appeared on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Dateline NBC, and ABC World News Tonight and was featured in the HBO documentary "The Execution of Wanda Jean," a disturbing look at the immorality of the death penalty and Meyer's efforts to save the life of the first woman to be executed in the state of Oklahoma. Meyers also writes for The Christian Century and is a professor of rhetoric at Oklahoma City University.

Review :
Having "spent [his] whole life trying to persuade people that 'liberal' is not a dirty word, and that Christianity is a way of life, not a set of creeds and doctrine demanding total agreement," Meyers, a United Church of Christ minister and Oklahoma City University professor of rhetoric, became an Internet celebrity when his November 2004 antiwar remarks bounced from continent to continent. In response, Meyers expanded 10 of his most salient points into a self-titled manifesto which not only highlights the dichotomy between the right's talk of Christian values and its walk—which he believes is characterized by shameful, immoral behavior—but provides a call to action. Patiently, he gives a series of impassioned reminders of the essence of what Jesus taught, believed and lived, perhaps best summarized by the stinging assertion that "most of all, the Christian Right seems to have forgotten that Jesus saved his white-hot anger for the sin of religious hypocrisy." Meyers maintains that prolife views, for example, should extend beyond the womb to death row, health care and the environment. For readers who are "indignant over the direction of this country" and feel thatthe time has come for "dignified, but tangible resistance," Meyers delivers an unambiguous, palpable blueprint. (May 26) (Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2006)