Author: Barbara Victor
Publisher: Robinson Publishing
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

1 reviews
Sales Rank: 484528

Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9

ISBN: 1841199559
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9781841199559
ASIN: 1841199559

Publication Date: May 12, 2005
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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

These frighteningly sincere folk November 10, 2005
Roger from Wrexham (Wrexham UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who puzzles over just why religion plays such a prominent role in the US and how it has achieved this position.
Barbara Victor arrests you attention and begins to answer these questions just in the Introduction pointing out that 60% of the USA's population believes religion plays an important part in their lives; 50% are of Christian protestant faith; some 80 millions of these are evangelical and one-half believe literal battle of Armageddon will take place between Jesus and Satan. From here she charts a paradox in American history; the US Constitution guarantees separation of Church & States, yet throughout its many changes the American people adhere to a deep and underlying sincere, albeit sometimes frighteningly fundamental brand of Christianity. Thus by the time the reader is a third of the way into the book they are aware of how significant religion is to the average American. So it will come as no surprise when the writer begins to document how this cultural factor has shaped the American political landscape, or the depths and sincerity of the beliefs of those evangelicals who see it as their duty to take part in such a shaping. Throughout the book she cites several incidences as to how the evangelical block affect the US political domestic agenda such as on abortion, gay rights and school prayer.
Barbara Victor's skill in this aspect is in her accounts of the many evangelicals she interviewed, these come across as pleasant, ordinary, but disturbingly sincere and deep in their beliefs and the part, large or small they had played in making religion a factor that no American political operator dare ignore.
As an experienced writer on The Middle East it is here Victor places the bulk of the book dwelling on the paradoxical relationship between Evangelical USA and Jewish Israel. The former support the latter without question both politically and financially, for they see this as doing God's work as fulfilling the prophecies of The Book of Revelations, darkly they also view Islam as an evil force enslaving its adherents. Victor shows all too clearly how this impacts detrimentally upon Middle East Peace Negotiations.
Then towards the end of the book does she deliver her condemnation of the Christian right with a powerful blow. She cites that firstly the evangelicals believe they have a personal relationship with God; thus all secular laws must be subservient to biblical texts, which are taken literary; Victor skilfully uses the word 'anarchy' at this stage and to quote 'No rules count, all laws can be broken, in order for God's wishes to be fulfilled. Anything goes as long as it is based on faith and religion. The Social Contract can be broken with impunity'. Thus she views them as an effective threat to the US constitution and a disrupting factor in US foreign relations.
Barbara Victor is to be congratulated for, as portraying these folk without sneer or hysterical hyperbole the indictment of their misdirection becomes all the more disturbing.