Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future / Edition 1

by Robin Meyers

Overview

"I join the ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus but whose actions are anything but Christian."
—Robin Meyers, from his "Speech Heard Round the World"

Millions of Americans are outraged at the Bush administration's domestic and foreign policies and even angrier that the nation's religious conservatives have touted these policies as representative of moral values. Why the Christian Right Is Wrong is a rousing manifesto that will ignite the collective conscience of all whose faith and values have been misrepresented by the Christian Right.

Praise for Why the Christian Right Is Wrong:

"In the pulpit, Robin Meyers is the new generation's Harry Emerson Fosdick, George Buttrick, and Martin Luther King. In these pages, you will find a stirring message for our times, from a man who believes that God's love is universal, that the great Jewish prophets are as relevant now as in ancient times, and that the Jesus who drove the money changers from the Temple may yet inspire us to embrace justice and compassion as the soul of democracy. This is not a book for narrow sectarian minds; read it, and you will want to change the world."
—Bill Moyers

"In this book, a powerful and authentic religious voice from America's heartland holds up a mirror to the Bush administration and its religious allies. The result is a vision of Orwellian proportions in which values are inverted and violence, hatred, and bigotry are blessed by one known as 'The Prince of Peace,' who called us to love our enemies. If you treasure this country and tremble over its present direction, this book is a must-read!"
—John Shelby Spong author, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love

"This is a timely warning and a clarion call to the church to recover the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to a great nation to resist the encroachment of the Christian Right and of Christian fascism. Many of us in other parts of the world are praying fervently that these calls will be heeded."
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470184639
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/04/2008
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.70(d)

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.

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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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In the pulpit, Robin Meyers is the new generation's Harry Emerson Fosdick, George Buttrick, and Martin Luther King.  In these pages, you will find a stirring message for our times, from a man who believes that God's love is universal, that the great Jewish prophets are as relevant now as in ancient times, and that the Jesus who drove the money changers from the Temple may yet inspire us to embrace justice and compassion as the soul of democracy. This is not a book for narrow sectarian minds; read it, and you will want to change the world."
—Bill Moyers

"In this book, a powerful and authentic religious voice from America's  heartland holds up a mirror to the Bush administration and its religious allies.  The result is a vision of Orwellian proportions in which values are inverted and violence, hatred, and bigotry are blessed by one known as 'The Prince of Peace,' who called us to love our enemies. If you treasure this country and tremble over its present direction, this book is a must-read!"
—John Shelby Spong, author, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love

"This is a timely warning and a clarion call to the church to recover the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to a great nation to resist the encroachment of the Christian Right and of Christian fascism. Many of us in other parts of the world are praying fervently that these calls will be heeded."
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Editorial Reviews

Ever since late 2004, a speech given by Robin Meyers has been proliferating widely through the Internet, giving this modest Oklahoma minister a mighty bully pulpit for his antiwar message. In Why the Christian Right Is Wrong, Meyers throws down the gauntlet, challenging the Christian Right and the "faith-based Bush administration" to reclaim lost biblical values.

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 that the time has come for "dignified, but tangible resistance," Meyers delivers an unambiguous, palpable blueprint. (May 26) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

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)

From the Publisher