What are the dangers of religion mixing with politics in America?
What are the dangers of religion mixing with politics in America? "The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken: The New Politics of Religion in the United States" is a collection of thoughts on the subject, running from the 2004 presidential race to 2008. The ideas found within offer much knowledge, ideas, and points out many ideas that one may have not have thought of before on the subject. An ideal anthology of essays to expand one's mind, "The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken" is a must for anyone who would truly understand religion's place in politics.
Terribly crass title but a great book
Do not be fooled by the crassness of the title: "The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken" by Jeffrey Robbins and Neal Magee (editors) consists of a serious collection of scholarly essays on the influence of religion on U.S. politics. The book's sixteen contributors are academics who bring impressive research and analytical skills to their thoughtful work. By skillfully deconstructing various historical and cultural aspects of religious practices in the U.S., the reader gains insight and understanding on how Christian fundamentalism has gained leverage in our nation's contemporary political discourse.
John Caputo writes in the Introduction that religion and politics nicely complement each other because they each affirm the impossible, or that which we hope to someday attain and experience. However, a number of contributors explain that competing visions of what the Christian ethic might produce on earth have been claimed by prophetics and fundamentalists alike. On the one hand, John Robbins discusses how Prophetic Christians such as George Whitefield spread a populist message of egalitarianism during the First Great Awakening and how the movement later lent significant support to women's suffrage and the Civil Rights movement. On the other hand, Clayton Crockett provocatively contends that the peculiarly nationalistic strain of Christian fundamentalism that has found favor in the Bush White House can be traced back to a desire to heal the long-suffering Southern white male who was wounded by defeat in the Civil War and humiliation by federal support for women and minorities.
Several authors connect consumerism with Christianity to demonstrate its appeal and danger to democractic practices. Adam Miller suggests that believers must probe beyond marketing messages to distinguish between meaningful spiritual practices and those that mask hidden agendas of corporate exploitation and dominance. Similarly, Christopher Haley and Creston Davis discuss how evangelicalism distracts from the task of directly engaging in class struggle with a capitalist system that sustains itself through the peddling of mass-produced consumer goods and services.
Many of the writers find inspiration from philosophy. Melissa Conroy finds that Jacques Lacan's work on identity is useful in revealing how nations use religious rhetoric to exalt their own political positions and assign evil to others. J. Heath Atchley cites Henry David Thoreau to discuss how religious transcendence can blind us to a slavish devotion to consumerism. Andrew Saldino recalls Socrates warning against social domination by the moneymakers, thereby exposing how religious rhetoric is frequently used by the political class to hide an agenda that is controlled by financial interests.
The intriguing Postface by Slavoj Zizek suggests that the Right has succeeded in channeling working class resentment towards a politics of cultural struggle. The author contends that the Left's embrace of tolerance may be admirable but it has thus far mitigated against the formation of the class consciousness needed to challenge capitalism.
The above are merely a sample of the many thought-provoking essays contained in this excellent book. I highly recommend it to all.
