Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy - Softcover

Clarkson, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1567510884 ISBN 13: 9781567510881

Publisher: Common Courage Press, 1997

What is behind the violence against abortion clinics, attacks on gays and lesbians and the growing power of the religious right?

Frederick Clarkson makes it clear that beyond the bombers and assassins who sometimes make news, is a growing, if not well understood, movement that encompasses Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon and the Promise Keepers--the lead agency of the so-called Christian men's movement.

Drawing on years of rigorous research, Clarkson exposes the wild card of the "theology of vigilantism" which urges the enforcement of "God's law" and argues for fundamentalist revolution against constitutional democracy. Contrary to popular belief, these figures are usually neither nuts nor alone.

ETERNAL HOSTILITY concludes with a challenge to leading neoconservative academics who attempt to blame much of the current culture wars on the legalization of abortion while ignoring the theocratic intentions of leading "conservatives."

About the Author:

Frederick Clarkson is a widely published journalist, author and lecturer who specializes in the Radical Right.

Review:

Frederick Clarkson's Eternal Hostility provides a chilling road map to a growing movement whose roots go back to the founding days of the country. Clarkson asks the reader to consider what it would be like if having an abortion was punishable by death, if gays and lesbians were thrown into jail, or if our constitutional rights were replaced by biblical law. In a stunning analysis, Clarkson debunks the "objective" bestseller Culture Wars to reveal a tract written by a rightwing church elder. =20 Chastising liberals and the left for failing to recognize the depth of the threat to liberty, Clarkson argues that we must develop a coherent response to a well-organized effort aimed at overthrowing democracy. When he exposes the aims and strategies of such diverse Christian zealots as the "Promise Keepers" and the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, remember that it was Clarkson who first to exposed the Christian Coalition's plans to take over the Republican Party, plans which have largely succeeded in several states and was actually seen as it was acted out on television in the 1996 Texas Republic Convention. Clarkson was also the first to expose how elements of the Christian Right were encouraging the formation of citizen "militias" almost five years before the Oklahoma City bombing propelled the militia movement into general public awareness. Eternal Hostility is a warning bell in the night and is essential reading for any secular humanist or freethinker needing to be aroused from a complacency that "it can't happen here" -- because it has, it is, and it may well succeed if enough good men do nothing to stop it. -- Midwest Book Review

• Publisher: Common Courage Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1567510884
• ISBN 13: 9781567510881
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 286