With God on their side : how Christian fundamentalists trampled science, policy, and democracy in George W. Bush's White House / Esther Kaplan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaplan, Esther.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946-.

Church and state--United States.

Church and state.

Religion.

United States.

Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946---Religion.

Bush, George W.

Religion and state--United States.

Religion and state.

Religion and politics--United States.

Religion and politics.

United States--Religion.

Physical Description:

xii, 322 pages ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New Press : Distributed by Norton, 2004.

Summary:

For Four Years, Americans Have Lived Under an Administration that holds twice-weekly Bible classes in the White House and regular strategy sessions with leaders of the Christian right. Christian fundamentalists have seldom been strangers to Washington's corridors of power. But in the 2000 election they made up a full 40 percent of George W. Bush's electorate-over 50 percent if Catholic conservatives are included. This is not just a faction of the new Republican Party-it is its base. As Esther Kaplan shows in this richly detailed investigation, no condom fact sheet or obscure scientific advisory panel is too minor to escape the watchful eyes of Bush's allies in Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, or the many other political advocacy arms of the evangelical right. And their pressure has produced results.

While organizations that provide abortion or help to prevent HIV see their funds cut, church groups receive millions in federal dollars to promote sexual abstinence and marriage (provided, of course, it is heterosexual). Bush has appointed a Christian right dream team to the federal courts, dedicated to tearing down what one such judge calls "the so-called separation of church and state." Religious zeal even shapes Bush's foreign policy, as Christian belief in the end times spurs the administration's support for hard-line policies in Israel. George W. Bush has become America's most extreme example of a president, as Ron Reagan Jr. has put it, "wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage." The question is what lasting harm will result from his unholy alliance with the Christian right.

Contents:

1 Yes, Virginia, It is a Holy War: Faith-based foreign policy from Israel to iraq 8

2 Christian Nation: From Bush's faith-based initiative to creationism in our public parks, the administration edges toward theocracy 34

3 Most Favored Constituency: How the Christian right came to dominate the Republican Party and the administration of George W. Bush 68

4 Weird Science: Faith healers, fake data, censorship, and other hallmarks of Christian science in the Bush administration 91

5 Good-Bye Roe: How to gut abortion rights in four easy steps 129

6 Whose Gay Agenda? A president who was soft on gays finds religion and joins the antimarriage crusade 148

7 AIDS, Born Again: AIDS was never a Republican issue, but Bush gave it a Christian makeover 167

8 The Purity Brigades: The Bush administration's one-size-fits-all abstinence agenda saves souls, not lives 194

9 The Global Crusade: Taking cues from the Vatican, Bush exports "family values" abroad 219

10 Stacking the Courts: Building permanent conservative rule on the federal bench 244.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [279]-314) and index.

ISBN:

1565849205

OCLC:

55473870