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Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right
HarperSanFrancisco
February 2006
416 pages ISBN: 0060842474 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Religion
The unholy alliance of the Political Right and the
Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It
also threatens to generate a popular aversion to God and
religion by identifying religious values with a pro-war,
pro-business, pro-rich, anti-science, and anti-environmental
stance. Over the past few decades, the Republicans have achieved
political dominance by forging a union with the Religious
Right. This marriage has provided a sanctimonious veneer for
policies that have helped the rich get richer while ignoring
the needs of the middle class and the poor, dismantling
environmental and civil liberties protections, and seeking
global domination. The Right champions the materialism and
ruthless selfishness promoted by unrestrained capitalism and
then laments the moral crises of family instability and
loneliness experienced by people who bring these commercial
values into their homes and personal lives. In response, the
Religious Right offers insular communities for the faithful
and a culture that blames liberals, activist judges,
homosexuals, independent women, and all secular people for
the moral and spiritual emptiness so many Americans experience. Yet, however distorted both the Right's analysis and its
solutions to America's spiritual crisis may be, it wins
allegiance by addressing the human hunger for a life with
some higher purpose. The Left, by contrast, remains largely
tone-deaf to the spiritual needs of the American people. It
is the yearning for meaning in life, not just the desire for
money or power, that lies at the core of American politics. Addressing the central mystery of contemporary politics --
why so many Americans vote against their own economic
interests -- The Left Hand of God provides an invaluable,
timely, and blunt critique of the current state of faith in
government. Lerner challenges the Left to give up its deeply
held fear of religion and to distinguish between a
domination-oriented, Right-Hand-of-God tradition and a more
compassionate and hope-oriented Left-Hand-of-God worldview.
Further, Lerner describes the ways that Democrats have
misunderstood and alienated significant parts of their
potential constituency. To succeed again, Lerner argues, the
Democratic Party must rethink its relationship to God,
champion a progressive spiritual vision, reject the old
bottom line that promotes the globalization of selfishness,
and deal head-on with the very real spiritual crisis that
many Americans experience every day. Lerner presents a vision that incorporates and then goes far
beyond contemporary liberal and progressive politics. He
argues for a new bottom line in our economy, schools, and
government. This is a fundamentally fresh approach, one that
takes spiritual needs seriously in our economic and
political lives. Presenting an eight-point progressive
spiritual covenant with America, Lerner provides a blueprint
for how the Democratic Party can effectively challenge the
Right and position itself to win the White House and
Congress. By appealing to religious, secular, and spiritual
but not necessarily religious people, The Left Hand of God
blazes a trail that could change our world and reclaim
America from the Religious Right.
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