On the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks, George W Bush gave a speech at New York's Ellis Island, gateway to the US for millions of immigrants. "The ideal of America is the hope of all mankind," he said. "That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it."
The language was derived from the Gospel of John, with "America" substituted for "God".
As Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal Christian magazine Sojourners, noted: "Bush seems to make the same mistake over and over again, confusing nation, church and God". But it's not a mistake; it's a policy. As Esther Kaplan's well researched book about Christian fundamentalism in Bush's White House demonstrates, it reflects the immense power acquired in recent years by the Christian right. This well-organised and handsomely funded lobby has succeeded in taking over much of the Republican Party and provided a vital electoral base for Bush's recent victory. Kaplan's exposé is welcome - and alarming.
Under pressure from the Christian right, the independence and scientific authority of public bodies like the Centers for Disease Control have been disastrously undermined. Health information on condoms has been censored. Mainstream scientists have been removed from government advisory panels in favour of Christian ideologues. Even the National Park Service has been suborned to promote a creationist view of the geological history of the Grand Canyon.
Bush's "faith-based initiative" is, in essence, a drive to hand over social service provision to Christian evangelical outfits. It is also, Kaplan notes, a "massive privatisation scheme" - a means to cut taxes for the wealthy while giving government funds to supporters like tele-evangelist Pat Robertson.
Kaplan investigates the grassroots providers of the "abstinence-only" sex education, personally endorsed by Bush and well funded by government. Not only have they failed to reduce teen pregnancies and STDs; their central aim is not serving, but proselytising. Again and again, she encounters individuals and groups who combine self-righteousness with almost complete indifference to the impact of their favoured policies on human lives.
Bush has sent delegations full of Christian-right luminaries to UN negotiations on Aids, children's health, population policy and women's rights. At one conference, their insistence on vetoing any references to reproductive rights, and opposition to a ban on executing minors, placed them in a minority of one. Even Iran and Sudan found the US evangelicals too extreme.
Residents of the 51st state should be disturbed by this book. Yet, as Kaplan notes, religion is one of the ties binding Prime Minister to President. "Presidential aids report Bush and Blair have discussed scripture and prayed together." That's something for us all to be worried about.
With God On Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House
by Esther Kaplan
The New Press. 2004
Mike Marqusee
The Independent Online
Dec28.2004
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/story.jsp?story=596453
Synopsis
"We're a Christian nation...and the enemy is a guy named Satan." - General William Boykin, Undersecretary of Defense
For four years, Americans have lived under an administration that holds twice-weekly bible classes in the White House and daily prayer meetings at the Department of Justice. The Christian right is no stranger to Washington's corridors of power. But an unholy combination of a born-again president, a burgeoning family-values movement, and the canny political strategies of Karl Rove has delivered to today's Christian fundamentalists an unprecedented influence over American government.
As Esther Kaplan shows in this fast-paced investigation, no condom fact sheet or obscure drug advisory panel is too small to escape the roving eyes of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, or the many other political advisory arms of the evengelical right. While organizations that promote family planning and sex education are the targets of relentless audits, church groups receive hundreds of millions in federal dollars for programs promoting sexual abstinence, faith-based social services and marriage training, especially for the poor. Religious considerations even shape the government's foreign aid policies and its war on terror. And while much of the Christian right's influence could be quickly reversed with a change in administration, Bush's crusading makeover of the federal courts may undermine women's and gay rights - and bolster a corporate agenda - for decades to come.
*The ark and the park: Under pressure from Christian fundamentalists, the National Park Service has approved the display and sale of a creationist book that claims the Grand Canyon is only a few thousand years old, created by the flood that launched Noah's ark.
*Jews or gays need not apply: To sell his faith-based initiative to Christian conservatives, President Bush made discrimination legal for religious groups receiving federal funds. They can now legally refuse to hire Jews, gays, unmarried mothers or anyone who fails to meet their moral code.
*In league with the devil: The administration has collaborated with states it considers sponsors of terror, such as Libya and Iran, to forward an anti-abortion agenda at the UN. Meanwhile, doctors sent to restore social services in Iraq were vetted to make sure they were anti-abortion.
*Christian pork: Under President Bush, millions of dollars of faith-based and abstinence-only grants have gone straight into the pockets of religious conservatives, including major grants to right-wing evangelical outfits such as the Christian Coalition and Prison Fellowship Ministries. Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu organizations have yet to receive a single cent of faith-based funding.
*Watch your language: HIV prevention researchers across the country have been told by top science officials to purge words such as "gay," "anal sex," and "needle exchange" from any communications - or risk losing funds.
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