Prayers in the Precincts: The Christian Right in the 1998 Election.(Review): An article from: Journal of Church and State
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Citation Details
Title: Prayers in the Precincts: The Christian Right in the 1998 Election.(Review)
Author: Richard B. Riley
Publication: Journal of Church and State (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State
Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Page: 163
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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I find it hard to believe that this woman received a doctorate for her 'research'. The problem with this book is that her thinly veiled agenda, getting rid of 'those people' (you know, the crazy ones who don't believe in evolution and love Jesus)permeates the "research" at every turn.
She stops short of providing actual solutions for getting rid of 'those people' but it's clear that she has a bias towards liberals in Fairfax County who would hand out condoms to fifth graders, and against Christians of all stripes.
If she had written a similar book called "School Board Battles: The Jews in Local Politics" or "School Board Battles: Blacks in Local Politics" in which she (a.) provided a lens for identifying 'those people' (b.) provided a discussion of how 'those people' were messing up education policy in various school districts in the US and (c.) provided hints on making sure 'those people' don't become too powerful --well, somehow I don't think American University would be bending over backwards to award her a diploma.
Glad to hear the other liberal leftist reviewers awarded it five stars. They sound like objective scientists and will surely make great academics someday. In the future, it would be handy if they provided their university affiliation so I can make sure I don't send my children there.
Customer Review: Educate yourself about the religious right with this book
Washington College Assistant Professor Melissa M. Deckman delivers readers a fresh new portrait of the Christian right which, although still critical of their ultimate end goals, wants to understand how they were able to achieve their successes or not.
Differing from the organizational research reports and partisan titles which already flood the market, Deckman's book has readers instead consider why the religious right enjoys so much electoral success even if a majority of American voters do not formally appear to support their ideas.
She then wants us to consider how waging a campaign/counter campaign against these candidates and public officials is literally impossible when we actually do not know about the people who we want to run against.
The thesis of Deckman's book is that both sides in a community demonize each other in the process of school board and local elections in an attempt to win support from undecided voters. The Christian right is at once both more similar and more complex than previous attack campaigns/counter-responses publicly have conceded. Articulating this complex nature will then enable myself and others to win more campaigns and more effectively sell our own policies to that swing public.
Starting out with wanting to make major change, the Christian right candidates and/or elected officials subsequently are required to alter their grand world views in order to be a part of the system which they ultimately seek to change. Built on compromise, the American political system is subsequently not receptive to radical changes which these people (and other candidates) would like to make. Our campaign portrayals of these people might therefore indicate what they would like to do, but it does not actually acknowledge what they are permitted to do; held in check by the American government's system of checks and balances.
Deckman's data includes case studies of elections held in Fairfax County Virginia and Garret County Maryland. These case studies prove that although they share some important group characteristics and goals, not all Christian right campaigns and then the candidates who run them are virtual `carbon copies' of each other. A vulnerability to internal dissent among various religious right candidates and office holders further lessens their being the `mighty boogeyman' of political jargon.
She also suggests that both the `far right' candidates and my beloved liberal counterparts are much more alike than we actually are different. The research in this book uncovers that non-religious right school board candidates are also likely to be religiously affiliated and also are more likely to come from the community elite---who can afford to run in an election and hold public office. We have more in common with each other than we have previously thought and/or let on in campaigns and debates.
Although I also read the more conventional broadsides against the right, and tend to agree with the left, Deckman's book is a critical step for defeating Christian right candidates.
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