God and Government: Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Equality, Secularism, and Freedom Of Conscience

by Barry W. Rev. Lynn

Overview

A central player in every major church-state-separation battle for decades, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn understands the complexities of this divisive issue like few others. As a long-time activist, a civil rights lawyer, and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he offers a unique perspective and a wealth of experience on church-state controversies. In this lively book, he has compiled his writings from various sources to explore in depth the many ways religious extremists have attempted to erode individual liberties. The topics range from publicly-promoted prayer to efforts to undermine public education and replace it with taxpayer-subsidized vouchers for religious schools, interfering with end-of-life and reproductive rights, censorship, and belligerence directed against nonbelievers and minorities. Lynn concludes that the ultimate goal of these extremist forces-consisting mainly of the Protestant Religious Right and the Roman Catholic hierarchy-is the creation of a corporate theocracy, a decidedly undemocratic system of government in which nonconservative Christians, along with humanist, feminists, and the LGBTQ community, are relegated to second-class status in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633880245
Publisher:	Prometheus Books
Publication date:	08/04/2015
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn has been the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992. He is the author of Piety and Politics, The Right to Religious Liberty, and, most recently, First Freedom First (coauthored with C. Welton Gaddy). An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently in the media. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's NewsHour, NBC's Today Show, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, ABC's Nightline, CNN's Crossfire, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, CBS's 60 Minutes, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, ABC's Good Morning America, CNN's Larry King Live, and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC, and CBS. On the radio, Lynn was the host of “Culture Shocks,” a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. He writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Nation.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How I Got Into Fighting the Religious Right 7

Chapter 1 Schools Are Still a Battlefield, But We Are Winning 9

Never Use This Line When Discussing Church and State Issues: "As Long as There Are Math Tests, There Will Be Prayer in Schools" 9

Stealth Evangelism-Troubling Encounters with "Unequal Access" 16

Religious Right Activists: Ever Insatiable, Ever Innovative 20

Chapter 2 The Evoking Debate… on Evolution 31

Chapter 3 If We Can't Change Public School Curricula, Let's Just Destroy Public Schools 39

Chapter 4 The Religious Right: The More Things Change, the More the Weirdness Continues 55

Who Is the Religious Right? 66

Chapter 5 Religious Right Tactics: From Initiatives to License Plates to Church Rehab to Taking Over the Military and the Courts… (and to Sending People to Death Row, for Good Measure) 79

Acts of God-Reaction: Give Us Your Money 82

"Religion in the Military" 93

The Judiciary 99

Takin' It to the Supreme Court 103

Chapter 6 When Government Officials Pray, Get Out the TV Cameras; When They Put Up the Ten Commandments, Don't Expect Them to Follow Them 117

Chaplains in Congress 122

Religious Displays 125

Chapter 7 Does the Religious Right Hate Everybody? Answer: Yes 137

Minority Religious Groups 137

Atheists 152

Women 161

LGBTQ Community 172

Death and Dying 182

Chapter 8 The Big Wall-Bangers (aka the Biggest Threats to Church-State Separation)-Faith-Based Funding and Religiously Motivated Refusals 191

Faith-Based Initiatives 191

Religious Refusals: "We don't have to obey the civil law because…" 210

Canon Law/Abuse by Priests 220

Chapter 9 Religion in Politics 229

We Know that Religion Is Getting More Political… 229

But Are Politicians Getting More "Religious"? 247

Chapter 10 Why Does Anybody Spend Their Adult Life Doing This? 261

Nice Famous People 261

Strange Persons of a "Religious Right" Bent 274

Awards 281

Alternative Universes: Cinematic Achievement and a Bizarre Capitol Hill Hearing 289

Concluding Thoughts: The Future Looks Brighter 293

Acknowledgments 299

Notes 301

Index 319

About the Author 333

Editorial Reviews

07/20/2015
Lynn is the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a United Church of Christ minister, and a lawyer. He makes his points with vigor in this blustery, repetitious, sometimes tiresome compilation of speeches, newspaper editorials, blog posts, and essays chronicling his work. Ranging widely over topics including debates over evolution, the tactics of the religious right, prayer in public schools, and tuition tax credits, Lynn gustily protests any encroachment of religious groups make on secular territory. In his 2002 speech to the Texas Civil Liberties Union, he lists ten reasons to be suspicious of members of the religious right, including their hypocrisy and their use of pressure and intimidation to achieve their purposes when blocked through normal channels. In his comments to a 2012 conference of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, he declares that Catholic canon lawyers engage in "unimaginable distortions of liberty and freedom," and proclaims a "moral duty to prevent these distorted claims from successfully becoming part of American judicial philosophy." Because of the defeat of government-sponsored prayer in public schools, as well as ever-increasing support for teaching evolution in public schools, Lynn remains guardedly optimistic that secularists will win and keep religion out of the public square. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"No one is more on top of the challenges facing the first amendment than Barry Lynn. We are lucky he is paying attention, for no one sees more clearly how important it is that our government and whatever religion you choose to practice remain separated. By doing so, he is one of those who are keeping the lamp of liberty lit. With intelligence, wisdom, humanity, and a devilish wit, Lynn makes the issues come alive, and thereby we all become wiser. It is a book you should grab and read. You won’t regret it.”  — LEWIS BLACK, comedian “This book is a must-read for feminists and for all Americans who support women’s rights—especially reproductive rights. Increasingly ‘religious liberty’ is being used to block women’s access to abortion and birth control. That is ‘religious liberty’ for everyone—employers, right-wing politicians, bishops—except women who need access. Barry Lynn knows all the tricks, twists, and turns of those who want to turn the clock back several centuries. When he speaks, I take notes. His insights from twenty-five years on the front lines are extremely valuable.”  — ELEANOR SMEAL, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation  “Before I fled the religious right Barry Lynn would have been a deadly enemy. I’d have seen him as someone standing between us and the theocracy we were trying to turn America into. This book is literally a defense of freedom against the theocratic illness. As Lynn writes ‘From cradle to grave, the Religious Right is concerned about every choice you make.’ It is up to us to stop them from dominating every aspect of American life too. This book is a good place to start.”  — FRANK SCHAEFFER, author of Crazy for God

From the Publisher