Attack of the Theocrats! ─ How the Religious Right Harms Us All - and What We Can Do About It

At no time in history has the United States had such a high percentage of theocratic members of Congress--those who expressly endorse religious bias in law. Just as ominously, especially for those whoshare the values and views of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, at no other time have religious fundamentalists effectively had veto power over one of the country's two major political parties. As Sean Faircloth argues inthis deeply sobering yet highly engaging book, this has led to the crumbling of the country's most cherished founding principle--the wall of separation between church and state.While much of the public debate in the United States over church-state issues has focused on the construction of nativity scenes in town squares and the addition of "under God" to the Pledge, Faircloth, a former politician andcurrent executive director of the Secular Coalition for America, moves beyond the symbolism to explore the many ways federal and state legal codes privilege religion in law. He demonstrates in vivd detail how religious bias inlaw harms all Americans--financially, militarily, physically, socially, and educationally--and directs special attention to the outlandish words, views, and policy proposals of the most theocratic politicians, a group he labels theFundamentalist Fifty. Sounding a much-needed alarm for all who care about the future direction of the country, Faircloth concludes by offering an inspiring ten-point vision of an America returned to its secular roots and byproviding a specific and sensible plan for realizing this vision. Both his vision and his plan remember and remind that the United States is, above all else, one nation under the Constitution.