Onward,
Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics
and Evangelicals in the United States
By Deal Hudson
What
keeps America a country of religious practice and traditional
values? How has the U.S. avoided succumbing to total secularism?
The answer to these provocative questions is found in the religious
communities of America today: In the past thirty years, the
religiously active voter has migrated to the Republican Party,
and the story behind this shift, evidenced in the emergence
of Evangelical dominance over mainstream Protestantism and the
defeat of liberal Catholicism, is at the heart of this fascinating
cultural history.
In
Onward, Christian Soldiers, the Washington insider who was
at the vanguard of the sea change in religious and political
history that propelled George W. Bush into the White House offers
an intimate perspective on those remarkable years -- and their
influence over the ones to come. Dr. Deal W. Hudson analyzes
how, steadily over-coming age-old misjudgments and misunderstandings
that separated them, conservative Catholics and Evangelical
Christians drew together because of what they viewed as profound
assaults on shared core beliefs. They became allies to battle
the forces of secularization, relativism, and atheism. And together
they forged a grassroots movement across America that astonished
political activists and surprised commentators as well as members
of traditional religious organizations. How, exactly, was this
coalition achieved and who were its movers and shakers? What
enabled them to deepen, enrich, and activate the resurgence
of traditional values in society to make America radically different
from the secularized Europe that was so widely believed to be
on the verge of becoming the model for the United States?
Deal
W. Hudson details this phenomenon by examining the leading figures
and institutions on both sides of the debate, exposing the dramatic
encounters between those espousing fundamental Judeo-Christian
beliefs and those heralding the "death of God" and
the new age of secular humanism. Dealing with today's hot-button
issues, Onward, Christian Soldiers provides an unprecedented
look at the confrontation of the religious right with secularists
in America, a confrontation that is not only timely but also
timeless in its impact.
Please
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What people are saying about Onward Christian Soldiers.....
"Hudson has written an insider's jewel on the political
and cultural dynamics that have affected presidential politics
over the past several decades. It is an invaluable resource
for anyone interested in understanding the intersection of politics
and religion in the twenty-first century. Professors and pundits
alike will repair to this book for years to come."
-- William A. Donohue, President, Catholic League for Religious
and Civil Rights