Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future

Having "spent [his] whole life trying to persuade people that 'liberal' is not a dirty word, and that Christianity is a way of life, not a set of creeds and doctrine demanding total agreement," Meyers, a United Church of Christ minister and Oklahoma City University professor of rhetoric, became an Internet celebrity when his November 2004 antiwar remarks bounced from continent to continent. In response, Meyers expanded 10 of his most salient points into a self-titled manifesto which not only highlights the dichotomy between the right's talk of Christian values and its walk—which he believes is characterized by shameful, immoral behavior—but provides a call to action. Patiently, he gives a series of impassioned reminders of the essence of what Jesus taught, believed and lived, perhaps best summarized by the stinging assertion that "most of all, the Christian Right seems to have forgotten that Jesus saved his white-hot anger for the sin of religious hypocrisy ." Meyers maintains that prolife views, for example, should extend beyond the womb to death row, health care and the environment. For readers who are "indignant over the direction of this country" and feel thatthe time has come for "dignified, but tangible resistance," Meyers delivers an unambiguous, palpable blueprint. (May 26)