Title: In Defense of the Religious Right: Why Conservative Christians Are the Lifeblood of the Republican Party and Why that Terrifies the Democrats
Author: Patrick Hynes, founder and proprietor of Ankle Biting Pundits
Publisher: Nelson Current
Date: 2006
Big Mo's rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

What this book is / is not
This is primarily a book about politics and, as the title states, a defense of the Religious Right's role in American and Republican politics. It is an examination of the distorted, twisted and often hateful view that the secular, political and religious left has of the Religious Right—and also the misconceptions the political right has of Christian conservatives and their role in Republican victories since 1994.

However, In Defense of the Religious Right is not an exhaustive examination of the inner workings and beliefs of the Religious Right, nor is it an in-depth exploration of its growth over the years, or a biographical treatment of key leaders. Those topics are touched upon, but readers wanting meat on those topics should look elsewhere.

Main thesis
Just who IS the Religious Right? "(It is) simply the most maligned group of Americans in the country. They have been blamed, mocked, ridiculed, chastised, libeled, slandered, demonized, scapegoated, belittled, decried, scorned, insulted, smeared, disparaged, and mythologized by opinion leaders and activists who do not know what the Religious Right is, do not understand what it believes, and have personal and political stakes in seeing it marginalized."

So writes Patrick Hynes in a valuable book that explores a hugely misunderstood (and misunderestimated) segment of America: the Religious Right. At 30 million strong, they are also not only the backbone of the Republican Party, which has taken the GOP from the minority to a rather sizable and solid majority status, but also the guardians and defenders of traditional American values.

Before anyone scoffs, Hynes explains that those values have always been an integral part of American life; they didn't just suddenly spring into being in the last 40 or so years, as leftists are repeatedly claiming. The Religious Right is not some interloper group attempting to impose strange and foreign values upon an unwilling America, Hynes asserts. That description justly belongs to the liberals and assorted leftists who are pushing gay marriage, evolution (to the exclusion of all else) and abortion while at the same time attempting to erase God from American public society.

But this book isn't merely Hynes' opinion. What makes the book valuable is he backs up his thesis by drawing on polling data, studies, interviews, analyses, election results and voting trends. Particularly valuable is his delineation of just who the Religious Right is: they aren't made up of "largely poor, uneducated and easily lead" people, as Michael Wiesskopf famously sneered in 1993. Nor is the Religious Right merely Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the Christian Coalition. In actuality, the Religious Right crosses all races, all levels of education and all income brackets pretty evenly.

"At last count, the Religious Right is 30 million religiously motivated conservative voters. According to exit and postelection polling data, we can conclude that they are roughly 23 million evangelical and conservative mainline Christians and 6.9 million conservative Catholics. They represent the growing wings of their respective denominations and faith traditions. They are black, white and brown. They live in parts North, South, East, and West. They are wealthy, middle class and poor. They are highly educated and poorly educated. They are, in short, Americans." (p.175)

Jaw-dropper
Perhaps the most surprising part is his revelation that a huge key to Bush’s—and the GOP's—victory in 2004 was the hundreds of thousands of small Bible groups that served as impromptu political action groups. They generally share the same values, the same ideals—and the same politics.  And that, Hynes discovered, is how the word spread and things happened all across the country for 2004. Not through massed marches, big celebrity concerts and billionaire bucks that the liberals employed—but word of mouth.

New term
Hynes also coins a wonderful term: the "theophobes"—a word that I will shamelessly co-opt—which simply means anyone who has an irrational fear of conservative Christians. It’s actually a better term than the misnomer "homophobe," because in this case, the secular, political and religious left are actually afraid of everything the Religious Right represents—real or (usually) imagined.

Does the author succeed?
Yes, for the most part, especially through judicious use of sources.

There is little doubt that this book will be poorly received—or ignored altogether—by the political left. But more critical to the main thesis is whether the book will be received well by the right. Will its message be received by the people who need to heed its call?

In a way, Hynes' book serves as a partial response to Cal Thomas’ and Ed Dobson’s 1999 book, Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America? in which they argue that the Religious Right has been harmful to the cause of Christ in America by cozying up to political causes. The publisher says that authors "insist we must realize that God’s agenda does not rise or fall with political causes" which is very correct "and we must rediscover that our most potent influence is not the ballot booth, but lives that extend God’s grace in the home, in the workplace, and in all spheres of our culture" (words lifted from Barnes and Noble web site). But Hynes demonstrates that by doing just that—through their small groups and faith-based organizations—Christians have affected the ballot box in huge ways!

Criticism
There are only a few minor places where I disagreed with Hynes, or thought he could have made a stronger argument with a few more examples. In Chapter 5, Jan vs. Mel, in which he encapsulates the 2004 election in terms of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" versus Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, he could have augmented that chapter with another equally stark juxtaposition: the Gipper versus Slick Willie. Ronald Reagan was an intensely Christian man, and Bill Clinton was, in Hynes' words, a "Faker" (see chapter 10). Reagan’s death and funeral in the summer of 2004 and the release of Bill Clinton's narcissistic best-selling memoirs a month later were incredible contrasts of character and faith—and those who flocked to either man were probably just as sharply divided as those who viewed the "wardrobe malfunction" and The Passion of the Christ quite differently.  

Also, because Hynes went to great lengths to explain what Thomas Jefferson actually said and meant—as well as Washington, Franklin and Madison—I thought he should have included several quotes from other founders to bolster the argument that the nation was founded as a Christian nation with Christian values and morals. 

Still, the lack of either of the above does not detract from the overall argument and presentation. Minor factual errors also do not take away from the overall argument and can easily be corrected in subsequent printings.

Main takeaway lessons
Hynes' ultimate conclusion seems to be: If you're Republican, you ignore the Religious Right to your peril, not because it's a voting block to be pampered, but because it embodies Middle America. If you're Democrat, you ridicule them to your despair, because you can't fake it, nor can you win a battle of the Scriptures against them.

Do I recommend this book?
Yes, definitely.  You can purchase it through Ankle Biting Pundits.

Disclaimer
I guess you could say I am a member of the Religious Right, as I am an evangelical Christian, belonging to a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation, and, although not a Republican per say, usually vote conservative/Republican. Therefore, I am sympathetic to this book. However, if Hynes had done a poor job, I would not recommend this book. Happily, that is not the case.