Are the theocons taking over?

There's not a lot of argument about it: For better or worse, The New York Times is far and away the most influential newspaper in the country, and probably in the world. The news sections of the major television networks sound like, and probably are, the handiwork of producers who get the lion's share of their information, not to mention their opinions, from that morning's front page of the Times. And its Sunday Book Review section is as close as many of America's leading thinkers and opinion-makers ever get to intellectual sustenance.

So it is not unimportant that the front page of said Book Review section consisted, on Oct. 22, of the beginning of a long review of "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. The review continues inside, for another two pages, discussing Dawkins' contention "that to be an atheist is a 'brave and splendid' aspiration. Belief in God is not only a delusion, he argues, but a 'pernicious' one." The Book Review's editor quotes the reviewer (Jim Holt) as saying, "I agree with Dawkins's conclusions," though in the review itself Holt gives a fair hearing to other opinions.

Pope Benedict arrives at Saint Peter's Basilica to greet religious students following a mass marking the beginning of the academic year of Ecclesiastic Universities in the Vatican October 23, 2006. REUTERS/Dario Pignatelli (VATICAN) Related Audio: New book Theocons

Inside, on the page directly preceding the carry-over, the Book Review publishes a review by George Will of "Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers," by Brooke Allen. Allen's thesis, as described by Will, "is that the six most important founders -- Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton -- subscribed, in different ways, to the watery and undemanding Enlightenment faith called deism." Will explains that "Allen's challenge is to square the six founders' often pious public words and behavior with her conviction that their real beliefs placed all six far from Christianity. Her conviction is well documented, exuberantly argued, and quite persuasive."

With those two reviews under his or her belt, a Book Review reader would be justified in concluding that America's intellectual leaders, at least, are in no danger of believing in God. And yet, just one page beyond the carry-over, we are offered a review of "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How We Get It Back," by Andrew Sullivan. Reviewer David Brooks tells us that, according to Sullivan, in recent years "something new has usurped conservatism and threatened the world -- religious fundamentalism." Brooks makes it clear that he disagrees with the author, not least in his furious condemnation of fundamentalism. But which is it to be? Was America created, and is it still comfortably ruled, by deists and atheists? Or has it, under our politically dominant conservatism, recently fallen into the hands of Bible-thumping fundamentalists,the media as "theocons known to the media as "theocons "?

In theory, the answer could be "both." The nation's intellectual leadership may remain safely non-religious, while the masses are indulging in an orgy of religiosity. But the most casual reading of recent political history suggests a somewhat different interpretation. What has happened is that, in the past thirty years, a large number of Americans whose deepest beliefs and concerns are not political but religious have concluded that they have no choice but to gird themselves for participation in the nation's political wars. There are quite enough such people to influence the election returns, and they have been doing so.

But -- and this distinction is crucial -- their posture is essentially defensive. They are not seeking to turn America into a theocracy. They are simply trying to preserve, and where necessary restore, the politico-religious balance that has been traditional in this country. It is the intellectuals, with the critical support of the courts, and above all the Supreme Court, that have successfully eroded that balance, seeking to marginalize religion and convert the entire civic framework of the nation into a purely secular arena, on the pretense that this is required by the First Amendment's supposed erection of a high "wall" between church and state.

Those who imagine that it is religion's defenders who are the aggressors here are simply not paying attention to the increasingly sharp attacks on religious faith that can be found today in such influential places as The New York Times.

The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege (Hardcover)
by Damon Linker
http://www.amazon.com/Theocons-Secular-America-Under-Siege/dp/0385516479

From Publishers Weekly
Conventional wisdom on the left holds that conservatives bring up issues ranging from abortion and gay rights to the teaching of evolution primarily as a cynical ploy to activate their political base, but Linker challenges that notion by detailing the inner workings of the "theoconservative" movement. He describes it as a group of mostly Catholic intellectuals who view American society in sometimes apocalyptic terms, whose absolute and uncompromising moral framework for law—their ultimate goal is "the end of secular politics"—holds great sway in Republican circles. Primarily and almost obsessively concerned with Richard John Neuhaus and his journal First Things, Linker's exposé sometimes makes it seem as if the political philosophy that animates perhaps a quarter of the electorate is essentially a one-man show. More curious is that, though his words drip with disdain for virtually every position championed by the magazine, Linker himself was an editor at First Things until barely a year before his book's publication. This book may leave readers yearning for a more broad-based study of how Neuhaus—whose journal has a circulation of well under 50,000—and his ilk have managed to motivate a resurgence of politically minded religiosity in such a large number of Americans. (Sept. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Linker informs us of a tiny cabal of -activist-propagandists who have forged an alliance between right-wing Catholics and Evangelical Christians that has worked so effectively for the Republican Party that President Bush, in particular, accepts its advice. The cabal's leader is leftist Lutheran minister turned hyperdogmatic Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus, the founding editor in chief of First Things, the flagship journal of the cabal's movement, which Linker, once on staff at First Things, calls theoconservatism. Neuhaus' 1984 book The Naked Public Square advanced the idea that secularism forces religious voices out of public debates; conservative Jews as well as Christians found Neuhaus' notion very persuasive and politically useful. Linker believes that, however admirable its goals may be, theoconservatism at best misunderstands and at worst despises American liberal democracy, especially the wisdom of the separation of church and state. Linker's literate, reasonable chronicle and assessment of the theocons, that of an erstwhile colleague who shows no personal animus toward his former associates, is one of the most enlightening critiques of the Religious Right to date. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Required reading for anyone interested in the American political scene today.”
—Mark Lilla, professor at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago

“The Theocons is invaluable as firsthand research, alarming in its implications for the future of American freedom, and devastating as a critique of the theocratic ambitions of those who now control the Republican Party.”
—Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic

“The Theocons constitutes a major step toward reclaiming the liberal heritage that has made America great.”
—Alan Wolfe, author of The Transformation of American Religion

Book Description
George W. Bush has gone out of his way to blur the line between religion and politics in America—this is acknowledged by his strongest supporters no less than by his most strident critics. The most common explanation of the president’s religious agenda points to rise of evangelical Protestantism. Yet as Damon Linker demonstrates in his groundbreaking book, an exclusive focus on the role of evangelicals misses the heart of the story. At its core, the Bush administration’s overt religiosity represents the triumph of an ideological movement that for the past several decades has devoted itself to fashioning a theocratic governing philosophy for the United States—a governing philosophy rooted in Roman Catholicism. Led by Father Richard John Neuhaus, this group of “theoconservatives” has actively sought to roll back the division of church and state in American life.

The election of 2000 brought the theocons to the peak of political power and influence in Washington. Their ideas inspire the most controversial and divisive policies of the Bush administration—policies whose ultimate goal is nothing less than the end of secular politics in America.

About the Author

Damon Linker is intimately familiar with the rise of the theocons. His experience working in the center of the theoconservative world as an editor of its flagship journal, First Things, led to his resolve to write a critical history of the movement. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two children

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