Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right
Explores the Christian Right’s use of tailored rhetorics to advance multiple and varied antigay p... more Explores the Christian Right’s use of tailored rhetorics to advance multiple and varied antigay political projects.
While the Christian Right has spearheaded a variety of antigay projects over the past fifteen years, including interventions in public schools, antigay-rights initiatives, and support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, observers of the institutionalized Christian Right have also noted a softening of antigay public rhetoric. Sin, Sex, and Democracy analyzes these two ostensibly conflicting phenomena. Examining Christian witnessing tracts, the ex-gay movement, and recent linkages between gays and terrorists, Cynthia Burack argues that as the Christian Right has become a more sophisticated interest group, leaders have become adept at tailoring different messages for mainstream audiences and for the internal pedagogical processes of Christian conservatives. Understanding the rhetoric and the theological convictions that lie behind them, Burack claims, is essential to better understand how American politics work and how to effectively respond to exclusionary forms of political thought and practice.
“This book offers a meticulously detailed account of the way in which antigay discourse is constructed and employed by the Christian Right and those closely associated with it. It is a topic of significance and central to the academic study of politics and cultural practice of politics, particularly in the United States.” — Angelia R. Wilson, author of Below the Belt: Sexuality, Religion, and the American South
“The appeal of this book is the niche it fills: at a time when critics take well-worn and cheap shots at the Christian Right ill fitting the seriousness of the times, this author demands that critics take the Christian Right seriously, not only politically, but theologically.” — Amy E. Ansell, editor of Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics
Interpreting the Personal: Expression and the Formation of Feelings. By Sue Campbell. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 1999
Agacinski, Sylviane. 1988. Aparte: Conceptions and deaths of S0ren Kierkegaard. Trans. Kevin Newm... more Agacinski, Sylviane. 1988. Aparte: Conceptions and deaths of S0ren Kierkegaard. Trans. Kevin Newmark. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press. Battersby, Christine. 1998. The phenomenal woman: Feminist metaphysics and the pat-terns of identity. New York: Routledge. ...
Interpreting the Personal: Expression and the Formation of Feelings (review)
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 1999
Agacinski, Sylviane. 1988. Aparte: Conceptions and deaths of S0ren Kierkegaard. Trans. Kevin Newm... more Agacinski, Sylviane. 1988. Aparte: Conceptions and deaths of S0ren Kierkegaard. Trans. Kevin Newmark. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press. Battersby, Christine. 1998. The phenomenal woman: Feminist metaphysics and the pat-terns of identity. New York: Routledge. ...
1. Introduction: Right-Wing Populism and the Media 2. Objective but Not Impartial: Human Events, ... more 1. Introduction: Right-Wing Populism and the Media 2. Objective but Not Impartial: Human Events, Barry Goldwater, and the Development of the "Liberal Media" in the Conservative Counter-Sphere 3. The "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy": Media and Conservative Networks 4. Tailoring Dissent on the Airwaves: The Role of Conservative Talk Radio in the Right-Wing Resurgence of 2010 5. New Challenges in the Study of Right-Wing Propaganda: Priming the Populist Backlash to "Hope and Change" 6. The Tea Party and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Mainstreaming New Right Populism in the Corporate News Media 7. Mama Grizzlies Compete for Office 8. From McCarthyism to the Tea Party: Interpreting Anti-Leftist Forms of US Populism in Comparative Perspective 9. Rethinking Anti-Immigration Rhetoric after the Oslo and Utoya Terror Attacks 10. Commentary: "Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare!": An Analysis of Media Effects on Tea Party Health Care Politics
On September 13, 2001, Jerry Falwell made a guest appearance on Pat Robertson's 700 Club by remot... more On September 13, 2001, Jerry Falwell made a guest appearance on Pat Robertson's 700 Club by remote satellite and commented on the bombings two days before of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Together, the two ministers forcefully expressed a "politics of desert" that links American tolerance of lesbians and gay men, feminists, atheists, and others with God's punishment on the polity. Although Falwell and Robertson were widely denounced for their comments, little analysis followed in the media of the theological and political content of the Christian Right's politics of desert or of the multiple modes of address that Christian Right leaders use to deliver political messages to followers and to the general American public. This essay explores the theological and political commitments that ground a politics of desert and, more specifically, links the Falwell-Robertson comments to recent Christian Right political activism against lesbians and gay men. Setting the Straight Story When the World Trade Center and the Pentagon became terrorist targets on September 11, 2001, one form of public response was a conservative Christian "politics of desert" that sought to contextualize the attacks in terms of God's will and plan for America. A politics of desert is grounded in what one anthropologist labels a "theology of blame," the belief that: God may allow bad things to happen without necessarily causing them, and when he allows bad things to happen, it is for reasons that are transcendent and often punitive, though ultimately redemptive (however unfathomable that seems to those who suffer immediate consequences). 1 * I would like to thank Jyl Josephson for commenting on an earlier draft of this essay and Ara Wilson for suggesting helpful sources. Versions of this paper were presented at an Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Democracy, Citizenship, and Identity at the Ohio
View related articles implications of this feminisation. Female-to-male trans-sexualism is much r... more View related articles implications of this feminisation. Female-to-male trans-sexualism is much rarer and more difficult to achieve. In her essay, Custodi also analyses the character of Amba who changes from a woman to a man to take revenge on Bhishma and argues that the 'current of feminine vengeance. .. is an important strand of femininity in the Mahabharata' (p. 220). This is a good book. A deep engagement with the Mahabharata is evident in the essays. And it is refreshing that 'gender' has not been interpreted narrowly as 'female'. But even though the editors rightly note that 'the world of the Mahabharata is a literary world, and not a direct reflection or representation of the ever-evasive "reality" of ancient India' (p. 14), one wishes that connections with the text's historical context had been attempted and explored more often. Simon Brodbeck's fascinating essay, 'Gendered soteriology: Marriage and the karmayoga', offers too fleeting a glimpse of the Mahabharata's critique of the renunciative ethos of the non-brahmanical traditions of the early historic period in which the text was composed.
In Building God's Kingdom, Julie Ingersoll introduces herself as a scholar who "strive[s] to desc... more In Building God's Kingdom, Julie Ingersoll introduces herself as a scholar who "strive[s] to describe and explain religion apart from engaging in polemics" and works to show "how the Reconstructionists' world makes sense, to them, in terms of their own framework" (ix). As Ingersoll well understands, this mission is unlikely to satisfy either Christian Reconstructionists or some of their critics. However, it affords students of American religious studies a fascinating and comprehensive guide to the history, theology, politics, and economics of Reconstructionism in the contemporary US. To establish a foundation for what follows, Ingersoll presents the theological and epistemological building blocks of the "biblical worldview" of Reconstructionism, including such elements as: presuppositional epistemology (the view that "reasoning always begins with premises that cannot be proven" (9)), theonomy ("God's law as it is revealed in the Old and New Testaments" (39) and "the absolute sovereignty of God's law" (15)), and "sphere sovereignty" (God's authority delegated to humans, who exercise dominion under God's law in three distinct God-ordained institutions (41)). Of course, the major components of the worldview of Reconstructionism may be traced through the work of Reconstructionism's preeminent intellectual, R. J. "Rush" Rushdoony, as well as those who followed him, most notably his son-in-law, Gary North. As Rushdoony elucidated the tenets of Reconstructionism in The Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) and otherespecially earlier-works, North served as the theological and philosophical voice of the next generation as an author and editor of the ten-volume Biblical Blueprint Series (1986, 1987). However, the development and diffusion of Reconstructionism has had many fathers. Ingersoll offers a cast of supporting characters that tracks the development of key ideas, convictions, and exegetical strategies before, during, and after Rushdoony's career.
Let Death Seize Upon Them: Populism in Political Prayers of Imprecation
Politics and Religion, 2020
In the United States, religious elites routinely use prayer to set and communicate political agen... more In the United States, religious elites routinely use prayer to set and communicate political agendas, shape the opinions of Christian publics, and mobilize political activism. Among political prayers distributed to believers, imprecation is rare. In this paper, I examine a set of cases of imprecatory political prayers publicized since the turn of millennium that have undeniable U.S. political subtexts and objects. Using the work of James Scott and Jan-Werner Müller, I argue that most political prayers of imprecation can fruitfully be read as manifestations of right-wing populism. These prayers reveal a hidden transcript of rage aimed not only at mainstream political arrangements and political elites but also at the comparatively polite discourse characteristic of mainstream U.S. Christian traditions, including much Christian conservatism.
The US government was a late adopter of support and advocacy for international sexual orientation... more The US government was a late adopter of support and advocacy for international sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) human rights. Although US support for SOGI human rights did not begin in the Obama administration, after 2011 such support was expanded, publicized, and institutionalized. Since the 2016 presidential election, many international and grassroots LGBTQI human rights activists have expressed concern about the prospects for US SOGI advocacy in the Trump administration. No definitive policy changes have been made public, but clues to the future of US advocacy for SOGI can be found in a variety of sites. These include the discourse and policy articulations of the secretary and human rights officials in the State Department as well as those of legislators who fund human rights programs and exercise oversight over it.
Uploads
Books by Cynthia Burack
While the Christian Right has spearheaded a variety of antigay projects over the past fifteen years, including interventions in public schools, antigay-rights initiatives, and support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, observers of the institutionalized Christian Right have also noted a softening of antigay public rhetoric. Sin, Sex, and Democracy analyzes these two ostensibly conflicting phenomena. Examining Christian witnessing tracts, the ex-gay movement, and recent linkages between gays and terrorists, Cynthia Burack argues that as the Christian Right has become a more sophisticated interest group, leaders have become adept at tailoring different messages for mainstream audiences and for the internal pedagogical processes of Christian conservatives. Understanding the rhetoric and the theological convictions that lie behind them, Burack claims, is essential to better understand how American politics work and how to effectively respond to exclusionary forms of political thought and practice.
“This book offers a meticulously detailed account of the way in which antigay discourse is constructed and employed by the Christian Right and those closely associated with it. It is a topic of significance and central to the academic study of politics and cultural practice of politics, particularly in the United States.” — Angelia R. Wilson, author of Below the Belt: Sexuality, Religion, and the American South
“The appeal of this book is the niche it fills: at a time when critics take well-worn and cheap shots at the Christian Right ill fitting the seriousness of the times, this author demands that critics take the Christian Right seriously, not only politically, but theologically.” — Amy E. Ansell, editor of Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics
Papers by Cynthia Burack