Lift High the Cross

Burlein Ann Burlein

Description

Both the Christian right and right-wing white supremacist groups aspire to overcome a culture they perceive as hostile to the white middle class, families, and heterosexuality. The family is threatened, they claim, by a secular humanist conspiracy that seeks to erase all memory of the nation's Christian heritage by brainwashing its children through sex education, multiculturalism, and pop culture. In Lift High the Cross Ann Burlein looks at two groups that represent, in one case, the "hard" right, and in the other, the "soft" right-Pete Peters's "Scriptures for America" and James Dobson's "Focus on the Family"-in order to investigate the specific methods these groups rely on to appeal to their followers.Arguing that today's right engenders its popularity not by overt bigotry or hatred but by focusing on people's hopes for their children, Burlein finds a politics of grief at the heart of such rhetoric. While demonstrating how religious symbols, rituals, texts, and practices shape people's memories and their investment in society, she shows how Peters and Dobson each construct countermemories for their followers that reframe their histories and identities-as well as their worlds-by reversing mainstream perspectives in ways that counter existing power relations. By employing the techniques of niche marketing, the politics of scandal, and the transformation of political issues into "gut issues" and by remasculinizing the body politic, Burlein shows, such groups are able to move people into their realm of influence without requiring them to agree with all their philosophical, doctrinal, or political positions.Lift High the Cross will appeal to students and scholars of religion, American cultural studies, women's studies, sociology, and gay and lesbian studies, as well as to non-specialists interested in American politics and, specifically, the right.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• USA
• Social theory
• Ideology
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 26 février 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822383406
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lift High the Cross

Lift High

the Cross

Where White Supremacy and the Christian Right Converge

Ann Burlein

Duke University Press

Durham & London

2002

∫2002 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

on acid-free paper$

Designed by C. H. Westmoreland

Typeset by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-

Publication Data appear on the

last printed page of this book.

To my parents

Contents

Acknowledgments ix Preface xi

The Violence of Culture: Countermemory and Niche Marketed Masculinity 1 3Countermemory, Children, and Ignorance-Power 2 21Converging Case Studies: Body Politics as Brand Recognition

Christian Identity, Scriptures for America, and Pete Peters 3 33Mainstream Roots 4 Biblical Memories and the Erotics of Domination: ‘‘Not Politically Correct but Biblically Correct’’ 44 5 Nichemarketing the Apocalypse: Violence as Hard-Sell 75

The Christian Right, Focus on the Family, and James Dobson 6 The Power of Soft-Sell Style: Building a Multimillion-Dollar Ministry by Subverting Feminism 119 7 Remembering the Sixties as Pop Cultural Conspiracy: ‘‘Everyone’s Best Interest Group’’ 131 8 Nichemarketing the Family Homestead: Rearticulating Mainstream Silences in the Romance of Privatism 158

Conclusion 9 The Bowl, the Crossing Point, and the Moment After 195

Notes 215 Select Bibliography of Secondary Sources 259 Index 273

Acknowledgments

This book began as my dissertation. In this connection, I would like to thank my professors: Wesley Kort, for asking me to think broadly about how this project changed my assumptions regarding violence; Jean O’Barr, for letting me know how much she valued the type of insight I have about the world in a context that did not value it; Regina Schwartz, for the interest and support that she has shown my work; Ken Surin, for introducing me to the world of theory without dismissing my criticisms and resistance; and Grant Wacker, for a careful and candid reading that helped me think about how this text might be read by people who stand in a very di√erent place than I do. Last, but certainly not least, I thank my dissertation advisor, Bruce Lawrence. At those times when the complexity of my sentence structure would lead me to despair of communicating what I saw, Bruce would simplify my sentences, but he would never let me sacrifice the complexity of my ideas, not even when I was ready to. For giving me free range in their research library as I was starting this project, I thank Political Research Associates in Cambridge, Massachu- setts; Citizen’s Project in Colorado Springs; Equality Colorado in Denver; and the Center for Democratic Renewal in Atlanta. Special thanks to Jan and Jim Diers for opening their home to me in Colorado Springs and to Wenda Bauchspies for finding me housing amid her Peace Corps friends and traveling with me. I was fortunate to go through graduate school with a group of col- leagues—Karla Bohmbach, Sandie Gravett, Volker Greifenhagen, Kelly Jarrett, and Randy Styers—whose support and intelligence continue to sustain me. In particular, Kelly and Randy are the readers to whom I turn when I feel most insecure; this book is so much better for your conversa- tions and insights, encouragement and commitment.