Fighting Words: A Toolkit for Combating the Religious Right

By Robin Morgan

Book Overview

The religious right is gaining enormous power in the United States, thanks to a well-organized, media-savvy movement with powerful friends in high places. Yet many Americans -- both observant and secular -- are alarmed by this trend, especially by the religious right's attempts to erase the boundary between church and state and re-make the U.S. into a Christian nation. But most Americans lack the tools for arguing with the religious right, especially when fundamentalist conservatives claim their tradition started with the Framers of The Constitution. Fighting Words is a tool-kit for arguing, especially for those of us who haven't read the founding documents of this nation since grade school. Robin Morgan has assembled a lively, accessible, eye-opening primer and reference tool, a "verbal karate" guide, revealing what the Framers and many other leading Americans really believed -- in their own words -- rescuing the Founders from images of dusty, pompous old men in powdered wigs, and resurrecting them as the revolutionaries they truly were: a hodgepodge of freethinkers, Deists, agnostics, Christians, atheists, and Freemasons -- and they were radicals as well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560259485
• ISBN13: 9781560259480
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Bold Type Books
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Confronting the American Taliban

This is a handy reference for the quick riposte, particularly against the zealot who believes this is a Christian country founded by Christian framers on similarly Christian principles. Considering how early American history is taught in most highschools, there are millions of these folks living in ignorance who are not necessarily fundamentalist in their belief. It's the latter, however, who threaten to turn their ignorance into a jihad against the nation's separation of church and state. Unable to compete with the scientific method, these literalists are working to turn government into an arm of the church, forcing the rest of us into second-class citizenship, at best. If you think this an exaggeration, scope out some of the quotes in Chapter 7 from some of the more prominent spokespeople for the American Taliban. There's a strong feminist subtext to the booklet. That's understandable since these same anti-separationists are usually the first seeking to herd women back into the kitchen and the maternity ward minus any other options. In that same vein, I'm glad Morgan points out the historical nexus between Hitler's Third Reich and the German churches, both Catholic and protestant (with exceptions), one of whose provisions was to restrict women's rights by law. Needless to say, this is another embarrassing reality that somehow gets left out of highschool history books. Don't expect too much from this slender volume. It doesn't pretend to depth, but does furnish bibliographical notes for further research. The full texts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are included. At first, I thought these were unnecessary. But then I changed my mind, considering how remote these provisions are from most of us (myself included). Anyhow, it's time for separationists to start returning fire against these Medievalists whose real goal, I suspect, is repeal of the Enlightenment itself. Morgan has furnished a handy little ammunition belt for defending our Constitutional legacy.

Tried of being swalled by the religious right?

This is a short, easily read book that is easy to quote. A lot of material in a brief format. A must for people who feel bullied by religionists.

Thanks for the ammunition against the American Taliban.

As a Unitarian Universalist (and several of these early leaders were also), I am very pleased to see a clarification of their views. Too often Adams and Jefferson are characterized incorrectly. They never had the positions attributed to them by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. In fact, they were often the opposite. This brings many of these contradictions into focus and shows the liars for what they are. Robin Morgan accurately and astutely asserts that our founders were more secular than religious and that they strongly supported the separation of church and state. I am tired of being insulted by the "religious right" as they try to hijack America for Christ, behaving just like religious fanatics in the middle east. I really hope that those who will be in power after the next election remember that you cannot have freedom OF religion unless you have freedom FROM religion. There is a similarity in the basic beliefs of radical fundamentalists all over the world. The American version of Taliban is a kinder, gentler one, but the basic values are very much the same as those of the original Taliban. Thanks for the ammunition, Robin.

Important, relevant, terrific...

Without being preachy, Morgan manages to remind us that this country was founded on the idea of Freedom with a capital 'F' and not Religion with a capital 'R.' Our separation of church and state, and the clouding of the dichodomy between the two in recent decades is front and center here. Our founders were thinkers who came out of the Enlightenment, not believers in a Christian state. When everyone is free to believe, or not, all our freedoms are guaranteed. A terrific and fun read.

main stream answers

Finally a book which sites examples of the religious beliefs or lack of religious beliefs of our founding fathers. Ms. Morgan gives numerous quotations from our first presidents citing their concerns about the power of religion in society and their determination to totally seperate religion and the state. She mentions the phrase "in God we trust" coming into government use during the McCarty era of the fifties. It was used to distingush the US from the Soviet Union at that time.