Fall from Grace: The Failed Crusade of the Christian Right. - book reviews

Washington Monthly, Feb, 1990 by Henry G. Brinton

Fall from Grace: The Failed Crusade of the Christian Right. Michael D'Antonio. Farrar-, Straus, Giroux, $19.95. Michael D'Antonio has cut into conservative Christianity and exposed its internal structure with the objectivity of a medical examiner. And yet, in the course of his autopsy, he shows remarkable compassion for the body under his knife. Members of the born-again Christian movement were not hysterical zealots, in his view; rather, they were honest, caring Americans who were overwhelmed by social turmoil and fearful of changes in their homes, communities, and country.

"I'm obsessed with sex," said an Oral Roberts University junior interviewed by D'Antonio. Believing that sex should be saved for marriage, the young man played sports and lifted weights in an effort to control his desire. Decades of changing sexual behavior posed such problems for conservative Christians, and they reacted by taking strong positions against abortion and homosexuality. Another ORU student, recently intimate with a woman, described sex as a demon that had almost captured his soul. Fear seemed to permeate every discussion of sexuality in the born again community, with many preachers using tragedies like AIDS to "prove" God's displeasure with homosexuals and with a society that allowed the gay community to exist. "AIDS wouldn't be here if we had followed the Bible," said one conservative Christian woman in Houston. Although intolerant and ignorant, such a statement was part of an attempt by born-again Christians to maintain a sense of security and a feeling that life was under control. When old moral lessons were ignored, disaster struck: two of the biggest televangelists, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, were brought down by sex-related scandals.

D'Antonio wanders all though the world of the Christian Right, talking, eating, and traveling with members of enormous fundamentalist "megachurches," workers in Pat Robertson's failed presidential campaign, visitors to the Bakkers's Christian theme park, and even right-wing missionaries in Honduras. He found a couple of characteristics that unite these various groups. First, they shared the conviction that the end times were at hand. "Things are much worse in the world than they have ever been," said a Long Island charismatic named Frank. The problems of modern life could be made bearable only by faith in God's quickly approaching final triumph. "Man may be evil and the world may be crazy," said Frank's wife, Amy, "but at least we know we are saved."

Second, there was the common belief that America had received a divine blessing-a blessing that would be lost if the country did not follow a Christian agenda. "God has blessed America abundantly, but we've turned away from Him," said a political consultant in South Carolina. "If we cross a certain point, He's going to abandon us." Crucial to this born-again agenda was support for school prayer, opposition to abortion, and staunch anticommunism. Conservative Christians hoped Ronald Reagan would establish this orthodox Americanism, but he let them down. Then many dreamed of Pat Robertson in the White House, but his candidacy utterly collapsed soon after the New Hampshire primary.

With the demise of Robertson's campaign came the death of the Christian Right's political hopes, according to D'Antonio. Then the remainder of the born-again movement was infected by scandals among the televangelists and conflict between moderates and conservatives in the powerful Southern Baptist denomination. It would have been easy for a self-proclaimed nonbeliever like D'Antonio to gloat over such developments, but he doesn't. Instead, he remains sensitive to the struggles and dreams of the Christian men and women who had given so much spiritually, emotionally, and financially-to the born-again movement. Attending a Debby Boone concert in Oklahoma, he sees a group of parents with retarded and physically deformed children and admires the way the parents treat their children lovingly and with great dignity. While in Heritage USA, the Bakkers's theme park, a woman asks, "Are you a born-again Christian?" "No, I'm not," answers D'Antonio. "Well, I'll pray for you. And I mean that in the best way." "Thanks. I know you do." Such sensitivity strengthens this book and increases the credibility of the story Dantonio tells. During the Civil War, an elderly lady rebuked Abraham Lincoln for speaking kindly of his Southern enemies instead of plotting their destruction. "Why madam," said Lincoln, "do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" In the same spirit, D'Antonio has criticized the Christian Right while eliciting sympathy for the foot soldiers of the born again movement.