I spent my early years in the Catholic wing of the Religious Left, and when my first grade school closed ended up in the rising Religious Right so I've been less surprised by some of the religious/political developments of the last three decades than most people of my political persuasion. I don't understand it - to me, the Religious Right views religion as based in hate rather than love - but it rarely surprises me. Even when they chose a promiscuous, foul-mouthed, bullying, avaricious con-man who bragged about sexual assault as their political savior, something in the back of my mind said, "Yeah, I get it."
Kristen Kobes DuMez offers a more inside view of this development in American religious practices. As Kevin Kruse did in One Nation, Under God she finds the roots of the movement in the backlash to integration. Her book focuses more on the causes than the results, going back to the early Twentieth Century to show revivalists (like those parodied by Sinclair Lewis) preached muscular Christianity and the condescending protectiveness it brought. From there, Christian sects gravitated towards power rather than mercy, convincing themselves that God wants strength and retribution. They began to follow preachers rather than the actual bible, leading to a surprising ignorance of scripture, and spread their views into all walks of life, particularly the military. DuMez follows different threads in each chapter - home schooling, anti-feminism, fear of societal change, love of violence - but doesn't quite tie everything together. I think that's the point, though. She's telling the origin story of a movement we already know.
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