NetGalley Review: Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America by Talia Lavin

Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America by Talia Lavin

My Rating: ✩✩✩✩✩

Levin has done it again, this time delving into the alarming world of Christian Nationalism and providing a terrifying window in how this groups extremist members envision the future of the country.

While I could write forever about each new, and alarming, fact I learned in reading this book, overall it traced an interesting history of how Christian Nationalism came to the forefront of American politics. Intrinsic in this history is the way that the fight to make evangelical belief the required norm for all Americans has always left the far right on the wrong side of history. Using "Christian Values" has been the shield for child abuse, the fight against child labor laws, book banning, healthcare restrictions and preventing women from divorcing abusive spouses. We see this mirrored everyday at every level from Moms for Liberty (The Southern Poverty Law Center identified hate group) working in local school committees to a heavily conservative Supreme Court placed by a grifter that Christians believe is a literal Biblical Figure sent to save the country.

Additionally, for those of us not raised in any particular faith (having this Wild (Not Christian) Faith has certainly made us all outsiders), the book provided really important insight into just how religious extremists perceive American Politics. I did not know that a period of biblical law would be required for ascension to the promised land...but it sure makes the fight for conservative judges make more sense. I did not know that the fall of Palestine to Israel is an important step in the path to biblical domination...but it sure makes current global policy make more sense. The driving force behind the Satanic Panic, the fear of "the mark of the beast" and the concept of Trump as the biblical figure Cyrus certainly all make a lot more sense when you realize how much of the country is operating under a book club run amok.

I would consider this a must read before the 2024 election. Levin provides a critical prism through which the upcoming campaigning can be viewed. Read it as a companion piece to Oreskes and Conway's "The Big Myth" for a truly unvarnished view of how the church has fought against the best interest of Americans for as long as it has been an institution under capitalism.

Published on 15 October 2024 by Grand Central Publishing

Book #50 of 2024   

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