The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture
This book came out last month, I saw a review of it in one of the library catalogs we get and I ordered it immediately. I was so excited to get it that I dropped everything else I was reading just to read this.
I loved it too! From the jacket cover:
In The Decency Wars, First Amendment specialist Frederick S. Lane examines America's changing attitudes toward decency and the politics of decency. He takes a strong and unequivocal position that it is inappropriate and dangerous for the government to try to regulate morality. He accuses religous conservaties of starting "decency wars" for motives no more noble than profict and political gain.
So this book was so up my alley, it was hard to resist. The content ranged from historical to current, I learned so much about the history of these "decency wars" that I did not know, and I was refreshed on the incidents I was well aware of. For instance, I had no clue that the Puritan religious culture of our country can actually be traced back to Henry VIII! And in regards to the religous conservatives, who were a just target in this book, I'm generally pretty open and understanding in regards to people's convictions, but I tend to not tolerate people who force their ideals onto me...for this my respect is low for anybody who tries. I don't sympathize with the relgious conservatives, I don't get political on my blog much anymore, but I think these people are destroying our culture, and thank goodness this book exists to prove it!
When I first started reading this book, my husband noted that the thing he doesn't like about non-fiction books is that they often expose a problem, but not the solution. I read non-fiction a lot, this doesn't bother me, but he is a little bit correct. This is exactly why I was happy that this book devoted the last chapter to a solution for fighting this particular problem. The bullets weren't a stretch to the things I already believe or already do, but what they did do was make me realize that there's more I need to do (without feeling like I wasn't already doing enough).
I grabbed another book catalog from the mail the other day and noticed that attacking the religous right seems to be the new favorite thing with a few of these upcoming books. All I have to say is good, because I'm sick and tired of the way they've constantly attacked other groups on their radio and tv shows, even to the point of threatening the lives of other people who even oppose them just a little bit...if this isn't decent then I don't know what is?! I may read a few of these new books, but I don't know. I like to balance out the amount of political books I read, sometimes all of the yelling and screaming from both sides tends to wear me out and I need to take a break for awhile.
