★★★★★ 3
Stranded on third base
Format: Hardcover
Prof. Kruse wanders away from the promise of the subtitle of his book--"How corporate America Invented Christian America." He almost gets there when he describes the ideological opposition of the wealthy to F.D.R's "New Deal." and their caricature of the "social gospel" as Communist propaganda. His description of Truman's encounter with Billy Graham is wonderful. For a book published in 2015, Kruse makes only slight mention of the fact that the politics of money and religion in contemporary times becomes more pernicious every day. The main body of the book drifts into redundant detail about "who prayed with who" and the spiritual influence of prominent evangelists on presidents from Eisenhower to Bush with only faint reference to their ties with the Capitalist agenda. He portrays wealthy Christians as true religious zealots when, in fact, they and many of the politicians they supported were likely hypocrites using religion as a wedge issue to increase their power and pursue their agenda of unregulated Capitalism. It is remarkable that Kruse entirely fails to mention the Koch brothers--billionaires who bankroll countless ultra right-wing politicians with evangelical agendas, while they, themselves, are apparently Ayn-Rand-style libertarian atheists interested only in a social-Darwinian, Capitalist heaven. Prof. Kruse leaves us stranded on third base, when he could have hit a home run!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2015
