Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right »

While the Christian Right has spearheaded a variety of antigay projects over the past fifteen years, including interventions in public schools, antigay-rights initiatives, and support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, observers of the institutionalized Christian Right have also noted a softening of antigay public rhetoric. Sin, Sex, and Democracy analyzes these two ostensibly conflicting phenomena. Examining Christian witnessing tracts, the ex-gay movement, and recent linkages between gays and terrorists, Cynthia Burack argues that as the Christian Right has become a more sophisticated interest group, leaders have become adept at tailoring different messages for mainstream audiences and for the internal pedagogical processes of Christian conservatives. Understanding the rhetoric and the theological convictions that lie behind them, Burack claims, is essential to better understand how American politics work and how to effectively respond to exclusionary forms of political thought and practice.

About the Author:
Cynthia Burack is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the Ohio State University

Introduction We Are Family

Born-Agains and Other Strangers

The Vision Thing

The Privileged Position of the Christian Right

My Gay Agenda

1 Speaking Right 1

Queer Is as Queer Does 1

Defiling Beds, Hearts, and Minds 2

Who're You Talking To? 5

Hate the Sin 7

Being Intolerant 11

Until the End of the World 16

Rapture Ready 20

Know Your Audience 25

Four Narratives 27

Use Your Inside Voice 31

2 The Nightmare of Homosexuality 33

Gay Blades 33

Laying Hands on Chick 35

Behold the Man (and His Time) 36

Chick Lit 40

The Devil and Homosexuals 42

Sin of Sins? 47

Marketing Hate 49

Politics and Witness 52

Pure Rapture 56

Framing Chick 59

Standing in the Gap 64

3 Origin Stories Jyl J. Josephson Josephson, Jyl J. 67

Becoming Queer 67

Saving Homosexuals and America 68

Being of Two Minds 73

Choice Point 75

The Narrative of Development 76

What Went Wrong? 79

From Development to Compassion 84

The Political Work of Compassion 87

Our Parents and Friends 91

Safety First 95

Feeling Sorry for Themselves 96

4 Getting What "We" Deserve 101

Pick an Enemy 101

And Now We Are Terrorists 104

Setting the Straight Story 109

The Politics of Desert 115

Where's the Harm? 124

Bringing Us All Together 130

Afterword: Another Gay Agenda 135

Listen Up! 135

Out in the Public 137

Another Gay Agenda 140

Notes 143

Index 177