Ministers of Propaganda
Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Published: 2024
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Publisher's Description
Scott Coley exposes the inner workings of the religious right’s propaganda—and how Christians can resist it. Good evangelical Christians are Republican. It seems like it’s always been this way. That means the propaganda is working. Scott Coley trains a critical eye on the fusion of evangelicalism and right-wing politics in Ministers of Propaganda. This timely volume unravels rhetoric and biblical prooftexting that support Christo-authoritarianism: an ideology that presses Christian theology into the service of authoritarian politics. Coley’s historically informed argument unsettles evangelical orthodoxy on issues like creation science or female leadership—convictions not as unchanging as powerful religious leaders would have us believe. Coley explains that we buy into propaganda because of motivated reasoning, and when we are motivated by perceived self-interest, the Christian message is easily corrupted. But if we recover Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, right-wing propaganda will lose its power. Any reader troubled by American evangelicals’ embrace of racism, misogyny, and other unchristian views will find answers and hope in these pages.
Endorsements (4)
“Bringing a philosophical scalpel to evangelical truth claims, Scott Coley demonstrates with devastating precision how much of what passes as ‘biblical’ can better be understood as propaganda, as the deliberate obfuscation of reality in the interest of propping up self-serving hierarchies of authority and submission. Witty, hard-hitting, and engaging, this book is for those already alarmed by evangelicals’ authoritarian proclivities, but also for evangelicals themselves, for those genuinely invested in pursuing what is good and true.”
“Your pastor needs this book! Well-researched and incisive, Ministers of Propaganda explains the inexplicable—how white evangelicals who claim Jesus can support political and social structures that are very unlike Jesus. I found his analysis fascinating and convincing.”
“I couldn’t put this book down. Coley skillfully provides a framework that reveals how and why influential portions of American Christianity have consistently failed to embody the command of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. Equipped with this knowledge, readers will be able to recognize these mechanisms at work, faithfully confront those advocating only for self-interested expressions of Christianity, and pursue a more just future for all.”
“Coley’s book is a clear and methodical presentation of the rhetorical strategies deployed by prominent conservative evangelical leaders to advance their ideologies. With patience and philosophical rigor, Coley outlines how some evangelical communities manipulate religious language as a form of propaganda to both legitimize and advance an authoritarian political project as well as manufacture culture wars in order to preserve their power.”
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