The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America [Paperback]

This book has clearly been written with enthusiasm, and its subject matter most definitely merits attention. However, an annoying kind of over-zealousness gets the better of the author on more than one occasion. Her editors have indeed done a poor job. There are many segments of the book which should have been excised: for instance, to indulge in counter-factual speculations about the reign of Pope John Paul I is wholly out of place in a book like this, and the sources to which she has recourse in this regard are of a highly dubious nature. Then there are inanities such as this: "[Michael] Novak always referred to himself as a "theologian" as Josef Mengele always referred to himself as a "physician"" (p. 125). An utterance like this is neither amusing nor enlightening, and it could only prove damaging to the case that the author is trying to make. Be that as it may, the author has assembled plenty of eye-opening data in a single book. For instance, the fact that several prelates were members of the infamous P2 lodge; here she should have named names. That the antics of semi-criminal organisations such as the Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta are recounted is something for which the author should be lauded; but the treatment is unfortunately too cursory. Her exposé of the nauseating Catholic neoconservatives George Weigel, Michael Novak, and Richard Neuhaus is undoubtedly the high point of this book. This book is a timely critique. For too long the focus has exclusively been on the neocon-lunatics among the Evangelicals of America. Betty Clermont makes it clear that the pestilence extends to the Catholic Church.

If you've been paying attention to politics and current events at all in the last ten years, You've undoubtedly asked yourself at least a few of these questions:

* How in the name of God did America--once renowned as the bastion of Truth, Liberty, and Hope--fall so low into the pit of the Machiavellian NeoConservative pit of extreme political cynicism, lies-promulgated-as-Truth, and aggressive belligerence toward the rest of the world? How and why does a propaganda outlet like Fox "News" manage to consistently lie, mislead, spin, and distort "Truth", and why do Americans consistently surrender their intellectual curiosity and march in lockstep to the mendacious pipers?

* How in the name of God did traits like Morality and Integrity in both our political and religious leader become merely convenient slogans, but personal inconveniences which seems to be required of the common-man populace, yet not of they who would promulgate them most fiercely?

* How in the name of God could a nation once as forward-looking, technologically-progressive, and scientifically cutting-edge be seemingly marching backward into a fundamentalist-inspired, ideological darkness of conservative religiosity?

What if the answers to all of these questions was, ironically, "In the name of God"?

Betty Clermont writes a concise, well-researched manuscript which, quite frankly, will both horrify and anger you in both the scope of, and clarity by which she documents the origins and growth of the Vatican's inextricable involvement and entanglement in what are most surely the darkest instances and episodes of our nation's past 40 years, from the twilight of the Viet Nam war to the present day.

The format of the book is one of its strongest points. Divided into short, 1-2 page sub-chapters, the book moves along briskly, and yet provides enough informational calories per sub-chapter to feel like a meal. There is little tedium to the prose, and the format enables the use of the contents page as an easy, quick, and effective reference for the major players in what can only be righteously called "the conspiracy". This is a great book for say, bloggers or editorial writers looking to have a factbook immediately on hand to rail against the main antagonists.

AT the heart of the book is the clear progression of the neoconservative alliance with conservative religious groups, all overseen and seemingly controlled from within the Vatican and CIA. It clearly shows the obsession with control and authoritarianism which has so characterized Catholicism through the ages, and its current manifestation as the guiding mantra of neoconservative. I was surprised to learn of the real reasons for America's entanglements in Central America under the Reagan years; how the "real" Pope John Paul II was so markedly different from the euphemistic, "saintly" way he is remembered today by some; of the prevalence of the Knights of Malta and Opus Dei in the entire weave of the story, and how at the heart and core of the entire manuscript, how distinctly "UN-godly" and "immoral" were the entire cast of ostentatiously "religious" and "moral" hypocrites. I was also frightened at the completely psychopathic, sociopathic character of some of the major Conservative players still on the scene today, and at the level to which they would use the whatever "means" necessary to win their "ends". The books is rife with tales of murder, assassination and intrigue. No one of the major Conservative or religious figureheads in play today escapes Clermont's rapier prose--from Dick Cheney to Pope Benedict. The pedophile scandals are also explored in depth, as is the level of Vatican meddling in the most recent couple US elections.

This is a book that should be read by anyone who genuinely fears for the future of this nation, and realizes that voting--or NOT doing so--has consequences.

It's no secret the deeply religious tend to lean conservative. "The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America" analyzes the religious right and its powerful influence on American politics. 'Neo-Catholics' tends to bring together the ideas of orthodox Catholicism, some Protestant branches, and more and Betty Clermont discusses its influences, and how it shifted from having many liberal views in the early 1980s to being an icon of the Conservative right in America. "The Neo-Catholics" is an intriguing read that offers much insight in the twist of politics and religion.

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