You’ve Read the Headlines – Now Read the History!
Holy Terror: The Fundamentalist War on America’s Freedoms in Religion, Politics, and Our Private Lives
by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman
Religion and politics, two powerful forces that affect our lives every day, have linked arms and are endangering America’s most basic constitutional principle: the separation of church and state. Holy Terror is a counterforce of its own. This classic book unveils the surging “Religious Right” coalition of extreme fundamentalists and far-right politicians who are waging a holy war for the hearts and minds of Americans and people the world over.
Conway and Siegelman, authors of Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, the seminal study of personality change in destructive cults, religious sects and extremist political groups, show how the high-profile preachers and low-profile political strategists of the Religious Right use intimidation, manipulation, sophisticated propaganda techniques, and state-of-the-art mass communication technologies–including satellite-cable TV, computerized direct-mail and telemarketing–to recruit millions, raise billions, and advance their geopolitical goals. To research the threat of America’s religious-political crusaders, the authors traveled tens of thousands of miles, crisscrossing the country to interview hundreds of people on all sides of the issue—from congressmen targeted by the movement to top-rated televangelists to disillusioned born-agains. The potent practices they uncovered have changed America and are replicating ominously among fundamentalist religious-political movements worldwide.
ISBN: 0385292864
Delta Books: Updated Edition (1984)
Softcover: 496 pages, $10.95
Praise for Holy Terror!
“Sometimes a book comes along that strikes the senses like an alarm bell in the night. . . . Brilliant . . . a richly-documented account of how religious right-wing groups are undermining our culture, our democracy and our traditional values.
– The New York Times Special Features
“Lively . . . hard-hitting, controversial.”
– Publishers Weekly
“The authors…strike back with style and sophistication.”
– Philadelphia Inquirer
“A stunning and factual documentation. . . . Conway and Siegelman have been reporting on this war almost from its inception, and they are now the master chroniclers.”
– Norman Lear
“An eloquent and frightening description of the dark shadow of the Middle Ages that is now rising and attempting to put an end to all that gives meaning to America.”
– Isaac Asimov
“Anyone who wants to be politically aware should read this.”
– Frank Zappa
“Conway and Siegelman are front-line warriors, afraid of nothing and nobody, evidently, in the desperate battle to keep America sane.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
