WHEN DID CHRISTIANS GET SO MEAN (AGAIN)?

A fundamentalist is an evangelical who is angry about something.

— George M. Marsden, in Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism

— Matthew 10:34 (New American Bible)

Writing this book has been unsettling for several reasons. First, I consider myself fairly well-informed, yet I remain stunned by what I have discovered in the last four years about the extent to which the religious right has managed to impact political and social systems in the United States. Like most Americans, I noticed the movement in this direction: Michelle Bachmann's assertions that homosexuals are trying to legalize child sexual abuse, the number of Republican politicians proudly proclaiming their belief in creation rather than evolution, fights over books and scientific curriculum in schools, an Oklahoma political hopeful unapologetically expressing his desire to see LGBT people stoned to death, and skirmishes over Ten Commandment statues on government property. Stories such as these are ubiquitous and make it fairly clear that the United States remains a bastion of Christian fundamentalism, despite secular progress.

But impacting the realms of politics and policy is a far cry from infiltrating these systems with the aim of creating a theocracy or fundamentalist Christianity having an unintentional criminogenic impact, and, prior to this project, I felt utterly secure that anyone suggesting the latter idea likely needed fitting for an aluminum foil hat. I do not wear recyclable headgear, but I confess that there have been innumerable times in the course of researching this theory about the impact of the religious right on violent crime that it has felt more than a touch surreal that this striking movement has received so little attention in the mainstream media.

The second unsettling thing about addressing this topic is that the religious right, a powerful and vocal special-interest group in America, is unlikely to be thrilled with the theory I am positing about the impact of conservative Christian ideology on crime, and some of them do wear tinfoil hats. While there will probably be few members of the religious right who will read this book, those who do are unlikely to be happy about it and will likely do so in the service of either trying to discredit it or looking for evidence to further advertise the idea that fundamentalist Christians are persecuted in this country. The Christian right seems to have an "ignore it or deplore it" dichotomy in their response to information they find threatening to their belief system, and attorney Wendy Kaminer had it right in saying that, in the United States, "making fun of religion is as risky as burning an American flag in an American Legion Hall." While I am not actively making fun of fundamentalist Christians, the facts are not always flattering, so it is difficult to imagine a positive reaction toward this work from their camp.

However, both the historical and current truth is that this movement spends more time in the service of persecuting others than in being persecuted, and it is amazingly adept at harnessing feelings of persecution to its advantage. Part of this mechanism is fueled by three teachings of the Beatitudes from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which blesses those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, as well as those who are insulted, persecuted, or falsely accused of evil for following Jesus.

People who suffer such earthly attacks are promised great rewards in heaven. This is one of the primary reasons why this movement is extremely resilient to adversity: Defeat only strengthens their resolve, as it lends credit to the notion that they are underdogs in a spiritual war against a wicked world. In this respect, I might escape persecution for writing this book. After all, I am providing grist for the idea that Christians are put upon, and the mill is gravely lacking in real grist, because mainstream religions in the United States are sheltered from even deserved scrutiny through the accommodation of the American media, politicians, and citizenry — all of whom are rightly reluctant to be accused of picking on Christians. I am sympathetic, truly, as wearing kid gloves with respect to religion has become deeply engrained in our culture as synonymous with being respectful.

We will talk about this more later, but, for now, know that (a) I think this preferential treatment goes too far and is even a bit dangerous, and (b), given this, I urge politicians, journalists, criminologists, and the American public to start earnestly examining this brand of religion at their earliest convenience. It is uncomfortable to consider addressing negative consequences associated with a religion, due to our ethos of religious liberty, but it is necessary, and not a threat to liberty. The religious right has absolutely no problem grumbling about having to use politically correct (i.e., respectful) terminology in interactions with other groups — or even viciously attacking other groups — but appear to have no compunction in insisting that we bestow preferential treatment on them. This has to stop.

When you think about it, it is somewhat surprising that religion has not been researched to death in the context of crime, but it has not, and, while it is cliched to say that more people have died in the name of religion than for any other cause, it is likely true with respect to crime as well as terrorism. As criminologists tend to be fairly interested in homicide, the relative dearth of scholarly attention is perplexing. As you will see later in this book, there is too little academic work on the intersection of religion and crime, particularly where the research attends to the conflation of religion and conservative ideology. There is no criminological research on the specific focus of this book: Christian nationalism in the context of violent crime.

So you know what you are getting yourself into here, the Reader's Digest version of the theory posited in this book is that fundamentalist Christian ideology is criminogenic — in other words, it actually causes crime. The United States has more fundamentalist Christians than any other...