Christian Coalition

In Political Agendas for Education: From the Religious Right to the Green Party, Second Edition, Joel Spring describes and analyzes the current educational agendas of major political players and organizations. His analyses of the interrelationships between right-wing think tanks and school reform, and the political background of proposals for school change, are unique among books dealing with the politics of education. This second edition covers the changes that occurred during the 2000 presidential election that led to the inauguration of George W. Bush. In a lively, anecdotal style, Spring portrays the underlying ideologies, as well as the nitty-gritty, day-to-day doings of the various players involved. The players range from the Evangelical Christians, the conservative think tanks, and the Bush Republicans--with their ideology of "compassionate conservatism"--to the arenas of centrist and leftist politics, spanning the New Democrats, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and the Green Party under the leadership of Ralph Nader. Additions and updates to the Second Edition include: *Compassionate Conservatives: The Republican Educational Agenda for the 21st Century *The Meaning of "Compassionate Conservatism" *Evolution Versus Creationism *The Manhattan Institute and George W. Bush's Educational Policies *The Republican Agenda for the 21st Century *Gore and the 2000 Presidential Campaign *What's Left of the Left? Ralph Nader and the Green Party *Ralph Nader, Consumerism, and Education Political Agendas for Education is of broad interest to educational scholars, professionals, and policymakers, and highly appropriate as a text for courses on the politics of education, foundations of education, sociology of education, and curriculum theory.

America faces a crisis of legitimacy. It's a crisis that dramatizes the separation of church and state. A crisis that, in the messages sent by our culture, marginalizes religion as a relatively unimportant human activity that plays an unimportant role in the national debate. Because the nation chooses to secularize the principal points of contact between government and people (schools, taxes, marriage, etc.), it has persuaded many religious people that a culture war has been declared.

Stephen Carter, in this sequel to his best-selling Culture of Disbelief, argues that American politics is unimaginable without America's religious voice. Using contemporary and historical examples, from abolitionist sermons to presidential candidates' confessions, he illustrates ways in which religion and politics do and do not mesh well and ways in which spiritual perspectives might make vital contributions to our national debates.

Yet, while Carter is eager to defend the political involvement of the religious from its critics, he also warns us of the importance of setting some sensible limits so that religious institutions do not allow themselves to be seduced, by the lure of temporal power, into a kind of passionate, dysfunctional, and even immoral love affair. Lastly, he offers strong examples of principled and prophetic religious activism for those who choose their God before their country.

This timely new study examines the place and nature of religion in industrial societies through a comparative analysis of conservative Protestant politics in a variety of 'first world' societies. Rejecting the popular, but misleading, grouping of diverse movements under the heading of 'fundamentalism', Bruce presents a series of detailed case studies of the Christian Right in the United States, Protestant unionism in Northen Ireland, anti-Catholicism in Scotland, Afrikaner politics in South Africa, and Empire Loyalism in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. He proceeds to examine the constraints that culturally diverse societies place on those who wish to promote political agendas based on religious ideas or on religiously informed ethnic identities.