Book review: Christian Jihad

by Colonel V. Doner

★★★★★

The Lord God is the universal governor of all nations. Humans are unable to govern justly without Scripture as their governing authority, the Bible is the only standard by which to run a government, there is no absolute separation of church and state. --The Coalition on Revival

"Yeah, uh-huh," I said to myself as publicist Kathleen Campbell promised me a review book that is "really GOOD!" Well, she was right on the money, though it turned out to be also a bit frightening. Christian Jihad is a look at religion gone wrong and the infringement of Church upon State.

The Coalition on Revival prepared a series of seventeen documents for Christian living, and promptly informed its readers and members that they had "determined that it is mandatory for all Christians to implement this worldview in society." On Independence Day, 1986, at the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. James Kennedy, the COR's keynote speaker who had just been voted Clergyman of the Year, said the documents "had the historical significance of the Magna Carta or the Declaration of Independence." The San Francisco Examiner held a different opinion: "700 preachers shepherding 600 million born-again Christians gathered here not so much to celebrate America as to plot to take it over. The funny thing, if you have a bizarre sense of humor, is that they have a heck of a chance of succeeding." Colonel V. Doner, this book's author, describes signing a "blood oath," a solemn covenant with Almighty God that he was willing to be martyred in order to do God's will. 

Yes, this is an autobiography of sorts, and I was hooked from page two. Doner was a founding member of the fundamentalist Christian Right in the 1970’s and 80’s and a leader of the radical Theocratic Dominionist movement at the end of the millennium. An insider from his impressionable teenage years, Doner gives us the scoop on fundamentalist agendas, including how they spill over into political campaigns such as those of Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, and Michelle Bachmann. As an insider, he qualifies to explain just how powerful the grip of fundamentalist religion can be, the unswerving, complete confidence that one knows the absolute Truth of God and the socio-political worldwide agenda of that God.

Doner devotes an entire chapter to Sarah Palin, whom he discredits through her association with the religious right. I choose not to involve myself in political issues on this blog, so in fairness to our modern-day Esther, I’ll admit that Doner’s treatment will strike many as an unsubstantiated smear. After all, understanding others and seeking common ground, he says, may be the way to disarm neo-fundamentalists.

The book’s final section provides a challenge to “make Jesus’ number-one command of love the test of who’s truly a ‘Born-Again Christian’.” Doner appears to have lived out his suggestion before proposing it. He left behind his “neo-fundamentalist Washington power trip” long enough to devote an uninterrupted week for prayer and prioritizing, and in the book’s final pages, he describes his 180-degree turnaround, devoting himself just as earnestly now toward humanitarian interests. I was inspired at Doner’s closing words: “I’ve come home to God’s love at last. I am truly born again.”