When Religion Is an Addiction

An eye-opening and hard-hitting work, When Religion Is an Addiction not only puts the political activities of the right-wing in a new perspective, but explains how liberal responses have often enabled religious addiction to thrive. Dr. Minor applies contemporary understandings of addictions to the extreme Christian right-wing in the United States and concludes that for them religion is functioning as a process addiction. Crucial to the addictiveness of such religion is its obsession with human depravity, the ultimate expression of low self-worth. Then the emotional "high" of feeling righteous functions to eliminate the religion addicts' sense of personal responsibility for their teachings, their actions, and their actions' painful toll on other human beings. Religious addiction, he observes, often and classically covers sexual addictions. And the current right-wing obsession with political campaigns and victories provides the user activities for the even stronger fix the addiction dema