The Hijacking of Jesus

Dan Wakefield
March 2006     ISBN: 1560257458

Christianity in America has become nearly synonymous with right-wing fanaticism, conservative politics, and--courtesy of Mel Gibson--a brutally sadistic version of the religious experience. Millions of devout Christians, like Dan Wakefield, are appalled by the religious right's distortion of their faith, which only three decades ago stood for peace equality, healing, and compassion for society's outcasts--the issues that made up the ministry of Jesus.

This book traces how the Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount has in effect been hijacked by right-wingers and the Republican Party. Dan Wakefield travels across America in search of answers, meeting evangelical Christians, visiting the new mega-churches, and finding "a cultish kind of Christianity as dangerous as it is distorted."

Dan Wakefield is a novelist, journalist and screenwriter whose bestselling novels Going All the Way and Starting Over were produced as feature films. He created the NBC prime time TV series James at 15. A documentary film has been produced of his memoir New York in the Fifties. His nonfiction books on spirituality include Returning: A Spiritual Journey, Creating from the Spirit, The Story of Your Life: Writing a Spiritual Autobiography, Expect a Miracle, and How Do We Know When It's God?: A Spiritual Memoir.