Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way

Educator and philanthropist Kennedy Townsend issues a spiritual call to arms to all those who feel that churches in America today--Catholic and Protestant alike--are failing the faithful. American churches today are more involved in offering prescriptions for what one ought not to do than in working for the greater good. Kennedy Townsend grew up when both America and the Church were undergoing a revolutionary transformation. She documents how America's churches have been in the forefront of the fight for social progress: from the struggle for independence, to the abolitionist movement, to the support of women's suffrage, better working conditions, and civil rights. And she shows how today's churches, allied with the political right, have become obsessed with fighting legal and legislative battles about personal and private issues, while the neediest are forgotten. But opposition to this distortion of Christian traditions has been growing, and the book's message is one of hope.--From publisher description.