the surprising contributions of the Christian Right to practical democracy

From John Turner in Books & Culture, another review of Jon Shields' The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right...

Why, then, does the media portray the Christian Right as a threat to American democracy when pro-life activists behave civilly, promote dialogue and debate on meaningful issues, and boost democratic participation? If anything, according to Shields, it is pro-choice activists who disproportionately act boorishly and refuse to participate in meaningful dialogue on the issue—though he acknowledges that, since pro-choice organizations seek to maintain the status quo, they have much less to gain from debating the issues. Why does the media still write about Operation Rescue-type organizations even though pregnancy counseling centers have vastly more support among pro-life activists? Shields does not directly explain this alleged media bias. One presumes that negative media portrayals of the Christian Right exist for a variety of reasons, including the partisanship of journalists and the media's preference for confirming preexisting storylines.

I had earlier blogged on Richard John Neuhaus' review of the same book in First Things.