Quite a powerful polemic. Marr writes beautifully...."on this summer afternoon, he sat hunched in a chair in a corner of his Hobart office, all limbs like a grasshopper in grey daks".....about Brian Harradine. And he is writing from the perspective of a gay who sees the Christian churches and their supporters as enemies of pleasure and freedom. The book is now dated but I found the section about the gay movement and the repeal of penal provisions in the law for gay sex profoundly informative. The book is really a collection of twelve essays on different themes ...mostly relating to the established Church...in one way or another opposing; abortion, gay sex, homosexuality, liberal attitudes to censorship, drugs, bad language and anti Christian views. He makes a powerful case that the Christians ......Catholics in particular ....have played the politics deftly to gain outcomes way beyond the number of true believers that they can muster.
There is a lot of information here and I admire his ability to muster the facts so well and present such a strongly worded series of rebukes. Has he been successful. Well ...even by his own admission....probably not . But hard to say, maybe, his words have a lingering powerful impact....that we can only today see starting to bear fruit. I give it 5 stars. ( )