Jephthah’s Daughters: Innocent Casualties in the War for Family ‘Equality’
edited by robert oscar lópez and rivka edelman
createspace, 484 pages, $19.99
I
magine that an interrogator has imprisoned someone and binds his mouth shut with electrical tape. For hours the interrogator harangues the prisoner on a single topic on which the interrogator and the prisoner disagree, using threats, passionate reproach, and questionable data. Rich and elite friends are brought in to assure the prisoner that all right-thinking people share the interrogator’s beliefs, on the grounds of rationality and human rights. While the prisoner is bound and gagged, the interrogator’s friends get busy smearing the prisoner’s reputation online and telling his employer that he should be fired. They also inform everyone who will listen that the prisoner’s personal stories—stories casting doubt upon the interrogator’s views—are lies.
Then imagine that the prisoner is ungagged, and free to speak safely and uninterruptedly for as long as he wants. He will burst forth with a great amount and variety of material, not in a linear order, but in an attempt to address every one of the indignities and lies he suffered. He will retell his personal experiences to reveal their texture and their truth. He will show how the interrogators’ numbers were cooked. He will disclose the hypocrisy of the elites. He will provide perspectives and logical arguments never considered during his ordeal.
That’s what it feels like to read Jephthah’s Daughters cover to cover . . .
