Nancy and I are delighted to release the following press statement (here, and below) regarding the September 2010 publication of her new book, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning:

** Press Release **
NANCY PEARCEY’S NEW BOOK

SAVING LEONARDO
A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on
Mind, Morals, and Meaning

New book by Nancy Pearcey, best-selling author of Total Truth,
goes on sale Sept. 1, 2010, published by Broadman & Holman

Feb. 11, 2010 -- Is secularism a positive force in the modern world?  Or is it a destructive ideology that must be unmasked and resisted if human beings are to live as whole persons with dignity and freedom? 

In Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, Dr. Nancy Pearcey offers an unflinching analysis of the profound personal and social devastation wreaked by secular worldviews in every area of life.  The assault is being launched from the classroom to the courtroom, from the talk shows to the television screen, from the pulpit to politics.

In this riveting account, Pearcey, a former agnostic, also exposes the stealth secularism that is transmitted through stories and images, where people are often unaware of its insidious impact on their minds, choices, and behaviors. 

It is a colorful narrative, boldly executed, with more than 100 images from high art to popular culture, from books to films.  What you read may change forever your outlook on the “hot button” political issues that dominate cable TV and talk radio, by offering a fresh and surprising diagnosis of the underlying ideologies that shape those controversies.

Saving Leonardo brings those ideologies to life with rich historical drama, illuminating the rise and fall of hopes and dreams as secular worldviews spin out their dehumanizing impact into our daily lives.  It is a highly readable account that brings into sharp focus the ideas and the people—scientists, philosophers, artists, writers, film directors—who have woven secular themes throughout the entire fabric of modern culture. 

What can be done?  Having once been captured by secular worldviews herself, Pearcey understands them from the inside.  She is an unerring guide to the fatal weak points where they can be exposed and overcome.  She is also a trailblazer, pointing the way forward toward a humane worldview that is rationally defensible, life-affirming, and rooted in creation itself.  As the American Founders themselves affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, human rights are unalienable only when a society respects them as endowments from the Creator. 

In a culture where the center is deconstructed and character is disintegrating, Saving Leonardo offers a practical and inspiring program to resist secularism and recover freedom and dignity—one that no free-thinking person who cares about the future of his family, or his nation, can afford to ignore.

Nancy Pearcey is editor at large of The Pearcey Report and professor of worldview studies at Philadelphia Biblical University.  For additional biographical background on Dr. Pearcey, please see http://www.pearceyreport.com/about.php.

For more information, please contact J. Richard Pearcey, editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (www.pearceyreport.com), at pearcey@thepearceyreport.com.

For information about Broadman and Holman, please visit http://bhpublishinggroup.com.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 12:08 PM | Permalink

Nancy and I are having a terrific time learning and speaking at Awakening 2010.

See you Monday!

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 12:36 AM | Permalink

Best Wishes from us to everyone for a Happy New Year!

May 2010 be banner year for individual and corporate resistance to tyranny at home and abroad, and in following The Empirically Verifiably Resurrected Leader of the Resistance in knowing truth and thereby being set free (John 8:32) to live as whole people across the totality of life in a hard and dangerous world.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 12:04 PM | Permalink

Janet Porter issues a 5-step call to action, including "A Cry to God for a Nation in Distress" to be held May 1, 2010, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:17 AM | Permalink

There are tremendous reasons to celebrate Christmas.

May you, family, and friends enjoy a blessed day of days.

We look forward to "seeing" you again next Monday, December 28.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 10:31 AM | Permalink

A Call to Resist -- Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham holds forth:

It's time we all stop pretending that what is happening with this Obamacare debate is about "helping the uninsured" or "fixing the healthcare system" or "giving the people what they want."

It's about none of those things.

It's about amassing as much power in a central government as humanly possible. It's about wealth redistribution. It's social engineering at its absolute worst.

The American people must take this political system back from those who have hijacked it in one of the most abhorrent power grabs that we the voters have ever seen.

It's the holiday season so the Democrats are counting on you to be otherwise occupied and too busy to stand against their massive expansion of government.

Let them underestimate us again just as they did last summer.

Let these unrepresentative politicians proceed with their legislative chicanery and self-righteous grandstanding.

We can expose them and confront them in the classic American spirit -- a public gathering on their doorstep.

On December 15th at 1 pm, we will remind Pelosi, Reid, Schumer et al. that they work for us and not the other way around. We will demand that they follow the will of the people, not dismiss and degrade it by putting future generations into a deficit dungeon.

We will put every politician who supports this travesty on notice: enjoy your remaining time in the U.S. Capitol because we're coming for your seat.

My view: Given that the historic Christmas in verifiable space and time is an act of resistance against evil and tyranny in all its forms -- stemming from the central problem of man's ethical alienation, by choice, from a life of community with our true Creator -- the Christmas season seems a fitting occasion to resist the political-cultural spirit of tyranny today, expressed with special force in the rise of a president and a political party that is even now undermining constitutional government in the name of all sorts of gifts from an overweening federal government, among them, socialized healthcare. 

So along with giving our kids their two front teeth for Christmas, maybe it's a good idea to give them their freedom back as well.

Now that would be a big Christmas. Let's talk about it December 15. All of this gift-giving could make for an intriguing New Year. 

Related
What Is "Mainstream America"?
The Evil Religious Presidents Do
Secular Washington-Centrism Is Un-American

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Tea Party Nation (TPN) has scheduled both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann to speak at the First National Tea Party Convention, which is set for Feb. 4-6, 2010, at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN.

Here's a TPN statement about the event:

Tea Party Nation is pleased to announce the First National Tea Party Convention. The convention is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements' multiple organizations principle goals. This event will be co-sponsored by other national groups that believe in a responsible and limited federal government that is responsive to all the people. National Taxpayers Union, American Majority, Smart Girl Politics, and SurgeUSA are just a few of the organizations contributing their talents and time to this convention.

Special Keynote Speaker for the event will be Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska (2006-2009) and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential Nominee.

Rep. Michele Bachmann has just confirmed that she will be one of the Breakfast speakers at the convention.

Other topics and workshops to be covered: Conservative Activism; Using Social Media to advance our cause, How to Coordinate efforts with other groups in your state, How to get Youth involved in Conservative Activism. There will be two discussion panels taking place on Saturday. The first will be entitled, "How to Defeat Liberalism" and the second will be a panel of Tea Party Organizers discussing "Where the Tea Party Movement Goes From Here." More workshops, speakers and seminars will be announced as they are finalized.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Prejean makes the announcement on Facebook. Here's the new website.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:55 AM | Permalink

For the Devil and Other Delusionals: "Renowned mathematician and philosopher David Berlinski (author, A Tour of the Calculus) will speak about his recent book, The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions," says this announcement on Facebook.

"Berlinski, an agnostic Jew, rigorously defends religious thought from the attack of the New Atheism. If you think that Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens have settled the debate, you'll want to hear what Berlinski has to say."

Here's The Devil's Delusion at Amazon. Here's the Berlinski website. Time and Place: 7 p.m., Oberlin College, Nov. 3, 2009.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 06:24 AM | Permalink

This new ad space (in the news column) can help spread the word about your products, mission, or organization, and it helps support our work.

Inquiries about this and other advertising opportunites are welcome at pearcey@thepearceyreport.com.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:33 AM | Permalink

This timely conference is being held September 25-26 in St. Louis, Mo. Latest news from the conference website is that Rep. Michele Bachmann is confirmed as a speaker.  

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"The largest Van Gogh exhibition to be held in Britain in over 40 years will open at the Royal Academy of Arts next January, which organisers hope will give visitors a glimpse of the real man behind the myth," reports the Telegraph.

Here's the site for "The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters," at the Royal Academy of Arts.  

Related:
Controversy Over Michelangelo Sculpture
Michelangelo, Schaeffer, and the Kingdom of Washington
Pizza With Michelangelo
Art Without Meaning -- Francis Schaeffer on "The Red Virgin"

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:53 AM | Permalink

Miss California Carrie Prejean, who recently stood up for the moral fact of the superiority of the Creator's objective norms for human marriage over against the subjective inventions and impositions of the secular homosexual establishment, will appear on nationally syndicated radio today at 4-5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Prejean will join hosts Mat Staver and Matt Barber on Liberty Live, a video broadcast that can be accessed online at American Family Radio and OneNewsNow.

Listeners who want to ask Miss California questions on air may call 866-963-2037.

It is worth noting that Prejean's comments in defense of marriage at the Miss USA pageant place her at the vital center of the American experiment in liberty under our true and knowable Creator. This affirmation of male and female in lifelong and liberating community under God has earned Miss Prejean the scorn of intolerant extremists such as Perez Hilton, whose pro-homosexualist, anti-Judeo-Christian worldview could never have yielded the "the blessings of liberty" that alarm tryants past, present, and future. 

Related:
Centrist Miss California Told to Shut Up "About Your Faith"
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Wildmon: Carrie Prejean vs. Rick Warren
Limbaugh vs. Obama

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With more than 2,000 "Tea Party" Rallies (see TEA and WND) scheduled across America April 15, some citizens are noticing a lack of media "support" in helping to announce this nationwide grassroots protest event to the public.

Here is a report from rally organizer Laurel West of Woodbridge, Va. Woodbridge is located in Prince William County, some 20 miles from Washington, D.C. She writes to Pro-Existence: 

I believe it should be noted that many of our United States Citizens have expressed a desire to invoke our constitutional rights. We are executing our right to public assembly. Unfortunately, we are not granted the support of “Mass Media.” According to Wikipedia, "Mass media" is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience. Accordingly, “Mass media” can be used for various purposes:

* Advocacy, both for business and social concerns. This can include advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations, and political communication. 

* Public service announcements.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Discovery Institute, where Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey is a fellow of the Center for Science and Culture, announces an advance in educational and scientific freedom:

Austin, TX -- Today [March 27], the Texas Board of Education chose science over dogma and adopted science standards improving on the old "strengths and weaknesses" language by requiring students to “critique” and examine “all sides of scientific evidence.” In addition, the Board -- for the first time -- specifically required high school students to “analyze and evaluate” the evidence for major evolutionary concepts such as common ancestry, natural selection, and mutations. 

The new science standards mark a significant victory for scientists and educators in favor of teaching the scientific evidence for and against evolution.

“Texas now has the most progressive science standards on evolution in the entire nation,” said Dr. John West, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute.  “Contrary to the claims of the evolution lobby, absolutely nothing the Board did promotes ‘creationism’ or religion in the classroom. Groups that assert otherwise are lying, plain and simple. Like the boy who cried ‘Wolf,’ the Darwin only lobby always screams ‘creationism!’ anytime educators or policymakers try to ensure a fair presentation of the scientific evidence both for and against evolution. Let’s be absolutely clear: Under the new standards, students will be expected to analyze and evaluate the scientific evidence for evolution, not religion. Period.” 

Regarding teaching creationism or religion in the public school classroom, a couple of points are worth noting.

First, this is a terrific win for academic freedom, but it should be remarked that nothing in the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution forbids teaching creationism or religion in the classroom. Entrenched secularist dogma on this matter is less than convincing.

In fact, progress in the American experiment in liberty advances from the fixed point of a knowable and objectively existing Creator who endows humanity with unalienable rights. The Constitution is a legal contract designed to protect those rights so that what Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny calls a "civil society" might come to actuality, which is what happened in the course of human events that we call the American Revolution.

The 1st Amendment forbids Congress from sticking its Federal Nose into our business, educational or otherwise -- something those who embrace a secularist tryanny over the minds of free human beings seem to disapprove. The 1st Amendment does not forbid Texicans or the rest of us from exercising our freedom and our sovereignity in education.

Here's the 1st Amendment in its entirety:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  [emphasis added]

The question therefore is not whether creationism or religion can be taught in the classroom. Of course they can. The real question is this: What's the evidence? If the evidence for or against a particular theory of origins is scientific, then present the case for and against, let the students think for themselves, and let them make up their own minds. Even in biology class.

The second point is that the Creator acknowledged in the Declaration, and against whom Congress is prohibited from passing laws against, is not a matter of "religious" belief or "faith" in the poor sense of the word bandied about inside and outside of secularist circles today.

The more rigorous, concrete, humane, and Biblical concept of faith has to do with the commitment of the whole person to that which is rationally, empirically, and existentially knowable as true. It is a worldview commitment rooted in truth about God, man, and the cosmos -- that same worldview, by the way, which provided the critical intellectual mass needed to launch modern science in the first place.

This wholistic approach has nothing to do with subjectivist "values," privatized "faith," emotional crutches, blind believism, or other characteristics swimming about in congressional waters, "religious" meetings, secular baptisms, and marketing strategies of the ACLU. 

The wonder and dignity of humanity male and female created in the image of a knowable God who endows each of us with unalienable rights cannot be squeezed into such limiting, dehumanizing, and regressive nonsense. It's time we all broke free of those chains. Bravo, Texas!

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 01:52 PM | Permalink

Please stay tuned for program announcements as I am happy to join San Francisco KDIA 1640 AM radio talk how host Karen Hughes for occasional "Worldview Correspondent" (scroll down to "Special Correspondents") comment and analysis on news, trends, people, and events.

The name of the program is "Changing Worldviews." Here's a link to our interview on "Revenue, Rush, and Revolt?"

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We received an inquiry today asking whether the June 2009 "worldview conference on wheels" tour of Rome-Florence-Paris is still open.

Answer: Yes!

A reminder: We sent the manuscript of Nancy's new book (which is related to theme of the tour) to our agent, and now a publisher is talking a look.

Those who attend the tour will get an exclusive preview of what Nancy has been working on.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 04:53 PM | Permalink

Joseph Farah writes:

I'm not an organizer.

I'm not big on protest rallies.

I'm not even persuaded that real, meaningful, long-lasting national policy change can come from influencing our elected leaders in Washington.

However, I think it's time for a march on Washington to galvanize forces who don't want to see America destroyed by socialism.

That time is July 4, 2009.

Judging from the anger and frustration I am sensing in this country right now, I have no doubts such a march could bring 1 million people to the nation's capital.  

People are mad. They are fuming. There is widespread righteous indignation across this country, and someone or something needs to channel it constructively and positively in a major show of force.

The Pearcey Report supports the restoration of the true and original mission statement of the United States of America, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, as protected by the U.S. Constitution, and as advanced against all odds, under God, our true Creator, by men and women of history and reason and conviction, to do what is right and humane in these challenging times at our door.

Independence on Independence Day. What say you, America? 

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 08:35 AM | Permalink

Hollywood Hawaii-style hangs ten for Obama:

Perhaps a film made in Hawaii will put the idea to rest that Obama was not born in the United States. For some skeptics showing a birth certificate might not have been enough. Now some University students are about to produce a film about Obama's birth.

After this investigative effort, how about a documentary on how an unseen-by-public-eyes $10 birth certificate turned into a near-abouts $800,000 pumpkin for 3 law firms?

In any case, someone might well ask: What, really, is the big deal? The U.S. has been operating without a Constitution for some time now, so what's the problem with not producing a little ol' birth certificate?

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Live From Detroit -- Tomorrow WLQV am 1500 talk show host Paul Edwards and I are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

He tags his show "The Center for Study of God and Culture," and I look forward to joining Paul and his on-air academy again.

To call in, phone: 866-423-WLQV. Listen online here. 

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 02:52 PM | Permalink

The International Arts Movement, founded by artist Makoto Fujimura, is now on Twitter.

You can "follow" IAM on Twitter by clicking here, as I did at 8:14 this morning.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 08:23 AM | Permalink

Official brochures for our summer 2009 worldview tour of Rome, Florence, and Paris -- titled From Plato to Picasso to You -- are now yours for the viewing.

Included is information on the following: A tour overview, your tour directors, the itinerary, plus details about accommodations, meals, transport (including a night train to Paris), registration, whom to contact for follow-up, and so on.

"We expect this to be a tremendous time of fellowship, on-site examination of significant venues in Western cultural history, and discussion of the relationship of humane and Biblical living across the whole of thought and life."

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 06:46 PM | Permalink

The MacLaurin Institute is looking for a director. Here's a job description.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 09:28 AM | Permalink

Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) are throwing a "National House Party" tonight.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 12:25 PM | Permalink

Meeting in Chicago at the Gospel Coalition Conference.

Hat tip: Challies

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 11:34 AM | Permalink

Here's the latest:

It seems the worldview tour of Rome, Florence, and Paris -- "From Plato to Picasso to You" -- is looking for 22+ brilliant, creative, fun, and thoughtful folks to sign up to make it a "go" officially.

That means you!

And 21 of your friends, family members, and fellow free-thinkers.

La sooner, la better (as they say in France).

For more information, and to help get this "conference on wheels" rolling along, please call 215-702-4333.

Or email Claire Johnson at cjohnson@pbu.edu.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 02:56 PM | Permalink

"Shadowlands" opens February 6 at Theatre Coppell.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 11:13 AM | Permalink

An opportunity for free-thinkers:

"The Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute announces an extraordinary opportunity for college students in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to participate in an intensive nine-day seminar that will prepare them to make research contributions advancing the growing science of intelligent design (ID) . . . ."

In addition, here are links for articles on Discovery, Darwin, and the intellectual contribution of Biblical thought-forms to the rise of modern science.

Posted by Rick Pearcey at 05:15 PM | Permalink