Nancy is scheduled to appear with Fox News Anchor Lauren Green at 10:45 am eastern tomorrow (September 3) on "God Talk," an online TV program broadcast on the Fox News website.
Topic: Saving Leonardo. Here is Lauren Green's Facebook page.
Nancy will discuss her new book Saving Leonardo today on Point of View radio, from 2-4 p.m. eastern time. Click here to listen online.
Today marks the beginning of "Launch Week" for Nancy's Saving Leonardo.
We look forward to seeing some of you at the U.S. Capitol Vistors Center at noon today. And we will do our best to keep you updated on interviews, media appearances, and other goings-on regarding this new book, which is a "call to resist the secular assault on mind, morals, and meaning."
Thanks to all for the great interest and support we've already received for Saving Leonardo.
Nancy will be speaking at a "Faith and Law" event in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on September 1, the date of the release of her new book Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning.
In addition to discussing central themes from Saving Leonardo, Nancy will provide a sampling of the book's more than 100 images, from art and popular culture, specificially chosen to give readers a window into the impact of secular worldviews, for good or ill, in our individual lives, upon questions of human freedom and dignity, and thus across the whole of society.
For more information about Saving Leonardo, please see this press release.
Here are event details:
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Time: Noon
Location: U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, HVC 201
Phone: 703-425-2404
Lunch will be served.
Please RSVP by replying to RSVP@faithandlaw.org.
For more information, please email tina@claphamgroup.com.
This is going to be a terrific time together. We look forward to seeing you September 1.
Mark Levin says Crimes Against Liberty, by David Limbaugh, is a "stunningly important book."
Here is audio of "The Great One's" tremendous radio interview with David on Tuesday night.
Florida State's coach (well, he's now retired after 55 years) was on "Fox and Friends" this morning talking about his new book, Called to Coach: Reflections on Life, Faith, and Football. Bowden is right that we are all here for a purpose, and the implication of his message -- that all of life is spiritual -- is also right.
This includes coaching. And I must say, those who think life lived in community with our Creator means cutting yourself off from his good gifts are sorely mistaken. A low view of the physicality of life has more to do with ancient Greek dualism that took a low view of matter than with holistic living based on verifiable and actionable information from the Creator.
Coaching -- as well as teaching, science, politics, nurturing a strong family life -- is just as much a calling before the Creator as is any other vocation in life, including preaching. Remember, Jesus of Nazareth was not wasting his time, nor was he being less spiritual, while he worked as a carpenter.
Assuming one has the necessary knowledge base, what makes a good coach at any level? Love the sport, love the person you are coaching, demand excellence -- and praise hard work and dedication even if the final product is not world-class.
It helps mightily if you live in community with God and man -- for sports is an expression of excellence, achievement, aesthetics, creativity, and physicality, all of them tremendously positive gifts from the hand of the Creator and expressive of his character.
That's why we might also say: There will be football (and soccer!) fields in Heaven. And the harps may well be electrified. The Creator, quite literally, is not a spoilsport.
First Interview: Author and attorney David Limbaugh appeared on the Hannity show on Fox last night to discuss his new book, Crimes Against Liberty. Here are a transcript and video of that interview.
We are pleased to release the following press statement for Nancy's new book, Saving Leonardo:
Media Contact: David Fouse
703.494.4902, Fouse@pinkstongroup.com
SAVING LEONARDO
NEW BOOK SOUNDS THE ALARM THAT SECULAR IDEOLOGIES ARE DESTROYING HUMAN DIGNITY AND FREEDOM
Bestselling author Nancy Pearcey issues a call to resist
the secular assault on mind, morals, and meaning
August 24, 2010 -- Politically correct secular doctrines have penetrated every area of our lives. They are in our schools where children are taught that moral standards are matters of personal preference. They are in our politics where marketing and manipulation substitute for rational persuasion. They are in our art, media -- even churches -- where sheer entertainment outweighs real-world truth.
In Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, best-selling author Nancy Pearcey, herself a former agnostic, offers an unflinching analysis of the profound personal and social devastation wreaked by secularism all across American life -- from the classroom to the courtroom, from the pulpit to the playground, from the boardroom to the White House.
“Because the word secular is the opposite of religious, many assume that the rise of secularism is a problem for religious groups only,” Pearcey says. “Not so. When politics loses its moral dimension, we all lose. When public discourse is debased, the entire society suffers.”
In this riveting account, Pearcey exposes the stealth secularism that permeates society through education, media, politics, art, literature, and movies. Saving Leonardo reveals
With more than 100 colorful images from the classical Greeks to Van Gogh, from Camus to Scarlett Johansson, you will “see” secular ideas unfold in fresh and surprising ways.
Finally, Saving Leonardo argues that the best hope lies in a worldview that is rationally defensible, life affirming, and rooted in creation itself. As the Declaration of Independence puts it, human rights are secure only when a society respects them as unalienable givens endowed by the Creator.
In a culture where the center is deconstructed and character is disintegrating, Saving Leonardo offers an inspiring program to recover freedom and dignity -- one that no free-thinking person can afford to ignore.
Praise for Saving Leonardo
“A feast for the mind and the eye” -- Makoto Fujimura, artist, author
“Balanced, fair, impactful” -- Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist, author
“Intellectual prophet” -- J.P. Moreland, philosopher, author of The Question of God
“Astounding” -- James W. Sire, author of The Universe Next Door
“Brilliant” -- Gene Edward Veith, author, Provost, Patrick Henry College
“Unsurpassed” -- Leland Ryken, professor of English, Wheaton College
“May be Nancy’s best book yet, and that’s saying something” -- David Limbaugh, syndicated columnist, author
Praise for Nancy Pearcey
“One of the most profound writers today” -- Ted Baehr, founder, Movieguide
“A mind like a jewel” -- Lael Arrington, author, Worldproofing Your Kids
“An author of unusual ability” -- Phillip E. Johnson, author, professor emeritus, Berkeley
About the Author
Nancy Pearcey authored Saving Leonardo while serving as research professor of Worldview Studies at Philadelphia Biblical University. She is editor at large of The Pearcey Report and has authored or contributed to several works, including The Soul of Science and How Now Shall We Live? Her bestselling book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity won the 2005 ECPA Gold Medallion award.About the Book
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Broadman and Homan Publishing Group
Price: $26.99 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-4336-6927-9
A review copy of David Limbaugh's new book, Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of President Barack Obama, has arrived in the mail, and it looks tremendous.
To give you an idea of the timeliness of, and need for, this book, here is what's on the front and back inside flaps of the cover:
Was This the Hope and Change America Voted For?
* Socialized healthcare?
* A foreign policy of abasement to our enemies -- and hostility to our friends
* Bailouts upon bailouts?
* "Stimulus spending" that’s really pork-barrel spending on steroids?
American voters might have been naïve when they went to the polls in 2008, but New York Times bestselling author David Limbaugh wasn’t. He warned voters of what would be in store. Now he’s back with more than a warning. A practicing lawyer, he has compiled the most comprehensive and devastating indictment of what is turning out to be the most destructive presidency in American history.
Limbaugh charges that this presidency is ambitiously unraveling the Constitution, actively rooting out American traditions and values, and most of all, committing crimes against American liberty.
In Limbaugh’s brilliant new book, he documents:
* Obama’s offenses against the rule of law (including the administration’s blatant pursuit of race-based justice)
* Violations of the public trust (including Obama’s Chicago-style bully boy tactics to protect and advance the administration’s cronies)
* Abuses against the private sector (including how the Obama administration is removing any limits to federal power)
* Crimes against good governance (including Obama’s mania for secrecy after getting elected on promises of transparency)
* Betrayals of the national interest (including the administration’s gagging of honest discussion of the threat of radical Islam)
* And much, much more
If there was ever a must read -- this is it. Crimes Against Liberty is a stunning tour de force -- a detailed indictment against a president who is pursuing an agenda at odds with the Constitution and that is even more radical than most people realize.
Crimes Against Liberty officially goes on sale this Monday, August 23, and as part of the launching of the book, David is scheduled to appear with Sean Hannity on Fox Monday evening at 9 pm eastern.
Full disclosure: David Limbaugh is a friend of mine, and I was primary editor of his great book Persecution.
When it comes to Nancy's new book Saving Leonardo, you can literally "check it out" at the Kenton County Public Library in Kenton County, KY, located in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Kenton County is named after Simon Kenton, a longtime friend of frontiersman Daniel Boone.
It seems fitting to note the appearance of Saving Leonardo in Kenton County. Just as the county's namesake helped blaze a trail through the Kentucky wilderness, the new book blazes a trail through the secular wasteland.
The Kentucky wilderness reminds us of pristine beauty, whereas the secular wasteland is a departure in so many ways from the wonder of the Creator's handiwork and from a nation Declared free under God. Two contrasting environments, but a similar call to courage and creativity in the face of a challenging situation.
Contemporary trailblazers seeking more information on the Kenton County Public Library should turn in here. The official launch date of Saving Leonardo is September 1.
Saving Leonardo "may be Nancy's best book yet -- AND THAT'S SAYING SOMETHING," columnist and author David Limbaugh writes on Facebook. "More on this subject later," he says.
I just noticed that the "Search Inside" function for Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning is now available on its Amazon page.
Click here, for example, to get a close-up of the book's terrific cover.
Related
Why We Should Be Skeptical of Skeptics (Like Michael Shermer)
America's Ruling Class and How It Holds on to Power
They Said What About Nancy Pearcey's New Book Saving Leonardo?
Nancy Pearcey's Saving Leonardo Now at Amazon
Michael Shermer, executive director of the Skeptics Society and publisher of Skeptic magazine, typically shoots from the hip. Which explains why he often misses the target. In a recent column, he blames Christianity for -- of all things -- the latest New Age craze.
The column is a critique of Deepak Chopra, the well-known New Age leader. Chopra used to be a top assistant to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (of Beatles fame). Time dubbed him the New Age Supersage. In spite of these facts, astonishingly, Shermer reinvents Chopra as a medieval theologian. In his words, Chopra’s theology is “essentially an updating” of medieval scholasticism.
You would think that means Chopra appeals to medieval thinkers like Anselm and Aquinas. But you would be mistaken. Chopra’s goal is to forge a link between New Age thought and 20th-century quantum physics.
New Age interpretations of quantum theory were popularized a few years ago in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? Before that, they circulated in books like Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism and Gary Zukav’sThe Dancing Wu Li Masters. These books claim that the view of reality suggested by quantum theory correlates with the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. The Dalai Lama, a recent visitor to the Obama White House, frequently makes similar claims.
What does any of this have to do with medieval theology? Answer: Nothing.
So why doesn’t Shermer link New Age physics to its real source in Hindu and Buddhist theology? He ignores the obvious connection to Eastern mysticism and instead wants us to believe that Chopra’s New Age preaching is an “effort to update medieval theology.”
This is so utterly contrary to the facts, it suggests that the “skeptic” Shermer -- like so many secularized academics, reporters, entertainers, and politicians -- is determined to make Christianity the target for virtually everything he disagrees with.
Chopra’s New Age physics is only one of many interpretations -- and misinterpretations -- that quantum theory has inspired, as I show in Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning. For example, it was also enormously influential in the rise of postmodernism because it appeared to undercut classical physics, along with the entire Enlightenment worldview.
That’s why even non-scientists need to understand its impact -- if for no other reason than to answer those who misuse it to support their own favorite religious or philosophical views.
And to debunk zealots who are determined to make Christianity a target, even in contradiction to the facts. Truly free thinkers need to be skeptical of those who call themselves “skeptics.”
Saving Leonardo can be pre-ordered here.
"Astounding," "Brilliant": As you might imagine, we're more than a little pleased to announce the following endorsements of Saving Leonardo from author James Sire (The Universe Next Door) and author/provost Gene Edward Veith (The State of the Arts):
"Nancy Pearcey has done it again and better than ever. She has taken the complex sophistication of the best cultural analysis and laid it out for any person to grasp, enjoy, and use to live out their daily lives honoring Christ. An astounding accomplishment!"
-- James Sire, author of The Universe Next Door
"Brilliant. . . . The book brings complex, abstract ideas down-to-earth -- or, rather, down-to-life. . . . Saving Leonardo bridges the gaps between the arts and the sciences, the theoretical and the practical. The book not only argues for the unity of Christian truth but exemplifies that unity and shows it in action."
-- Gene Edward Veith, Provost, Patrick Henry College
Nancy's latest book is set to publish September 1. For more information, or to pre-order, please go to the Saving Leonardo page at Amazon.
Note: I have added these two endorsements to those already published here.
In his review of Lifework (authored by Darrow Miller), Robert Osburn states:
Miller takes the time to unpack the economics of work, and not just the theology of it, [and this] makes the book well worth reading on that score alone.
He unfolds the "three plain rules" of John Wesley: gain, save, and give all you can.
Miller also does a good job of showing how "idealistic socialism" (are you listening Obama?) and "predatory capitalism" (are you listening Republicans?) are bastardizations of an economic system that I would call "compassionate capitalism."
"Compassionate capitalism" savors market mechanisms while embedding them in a moral framework where the ultimate end (love for God and neighbor) regulates the immediate end (profit).
"For over 25 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women," states his bio at Discipling the Nations.
"From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer."
Read the rest of Osburn's "Hey Obama, Republicans, and Pastors -- Can Capitalism Be a Mission From God?"
Related
Sarah Palin and the Death Panels, by Darrow Miller
For information on, or to pre-order, Nancy's new book, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, please see the page at Amazon (see also Barnes & Noble, added Aug. 20, 2010).
The book officially launches just a few weeks from now on September 1.
Here are a few endorsements:
"A feast for the mind and for the eye. Nancy Pearcey not only is a trustworthy guide for a nuanced discussion on the relationship between culture and the gospel, but she is a gifted teacher as well . . . Saving Leonardo is a rare, precious gift to the churches and universities alike."
-- Makoto Fujimura, artist and author of Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture
"G. K. Chesterton said 'the danger when Men stop believing in God is not that they'll believe in nothing; but that they will believe in anything.' Nancy Pearcey understands where believing in anything leads and in this book she reveals where a secular philosophy is taking us. A balanced, fair, and impacting work!"
-- Cal Thomas, syndicated and USA Today columnist
"Nancy Pearcey helps a new generation of evangelicals to understand the worldview challenges we now face and to develop an intelligent and articulate Christian understanding . . . Saving Leonardo should be put in the hands of all those who should always be ready to give an answer -- and that means all of us."
-- R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"Nancy Pearcey has done it again and better than ever. She has taken the complex sophistication of the best cultural analysis and laid it out for any person to grasp, enjoy, and use to live out their daily lives honoring Christ. An astounding accomplishment!"
-- James Sire, author of The Universe Next Door
"Nancy Pearcey is an intellectual prophet in our day and one of Evangelicalism's foremost cultural observers. Saving Leonardo is a tour de force. In it, Pearcey provides a penetrating analysis of the nature of contemporary secularism, a helpful exposition of how we got to the present situation, and a well-crafted strategy for changing the situation. This is her best effort yet . . . a must read."
-- J. P. Moreland, distinguished professor of Philosophy, Biola University and author of The God Question
"Brilliant. . . . The book brings complex, abstract ideas down-to-earth -- or, rather, down-to-life. . . . Saving Leonardo bridges the gaps between the arts and the sciences, the theoretical and the practical. The book not only argues for the unity of Christian truth but exemplifies that unity and shows it in action."
-- Gene Edward Veith, Provost, Patrick Henry College
"Nancy Pearcey is unsurpassed in the current generation of Christian thinkers . . . The magic continues with this book. Pearcey's virtues as a writer and thinker are once again fully evident in the range of material that she has mastered, the encyclopedic collection of data that she presents, and the analytic rigor with which she separates truth from error in worldviews. She is a prophetic voice for contemporary Christians."
-- Leland Ryken, Clyde S. Kilby professor of English, Wheaton College
Note: The statements from James Sire and Gene Edward Veith were added July 29, 2010.
Hot Indie News has posted an excerpt from The Obama Diaries, by Laura Ingraham (buy at Amazon).
Bill Redmond, formerly a U.S. representative from New Mexico, replies to "Sarah Palin 'Mama Grizzlies' Video Neglects Vital Point":
Great comments. I warn pastors and other Christians who want to get involved that "getting involved" or "supporting 'our' conservative values" is not enough.
I press them to understand the "basis" for their involvement. If it is not grounded in the Creator, it will be short lived.
I have been passing out Schaeffer's Christian Manifesto to pastors, political leaders and others for more than 10 years. Unless they ground themselves in the foundational perspective, if they "act," it will be mostly for naught. Pastors are not aware that churches can be co-opted by left or right.
Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge, "has become central to La Familia's recruitment strategy and group mentality," writes Alfredo Garcia. "La Familia is known in Mexico, a nation plagued by drug-related bloodshed, for its extreme violence."
Aaron Klein will appear on the Fox Business Network at 5 p.m. Eastern to discuss The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists, and Other Anti-American Extremists.
Brenda J. Elliot and Aaron Klein are coauthors of the book, which is currently no. 16 at Amazon.
Human beings deserve books and other artforms (and government) that nourish them instead of merely shocking or amusing them.
This is one of many reasons to acquaint yourself and your family with Story Craft, John Erickson's great book on writing.
Readers of The Pearcey Report might like to know that Nancy Pearcey wrote the book's Foreword and that I am honored to have been its editor.
For more about Story Craft and the West Texas rancher-author who has sold more than 7.5 million books since his days at Harvard, see the book's website here. Here's a review. More at Amazon are here.
In his review of God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, by agnostic professor Rodney Stark at Baylor University, Terry Scambray writes:
Speaking in Egypt last June, President Obama apologized for an imagined American imperialism on territory that itself was gained by Islamic conquest. The New York Times in 1999 compared the Crusades to Hitler’s atrocities. Even Pope John Paul II joined in by apologizing for the sacking of Constantinople by crusaders in 1204.
Rodney Stark, Distinguished Professor of Social Science at Baylor, shows that such statements are serious bunk. For, as he writes, the Crusades were defensive wars to repel the Islamic conquest of Byzantium as well as to prevent the destruction of the Holy Land. . . .Stark, though basing his work on the very best sources, may appear to be a Catholic apologist. Yet he was raised Lutheran and considers himself an agnostic though with a desire to become a religious believer.
Professor Stark’s works are an encouraging corrective to the anti-Western constructs, sometimes called “history,” which are taught in our schools. But restoring the West’s loss of confidence and eradicating its culture of masochism will take more than his prodigious output, as deeply impressive as it is.
"It surprised me to learn that David Remnick had dedicated three pages of his comprehensive new Obama biography, The Bridge, to my thesis that Bill Ayers helped Barack Obama write Obama's 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father," Jack Cashill writes at American Thinker. "It will surprise Remnick even more to learn that he has unwittingly reinforced a thesis that he set out to discredit."
As confidants, fundraisers, marketers, and people on the inside of publishing know, just because a "household name" can read a teleprompter, give a good speech, or read radio scripts heard by millions, that doesn't mean said household name can write a book, or 20 books.
Even if the name has a law degree.
Even if other people who know better say he did.
And even if his website constantly repeats the fraud over and over again.
Be assured, as long as a political, religious, or otherwise celebrity has staff (or contractors) well-paid for their efforts and quietude, and as long as he has others who need his hyped name to sell their books and promote their agendas, all is well, so to speak.
Yes, all is well. If you don't mind deceiving others on a daily basis, that is. And if you don't mind lying and thieving your way to the top (or to the bottom, as it were).
Meanwhile, as you hard-charge to a better and brighter future for your trumped up "legacy," you might want to remember that little bit of wisdom from a fellow crucified for living and telling the truth: "The first will be last and the last first" (Mark 10:31).
Dysfunctional systems of celebrity and publishing are well-defended. Then comes the judgment.
Cashill's article makes his point in relation to a political figure. Just as unfortunate, similar observations could be made in regard to "Big Christianity" or "Evangelianity."
This is one reason, in my view, the impact of Christianity out into the culture, including political culture, especially Washington, D.C., is so anemic. If you "ape the world" in its mentality and methods, the world sees you coming a mile away. And laughs.
God-talk thrown on top of worldliness may fool many, including the faithful. The world, and the prince of this world, laughs.
Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele offers a simple explanation for why the GOP all too often lost touch with typical Americans after the Ronald Reagan era: "We screwed up," he claims in a new book offering a blueprint for the party's resurgence.
That "we" includes the last two Republican presidents and the most recent Republican candidate for president.
The name of the book is Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda.
John R. Coyne, Jr., reviews We Still Hold These Truths: Recovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future, by Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation.
"In this short, but powerful book, Dr. Baker captures the essence of the Tea Party movement," writes "Tea Party" mom Peg Maretta in a review at Amazon.
"He correctly identifies programs that were not authorized by Constitutional Amendment, as well as the deficit spending and debt resulting from the excesses of the Federal Government. He outlines that unconstitutional growth leads to bigger government, higher spending, higher taxes and less freedom. Using the Constitution as a benchmark, he does a fiscal analysis of past and present actions by the Federal government that has resulted in the current massive debt."
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Hey Rove and O'Reilly: Wise Up on Constitution, Healthcare
Obamacare Authoritarian and Unconstitutional
Senator Admits: "No Place in Constitution That Says Healthcare"
Pearcey Accepts Obama Healthcare Proposal
"Sarah Palin may be going 'rogue.' But she’s not going away," concludes Jacob Laskin in his review of Sarah Palin's memoir (co-authored with Lynn Vincent). "Critics count Palin out at their peril."
Click here for details of the second half of the Going Rogue book tour.
Note also that Palin will contribute part of the book's royalties to the "families of the victims whose lives have been forever changed by the tragic events of November 5th."
Palin's contribution is part of a larger effort called "Community Response to 11/5." Additional information is available at the website of the Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter of the Association of the US Army (AUSA).
Comedian and talk show host Dennis Miller discusses intelligent design with Dr. Stephen Meyer, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.
Here is audio of the interview. Meyer is scheduled for a full hour in-studio interview December 2 at 12 p.m. ET, 9 a.m. PT.
In an interview with Newsmax, "former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Tuesday sharply criticized President Obama's deep bow to the emperor of Japan and charged Democrats are 'purposefully' holding back details on their healthcare reform proposals from the American people to avoid an open debate."
In "Palin's Popularity vs. Media Mania," Robert Stacy McCain examines continuing outbreaks of Going Rogue Palin Derangement Syndrome among the reportorial establishment.
"For her supporters on the right," writes Melanie Kirkpatrick, "they won't find" in Going Rogue "much new ammunition with which to counter those who say that Mrs. Palin isn't ready for the rigors of the White House."
"What's notable about Sarah's Palin's book tour, which starts midweek, is where she's not going," writes J. Robert Smith at American Thinker.
Here's the Going Rogue book tour schedule.
As Expected, says the former Alaska governor on her Facebook page: "AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book." Which can be purchased here.
Palin and Going Rogue hit the ground November 18.
Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret World That's Conspiring to Islamize America is offically released tomorrow. Here's a heads-up from WorldNetDaily:
In the wake of the sensational ACORN video sting operation by two young investigators, an even more daring, dangerous and devastating undercover investigation -- this one infiltrating the nation's most aggressive Muslim "civil rights" organization for six months -- has resulted in stunning revelations about the supposedly "moderate" group, backed up by 12,000 pages of documents and 300 hours of covert video obtained during the secret op.
As revealed in a new book detailing the operation and its findings, the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is not the beneficent Muslim civil-rights group it claims to be. Rather, as indisputable evidence now shows, CAIR and other "mainstream" Islamic groups are acting as fronts for a well-funded conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood -- the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas -- to infiltrate and destroy the American system.
I'm on page 206 of Vince Flynn's Pursuit of Honor, which goes on sale October 13.
Here's his website. Here's the Pursuit of Honor page at Amazon. Pursuit is ranked No. 31 in books and is available for pre-order.
I would be happy to hear from Flynn fans on your thoughts about his previous work -- and your expectations for this new book. Email here: pearcey@thepearceyreport.
American Thinker raises the issue:
Time magazine has blown the lid on a secret ghost writer for one of the most well known political figures of our day and that person is . . . Sarah Palin.
That's right!
Not President Obama but Sarah Palin whose book titled Going Rogue: An American Life is set for release soon.
American Thinker faults Time for its politically slanted coverage, and writer Eric Tully makes several good points.
But let's move beyond the tactics of political coverage.
Ethical fairness would seem to require that whether one is talking about Barack Obama or Sarah Palin, the question is basically the same: Shouldn't readers, as a matter of simple honesty and truth in advertising, be able to tell who wrote a book by its cover? Of course they should.
Depending upon how much a writer "contributes," the cover of a book such as Going Rogue can state, for example:
* By Sarah Palin, or
* By Sarah Palin, as told to Lynn Vincent
* By Sarah Palin and Lynn Vincent
* By Sarah Palin With Lynn Vincent
And then the front matter of the book can give more details about how the book was written.
People's work should be respected, and it is biblically proper for their names to be attached to it, to receive proper and truthful credit and to alert others in the church and the culture to the presence of up-and-coming authors.
Individuality and creativity may be despised by the "machine" or by eastern religions, but there is nothing we have from our true Creator that hates or seeks to squash the individual per se. Sin, not the self, is the real challenge. The challenge is ethical, not ontological.
Along these lines, you may want to read, "Human Identity, Biblical Worldview, Creativity, and the Meaning of Work," by Udo Middelmann. Middelmann is president of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation in Switzerland. (More on Schaeffer here.)
Politics is downstream from culture, as former Capitol Hill staffer Bill Wichterman once said (and whom Nancy quotes in Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity).
A corrupt culture, including a corrupt publishing culture, may need to be uplifted and reformed -- to match the God-given dignity of the person, including nonfamous authors -- if we are to expect better results out of our political culture, whether that political culture is your local government or an all-too-un-Constitutionally rogue system entrenched and well-defended in Washington, D.C.
Capitol Hill is full of fake people doing pretend work, asking Americans to slavishly accept unread legislation imposed by a regime that prefers a dead Constitution (called "living") to the real written Constitution whose words continue to stoke the flames of freedom.
Millions of Americans respect Sarah Palin, and I am one of them. But it is crucial to maintain a humane, ethical, and factual critical distance. This is part of living free and being responsible in one's choices and affirmations.
Palin would serve herself and her cause well by insisting on truthfulness and transparency in publishing, including questions of authorship. The same calling holds true for any self-respecting collaborating author, under God and liberated by the Creator's high regard for the individual and the "work of our hands" (Ps. 90:17).
Let's hope Sarah Palin does not allow Going Rogue to be domesticated and co-opted by a secular ghostwriting ethos that says -- after you get behind the PR niceties -- it is OK to deceive one's readership for a good cause. In this regard, it seems legitimate to wonder why, given reports of a co-author, no co-author is currently noted on the cover of Going Rogue, as pictured on Palin's Facebook page and at Amazon.
Sometimes we hear about contracts and confidentiality agreements that keep a co-author or ghostwriter quiet. But two wrongs don't make a right.
Not even with a signed contract.
What? Because two or more people and a publisher agree to keep quiet, nuance, or otherwise deceive the reading public, it's OK? You think a holy God blesses that?
Perhaps not. The ends do not justify the means, nor do the means justify the ends.
More and more in our corrupt secular culture, ethics transcends legality.
From WorldNetDaily:
Politico's Ben Smith found it newsworthy that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin chose a "partisan evangelical" Christian to co-author her upcoming best-seller, but somehow he and the mainstream media have decided that serious evidence suggesting an unrepentant Marxist terrorist had a primary role in President Obama's highly acclaimed literary memoir is of no interest.
Not a single mainstream reviewer or political editor has so much as mentioned the controversy over authorship of Dreams from My Father that was resurrected last week when a major new book reported Obama sought the literary assistance of William Ayers, founder of the radical Weather Underground group, points out WND columnist Jack Cashill.
Read the entire story from WND.
Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein's new book, titled Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, and What Can Be Done, "delivers a warning to those who would spread false rumors about Barack Obama," writes Lee Cary at American Thinker.
Cary quotes the czar, page 88:
Some kind of chilling effect on damaging rumors is exceedingly important -- not only to protect people against negligence, cruelty, and unjustified damage to their reputations, but also to ensure the proper functioning of democracy itself.
"Of course," Cary observes and as all czars and protectors of democracy have always known, "creating a 'chilling effect' isn't censorship."
Nor, one suspects we are to believe, is such a "chilling effect" a denial of the Constitution, the 1st Amendment, or an unalienable right endowed upon all people by our true Creator (which is not the federal state).
In fact, to suggest censorship, to imply such a thing, or to charge such a thing -- against a patriotic protector of Democracy, no less -- why, that may well be an evil rumor spread on the internet. About which something ought to be done.
In the world of czars, Sunsteins, and Obamas, a visit from the Ministry of Love and Community Organized for the Protection of Democracy and Decency might be in order.
It's 3 a.m. What's that knock on the door?
Oh. They're just here to collect the fine and ensure the retractions are all in order. For a minute there, I was worried.
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Fascism Is Back
Just two days after HarperCollins announced that the release of Palin's memoir, Going Rogue, had been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, preorders for the former Alaska governor's book have made it No. 1 on Barnes & Noble.com on Wednesday and at No. 2 on Amazon.com, trailing only Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.
We are pleased to note that in the mail today arrived the Korean edition of Nancy's book The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy, published by SFC Publishing Company.
The Soul of Science was first published by Crossway Books in 1994. At Nancy's invitation, Dr. Charles Thaxton joined the project and "provided scientific expertise and review" (for additional info, please see Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity, Crossway, p. 398).
Here's the SFC website. If you read Korean and see this edition of Nancy's book, we'd love to hear from you.
Related
Christianity Is a Science-Starter, Not a Science-Stopper
Creation vs. Evolution: What Our Children Need to Know
Film: Evolution vs. the Aliens: Cosmic Irony Found in Earthy Comedy
Jack Cashill writes at American Thinker:
In his new book, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage, best-selling celebrity journalist Christopher Andersen has blown a huge hole in the Obama genius myth without intending to do so.
Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned in my articles on the authorship of Dreams. With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers." . . .
Andersen continues, "In the end, Ayers's contribution to Barack's Dreams From My Father would be significant -- so much so that the book's language, oddly specific references, literary devices, and themes would bear a jarring similarity to Ayers' own writing."
One wonders how any self-respecting, truthful person can allow his or her reputation for smarts, much less genius, to be constructed upon the work of others (whether the others are willing or otherwise). And yet there are such people, known people -- here in the Washington area and beyond -- including, to be fair, both Christians and non-Christians.
It's all part of the deception that occurs all too routinely in "authorship," "worldview thinking," column-"writing," radio "commentary," and all the rest.
What, you think these folks so often marked by a culture that doesn't have time to read legislation before they vote somehow have time, energy, and space to write books, columns, etc., etc?
And yet, if these "gods" are to maintain the pretense of having the necessary smarts to save the world from their Washington offices or Washington "ministries," they must create and maintain an image of genius, compassion, humility, "spirituality," and so on.
Hence the necessity of the unseen people doing unseen work, often well-compensated, down in the basement or on contract out in the hinterlands somewhere. Hence ghosted work is parlayed into speeches, retreaded into devotionals, sublimated into training programs, and upgraded in the latest greatest book "written" by Mister Big. And it all goes on the website (bio: "author of 34 books!"), as a humble service for the readers (i.e., potential donors), of course.
If you wonder why secularists laugh at and scorn Christians in Washington, it's partly because the veterans know the score, know the pretense, and are more than happy for ammunition handed to them by which to ridicule, distract, and attack. This pretense, these phonies, and these pretenders hurt many people.
Fundraising machines fueled by Big Names created by PR teams, researchers, and ghostwriters are no way to redeem the culture, folks.
Especially if out of the other side of his mouth Mr. Worldview Expert is telling sinners they need to shape up and accept He who is the Truth. A corrupt political culture is downstream from many things, including a corrupt, secularized, Madison Avenue "Christian" culture.
Fortunately, we can do better and have models available in the likes of a C.S. Lewis and a Francis Schaeffer who demonstrate the authenticity, efficacy, and spirituality of real work by real people.
Until the pretender model of "ministry" is cast aside -- and truth is practiced and not just preached -- it is difficult to see how the God of Truth can bless those who dissemble even while proclaiming on street corners that they move forward under his banner. Claiming the blessing of God -- and having the blessing of God -- are, of course, two different things.
For more on this, you might consult chapter 13 ("Substantial Healing in the Church") of True Sprituality by Francis Schaeffer and chapter 13 ("True Spirituality and Christian Worldview") of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey.
Related
Francis Schaeffer: "The Central Problem of Our Age"
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach
What Can We Learn From Francis Schaeffer?
From WorldNetDaily:
What is it about a California-based Christian evangelist from New Zealand that makes him irresistible to even the most sophisticated secularist?
"You sir, are a fool who could not lie straight in bed. It is beneath me to even address you," wrote an online respondent to Ray Comfort's weblog Friday, "but I was passing by and saw this tripe, I could not constrain myself."
The lively interaction on his Atheist Central blog with scores of atheists and agnostics of all kinds -- from young students to decorated scientists -- has given Comfort unusual insight into the skeptical mind and led him to conclude atheism rests on a remarkably illogical and unscientific premise that became the title of his latest book, "Nothing Created Everything."
"I found over the last year, when I said an atheist is someone who believes nothing created everything, they go berserk and say, 'We don't believe that,'" said Comfort, co-host of "The Way of the Master" television show with actor Kirk Cameron and the head of Bellflower, Calif.-based Living Waters ministry.
Read the entire article.
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Evolution vs. Creation: What Our Children Need to Know
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On "The View" to discuss her new book Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin more than holds her own. Would love to see her on again.
Watch the video.
Hat tip: Human Events
"Matt Stewart, a San Franciso-based novelist, began 'tweeting' his first book, The French Revolution, on the micro-blogging service on Tuesday," reports Agence France-Presse.
I'm writing a review of Liberty and Tyranny and saw today that Levin's book is ranked No. 2.
Wondering what is No. 1, I looked. Glenn Beck's Common Sense showed up. Here is the Amazon Bestsellers page.
Herbert E. Meyer writes in American Thinker on The Swastika Against the Cross, by Bruce Walker:
In The Swastika Against the Cross, Bruce Walker skillfully pulls together a huge amount of evidence to illuminate the great lesson of the twentieth century: Crazy, vicious people sometimes get political power, and when they tell you what they're going to do with that power -- believe them. Today, as North Korea fuels that missile on its launch pad and as the lunatics in Iran build nuclear bombs, it's a lesson we need to learn -- fast.
Yes, the Nazis hated Christians and Christianity, perhaps just as much as do liberal statists today throwing stones from entrenched positions in Hollywood, academia, media, and Washington, D.C.
Thus the secularist war against the Creator, the smooth lip service given to the Declaration, and the audacious manipulation of the Constitution. Thus abortofascism, homofascism, and Washington-centric fascism, etc., etc. -- all tentacles of tyranny wrapping themselves around "the mind of man" and around the lives of a people endowed by our true Creator with unalienable rights, a free people in a land of slavery who even now are stirring up to reclaim their birthright under God.
We resist, even if tyranny is cool again.
From Randy Thomas:
I quit reading the latest book by Ann Coulter. By the time I got to the second instance of her calling a group of people a name that rhymes with "wussies" I closed the book and never went back to it again.
I didn't get angry. I didn't even really think about it beyond the roll of my eyes and exasperated sigh. The world is too coarse and has been for a long time. I closed the book, put it down and literally didn't think about it again ... for weeks. It's like a subconscious switch said, "alright that's enough ... move on."
So I have. When Ann gets to the point and makes a true argument I will listen or read her column. I doubt I will buy another book.
All that said, I would still go to lunch with her if given the opportunity.
A friend gave me a book by Nancy Pearcey called Total Truth. She is an authentic Christian intellectual. Of course I don't think I even rate as a pseudo intellectual so ... take my estimation with a grain of salt. All I know is I have loved her work with Charles Colson and I was mesmerized by her intellect at a presentation I attended where she was speaking about this very book.
A couple of observations. First, full disclosure. Ann Coulter came onboard at Human Events while I was managing editor. I enjoyed working with her. I agree she is sometimes over the top, but I'd much rather have her in play than others who lack conviction, courage, or both.
Secondly, Nancy and I appreciate that many people have found How Now? to be of help. Please let the record show, however, that the book is actually tri-authored (not simply coauthored) by Nancy Pearcey, novelist Harold Fickett (the long story chapters), and Charles W. Colson.
By the way, both Nancy and I have book projects in the works. Hers is under consideration by a publisher. Mine is being written.
A hard-copy prepublication version of Nancy's new book arrived in the mail today. This edition is also being sent to expert readers who have requested such a copy. More about this later, but comments already coming in are quite positive, for which we are thankful.
Remembering that politics follows culture -- especially during these days of an oppressive secularism, governmental and otherwise -- I can honestly say that this next volume offers a mighty blow against the forces of manipulation, fragmentation, and inhumanity at large in so many areas of contemporary life, thought, and society.
Nancy and I are thrilled with how this project has developed, and we appreciate the vision and support of Philadelphia Biblical University in producing this hard copy and in supporting Nancy's writing and thinking. Great job all!
It is absolutely vital that Americans understand that Statists -- goosestepping under the freedom-implying-but-in-fact-denying flag of "liberalism" -- have competely and totally rejected the "Mission Statement" -- the "vision statement" -- that defines the American experiment in freedom.
As history and clarity of thought show, the Statist program is a disaster that, if unchecked, leads to the deaths of millions of individual human beings, each and every one of them with names, fingerprints, families, hopes, dreams -- each and every one of them created in the image of God, endowed by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights."
This is not a theory to talk about over tea at a picnic where everyone makes nice -- but a fact shaking the foundations of the body politic. Tyrants indeed tremble. Watch them bluster and manipulate before the camera, in print, on the Hollywood screen, and from the editorial chair.
As already we are seeing here in the United States, slavery and inhumanity are the natural and mathematically certain by-products of this unholy exchange of the "blessings of liberty" for the pathetically labelled "investments" of a Federal Empire already "loving" us to death. The Frankenstate is alive and well and kicking and imposing its not-so-soft tyranny upon the children of God and their birthright of liberty.
A commitment to Freedom and Dignity under our true Creator -- as set forth in the Declaration and protected by the Constitution -- requires resistance at every level and with every fiber of our human being.
That's why, in addition to talking with friends, family members, speaking out on radio, writing here at Pro-Existence, and so on, I've posted "Levin Challenges Statist Tyranny, Reaffirms 'Mission/Vision Statement' of American Liberty" as an Amazon customer review of Liberty and Tyranny (adapted from here).
A lot more than posting reviews is needed, of course. We know that, and we are moving forward. "Change" -- Reformation -- on the basis of that remarkable Mission Statement courageously set forth at great price by the Founders -- is the only humane and free way to go. And that is where we are going. So Help Us God.
Just moments ago, Rush Limbaugh sang high the praises of Mark Levin's new book, Liberty and Tyranny.
Limbaugh said during his daily radio broadcast that people often ask him for a reading list of books that will help explain what conservatism is. He said you don't need a reading list. You need a book: Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny.
The American people do need a thorough reaquaintance with the singular worldview and "mission statement" that has elevated this nation and her people since 1776 to heights of freedom and prosperity and concern for our fellow man unrivaled in human history.
Perfection, no. Of course not (that, my friends, is part of the story). But "substantial healing" -- to borrow a phrase from the great Francis Schaeffer -- yes. It's amazing what a people can do when they read the directions, especially if those directions have something to do with "unalienable rights" vested in humanity by virtue of our Creator.
Mark Levin's book may be the spark to set off that necessary reacquaintance. Well, let the reaquaintance begin. Let the true American spirit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, under God -- our true, living, and verifiable Creator -- rise up again from the ashes.
By the way, Levin is discussing his book this week on his own radio show, and he will appear tomorrow on Rush's afternoon program. So pull up a chair. Let's get ready to rumble for freedom.
Oh, that banging you hear? Tyrants pounding down the back door, or trying to. Probably ACORN volunteers paid with our money, hoping to share their faith. Tyrants and bullies are worried any time a people great or small recovers their true identity under God. See Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider and you'll know what I mean.
Checking Amazon last night at 1:49 a.m., I saw that Mark Levin's new book, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, is No. 1. This is terrific news.
If America is to recover from the current secularist and statist attacks on the Declaration, the Constitution, the individual -- and on that way of life expressed in a civilization that takes seriously what the Creator has to say about all of life, including the life of politics and government -- then books such as Liberty and Tyranny are indispensable reading.
Add A Christian Manifesto (by Francis Schaeffer) and Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity (by Nancy Pearcey) and we see a growing body of a literature of resistance to a dehumanizing and un-American status quo.
There is more help on the way. The argument can be refined. But now is the time to act to defend our very civilization.
Let the work of freedom and dignity under God regain renewed energy and let it not rest until Americans the brave again emerge from under the ugliness and rubble of statism and secularism.
We reject the darkness and inhumanity preached, imposed, and spewed forth by the Washington-Hollywood-Academia Axis and its propaganda organs otherwise known as the evening news.
We throw off these chains, this slavery. We hear the Founders' call to resist. The statist hatred of, and rejection of, the defining "vision statement" of the United States of America cannot, and will not, stand.
Congratulations, Mark Levin, on the success of your new book and on your part in helping Americans -- and the world -- see something of the fresh air of Freedom over the horizon, always beyond the reach and smog of a Federal Empire that hates America the free and Americans the brave. Let Freedom Ring!
Thomas Lifson writes at American Thinker:
Mark Levin's new book, published today, is essential reading. It is a remarkable work on several different levels. It takes no degree of clairvoyance to predict that it will become an enormous best seller and very soon begin to influence the national political debate.
Liberty and Tyranny artfully presents a harmonious marriage of the timeless with the timely. One the one hand, the book is a thorough yet compact briefing on the major political issues of this era. On the other hand, the author brings to bear the principles of the American Founders and Framers of the Constitution (and the great thinkers who guided them), illustrating, dissecting, and explaining our current political arguments, while enlightening the reader with the genuine wisdom bequeathed to all of us -- the sacred trust of the Founders, embodied in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and Federalist Papers, all of which are quoted and applied with insight and precision.
Why buy, read, and apply this book? "If you care passionately about America," Lifson writes, "and worry for its future -- and who doesn't, given the current national leadership? -- then you owe it yourself to buy and devour this marvelous work. It is an essential antidote to what ails America at the moment."
Great news!
As of today, Nancy's next best-selling book is in the hands of our great agents (Yates & Yates). Pre-publication readers are already taking a look.
It's not yet time to release details. But let me just say: If you liked Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity, well, get ready to celebrate again. We'll keep you informed with further updates.
We appreciate the way pastors and churches continue to find Total Truth a helpful book. Here's a recent recommendation.
Backstage at the political circus, socialism:
Only a month into Barack Obama's presidency, an acclaimed psychiatrist is warning that Americans are being slowly corrupted by socialism as Obama's policies intrude into their economic, social and political lives -- a tactic he believes will secure future votes for the Democratic Party.
"We have a desperate population, and it's feeling even more desperate than usual," Dr. Lyle Rossiter told WND. "People are really quite frightened. They're looking for magic, and they think they are going to find it in this man."
Rossiter is a forensic psychiatrist and author of The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness. In his book, he explains how the kind of liberalism being displayed by both Barack Obama and the Democratic Party can only be understood as a psychological disorder. He examines how modern liberal collectivism undermines the legal and moral foundations of ordered liberty. . . .
"It was bad enough under Bush, who expanded government beyond all bounds, federalized education and further socialized health care with a drug bill for seniors. It will get worse under Obama."
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.
To see The Pearcey Report on-line version of the brochure, click here. I hope you find the place links and map links of special interest."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."
In the mail this week arrived Rules for Radicals, a "pragmatic primer for realistic radicals," written by Saul Alinsky and published in 1971.
What's striking, immediately, about this book is that Alinsky at the outset acknowledges his debt to the "very first radical," who turns out to be none other than: "Lucifer." This appears on the page preceding the table of contents.
The problem for Obama, who famously asserts that he is a "Christian," is that he appears to be in significant debt to the thinking and tactics of this man Saul Alinsky (as is noted here by an Obama opponent and here by a supporter).
The challenge for Obama -- if he wants to be understood as an authentic Christian -- is that the Lordship of Christ applies to the whole of life, including the tactics of political and social change one employs.
Methods matter far more than some people appear to realize (this challenge applies with equal force to the so-called religious right, let us say in fairness). "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven" is not a relativistic option up for vote on Capitol Hill. To be tossed aside if electoral results or fundraising pressures require.
How can an Obama, or any public figure claiming to be an authentic follower of Jesus of Nazareth, also embrace the spirit of one who is the intellectual, moral, and worldview antithesis of this same Jesus, this true Messiah verified in history?
So what's going on? Is Obama a hypocrite, a manipulator? Deeply confused? Or was Alinsky simply hyping his book for street cred and publishing attention?
From Cal Thomas:
Though like many in his and our time, [Lincoln] wrestled with his inner demons. As [Harvard professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.,] writes, ". . . He seems to have wrestled with his own use of the 'n-word,' which he used publicly until at least 1862, and which most Lincoln scholars today find so surprising and embarrassing that they consistently avoid discussing it . . . "
The point?
"Far from diminishing Lincoln," writes Thomas, the new book Lincoln on Race and Slavery and PBS TV film Looking for Lincoln "deliver the real Lincoln as a man who struggled, along with his country and culture, over the inherent worth of black people. In short, he becomes fully human, not a mythical figure above the temptations and frailties of average mortals."
Recently spotted in Facebook.
Udo Middelmann and gang have updated the website of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation.
Below is an announcement (on their website) for Udo's latest book, titled Christianity versus Fatalistic Religions in the War Against Poverty:
Most literature and many aid efforts concerned with poverty relief and development function on mathematical assumptions. Those who have more should share with those who have less, thus creating equality. Some would add a moral component saying that those having more are morally wrong and must have gained their surplus from outright theft or unfair trade. But on the side of the needy, religious and secular efforts see only a material problem. Both neglect the devastating power of bad ideas based in religion and social customs. Yet what anyone believes about the building blocks of life will have results; their ideas are like eye glasses that either distort or bring into focus an objective reality. Development work must focus on developing people's ideas. Cultural change must precede material changes.
If this book is anything like the lectures Middelmann has been delivering on this topic, this volume is a must read for anyone concerned about people triumphing over poverty.
That includes the current President of the United States.
The bio page of the website features Edith Schaeffer, for those of you who have asked where she is.
When I first met Nancy, she was living with Debby and Udo in their chalet at Swiss L'Abri.
Anyone who cares about an authentic expression of Christian worldview living and thinking should take a very close look at Middelmann's work.
It continues to be a refreshing and Biblical alternative to various religious marketing machines and utilitarian Big Nameism we witness here Stateside.
The Flag of Victimhood is one of the most powerful -- and manipulative -- propaganda tools waved today to win friends, influence people, and destroy opposition.
Ann Coulter refuses to salute.
Is a Sarah Palin a fascist? That might fit the template in certain political circles today, but additional information may require second thoughts among nuanced observers.
For one thing, it is progressive champion H.G. Wells who had more than a little to do with letting the phrase liberal fascism out of its cage, writes Prof. Angus Menuge in a just-published review of Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.
Here are a few points from the Menuge review, which appears in The Pearcey Report. Among others, fans of Obama, Hillary, Gore, and big government conservatism may want to take note.
* For Obama fans: Something at work in mainstream culture “makes it easy for Barack Obama to champion a new New Deal (mentioned 9 times in his book The Audacity of Hope) as the solution to our economic woes, without anyone recalling the connections between Roosevelt’s and Hitler’s ‘new deal’ (122, 130-131) and the more sinister sides of Roosevelt’s authoritarian statism.”
* For Hillary fans suspicious of the traditional family: “While being pro-family often elicits the ‘fascist’ label today, the Nazis were opposed to the family –- and not merely because unregulated unions led to unfit offspring. The larger issue was that the ‘traditional family is the enemy of all political totalitarianisms because it is a bastion of loyalties separate from and prior to the state,’ the same reason statist progressives like Hillary Clinton ‘are constantly trying to crack its outer shell’ (377).”
* For disciples of Al Gore: "While today’s progressives are frequently pacifist, they continue the tradition of 'crises,' such as Al Gore’s global warming or European disdain for American foreign policies, which cannot be debated because the time for government action is now."
* For religious and political manipulators: “Both fascists and progressives find it expedient to be disingenuous in the propagation of their ideas. There is an outer core of ideas for popular consumption, surrounding an inner core circulated among the elect.
“For example, fascists and progressives encounter resistance when they express their true contempt for revealed religion. So the attempt is made to accommodate broadly religious themes to the agenda of the state (216-217), emasculating any specific teachings of the religion (e.g., on the sanctity of human life) that are inconvenient. This creates the external impression that progressive ideas are the outworking of faith, while in reality, religion is being co-opted by a divinized state (219).”
* For votaries of big government conservatism: “Many self-styled conservatives have also boarded the statist juggernaut, promoting an ever larger role for government as a surrogate parent.”
Read the review . . .
* Cross-posted at Examiner.com.
White House aide Timothy Goeglein has resigned over admitted plagiarism.
The links below contain facts and may suggest a few whys and wherefores:
Meanwhile, a passage from this February 28 tribute to William F. Buckley seems apropos. Regarding Buckley:
In several respects one is reminded of Francis Schaeffer and C.S. Lewis -- deep, quick, sharp, but also humane in their brilliance, also caring for the human being next door, also real people doing real work. The contrast with the opportunistic 'mover and shaker' of Big Government, Big Celebrity, or, sadly, Big Christianity, encourages us to push forward to a higher calling,a nobler practice, a loving dream awalk in the world.
Here are two dreams -- doable, humane, inspired by God: 1) Real work by real people, 2) Market the truth truthfully.
Trot them out at the next big meeting of marketers, publishers, ghosters, blurbers, fundraisers, and other affiliates of Big Name, Inc.
Then duck.
Fascism is back," Gene Edward Veith tell us in Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview.
But the daily news makes this clear as well, with among other items, reports of a Holocaust-denying conference held under the auspices of an anti-Semitic government that says Israel should cease to exist.
Fascism "refuses to go away," says Veith. "Fifty years after World War II, it keeps intruding upon our attention in odd facts and disturbing news. . . .
"The lunatic fringe, of course, is always with us, but we are also being confronted by signs of fascism as a larger social movement. . . .
"The implosion of communism was a great victory for democracy, but the vacuum has been filled by an intense, violent ethnic nationalism and the revival of overt fascist movements that had been suppressed since World War II but are still very much alive. . . .
"Unsettling cultural trends are intensifying throughout the West: cynicism about democracy; a yearning for charismatic leadership; economic disaffection; moral skepticism; a cultural irrationalism that breaks out in acts of inexplicable violence."
Fascism Back in . . .
* Academic Circles: "Fascism is back in academia. A recent biography of the existentialist sage Martin Heidegger has uncovered his extensive involvement in the Nazi party. . .
"Far more disturbing . . . is the ideology that is coalescing . . . in today's intellectual establishment. Cultural determinism; the reduction of all social relationships to issues of sheer power; the idea the one's identity is centered in one's ethnicity or race; the rejection of the concept of the individual -- such ideas have become academic commonplaces.
"The project in contemporary thought of dismantling Western civilization and critiquing 'humanistic values' (such as liberty, reason, and objective moral principles) is not new. All of the ideas are direct echoes of the fascist theories of the 1930s."
* Pop Culture: "The popular culture is the most fertile breeding ground for fascism."
* Mass Politics: "Instead of rational analysis of issues and reasoned debate, our political discourse turns on image manipulation through or mass media. . . . This was Goebbels' dream."
* Morality: "Moral issues are today almost impossible to discuss in objective terms. . . . Morality is reduced to social utility or the assertion of the will. This was precisely the Nazi ethic."
What Is Fascism?
"Only five decades ago, the world was in the nightmare of war and Holocaust. We seem to have forgotten everything. Putting aside images of goose-stepping villains from the movies, does anyone remember exactly what the fascists believed?"
"We must know what fascism is so that we can recognize it when we see it. . . . Racism alone cannot explain the virulence of Nazi anti-Semitism. . . .
"The fascists aligned themselves not only against the Jews but against what the Jews contributed to Western civilization. A transcendent God, who reveals a transcendent moral law, was anathema to fascists. . . .
"Fascism was essentially a spiritual movement. It was a revolt against the Judeo-Christian tradition, that is to say, against the Bible.
"Some fascists believe that Christianity could be purged of its Jewish elements; other believed it should be completely replaced. Some advocated a syncretistic Christianity, revising the faith to make it accord with the new culture. . . .
"The fascist rebellion against transcendence restored the ancient pagan consciousness. With it came barbarism, a barbarism armed with modern technology and intellectual sophistication.
"The liquidation of the transcendent moral law and 'Jewish' conscience allowed the resurgence of the most primitive and destructive emotions."
Veith's book is as relevant today as when it was first published, in 1993.
-- Gene Edward Veith, Preface, Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview
