Author: Sam HarrisPublisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0307265773
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 57
Book Description
A criticism of Christianity from the secularist point of view.
Christian Nation
Author: Frederic C. RichPublisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393240118
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
When President McCain dies and Sarah Palin becomes president, America stumbles down a path toward theocracy, realizing too late that the Christian right meant precisely what it said.
Author: Letters to an American Christian
Author: Bruce Riley AshfordPublisher: B&H Books
ISBN: 9781535905138
Category : Christianity
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Author, professor (Southeastern Seminary), and Fox op- ed columnist Bruce Riley Ashford writers a series of letters to a young college student who is struggling to make sense of how to be a Christian amid contemporary American politics.
One Nation Under God
Author: Kevin M. KrusePublisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465040640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
The provocative and authoritative history of the origins of Christian America in the New Deal era We're often told that the United States is, was, and always has been a Christian nation. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse reveals that the belief that America is fundamentally and formally Christian originated in the 1930s. To fight the "slavery" of FDR's New Deal, businessmen enlisted religious activists in a campaign for "freedom under God" that culminated in the election of their ally Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The new president revolutionized the role of religion in American politics. He inaugurated new traditions like the National Prayer Breakfast, as Congress added the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and made "In God We Trust" the country's first official motto. Church membership soon soared to an all-time high of 69 percent. Americans across the religious and political spectrum agreed that their country was "one nation under God." Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Under God reveals how an unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.
Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?
Author: John FeaPublisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611640881
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Fea offers an even-handed primer on whether America was founded to be a Christian nation, as many evangelicals assert, or a secular state, as others contend. He approaches the title's question from a historical perspective, helping readers see past the emotional rhetoric of today to the recorded facts of our past. Readers on both sides of the issues will appreciate that this book occupies a middle ground, noting the good points and the less-nuanced arguments of both sides and leading us always back to the primary sources that our shared American history comprises.
Did America Have a Christian Founding?
Author: Mark David HallPublisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 1400211115
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
A distinguished professor debunks the assertion that America's Founders were deists who desired the strict separation of church and state and instead shows that their political ideas were profoundly influenced by their Christian convictions. In 2010, David Mark Hall gave a lecture at the Heritage Foundation entitled "Did America Have a Christian Founding?" His balanced and thoughtful approach to this controversial question caused a sensation. C-SPAN televised his talk, and an essay based on it has been downloaded more than 300,000 times. In this book, Hall expands upon this essay, making the airtight case that America's Founders were not deists. He explains why and how the Founders' views are absolutely relevant today, showing that they did not create a "godless" Constitution; that even Jefferson and Madison did not want a high wall separating church and state; that most Founders believed the government should encourage Christianity; and that they embraced a robust understanding of religious liberty for biblical and theological reasons. This compelling and utterly persuasive book will convince skeptics and equip believers and conservatives to defend the idea that Christian thought was crucial to the nation's founding--and that this benefits all of us, whatever our faith (or lack of faith).
Letter to an Atheist
Author: Michael Patrick LeahyPublisher: Harpeth River Press
ISBN: 097949740X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
In this hard hitting and intellectually powerful response to Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation, Michael Patrick Leahy exposes the intellectual dishonesty behind Mr. Harris' brand of Christian bashing atheistic evangelism. Leahy points out in devastating detail the numerous factual misrepresentations in Mr. Harris' book (for instance, debunking Mr. Harris' outrageous claim that 50% of all Americans believe the universe is only 6,000 years old--the facts show the number is 18% at most), and dismantles the simplistic solutions proposed by Mr. Harris. Stop violence by ending all faith ? Easier to try to stop the ocean tides. Limit the rights of Christians to participate in the political process ? In the name of justice then, Harris would oppress Christians, creating a world wide second class of citizens. Follow the model of fascists in Europe in dealing with the threat of Islamic fundamentalism ? Even fellow atheist Christopher Hitchens calls such a solution repugnant. Seekers of the truth from all faiths should run, not walk, to their keyboard or local book store and purchase Michael Patrick Leahy's Letter to an Atheist. Reviews Finally, a strong Christian voice addresses the intellectual dishonesty of atheistic evangelism Christine Schaub, best selling author of The Longing Season, the story of John Newton and Amazing Grace Michael Patrick Leahy skillfully debunks Harris' charge that serious Christians and Islamic radicals should be equally feared; He also exposes the bigotry and distortion typically shown by secularists when addressing Intelligent Design. More importantly, Leahy shows that Harris' proposed utopia, in which religion is caged and tamed by the secularists, hasalready been shown to produce a world that most do not care to inhabit. Ralph Seelke, Ph.D. Professor, Biology University of Wisconsin-Superior Michael Patrick Leahy's book is a substantive critique of the work of Sam Harris in Letter to a Christian Nation. Leahy shows how wrong minded and frankly lopsided Harris' view of reality ends up being. Good intellectual stuff. Dr. Bob Harrington Lead Pastor of Harpeth Community Church, Franklin, Tennessee A must-read for Christians and non-Christians who truly seek the truth about the toughest long-standing issues confronting humanity. Mr. Leahy has used a logical, step-by-step, reasoned, and well-referenced approach to engage and refute an attack on Christian positions and principles. The material is well worth reading and debating. I was especially impressed by the defense of Christians' track record in opposing slavery. With the recent public attention to the life and contribution of William Wilberforce, this chapter could not be more timely. Reginald Finger, MD, MPH Independent medical researcher About the Author Michael Patrick Leahy is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard, and has an MBA from Stanford. His professional career has been in technology marketing. For more information about the author, go to his website at http: //www.michaelpatrickleahy.com .
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Author: Kristin Kobes Du MezPublisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631495747
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.
The End of Reason
Author: Ravi ZachariasPublisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310295378
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
When you pray, are you talking to a God who exists? Or is God nothing more than your "imaginary friend," like a playmate contrived by a lonely and imaginative child? When author Sam Harris attacked Christianity in Letter to a Christian Nation, reviewers called the book "marvelous" and a generation of readers--hundreds of thousands of them--were drawn to his message. Deeply troubled, Dr. Ravi Zacharias knew that he had to respond. In The End of Reason, Zacharias underscores the dependability of the Bible along with his belief in the power and goodness of God. He confidently refutes Harris's claims that God is nothing more than a figment of one's imagination and that Christians regularly practice intolerance and hatred around the globe. If you found Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation compelling, the book you are holding is exactly what you need. Dr. Zacharias exposes "the utter bankruptcy of this worldview." And if you haven't read Harris's book, Ravi's response remains a powerful, passionate, irrefutably sound set of arguments for Christian thought. The clarity and hope in these pages reach out to readers who know and follow God as well as to those who reject God.
