This book oughtta scare the wits back into the people who haven't been paying attention to the Theocrats trying to steal our country and turn it into some Puritan work camp.
Here's what the author thinks, summarized here:
"In Gelernter's telling, this religion consists of two main elements, both of which are rooted in the Bible and a culture of close biblical reading. The first is a secularized version of ancient Jewish Zionism, recast in Christian terms by 17th-century English Puritans who believed that the purpose of their journey into the American wilderness was to build a New Jerusalem—a "City on the Hill." The Puritans were not only convinced that God had sent them on this mission; they maintained that their project, if faithfully executed, would make America a light unto other nations. Those beliefs would eventually lose their original Puritan-Christian shadings and take on a more secular and nationalistic coloring (Manifest Destiny), but they continue to define what Gelernter calls the doctrine of American Zionism.
Great. This again. I'm not so naive that I didn't know people thought this way, but that someone would have the guts to write it down, to cop to it...
Some people like to paint those who fight to keep church and state separate as anti-religious zealots who can't handle seeing Baby Jesus in the manger every year. But the message found in Gelernter's book are far, far more damaging to Christianity, and insulting to every other religion, than anything I've ever heard an atheist say. My sect in particular has a lot to be concerned about from this "Protestant self-congratulation."
Abraham Lincoln himself refused to call Americans a "chosen people," as noted by the book reviewer. As he aptly states:
"In that modesty resides a far-reaching wisdom that recognizes the dangers of declaring a nation—or any other human creation— the fulfillment of divine providence. That way lies idolatry, a worship of false gods that should be at least as offensive to the believer as it is to the one who believes in none."
Amen to that.
