America's Real War

Rating:
Summary: The Answer to America's Problems
Review: This book gives the answer to America's economic and social problems -- less government spending and more moral enforcement. Unfortunately, it may be too late already since we all seem to think of those unfortunate folks who are trapped in the welfare system as being "entitled" to welfare. After 70 some years of welfare and social security and "silver platter" treatment, I don't think this country could possibly retreat from that -- although it might still be possible to "wean" people off welfare. But that would mean a works program run by the government -- a WPA type welfare as FDR had initiated in the 1930s. Immoral displays of indecency should NEVER be accepted by the government as free speech.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent insights into what is going on in America
Review: This book will enlighten anyone who really wants to know whatis going on in the culture war. Many Christians, and the politicallyuninvolved are blithefully unaware of the driving forces behind the rabid secularism that we see now so often, in the media, politics, and schools. The war is not between Jews and Christians, the war is between secularized Jews and other atheists on the one side, and orthodox Jews, conservative Catholics, and evangelical Christians on the other. Rabbi Lapin explains how there has always been those Jews, ever since Sinai, who have rejected the Ten Commandments, and instead chosen to worship the golden calf of money, and refuse to let anything interfere with their sexual freedom. It is these types that make up many of the political action groups that we see trying to "de-Christianize" America, i.e. the ACLU, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, and others. I gained tremendous insights from reading this book. I also read "The Fatal Embrace," by Ben Ginsburg, another Jewish author who explains how the Jewish people have repeatedly, throughout history, sought the protection of the state in order to escape persecution from surrounding peoples, but have made some of the same mistakes they are making now, in Rabbi Lapin's opinion. I never knew before reading these authors how much many Jewish people FEAR the rise of Christianity, and think that secularizing America is protection against another Holocaust. Dr. Lapin argues just the opposite; attacking the Christian heritage has a corrosive effect, and his people should stop acting loud, aggressive and antagonistic. No matter where you are coming from on the political spectrum, this book will give you tremendous food for thought. One thing is sure: political views are always informed by one's religious and metaphysical beliefs. It cannot be otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: MEIN KEMPF REVISITED
Review: This is the sequel to Mein Kempf, ironically written by a Jewish Rabbi.It espouses the elimination of personal freedoms and total disregard of the US Constitution. I wept when I read this garbage, then I threw the book in the trash. Adolph Hitler had similar views to Lapin, and hopefully this book will go no further than Hitler's book did.

Rating:
Summary: The War is Over: the Faithless have Won
Review: Though a refreshingly well-executed effort in light of some truly unreadable drivel that passes for intellectual discourse these days, the Rabbi's effort is, alas, in vain. The "War of Ideas" is pretty much over, at least as far as faith is concerned, and the faithless have won.

While it is admirable for the more articulate spokesmen for traditional religion to recall the founding of this country as an indication that America was not started as a secular nation, after reading enough such commentary one is eventually left with the burning question: if religion is, in fact, the backbone of a free society, why bother with the separation of Church and State?

What the Rabbi, and other conservative thinkers conveniently forget, is that while the US was founded by (and for) men who at least nominally practiced some formal faith, these were not, as the Rabbi would have us believe, religious fundamentalists, or zealots. The Founding Fathers were considerably more ambivalent about their sectarian faith (though not the formalities of such) than is the Rabbi, or for that matter folks like Pat Robertson. The genius of their effort was not in founding a society based on man's shared servitude to God, but rather one based on man's essential right to liberty, which is absolutely necessary for man to pursue his own individual goals by his own means, as an end onto himself, provided that his actions do not infringe on the rights of the others to do the same. Note that service to God does not require man to be free, since even an enslaved man can be made to worship a deity, just as he can, and has throughout history been, made to serve the wishes of the various pagan, religious, and collectivist thugs which societies that were NOT based on liberty and individual rights seem to have had no trouble producing in great abundance.

All in all, as we stand and contemplate our future in the early years of the new millennium surrounded by the various monumental achievements of mankind, we should be reminded that the greatest threat to that future is posed not by the ever-present secular evil, but by the most fundamental and, some could argue, the most internally consistent manifestation of faith and mysticism -- radical Islam. We will not be able to win the ideological war with these Islamists if our only philosophical argument remains: "our God can beat up your God".

For a healthy antidote to Rabbi's book check out the recent "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris.