jeffreymark

THE BOOK OF MAN

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ROOTS OF MODERN PROGRESSIVISM

The roots of the modern liberal Democrat party go back not to the New Deal, but to Teddy Roosevelt. His renegade independent Bull Moose party, although unsuccessful in the 1912 presidential race, laid the philosophical groundwork for contemporary liberal ideologues- i.e. President Obama. 

Enter author Sidney Milkis. His recent work entitled Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy (American Political Thought) offers readers a groundbreaking observation concerning the seminal character of modern liberalism. Editors offer this synopsis of the work:

Led by Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party made the 1912 campaign a passionate contest for the soul of the American people. Promoting an ambitious program of economic, social, and political reform--"New Nationalism"--that posed profound challenges to constitutional government, TR and his Progressive supporters provoked an extraordinary debate about the future of the country. Sidney Milkis revisits this emotionally charged contest to show how a party seemingly consumed by its leader's ambition dominated the election and left an enduring legacy that set in motion the rise of mass democracy and the expansion of national administrative power.

Milkis depicts the Progressive Party as a collective enterprise of activists, spearheaded by TR, who pursued a program of reform dedicated to direct democracy and social justice and a balance between rights and civic duty. These reformers hoped to create a new concept of citizenship that would fulfill the lofty aspirations of "we the people" in a quest for a "more perfect union"--a quest hampered by fierce infighting over civil rights and antitrust policy.

Milkis shows that the Progressive campaign aroused not just an important debate over reforms but also a battle for the very meaning of Progressivism. He describes how Roosevelt gave focus to the party with his dedication to "pure democracy"--even shoehorning judicial recall into his professed "true conservative" stance. Although this pledge to make the American people "masters of their Constitution" provoked considerable controversy, Milkis contends that the Progressives were not all that far removed from the more nationally minded of the Founders.

As Milkis reveals, the party's faith in a more plebiscitary form of democracy would ultimately rob it of the very organization it needed in order to survive after Roosevelt. Yet the Progressive Party's program of social reform and "direct democracy" has reverberated through American politics--especially in 2008, with Barack Obama appealing to similar instincts. By probing the deep historical roots of contemporary developments in American politics, his book shows that Progressivism continues to shape American politics a century later.

 

A RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Today's history rewrites from pseudo intellectuals ignores the seminal role Christianity played in both our founding and the American Revolution. Clergymen in particular influenced the culture of the day. A legion of ministers, many of whom were tarred and feathered, supported the crown at the time.

Historian Thomas Kidd provides what appears to be a more traditional look at the role Christianity played on both deists, secularists, and religious people alike during the revolution. I provided below a host of commentaries concerning this inviting book.

Booklist

Kidd directs his magnifying glass on a rare slice of the American Revolution: its religious aspects. The organization of the work is more topical than chronological, giving a chapter’s worth of attention to matters of racial equality, slavery, revivalism, chaplains, the Constitution, and the 1800 election of Jefferson as president. If there are common threads running throughout, they are the questions: How was the Revolution influenced by religion, and how was religion affected by the Revolution? Kidd is quite adept at providing answers while explaining the complicated connections between religion, politics, freedom, and patriotism that make up the Revolutionary period. After reading this, some may wonder why religion is so shortchanged in other Revolutionary treatments. In his epilogue, the author also has something to say about the notion of a Christian America, a topic that is particularly relevant today. --Wade Osburn

Review

Rodney Stark, author of God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades
“A truly ‘revolutionary’ book, in all the right ways.”

George Marsden, author of Jonathan Edwards: A Life
“Thomas Kidd does an excellent job of providing a readable and notably comprehensive account of the varied roles that the religion played in the era of the American Revolution.”

Wilfred M. McClay, SunTrust Chair of Excellence in Humanities, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

“With this lively, crisply written, broadly researched, and unfailingly thoughtful study, Thomas Kidd illuminates the central importance of the religious ideas and sentiments undergirding the American Revolution and the early nation. Kidd explains why Americans, despite their remarkable religious and philosophical diversity, were able to unite effectively around broadly shared tenets of ‘civil spirituality,’ which included a shared commitment to the sacred ideals of religious liberty—tenets and ideals that still profoundly inform and influence the conduct of American life today.”

 

Mark Noll, author of America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln
“This deeply researched, clearly organized, and well written book illuminates a complex and often controversial history. The Revolutionary and Constitutional periods were neither ‘Christian’ nor ‘godless’ as these terms are used in modern polemics. Instead, patriots and leaders of the early United States united to support disestablishment and common principles about the need for virtue to insure republican freedoms, despite holding different personal beliefs. Thomas Kidd is a remarkably sure-footed guide through this treacherous historical terrain.”

Harry S. Stout, Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History at Yale University

“At last, a history of religion and the American Revolution that addresses the revolutionary war in substantial detail. Thomas Kidd brilliantly examines the role of religion in the Revolution, and explores the intersection of religion and the Republic, neither of which can be fully understood without reference to the other. Kidd demonstrates in persuasive detail how the idea of religious liberty informed the meaning of the Republic at its deepest level.”

 

Peter A. Lillback, President of The Providence Forum and author of George Washington’s Sacred Fire

“Thomas Kidd offers an important critique of the mainstream interpretations of the American Revolution. God of Liberty reveals the central role that the Christian faith played in the revolutionary era. The surprising partnership of devout believers and deistic doubters to secure America’s victory makes for fascinating reading.”

 

Kirkus
“[A]n important contribution to American religious history.”

 

Library Journal
“Kidd argues that religion was inextricably linked to the American Revolutionary movement, his book will prove of interest both to readers in American Colonial religion and Colonial history, with his inclusion of unfamiliar sources extending the appeal…”

 

Christian Century
“With impressive command of the primary sources and deft historical analysis, Kidd has produced an indispensable survey of religious life during the Revolutionary era… all the more remarkable for its breadth…  One of the many virtues of this book is that Kidd is a careful and judicious historian… he points out—correctly—the errors of both present-day secularists on the left, who insist that the founders barred religious voices from political discourse, and the church-state separation deniers on the right.  The lesson of American history is that although church and state are institutionally separate, morality and freedom are seldom at odds and that, in fact, they are mutually reinforcing.”

 

Washington Times

“Thought-provoking, meticulously researched… a salutary reminder of the role religious belief played in the founding of our country. It is all the more valuable because that story clearly is in danger of being expunged from the historical record or even twisted into an example of the political hypocrisy of a time when God was often invoked but allegedly ignored.”

 

Booklist
“Kidd directs his magnifying glass on a rare slice of the American Revolution: its religious aspects. . . . After reading this, some may wonder why religion is so shortchanged in other Revolutionary treatments.”

 

 

GIFT OF BOOKS

As an avid reader I always urge my family to give books. Here are a few I recommend to those seeking what I call books with some umph...some character.  

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. A detailed biography of the man known as "His Excellency." Oh this book makes one desperately long for a superman like Mr. Washington. I actually got a bit misty-eyed when I read the last paragraph.

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness An insurance executive presented me with this book as a gift. It's a good old positive thinking book full of practical wisdom. I just started the book and already it has inspired self reflection.

The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America European Parliament conservative Daniel Hannan emphatically warns us of Europe's less than ideal government. This prophetic indictment makes us proud to live in a uniquely blessed land. No Obama, I do not want to be like Europe and Daniel Hannan impels me to reaffirm this fact.

In the Name of Honor Taking a break from philosophical novels and just picked up this thriller by Richard North Patterson. Mr. Patterson is a master wordsmith who offers us compelling, creative plots as well.

MAD AS HELL

The American people seem more emotionally polarized today, except for the during Civil War, than at any point in history. Not that polarization suddenly appeard, but people's dispositions metamorphosized in recent years from goodwill ambassadorship to "kick ass, my way or the highway" egocentricity. This penchant for self absorption, in my opinion, offers nothing more than a total breakdown of our traditionally conservative and Christian traditions. 

Pollster Scott Rassmusen recently coauthored a book which compellingly offers a glimpse into this contemporary character and how it plays out in our political world. Of course he reminds us that Mad As Hell:How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking our Two-Party System is a must read. Publishers offer this synopsis of the work:

The riotous tea parties and angry town hall meetings of last summer seemingly took everyone by surprise. They shouldn’t have: populist movements have always arisen in times of economic hardship and uncertainty. In Mad As Hell, pollsters Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen use extensive and original research to explore the mind and heart of the populist uprising that has suddenly thrown American politics into turmoil.

In the past, populist movements have taken root either on the right or on the left. Today’s populist revolt is unusually broad and has two wings: a left wing that wants universal health care and redistributive economic policies, and a right wing that wants to reduce the power of government to interfere in our lives. Both are hostile to the Washington political class, Wall Street, and the mainstream media—all of which they consider out of touch with the concerns of “real” Americans. The key difference is that left populists are effectively represented by Barack Obama and congressional Democrats who are pursuing their agenda, while right populists are chiefly represented by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh— an angrier and potentially more powerful political force.

So-called professionals in politics, business, and media have completely failed to comprehend the new populism and have dismissed it as marginal and extreme. The authors explore the broad-based nature of the new populist movement and explain how it is reshaping American politics—whether politicians and elite journalists like it or not.

The Tea Party movement is not a flash in the pan,as many have assumed. Nor is it a movement of racist rednecks and ignorant boobs, as its detractors have crudely suggested. To the contrary, it is an authentic grassroots movement of concerned American citizens demanding to be heard by an out-of-touch political establishment. Their concerns are real and their issues are legitimate, the authors maintain; moreover, the new populism is here to stay, and it has already changed our politics for the better.

In Mad As Hell, Rasmussen and Schoen have produced an authoritative guide to the new populism, featuring a combination of proprietary polling data, political analysis, results from online focus groups,and interviews with on-the-ground players. It is must-reading for anyone interested in American electoral politics for the remainder of the decade.

 

1970 PROPHETS

When a fairly well known rock group called the Kinks sang their now signarture piece entitled Lola little did they realize the prescient nature of the million seller.

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls,

Its a mixed up mold up shook up world said Lola

I don't quite understand the song. But, then again I'm not supposed to. And, I do not understand today's world. Neither does a friend of mine who mailed this piece to me a while back.

I think I know why we live in an upside down world. We are immoral, plain and simple. We no longer anchor ourselves to a set of shared values. The only thing we value is the self. David Wells, professor of Historical and Systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, possesses a keen sense of society's character. His prophetic assessments shame us and leave us reeling. That's good because we need to hear the painful truth of what Wells confronts us with.

In his new book The Courage To Be Protestant Wells leaves no theological stone unturned. He speaks like an adult to the American church whose adolescent behavior fares no better than our secular society's inability to grow up. If one wants to grasp the truth concerning our culture's mixed up, mode, up shook up world then one can read Well's masterpiece commentary as a sort of final authority on the matter.

CLOSING OF THE MUSLIM MIND

Today's Mr. nice guy American ardently desires to turn the other cheek when considering Islam's proclivity toward violence. We simply cannot comprehend the depth of hatred or the width of delusion a seemingly god fearing group of human beings might possess in relation to the West. A once prosperous religion went terribly astray somewhere along the line, reducing its adherents to mind numbed robots. 

Author and foreign policy scholar Robert Reilly compellingly explains the matter in his new book entitled The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crises. Perhaps every American should take advantage of Reilly's scholarship. It might be salvific. I picked up a copy two days ago, and will offer a comprehensive book report once I finish this magnificent work. Meanwhile here is a brief synopsis from ISI publishers:

Islam's Intellectual Suicide—and the Threat to Us All

People are shocked and frightened by the behavior coming out the Islamic world—not only because it is violent, but also because it is seemingly inexplicable. While there are many answers to the question of "what went wrong" in the Muslim world, no one has decisively answered why it went wrong. Until now.

In this eye-opening new book, foreign policy expert Robert R. Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture.

Terrorism—from 9/11, to London, Madrid, and Mumbai, to the Christmas 2009 attempted airline bombing—is the most obvious manifestation of this crisis. But Reilly shows that the pathology extends much further. The Closing of the Muslim Mind solves such puzzles as:

• why peace is so elusive in the Middle East
• why the Arab world stands near the bottom of every measure of human development
• why scientific inquiry is nearly dead in the Islamic world
• why Spain translates more books in a single year than the entire Arab world has in the past thousandyears
• why some people in Saudi Arabia still refuse to believe man has been to the moon
• why Muslim media frequently present natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina as God's direct retribution

Delving deeper than previous polemics and simplistic analyses, The Closing of the Muslim Mind provides the answers the West has so desperately needed in confronting the Islamist crisis.

LAURA BUSH A TRUE LADY

Behind every good man is an emotionally stalwart woman. Enter Laura Bush. Even at George's lowest moments in history we admired the First Lady. She always held herself with aplomb and dignity. She never stooped to juvenile criticism of her enemies, if indeed she had any. And, she always smiled graciously as though grateful for all of God's provisions. She is a true lady-the kind every man's man wants to bring home to mama.

Now Laura Bush plans to release her own book in May. The Dallas Morning News comments:

Former First Lady Laura Bush's upcoming memoir promises to deliver behind-the-scenes glimpses of her "public triumphs and personal tribulations,'' according to promotional material on her new website. The book, Spoken from the Heart, will be released on May 4. A major rollout is planned. She'll be on the morning talk shows and traveling across counrty to promote the book. As one of the more enigmatic figures in the Bush family, Laura Bush could deliver a new perspective. White House senior advisor Karl Rove has already published a defense of the Bush years and the former president's own memoir is scheduled for release later this year. The advance hype on Laura Bush's book promises "rare intimacy and candor'' in her telling of major events not only in Washington, but from her early life.

HEALING WORK FOR HURTING EX CHURCH MEMBERS

As a pastor now for 28 years I have witnessed great good emerge from the Church. Everyday Christians eking out their boring existence often do marvelous things for those in need of help. But, as Jesus warned, wolves also appear in sheep's clothing. In fact, one of my seminary professors once declared to us young idealistic seminarians that evil people go to church. He then asked, "What better place for them to hide?" 

Sadly, evil, or dysfunctional individuals, garner up energy by pouting, plotting, and pounding their way into power. Good people, on the other hand, hate to fight, and capitulate when confronted with church terrorists. Some of those good folks silently suffer, and leave by the back door. Others turn into agnostics. A few manage to reconcile their hurts with God and his people. 

I must admit, so called religious folks have heaped mountains of pain on me and my family in the past. As a pastor I am expected to smile graciously and move forward as though nothing has happened. The masculine part of me says I must either leave the church or punch these so called bullies in the face. I suspect Jesus frowns on both choices. My only alternative- quietly go away or find healing. Thankfully former pastor and best selling author Stephen Mansfield addresses this grave issue in a timely fashion. His new book, ReChurch looks like what the Dr. ordered. Mansfield passionately shares his reasons for such a work:

This book is certainly different from what I usually write. My field is faith and culture, which means I tend to write about how faith impacts law and politics, leadership and corporations. But a few years ago I had a painful experience and when I emerged and looked around, I realized that nearly everyone I knew had either endured the same hardship or knew someone who had.

To put it in brief, I had an experience with a church that was deeply wounding. I don’t need to go into the details here, nor do I in the book. Suffice it to say that the experience left me bleeding and bitter, and then I deepened the wound by how I rehearsed the events in my soul and plotted my petty versions of revenge. Only when some righteous pastors stepped in, smacked me around, and helped me heal did I emerge clean and free. It was then that I realized how many people are sitting at bars and Starbucks talking about their church hurts.

And I wanted to help.

So, I wrote this book. It is hard hitting and blunt and as biblical as I know how to make it. It leads people through steps of healing, forgiving and recovering themselves. It stresses that we have to make nice with the bride of Christ whether we want to or not. There is even some wisdom for how to reconnect in a healthy manner with the people of God.

I’ve never written a specifically Christian, ministry oriented book before. I may not again. But I feel so strongly that there is a great floating mass of wounded humanity out there that needs someone to speak to them like a coach who loves them but will work them to death to help them improve. That’s what I’ve done in this book. You’ll want to buy it for your disconnected friends. You’ll want to encourage it for those who’ve sworn off church. You’ll event want to use it as a checklist for the state of your own soul.

I’d love to hear from you when you’ve read it. More importantly, let’s use it to bring our wounded friends home.