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The Divided States of America?: What Liberals And Conservatives Are Missing in the God-and-country Shouting Match
A popular look at the separation of church and what it is, what it isn't, and why it matters for the future of religion in America.
323 pages, Hardcover
First published April 3, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 5, 2021
As those of you in the early-2000's culture war may remember, Richard Land was head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He wrote this book in 2011 as, basically, his position statement on the culture war.
Land explains how religious beliefs and religiously-formed ethical systems must be allowed to influence politics, how America has historically been open to that, and how even the leftists who lambast the Religious Right for doing that are themselves doing the same thing. All of this I heard from many sources then, and I have my own opinions. And, frankly, the Culture War seems to have passed this book by. The Religious Right is only a shadow of the force it was, and the hot religious liberty questions are vastly different.
But if you want to look back at the culture war that was raging just ten years ago, and read a prominent conservative figure making the case for his side, this is a good book to do it with.
Land explains how religious beliefs and religiously-formed ethical systems must be allowed to influence politics, how America has historically been open to that, and how even the leftists who lambast the Religious Right for doing that are themselves doing the same thing. All of this I heard from many sources then, and I have my own opinions. And, frankly, the Culture War seems to have passed this book by. The Religious Right is only a shadow of the force it was, and the hot religious liberty questions are vastly different.
But if you want to look back at the culture war that was raging just ten years ago, and read a prominent conservative figure making the case for his side, this is a good book to do it with.
November 16, 2007
This book is formative on many levels. It offers level headed answers to questions that simply do not get asked. Too often political debate at the kitchen counter or at the barber shop is gut level with no real sense of continuity. Land's efforts here should help the reader hang some long held beliefs on some much need nails. This book should be received like a young Bible student who hears about systematic theology for the first time. Land offers a solid Christian system of political discourse that is defendable to the secular Fundamentalist.
January 18, 2017
Every American should read this: it would help us to listen before speaking...past those we differ with.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews