Reviews for Religion and American Public Life: Interpretations and Explorations

The average rating for Religion and American Public Life: Interpretations and Explorations based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-07 00:00:00 John Mullen Holy Fear-mongering, Batman! Nothing but ramblings of tunnel vision and hate. Continuously comparing "New Agers" to HITLER! LOL! So filled with hate, arrogance, ignorance, and absolute lack of understanding, with HUGE leaps. The equivalent of saying "all Christian men have more than one wife" just because one small group somewhere does! Wild reaching and such paranoid and EXTREME generalizations! To the point of this book falling under the category of Humor for how many times I laughed out loud at the absurdities written within this book! Let me be clear, I do not follow any beLIEf system. Just because I disagree with this book doesn't make me a "new ager"... But this book is exactly the kind of stuff that breeds uncalled for and unnecessary division ... Saying new agers are satanists and murderers of the future, that they are akin to Hitler and Nazis, saying they are homosexuals and drug and alcohol abusers, and accuse just about every one and everything as being satanic or demonic, gives this book the tone of being the ramblings of a heavily indoctrinated, arrogant, misinformed, delusional, paranoid that is utterly filled with hate and FEAR. Hate for everyone who doesn't believe what you believe, hate for what you quite simply don't understand, hate for other people in general. Very unhealthy mindset. Intolerant rubbish. BUT HILARIOUS NONETHELESS! Oh and then the whole bit about telling church goers that satanic new agers are sneaking into the the church to "kill Christianity" from the inside... Trying to create paranoia, fear, and unfounded suspicions. Conspiracy much! Wow! However, thank you for this drastic perspective. By the way, the letter J didn't even exist back then, so in Matthew 7:22-23 when "Jesus" says to the people doing things in his name that "He" will say "get away from me, I never knew you!" is because y'all don't even know Dude's name.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-10 00:00:00 Natalie Kay This was the first full-length, adult-level book that I ever read from cover to cover. I loved it. It was filled with intriguing and factual information (some of which I knew from my personal study of the new age movement) and was written, for the most part, in a very enjoyable, flowing, connected manner that kept the reader engaged and fully aware of where the author was taking you. Much of what is found in this book has become a reality. Some of the efforts of the new age movement have not been realized, but the attempt to do so is clearly seen in the history that has unfolded since the publishing of this book in the mid-1980's, thus confirming the author's claims. The mantel was passed in many cases as a number of these people are dead and gone, facing the reality of their wasted lives in rejection of their Maker. But the movement continues on and can now be seen in mainstream religion, including the charismatic and emergent church/contemplative movements among evangelicals. Sadly, I must add a personal warning. The author, Texe Marrs, was once a trusted King James Bible believing author but has since gone off the deep end into a cesspool of wild conspiracies that mostly blame Jews for everything, or blaming the Jews for forcing non-Jews to do their evil bidding, etc. Reading more recent works by Marrs is like reading David Duke and Aldof Hitler, minus any calls for their violent destruction (at least up to this point). But if you can find a used copy of this book and would like a good source from the period of the New Age "revival" in the 70's and 80's, this is a very good resource on it's own merits.