Reviews for Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms, and Technologies of Faith in the Former Soviet Union

The average rating for Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms, and Technologies of Faith in the Former Soviet Union based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-21 00:00:00 David Ayers This book is a wonderful primer for those that wake up one day and find that they have been ignorant their entire life as to just how deeply ingrained religion, and specifically Christianity, was to the foundation of our nation, and the structure of our form of government. Our modern public education (being generous here by calling it education) system has completely whitewashed any hint of religion from the history that is taught to our children. Our children no longer grow up learning about a sudden and massive storm that destroyed or crippled much of an invading British armada that was sitting off the coast of New England, and just about to bombard the undermanned, under-equipped American army. They don't grow up knowing of the literally dozens of times that George Washington testified of the hand of God intervening in our behalf, which eventually brought about the miraculous victory of this rag-tag army against the greatest military might of the day. Instead they are taught about the "separation of church and state" a phrase and concept that exists nowhere in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, but instead is found in an obscure letter written in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association, which feared at the time that Congress was about to establish a national religion. Jefferson assured them that such was not the case, but that single phrase has been twisted into the exact opposite of what Jefferson originally meant. Our children are taught that Jefferson was a deist who rejected Christianity, but are never taught that he attended church in the the U.S. Capitol Building, where services were held prior to the construction of the National Cathedral. Our children are not taught that he appropriated money from Congress to be used to send missionaries out to teach Christianity to the Indians, or that he wrote the first education plan for the District of Columbia, suggesting the use of the Holy Bible and Isaac Watt's hymnal to teach children to read. And of course, it was Jefferson, writing the Declaration of Independence, who declared that all rights come not from government, but from Almighty God, the great Creator whose children we are. If anyone doubts that Jefferson was a Christian, they have just to read his own words to find their mistake. In an 1803 letter to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson declared "My views...are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others." There is a vast, rich history which clearly shows the deep Christian roots of our nation and government. It was not until recent decades that that history began to be erased, and our children taught the nefarious, villainous lie that our Founders wanted religion strictly prohibited from having any influence on government. Yet is it any wonder? After all, if the anti-religious secularists can separate God from government, then they can eventually teach that our rights do not come from God after all, but from government. And if rights come from government, then they can be taken or altered by government, and thus they are not rights at all, but privileges to be granted or revoked by the whim of our government masters. All of the great socialist/communist totalitarian dictators have sought the destruction of all references to God, and the elevation of the state as god, upon taking power. It would therefore be a travesty and a stain upon the moral founding of our nation were we to allow the liars, the usurpers, the charlatans and the statists to rewrite our history, erasing its Christian origins. And so, in closing, may I leave you with two more proofs that this separation was never intended by the Founders or subsequent generations: "There is no disonance in these [legal] declarations…These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic [legal, governmental] utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people…These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." ~ U.S. Supreme Court, 1892, unanimous ruling which declared America a Christian nation; Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S. "It is impossible for those, who believe in the truth of Christianity, as a divine revelation, to doubt, that it is the especial duty of government to foster, and encourage it among all the citizens and subjects. This is a point wholly distinct from that of the right of private judgment in matters of religion, and of the freedom of public worship according to the dictates of one's conscience." ~ Joseph Story (U.S. Supreme Court Justice, called the "Father of American Jurisprudence") So thank you, Mr. Gingrich, for this excellent primer on the rich Christian symbolism found in our nation's capitol. And to the reader, I pray that this is the catalyst for an awakening in you of a desire to learn so much more about the hand of Christ in the history of this nation, and how critical He still is to our future and the fate of this republic.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-10-25 00:00:00 W Gary Mcguire Fantastic historical tour of the role of God in the foundation of America and how it is reflected in the various buildings, memorials, and exibits in and around our nation's Capitol city.