The Theocons: Secular America Under Seige

Mainsteam Baptist
Dr. Bruce Prescott


Required Reading
Damon Linker's book, The Theocons: Secular America Under Seige should be required reading for all moderate, Mainstream Baptists. It helped me understand some of the reasons for the recent convergence between Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist thought.

I nearly didn't buy the book. The title put me off. I'm not a "secular American," I am a "religious American" and a Baptist minister. The book did not appear to be addressed to me. If fact, however, the book is essential reading for all who value the Baptist legacy of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Everyone who values pluralistic democracy is "under seige."

Linker is the former editor of the very influential "theoconservative" flagship journal, First Things. He came to realize that the ideology being promulgated by that magazine "was having a significant negative influence on the country" and decided that he had to do what he could to counteract that influence.

What he did was to write the definitive expose of the efforts of Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Novak, George Weigel and others involved with the Institute for Religion and Democracy who are working "to make America Catholic." (p. 67) The chief impediment to their efforts was the promise Catholic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy gave to Baptist ministers in Houston in 1960. Kennedy said,


http://mainstreambaptist.blogspot.com/2006/11/required-reading.html#links

Hi.
A very valuable site is available online (http://www.yuricareport.com/) where I think you will find a good deal of information on this subject. It's a bit scary to read, but sometimes the truth is scary.

Viva-Daddy

:-)