80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Attacks on Christianity hazardous to the health of Judaism?, December 21, 1999
Rabbi Daniel Lapin says yes, and argues that such attacks should stop: in his view, the U.S. is and should remain a _culturally_ Christian nation.
Christianity, he maintains, provides a proper basis for human liberty, a solid foundation for the free market, and (importantly) a place for Torah-true Judaism in American society. A secular culture can do none of these things.
Rabbi Lapin is under no illusion that there are no important theological differences between Judaism and Christianity; on the contrary, he knows full well that agreement on such matters is not strictly possible for those who remain faithful to their own traditions. However, as he is also at pains to show, Christianity incorporates enough principles of Mosaic law that Torah-observant Jews can feel safe in a Christian culture.
Not so a secular culture, he warns. Secularism is at present cruising on fuel it borrowed from Western religious tradition; once that fuel is exhausted, anything goes.
Many theologically liberal Jews have therefore, in Rabbi Lapin's view, been fighting the wrong enemy. The real foe is not "anti-Semitism"; it is irreligion. Whatever their theological differences, Christianity and Judaism should be brothers in arms in the fight for America's culture.
Agree or disagree, Rabbi Lapin's case is solidly mounted and strikingly put. His book should be read by anyone interested in the preservation of liberty.
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61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Invitation to Join America's Culture War, February 3, 1999
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, head of the organization Toward Tradition, addresses several audiences with "(You Are In) America's Real War: An Orthodox Rabbi Insists That Judeo-Christian Values are Vital for Our Nation's Survival." These include Jews who feel out of step with the politics of most Jewish organizations, Christians who wonder why most American Jews demonize the Religious Right, people of all faiths who suspect that separation of Church and State has gone too far, and anyone who worries that America is on the wrong cultural and spiritual track.
The central metaphor in this book is a tug-of-war between Godliness on one side and godlessness on the other. This metaphor rests on two fundamental assumptions: that faith in God is central to the American experiment, and that the political divide between Right and Left hinges on acceptance or rejection of traditional Judeo-Christian values.
Rabbi Lapin establishes these assumptions convincingly. He turns to America's roots, from the original nature of the Colonies to the views of the Founding Fathers, to show that the very idea of the American nation arose from Judeo-Christian faith. Indeed, he shows how many of the central ideas of Colonial and Revolutionary America came directly from the Hebrew bible. He traces the supremacy of God in American political life through the mid-20th century, showing how judges and political figures continued into the 1960s to appeal to the Judeo-Christian God and His values in support of their positions.
Since that time, Rabbi Lapin argues, traditional religion has clearly delineated the sides in the culture war. Rabbi Lapin shows how, despite the presence of many clergymen in the ranks of the American Left, traditional Judeo-Christian belief and practice stand in direct opposition to many positions of the Left.
A central irony of this divide is that the political values of most American Jews are antithetical to the traditional Jewish values expressed in the Torah and Talmud. For example, as Rabbi Lapin points out, mainstream Jewish organizations denounce as "homophobia" any criticism of homosexuality, yet the Western proscription against homosexuality originates in the Hebrew Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament).
The source of this contradiction, Rabbi Lapin maintains, is the tension between the liberalizing tendency in non-Orthodox Judaism and the stubborn desire of Jews to cling to their Jewish identity. Rather than simply renounce Judaism once they have abandoned its tenets, many Jews stridently argue that the religion has changed to match their views - even to the point of no longer requiring a belief in God.
This is why, Rabbi Lapin argues, traditional Judaism has more in common politically with the Christian Coalition than with many Jewish political organizations. Both traditional Jews and Christian conservatives share a belief in a God-fearing society as the ideal plan for mankind.
Indeed, the removal of God from this central role in American society has, in Rabbi Lapin's view, led to the decline in our society's morals, culture, and educational attainment, and will ultimately lead to the downfall of our economic and political systems. Rabbi Lapin reminds us that illegitimacy, abortion, welfare dependency, crime, and other societal evils have all soared in the decades since God lost his place in American public life.
Thus, though he faces criticism from many Jews (who view the Religious Right as the enemy) and distrust from some Christians (who identify Judaism with liberalism), Rabbi Lapin places himself squarely on the side of religious faith and traditional values in the tug-of-war against ungodly liberalism for America's future. He invites all Americans of faith and good will to join him.
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40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent insights into what is going on in America, November 13, 1999
By A Customer
This book will enlighten anyone who really wants to know whatis going on in the culture war. Many Christians, and the politicallyuninvolved are blithefully unaware of the driving forces behind the rabid secularism that we see now so often, in the media, politics, and schools. The war is not between Jews and Christians, the war is between secularized Jews and other atheists on the one side, and orthodox Jews, conservative Catholics, and evangelical Christians on the other. Rabbi Lapin explains how there has always been those Jews, ever since Sinai, who have rejected the Ten Commandments, and instead chosen to worship the golden calf of money, and refuse to let anything interfere with their sexual freedom. It is these types that make up many of the political action groups that we see trying to "de-Christianize" America, i.e. the ACLU, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, and others. I gained tremendous insights from reading this book. I also read "The Fatal Embrace," by Ben Ginsburg, another Jewish author who explains how the Jewish people have repeatedly, throughout history, sought the protection of the state in order to escape persecution from surrounding peoples, but have made some of the same mistakes they are making now, in Rabbi Lapin's opinion. I never knew before reading these authors how much many Jewish people FEAR the rise of Christianity, and think that secularizing America is protection against another Holocaust. Dr. Lapin argues just the opposite; attacking the Christian heritage has a corrosive effect, and his people should stop acting loud, aggressive and antagonistic. No matter where you are coming from on the political spectrum, this book will give you tremendous food for thought. One thing is sure: political views are always informed by one's religious and metaphysical beliefs. It cannot be otherwise.
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