Customer Reviews

The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail

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This is the second book I've read by Dr. Kennedy. I've lived in the South Florida area most of my life, and the spires of his Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church were visible from my house for at least a decade. His influence, however, is much wider than that. For years, his was the only megachurch in town (until it was displaced by Calvary Chapel). I agree with him that postmodernism views traditional Christianity as an enemy and I don't doubt that religion is routinely mocked and attacked in the media. My solution, as a Christian, is to avoid television programs or movies that mock religion. I don't encourage others to boycott them, but I avoid them myself.

One chapter in particular is very telling about how Dr. Kennedy feels about Christianity: "The Hammer of Oppression: Distortion of the First Amendment." Dr. Kennedy belives in the doctrine of dominionism; that is, that America is a Christian nation and should be governed as such. However, he misses the point: America is a nation of religious liberty, not only of Christianity. If the president were a practicing Wiccan, he can follow the doctrines of his religion all he wants, but he cannot force the American people to do the same; that principle holds for all religions, including Christianity.

Dr. Kennedy misquotes a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1892 as proof of dominionism. Here is the almost full quote: "...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."

The full text of the decision can be found via links from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church_v._United_States

Notice the expression "unofficial utterances." While some of the Founding Fathers may have been Christians, Deists, or hold some other faith, they knew from experience how dangerous a state-sponsored religion could be, which is why the documents that helped found this nation mention God or Christianity, they do not clearly identify this particular religion as being the religion of the state.

Jesus himself said "My kingdom is no part of this world." He avoided getting involved in the politics of his day and his followers did the same. Aside from this point, there are other matters of doctrine that I disagree with Dr. Kennedy about (the Trinity being one of them) but one of the book's problems is that much of it is dated. Dr. Kennedy excoriates some movies including "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Johnny Mnemonic", both of which are well over a decade old by now. Overall, it's an interesting take on American culture from the viewpoint of a fundamentalist minister, but I feel that there are much better books available.