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A Season for Justice: Defending the Rights of the Christian Home, Church, and School

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In A Season For Justice: Defending The Rights Of The Christian Home, Church, And School, David French (Counsel for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's Religious Freedom Crisis Team) brings to bear his many years of litigious expertise and experience as a courtroom defender of the rights and constitutional freedoms of the Christian community. French traces how Christians have fought for their legal rights through the use of anecdotal stories, case studies, and personal accounts illustrating and showcasing battles to preserve the basic right to share gospel teaching in their churches, schools, and workplaces. A Season For Justice is informed and strongly recommended reading for those concerned with the freedom of religion, and the relationship of Church and State, within the American constitutional framework.

I never thought a book about religious liberty could be so moving and interesting. I read this book because my husband gave it to me. There was a big article in our local paper about the author, David French, and about his work in the religious freedom area. I am so thankful that there is a man like French working on behalf of Christians everywhere. And if you think your religious freedoms are not in jeopardy, please buy and read this book.

This is a remarkable and courageous book by a very talented student of law, religion, and liberty. There are not many evangelical Christians who would write such a blunt and forceful plea to an audience that, as he has admitted, has not always been uniformly tolerant of those on the other side of the religious and cultural divide. His fundamental point is that Christians must be given equal rights in the public square, to defend their beliefs and to attempt to convince others to see the light as they have seen it. But part of the pact must involve Christians' acceptance of the notion that the government cannot favor their positions any more than it can discriminate against them. David French is as important to liberty as he is to religion. Harvey A. Silverglate, Cambridge, MA

This book is very educational, but the tone of the book is conversational and approachable. The author talks about religious freedom issues in quite interesting and remarkably innovative ways. I have been a Christian all my life, have heard the arguments from the pulpit about how we need to "take our country back" from those who try to relegate Christianity to the back rooms and away from public life. I always agreed to some extent, but never felt empowered because I didn't understand HOW to do that precisely. This book explains the HOW. If you are remotely interested in American culture and Christianity's place in that culture, this book's for you. If you wonder how September 11th changed things in America's spiritual/political climate, this book's for you. I highly recommend the purchase of A Season for Justice. It will change the way you think about the "culture wars," and it will give you courage to stand up in the name of Christ to actually fight these battles.

This book is a stunning account of where our religious freedoms stand in this country. Rather than make the tired old arguments about school prayer and the Ten Commandments on the walls, David French has revolutionary ideas about how to combat the all-too-pervasive politically correct Left. His book - which is told in a very compelling anecdotal format - is both disturbing and encouraging. I say "disturbing" because you'll be shocked at some of the stories. One is about a Christian group literally being kicked off the campus at Tufts University in Boston. Another is about a church being forced to close its doors - in the Bible belt! You'll be surprised at the REAL condition of our religious liberty. And French knows of which he speaks - the back cover says he is a graduate of Harvard Law School. However, you will also be encouraged. I was moved to tears at the stories of Christian love and faithfulness in the face of hatred and persecution. He also gives very clear direction in what we should be doing as Christians to turn the tide. The book is eye-opening and edifying. What a breath of fresh air! This book would be great for your own personal reading or for use in Sunday School discussion. Buy one and tell people about this very well written, compelling book. Way to go, Mr. French!

The author provides few hints that he has studied the basis for his beliefs Certainly, he has thought about how to defend public religious expression. Understandably, he talks about his faith. At the same time, he claims those disagreeing with his belief are advancing their "faith" in so doing. (In this context he borrows the phrase..."the church of the left"... from the rather superficial essays of Dr. Stan Kurtz).

He consistently toys with straw man constructions in this polemic without admitting his faith is that of one hoping for substance unseen. It is not likely this hope will ever be commonly shared by all of humanity.

It is rather interesting to see him start asserting matters of "proof" when engaging a fellow law school student who is gay. Surely, proof is hard come by and an unlikely companion when making such traditional assertions of faith. Many passages in this book begin with the author being "stunned" or being "shocked" at what he observes. This rightly characterizes the emotional basis for both his convictions and the religious ideas he endorses.

Impressionable children weeping their way into a church auditorium fully reveals how dramatically emotional is so much of the faith he espouses. And yet he attempts to portray liberal opponents as similarly locked in into a faith while not recognizing... much of their profound distrust of what he presents as that faith... is based on antagonism to the widely seen religious emotional extremism that he actually describes. He finds grace in such experiences while others of us recoil at the Old Time Religion that drags sinners down the aisle to the "mourners bench."

Emotion may be natural to the human condition but as the basis of religious zeal it has proven to be dangerous throughout history. Such strong emotional responses usually exclude rational and calm discourse. The author paints emotional palettes to advance his ideas while apparently thinking that emotion validates his arguments. A better understanding is that emotion is the basis and content of the religious ideas he celebrates. Emotion validates little or nothing in this context.

Typically, it crowds out facts. Of course, certitude characterizes such intense emotion. Liberals cannot be demonized just because they lack such emotional certainty and such can hardly be described as a "faith". Learning greatly tempers certainty while emotional intensity fosters rigidity. Neither may rise to a "worldview!" Ambiguity may be the nature of the cosmos and is, of course, no friend to rigid, inflexible belief systems. Much more than "civil rights" seems to be involved here. Neither can the issues be simplified as "secular" liberalism versus straight- arrow religious faith. The presence of emotion excludes problem solving. The greater the emotion the less problem solving will occur.

Religious communities that define faith and practice it in terms of emotion are not likely to problem solve. More importantly their emotional intensity creates barriers with others in the larger community who might be willing to problem solve. This is not a matter of a "liberal" faith standing in hard headed opposition to simple religious folk. It is a matter of understanding the lessons of history where zealotry rages.

A second matter needs mention. Those, the author champions and has great affection for, those who deny or distort what we have come to understand about human beings. One might say that the worldview he espouses is a crippled and inadequate view of humanity. The cultural split he alludes to is truly great. His co-religionists continue to insist their worldview is the only accurate view, as it was authored by divinity. No values outside of this worldview can be recognized nor celebrated. This is the magical thinking that is so often considered to be the remarkable religiosity of Americans.

Supportive of the contention that the faith being discussed here is of extreme emotional intensity is this: the constant conditioning of church members with song, prayer, sermon, testimony is not seen as conditioning. In fact, the very idea, if put to religious folk, would be rejected as offensive. Somehow the well-understood conditioning that occurs to all of us at work, at home and in school never happens at church. This is a denial of the first order that thoughtful people, liberal or not, should not ignore. Such a lack of insight should make every thoughtful person wary of many religious affiliations.

The limitations of the author's views are obvious. What may be less obvious is that some religious people seem bent on turning every courthouse, every stadium, every school, every government facility, even private work spaces, into a church. This "handbook" may well help. Some of his more cautious and carefully weighed thoughts may pass unnoticed. They are worth reading as they reveal some underlying conflicts felt by the author. There are signs here that if Americans don't grant this "right" to "share"... as a civil right... religious people will opt out as many are doing.

Does "share" signal a strategy to make converts of the entire majority? Can a mere 8 percent of the population who are evangelicals accomplish this? Whatever the goals, there is no civil right that can protect us from stupidity whether it be from school administrators in Chelmsford , Massachusetts or town administrators in Georgetown, Kentucky.

There was a time when religious folk, the church, were fully in charge...of everything. Do we wish to return to that time...the Middle Ages? Civil rights posed no problem. Sacred law was the measure, the only measure, for all matters.

Mr. French seems to carefully weigh these considerations in his argument especially as a minority religionist, but when push comes to shove, will he attempt to do more than just "share" his faith? Does he not understand there would be no church today, as we understand it, without the political power of a Constantine and others?

Just maybe, as the foundations of faith continue to quake, with faith-based emotion proving inadequate to cope with the modern age, the author will wish government had picked a faith for the state...his!

The author may well be a master of arms in the "culture wars." The reader will find the subtext of this book is that the good and wise are not just being discriminated against but seriously persecuted. As those of his faith seem to portrayed as without blemish or rancor, only an invalid opposing "faith" of distorted origins can explain such negative treatment. It is just possible that more cases could be added to those discussed by the author here.

Unfortunately, as all members of his faith have not been uniformly kind, charitable and loving to others, the unkind feelings generated in others towards them will not abate. Was it not written, somewhere, that one should be mindful "...of the beam in one's own eye..."? While all citizens should have recourse to the law, one might ask what marks authentic faith? Is government to protect all those "...persecuted for righteousness sake..."? Does this stance reflect the early days of this faith?

One last comment. The author discusses the Middle School and homosexuality on pages 52-53. He hesitates to affirm the incident he cites is wide spread. He says without crisply delineating "secular" the following, "Because the content of the program was 'secular,' it was legally acceptable for government officials to use government funds to promote behavior incompatible with evangelical Christianity."

This assertion is nothing short of incredible. How can a Harvard trained consitutional specialist begin to suggest government test all its actions against what evangelicals, Mormons, Moonies, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientologists or any other "recognized" religion deem "behavior incompatible?" Please Mr. French, let's not go there! Maybe this is evidence that we should shear Samson's locks, in a literary sense, lest he pull the temple down on us all?

I found this book to be very enlightening on the issues and hurdles facing many of our Christian brothers today. This book serves as a wake-up call to those of us who may have become lethargic and lazy in our faith. I believe you will find "A Season for Justice" to be highly educational and inspirational.

French is so captivating in his story telling approach that you'll wonder if he really did go to Harvard Law School.... Can lawyers be this affable?