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16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Survival in Jeopardy, October 24, 2009
This review is from: Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America (Hardcover)
As we learn in this outstanding though disturbing book, when Pope John XXIII decided in the early 1960s to open the Catholic Church's windows to the modern world, little did he know that, as George Weigel puts it, he was opening these windows "just as the modern western world was barreling into a dark tunnel full of poisonous fumes" that included the toxins Dr. Donohue terms "radical individualism and a celebration of narcissism."
The author chronicles the ensuing devastation that resulted in a growing 45-year-old assault by nihilists, relativists and liberals out to destroy religion (especially the Catholic Church) and a culture of decency in America.
The author is a scholar who meticulously references his facts. Some of the most astounding things one learns are the extent to which this sabotage against the Catholic Church has been vigorously promoted by some affiliated with the Church (members, nuns, ordained clergy), government officials, demented academics who should know better, lawyers who pervert the law and the Constitution to advance their own sordid agendas, the art community, and Hollywood elites who cannot even fathom that transcendent truths and sexual morality exist.
We learn of the resulting decimation of mainline Protestantism to near irrelevancy due to its eagerness to accommodate itself to modernity's long-term love affair with uncertainty and equivocation. Not surprising, the fastest growing groups of Christians are Evangelicals and those remaining orthodox, weary of decades of absurdities challenging the fundamentals of Christianity that were essentially settled 1,500 years ago. Despite their differences, loyal Catholics, Evangelicals, and fundamentalists have more in common today than ever in their united effort to stop this madness.
This fine book ends on a positive tone, noting that most Catholic dissidents are now senior citizens and younger people of faith don't buy their nonsense. Also, serious Christians have been having children who most likely will derail the secular sabotage. The malcontents now in their twilight years have been too busy fanatically obsessed as adults with trivial pursuits to think about producing the next generations to any significant degree.
No society in history has ever flourished or endured without a commitment to no-nonsense religion. Every person interested in this nation's survival as one of any consequence should read this book, given that the current federal administration essentially embraces all of the self-destructive and insane ideas this book so eloquently decries.
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25 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Donohue hits the bullseye with this book, October 20, 2009
This review is from: Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America (Hardcover)
There's no question that secularists hate the Catholic church. Their attacks have been growing in intensity over the last century. This coming Christmas season, New York schools are allowed to display menorahs and star and crescents, but never, ever, nativity scenes.
Donohue, with a kind of gloomy relish, goes through the long list of outrages over the last few decades, and boy, does he have evidence. For example, there is the 'art' displayed in our museums, which includes such masterpieces as Saatchi's painting of the Virgin Mary "that was laced with elephant dung and spotted with pictures of vaginas and anuses" (p 64). If a Jewish rabbi had been portrayed like that, or Mohammad, imagine the outrage.
But the secularists, not to mention the ACLU, seem unable to see the paradox. When Catholic bishops threaten to withhold the Eucharist from pro-abortion politician, secularists everywhere are furious. Funny how they supported the idea when Archbishop Rummel "was busy excommunicating...Catholic politicians for their pro-segregation" (p 162) policies.
And who can forget such delights as Disney's film 'Priest' a vicious attack on the church which portrayed priests as drunks, wicked, or madmen. Oh yes, and the kindly Disney executives chose to open the film on Good Friday, the holiest day of the year for Catholics.
It's not as if the American people don't realize what's happening. Donohue states that "In 2008, a poll...found that 61% of Americans say they believe 'Religious values are under attack in this country' (p 19). The real question is whether those who disagreed with the statement have watched any movies or TV in the last twenty years.
The hatred of the Catholic church is intense. Some of the more revealing statements: NARAL's pro-abortion Lader called the Catholicism "the real enemy" (p 43). What Lader really despised was "the influence of its religious morality" (p 43), which pretty much sums things up for all those who are anti-Catholic.
And if the statements aren't enough, there's always action, such as the action of the gay ACT-UP members who spit Hosts onto the ground, an act of desecration.
Donohue still finds hope in the situation, and good for him. Personally, I don't. Anyone who is interested in the topic may want to read "Culture Counts" by Scruton. It talks about the fall of western civilization due to the disintegration of religious belief.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Last Politically Correct Prejudice, December 22, 2009
This review is from: Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America (Hardcover)
Bill Donohue paints "the last politically-correct prejudice in America" in sometimes shocking but bold strokes. "Sabotage" is an accurate description of what secularists have attempted to do to our culture. Somehow, we have departed so far from our Constitutional guarantees of Freedom OF Religion that it is often misinterpreted to read "Freedom FROM Religion"--which was never the intent of the Founding Fathers.
Mr. Donahue has alternately been described as "bombastic," "radical," and "outrageous" in his defense of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. But, if what he describes in his book is true, we SHOULD be outraged. And to make his point, he uses the technique of taking the vicious attacks against his church and faith and applying them to other minority groups. He does this not to impune any other group or religion, but rather to shock the reader into recognizing how insensitive and morally wrong the attacks are--regardless of whether they are levied against Catholics...or Jews...or Muslims...or Blacks. Prejudice and injustice are just as real no matter which minority is targeted. And to dismiss it simply because the group is not popular does not make the injustice any less so.
Mr. Donahue also portrays the insidiousness of these attacks. It brings to mind the image of the frog being placed into tepid water and them slowly boiled so that it doesn't notice the heat being turned up under him. Our culture has so long been innundated with the mantras of the secularists that to be a vocal, strong Christian--and Catholic Christian in particular--is now considered politically INcorrect. Kudos to Mr. Donahue for a job well done. May he continue to shock us into thinking for ourselves rather than follow the pied pipers of politic-speak.
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