The Ten Offenses (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "IT WAS A SLIGHTLY CHILLY APRIL DAY in the year 1607 when three tiny boats, scarcely bigger than twenty-first-century cabin cruisers, appeared on the horizon..." (more)
Key Phrases: insure domestic tranquility, indefeasible right, Supreme Court, United States, Ten Commandments (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Incendiary and one-sided, this jeremiad by Robertson, founder of Regent University and The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), will further polarize the national debate on moral issues. Robertson claims that our society is rapidly deteriorating because of "the antireligious vendetta that the forces of militant secularism have urged for decades upon the Supreme Court," and he prescribes a national embrace of the Bible's 10 commandments as a cure. Students of history will find the book rife with errors. John Adams-who was in London when the Constitution was drafted and first read its provisions weeks after the framers had completed their task-is credited as that document's "chief architect." And in a section on the "Jewish backlash" to anti-Semitism, Robertson suggests that both the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress were created after the Holocaust, their founders having decided that "the future safety of American Jews would exist only if secularism replaced Christianity in the public arena." (The organizations date to 1913 and 1918, respectively.) The book's last chapters, which dissect each of the commandments individually, are stronger and more focused than the opening overview chapters. Robertson argues effectively that our nation's violations of the eighth commandment (stealing) should include Napster downloads, loan defaults, grade inflation at elite universities, journalistic chicanery and identity theft. But Robertson's solution to such ills lies not in emphasizing America as a nation with an enduring Christian heritage, but in claiming that the Founders desired America to be a Christian state. Thomas Jefferson would surely roll in his grave.
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Product Description

THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF AMERICA

Courts run amok, fueled by secular allies, are eroding America's spiritual foundations. As a consequence, the historic blessings and benefits of the Ten Commandments are being spun as a great offense to our religiously diverse culture. Nothing could be further from the truth. "Religious pluralsim thrives in American as a result of our Christian heritage, not in spite of it," says Pat Robertson. He calls on all Americans to reclaim their spiritual roots--to reaffirm the central role of God's fundamental laws--before it is too late.

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to policital prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." GEORGE WASHINGTON

"Our Constitution is created only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other." JOHN ADAMS

"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our nation will go on prospering." DANIEL WEBSTER

"There is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation." JUSTICE DAVID BREWER (1982)

"The secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States." CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM REHNQUIST, UNITED STATES SUPREMENT COURT

"The Supreme Court's recent interpretation of 'separation of Church and State' would have been unthinkable to our Founders in 1607 and 1620, because for them their Christian faith and their civic government were as one." PAT ROBERTSON

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; First Printing edition (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591451264
• ISBN-13: 978-1591451266
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,426,534 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ten Offenses, September 20, 2004

By	Ryan Setliff "InternetPundit.com" (VA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

~The Ten Offenses~ by Pat Robertson offers a clarion call for Americans to rediscover the Ten Commandments and a summons for Americans to challenge the militant secularization of America. With the recent removal of the Ten Commandments display, from the State of Alabama, and at the behest of constitutional usurpers within the federal judiciary, the Ten Commandments and the integral Judeo-Christian morality that embodies our law is under attack. We live in a time when many agents of the State whether on judicial bench or teaching in the halls of academia deny moral absolutes. We also live in age of rising crime, immorality and broken families. Yet liberals much prefer to correlate the social pathologies afflicting us today to something trivial like urbanization or the impact of technologies. Robertson poignantly goes through each of the Ten Commandments and points out how we are called to righteousness, and that these legal principles remain the pillars of just law within civil society today.

This book is misrepresented by liberals who more often than not have never so read it. The Publisher's Weekly review is very misleading particuarly this statement: "Robertson's solution to such ills lies not in emphasizing America as a nation with an enduring Christian heritage, but in claiming that the Founders desired America to be a Christian state." I digress. Pat Robertson succinctly and accurately explains the establishment clause of the First Amendment commensurate with original intent. This book does emphasize America's enduring Christian heritage. The problem with liberal detractors of Robertson's book is that they perhaps assume that the law has no moral basis while they ignore the underlying Christian foundation within the Anglo-American common law tradition. What Robertson is advocating is not an explicit "Christian state" per say but rather it is a clarion call for the people of the United States to recognize the vitality of the Ten Commandments. "Our Constitution," avowed John Adams, "was made only for a moral and religious people."

Robertson sets the record straight over the so called "establishment clause" within the First Amendment, and explains precisely what "no establishment of religion" means. Originally, an established church was an official denomonation, which receives taxpayer financing and may conceivably have authority to restrict practice of non-established sects. Robertson describes the impact of the establishment of the Anglican church in his native Virginia in 1700s. He brilliantly articulates what the establishment clause really means commensurate with original intent by the framers of the First Amendment. He espouses the principles animating Jefferson's Declaration of Religious Liberties. The Baptists like other denominations were persecuted by the Anglicans and forced to fund the established church through taxes. Moreover, they were punished for preaching the Gospel outside of that church and on the streets.

Robertson knows just as well as I do that regeneration, that is to say the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that leads people to faith in Christ Jesus is what is most vitally requisite for restoring our nation's morals. Rediscovering the Ten Commandments as a nation can only be made effectual by a mass revival of Gospel preaching. As they taught us at Regent, sphere sovereignty articulated by Abraham Kuyper enshrined in the American legal tradition necessitates that the ecclesiastical authorities and the civil magistrates are sovereign in their own respective sphere. For this reason, the state cannot trump the mission of the church nor dissolute the free practice of the Christian faith. Nor can the state ignore the vital Biblical principles that animate our Anglo-American legal traditions without laying waste to the rule of law in the progress. "The secular application of the Ten Commandments," notes Chief Justice Rehnquist, "is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States."

10 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Practice what you preach, August 26, 2005

By	Fuchsia (United States) - See all my reviews

It's pretty rich for Pat to write a book about the ten commandments when he doesn't even follow them himself. Last time I checked, "Thou shall not murder" was one of the big ten.

20 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This country is not a theocracy!, April 4, 2005

A Kid's Review

And it was never meant to be. I'm sick of corporate fatcat traveling show preachers like Pat Robertson and Jerry Farright complain about this supposed "militant secularization of America". Gimme a friggin' break. Conservative christians have DOMINATED this country's political power for the greater half of the past 200 years in this country. It was only recently that people realized that not everyone in America was a caucasian christian with a fair amount of money that things started to change to accomodate everyone, and so the far right fundamentalists cried out in rage that their long reign was being disputed. Today, they act as if America has branded christianity public enemy one. Patty boy has even gone as so far to compare today's conservative christians with Jews in Europe as far as oppression goes! Yes, the Ten Commmandments have been removed....but so what? Do you see government troops raiding your house everytime you have a christian Youth Fellowship meeting? Are you threatened with execution on treasonous charges in America if a government official finds a Bible in your possesion? NO! But this is what real people in much less priviledged countries have to go through, and Robertson and his like should be ashamed to compare themselves to people who really suffer for what they believe. The America of old JAILED a man for simply teaching a science theory to a high school class. The America of today rightfully jails psychos who think that unborn fetus life is worth more than the lives of the doctors who are simply helping women from being butchered by a backalley thug with a coathanger.

America is not, was not and will never be a theocracy. A theocratic government is primitive, pious and dangerous. One need only look at Iran for such an example. Let's leave theocracies in the dark age where they belong and leave power-hungry false prophets like Pat in the trash.