Our Endangered Values – Americas Moral Crisis
Our Endangered Values Americas Moral Crisis
President Jimmy Carter offers a passionate defense of separation of church and state. He warns that fundamentalists are deliberately blurring the lines between politics and religion.
As a believing Christian, Carter takes on issues that are under fierce debate — women's rights, terrorism, homosexuality, civil liberties, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, preemptive war, and America's global image.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Not What You Think
A frequent comment made in many reviews (all excellent, it seems to me) is, "It's not what you think." I have great regard for Jimmy Carter, but the book's title "put me off." Finally, however, with the frequency with which the reviews praised it, I thought that I must give it a try. And surprise: "It's Not What You Think." Do read it; you'll be pleasantly surprised.
5 Stars Man of Integrity
Whether you agree with him or not, it's refreshing to read from a politician who is a thoroughly decent human being. In 2001, Jimmy Carter was the only former president to sit at George W Bush's inauguration (other than his father, of course). As a prominent Democrat supporting Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism," he was well-placed to be the favorite of the White House and conservative community. When Bush turned on his professed values, Jimmy Carter was one of the few who had the guts to break with him, and this book is part of that public break. This came out well before Bush's popularity dropped, and other conservative Christian leaders didn't dare criticize the torture and violation of human rights. You can disagree with a lot of his points, but the book is an inspiring example of a Man of Integrity stating his mind. He takes on the conventional conservative wisdom about issues like abortion in a convincing manner. Definitely worth the read.
5 Stars Endangered or going?
Carter shines a light on the negative direction we have taken in recent years.He shows too many examples of the breakdown of our value system. The book is well written. It is hard to put down.
3 Stars Right Idea – Wrong Title
Former President Carter has written down his thoughts about our current administration. Essentially, America has become a global bully. The big, muscular high school jock who beats up on others or threatens to do so, and then, like President Bush, says, "Bring it on."
Perhaps the current administration is somewhat justified in breaking any treaty or agreement in hunting down an enemy that can never be reasoned with, that can never be negotiated with and that usually does not wear a uniform. Perhaps the current administration and its supporters believe that some "evil empires" need to be annihilated, so the question needs to be asked: "Why not just annihilate them?" The answer is simple: greed.
Mr. Carter rightly points to the preemptive war doctrine currently in place as unheard of in our country's history. But the formula is simple: defense contractors need to move inventory. Find a target, move some inventory in the way of bombs, bullets and vehicles and hold the area. Then you contact your other friends and bring them in to rebuild infrastructure that had just been blown up. A win-win situation. For added security, you also bring in "contractors," the new word for mercenaries.
What Mr. Carter does not mention is the greed and it's all about me attitude of too many people in America. The Enron and Global Crossing mentality where there's no such thing as too much money, even if retirees have to pay with their 401Ks.
Mr. Carter deserves praise for his work toward peace, notably the Camp David agreement. His Carter Center has been helping people around the world in the area of health. He does show what one man can do and he gives impressive examples.
He is inconsistent and perhaps a bit confused about adding his religious beliefs to the mix. During his Presidential campaign, he refers to his making a mistake by mixing politics and religion. It wasn't his fault that reporters asked him a question about his faith to which he truthfully replied. They were the ones who blew it out of proportion to discredit him.
I think Mr. Carter would have had a better book if he connected American values in government with American values among the average American population. He rightly points out that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, but what can people honestly do? When a run for President is clearly about how much money you have and/or how many special interest groups line up behind you, what can or should the average person do?
The moral crisis in this book, according to Mr. Carter, is that America's government has dropped negotiation in favor of bombs and bullets, that it does not do enough to help the poor, that it is alienating current and potential allies by running around and shooting first and, on occasion, asking questions afterward (What do you mean you found no WMD's?), and that by not honoring certain agreements, it is helping nuclear proliferation and increasing the threat to the environment.
Our values are endangered, but they are endangered at all levels of American society. Everyone wants to live like a king. But Americans as individuals can and have been generous.
It may be that enough people in government will rise up and say, "Kill them all is not the answer." But as long as enough people in government believe that is the answer, little will change. Meanwhile, the American people will only have varying degrees of bad to vote for in the next election. But, as a fellow Christian, I join Mr. Carter in prayer that a better way can be found. That American government finds a way to address its legitimate defense interests in a way that is consistent with long-held principles.
5 Stars A Respected Christian Gives our Nation a Much Needed Warning
In this very readable, wide-ranging and meaty book, Ex-President Jimmy Carter, ruminates, and worries about the erosion of American values as the erosion continue to sink the nation into the quick sand of arrogant, corrupt, mean-spirited, short-sighted and politically motivated partisan leadership as practiced by both the present conservative government and current fundamentalist's Church leaders.
Taking on his own Baptist church and the Bush administration as the first and most obvious test case, Carter expresses more than just a little impatience with the self-righteous and arrogant hypocrisy of those who feel like their mere alignment with God is sufficient to make them and their beliefs "superior and right," and everyone else's "inferior and wrong." He notes that it was this very same set of attitudes, that forged an unholy marriage between church and state during the century of racial discrimination.
His present concern is that there are still those who want this marriage to continue to work and are busy using its license to twist our nation's morality and ideals into a narrow-minded channel where the "self-appointed, self-anointed, and self-selected "chosen few" can continue to ply their proven Neanderthalian brand of witchcraft in the name of "the lord" — and do so in the post-Modern world.
The problem that worries Carter most is that this kind of "unholy mischief" has been raised to a whole new level, and has been expanded well beyond race and now infects both the church and our government at the highest levels — so much so that it has begun to tear at the very foundation of the nation's institution, and is beginning to destabilize it at its very moral core.
Once a nation of freedom, equality, tolerance, peace and the last resort defenders of human rights everywhere – all qualities Jesus would have admired — America has now become the nation that stifles freedoms at the slightest pretext, rolls back equality, practices "progress through war," and thumbs its nose at human rights.
The ex-President and devout Christian has a long list of the new anti-American evils being committed in the name of permanently welding God and country into a single potent unit despite that doing so would violate the very Constitution these pseudo-patriots and crypto-religionists profess to love and uphold.
That all true patriots are now beginning to see the outlines of their dirty work and have begun to sing from the same sheet of music should worry not just President Carter, but us all.
Five Stars.
Related posts:
- Our Endangered Values – America's Moral Crisis
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- Saving Freedom – We Can Stop Americas Slide into Socialism
- Morality and Moral Controversies – Readings in Moral Social and Political Philosophy 8th Edition
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- Religious News Verses: The Cult of Values Voters, Cancer and Family Values
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Here in the States, a growing number of people are no longer affiliated with any religion. Yet, there are some Christian groups who continue to insist on blurring the lines of separation between church and state. For the non-churchgoers and freethinkers worldwide, this site features news, reviews and editorials on just about anything regarding religion. Your opinion is always welcome here, either as a columnist or commenter. Hey, this is not church -- you are allowed to speak your mind and think for yourself!
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