Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion - Hardcover

Wiker, Benjamin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1621570290 ISBN 13: 9781621570295

Publisher: Regnery, 2013

Synopsis

Many Christians feel that they are being opposed at every turn by what seems to be a well-orchestrated political and cultural campaign to de-Christianize every aspect of Western culture. They are right, and it goes even further back than the Obama Administration.

In Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion, Benjamin Wiker argues that it is liberals who seek to establish an official state religion: one of unbelief. Wiker reveals that it was never the intention of the Founders to drive religion out of the public square with the First Amendment, but secular liberals have deliberately misinterpreted the establishment clause to serve their own ends: the de-Christianization of Western civilization.

The result, they hope, is government as the new oracle. Personal faith in a deity is replaced with collective dependence on government, and the diversity of religious practices and dogmas is reduced to a uniform ideological agenda. The liberal strategy is two-pronged: drive religion out of the public square, and then, in religion's place, erect the Church of the State to fill the human need for a higher power to look up to.

But what was done can be undone. Outlining a simple, step-by-step strategy for disestablishing the state church of secularism, Worshiping the State shows the full historical sweep of the war to those on the Christian side of the cultural battle--and as a consequence of this far more complete vantage, how to win it.

About this title

About the Author

Benjamin Wiker is, first of all, a husband and a father of seven children. He graduated from Furman University with a B.A. in Political Philosophy. He has an M.A. in Religion and a Ph.D. in Theological Ethics, both from Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Wiker taught full time for thirteen years, first at Marquette University, then St. Mary's University (MN), Thomas Aquinas College (CA), and finally Franciscan University (OH). During these many years, he offered a wide variety of courses in philosophy, theology, history, the history and philosophy of science, the history of ethics, the Great Books, Latin, and even mathematics.

He is now a full-time writer and speaker, with eleven books published, including Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion.
His website is benjaminwiker.com

From the Back Cover

Praise for Worshipping the State

"This wide-ranging and clearly-written account of the intellectual background of recent efforts to drive Christianity from public life makes clear the depth of the problem. Wiker's account covers figures from Machiavelli through Spinoza, Locke, Jefferson, and the founders of today's education system, and emphasizes the ways in which influential anti-Christian thinkers who may seem very different from each other agree on basic issues. It is a sobering call for the transformation of political and academic life that should be taken seriously by anyone alarmed by the current plunge into the soft totalitarianism of radical secularism."

James Kalb, author of The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command

"Ben Wiker's book is a no-holds-barred assault on liberalism, as the established (secularist) religion of our times. Current discussions of American public philosophy have to confront these fundamental questions: Has liberalism taken an unfortunate turn - one that was not inevitable - and can it be rehabilitated? Or was it rotten at its core, from the start, and therefore irredeemable? This book lays out, with power and passion, one way of answering those questions, and deserves to be part of that discussion."

Christopher Wolfe, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, Co-director of the Thomas International Center, and author of Natural Law Liberalism (Cambridge)

"Benjamin Wiker's book is the most forthright and unblinking analysis yet published of the ubiquitous assault on religion in American society. Not only every religious believer but every believer in religious liberty should read it.'

James Hitchcock, Professor of History, St. Louis University and author of What is Secular Humanism?, The Recovery of the Sacred, and The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Regnery
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1621570290
• ISBN 13: 9781621570295
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256