Rating: 
Summary: Poor logic and poor history make for good self-delusion.
Review: A few points to make.1) The vast majority of historians record the founding fathers as Deists - that is, not anti-religious. They were skeptical and wanted to keep religion away from government functions. This seems a logical thing to do, considering the # of religions in the country and the potential for conflict between them. 2) Even if the founding fathers were pro-religious - which they weren't, that doesn't logically defend Christianity as a part of the government. As I recall, the constitution enshrined Slavery too. Hardly a wonderful legacy there. 3) "Freedom" is a complicated word. It has to be weighed with the word "responsibility". Otherwise one person's freedom frequently tramples on another person's. It's a ying-yang thing. The fact that Limbaugh doesn't see this part of the equation basically says everything that's necessary to know about him. Limbaugh's main theme here is that secular boundaries around public functions are persecution, and that's just nuts. It puts us on a slippery slope towards becoming another Saudi Arabia or Iran. That is to say, deeply screwed up. I don't want to see competing crosses on every street, fighting eachother for better placement. I don't want to go for job-training and find myself being offered one sect's religious salvation. Nobody should. Respecting the public space is not persecution. The end-effect of Dave's views is a religious government and a religious right of advertisement in the public space which could be taken to the point of harrassment. It sounds to me like Dave is paranoid. He should perhaps set up a little theocracy on a ranch somewhere and live out his fantasy of a better America. I'd rather stay right here.
Rating: 
Summary: A good contemporary resource, plus more
Review: Limbaugh's goal in this book appears to be twofold. The first is to collect as many of the local stories as possible that highlight the face of the problem. Because many of these stories are local in nature, it's difficult to put the pieces together to describe an overall trend. For this reason, Limbaugh's book is helpful as a collection of these stories, put together in systematic organizational form, of how religious expression is being eliminated in public. But not only is the First Amendment's establishment clause being used as a sword to stifle even the innocous expressions of religion, such as a nativity scene in a public park or a nondenominational prayer at a graduation ceremony -- but the alternative belief system of secularism and "diversity" is being given preferential treatment in its place. As Limbaugh tells the local stories in each sphere of public -- primary and secondary education, universities, corporate America, the government, and the media and entertainment, the collection of accounts begins to look less like an anomaly and more like a trend. The concern of these separatists looks to be less about preserving a particular interpretation of the 1st Amendment and more about instilling a replacement ideology in the place of America's Judeo-Christian tradition. The second purpose helps make Limbaugh's book a worthwhile reference apart from the immediate context of these news stories. It's one thing to cry foul and say that the Judeo-Christian heritage and history is being unfairly censored; it's another task to express what that heritage is all about. Limbaugh opens his book with a brief account of America's early history that was entrenched in religion, and ends the book with a pointed series of questions posed to some prominent conservative Christian leaders about America's heritage that was rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and helps put into context the urgency of why the discrimination against it is so damaging, and helps deepen the scope of the book. If you are concerned about the attempt to bleed dry the Judeo-Christian tradition with a thousand paper cuts, and want an introduction into what America's Judeo-Christian heritage is all about, then Limbaugh's book is an excellent resource.
Rating: 
Summary: Persecution? More like relentless legal wrangling...
Review: David Limbaugh's "Persecution" could better be titled "Double Standard" since the primary point made by the hundreds of citations showing persecution of Christians in America fall more into the category of "Anything but Christianity." This book is chock full of incidents in which Christians are purposefully discriminated against in the name of misguided secularism or blatant preferences for other thought systems. In that respect it does a decent job of showing the progressive distaste that our culture and our government have toward anything that smacks of evangelical or fundamentalist Christianity. Though I am the kind of Christian that inspires the ire so well-addressed by this book, I have a couple complaints. First, Christians are not dying for the name of Christ in this country, so the level of what is called "persecution" is more like "relentless annoyance and thoughtless discrimination." There is no doubt, though, that Christians in this country will face real persecution someday, as this book shows how the Christian voice is being actively silenced in all arenas of public life (which as we know from history is the first step to outright persecution.) Still, the title is a bit over-the-top. My second complaint is in the weariness that comes from reading of one lawsuit after another brought by both Christian and secularist forces as detailed in the book. I have got to wonder if all the suing is really accomplishing anything more than making everyone a whole lot twitchier. I can almost imagine many of the middle management people in the situations cited caught between the two sides in one of those "damned if I do and damned if I don't" situations. I think that most people who make these "anti-Christian" decrees in schools, businesses, and such are stuck by all the legal wrangling and are just trying to avoid lawsuits in the first place, only to find themselves mired in them anyway. Limbaugh almost never cites examples that provide solutions without winding up in court somewhere. Nor does he offer any solutions as to how to avoid these legal battles and yet still find solutions to the issues. The book ends with a penultimate chapter discussing the Christian roots of this country, providing one of the more controversial sections--at least from what perusing other reader comments here shows. Personally, I thought this section did a good job in dispelling the idea that America was founded as a wholly secular nation. The explanation of the intent of the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment (that was started in the first chapter of the book) finds its culmination in this chapter and can prove enlightening to those who have only heard the other side of the Founding Fathers' stories. Lastly, Limbaugh talks with some current Christian leaders who provide their insights on the issues. Rating this book is almost impossible because of the very type of book it is: a populist examination of political and legal trends. It's not intended to be an academic examination, which is disappointing, nor is it meant to be a screed. It preaches to the choir and irritates anyone who scoffs at the whole premise. In short, it is almost unreviewable. The citations get repetitive after a while, which brings the rating down, but then the book rebounds when discussing political theory and how Christianity informs it. Final rating? Three stars, but could have been more for a more scholarly approach.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read For People of Faith
Review: Rather than grind an ideological axe like so many other reviewers were quick to do, let me say that Limbaugh's writing style is eminently readable, informative, and amusing. The book is laid out according to several themes, with each supported by numerous anecdotal stories. I found it to be a quick, enjoyable read. Regarding the central thesis, Limbaugh makes a persuasive case as long as you accept the idea that "persecution" need not be limited to physical torture, but extends to the subtle areas of law and culture as well.
Rating:
Summary: Competent Historical and Current Events Analysis - MUST READ
Review: As most objective observers can see, there has been a very slow and almost imperceptible shift (to many Americans) in the place of respect and authority that the Christian religion occupies in this nation. Therefore, the word "Persecution" was chosen as much for its shock value as it was for its actual veracity. Beyond this type of petty complaint, I can say that David Limbaugh has done the world and the Christian community a great service in sounding the alarm and providing a religious liberty compass. (Not his metaphors but my own) The alarm is obviously designed to warn American Christians that they and their descendents are in imminent danger. The compass is of course, to let them know that they are moving in the direction of being increasingly the object of unjustified scorn and discrimination and the victim of governmental and institutional bias enforced by unconstitutional law and purposefully prejudicial education. The book does a worthy job of providing an admittedly limited picture of America's cultural & spiritual heritage, deeply steeped in the religion and moral understanding of Christianity. It then goes on to document case after case of discrimination against Christianity and the systematic exclusion of it from the public square. It demonstrates exactly how successful the purveyors of secularism have been in imposing their new standard of religious hostility or irreligion for the more apathetic. This is a new standard that undermines our historic Constitutional freedoms and proves the point that various religious groups have been attempting to make for the last 60 years. In almost every religious liberty case that has made it to any high court, we have seen the removal of something religious. They have removed prayer from public schools, ten commandments displays, nativity scenes, crèches from the lawns of city halls, crosses from public parks, and even the words "under God" from the pledge of allegiance. This indisputable fact tells us two things. First, from the beginning, religious symbols and religious thought were woven into the very fabric of American government and society with no sense of Constitutional violation, for you can only remove those things that already existed. This proves that the new standard being imposed by our courts is revisionist in nature, an attempt to change our traditional practices, and not a return to our historical, Constitutional, Jeffersonian, or Madisonian roots. Second, that we are in dire need of David Limbaugh's book. Christians are not unified. Those that know something is going on are in a defensive posture and have thus far, failed to launch a comprehensive and coordinated offensive of their own. In other words, war has been declared by only one side, and it is the side of the secularists. Hopefully David Limbaugh's book will also serve as a call to arms. The book's only major flaw is that it assumes that everyone comes to the table with some basic and correct understandings of America's history. These are not "assumptions", but they are obvious facts grounded in the history of this nation. This basic set of facts are monotonous in their historical attestation. At the end of this review, I will provide a list of books that will be helpful in illuminating these facts for the uninitiated. Fact #1 - Thomas Jefferson and his views on the Separation of Church and State have been grossly ripped out context and used as a pretext to wipe all acknowledgment of God and America's Judeo-Christian heritage out of the public square. Evidence for this can be found in a myriad of books, including Jefferson's own writings on religion. Fact #2 - The First Amendment uses the language of "non-establishment", not "separation", and was designed to restrict the jurisdiction of the federal government, and in so doing, provide for the free-exercise of religion. Richard John Neuhaus sums this up well. "The two-part religion clause of the First Amendment stipulates that there must be no establishment of religion. The reason for this is to avoid any infringement of the free exercise of religion. Put differently, the free exercise of religion requires the non-establishment of religion. Non-establishment is not a good in itself. The positive good is free exercise, to which non-establishment is instrumental. Had one additional word been included in the First Amendment, we might possibly have been spared much of the grief over the religion clause in the last forty years. . . . With that added word, the religion clause would read this way: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or otherwise prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In other words, free exercise is the purpose of the religion clause, non-establishment is the means to that end." Fact #3 - Our entire system of government presupposes the necessary existence of God and our acknowledgement of Him. One historian put it, "the founders' theory of rights was highly ideological, being based on a comprehensive system of beliefs about God, man, nature, and justice." -Gary T. Amos- In short, our fundamental rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are located in an endowment from our Creator (i.e. the founders fervent belief in natural law). To argue that the mention of God or the trappings of religion in public is unconstitutional is to turn the Declaration of Independence into a self-referentially incoherent document with no discernable meaning. Fact #4 - America was founded by professing Christians in overwhelming numbers, and America remains both predominantly Christian by large numbers and incurably religious.
I highly recommend this book and the others listed below. "Separation of Church and State" by Robert L. Cord (1982) "Christianity and the Constitution" by John Eidsmoe (1987) "Defending the Declaration" by Gary T. Amos (1989) "Religion and the New Republic" by James H. Hutson (1999) "Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State" by Daniel L. Dreisbach (2002) "God and the Constitution" by Paul Marshall (2002) "Forgotten Features of the Founding: The Recovery of the Role of Religious Themes in the New American Republic" by James H. Hutson (2003)
Rating:
Summary: Factual, informative eye-opening sad tale of persecution
Review: This book tells it like it is, I have seen this hypocritical persecution in action, I have watched others in powerful places enforce it and subscribe to it because they support it or simply because they are cowards to stand up to it for fear of those stormtrooping icons of deviance and destruction in the ACLU and other immoral, unpatriotic, unconstitutional and anti-American entities. Regardless of what other neo-lefty reviewers write and get published in these reviews, Christian persecution is alive and well in America. And like in the Lord of the Rings movie a great darkness and evil is stirring in the judiciary that seeks power at all cost which will one day if not checked consume America and make it a place where religion is performed in the back allies of America, just like the left says Abortions were in the past. Persdecution of the faithfull has become a sport for those special interest moguls whom John Kerry and his crowd are too cowardly to admit they serve like those devilish black ridders seeking the ring of power.
Rating:
Summary: An Uncomfortable Indictment of the Liberal Left
Review: Even a small sample of the diverse comments published here seem to validate Mr. Limbaugh's premise-that there's a raging culture war with liberals lined up on one side and genuine Christians on the other. For most Americans, the polarization can be clearly seen as well as experienced. As a conservative Christian myself, I give this book 4 stars overall. As others have pointed out, the author's answer to the culture war seems heavily weighted on raising public awareness of America's historical religious roots and resistance via litigation. Maybe this should be expected, seeing David Limbaugh is an attorney by profession. The Christian "roots" argument is of little value in our postmodern culture which questions the existence of objective history. My biggest disappointment is the book's ambiguity on whether parents should or should not support public education. This is a critical question in the minds of thousands of parents-both Christian and non-Christian-across the Nation. Consequently, I was motivated to write a more in-depth review, which addresses this point and questions the validity of some of the book's underlying assumptions on the subject of education. See http://renewingminds.net/limbaugh.htm
Rating:
Summary: Lots of reality here
Review: I do think liberals hate Christians as Christians also hate liberals. This book is like a confession, and I found it interesting as a liberal I find the debate silly as if there was a God he would not like all the hate on either side. Christians are just as extreme as other religions and just as dangerous. More people have been murdered in the name of religion than any disease. This book makes it plain that conservatives feel persecuted which I assume gives them an excuse to exercise that holier than thou; God told me to hate sin and sinners complex.
Christians should not merit this much attention as to assume war is being waged against them. This is where the book gets on that paranoid, "the liberals are going to get you".
Christians should not be taken this seriously. This book gives them more reasons to unite in defence of a cult based on a man nailed to two pieces of wood. I do appreciate this book and think it gives people with 3 digit IQs good reasons to stay away from any cult or extremist who worship an invisable God that loves violence and revenge. This should be called 300 reasons to avoid religious nuts. They desire any chance to feel like victims to justify their need to infect the world with blind stupidity. Read this book and laugh as you will be able to see how an invisable super power can make millions of people make complete fools of themselves when prozac would help them more and cost less. Mr. Limbaugh has a good point Christians want you to abuse them so they can seek pity from their god. Christians can break all the rules and blame their actions on the devil and God can just whipes away that guilt. Gee I wish I could invent an invisable friend defend me from Christians. This book will help you feel more sorry for Christians as it may be the most difficult mental illness to treat. It is a cancer of one's ability to reason and make rashional decisions. People will understand how desperate human beings can be to chose to be delusional without medication. They don't need drugs they have God.
Rating:
Summary: Awww, I feel so sorry for you. NO WHINNING!!
Review: As a Christian, I find this book absolutely dispicable. Christians run this country and can do whatever they want. The governmnet has to enforce what the founders of this country laid out in the Constitution. So if you do not love your country, then read this book. I can now see why Rush had to buy so many pills-he was buying them for two people! If this guy wasnt related to "Dr". Limbaugh, he wouldn't even be able to publish a classified ad.
This book is awful-Do not buy.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent Exposure
Review: The read was nothing that I had expected to read. It was much better written and explained, that the book should be a must read and then discussed among friends. You can sense the passion that exudes through these pages but are tempered with intlligence. It is definitely not a shrill off a book. I especially enjoyed his explanation of the 1st. Amendment and its 2 main points; establishment and freedom to exercise. Definitely a primer on the 1st. Amendment. I always wondered what had happened to Stuart Vartney, Lou Dobb's co-host on CNN. There are plenty of references and yet written better than a textbook.
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