Mind Siege : The Battle for the Truth

Rating:
Summary: News to Those Who Should Know Better.
Review: I am first and foremost a Christian. I am also an educated adult who has worked in the field of education. I have a variety of experience in the arts and have attempted to keep current on news and world affairs. Therefore, I really wasn't all that impressed by MIND SIEGE. The author's main point of the book is to illustrate to Christians how secular humanists are taking over the world. Now, some may find that assertion far fetched. However, it really isn't and I agree with it.

The problem I had with MIND SIEGE wasn't the message (it's not intended for the unconverted). The problem with MIND SIEGE is that Tim LaHaye's writing really isn't that great and he uses a bunch of sources that are basically the same source. Therefore, though the book has a good message it's tangled up in bad writing and bad research. Had LaHaye done a better job at writing and researching the book, it would have been much better. Still it's a decent book to read for any Christian who really doesn't have a clue what's going on in the world and who maybe wondering how they can influence the culture. For anyone who is at least half-way knowledgeable I recommend reading ROARING LAMBS by Bill Briner or HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE by Francis Schafer.

Rating:
Summary: Its O.K.
Review: I thought Tim LaHaye had many interesting points in this book. Moral relevatism is not a good philosophy to live by, as treating others the way you would like to be treated is important, no matter what part of the world, culture, or time you live in.
While LaHaye explains things like, feminism, homosexuality, etc., as a decay to our society, and in part that is true. But, I would have to say he has turned a blind eye to the atrocities that religious fundamentalism and extremists have caused through out many years.
I don't see secular humanists hijacking jet airliners and flying them into buildings, nor barging into a classroom full of school children and opening fire.
I have yet personally to see a secular humanist do all these things, so they can get a part in their "Paradise",As these Islamic Fundamentalists go out for. This is why I give this book 3 stars, while LaHaye mentions moral relevatism, breakdown of traditional values, he fails to mention the filth of religious fundamentalism which is the real threat these days. As somebody who acknowledges Jesus as the Christ and who God revealed himself to the world through, I know I have more rights and freedom here in the US, then I would in Iran, for example.
There, I probably would be treated as a second class citizen at best in an islamic theocracy.
But again, that is the trouble with fundamentalism, as God wants us to forgive one another, just like he did to the thieves on the cross, the roman soldiers who beat Jesus and crucified him.
While interesting, Lahaye should write a book titled "Mind Siege:How Fundamentalism Can Destroy Society". In part, these people scare me, and should have every right minded person concerned.

Rating:
Summary: Secular Humanists Founded This Country???
Review: It would be hard to imagine a more incredibly absurd historical position than that found in one reviewer's assertion that Secular Humanists founded this country. Secular Humanism did not even exist in 1789 and it is frankly insulting to our great Founding Fathers, and to anyone with a modicum of historical intelligence, to pin that philosophy on the founders of the United States. Whatever else they were, they were not Secular Humanists. Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian certainly, but he did argue that men were inherently free of all but moral law, a law given by God. Men who try to free themselves from moral law would eventually become slaves, first to their own passions, then to tyrannical gov't when they no longer can govern themselves. Democracy requires personal self-government, a virtuous citizenship, based upon the laws of God. "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." So said John Adams, 2nd President of the United States. THAT is what our Founders believed, and it is the exact antithesis of Secular Humanism. (Incidentally, the Constitution of the United States, as it was initially written and ratified, did not forbid states from having state-supported churches--which several did well into the 1800s. Thus, modern interpretations of "separation of church and state" are also not what the Founders had in mind.)

Modern secularism, which arose out of 19th century utopian, naturalistic theories, has largely undermined the kind of country our Founders envisioned--morally AND politcally. A moral people do not need much government--they govern themselves. Hence, the limited government established by the Founders. An increasingly immoral populace needs larger government control; "if men are not governed by God, then they must be governed by tyrants" (William Penn). Christians would like to have, at least morally, a return to the vision of the Founders. Then gov't could be scaled back as well. So there IS a direct corollary between the Christian right and limited government conservatism (conservatives who want a return to limited government without a concomitant return to Christian morality are whistling in the dark; it simply can't be done. Limited government demands a moral people, and man has never been able, and never will be able, to agree upon a naturalistic ethic.) But LaHaye's book is not the way to accomplish this return. Frankly, he's probably preaching only to the choir anyway. If you do not believe in Christianity, then don't waste your time with this book; it will not convince you to become one (unless you are of limited intelligence and easily scared out of your wits, and I don't mean to be insulting). On top of that, LaHaye's "Christianity" is not even Biblical. The premillennial views of much of "Christendom," which LaHaye represents, is not what the Bible teaches. Yes, Christians have every right to oppose homosexuality, the abortion of unborn babies, and destructive feminist theories. To label Christians as racist, anti-women, anti-science, "homo haters," etc. is simply left-wing "feel-good-ism," an attempt to gain the moral high ground, which the left can never do, except in its own eyes. They are a walking evidence of the God they despise--they have a conscience and they try to salve it with their politically correct utopianism. The true hatred in this country is from the left, though they certainly don't have a monopoly on it. Conservatives are hated because their view of the nature of man does not allow the left to socially engineer society, through government (or terror and murder in the case of non-representative based secular governments) they way they wish to do. Christianity is hated because of its opposition to immorality, especially the sexual revolution and its consequences. But this isn't surprising. Jesus wasn't crucified because of the love He preached; He was crucified because He demanded men repent of sin. And modern man has no more desire to do that than 1st century man, thus any Christian insisting upon a change of man's ways can expect to be hated just as the Founder of the religion was. LaHaye will be mocked for non-politically correct views; that's to be expected. The "politically correct" shouldn't even be reading the book because it isn't for them. He would do well, however, to make sure his theology is correct for there is the area in which he is truly leading others astray.

One final thought--there is SOME historical basis for the "future vision" LaHaye portrays in this book. The Terror of both the French Revolution and Bolshevism massacred many, many believers in God. Atheism in power has never been kind to religion. To believe that it could never happen in America is naivete of the worst sort because secularism demands the destruction of religion in order to create the utopia IT wants to create--the two visions are simply diametrically antithetical and if secularism must destroy the religious to produce its heaven on earth, then so what? The believers are all going to die some day anyway (as Stalin said of the peasants he murdered by the millions). The left will never be convinced of that, of course, and it's not going to happen in the next 10-15 years, either. But to say it cannot happen in America only betrays an ignorance of history akin to the notion that our Founding Fathers were secular humanists.

Rating:
Summary: HUMANISTS ARE TAKING OVER AMERICA!!!!
Review: THE THINGS THEY SAY ABOUT HUMANISTS ARE TRUE!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THE "IDEALS" THESE HUMANISTS EXPRESS?? FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, BROTHERLY LOVE, AND SECULARISM, IN AMERICA!! THE FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD BE TURNING OVER IN THEIR GRAVES. READ THIS BOOK AND PREVENT THE HUMANISTS FROM BRAINWASHING AMERICA ANY LONGER!!!

Rating:
Summary: Alarmist comedy for the already-converted
Review: This is a book so far removed from objective reality that I don't really think it could convince many people who didn't already believe its message. The book starts with a hilarious scenario about life in the very near future, where Christians have been declared insane terrorists, and all nations have joined together in a one-world government. I guess the racial, social, tribal and religious differences which have divided people since man could pick up a sharp stone have dissapeared in less than 15 years due to secular humanism... hey, wait, that doesn't sound all that bad! No more war, racism, poverty. Oops! I think LaHaye and Noebel have had the opposite effect on me!

The authors write, "It is no overstatement to declare that most of today's evils can be traced to secular humanism..." That sentence sums up their falacious argument succinctly. I think the authors' main flaw, and the one which destabilizes so many of their arguments, is the assumption that their foe (God-hating Secular Humansts) is somehow as organized and cannonized as their group (Evangelical Christians).

This distopian view of a Secular Humanist future should be read by everyone to give some sort of understanding to the religious right and their beliefs. If the religious right continues down the path of ignoring science, demonizing everyone else and devaluing any ideas outside of their narrow belief system, then the future could look bleak for them; but rather than the oppressed "Christian Terrorists" the authors describe in their book, fundamentalist Christians will be viewed by the majority of people the same way the Amish are viewed by fundamentalist Christians: a benign misguided curiousity, interesting to look at from the outside, but not something one would ever want to be.
I give the book two stars for the belly laughs in every chapter.

Rating:
Summary: Alarmist comedy for the already-converted
Review: This is a book so far removed from objective reality that I don't really think it could convince many people who didn't already believe its message. The book starts with a hilarious scenario about life in the very near future, where Christians have been declared insane terrorists, and all nations have joined together in a one-world government. I guess the racial, social, tribal and religious differences which have divided people since man could pick up a sharp stone have dissapeared in less than 15 years due to secular humanism... hey, wait, that doesn't sound all that bad! No more war, racism, poverty. Oops! I think LaHaye and Noebel have had the opposite effect on me!

The authors write, "It is no overstatement to declare that most of today's evils can be traced to secular humanism..." That sentence sums up their falacious argument succinctly. I think the authors' main flaw, and the one which destabilizes so many of their arguments, is the assumption that their foe (God-hating Secular Humansts) is somehow as organized and cannonized as their group (Evangelical Christians).

This distopian view of a Secular Humanist future should be read by everyone to give some sort of understanding to the religious right and their beliefs. If the religious right continues down the path of ignoring science, demonizing everyone else and devaluing any ideas outside of their narrow belief system, then the future could look bleak for them; but rather than the oppressed "Christian Terrorists" the authors describe in their book, fundamentalist Christians will be viewed by the majority of people the same way the Amish are viewed by fundamentalist Christians: a benign misguided curiousity, interesting to look at from the outside, but not something one would ever want to be.
I give the book two stars for the belly laughs in every chapter.