God and Other Famous Liberals: Reclaiming the Politics of America

I am so impressed with Church's discussion of American Liberalism. I always considered myself a moderate but after reading this book, I realize I am indeed a liberal -- and have quite good company. Solid history and a beautiful viewpoint of when and how religion works in politics. I highly, highly recommend this book and will have to read it again.

Thank God for Forrest Church!! He has so eloquently written what we Liberals have always known. This work will expose the Religious Right for what they are. Overblown zealots, who have wrongly hi-jacked the symbols of Family and Flag.

Forrest Church has thoroughly researched our history and connected our founding father's thoughts & hearts to a much more liberal doctrine of spirit in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence than most conservatives will be ready to believe. His hypothesis that we were founded on liberal values that have been under attack from the beginning makes perfect sense, and is very important to today's world, with all the fundamentalism and evangelic fervor pushing us further & further to the right. Sadly, most will automatically dismiss this book by the title alone, afraid of what they will find. If they'd take the time they'd see good reasons why God must be a liberal, and why we must return as a nation to more liberal thinking and behavior if we are to remain a nation that values it's people. I highly recommend this book!

I am thinking of authoring a book called The Conservative Contradiction, and that review is a classic example of that phenomenon. His complaint is that the Left claims God is on their side, yet his answer is to make precisely the same claim for the Right. He claims to be concerned about the Left's injection of religion into politics, but then says that a "proper" understanding of Christianity justifies his own politics. With such a contradictory premise, the reviewer unwittingly offers himself as an example of th------Bottom line, folks: lots of people, on both the Right and Left, justify their politics on religious grounds, either out of genuine belief or (oftentimes) a cynical exploitation of others' belief for entirely secular ends. Mr. Church does a great service in pointing out the manipulations of religious conservatives, and objective seekers (as opposed to those who are already committed to leftist ideals) will doubtless want to find a similar book exposing the misuse of Christianity by certain liberals.

I bought this book because the title intrigued me. I am a non-affiliated Jew, an unrepentant Liberal and a secular humanist to boot. Mr. Church's book is a beautifully written and elegantly reasoned answer to those who would co-opt faith, patriotism and "family values" as their own private property. Lest the title, or Mr. Church's status as an ordained Unitarian minister, frighten off those with a less classic idea of the deity, Mr. Church points out that "God is also not God's name; God is our name for the highest power we can imagine....When Moses asks who he is talking to up there on Mount Sinai, the answer is not "God", but "I am who I am" or "I do what I do", which is what Yahweh means. Liberals who have been bullied into being ashamed of what they believe this country is about by those who have turned "Liberalism" into a perjorative "L" word will find this book an excellent answer to those on the Far Right who claim to be 'conservative' but who are really radical.