Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light [Paperback]
Sept. 2010
Valerie Tarico Ph.D.
Product Description – Most Evangelical Christians earnestly strive to worship the God of Love and Truth. But a belief that the Bible is literally perfect puts them in the odd position of defending falsehood, bigotry, and even violence. What do Evangelicals believe? And how do these beliefs subvert humanity’s shared moral values, including the compassionate ministry of Jesus in the New Testament? Trusting Doubt provides a clear picture of this variant of Christianity, which has risen to political prominence and now threatens individual rights and collective stability. Raised in a staunch fundamentalist family and educated at Wheaton College–home of then Billy Graham Center for Evangelicalism–Valerie Tarico speaks as a former “insider.” Trusting Doubt offers alternative biblical explanations that are compatible with contemporary Christianity. Gratefully, Tarico’s unique voice as a former Evangelical provides a scholarly yet accessible path away from faulty fundamentalism and toward Christian clarity–a path based on logic, love, and the quest for spiritual truth.
About the Author – Valerie Tarico, Ph.D., is a former fundamentalist Christian and graduate of Wheaton College, a bastion of Evangelical education. She holds a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Iowa and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington. Trusting that “All Truth is God’s Truth,” Dr. Tarico committed to follow her spiritual questions wherever they might lead. Ultimately they led her away from Evangelicalism. Currently, Dr. Tarico writes for the Huffington Post and ExChristian.net. She also hosts a television series in Seattle, Washington, on “Moral Politics.” Not satisfied with spending all her energy critiquing Christianity, Dr. Tarico promotes interfaith dialogue and the shared values that link all humanity. She speaks to churches and secular groups on topics such as moral development, the psychology of belief, and wisdom convergence. She also manages WisdomCommons.org, an interactive website that allows users to find and discuss information on values that are shared across secular and religious wisdom traditions.
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus) [Paperback]
February 6, 2007
Bart D. Ehrman
“The popular perception of the Bible as a divinely perfect book receives scant support from Ehrman, who sees in Holy Writ ample evidence of human fallibility and ecclesiastical politics. Though himself schooled in evangelical literalism, Ehrman has come to regard his earlier faith in the inerrant inspiration of the Bible as misguided, given that the original texts have disappeared and that the extant texts available do not agree with one another. Most of the textual discrepancies, Ehrman acknowledges, matter little, but some do profoundly affect religious doctrine. To assess how ignorant or theologically manipulative scribes may have changed the biblical text, modern scholars have developed procedures for comparing diverging texts. And in language accessible to nonspecialists, Ehrman explains these procedures and their results. He further explains why textual criticism has frequently sparked intense controversy, especially among scripture-alone Protestants. In discounting not only the authenticity of existing manuscripts but also the inspiration of the original writers, Ehrman will deeply divide his readers. Although he addresses a popular audience, he undercuts the very religious attitudes that have made the Bible a popular book. Still, this is a useful overview for biblical history collections.” ~ Bryce Christensen
Product Description – Glenn Greenwald was not a political man. Not liberal, not conservative. Politicians were all the same and it didn’t matter which party was in power. Extremists on both ends canceled each other out, and the United States would essentially remain forever centrist. Or so he thought. Then came September 11, 2001. Greenwald’s disinterest in politics was replaced by patriotism, and he supported the war in Afghanistan. He also gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt over his decision to invade Iraq. But, as he saw Americans and others being disappeared, jailed and tortured, without charges or legal representation, he began to worry. And when he learned his president had seized the power to spy on American citizens on American soil, without the oversight required by law, he could stand no more. At the heart of these actions, Greenwald saw unprecedented and extremist theories of presidential power, theories that flout the Constitution and make President Bush accountable to no one, and no law. How Would a Patriot Act? is one man’s story of being galvanized into action to defend America’s founding principles, and a reasoned argument for what must be done. Greenwald’s penetrating words should inspire a nation to defend the Constitution from a president who secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a monarch. If we are to remain a constitutional republic, Greenwald writes, we cannot abide radical theories of executive power, which are transforming the very core of our national character, and moving us from democracy toward despotism. This is not hyperbole. This is the crisis all Americans—liberals and conservatives–now face. In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald invites us to consider: How would a patriot act today?
About the Author – Glenn Greenwald is a Constitutional law attorney, and author of the political blog, “Unclaimed Territory.” Greenwald has written for American Conservative magazine and appeared on a variety of television and radio programs, including C-Span’s “Washington Journal,” Air America’s “Majority Report” and Public Radio International’s “To the Point.” His reporting and analysis have been credited in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Slate and a variety of other print and online publications.
From Publishers Weekly – “With this provocative book, Greenwald, a former constitutional lawyer and author of A Tragic Legacy and How Would a Patriot Act, purports to expose the rank myth-making and exploitation of cultural, gender and psychological themes by the Republican Party. The author begins his attack by targeting John Wayne, whom he sees as a template for right-wing notions of American courage and conservative manliness. Wayne’s avoidance of military service and his string of divorces, both at odds with his public image, are emblematic in this account of a fundamental hypocrisy implicit in conservative mythologies. Greenwald goes on to argue that prominent Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Mitt Romney display the same hypocrisy in their public ideologies and personal lives. Shouldering much of the blame are the press and the media, including Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter, Chris Matthews and even Maureen Dowd, all of whom propagate popular attitudes about virile Republicans and effeminate Democrats. Despite the antipathy the author feels for Coulter, his writing is much like hers. More a partisan screed than a reasoned argument meant to persuade undecided readers, this repetitive text frequently devolves into personal attacks and vast generalizations.”
“The God Virus, presents the reader with a telling analysis of religious belief as a memetic force that behaves in a manner similar to a biological virus, working within the infected host, individual and collective, to further its own survival and propagation, often to the detriment of that host. This metaphor is uncannily apt and illuminating. It illustrates that, no matter what its genesis in human evolutionary development or the reasons for it, religion has become a force inimical to the best interests of modern cultural cohesion, scientific and ethical enlightenment, and individual human happiness. Alienation, guilt, fear, social and sexual dysfunction, moral extremism and bigotry, personality disorders, divisiveness within family and nations, are only some of the adverse symptoms produced by infection with the religious virus.” ~ Earl Doherty author of ‘The Jesus Puzzle’
The Blue Pages
November 2009
Angie Crouse & the Center for Responsive Politics
“The Blue Pages includes valuable information on political contributions to each major party, employee benefits and labor practices, lawsuits and investigations, and community and charitable programs.”
Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists
September 2008
By Dan Barker
Foreword by Richard Dawkins
“After 19 years as an evangelical preacher, missionary, and Christian songwriter, Dan Barker ‘threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there.’ Barker, who is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (America’s largest organization of atheists and agnostics), describes the intellectual and psychological path he followed in moving from fundamentalism to freethought. The four sections in Godless–Rejecting God, Why I Am An Atheist, What’s Wrong With Christianity, and Life is Good!–include chapters on bible problems, the historicity of Jesus, morality, the Kalam Cosmological argument, the unbelievable resurrection, and much more. Barker relates the positive benefits from trusting in reason and human kindness instead of living in fear of false judgment and moral condemnation. Godless expands the story told in Dan’s 1992 book, Losing Faith in Faith–the two books overlap about 20%–but a lot has happened in 16 years, and Dan updates the story with four new chapters, including ‘The New Call’ (lessons from the debate circuit), ‘Adventures in Atheism,’ and ‘We Go To Washington’ (FFRF’s Supreme Court lawsuit, in which Dan was a plaintiff). (Godless updates and expands on Dan’s 1992 book Losing Faith In Faith, with some overlap in the deconversion story, but many new chapters written since then.)”
Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom
October 2006
Barry Lynn
“The Reverend Barry Lynn explains why the Religious Right has it all wrong.
In the wake of the 2004 presidential election, the Religious Right insisted that George Bush had been handed a mandate for an ideology-based social agenda, including the passage of a “marriage amendment” to ban same-sex unions, diversion of tax money to religious groups through “faith-based initiatives,” the teaching of creationism in public schools, and restrictions on abortion. Led by an aggressive band of television preachers and extremist radio personalities, the Religious Right set its sights on demolishing the wall of separation between church and state.
The Reverend Barry Lynn is a devout Christian, but this propaganda effort disturbs him deeply. He argues that politicians need to stop looking to the Bible to justify their actions and should consult another source instead: the U.S. Constitution.
When the Founding Fathers of our great nation created the Constitution, they had seen firsthand the dangers of an injudicious mix of religion and government. They knew what it was like to live under the yoke of state-imposed faith. They drew up a model for the new nation that would allow absolute freedom of religion. They knew that religion, united with the raw power of government, spawns tyranny.
Yet the Religious Right now seems distrustful of those principles inherent in the Constitution, viewing the separation of church and state only as a dangerous anti-Christian principle imposed upon our nation. In reality, the separation between church and state has been an important ally to religion: with the state out of the picture, hundreds of religions have grown and prospered. Religion doesn’t need the government’s assistance, any more than it is practical or appropriate for religious doctrine to be fostered in the government or taught in public schools.
As an explicitly religious figure speaking out against the Religious Right, Lynn has incurred the wrath of such personalities as Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson, who once said Lynn was “lower than a child molester.” Lynn has continuously taken on these radicals of the Religious Right calmly and rationally, using their own statements and religious fervor to prove that when they attack the constitutionally mandated separation, they’re actually attacking freedom of religion.
In Piety & Politics, the Reverend Barry Lynn continues the fight—educating Americans about what is at stake, explaining why it is crucial that we maintain the separation of church and state, and galvanizing us to defend the honor of our religious freedom.”
Ecology and Socialism
Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis
June, 2010
Chris Williams
“Around the world, consciousness of the threat to our environment is growing. The majority of solutions on offer, from using efficient light bulbs to biking to work, focus on individual lifestyle changes, yet the scale of the crisis requires far deeper adjustments. Ecology and Socialism argues that time still remains to save humanity and the planet, but only by building social movements for environmental justice that can demand qualitative changes in our economy, workplaces, and infrastructure.
“Williams adds a new and vigorous voice to the growing awareness that, yes, it is our capitalist system that is ruining the natural foundation of our civilization and threatening the very idea of a future. I am particularly impressed by the way he develops a clear and powerful argument for an ecological socialism directly from the actual ground of struggle, whether against climate change, systematic poisoning from pollution, or the choking stream of garbage. Ecology and Socialism is a notable addition to the growing movement to save our planet from death-dealing capitalism.” ~ Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature
ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism
March 2, 2010
Yves Smith
Why are we in such a financial mess today? There are lots of proximate causes: over-leverage, global imbalances, bad financial technology that lead to widespread underestimation of risk.But these are all symptoms. Until we isolate and tackle fundamental causes, we will fail to extirpate the disease. ‘ECONned’ is the first book to examine the unquestioned role of economists as policy-makers, and how they helped create an unmitigated economic disaster.
Here, Yves Smith looks at how economists in key policy positions put doctrine before hard evidence, ignoring the deteriorating conditions and rising dangers that eventually led them, and us, off the cliff and into financial meltdown. Intelligently written for the layman, Smith takes us on a terrifying investigation of the financial realm over the last twenty-five years of misrepresentations, naive interpretations of economic conditions, rationalizations of bad outcomes, and rejection of clear signs of growing instability.
In ‘eConned’, author Yves Smith reveals:
–why the measures taken by the Obama Administration are mere palliatives and are unlikely to pave the way for a solid recovery
–how economists have come to play a profoundly anti-democratic role in policy
–how financial models and concepts that were discredited more than thirty years ago are still widely used by banks, regulators, and investors
–how management and employees of major financial firms looted them, enriching themselves and leaving the mess to taxpayers
–how financial regulation enabled predatory behavior by Wall Street towards investors
–how economics has no theory of financial systems, yet economists fearlessly prescribe how to manage them
538 Ways to Live, Work, and Play Like a Liberal
July 1, 2010
Justin Krebs
This new book by Justin Krebs — co-founder of the Living Liberally network and Drinking Liberally happy hours – is about the little ideas for embracing your progressive values everyday life, as well as the big ideas of what it means to be a “liberal” in America today. Start a conversation, join a movement, share a drink, engage your neighbors — and begin by reading the book.
National Priorities Project analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent
