Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
by Jimmy Carter
List Price:
Our Price: $0.44
You Save: $14.56 (97%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jimmy CarterEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-26
ISBN: 0743285018
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
Book Review: Our Endangered Values; America's Moral Crisis is a Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a few over-riding (political) principles I try to live my life by; they inform my opinions on a wide range of issues. First and foremost The Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution under-gird my views on most if not all topics/issues--cultural and political--facing our nation. Our nation was founded on a foundation of Liberty, Equality, and Justice for All, and call me an idealist, but I fervently believe in those doctrines.
And thus, I believe there should be a separation between Church and State; I believe in freedom of Religion, but I also believe in Freedom from Religion; I believe that our federal and state governments are becoming increasingly and dangerously intertwined with religion, most notably Christianity, with odious results; I believe that a citizen should be free to pursue happiness as long as that pursuit does not infringe on another citizens right to the same. And thusly I believe in the right of Gay's and lesbians to marry and start families; I am pro-choice and pro-life. And I believe homosexuals should be allowed to server openly in our nation's Armed Services; to continually support the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is nothing more than government sponsored discrimination.
I believe that if we as a nation claim the moral high ground by the virtue of being a "Christian Nation," then we as a people, as a society should act like one. Our continued worship of material goods and money is obscene, and our treatment of other nation's is disgraceful. As is our treatment of the environment; our stewardship of the earth and our nation leaves a lot to be desired.
After reading former President' Jimmy Carter's new book "Our Endangered Values; America's Moral Crisis," I am reassured that he shares most of my beliefs, as well as my fears for the future of our Republic. Most of us know Jimmy Carter as the 39th President of the United States and of course for his (alleged) failure to end the Iran Hostage Crisis. But Carter is much deeper then the sum of his (alleged) failures, the man is Nobel Peace Prize winner, leader of the non-profit Carter Center, and a prolific author. In addition Carter is devote Southern Baptist, and takes his faith very, very seriously.
Book Excerpt; (Introduction, Page I):
American cherish the greatness of our homeland, but many do not realize how extensive and profound are the transformations that are now taking place in our nation's basic moral values, public discourse, and political philosophy.
Our people have been justifiably proud to see America's power and influence used to preserve peace for ourselves and others, to promote economic and social justice, to raise the banner of freedom and human rights, to protect the quality of our environment, to alleviate human suffering, to enhance the rule of law, and to cooperate with other peoples to reach these common goals.
With the most diverse and innovative population on earth, we have learned the value of providing our citizens with accurate information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, and accommodating free and open debate on controversial issues. Most of our political leaders have extolled state and local autonomy, attempted to control deficit spending, avoided foreign adventurism, minimized long-term peacekeeping commitments, preserved separation of church and state, and protected civil liberties and personal privacy.
All of these historic commitments are now being challenged...
In what amounts to a 212-page narrative Jimmy Carter lays out forceful arguments that our government, indeed our society is increasing engaging in a campaign to fuse religion with politics with foreseeable and regrettable results. Carter uses his personal experiences to illustrate his points on a number of issues. These personal antidotes lend considerable weight to the narrative, bolstering arguments that our federal government is failing us and the world, by it actions on a number of critical fronts.
Carter doesn't waste a lot of verbiage on verbose finger-pointing, but instead zero's in on what he sees as the problem(s). And he backs his argument with facts gleamed from a number of authoritative governmental and non-governmental sources. Unlike most conservative pundits, Carter deals in facts, not supposition informed by ignorance and Party-line platform politics.
"Our Endangered Values; America's Moral Crisis" is a wakeup call, a tolling, ringing bell in the light of day, written to inform and alarm. And who better to ring the bell than Jimmy Carter, a man steeped in faith, but who also recognizes, appreciates, and respect the need to keep Church and State separate. He recognizes that keeping the two separate is no easy undertaking only that it must be done in order to preserve the freedom and equality of all Americans.
But at the same time Carter trumpets the need for politicians who claim to be Christian to put a little faith in their policies. And the same goes for the government as a whole; bottom-line: the U.S. government led by Bush has an increasing moral deficit that threatens our leadership around the world, political, and ethical. As Carter sees it--and I have to agree--the chasm between the United States and the rest of the world has grown and continues to grow after 9/11 because of our lack of moral leadership.
"Our Endangered Values; America's Moral Crisis" is a well written, thoughtful, carefully researched book about the continued erosion of American society and governance. And it only confirmed what I had already suspected, that the Bush Administration is doing America and the world a grievous disservice with its current course of recklessness and lack of moral rectitude. Carter spells it out in "Our Endangered Values" in eloquent terms, and all Americans would do well to read and heed.
Summary of Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
President Jimmy Carter offers a passionate defense of separation of church and state. He warns that fundamentalists are deliberately blurring the lines between politics and religion.As a believing Christian, Carter takes on issues that are under fierce debate -- women's rights, terrorism, homosexuality, civil liberties, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, preemptive war, and America's global image.
Even at his most irate, Jimmy Carter projects cool, communicating with a poise that commands attention while gently signaling to opponents that they better do their homework before mounting any sort of debate. Perhaps that's why the former president, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and bestselling author ranks as one of the planet's most respected voices in the areas of human rights, diplomacy, and good government. And when a clearly agitated Carter suggests America is on a slippery slope, globally speaking, as he does throughout Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, it's wise to pay heed even if the book's overriding Christian perspective may trip cautionary bells in secular readers.
More a set of loosely connected essays than a single, precise argument, Our Endangered Values outlines Carter's worldview while pondering what he posits are key problems looming in the 21st century. Thematic touchstones such as the war, environmental negligence, civil liberties, the rich-poor divide, and the separation of church and state form the book's backbone, with Carter filtering each through the prism of his own vast experience. He doesn't much like what he sees. Though much of the data Carter presents to support his arguments is familiar, it's worth repeating that "the rate of firearm homicides in the United States is nineteen times higher than that of 35 other high-income countries combined." That "In addition to imprisonment, the United States of America stands almost alone in the world in our fascination with the death penalty, and our few remaining companions are regimes with a lack of respect for basic human rights." That when it comes to sharing the wealth with poor nations "Americans are the stingiest of all industrialized nations. We allow about one-thirtieth as much as is commonly believed [or] sixteen cents out of each $100 of the gross national income." America: land of the free, home of the brave? Try global bully with a bad attitude and reckless sense of entitlement.
Carter spends significant time contextualizing his own spirituality, as if to underscore the urgency of his message that fundamentalism in any form is bad, especially when it encroaches on government. Indeed, Carter persuasively links fundamentalism to harmful policy, the subjugation of women, general xenophobia, and a host of other ills occurring all around him. And while George W. Bush in particular and the current administration in general take fewer clips on the chin than might be expected, Carter's arguments for common-sense change are deeply resonant nonetheless. --Kim Hughes
Church & State Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Church & State Books
Religion in Public Life: Must Faith Be Privatized?by Roger Trigg
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.24
Price in other shops:
Political Hinduism: The Religious Imagination in Public SpheresOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-06-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.75
Price in other shops:
Faith and the Presidency From George Washington to George W. Bushby Gary Scott Smith
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-07-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.92
Price in other shops:
Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Eliteby D. Michael Lindsay
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-10-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.53
Price in other shops:
Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Africa (Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in the Global South)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-04-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.00
Price in other shops:
Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States (Religion and Global Politics)by Vjekoslav Perica
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2004-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.80
Price in other shops:
Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challengesby Marvine Howe
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.09
Price in other shops:
Iran: A Country Study (Area Handbook Iran: A Country Study)by S/N 008-020-01181-9
Government Printing Office; Published: 1989-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.00
Hindutva: Exploring the Idea of Hindu Nationalismby Jyotirmaya Sharma
Penguin Books; Published: 2006-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.08
Price in other shops:
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the Westby Benazir Bhutto
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.37
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Centuryby Kevin Phillips
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.97
Price in other shops:
Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a Presidentby Jimmy Carter
University of Arkansas Press; Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.71
Price in other shops:
Poor Support: Poverty In The American Familyby David T. Ellwood
Basic Books; Published: 1989-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.63
Price in other shops:
We the People: An Introduction to American Politics (Shorter Seventh Edition (without policy chapters))by Benjamin Ginsberg, Theodore J. Lowi, Margaret Weir
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-12-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.00
We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Workby Jimmy Carter
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2010-02-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
White House Diaryby Jimmy Carter
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2010-09-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.48
Price in other shops:
Faultlines: Debating the Issues in American Politics (Third Edition)W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2011-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th Presidentby Jimmy Carter
Zondervan; Published: 2011-12-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops:
An Hour Before Daylight : Memoirs of a Rural Boyhoodby Jimmy Carter
Published: 2001-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheidby Jimmy Carter
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-09-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.32
Price in other shops: