Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America Hardcover – March 5, 2019

Archbishop Vigano has written a series of powerful letters over the past year addressing the evolving global formation of two opposing sides that he characterized as biblical: the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light, he stated, “constitute the most conspicuous part of humanity, while the children of darkness represent an absolute minority.” Yet the former are the object of discrimination which places them in a situation where they are characterized as morally inferior with respect to their adversaries. The children of darkness often hold strategic positions in government, in politics, and the economy and in the media.Best-selling authors David Horowitz and Archbishop Charles Chaput provide context for this Cosmic Battle in “Dark Agenda” and “Stranger in a Strange Land” respectively.Horowitz provides recent history and the game plan that has led to the emergence of the children of darkness as a force to be understood and reckoned with. The children of darkness see Christianity as the enemy and as the primary roadblock to the adoption of their values which are crucial in their quest for power. He sees what is underway as “the war to destroy Christian America.”At the root of this war is the children of darkness’ belief that religion must die. The war began with the Supreme Court’s 1962 landmark decision, Engel v. Vitale, which was the forerunner of a series of cases that would ban any discussion of God from public schools and bar religion from the public square. Madelyn Murray, Christopher Hitchens, Margaret Sanger and many others were on the front lines pushing the boundaries that led to decisions on abortion, same-sex marriage, and religious expression. And the author of life was abandoned by the very country that proudly proclaimed, “In God We Trust.”Horowitz’s “Dark Agenda” takes us from the beginning to today’s front lines….the assault on American pluralism; the assault on basic American freedoms and on the founding principles of equality and religious liberty; the creation of the religious right as a response; the emergence of the pro-life movement; the use of smears - phobic labeling, charges of sexism and racism - to suppress opposition; the establishment of a political base for the children of darkness in our educational institutions, K-8, high school, and college; the use of media as a propaganda machine; and the emergence of an ideology rooted in the ends justifies the means.Chaput in his best-selling and highly regarded “Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Christian Faith in a Post-Christian World” is pastoral and tries to answer the question of how “can we live in joy and serve the common good as leaven in a culture that no longer shares what we believe…(as) we are all being held hostage by the forces of darkness.” He notes early in the book that if you are reading this book then you are probably different. “You like to think, and want to think, as a grown-up real person with a mature Catholic spirit of faith…Adults deserve adult food for thought.” And Chaput delivers.He begins by characterizing the challenge at hand - the forces of darkness delegitimizing, dehumanizing, and destroying those who cherish the Truth. The Truth has no place in the secular heart of modern life. A central fact of modern life today is idolatry and self-indulgence. Satan, the father of lies, is alive, well, and visible.Chaput reminds us that “today's idols come in the shape of human will in private appetites, wrapped in a pious refusal to judge anyone else’s behavior. The more problematic the behavior, the more sacred grows the liturgy of alibis. And as these strange behaviors flower, the language of tolerance and diversity invariably hardens into repression against “haters” dashing those who hold older biblical ideas of right and wrong.Evil cannot stand criticism. Evil does not want to be just tolerated. It needs to be vindicated and demands to be seen as right. Modern man does not want to be saved. He wants his behaviors to be affirmed.Chaput provides more detail than Horowitz on where we are now and how we got here. He urges us not to turn inward. The evil spirit of defeatism is in the air. He urges us to be happy as we have every reason to hope. We can go into battle knowing that victory has already been assured. Share our faith and take care not to lose the capacity to love. The greatest weapon we have against evil is love. “Love brought our world into being…it disarms the intellect and touches the soul.”Chaput then speaks to the reasons for hope and how we can live as Christians with joy by answering the key questions:1. How do we fit into a deeply changed and changing nation?2. How do we grow in our faith?3. Where do we grow in our faith?4. Where do our real loyalties lie?5. And how did we wake up in a culture we thought we knew but now seems so foreign?He offers a path forward in response to these questions and urges us to:1. Overcome individualism as we cannot find God on our own.2. Overcome institutionalism which funnels energy into bureaucracy.3. Overcome clericalism which distorts the role of both the priest and the people.4. Create a vigorous, more believing, more explicitly missionary church.5. Accept and act on our baptismal calling to become a new person.6. Live in communion with God and with other people, connect with the vine.7. Use our gifts for the Kingdom and live out our calling.8. Be the salt of the earth. We are lights in the world and can restore the saltiness needed for change.9. Exercise charity in all that we do. Charity is a clear expression of our faith.It does not matter to the modern world how much of it is a lie. It cares little that every lie is an act of violence against reality and a deforming of the truth. What it really needs is the right to disguise the lying, so ‘the fact of being lied to can be easily ignored.’ This right is a strike against the dignity of the human spirit. It is our task to fight back against this impulse and restore the Truth to it’s primacy.The “world taking shape around us today seems to make as strangers in a strange land – strangers in our own land – that’s because it does. And if the world “seems filled with cynicism, disagreements, blasphemies big and small, and sadness, that’s because it is.”The “Dark Agenda” in play today and it accentuates our sense that we are “Strangers in a Strange Land” because we are. These two outstanding books frame the Cosmic battle Vigano has outlined and also provides a guide to the path(s) available to us for strength, joy and peace.

Should be required reading! Lays out a great roadmap of how we got here today. Campus riots advocating violence and a federal government that appears to support it!

Many of us have been shocked, saddened, and outraged by what we see on the television news as well as internet sites! It is absolutely overwhelming at times leaving us to wonder "what is going on"! Much of it seems to make no sense! Take heart!! David Horowitz's book Dark Agenda brings order and understanding out of the oft contradictory cries and events, unmasking the philosophies and often the perpetrators of this massive push to "fundamentally change America", and not to the liking of many of us. A former leftist liberal and communist, a "red diaper baby" raised by communist parents on the milk of Marxism, coming of age in the communist-induced turmoil of the 1960s, helping to organize "the troops" and writing for and editing the key Leftist newspaper of the times, Horowitz is immanently qualified to put the many disparate parts of the divisive and anti-law, anti-American, anti-church/God/Christianity, anti-middle class revolution together. A brilliant mind, amazing scholar who eventually saw through the lie to the truth, Horowitz writes in an extremely readable style put into a relatively short book explaining the many deceptions and placing an amazing amount of material in chronological, easily understandable format. The work is well documented with references at the back under notes. This book probably will not comfort you, BUT, it will leave you understanding the magnitude, depth, source, and rabid nature of the cultural war that consumes this country.

Like

Anyone who follows politics will not be surprised by this book. What I did find surprising was that the American left's war against Christianity, America, and the Constitution has been going on longer than I thought! Since the early 1960s, the left has been using the courts to dismantle religious freedom, specifically Christianity, and supplant it with the religion of the left, that is, global Communism.The author begins with a survey of the Christian idea that was the foundational principle of America: that under God, all men are created equal; therefore, it follows that under the law, all men are to be treated as equals. Horowitz then explains how the Founders recognized the dangers of a state religion or church, which is in fact an arm of the government, and instead steered the government toward a secular republic as they established the Federal Constitution. So, while the principle used to found the nation was overtly Christian, the Founders skillfully crafted a non-Christian (as opposed to un-Christian or anti-Christian, which are vastly different in meaning) system of government. The left of today would have us believe that the government is supposed to be an anti-Christian agency.Next, the author shows us the key moments of the left's anti-Christian war, dedicating each of several succeeding chapters to a specific court case. The left, having realized they could never convince enough people to pass their agenda through the legislative process, moved into the courts to force their way on the American people. Thus, in 1962, the left began their war. Bit by bit, we see how the left has used sympathetic courts to force their ideology on everyone. The author points out the left's hypocrisy by showing that many schools today are REQUIRED to teach units on Islam, while shutting out any mention of America's Christian origins. Make no mistake, this is government establishing a religion by favoring it, which is grossly un-Constitutional.We can see today the left's war brought out into the open for all to see. They no longer hide their agenda. Antifa, Black Lives Matter, etc. show us that the left's war is only heightening. This is not a new phenomenon. The left has been ramping up to this for 60 years.

Send it as a gift and they loved it

The author, has a good grasp of what is going on, not only in the USA, but all western societies for the past 100 years.

Un libro molto interessante ed attuale

Easy and interesting reading

Personal insight and understanding the current political crisis in the West. A compelling read !