The Secularism of a Religious Country – Mike Potemra – The Corner on National Review Online

Mike Potemra at National Review offers his review of The End of Secularism.

The Secularism of a Religious Country – Mike Potemra – The Corner on National Review Online

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First Things Spengler Blog Reviews The End of Secularism

A fellow named David Layman (not David Goldman, who I think is THE Spengler) has reviewed The End of Secularism for the First Things website.

Wow.

This was the first full contact review by a person who doesn’t know me at all.

Pretty exhilarating.

Layman is very complimentary of the book, particularly the first half where I review the history of church and state in the west and go through the American constitutional situation. He’s a bit less on board with me when I start talking about anti-foundationalism and the impact of postmodernism on the case for secularism. I think he says what Robert George would say, which is to suggest I should talk more about the case for our values than the weaknesses in secularism as a construct.

In my defense, I did what I set out to do, which was (as inspired by C. John Sommerville) to undercut secularism by being skeptical about it. It was more about deconstructing someone else’s castle than shoring up my own.

Still, a wonderful experience. And thank you to David Layman.

The Audio from My Prime Time America Interview

Here’s the link.

Inglourious Basterds Just Plain Inglorious

I admit that I saw the new Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds. Now that I’ve seen it, you don’t have to.

Inglourious Basterds is a cultural low point. It is the revenge fantasy of a poorly educated and completely unreflective thirteen year old. It is a jerky exercise in crudely manipulating the feelings of the audience in order to give them an excuse to hate the bad guys enough to want them brutally and cruelly dispatched.

I did hate the bad guys. But I hated some other things, too.

I hated the way the “good” guys acted.

I hated the way the film was put together.

I hated the extraordinarily hokey job of acting done by one Brad Pitt.

Let me dwell on that Brad Pitt issue for a second. He spends the entire movie oddly grimacing and occasionally growling out a line. Usually a cliche’. He is doing a bad impersonation of a cross between L’il Abner and R. Lee Ermey.

I think the theory of the film is that the Nazis are the one group of bad guys we can all agree were REALLY bad and therefore the audience will have the emotional permission needed to hate these men enough to unreservedly enjoy some completely gratuitous Hollywood graphic violence. I was unable to reach that level. I still had some reservations.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

The plot was a rip-off of the far superior The Dirty Dozen. You remember. All the big Nazis are going to be in one place. Let’s kill ‘em all while we have the chance. You’ve seen that movie before. Rest content. You don’t need to see it again.

Though Inglourious Basterds opened big, I don’t think it will carry over. I can’t imagine this film is going to capture many imaginations.

The innovation of this film is that you will see Nazi soldiers dispatched very cruelly and without any human feeling at all. You will see men scalped. You will see the survivors get swastikas carved into their foreheads. You will see a very large man nick-named The Bear Jew beat a Nazi soldier to death berserker-style with a baseball bat because the soldier will not divulge the location of his comrades. This is supposed to be very satisfying though the soldier passively takes the deathblows. Some in the audience cheered. I like seeing bad guys face terrible justice as much as the next guy. But it shouldn’t be filmed as the equivalent of a teenage wilding incident.

The film’s hook is that Brad Pitt and his Nazi hunters go about the countryside catching and killing Nazis. However, we don’t really get to know the men in the squad and most of their action is off camera or has already happened. The film is as much or more about a Jewish woman who survived the shooting of her family to escape into the countryside as it is about the “Basterds”. One has the notion that much of the footage that would help things make sense or help us to care has ended up on the cutting room floor. But one imagines that had to be the case because this is NOT a short film.

On the whole, I wish I’d seen G.I. Joe, instead. You know, the REAL American hero?

I’m on Prime Time America

At 5pm central today in Chicago and elsewhere. Listen live here.

Discussing The End of Secularism, by the way . . .

The End of Secularism Is Here!

Well, the book by the same name is, anyway. The End of Secularism is now in stock at Amazon.com and should be available in stores, too. Help me, faithful readers.

I don’t think I’ll disappoint you. Francis Beckwith, David Dockery, Russell Moore (of Touchstone fame), Father Robert Sirico, Herb London, Jennifer Morse Roback, and Glenn Stanton all liked it. I hope you will, too.

For those who want to help with promoting The End of Secularism

Here are some ad styles you can use on your website.  Please link to Amazon.com.

Beautiful Clip Left Out of Theatrical Version of The Watchmen

I give you the death of Hollis Mason, AKA The original Nite Owl.

I found this missing gem when I bought the director’s cut of the film.

New Endorsement for The End of Secularism

“Secularism was supposed to have displaced religion before the end of the last century. It failed. Hunter Baker has done every Christian interested in a faithful life in the public square an immense favor.  As an important and emerging young evangelical scholar and public thinker, Baker doesn’t cower at the seemingly imposing face of secularism but intelligently reads its vital signs and confidently declares its inherent weaknesses.”

Glenn T. Stanton, cultural researcher, speaker and author of Marriage on Trial and My Crazy Imperfect Christian Family.

Browse or pre-order from Crossway here or from Amazon here.  Available in bookstores everywhere starting August 31.

Healthcare, Democracy, and Freedom – The Acton Institute

I wrote a column on the tension between government healthcare and freedom for Acton Commentary.

Healthcare, Democracy, and Freedom – The Acton Institute

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Momentum Building for The End of Secularism

I’m excited. Crossway has created a product page for the book with lots of features.  Here is the back cover:

The product page also allows you to browse the book.  Check it out.

In Fairness to Zenni . . .

Okay, I have revisited the glasses I received from Zenni.  My conclusion is that the plastic frame glasses are still poor and the photochromic lenses do not work.  However, the bendable titanium pair of glasses is quite good except for the fact that they failed to include the anti-glare lenses I paid for.