A Heart on Fire by Charles J. Chaput
I am not exactly sure Chaput was trying to accomplish with
this work A Heart on Fire. It felt more like an advertisement or long magazine
article for his lengthier work, Render Unto Caesar (which I have not read and really do not plan to read).
Chaput uses less than two dozen pages chastising America and
reinforcing the idea that this country is well down the slippery slope of oppression.
The freedom of religion and press are already, according to Chaput, compromised
and we are only days away from total intimidation from the outside.
He points to the founding fathers and the society of America
during the country’s birth. Christianity was not subjected to specific areas of
society; Christianity was the fabric that held society together. America had a
sense of humanity, a sense of right and wrong, and a sense of faith. Chaput
sees these objects of faith slowly deteriorating from the outside and inside.
I believe this book is another classic case of historical American
romanticism. Chaput seems ready to canonize the founding fathers. He situates
them up on an unearthly pedestal; they were Christian men who understood they
were creating a Christian nation. However, the founding fathers were far from
perfect. They were greedy, adulterous, sexist, and brutally racist just like
our nation is today. They may have been great political theorists and economists,
but they were sinners with many flaws. I love history. I definitely think we
should study our history. I do not want to make the same mistakes again, but we
cannot look at our founding fathers as some mortal angels that gifted us a
country.
True Christ followers will always be forced to outskirts of
society. Christ promised that. A humble faith does not work well with the
necessary evil of governmental power. True societal change comes from bottom
not the top.
The books was provided to me as part of the "Blogging for Books" program by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing. "This program was designed for one purpose: Give out free books to bloggers in exchange for an honest review."
For more information on this program, check out their information at bloggingforbooks.org
