New Novel 'Terrifies' Readers, Suggests 'President Palin' Could've Turned us Into Christian Nation

Townhall ^ | September 1, 2013 | Cortney O'Brien

[2ndDivisionVet]

“They said what they would do, and we did not listen. Then they did what they said they would do.”

Sounds frightening, doesn’t it? Who could “they” be? A 1984-like government? A terrorist organization? An alien force? Well, according to the author who wrote those words, the “they” are big bad Christians.

Christian Nation by Frederic C. Rich is a new novel which, according to some reviewers, is their worst nightmare, for it details a country in which Christian values are strictly obeyed.

From GoodReads.com,

“They said what they would do, and we did not listen. Then they did what they said they would do.”

So ends the first chapter of this brilliantly readable counterfactual novel, reminding us that America’s Christian fundamentalists have been consistently clear about their vision for a “Christian Nation” and dead serious about acquiring the political power to achieve it. When President McCain dies and Sarah Palin becomes president, the reader, along with the nation, stumbles down a terrifyingly credible path toward theocracy, realizing too late that the Christian right meant precisely what it said.

Upon further reading, one discovers Palin and her Christian force have imposed an authoritarian rule called “The Blessing” upon their subjects, which is enforced by the “Purity Web.”

Here’s some positive feedback from the Ordinary Reader Review section on ReadChristianNation.com:

“A genuinely frightening look at a possible future.” -- Goodreads, July 7

“It’s captivating, realistic, and rather terrifying.” -- Goodreads, June 1

“Very chilling.” -- Goodreads, July 8

I’m sorry, but what exactly is “frightening,” “terrifying,” and “chilling” about praying, going to church, and making sure your kids don’t stumble upon X-rated websites?

I tend to like Betsy Woodruff’s review much better. In a piece for National Review Online, she tears apart this hilariously over-the-top novel page-by-page.

Come for the groundbreaking Evangelical-Christians-are-like-Nazis rhetoric, stay for the mind-numbing dialogue...Rich’s novel is essentially what Atlas Shrugged would have been if it had been conceived by a Freedom from Religion Foundation focus group and edited by Howard Dean.

I hate to tell the author of this book and his frightened readers, but our Christian founding fathers’ ideal of America wasn’t very far off from Rich’s “scary” plot. As most of them were men of God, they most likely knew a country centered on Jesus was the best foundation. Liberals may fear a nation in which a bold conservative woman takes the reigns, but for us conservatives, who fear an overbearing federal government, family values being placed on the back burner and an increased dependency on Uncle Sam -- our nightmare is all too real.

Instead of reading the book, which seems like it would be headache-inducing, watch the hysterical trailer instead:

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

[kanawa]

Who wrote the Foreword? Matt Damon?

[DoughtyOne]

No, Doughty. You are dumbing the battle down to mere men’s politics. I want to elevate it to God’s wisdom.  HiTech RedNeck, I like you so this isn't intended to be a dig at you.  I'm simply responding to the points you made, and trying to explain that while I think they are well intend thoughts, I still wind up thinking they are somewhat misguided.  I'm certainly no paragon of virtue, so I'm not saying I have to be right here.  I'm simply saying how I see it.

I do not see the choice to be one of Sarah Palin or evil.  I do not see this as support for God or support for Satan.  There are other Christians out there.  I would prefer another.

IF it is truly God who is saying “YES, let those immigrants in” then God can be trusted to be wise.  Don't you think it's just a tad presumptious to think that because Sarah Palin suggested it, it has to be God's will?  And yet this is the level of thinking that has swarmed in behind Sarah.  It's is alarming.  It exemplifies a belief that Palin is now God's arbiter of what is right or wrong today.  I don't even think Sarah believes that to be true.  I certainly don't.  I would certainly hope she doesn't.

Now one Christian tenet is that wisdom is found in a multitude of wise counselors. Sarah wouldn’t buck a consensus that no this is a bad idea, if it truly existed. She is not bull headed like so many of our conventional politicians.  True leaders do buck conventional wisdom, so I am not trying to trash Palin for her views based on popularity or lack there-of.  IMO< she should be standing up and explaining why it is wrong to accept tens of millions of people who came here against the laws of our nation.  It is wrong for them to be able to stay here and benefit from the desprespect and usery that their actions exemplied.  I simply assess her views on illegal immigrants and the fix to be a fatal blow to our nation.  God cannot help us if we refuse to help ourselves.  If she does legalize 20 to 35 million illegal immigrants, they get citizenship and the normal chain immigration follows, we're talking about between 100 and 150 million new foreign national citizens in under 20 years.  I don't think that is God's will at all.

It would be perfectly plausible to me if God did call for this, because God would have other pieces to move into the picture. God could turn Hispanics from enemies to friends in virtually nothing flat.  All this is predicated on Sarah Palin having announced her plan, and if she said it, it has to be God's will.  I don't know where to begin to refute that, it evidences such flawed logic in my opinion.  Please explain to me how you know it is God's will to legalize between 20 and 35 million illegal immigrants who are here.  Is it your thought he thinks our immigration laws are evil?  Really?

Don’t get all potpourri-picky on me here. Let’s have the faith to put God first, and Sarah would be only one piece in the puzzle but an important piece. Sadly, God is not first in your thoughts here.  And sadly, you can't see it.  You have intimated that if Sarah said it, it has to be God's will.  I can't buy off on that.

[CatherineofAragon]

I’ve always liked Sarah and I would vote for her if she became the party’s nominee. But she isn’t the only good Christian conservative out there. Ted Cruz is my preference. He’s a born-again Christian, and would surely bring as much of God’s blessing to the White House as Sarah would.

[reformedliberal]

Not going to encourage them by buying it. When it is going for .99 or offered free to promote his next book, maybe I’ll read it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I am suggesting it COULD be.

That’s where the multitude of counselors comes in to clarify such difficult, nonintuitive matters. Sarah has worked always by getting consensus, far as I have been aware.

I CAN tell you that the “well, I will NEVER vote for such and such because they are calling for something that isn’t in the Worldly Conservative Plan” mantra is what threw a half a dozen flawed but still worthier men to the wayside last year for Mitt Romney. I suggest God wants folks like you to take a lesson from this.

[SuziQ]

The libs have been screaming about a ‘theocracy’ since the Moral Majority was a force in politics. They don’t see that what THEY prefer is a ‘theocracy’ of a different sort; a secular one, that forces religion OUT of the public square, in direct violation of the Constitution.

[HiTech RedNeck]

IMO she should be standing up and explaining why it is wrong to accept tens of millions of people who came here against the laws of our nation.

This is a perfectly reasonable question to ask, but do not be surprised if the answer is squarely within a Christian framework. If God can forgive you, and God can forgive me, then God can forgive them. The key question is what their future will be. I would not be surprised to see a "nuanced" solution that would, wisely and deftly, shunt the bums back to Mexico, while keeping the industrious folks.

[DoughtyOne]

Oh blues, blues, blues.  Do you realize what you are doing here?  You don't like the message, so you completely dismiss it.  I explain the danger.  You laugh it off.  Why are you doing that?  It makes it impossible to reason with you.  You want Sarah Palin, so I am supposed to suspend reality to buy into what you are selling.  I'm not going to suspend reality to back your play on this. 

Is the joy of the Lord smaller than our conventional wisdom?  Sarah Palin is not God.  She is not His announced voice on matters on this planet.  All of a sudden, if I don't back Sarah Palin, I am against God.  That's laughable.

If she believes in easing Hispanic immigration and even forgiveness, and the Lord is backing her, then give her a chance to be the forthtelling prophet of how it would be a boon and not a bane in God’s plan.  This exhibits thinking that is completely detatched from reality.  There's no valid basis for you to have come to the conclusions you have here.  How did easing of Hispanic immigration suddenly become God's will?  Failing that, how is it that you are assured God is backing Palin, if she is doing something that is not His will?  I'm supposed to see her as a forthtelling prophet now?  I am supposed to buy off on human frailty, and know it is God's plan being laid out?  How do you know whose plan it is?  If it isn't God's plan, whose plan is it?  You seem to be jumping to some incredible conclusions here, and I don't see the validity of it.

I very clearly see the concern, that they will simply dumb down and become Democrats. God says, quite possibly, wait a minute folks. Satan’s doing that. I’m a tad bigger than Satan. Give me a chance I might lick that dirty dog for you.  Where are you getting this?  I'm dumbfounded to see any rational basis for what you have bought into here.  God says what?  Where did you see what God said?  Since when is it wrong to enforce the laws of our nation, that are reasonable and have been on the books for many decades, in a substantive manner?  There are reasons for those laws.  They are there because of the very problems we face today.  What part of that reality should now be ignored, to do what you seem to be advocating because Sarah Palin said so?

YMMV but God’s mileage never does.  I am not presumptious enough to credit to God things that are of man's derivation.  I have based my belief on the core principle that it is reasoned to come up with laws that govern legal access to our nation.  It is reasoned to enforce those laws.  And it is unreasoned to think that the mere breaking of laws by many people, somehow excuses them from the penalties that have been written into our immigration laws.

It is extremely disrepsectful of God, to put our desires out there as if they are His will, when we have no basis whatsoever for making that claim.

I don't happen to believe that God thinks we are sinful if we wish to see our nation cease to be abused by a multitude of foreign nationals.  And rewarding law-breaking has never been an accepted form of discourage a repeat.

[SuziQ]

It amazes me how you Palin groupies simply gloss over the fact that she campaigned for, endorsed and flew to Arizona to support McCain. I mean you guys passionately hate McCain but magically dismiss Palin’s endorsement of him over a Tea Party candidate. I don’t get it.

That 'Tea Party'candidate she rejected in favor of McCain publicly stated that he held no ill feelings for Sarah, because he knew why she endorsed McCain. She would have been a real ingrate NOT to have endorsed the man who brought her to the national stage.

If the opponent was OK with it, why shouldn't everyone else be?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Note that you are now taking a solid absolute position that this CANNOT be God’s will. As well as caricaturing my position as one saying it MUST be God’s will. Both distortions are Satanic, sir!

I’m saying give holy consideration a chance.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Also if you want God to forgive you and to forgive me maybe we should give holy consideration to a situation where He may be asking us to forgive others too.

The crux is a WISE forgiveness. Some of the Hispanics who came without permission have in fact prospered in an otherwise upright fashion. They would be good candidates for forgiveness. Others? Well give them a first class plane ticket... back to Mexico. And yes we can guard the border better, it is a matter of will.

[okie01]

It amazes me how you Palin groupies simply gloss over the fact that she campaigned for, endorsed and flew to Arizona to support McCain. I mean you guys passionately hate McCain but magically dismiss Palin’s endorsement of him over a Tea Party candidate. I don’t get it.

It's probably because "we get it!" And, as you so readily admit, you don't.

To put it simply: Palin owed McCain a huge political debt -- because, if not for McCain, she would've had no meaningful political capital. She re-paid it...and no longer owes him squat. Even J.D. Hayworth understood it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yes, there’s been nothing more going on between the two that I am aware of. She repaid a favor in the political sphere.

[Jim Scott]

Going by the linked review, Christian Nation is little more than well written anti-Christian/conservative hysteria. Any rational American understands that the U.S. media, education system, entertainment industry and certainly the massive government bureaucracy are all stridently secular, mostly anti-Christian and hardly likely to allow any kind of theocracy to take root in American government. This doesn't even count the fact that the Constitutional First Amendment forbids an 'establishment of religion'.

The book's premise is utter nonsense that spotlights the left's paranoia where conservative, Christian politicians are concerned. It is also yet another indicator that while we quibble about what politician is 'pure' enough to be called 'conservative' the left live in fear of a successful conservative ever gaining popularity - and high office - in America because they know full well their power is like a house of cards and a popular, common sense conservative could bring it all down some fine day. I don't think Sarah Palin is the one to do that but the unending stream of leftwing attacks on Palin is a sure sign that the left still both hate and fear her, which is encouraging. Now let's see what they do with Ted Cruz, a more difficult target (Ivy League education, half-Latino and a formidable speaker who knows how to debate). This should be interesting.

[Future Snake Eater]

You nailed it. Now, if she endorses him for his next election, well, then....

[HiTech RedNeck]

And it was the only seemly thing for her to do, even if she had a clothespin on her nose. Now if she does run again, she is not the skunk who turned on her benefactor.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I think that would show she was going beyond bounds at that point. She should let him do his thing and not be a dedicated cheer leader any more. I believe she did hope that she could elevate his world view, not just be a blind booster. And if she has wisdom she will see as that didn’t pan out too well, it’s her time to give him space.

[HiTech RedNeck]

PS I will gladly forgive you for grabbing onto something Satanic... remember our Master calls us into a common battle. Give that devil the boot without remorse. People, we should consider treating differently. Bringing people into the sphere of God involves things that may seem nonintuitive, like overlooking certain offenses.

[okie01]

Now, if she endorses him for his next election, well, then....

She won't.

Fact is, I don't expect McCain to run for another term. Instead, I imagine that he will announce his retirement with a year-or-so left -- expecting the governor to appoint his prodigal child to the "family seat".

And, somehow, I can't imagine Sarah Palin having anything good to say about Miss Megan...

[DoughtyOne]

I am suggesting it COULD be.  Okay, it could be the will of God.  That means that it might not be the will of God.  That's why I can't factor this in to my decision making process.  I am willing to exercise faith, but there has to be a very strong reason for me to exercise that faith.  I can't jump to a conclusion, then throw my whole weight behind it based on it being God's will, if there is absolutely nothing to indicate it is.  God doesn't back lawlessness.  Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.  This means immigration law in this instance.

That’s where the multitude of counselors comes in to clarify such difficult, nonintuitive matters. Sarah has worked always by getting consensus, far as I have been aware.  Okay, but what this means is that she sticks her finger up in the air to see which way the wind blows.  On immigraton, it's too important a matter to leave to this type of decision making process.  You have to intuitively know what is right, and stick to it.

I CAN tell you that the “well, I will NEVER vote for such and such because they are calling for something that isn’t in the Worldly Conservative Plan” mantra is what threw a half a dozen flawed but still worthier men to the wayside last year for Mitt Romney. I suggest God wants folks like you to take a lesson from this.  Those that didn't vote for Romney exhibited rock solid character.  I came very close to not voting for him myself.  On the morning of the election I couldn't stand the idea of another four years of Obama, so I voted for Romney realizing that if he won I would have ushered in a man that would destroy more of what I believe in.  I learned every lesson I needed to by May of 2012.  We were throwing away an opportunity to install a strong conservative that would have turned this nation around.  It wouldn't be the first time.  It wouldn't be the last.  It would be another election in a long string of them where our nation would be dissembled considerably more over the next four years.

Our nation was going to lose, no matter what.

This phrase you strung together really disturbs me.  Here it is again.

I CAN tell you that the “well, I will NEVER vote for such and such because they are calling for something that isn’t in the Worldly Conservative Plan” mantra is what threw a half a dozen flawed but still worthier men to the wayside last year for Mitt Romney.

Don't you believe it is the duty of good men to give matters thought, and their perceptions merit?  What parts of Conservatism do you dismiss as worldly?  We believe in God.  We believe in country.  We believe in Godly laws and the duty to enforce them.  We believe in fairness and equality and the freedom to persue the lives we desire.  Do you think God disapproves of this?  Really?

By the same token, you could trash all religion as being simply Man's flawed perception.

Honestly, you've reduced Conservatism to some flawed logic paradigm that we shouldn't seek to support.  Guy, honestly, what's up with you today?