Book Reviewed: White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America, by Khyati Y. Joshi

Christian America: Inequalities in the sanctuary

The white Christian privilege in the American society has been discussed by the author who teaches Race and Religion at the Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Education. The book focuses on societal and institutional issues and offers strategies to achieve the goal of religious pluralism. The author observes that Christianity has dominated over 400 years by setting the tone and establishing the rules and assumptions about who belongs here. What is acceptable and not acceptable in public discourse. As a result, the "freedom of religion" enshrined in the pages of the Constitution did not translate into everyday life, says the author. This is a very narrow way of looking at a nation built by pilgrims who escaped the dominance of Roman Catholic Church in Europe. As you turn the pages, the author becomes very preachy, and her criticism of American whites almost equates to the intensity of the current Black Lives Matter rallies that blames white America for racism. No wonder some of her students complained to the school that she hates whites!

The author discusses the Executive Order 13769 (now 13780), titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, politically labeled as a “Muslim Ban.” She attributes this to the institution of American white Christianity! How could that be? During 2016 campaign Donald Trump explained the effects of more Muslim migrants in this country would lead to more “no go zones” and strengthen the Islamic sharia as it is happening now in Western Europe.

The author states that this is not an exercise in political correctness, but an exploration of challenges deeply held beliefs about religious freedom in U.S. I wished the author could have taken a broader approach to debate race and religious freedom in this country. Did she ever question how religious minorities, especially people of Indian religions are treated in Islamic countries? And how religious minorities are unfairly subjected to Islamic laws? Jews and people of Indian religions adapt to Western culture and integrate with the new society. They do not indulge in Jihad, Fatwa, Ummah (commonwealth of Muslim believers), and Sharia laws. And they do not violently react to the criticism of their religion.

We are living in a pandemic of political correctness where anything you say about race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. would be soundly judged and condemned! Most universities and colleges have become a citadel for left-wing faculty who advance liberal and progressive ideals. Patriotism is old news and traditional values are replaced with fascism. Professor Joshi is no different from the rest of them.

Book Reviewed: The Drudge Revolution: The Untold Story of How Talk Radio by Matthew Lysiak

An inspiring story of Matt Drudge

This is a fascinating story of Matt Drudge that recreates a life from beginning to the end, the promise, and perils of a conservative journalist. His personal and professional life is a result of robust citizen journalist movement inspired by the Internet. Drudge was a high school dropout who grasped the potential of the world wide web and established online news publications that became a new mechanism for reaching vast audiences. He found a way to access privileged news information only a few editors of leading newspapers could access. For example, a news item from Associated Press had many versions, and editors of newspapers across the globe selected the versions they liked and printed in their newspapers, essentially manipulating the news readers.

At one time, Drudge Report set the tone for national political coverage. During the 1996 presidential campaign, he was the first to report Sen. Bob Dole’s choice of a vice presidential running mate. In 1997, printed the story of Kathleen Willey’s sexual harassment accusations against Pres. Bill Clinton, and then a story claiming that White House aide Sidney Blumenthal had a history of spousal abuse. He was the first to report Bill Clinton’s sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and many other breaking news during Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies. His readership grew to millions per day, and gradually dwindled. He helped the career of conservative reporters like Andrew Breitbart.

Living in an era where elite journalists, the products of universities and colleges that is a citadel for left-wing faculty, journalism is a tool of social justice and progressive reform. Patriotism is old news and traditional values are replaced with liberal ideals. It was then Matt Drudge caused revolution in conservative news reporting.

This book is beautifully written and reads flawlessly; highly recommended.

The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts by Karen Armstrong

This is a mishmash

The New Testament and Quran were routinely revised since ancient times and their message dramatically reinterpreted to meet the needs of the ever present. The art of scripture erased the past because the sacred text is known to be the Word of God, and it had to conform to the moral rules set in ancient times. Hence, Muslims are practicing the moral and social norms of ninth-century Arabian Desert, and the Quran and Hadith are used to justify acts of Jihad-terrorism as a religious duty. Muslim women deeply believe that God wants them to cover their head, and Christians use the Gospel of John 3:16 to recklessly convert others into the Christian faith. Force, coercion, savagery, and war was used to enforce Christian beliefs.

The take home message from this book is mixed; the author dwells on the role of myth, how it evolved, and why religions need it. She takes us back to very ancient times, about 40,000 years ago: Long before established religions came into existence to reconstruct the human faith systems. The author is known for her work on Abrahamic faiths, Old and New Testaments, and Islam. Her analysis of Hinduism covered mainly in one chapter; namely Chapter 2, falls too short for a good comparisons with religions of The Middle East. The author lacks a comprehensive competence in the vast field of Hinduism. The religious literature includes Vedas, Upanishads, the Epics, the Puranas, Bhagavad-Gita and the six Hindu philosophical systems that articulate this most ancient faith system. The earliest hymns of Rigveda are dated back to 1700 BCE.

The author’s work focuses on commonalities of religions and employs the need for compassion and often invoke political correctness. She is known to be overtly sympathetic to Muslims since they make the most demand from the Western societies to conform to Muslim sentiments and Islamic values.

Book Reviewed: Until the End of Time by Brian Greene

Unilluminating

There is not much to learn from this book if you are interested to understand physical reality. The book starts well with the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy, but the key aspects of information processing and the role of non-equilibrium thermodynamics is very briefly discussed. Chapters 6-11 did not make significant additions to the general discussions. It merely diluted the discussion relevant for the organization of matter (atoms and molecules) to form a living cell (organized system). Life seem to defy the concept of entropy and laws of physics because of the existence of free will, mind and consciousness. In addition, the idea that the past determines the future challenges the traditional ideas of classical and quantum physics.

The second law of thermodynamics; entropy and the flow of time, from past to future, and the available energy to perform useful work are some of the highlights of this book. Nature has provided a universal mechanism for coaxing certain molecular systems to get up and dance the entropic two-step. A living cell take in high-quality energy, use it, and then return low-quality energy in the form of heat and other wastes thus increasing the entropy of the universe. But internally it creates a high degree of order. This type of dissipative adaptation may be essential to the origin of life. The replication of biomolecules is a tool of dissipative adaptation: if a small collection of particles would become adept at absorbing, using, and dispensing energy. Then molecules that can replicate in larger numbers will be responsible for system-wide dissipative adaptation that is a key in the Darwinian evolution.

Despite the author’s other successful books and popular TV documentaries about cosmos, he has not lived up to his reputation as a good narrator of physics stories. Chapters 6-9 does not offer a path for intellectual stimulation.