It doesn’t surprise me that is has been published or that it is in its second printing.  And among Christian conservatives and fundamentalists I’m sure it is finding a receptive audience.  They probably look at people like me and question my spirituality (as well as my patriotism) because I think it’s a crock.

To me this is akin to the western materialistic mindset that has influenced so much of evangelicalism in the last thirty years.  We don’t know who we are as people of God; therefore we’re prone to allowing ourselves to be labeled based on temporal norms that objectify non-Biblical concepts.  It’s just another sad manifestation of cultural Christianity.  

Specialized Bibles are fine – we’ve seen a number of them in recent years.  But when the commentary and content is extra-Biblical and agenda-driven, something’s wrong.  Dr. Lee should have just written a book and left the Bible out of it. 

There are serious historical questions in my mind, Phil, about the motives of the founding fathers and the role of Christianity in that process.  In a room where there are no women, people of color or children, the words “all men are created equal” are conceptually inspiring but hollow in actual practice. Jefferson’s intellectual deism does not see value in “every nation, tribe and tongue.”  The real God of the of the real Bible does.

What’s fascinating about this is that it seems to have brought full-circle the conflation of American patriotism and spirituality.  For a long time, well-meaning and often ill-informed believers have sought to co-opt the 18th-century religious and political beliefs of a good number of our founding fathers into a 20th and 21st century understanding of Evangelical Christianity.  Now it seems that some would like to co-opt scripture into 21st-century notions of patriotism [read that "conservative patriotism].

This seems the ultimate example of mis-guided proof-texting.

Predictably the ministry marketing minds have again found a common ground for their target, albeit out of touch, audience. No great revelation to be found, simply marketing wrapped around holy text. Scary Territory if you ask me.