It's Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies

by Mary Eberstadt Narrated by Margaret Winston

Overview

Mary Eberstadt, “one of the most acute and creative social observers of our time,” (Francis Fukuyama) shines a much-needed spotlight on a disturbing trend in American society: discrimination against traditional religious belief and believers, who are being aggressively pushed out of public life by the concerted efforts of militant secularists.

In It's Dangerous to Believe, Mary Eberstadt documents how people of faith-especially Christians who adhere to traditional religious beliefs-face widespread discrimination in today's increasingly secular society. Eberstadt details how recent laws, court decisions, and intimidation on campuses and elsewhere threaten believers who fear losing their jobs, their communities, and their basic freedoms solely because of their convictions. They fear that their religious universities and colleges will capitulate to aggressive secularist demands. They fear that they and their families will be ostracized or will have to lose their religion because of mounting social and financial penalties for believing. They fear they won't be able to maintain charitable operations that help the sick and feed the hungry.

Is this what we want for our country?

Religious freedom is a fundamental right, enshrined in the First Amendment. With It's Dangerous to Believe Eberstadt calls attention to this growing bigotry and seeks to open the minds of secular liberals whose otherwise good intentions are transforming them into modern inquisitors. Not until these progressives live up to their own standards of tolerance and diversity, she reminds us, can we build the inclusive society America was meant to be.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

06/20/2016
Eberstadt passionately argues that secularism is a religion of its own whose orthodoxy of diversity ironically demands the exclusion of traditional Christians. In her telling, the permissive attitudes of the sexual revolution have hardened into the only acceptable public position, and anything opposed to them cannot be tolerated. Claiming that secularists are engaging in a moral panic and a witch hunt, she outlines various means (including legal cases, public scorn, and critiques of homeschooling) whereby they attack traditional believers in the United States and Europe. Casting believers almost entirely as innocent victims without any political or cultural power causes the work to lose some nuance, as does her assertion that Western secularism places Islam off limits for critique. For traditional Christians, Eberstadt provides a language to defend their position, a comforting sense that their persecution is real, and a view of the irony of progressives curtailing freedom. The work is unlikely to gain converts from secularism, but the final chapter's call to attend to rhetoric and avoid generalization powerfully makes the case for more civility in the midst of intense disagreement. (June)

From the Publisher

There has been a well-organized campaign against Christianity, making use of new interpretations of the concepts of free speech, civil rights, and social justice. Eberstadt argues correctly that this assault goes to the very core of our founding constitutional principles of freedom of worship and free association” — Donald Critchlow, National Review

“I don’t think the debate over religious freedom can rightly take place now without engaging her arguments. It’s Dangerous to Believe is a quick and easy read, but packs a wallop.” — Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online

“It’s clear that the keepers of the new progressive orthodoxy have garnered enough establishment backing to push as far as they choose. A read through Eberstadt’s research is a good first step toward getting oriented in this new cultural landscape” — The New Criterion

“Eberstadt, in a neat series of chapters, contrasts the self-descriptions of progressives and secularists with their actions. They believe themselves champions of civil rights, while circumscribing the freedoms of fellow citizens...They make blacklists and call themselves open-minded.” — Michael Brendan Dougherty, The Week

“Eberstadt is a superb analyst. Her hypothesis-carefully demonstrated and ringing true-is that secular progressivism is not just a political ideology; it is a competing faith, a religion.” — Luma Simms, Public Discourse

“Eberstadt’s argument is hard-hitting and convincing.” — First Things

“Eberstadt’s description of the bewildered faithful, caught up in rapid social changes, is deeply affecting…One hopes liberals and progressives will accept her call...particularly in institutions of higher learning whose leaders speak ceaselessly of their commitment to diversity.” — The American Conservative

I can’t think of a better way to start than for Christians to read this book and equip themselves to stand up for the future of faith in this country, with fortitude and hope. — Catholic World Report

“[Eberstadt] offers scores of cases, all from recent years, in which Christians have been denied freedoms and protections that would be afforded as a matter of course to any other group. The arguments given for this suppression are transparently ludicrous or paranoid. Christians have real reason to be afraid.” — Rachel Lu, The Federalist

“Eberstadt asks the progressive victors in the culture wars whether their vision of public life demands that traditional religious belief and believers be expunged. This book marks a turning point-whether it’s one toward a gracious return to liberal tolerance or into a different and darker period, we shall see.” — Tod Lindberg, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of The Political Teachings of Jesus and The Heroic Heart

“A searing indictment of the hypocrisy and duplicity of many secularists who have abandoned the old rules of mutual respect. Instead they exhibit rank bigotry in the name of ‘tolerance’ and conduct themselves, especially on sexual matters, more as an evangelical sect than as a movement of reason and dialogue.” — Michael Novak, author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism and the recipient of the 1994 Templeton Prize

“Every man and woman of the left should read It’s Dangerous to Believe. If they are honest with themselves, the book will change their assumptions about religion in America, and about the meaning and value of religious freedom.” — Thomas Farr, Director, The Religious Freedom Project

“In the midst of increasing and often disrespectful challenges to groups that uphold and defend the Church’s teaching, I recommend Mary Ebestadt’s book as an important resource for all who hold religious freedom to be a priority for the Church and society.” — Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap., Archbishop of Boston

“Mary Eberstadt is one of America’s most vibrant and compelling thinkers. This book takes on the question of religious liberty, and does so without mincing words. The book will equip you to know what’s happening to America’s first freedom and will inspire you to act.” — Russell Moore, president, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention

“Mary Eberstadt is one of the most perceptive and thoughtful observers of contemporary social maladies. She appeals to the good sense that has brought us through religious wars in the past. We must understand, she pleads, that ‘the enemies of religious freedom are the enemies of liberalism itself.’” — John Garvey, President of The Catholic University of America

The “cultured despisers of religion” are now the cultured despisers of religious freedom, too. In her terrific new book It’s Dangerous to Believe, Mary Eberstadt exposes these tin pot Torquemadas. She has given friends of religious liberty and the rights of conscience a powerful new manifesto. — Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

Stanley Kurtz

I don’t think the debate over religious freedom can rightly take place now without engaging her arguments. It’s Dangerous to Believe is a quick and easy read, but packs a wallop.

First Things

Eberstadt’s argument is hard-hitting and convincing.

Catholic World Report

I can’t think of a better way to start than for Christians to read this book and equip themselves to stand up for the future of faith in this country, with fortitude and hope.

Tod Lindberg

Eberstadt asks the progressive victors in the culture wars whether their vision of public life demands that traditional religious belief and believers be expunged. This book marks a turning point-whether it’s one toward a gracious return to liberal tolerance or into a different and darker period, we shall see.

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Eberstadt, in a neat series of chapters, contrasts the self-descriptions of progressives and secularists with their actions. They believe themselves champions of civil rights, while circumscribing the freedoms of fellow citizens...They make blacklists and call themselves open-minded.

The New Criterion

It’s clear that the keepers of the new progressive orthodoxy have garnered enough establishment backing to push as far as they choose. A read through Eberstadt’s research is a good first step toward getting oriented in this new cultural landscape

The American Conservative

Eberstadt’s description of the bewildered faithful, caught up in rapid social changes, is deeply affecting…One hopes liberals and progressives will accept her call...particularly in institutions of higher learning whose leaders speak ceaselessly of their commitment to diversity.

Luma Simms

Eberstadt is a superb analyst. Her hypothesis-carefully demonstrated and ringing true-is that secular progressivism is not just a political ideology; it is a competing faith, a religion.

Rachel Lu

[Eberstadt] offers scores of cases, all from recent years, in which Christians have been denied freedoms and protections that would be afforded as a matter of course to any other group. The arguments given for this suppression are transparently ludicrous or paranoid. Christians have real reason to be afraid.

Donald Critchlow

There has been a well-organized campaign against Christianity, making use of new interpretations of the concepts of free speech, civil rights, and social justice. Eberstadt argues correctly that this assault goes to the very core of our founding constitutional principles of freedom of worship and free association

Thomas Farr

Every man and woman of the left should read It’s Dangerous to Believe. If they are honest with themselves, the book will change their assumptions about religion in America, and about the meaning and value of religious freedom.

Robert P. George

The “cultured despisers of religion” are now the cultured despisers of religious freedom, too. In her terrific new book It’s Dangerous to Believe, Mary Eberstadt exposes these tin pot Torquemadas. She has given friends of religious liberty and the rights of conscience a powerful new manifesto.

Michael Novak

A searing indictment of the hypocrisy and duplicity of many secularists who have abandoned the old rules of mutual respect. Instead they exhibit rank bigotry in the name of ‘tolerance’ and conduct themselves, especially on sexual matters, more as an evangelical sect than as a movement of reason and dialogue.

John Garvey

Mary Eberstadt is one of the most perceptive and thoughtful observers of contemporary social maladies. She appeals to the good sense that has brought us through religious wars in the past. We must understand, she pleads, that ‘the enemies of religious freedom are the enemies of liberalism itself.’

Cardinal Sean O'Malley

In the midst of increasing and often disrespectful challenges to groups that uphold and defend the Church’s teaching, I recommend Mary Ebestadt’s book as an important resource for all who hold religious freedom to be a priority for the Church and society.

Russell Moore

Mary Eberstadt is one of America’s most vibrant and compelling thinkers. This book takes on the question of religious liberty, and does so without mincing words. The book will equip you to know what’s happening to America’s first freedom and will inspire you to act.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170036820
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos