Summer Reading for Citizens and Patriots

Summer is a time for vacations and a slower pace.  It presents opportunities to get away, sit down, kick back, and relax.  For some, that includes getting caught up on some favorite reading.  The items for your summer perusal might include a great novel, a biography or perhaps some timely commentary on contemporary issues of concern.

In case you’re interested in catching up on aspects of the great debate that constantly rages in America concerning our nation and the abiding relevance of our founders’ faith and values, we at The Providence Forum have assembled a list of articles, blog posts and videos.  We think the items identified below will prove to be stimulating, enlightening and likely controversial.  But we think most of all they will make you a more thoughtful and useful citizen and patriot.  As Mark Twain famously said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read.”

These articles and commentaries do not necessarily represent the views of The Providence Forum or our leadership team.  However, as Lyndon Baines Johnson stated, “A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance.”  We do think they will motivate you to ponder and to deepen your interest in and engagement with some of the significant challenges of our day.  Thomas Jefferson put it this way, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

So to help you with your summer thinking and to shape your attitude as a reading citizen and an active patriot, we’ve identified twenty-two on-line articles and arranged them into three categories:

• American Historical Issues and Their Importance for Today
• Assaults on and Court Decisions Concerning Christian Faith and Values
• Contemporary Cultural Concerns and American Founding Values

Hopefully, this will assist you to decide where to start.  Of course, we encourage you to review them all.  Links are provided so each should be readily available to you wherever you find yourself with your smartphones or laptops.  Remember what Harry Truman once so well observed, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”  So here goes….

• American Historical Issues and Their Importance for Today

1. Was America Founded to be Secular?
2. The Liberty Bell
3. Lincoln on Judicial Despotism
4. US Historic Sites and the Bible
5. Wisdom from Washington for a Troubled Country
6. The Founding of America:  Benjamin Franklin
7. The Founding of America:  John Jay

• Assaults on and Court Decisions Concerning Christian Faith and Values

1. ABC News Calls Christians who Defend Religious Liberty a Hate Group
2. Cross in Pensacola Park Must Come Down as Federal Judge Rules it Violates the Constitution
3. University to Remove Cross and Bibles from Campus Chapel
4. Christian Geologist Overcomes Denial of Access for Research in the Grand Canyon
5. Senator Bernie Sanders’ Assault on Religious Liberty in Interview of Evangelical Christian
6. Bernie Sander’s Religious Test for Christians in Office
7. Christians Need Not Apply
8. Supreme Court’s Trinity Lutheran Decision and Its Effect on Anti-Religious Laws

• Contemporary Cultural Concerns and American Founding Values

1. Can a Black-Millennial Female Be a Conservative?
2. What Does the Charlie Gard Case Mean for America’s Future Health Care?
3. Can Facebook Fill the Role of Churches in Creating Community?
4. Senate Democrat Blasts Obama-phone over Fraudulent Findings
5. Entertainers Celebrate the Theme of “Killing Trump”
6. The Crisis of Liberty in the West
7. The Army’s Transgender Policy Includes Guidelines on Male Pregnancies
8. Do Born Again Christians Have a Biblical Worldview?
9. How to Make a Civil Pro-Life Argument in a Politically Charged Environment

As we conclude, consider former slave and emancipation leader Frederick Douglass’ astute insight, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”  Science fiction Novelist Ray Bradbury may have said it best:  “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”  Rather, as Victor Hugo urged, let us read and inspire others:  “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”  May we with God’s help re-ignite what our Founding Father George Washington called, “The sacred fire of liberty”!

So have a great summer relaxing and reading!