The Fight of Our Lives by William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn - The Double Edged Sword

(Originally Posted Friday, August 26, 2011)

The Fight of Our Lives by William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn - The Double Edged Sword

    This book is about Islam and what has happened in America since the events on 9/11.

 The title of this book The Fight of Our Lives Knowing the Enemy,Speaking the Truth & Choosing to Win the War Against Radical Islam is a bit misleading. I had high hopes for this book that was somehow mistakenly placed in the Christian book section. I say mistakenly because first of all Scripture is only used a couple of times in this book and that is only because quotes from Lincoln and Washington happened to contain them. Secondly, the authors seem to have no understanding of who the real enemy is and while they may want you to choose to win the war against Radical Islam they never actually get around to helping the reader truly discover how to do that. Anyone can point out what's wrong but only the truly wise can help you know how to change it.

Let me stop right here and clarify something. I am not a supporter of Islam, terrorism, or Radical Islam. I do not believe that what has happened in the United States over the past few years concerning terrorists and their extremist actions are right. I love America and I am extremely grateful to those men and women who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom. Thank you doesn't say nearly enough! With that being said let me explain why I find this book dangerous and why I titled this post "The Double Edged Sword".

The authors choose to spend their time rehashing the past events since 9/11 and pointing out every politically correct mistake that Reagan, Bush and Obama have ever made. The overall tone of this book is one of negativity and halfway through the book the authors seem conflicted or confused when they change their stance from all Islam is bad and is not a religion of peace in any aspect to a stance that says their is such a thing as moderate Islam and Muslims and that those Muslims need to stand up and reform their religion yet they never addressed their change in their view of Islam. It was as if halfway through the writing of this book they changed their minds but didn't have time to go back and rewrite the first half of the book. Nor did they educate the readers on their change of view or what sparked it. I found it confusing.

The authors use the word fundamentalist to describe extremist groups, they claim that Christianity does not have a violent past like Islam and that God is a God of peace. I have to stop and wonder...have they ever read the Bible? Yes God does want peace, He is love but He is also just, righteous, and jealous. My God wiped Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the Earth, told the Israelites to wipe out the people who occupied their promised land and so on. The author does comment on the fact that any violence employed for the cause of Christianity is merely historical and should not be viewed as a belief by the religion as a whole. To which I do partially agree. Christianity to a Christian is not a violent religion except for our extremist groups.Notice I said to a Christian. To us the Bible makes sense and we have an understanding that all the things in the Bible that were violent happened for a reason. To an unbeliever though the Bible and Christianity can seem violent. The authors seem to have conveniently forgotten about the Crusades in which hundreds of "infidels" were slaughtered in the name of Christianity - convert or die. And what about the abortion clinic bombings of the past in which innocent lives were taken in the right to life campaigns. The authors do mention the abortion clinic bombings but in a very dismissive whitewashed way. 

What is my point? Just this, the very words and facts the authors are using can very easily and have been in the past used against Christianity especially fundamentalist Christians. If we are quick to jump on the bandwagon to condemn Muslims we must be willing to accept that fact that someday that very sword can be turned against us to condemn us as well.

Here is what the Bible says about our enemy and how to win a war against them.

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Did you see it? Our war is not with flesh and blood; that means people. Our war is not against the people who choose to follow Islam. It's not against people period! Our war is against spiritual wickedness. How do we fight against spiritual wickedness. That is the hard part. That is the part we do not want to look at. We fight spiritual wickedness by taking a good hard look at ourselves and eradicating anything and everything that is not of God.The writers of this book don't seem to address that or even understand it.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and
Testimonials in Advertising.” 

King James Version (KJV)

I could go on but I will choose not to in the interest of brevity. Just know that I did not like this book and would never recommend it to any Christian individual or group as a study or otherwise.


I want to leave you with a couple of definitions and some things to think about.
The definition of Radical is 
"of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference".

That is what we are called to be as Christians. We are to be radically different from this world but are we seeing evidence of that today? The definition of an infidel is as follows.

A person who does not accept a particular faith; an unbeliever.

Muslims call us infidels. Stop and take a good hard look at yourself and how you live. You say you believe in God but are you living it? If you really believed it wouldn't you? Is your belief and faith in God as strong and devout as their belief in Allah? Maybe we are infidels or at least acting like it. Maybe this is God's love trying to wake us up and show us exactly who we have become. Just something to think about.