Capture The Theft Of Americas Soul: Blowing The Lid Off The Lies That Are Destroying Our Country Generated By Phil Robertson Shown As Script

book delivers the Godly gut check that America needs, These days, the lies to tear down are numerous in the spirit ofTimothy:, God through Phil does just that, Love Phil Robertson. Also love that he read the audiobook himself, Very enjotable and so many good points, This book was a gift and not something I would normally choose to read, but its important to venture outside your normal reading selection, I think the author presents the gospel in an effective way that seems authentic to his experience, I did not appreciate his political commentary but respect him for displaying his opinion in a transparent and concise manner, America is in the midst of a culture war, And it might be a fight to the death, I can't recall a time when the country has been more divided,

I worry about handing an uncertain future to my sons and the families they will someday lead, so I ordered a new book after seeing an intriguing interview on TheClub.


As someone who has never seen an episode of DUCK DYNASTY, I didn't know what to expect from author Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the backwoodsLouisiana clan of selfproclaimed River Rats and rednecks.


I certainly didn't expect to see longhaired, rougharoundtheedges Phil Robertson as a modernday John the Baptistbut after reading his latest book, I surely do.


John the Baptist was described in Scripture accordingly:

"And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
" Matthew:

Sounds pretty wild to me,

Now take a look at Phil Robertson on the cover of the book,  

I rest my case,

So while John the Baptist prepared the world for Jesus's adult ministry, the Duck Dynasty Patriarch has come along more thanyears later, to remind us that it is still relevant.


From the start of his book, Robertson points us back in time to the's, A much younger man then, he reminds us of theTime Magazine cover article that asked, "IS GOD DEAD" 

Turns out it was a slippery slope.
Look where we are today,

In America, we removed God from our government, from our public schools, from our colleges and universities, from our businesses, from our entertainment, from our homes, from our families, from our beds, from our healthcare, and yeseven from some of our churches.
 

So why are we surprised

Robertson sets the stage in the opening pages of the text:

"In the sixties, a deep sleepism settled over our country.
Atheism, agnosticism, humanism, moral relativism, naturalism, personalism, rationalism, materialismall the isms washed over us, These isms led America deeper into sexual immorality, greed, and the wholesale slaughter of the unborn, The isms led us into debauchery, I know this, because to my embarrassment, those isms washed over me, For a time they led me down the same road of sin, . .

It's been more than fifty years since the publication of that Time article, and almost as many years since I was freed from the lies written about in that article.
How was I freed Only through an encounter with the living God, The last time I checked, God ain't dead, He's very much alive. . " Introduction, xiii

Robertson owns his own walk into the valley of the shadow of death, I mean, really, nobody likes a goodytwoshoes, right This man has been in the pit with the rest of us,

And he makes a valid point in saying that the insanity of the's is finally coming home to roost,  

We didn't get here in a vacuum,  

With the faith of a man on fire and the Scriptural knowledge of a prophet, he holds up a mirror to our culture and does so with unique eloquence.


Robertson examines ten lies that are destroying our country:

God is dead,
There is no devil,
Truth is relative
God did not create life,
Sex is for selfgratification,
Virtue is outdated.
Laws can be ignored or changed if they are inconvenient,
Unity is not possible,
Church participation and daytoday life should be kept separate,
Christians should shut their traps
The author then uses Scripture, history, personal experiences, and good oldfashioned horsesense to disprove the lies,  

Robertson is a highly educated Christfollower, A former English teacher turned successful entrepreneur turned realitytelevision star, this is no country bumpkin,  

At a time when we all bow and scrape to the god of political correctnessso afraid to speak the Scriptural truth about hard issues like homosexuality, gender, abortion, etc.
, this is an important booklike a voice crying out in the desert,

Hmmm. Where have I heard that before You can tell author put a lot of heart and soul into this book, Powerful. Meaningful. Biblical. Truthful. Great book.

Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book, While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it, This book is one of those books that everyone needs to read!
I loved how honest he was off his past,

and spoke of how he became a Christian.
This book had many good points in it, he spoke off all the lies that Satan wants Christians and nonbelievers to believe, I highly recommend this book to every American,./ To begin, I AM THE LAST PERSON WHO THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE THIS BOOK A!

I initially approached the book due to its intriguing title and compelling Goodreads rating.
today. Any rating above.or so makes me raise an eyebrow unless it has a celebrity author or involves charismatic witches or werewolves, A bit more research proved the author is the star of Duck Dynasty, and my hopes for enlightenment plummeted, I prefer reading over TV every day of the week, so I didnt know anything about the show one way or another, However, I anticipated conservative manifesto, This is what I found

Phil is a remarkably intelligent and thoughtful writer despite his frequent selfdeprecation, He begins the book with a “textbyte” of Nietzsches proclamation that “God is dead” based mostly on the/Time Magazine articles, Denunciation of this “premise” is the centerpiece of the book, I believe Phil missed Nietzsches intent to summarize the effects of the “Age of Enlightenment” the political reformation that motivated the US Forefathers in the mid to lates and Industrial Revolution through which he directly lived.
During this time, God as the single solution to all scientific and spiritual concepts was challenged, and the science that empowers most of our lives emerged.
Ironically, Nietzsche had “a madman” exclaim the phrase as he, and later Phil, grappled with the same issues, More on this later

Robertson continues with a criticism of “isms” relativism, agnosticism, atheism, etc, that he feels undermine the Word of God, He goes on to discuss his galavanting days as a “river rat”: always partying, lying, stealing, womanizing, etc, After his wife left, he found God, was baptized, and did his best to stay on Gods path, He stumbled a few times, but eventually passed the Word to anyone who would listen, To me, the early chapters sounded like astep AA program where absolutism is the only way to combat ones destructive inertia, In the early days, that was probably true for him, I am always concerned when people blame an extrinsic force the devil for their own bad decisions, That seems to undermine accountability, Phil portrays a passive God and very active devil, He describes his badinfluence friends as the “Devils sons” while they probably said the same about him, Over time, Phil transformed into a diehard Christian and maintained a wonderfully openminded perspective to race, socioeconomic status, and gender, He transformed the lives of thousands of people who wanted another path but didnt know a better way, In this way, he should be celebrated,

To me, his major limit is a strict and literal reading of scripture, He takes all readings as absolute truth even when I doubt that is the various authors intent, For instance, he criticizes “relativism” especially as it relates to “truth” when I would argue personal battles between good and evil relative morality were built into the fabric of the Bible.
For instance, why would God make Adam and Eve inquisitive and tell them not to touch the “Tree of Knowledge” that He placed in the middle of their Garden of Eden if He didnt want them to grapple with it Why would an allpowerful God allow a seductive serpentdevil into such a place If an illegal tree were necessary, why not put itmiles away on top of some impossible peak Obviously, moral challenges were here from the beginning to whatever degree eating fruit is immoral.


I enjoyed Phils discussion about virtue: the core behavior he aspires all Christians to follow, I am happy he includes Socrates by name as another much earlier proponent of similar behaviors, and John Adams as another source, While much theological leverage is eschatological in nature, it should not be the necessary source for the ultimate goal: virtue, This does beg the question: are there other paths to virtue besides Christianity Phil does make it clear that Christians rarely score better than nonChristians on sin or viceavoidance.
In this sense, his recurrent theme of making society and schools more Christian does not make sense, Christianity is the path that worked for Phil and millions of Americans, but it is not the only path, Added emphasis on his religion may disenfranchise others on equally noble trajectories,

My challenge to Phil has to do with nuance, While his understanding of the Bible is thorough and advanced, I dont get the sense he considers truth vs, allegory, history vs. theology, or the timedependent evolution of the now Christian message away from the Jewish tradition, The earliest Christian writings Paul are written with the goal of fulfillment of scripture, legitimizing Jesus as the true Messiah, and solving his perceived limitations of Jewish theology.
Jesus disciples often had clashing viewpoints of what Jewish traditions to support after the crucifixion Jews and gentiles pray together Circumcision required, Paul was stoned and imprisoned multiple times as he debated crowds, so he maintained a careful sense of politics, theological incrementalism, and history, His message evolved slowly during his ministry, and he had significant influence over Mark, Titus, and Luke, How did this change their theology How did the message change between Pauls first Letter to the Thessalonians c,AD, Gospel of Mark c,AD, and Gospel of John c,AD, especially realizing none of the New Testament writers were eyewitnesses, How much did the preceding texts influence the later texts And were Pauls latest writings pseudepigraphic Ephesians, Timothyand, and Titus, as their writing styles and content often depart strongly from his earlier traditions.
It took several hundred years to define the contents of the modern Bible, Which gospels and letters to include How much politics took place It suffices to say God did not hand down the modern Bible, It was edited and debated by man for hundreds of years as they pondered Jesus singularity all god all man, duality percentage of both, or trinity.


So why did I give this book aPhil walks the walk, He backs his beliefs with theological evidence, While I sometimes criticize his rigidity of interpretation, his commitment to the cause is noteworthy, He is not afraid to call out politicians for divisive rhetoric, criticize churches for favoring the affluent, or reprimand Christians for parttime subscription to the Word.
For this reason, I believe he wrestles with the same issues as Nietzsche and other philosophical leaders, He is at his best when he behaves like what I call a “firstcentury” Christian and maintains the equality and beneficence of Jesus and Paul.
He has predictably conservative views about abortion and samesex marriages, He loses me when he attacks homosexuals as going to hell for a genetic predisposition as if it were a lifestyle choice, Jesus approached sexual concerns with grace “let he who is without sin” John:, while Phil wields Gods eschatological hammer despite his own past, Perhaps he should read more Plato to see the path to virtue without threatening hell fire, While I applaud his openmindedness to people of all walks of life, his damning criticisms of homosexuals does not exude the beneficence of his Christian role models no matter what the scriptures say.
I loved this book! I highly recommend it to everyone! Phil Robertson is a straight shooter and he doesn't hold back, If you want the cold hard truth, then definitely read this book! America needs God more than ever! The author identifies several lies that America has adopted as truth all of which stem from the declarative statement made inthat "God is dead.
" Phil Robertson utilizes his personal testimony to the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to communicate the counterpoint to the falsehoods that are destroying our society and culture.


The book makes good use of the scriptures and highlights the authors experiences of salvation, He does not provide research or documentation of the nations decay, which would have made his case for change even more powerful and worthy of serious attention.
Many may dismiss his insights as the philosophical conclusions of an individual rather than a welldocumented analysis of our countrys movement toward the lies of humanism, relativism, and pluralism.

As ayear old, bisexual, agnostic, prochoice woman, I am clearly not the intended audience of this book, This isn't one I'd normally pick up, but I figured reading something from a different perspective could be good for me,

I can see where Phil Robertson gets his beliefs from, and to an extent, I respect his point of view, However, I can't bring myself to rate this book any higher due to the vaguely racist, loudly homophobic points made in this book, I respect religion, but I don't respect your opinion when it disrespects someone else's existence, You don't have to murder gay people in the street to be homophobic, and you don't have to scream the nword from the rooftops to be racist.


As for his actual writing, I enjoyed his funny prose and sarcasm, It was easy to read and, if I agreed with him more, would probably be one I could read through in one sitting, The part of his writing I didn't like was the constant retelling of Biblical stories, If I wanted to read the Bible, I would, I understand references and quotes, but the majority of this book was just retelling stories with comments on them afterward, I would've liked more of Phil's actual words,

Finally, just one more complaint, In chapter, Phil talks a lot about freedom of speech and the "attack" on it in this country as of late, but I don't think he much like many conservatives today fully understands what his right to freedom of speech means.
While socially, yes, things have become less acceptable, your freedom of speech has never been infringed upon, Freedom of speech in the constitution prevents the government from punishing you for your words to an extent, It says nothing about social consequences for those words, If you say something rude or offensive, people have every right to tell you to shut up, That's their freedom of speech,

All in all, this book would've been much better without the notsosubtle bigotry, but considering it's intended audience is rightwing Christians, it's understandable that there was some.


Fun fact: I along with the rest of my family were dedicated watchers of Duck Dynasty in the's/'s, We even own a Christmas music CD from them, I loved the show before I began to think for myself and develop my own views, So while reading some of the lines in this book disappointed me, it didn't surprise me, .