Fascinating take by William Cleon Skousen on the conservative right and the possible ideology behind neoconservativism, and their new populist approach.
“Leap,” first published in 1981, is a heavily illustrated and factually challenged attempt to explain American history through an unspoken lens of Mormon theology. As such, it is an early entry in the ongoing attempt by the religious right to rewrite history. Fundamentalists want to define the United States as a Christian nation rather than a secular republic, and recasting the Founding Fathers as devout Christians guided by the Bible rather than deists inspired by the French and English philosophers. “Leap” argues that the U.S. Constitution is a godly document above all else, based on natural law, and owes more to the Old and New Testaments than to the secular and radical spirit of the Enlightenment … The book reads exactly like what it was until Glenn Beck dragged it out of Mormon obscurity: a textbook full of aggressively selective quotations intended for conservative religious schools like Utah’s George Wythe University, where it has been part of the core freshman curriculum for decades (and where Beck spoke at this year’s annual fundraiser).
Mormons? Polygamists? Glen Beck and the right? Wow. Please discuss.
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Do you know about the man behind the lists and the books? I have an expose up for the weekend about Cleon Skousen that you might enjoy. Might answer your question. Interesting comments have been made by people who saw Skousen speak are there too.