I worry that this book may turn out to be nothing more than conservative movement propaganda, but nevertheless, if Asa and I had a book club, this would probably be on the list.

Modern liberals have invested a great deal in the notion that America was founded as a secular state, with religion relegated to the private sphere. David Gelernter argues that America is not secular at all, but a powerful religious idea--indeed, a religion in its own right.

This talk of America-as-religion, got me thinking about how the ancient Hebrews slowly evolved their faith over the centuries before Christ so that Yahweh emerged as not just a god, or the "God of Israel," but *the* God; all other gods were false. America has evolved a similar view with regards to its government.

According to the myth of Nature's Nation, capitalism and democracy are the only "natural," and therefore legitimate, economic and political systems. Foremost in Kennedy's mind when he committed the nation to landing an American on the moon by the end of the 1960's was the necessity to demonstrate to the Soviet Union and to the world, that democracy was the right government and capitalism was the right economic system.

The above quotation is taken from a great blog entry on the Apollo Program vis-a-vis Manifest Destiny.