Book Recommendations

[Sherry]

If you really want to know what has motivated Glenn Beck, and his passion for the founding fathers, which led to his promoting of "restoring honor" in the individual, which will then result in electing people of honor, this book is his foundation for it all.

I would suggest folks would query Cleon Skousen, Robert Welch, and the John Birch Society while reading the book.

Is this a recommendation or critique thread?? I happen to agree that the 28 principles proposed are quite sound, but you go ahead and paint them as radical thinking. Anyway, my original comment still stands.....anyone who wants to know where Beck is coming from, as well as those he brought together on 8/28, will find the answers in this book. You don't have to agree with the principles, or Beck, or many other Americans, to have a curious nature to observe other perspectives.

Discover the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding Fathers which they said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desired peace, prosperity, and freedom.

These beliefs have made possible more progress in 200 years than was made previously in over 5,000 years.

The following is a brief overview of the principles found in The Five Thousand Year Leap, and one chapter is devotes to each of these 28 principles.

Principle 1 - The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.

Natural law is God's law. There are certain laws which govern the entire universe, and just as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which govern in the affairs of men which are "the laws of nature and of nature's God."

Principle 2 - A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Benjamin Franklin

Principle 3 - The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who ... will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." - Samuel Adams

Principle 4 - Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." - George Washington

Principle 5 - All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible .

The American Founding Fathers considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying all self-evident truth. They felt a person who boasted he or she was an atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her divine capacity for reason and observation.

Principle 6 - All mankind were created equal.

The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as:

1. Equal before God.

2. Equal before the law.

3. Equal in their rights.

Principle 7 - The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

The Founders recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government any power except that which they have the lawful right to exercise themselves.

Principle 8 - Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.

"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture." - William Blackstone

Principle 9 - To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.

"The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity." - William Blackstone

Principle 10 - The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.

"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legislative authority." - Alexander Hamilton

Principle 11 - The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ... but when a long train of abuses and usurpations ... evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." - Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence

Principle 12 - The United States of Americashall be a republic.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands...."

Principle 13 - A Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.

"If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.... [But lacking these] you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." - James Madison

Principle 14 - Life and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure .

John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift. Therefore the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow belong to everyone "in common." However, the moment someone takes the trouble to change something from its original state of nature, that person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change. Herein lies the secret to the origin of "property rights."

Principle 15 - The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.

Prosperity depends upon a climate of wholesome stimulation with four basic freedoms in operation:

1. The Freedom to try.

2. The Freedom to buy.

3. The Freedom to sell.

4. The Freedom to fail.

Principle 16 - The government should be separated into three branches .

"I call you to witness that I was the first member of the Congress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in January 1776, in my Thoughts on Government ... in favor of a government with three branches and an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, you know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to support it but yourself." - John Adams

Principle 17 - A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government.

"It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." - James Madison

Principle 18 - The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.

The structure of the American system is set forth in the Constitution of the United States and the only weaknesses which have appeared are those which were allowed to creep in despite the Constitution.

Principle 19 - Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.

The Tenth Amendment is the most widely violated provision of the bill of rights. If it had been respected and enforced America would be an amazingly different country than it is today. This amendment provides:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Principle 20 - Efficiency and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.

"Every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination of the majority, and to be concluded [bound] by it." - John Locke

Principle 21 - Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.

"The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent [to perform best]. - Thomas Jefferson

Principle 22 - A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.

"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence of others, which cannot be where there is no law." - John Locke

Principle 23 - A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.

"They made an early provision by law that every town consisting of so many families should be always furnished with a grammar school. They made it a crime for such a town to be destitute of a grammar schoolmaster for a few months, and subjected it to a heavy penalty. So that the education of all ranks of people was made the care and expense of the public, in a manner that I believe has been unknown to any other people, ancient or modern. The consequences of these establishments we see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A native of America who cannot read and write is as rare ... as a comet or an earthquake." John Adams

Principle 24 - A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." - George Washington

Principle 25 - "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none."- Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.

Principle 26 - The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore the government should foster and protect its integrity.

"There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America , or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated." Alexis de Tocqueville

Principle 27 - The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest.

"We are bound to defray expenses [of the war] within our own time, and are unauthorized to burden posterity with them.... We shall all consider ourselves morally bound to pay them ourselves and consequently within the life [expectancy] of the majority." - Thomas Jefferson

Principle 28 - The United Stateshas a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious example of God's law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the entire human race.

The Founders sensed from the very beginning that they were on a divine mission. Their great disappointment was that it didn't all come to pass in their day, but they knew that someday it would. John Adams wrote:

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

Learn the Constitution - Five Thousand Year Leap

 

[JakeStarkey]

Sherry, I made a quiet insightful suggestion, and you become quite hostile because of that? Cleon Skousen, Robert Welch, the JBS, and Skousen's writings are interlinked. Sherry, you know that, and I know that.

 

[Sherry]

Sherry, I made a quiet insightful suggestion, and you become quite hostile because of that? Cleon Skousen, Robert Welch, the JBS, and Skousen's writings are interlinked. Sherry, you know that, and I know that.

Hostile?? You've lived quite a sheltered life if that's your idea of hostile, sweetie.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Thank you for that correction. I am hope that you understand my earlier comment was not hostile either.

Another Cleon Skousen work that the family is releasing to the public four years after his death is "The Cleansing of America." All of the following can be found in the review by Kris Wray for the Association for Mormon Letters.

This work's central theme discusses the six reasons for preparing America for the return of Jesus Christ.

1. The restoration of the Constitution

2. The adoption of God’s law

3. The introduction of a Zion society under the law of consecration with individual stewardships

4. The great last gathering of Israel

5. The coming of the ten tribes

6. The building of the New Jerusalem

Essentially, “The Cleansing of America” is a mini-manual written for the purpose of preparing America for the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth from the perspective of a Mormon faithful to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is divided into seven sections which deal with the future of America; America’s manifest destiny; scriptural prophecies concerning last day events; setting up God’s law; economic systems under God’s law; the law of consecration; and qualities of a Zion society.

 

[Shooter]

Here are three classics. They are the D'Artagnan Romances trilogy by Alexander Dumas.

The first book is 'The Three Muskateers'. The sequel is 'Twenty Years After'. The final book in the trilogy is 'The Vicomte of Bragelonne - Ten Years Later'.

I highly recommend buying the trilogy. Excellent reading.

 

[RadiomanATL]

 

[RadiomanATL]

 

[Sherry]

Thank you for that correction. I am hope that you understand my earlier comment was not hostile either.

Another Cleon Skousen work that the family is releasing to the public four years after his death is "The Cleansing of America." All of the following can be found in the review by Kris Wray for the Association for Mormon Letters.

This work's central theme discusses the six reasons for preparing America for the return of Jesus Christ.

1. The restoration of the Constitution

2. The adoption of God’s law

3. The introduction of a Zion society under the law of consecration with individual stewardships

4. The great last gathering of Israel

5. The coming of the ten tribes

6. The building of the New Jerusalem

Essentially, “The Cleansing of America” is a mini-manual written for the purpose of preparing America for the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth from the perspective of a Mormon faithful to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is divided into seven sections which deal with the future of America; America’s manifest destiny; scriptural prophecies concerning last day events; setting up God’s law; economic systems under God’s law; the law of consecration; and qualities of a Zion society.

Allowing "The 5,000 Year Leap" to stand on it's own, which of the 28 principles do you agree/disagree with??

 

[JakeStarkey]

Skousen's works need to be looked at in totality, which include the LDS theory of the Kingdom of God beginning with its predecessor, the Council of Fifty. Skousen's religious philosophy is rooted in Mormon Millenarianism from the early to the later 19th century. The Skousenic principles cannot be divorced from the LDS concept of "continuing revelation" by modern-day LDS prophets. If one understands the background, then one can talk about his concepts.

 

[Sherry]

Skousen's works need to be looked at in totality, which include the LDS theory of the Kingdom of God beginning with its predecessor, the Council of Fifty. Skousen's religious philosophy is rooted in Mormon Millenarianism from the early to the later 19th century. The Skousenic principles cannot be divorced from the LDS concept of "continuing revelation" by modern-day LDS prophets. If one understands the background, then one can talk about his concepts.

Go through the principles and state your case.

 

[JakeStarkey]

You posted your material, I have posted what I consider is important in relation to that, and we can let the interested reader decide for him or herself.

 

[Sherry]

You posted your material, I have posted what I consider is important in relation to that, and we can let the interested reader decide for him or herself.

Jake, you're a blowhard.

 

[JakeStarkey]

If you mean I am a "blowhard" because I have no need to debate you, Sherry, so be it.

 

[Sherry]

If you mean I am a "blowhard" because I have no need to debate you, Sherry, so be it.

I don't really see it as a debate. I actually began with the statement that if you want to know where Beck is coming from, and many other Americans (and I might add of all faiths), then this book is the blueprint. You know it's easy to put a spin on something and paint it in a certain light if you have an agenda. When Beck had those 240 leaders of all different faiths assemble on stage 8/28, it was to send a message that certain principles are what unite us as a people. So if your mind is not open enough to review the principles and take a stand for or against them based on their merit alone, then our discussion has come to a conclusion.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Sherry, you lay in wait as you spin your web with intent to deceive. One cannot separate the creation from the creator when it comes to matters human. Yes, the discerning reader needs to know the context, the back story, before s/he can understand your part of the story. I have provided the context, and anyone who is interested in Beck and his principles, can now put that into an unbiased perspective. Full transparency, you know.

 

[del]

 

[blu]

autorep for feynman

 

[California Girl]

George Washington's Sacred Fire. Peter Lillback. Just finished it. Great book for those who are interested in the history of America and the men who built it.

 

[California Girl]

Also, for information guys - and this applied to whatever your political views.... There is a fantastic book about Afghanistan called 'Butchers and Bolts' by David Loyn. I'm not sure if it's available in the US but for anyone who wants to understand that country, in view of our role there.... I would absolutely recommend reading it.

 

[Sherry]

Sherry, you lay in wait as you spin your web with intent to deceive. One cannot separate the creation from the creator when it comes to matters human. Yes, the discerning reader needs to know the context, the back story, before s/he can understand your part of the story. I have provided the context, and anyone who is interested in Beck and his principles, can now put that into an unbiased perspective. Full transparency, you know.

Attempting to dismiss the principles outlined in the book based on the messenger fails, because the principles apply across the board. Look at it as a venn diagram with Mormonism in one circle, and then another faith in the other. Now tell me which of those 28 principles fall outside of the overlapping circles. Here they are again...

28 Principles of Liberty

1. The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.
2. A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
3. The most promising method of securing a virtuous and morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.
4. Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
5. All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.
6. All men are created equal.
7. The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.
8. Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
9. To protect man’s rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.
10. The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.
11. The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.
12. The United States of America shall be a republic.
13. A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human frailties of their rulers.
14. Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right to property is secure.
15. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and minimum of government regulations.
16. The government should be separated into three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial.
17. A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power.
18. The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.
19. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained in the people.
20. Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.
21. Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
22. A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
23. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
24. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
25. “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.”
26. The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.
27. The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
28. The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.