I picked up a copy of Deliver Us from Evil at the library the other day. It’s Sean Hannity’s 2004 book, subtitled “Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism.” Besides being horribly repetitive, Sean’s got it all wrong. I don’t have time to write a refutation of the whole thing, and I doubt you have time to read it. However, a few notable nuggets of nonsense:
“In the story of Nazi Germany, we see what happens when man forsakes faith, morality and conscience in favor of unquestioned loyalty to the state” (30).
Hmmm. Mind, Hannity’s just spent most of the 29 pages preceding this remark telling us how right America was in its decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, and how purely evil terrorists are. Terrorists, though, as Hannity does his best to avoid pointing out, are motivated primarily by faith, thereby not “forsaking” it in the slightest. Morality and conscience – okay, maybe terrorists do forsake that, at least by our cultural definitions of morality and conscience. Sean deserves a smidgen of credit for not equating morality and conscience with faith. The implicit assertion that by “forsaking” faith, we’ll become Hitlers is absurd, and plainly erroneous.
As for unquestioned loyalty to the state… “More than 225 years after that Declaration [of Independence], America has become, without rival, the world’s most beneficent nation. … America sends her young men and women to war to defend the weak. She sends her resources to help feed the poor. And she offers a hand to any nation that seeks friendship and peace” (11-12).
Now, maybe I’m wrong, but that sounds a lot like unquestioned loyalty to me. Sure, maybe we “liberated” the Iraqis. Sean overlooks our callousness to other places in need of “a hand.” Darfur comes to mind; or Zimbabwe. Could it be that Sean is ignoring some other, less poetic motivator? How about, “But most importantly, she uses military force to take over places that have a lot of oil.”
Thanks for reading.
