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Back to the Future: Rebuilding America's Stability
Back to the Future: Rebuilding America’s Stability is about rediscovering what made America great so that we can return to these principles, and therefore, to the once solid foundation she was built upon. Engaging philosophy, education, history, science, journalism, family, and the church, we will travel back in time to see where we deviated from our nation’s foundation so that we may discover which adjustments must be made in order to bring us back to the future God intended for America.
"I've read many great books, but not many that I think everyone should read. This is one that I think everyone should read. It is powerfully written, but it is more than that-it is true and it is on time."--Rick Joyner, Senior Pastor, Founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries
"I've read many great books, but not many that I think everyone should read. This is one that I think everyone should read. It is powerfully written, but it is more than that-it is true and it is on time."--Rick Joyner, Senior Pastor, Founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries
140 pages, Paperback
First published December 28, 2014
About the author
Karla Perry
2 books7 followersKarla Perry, worldview revitalizer and author of Back to the Future: Rebuilding America’s Stability, The Reformation of America, and contributing writer to The Third Education Revolution, is an avid writer with a penetrating and thought-provoking style. Karla helps people develop healthy worldviews through biblical Kingdom-based thinking. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University where she majored in English and minored in American History. Karla is a co-founder of The Serve Initiative; a think tank and task force organization designed to equip and empower believers for the work of reformation. Karla lives with her husband, Joseph, in Virginia Beach, VA where they pastored for eleven years.
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November 16, 2016
Back to the Future is an insightful, thought-dense treatise on redeeming America through Kingdom mentality. Though informative to all, this book is addressed to the Church, the American Church specifically. Perry sets the stage of our current cultural decay through a concise review of the philosophers that seduced Western Civilization away from a biblical world view into the faith of secular humanism that has birthed our post-modern identity crisis. She builds on this exposure of the thought brokers in Chapter 1 to lead the reader into needed realm of reconstruction. This reconstruction, she argues, must be predicated on a rejection of the false antithesis of reason and faith. It must embrace a substantive faith that enlightens reason with truth.
“[The] faith spoken of in the Bible is not a matter of intellectual belief, but a matter of connecting experientially and substantively with the person of Truth, Jesus.” (p.26)
The next three chapters address education. Once again, Perry takes us back in time so we can see where the foundations cracked and the loss of scholastic achievement that resulted. While highlighting educational alternatives such as homeschooling, the author encourages redemptive engagement with the public schools. Throughout the book, she avoids the trap of cloistered Christianity and advocates a bold, public life of faith that brings salt and light to the culture.
Most poignant, perhaps, are the anecdotes from her own university experience where her faith was often placed on trial and her Biblical worldview ridiculed. Her response carries the fragrance of Christ. “We cannot take on anger toward these professors. They are ensnared in a faulty worldview…Let us not blame the world for being the world…We can respond by pulling up stakes and retreating further into our sub-culture or we can be the harbingers of freedom to the captives. Our focus is to be on restoring rather than retreating.” (p.63)
Perry tackles the media in Chapter 6 and does a masterful job outlining a philosophy of language in Chapter 7. This book is a prophetic call to the Church, not a whining accusation of the culture. She acknowledges the power structures in the media without falling prey to paranoia. “The truth is only a few hundred people are at the top of the media infrastructure…in America, and their worldview is what gets delivered to the people. It isn’t necessarily that there is a conspiracy…a humanist will promote humanist values. If we choose to see it as a conspiracy, we will demonize those we find to be culpable and will lack the insight necessary to instigate change.” (p. 74) The author follows up this wise insight with a challenge to Christians to produce excellent media products instead of subculture material that amounts to nothing more than thinly veiled evangelism tracts.
The author gives us a quick survey of science in Chapter 8 and how the greats like Copernicus, Newton, and Boyle discovered the things they did because of their faith, not in spite of it. From there, she moves to a recovery of our future through a clear understanding of our past. “The strength of America is not vested in the ability of the government to remain true to Christian principles. It rests in the strength of the people to stay true to the Christian virtue that provides an adequate base for electing virtuous representatives, thereby maintaining our Constitutional Republic.” (p.111)
The final chapters deal with family and the church, both of which are in need of a worldview readjustment. Most refreshing to me is the author’s continual advance to redeem the culture and avoid the chocking Christian cloister. “The kingdom of God works in all spheres of culture, whether church, family, education, government, arts, business, or media. It is time to stop operating under the mindset that these spheres ought to be separated into secular and Christian, hoarding all the ‘sanctified spheres’ into the church, thereby leaving the world struggling in a vacuum of death. When we suck all the living water into the church, the world is left to die of thirst.” (p. 124)
Well written, excellently documented with footnotes, bibliography, and suggested reading, Perry has loaded this 140 page book with gold. I highly recommend it.
“[The] faith spoken of in the Bible is not a matter of intellectual belief, but a matter of connecting experientially and substantively with the person of Truth, Jesus.” (p.26)
The next three chapters address education. Once again, Perry takes us back in time so we can see where the foundations cracked and the loss of scholastic achievement that resulted. While highlighting educational alternatives such as homeschooling, the author encourages redemptive engagement with the public schools. Throughout the book, she avoids the trap of cloistered Christianity and advocates a bold, public life of faith that brings salt and light to the culture.
Most poignant, perhaps, are the anecdotes from her own university experience where her faith was often placed on trial and her Biblical worldview ridiculed. Her response carries the fragrance of Christ. “We cannot take on anger toward these professors. They are ensnared in a faulty worldview…Let us not blame the world for being the world…We can respond by pulling up stakes and retreating further into our sub-culture or we can be the harbingers of freedom to the captives. Our focus is to be on restoring rather than retreating.” (p.63)
Perry tackles the media in Chapter 6 and does a masterful job outlining a philosophy of language in Chapter 7. This book is a prophetic call to the Church, not a whining accusation of the culture. She acknowledges the power structures in the media without falling prey to paranoia. “The truth is only a few hundred people are at the top of the media infrastructure…in America, and their worldview is what gets delivered to the people. It isn’t necessarily that there is a conspiracy…a humanist will promote humanist values. If we choose to see it as a conspiracy, we will demonize those we find to be culpable and will lack the insight necessary to instigate change.” (p. 74) The author follows up this wise insight with a challenge to Christians to produce excellent media products instead of subculture material that amounts to nothing more than thinly veiled evangelism tracts.
The author gives us a quick survey of science in Chapter 8 and how the greats like Copernicus, Newton, and Boyle discovered the things they did because of their faith, not in spite of it. From there, she moves to a recovery of our future through a clear understanding of our past. “The strength of America is not vested in the ability of the government to remain true to Christian principles. It rests in the strength of the people to stay true to the Christian virtue that provides an adequate base for electing virtuous representatives, thereby maintaining our Constitutional Republic.” (p.111)
The final chapters deal with family and the church, both of which are in need of a worldview readjustment. Most refreshing to me is the author’s continual advance to redeem the culture and avoid the chocking Christian cloister. “The kingdom of God works in all spheres of culture, whether church, family, education, government, arts, business, or media. It is time to stop operating under the mindset that these spheres ought to be separated into secular and Christian, hoarding all the ‘sanctified spheres’ into the church, thereby leaving the world struggling in a vacuum of death. When we suck all the living water into the church, the world is left to die of thirst.” (p. 124)
Well written, excellently documented with footnotes, bibliography, and suggested reading, Perry has loaded this 140 page book with gold. I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review