Wired Jesus Podcast

I have to admit, this is a rather fascinating article and I may have to check out this book. It does give some traction to the idea of America as a Judeo-Christian culture. Here’s a review from Savannahnow.com. I’m curious – has anyone read this book?

There was a time leading up to the Protestant Reformation when average believers were forbidden from reading the Bible.

When they finally got the opportunity, the character they most identified with was Moses. A bond that doesn’t come as a surprise to best-selling author Bruce Feiler, a Savannah native.

“While America was 100 percent Christian at its founding and 80 percent Christian today, the themes of Jesus’ life – spreading the gospel, poverty alleviation, building a kingdom of heaven on earth – these are not ideas that motivated most of the great transformations in American history,” Feiler said in a recent interview on Tybee Island.

“It’s the Moses themes. Standing up to authority. Banning together, trying to build democracy, trying to build a sense of nationhood. These are the great themes of American history and they are more related to Moses.”

Feiler, the author of best-selling books “Walking the Bible” and “Where God was Born” will speak on his new book “America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story” on Oct. 14 in Savannah.

The book is scheduled for release Oct. 6.

Feiler, 44, has written about life in the circus, teaching in Japan and exploring the country music industry. But Feiler is best known for his series on traveling through the holiest sites on earth.

In the travelogue “Walking the Bible,” Feiler covers the 10,000-mile journey through the desert as described in the five books of Moses. The book spent more than a year-and-a-half on the best-seller list of The New York Times.

Feiler also has hosted a three-hour PBS miniseries series based on the book called “Walking the Bible with Bruce Feiler.”

Savannah’s writer

Local bookseller Esther Shaver described Feiler as Savannah’s “claim to fame” within nonfiction literature.

“He is the only really nationally known nonfiction writer in Savannah or anywhere nearby,” she said.

Feiler and wife, Linda Rottenberg, live in New York with their twin daughters, Eden and Tybee.

They frequently visit Feiler’s parents, Ed and Jane Feiler of Savannah, and spend weeks each summer at the family’s Tybee Island beach home.

Bruce Feiler also serves on the board of visitors of Savannah Country Day School where he graduated in 1983.

In July 2008, Feiler was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. After a year of treatment including chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery on his leg, he is coming to the end of his “lost year,” he said.

He anticipates the release of a next book in the spring chronicling his yearlong bout with cancer.

In his 2002 book, “Abraham,” Feiler explored the hope that Jews, Muslims and Christians could find unity through their common ancestor.

Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer, spiritual leader of Congregation Mickve Israel where Feiler grew up, described Feiler as a “an important commentator on our shared scriptural tradition.”

“He has emphasized the humanness of biblical personalities, as well as their unique genius.”

Revolutionary father

The Bible tells of the prophet Moses who led the enslaved Jewish people from the bondage of their Egyptian captors.

In Exodus, God parts the Red Sea so that Moses and the Jews can cross. Then God releases the waters on the pursuing Egyptian army.

In “America’s Prophet,” Feiler describes how the Moses’ story has been sealed into the foundation of America.

“In fact, when those pilgrims got on that ship in 1620, their Bibles had Moses on the title pages,” he said. “They were saying that you could stand up to the Catholic Church, and they were standing up to King James.”

The founding fathers frequently referenced Moses, Feiler said. Thomas Paine likened King George to the pharaoh and Revolutionaries to the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams suggested Moses be on the national seal of the United States.

African-American slaves and civil rights activists held up Moses as the icon of freedom in the spiritual, “Go Down Moses.”

“The story is a universal story. It applies to all of us in any time,” Feiler said.

“That is why this story has worked so much in America. It provides this incredible example of ‘I’m not the first to go through an impossible situation. Other people have done it. I can take hope they succeeded and then maybe I can succeed, too.”
If you go What: Best-selling author and Savannah native Bruce Feiler will offer a free lecture and book signing for “America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story.” The book is scheduled to be released Oct. 6. When: 7 p.m. Oct. 14 Where: Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church, 429 Abercorn St. Cost: Free lecture and book signing event.