The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Hollow Gods by Davidson Loehr

Hollow Gods by Davidson Loehr https://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Gods-Davidson-Loehr/dp/1639888225 A combination of Kahlil Gibran and Dr. Phil, theologian and lifelong liberal Davidson Loehr brings a much-needed clarity to the reasons that liberalism has done such deep harm to areas including education, the media, politics, race relations and religion. The problem in all five areas is the fact that for two centuries, liberals have been sloughing off biblical religion with its supernatural God and mythical eternity in Heaven. But with what do you replace heavenly eternity and an omniscient God who loves you? For two hundred years, liberals have sought to replace heaven with a utopian socialism here and now, in which only they are in charge. Such a utopia would require the wisdom of an omniscient God. In place of that, liberals have put their own exalted, diploma'd, wisdom. Only degreed liberals are smart enough to replace God. But no, they don't have wisdom-only arrogance and a desperate lust for power to replace the respect they can't earn from other citizens. In Hollow Gods, we see and feel the terrible and deadly cost of failing to find adequate replacements for God, heaven, and healthy, responsible religion.About the author Davidson Loehr has always been a heretic. When he was six, his Sunday School teacher told the class a new story. It was called, as he heard it, "Trinadee." He didn't mind the God in the sky—Superman and Captain Marvel were up there, so there could be room for gods, too. And the god had a son—well, this is fine, too. Especially since they had a poster of this blue-eyed, brown-haired son right on their Sunday School wall, with a lot of little kids gathered around him. But then the teacher said there was this ghost. The only image of a ghost Davidson had was Caspar. Now Superman and Captain Marvel are one thing, but Caspar the Friendly Ghost was just silly. So when the teacher asked if they "understood" this Trinadee story, he told her that it wasn't a bad story—though not one of the best they'd heard—but next time, lose the ghost. The teacher got angry, and enlisted the rest of the class to agree that they liked the story, ghost and all. Then she said "You know, Jesus doesn't like little boys who don't like this story!" "Well then," Davidson said, "You can lose Jesus, too." He was through with religion that day, until he heard an honest preacher fifteen years later: a Unitarian minister named John Wolf, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here, he found religion that was honest, relevant, and profoundly challenging. A few months later, in January 1964, Davidson enlisted in the Army and was soon sent to Germany, where he attended a tough NCO Academy. He returned to the states the following year, and attended artillery officer candidate school. Later he was sent to Vietnam as a Lieutenant. There, he first served as The Vietnam Entertainment Officer, handling all the USO-sponsored shows and entertainers. All told, Davidson spent nearly four years in the military.