The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom

Guinness (Last Call for Liberty) presents in this nearsighted jeremiad a scathing indictment of American decline and a call for returning to a biblically grounded understanding of freedom. Arguing that the story of Exodus contains “foundational truths... essential for maintaining freedom today,” and sparing no critique of contemporary social justice movements, Guinness lays out a plan for reorienting American society. He contends the Judeo-Christian creation story is the only consistent grounding of human rights and laments how mention of sinful behavior “now elicits responses ranging from disdain to amusement and unease.” A “rich meaning of covenant” based on “promise keeping, trustworthiness, and trust” must be rebuilt, he writes, if American freedom is to survive. The survival of the Jewish people through millennia, he posits, is grounded in their cultivation of stories and education, and America needs to more fervently instill a similar personal attention to freedom. He rejects justice demands of the American left (which he argues are fueled by thinly veiled “neo-Marxists” funded by George Soros), calling them a “toxic blend of utopianism, hypocrisy, stupidity, and catastrophe” and instead suggests a system of “public justice” of equality before the law tempered with mercy. Guinness’s doomsday arguments amount to preaching to those who view America as needing a restoration to Christian ideals, but will fall flat for those not already convinced. (May)