Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America

New
Paperback
2006
$18.12

In Losing Moses on the Freeway, Chris Hedges, veteran war correspondent and author of the bestselling War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, delivers an impassioned, eloquent call to heed the wisdom of the 10 Commandments. Celebrated for his courageous reporting on the crucial issues of our time, Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, explores the challenge of living according to these moral precepts we have tried to follow, often unsuccessfully, for the past 6,000 years. The commandments, he writes, do not save us from evil. Instead they save us from committing evil.
Inspired by unyielding faith, rigorous moral scrutiny, and a fierce sense of social responsibility, Hedges offers a breathtaking meditation on modern life. Losing Moses on the Freeway illustrates how the commandments usually choose us -- and how we are rarely able to choose them. We cannot protect ourselves from theft, greed, adultery, or envy, nor from the impulses that lead us to commit evil acts. In honoring the commandments, we free ourselves from self-worship and are called back to the healing solidarity of community. It is in the self-sacrifice championed by the commandments that integrity, commitment, and, finally, love are made possible.

Synopsis

In Losing Moses on the Freeway, Chris Hedges, veteran war correspondent and author of the bestselling War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, delivers an impassioned, eloquent call to heed the wisdom of the 10 Commandments. Celebrated for his courageous reporting on the crucial issues of our time, Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, explores the challenge of living according to these moral precepts we have tried to follow, often unsuccessfully, for the past 6,000 years. The commandments, he writes, do not save us from evil. Instead they save us from committing evil.

Inspired by unyielding faith, rigorous moral scrutiny, and a fierce sense of social responsibility, Hedges offers a breathtaking meditation on modern life. Losing Moses on the Freeway illustrates how the commandments usually choose us -- and how we are rarely able to choose them. We cannot protect ourselves from theft, greed, adultery, or envy, nor from the impulses that lead us to commit evil acts. In honoring the commandments, we free ourselves from self-worship and are called back to the healing solidarity of community. It is in the self-sacrifice championed by the commandments that integrity, commitment, and, finally, love are made possible.

$18.12

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 01 Oct 2006
ISBN 10: 0743255143
ISBN 13: 9780743255141

Media Reviews

Unfailingly well-written, compelling, and disturbing. . . . It's not an easy faith that Hedges describes, and that is the point. -- The American Prospect
At a time when the mere mention of religion can excite so much passion . . . and discord, Losing Moses on the Freeway offers sane and bracing ways to think about, and rethink, the whole subject of faith. -- O, The Oprah Magazine
Hedges' main point is that America is a nation marked by self-satisfaction, false piety, hypocrisy, and covetousness and that its institutions and culture aid and abet these very real failings. . . . If you're fed up with the sorry state of things in America today and aren't sure why, Hedges lays it out for you here. -- Baltimore Sun

Author Bio

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig out of Los Angeles and is host of the Emmy Award--winning RT America show On Contact. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists, Days of Destruction-, Days of Revolt, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches college credit courses in the New Jersey prison system.