interview with author R.D. Gold

Why did you write the book?

As you read Bondage of the Mind you will discover that the book is very American in outlook and tone. I have observed that there has been a marked increase in fundamentalist religious belief of all kinds in the last twenty years. It has come to the point where faith is now one of the dominant themes in the American political process. This is not, in my opinion (and the opinion of many others), a good thing. And it certainly is not what the Founders envisioned for the country. Thomas Jefferson couldn't have been more explicit when he called for "a wall of separation between Church and State," a principle he firmly believed was enshrined in the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

Also, being a liberal Jew, I am very concerned about an increasingly aggressive approach I have observed on the part of Orthodox Jews (the Jewish fundamentalists) in their efforts to convert liberal Jews - especially young men and women - to Orthodoxy. This, too, in my opinion, is not a good thing, and it often is a very traumatic experience for the liberal Jewish families involved. I wrote this book (as I state early on in the Preface) to provoke readers, Christians and Jews alike, to step back and ask themselves a very simple question: Does all this religious fervor really make any sense? And if it doesn't, what is it doing - and what does it have the potential to do - to my life? My answer to that question is what the book is all about.

Do you think that all fundamentalists are bad people?

No, but some are, certainly. The Islamic Fundamentalists who cynically convince others, including teenagers and young mothers, to become suicide bombers to blow up civilians (including fellow Muslims) in the name of God are certainly bad people. The Christian fundamentalists who put bombs in abortion clinics and murder doctors in the name of God are certainly bad people. The Orthodox Jews who also murder in the name of God (Rabin's assassin, for example, or the doctor who gunned down 29 peaceful Muslims at prayer in a Hebron mosque) are certainly bad people. And, frankly, so are the people who support their nefarious actions.

Did you have a religious upbringing as a child?

To a certain extent, yes. My parents were Reform Jews, and I was brought up in the Classical Reform tradition that eschewed a lot of ritual that was considered extraneous to the essence of Judaism. We didn't go to the synagogue much, except on the High Holidays, but we celebrated Passover, both as a Jewish holiday and as a symbol of the value of freedom. I studied the Hebrew language at Hebrew School and Jewish history at Sunday School until my bar mitzvah, and then I stopped. This was typical of many liberal Jewish kids of my generation. We all identified as Jews, and we took pride in the achievements of Jews, but our lives did not revolve around Judaism. We were - and we are -- Jewish Americans, not American Jews.

What are your religious beliefs today?

I am still a liberal Jew, but my views about religion in general and Judaism in particular have changed over the years. In the book I discuss the Reform movement's increased emphasis on ritual, a step away from the Classical Reform that characterized my upbringing. I also discuss the radical theology of the iconoclastic rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (whom the Orthodox excommunicated, just as they did three hundred years earlier another great Jewish thinker, Baruch Spinoza).

Kaplan saw Judaism as a civilization in which the religion serves the people. He held that what counts is not what you think about God, but living up to a high ethical standard. I find a lot of truth and wisdom in Kaplan's thinking.

Religious fundamentalists of all stripes take a diametrically different approach. For them, people were put on earth to serve God, so their definition of morality is doing God's will as they see it laid out it in the scriptures. As result, they consider themselves more moral than those who do not share their fundamentalist doctrines. I take serious issue with this conceit. Indeed, the longest chapter in my book is the one called "The Fallacy of a Superior Fundamentalist Morality."

The fundamentalists - be they Christian, Islamic, or Jewish - are all convinced that it is they who are in sole, certain and complete possession of The Truth. In my opinion, this is nonsense, and in the book I do my best to prove it, using empirical evidence and legitimate principals of reasoning.

Are you planning a series of TV interviews?

No.

Why not?

I'm taking a different approach to getting the word out about the book. Advance copies were sent to a number of qualified reviewers for an opinion. I'm happy to say they all liked the book a great deal, and they are enthusiastically recommending it. You can find their complete recommendations on another page of this website.

What I find most encouraging is that not only does this powerful support come from highly respected national figures, but also that it comes from people spanning the complete spectrum of religious belief - and non-belief. For example:

Christopher Hitchens is a celebrated columnist and best-selling author. He is also an outspoken atheist. Hitchens says he enjoyed Bondage of the Mind immensely and tells readers that they will, too.

Dinesh D'Souza is one of America's most influential conservative thinkers and a best-selling author, too. He is also a religious Catholic who often debates the atheist Hitchens on TV. D'Souza says he was captivated by Bondage of the Mind, that it is a strong, original, timely, and very readable book of interest to everyone.

Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine and a columnist for the prestigious Scientific American magazine. He, too, is a best-selling author. Shermer calls Bondage of the Mind an elegant page-turner, a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of humanity.

Rabbi Jacob Neusner is one of the world's leading Jewish scholars and theologians, and the author of countless books. Last year he was the subject of a feature article in Time magazine called "The Pope's Favorite Rabbi," reporting on Pope Benedict XVI's devoting twenty pages in his latest book to Neusner's book, A Rabbi Talks to Jesus. Jacob Neusner calls Bondage of the Mind the most important book of its kind in the last hundred years.

David H. Aaron, is a distinguished professor at the Hebrew Union College's Institute of Religion. Echoing Neusner, he says that Bondage of the Mind is a courageous critique the likes of which have not been framed since the early debates over the credibility of revealed religion in the nineteenth century.

These five thinkers/writers look at religion through very different lenses, but they are of one mind in their strong praise for the book. What this tells me - and I hope prospective readers - is that D'Souza is right on target when he says that Bondage of the Mind is a very readable book of interest to everyone. I think powerful recommendations like these, coming from highly qualified people, will go much further than any TV appearance to convince the public that my book is worthwhile reading.