Book Review: Take Back the Land

In Take Back the Land: Inspiring a New Generation to Lead America, author Rick Boyer addresses the Christian youth (focusing in particularly on homeschooled teens) of today, urging them to step forward and live unashamedly for God, to impact the world, and rein it back in to once again follow the godly heritage our country was founded on.

Boyer suggests to teens that they can surpass the lazy, unfocused years of "adolescence" and march right from childhood into young adulthood. By laying aside the selfish, meandering desires and wants of adolescence, the Christian teenager can focus on getting busy for God, for taking responsibility for the impact that they can have to influence the country and the world for His kingdom.

Discussion of the American government is heavily sprinkled throughout this book. Boyer discusses the founding principles of our country, basically describing it as a country that was founded on godly principles and with governmental boundaries so that people maintained a sense of independence yet had a government to prevent chaos and anarchy. He contributes much of our country's moral degradation to the moral degradation of our government and the lack of involvement from the Christian population.

I found this book interesting. And I agreed with most of what Boyer had to say. However, I did feel that he came across as being legalistic in some of his viewpoints. That was a slight turn-off, but if I looked past those instances, I found that most of what Boyer presented was agreeable with my belief system and, most importantly, God's Word.

I don't, however, see this book being one that America's average teenager would find interesting. The topic of our government was discussed heavily throughout the book (to the point where I even found it dry at times) and I don't think this book contains enough "fun and exciting" content that most video-game-crazed American teens want these days. I'm certainly not saying that authors should "dumb" books down for the sake of entertainment. I actually feel quite opposite of that. I'm just saying that the teenage audience that would actually be interested in reading this book (without being forced to by their parents) is probably limited to a fairly small few.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I agreed with much of what Boyer had to say, but could have done without the legalistic aspects. If put in the hands of a receptive teenager, I think this book could be most motivating for stepping up and making a difference.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Master Books publishing in exchange for my honest opinion.*