Godless in America: errata

In spite of our best efforts, authors don’t write flawless copy. Sometimes we get things wrong. At other times, we don’t say things as well as we might. Rarely is any text so good that it can’t be improved. However, at some point one must simply turn it loose and move on to other things. Otherwise, no work would ever be finished.

This part of the web site is devoted to corrections of errors of fact in the book, Godless in America. I will not use this space to modify opinions or debate interpretations.

However, when I find—or have brought to my attention—an error in the text, this is where I will correct it. Obviously, if a second edition is forthcoming down the road, any corrections will be incorporated into it.

I will list the errors—and hopefully it will be a very short list—in the order in which they appear in the text.

• Chapter Four: Some minds on religion—page 50

“Hal Lindsey, author of the Left Behind series—novels based on Lindsey’s interpretation of Christian prophetic writings, opined, ‘The Battle of America has begun! So be it!’ immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.”

Correction: the statement attributed to Lindsey is accurate. He made it in a column which appeared on WorldNetDaily on September 12, 2001. However, Lindsey is the author of The Late Great Planet Earth and other works based on his interpretations of world events and Christian prophetic writings. He has nothing to do with the Left Behind novels, which are the work of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, are based on somewhat different interpretations of Christian prophetic writings and have led to the creation of a cottage industry of books, video games, etc.

I regret the error. It’s most bothersome that I looked at the page countless times before the book went to press and after and only spotted the mistake on August 23, 2006. Apologies to all.