F. Tupper Saussy writes in “Rulers of Evil: Useful Knowledge About Governing Bodies” ©1999, Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 10 E. 53rd St., New York, NY 10022
[December 25th was the birthday of many pagan gods: Saturn, Jupiter, Tammuz, Bacchus, Osiris, Mithras...]
[Saturnalia, the season of drunken merriment and gift giving evolved into Christmas.]
This is one of the few books I have ever read twice. Oddly enough, I ran accross it in a public library in a small southern town. It isn’t a particularly scholarly work but it contains plenty of intriguing facts to make it worth the time. It is, however, becoming dated now. One would have to work pretty hard to update the list of Roman Catholic senators, Supreme Court justices and government agency heads.
Since reading it, I have read many more books on the subject of religious influence in society and government and have adopted higher standards of scholarship but Mr. Saussy deserves credit for re-kindling a passion for the subject which I first became interested in while serving in the military at Fort Hood, TX.
The author I have to credit with sparking interest initially is Karen Armstrong. No lack of scholarship there.
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