Who’s Looking Out for You
Who’s Looking Out for You is both a summary of various times O’Reilly has taken on authority (on the left, in the middle, and on the right), including during times when the rest of the mainstream media missed the boat, as well as a book of advice on how not to make some of the same mistakes he has made in his career. It’s nothing terribly groundbreaking, in terms of the advice, but it is a nice, concise group of considerations that can help a person quickly inventory their own life and possibly avoid some of the same pitfalls he and many other people make.
Some of the more critical parts of the book include:
-Some brief, but enlightening discussion about education and school vouchers
-How President Clinton, regarded as a champion of minorities, was actually one of the worst post-slavery presidents in that regard
-Discussion on his faith and also his problems with the Catholic Church
-Issues regarding the separation of church and state
-The idea of being a political prisoner and making events fit to your unchanging position
O’Reilly does miss the boat when he talks about Pope John Paul II, specifically when talking about the Pope’s view of the Iraq War. It was the Pope’s viewpoint that the war was unjust. He, however, was not speaking infallibly when he made those statements. Catholics, like O’Reilly and myself, were free to disagree with him on that (and both of us did and still do). It is a matter of conscience, in this case, and a person who opposed the war on its merits before the war began has a respectable position, even if some of us don’t agree. (The hind-sighters who first supported it and now oppose it do not have such a respectable position.)
Last, but most important, he takes a little bit of a two-faced approach to the example Jesus gave us. On one hand he admonishes the Cardinals who “covered up” the sexual abuse scandal (and it’s possible they had good-meaning reasons to do so, both for the victims and the offenders), citing Jesus’s great care for children as an example that the Cardinals should have followed and “looked out for.” Later, though, he talks about his own faith and how he never brought his faith to other people. Perhaps he forgot that Christ, himself, was an evangelist and asked his followers to go forth and spread Truth to other people. If you cannot, yourself, take Christ’s example in its entirety, neither should you be the one to throw stones when other people pick and choose the parts of Christ’s example they wish to adhere to.
All in all this is an enlightening read and worth your time. At a little over 200 pages and written in a conversational tone, it is not a huge commitment.
