Marley & Me by John Grogan

Each chapter was an enjoyable story. And oh, how reading books about dogs makes one love them more. I loved this entire family. I was finishing this on the plane and crying... oh my.

Seven by Jeff Cook

Reading Jeff Cook's book was almost as good as hearing him speak. I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of the seven deadly sins with the characteristics in the Beatitudes. What a contrast between death and life! I was especially captivated by Jeff Cook's way of explaining them, especially his take telling of many familiar Biblical parables and narratives. I loved what he had to say about John Eldridge and turning the other cheek, I loved what his take on why Judas did what he did, I loved his explanation of lust and gluttony and envy....... five stars for sure.

Justice in the Burbs by Will and Lisa Samson

"One of the most famous verses on this issue is Micah 6:8, which states, 'He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (NIV).

Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. These are actions, visible signs that we are following God's desires. When we focus too much on thinking right, we can forget to do right in ways that follow after God's heart. This can manifest itself in busyness of conversation, multiple Bible studies a week, and feeling so secure in our rightness that we don't naturally seek areas where we might be lacking. We contend that any notion of thinking right that does not involve acting right was anathema to Jesus. The apostle James said it succinctly: 'Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17 NIV)." (79)

"..the word religion has come to be devalued and scorned. People say things like, "I love Jesus, but I don't like religion." That's a shame, really. Followers of Jesus have always been linked by a common set of values. That is what it means to follow Jesus--to be a people held together by common values, the same values held by Christ himself. Remember what Jesus prayed for: 'I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one' (John 17:20-21)." (91-92)

"Let's suppose American Christians still owned slaves. Can you imagine the outcry from out sisters and brothers in Africa? There are now more Christians on the continent of Africa than there are people living in the United States. Do you believe the gospel would have ever taken hold in Africa if slavery were still legal in America, a nation closely associated with Christianity?" (94)

"[talking about the huge amount of corn-based products and use of petroleum-based fertilizers]... So in some weird but fairly direct way that Twinkie in aisle 12 is linked to all the struggles around obtaining oil in the Middle East.

Yikes. Let's take it down a notch and think about the people involved in the food chain. Migrant workers pick much of the food not harvested by big machines, food like lettuce and tomatoes. While no hard statistics are available, it is estimated that immigrant workers pick between 50 and 80 percent of our fruits and vegetables. So the current immigration debate in America is directly related to what you will serve for dinner tonight.

How about grocery store employees? What are they paid? Is it far? Are they carrying a heavy financial burden, perhaps living without insurance or medical care, so that you can pay ten cents less for a dozen eggs? Do you shop for groceries based solely on price, or do you consider the implications of a world where the store with the lowest price wins?

Okay, even that may be too heavy a place to start...[talks about overnutrition in the US, and cites this article... interesting.]" (can't actually find the article they cited though?)

"Let's look at the word "go" first. The word is given in a passive voice and could best be translated "as you are going." Jesus realized that his disciples would be leaving Jerusalem. he also realized that, to paraphrase the great Yogi Berra, "wherever they went, that's where they would be." So he inspired them toward missional movement, but he also let them know that in whatever location they found themselves, their involvement in the work of the kingdom was crucial." (147)

These were quotes I found redeeming and worthwhile from the book. They did make several good points. They urged a change in mindset and focus from the normal of Suburban Christian sub-culture which I appreciated. Sometimes, though, I felt they lacked decent description of Scriptural foundation. I also didn't appreciate the idea that becoming progressive and correct meant moving away from the church. Granted, the church is not perfect, and the church can be slow to change. But I agree very much with this blog post on the issue. Also, I know it shows only my own critical spirit, but this book was published by Emergent Village, and I admit I'm not sure how I feel about identifying with that movement, especially one that seems to be so against the church rather than lies themselves....... I don't know. This book was similar, but in my opinion somehow inferior, to other books I've read on the topic, so I did read it but wasn't that amazed.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

This one came so highly recommended that I expected better. An intense story. But I was left craving a more climactic finish, and clear moral lesson. Oh well. It was a fairly enjoyable read.

Why the Rest Hates the West by Meic Pearse

The word "hate" being used in the title is rather deceiving. Rather than focusing on global rage, this book explicates how and why many perspectives, beliefs, and practices of the Western world are so offensive to others outside our culture. He does indeed explain them in a way that makes it understandable why this would arouse hate in the rest of the world, but this is largely implicit.

The prologue sucked me in... It discussed how concepts of being tolerant and multicultural have developed in our culture. "Tolerance has been radically redefined. Originally it meant that two people (or groups or institutions) that were divided by hard, nonnegotiable differences refrained from oppressing one another on account of it. Now it has come to mean a dogmatic agnosticism about all truth claims and moral questions, with any dissent from it hounded at every turn until all submit to its insistent nescience.... The new "tolerance" will not tolerate traditional morality: 'everything is permitted in the permissive society-- except, of course, Christianity or Judaism or Islam or...'" (168-169)

Yet this concept of "tolerance" is almost something we take for granted in our culture. (By "our" Western culture, I speak mainly of the United States, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand.) We also highly prize privacy, see work as something for outside the home and value the family for emotional rather than economic support, and esteem education and progress (and also tend to devalue tradition.) But concepts we propose as "common sense" are not common in the rest of the world. We are rather the only ones in the world (and in fact, in all its history) to have these views. And because of our hyperprosperity (which is also quite unique to our place and time) our culture and economy easily "obliviously dominate."

Pearse explains how the reformation brought us the ideas of not just doing good, but being good, and how this led to ideas like business integrity and sportsmanship. Eventually these ideas came to permeate even Western Catholocism, and integrity became a high value. Then, influenced by Romanticism, the value shifted from integrity to being true to oneself. Now, rather than making ones inward life conform to outward morality, we "radicalize interiority and discard traditional morality." We think that acting however we want is better than doing something we don't agree with. Of course, to non-Westerners, this makes us dishonorable. Whatever the interior motivation, non-Westerners at least continue to DO the right thing.

An interesting quote about this:
"People behaving hypocritically is, of course, a bad thing-- but the existance of this phonomenon is a sign of a good thing. One can only be guilty of it if one aspires-- or at least feels one ought to aspire-- to high moral standards.... When Jesus denounced the hypocrisy in the Pharisees, he did so while speaking to an audience who bleieved, as he did, in traditional moral codes in their full rigor. He calle don his followers to be above hypocrisy. If postmoderns are guiltless of this failing, however, it is not because they are above hypocrisy-- but because they are beneath it. Without the least detracting from Jesus' denunciations of the Pharisaic moral double-dealing, I would venture to suggest that our circumstance is one that the gospel writers--indeed, any premodern sources-- did not entirely envisage. To be guilty of hypocrisy, one has first to accept the validity of the morals upon which it is predicated-- and our culture, uniquely, does not." (62-63)

My favorite chapter was on "Divided Lines, Infantilized Culture." A few quotes:
"But in a society where I can reinvent my life in an anonymous pea soup of people, change my career, leave home and make new friends in a different place, marriage bonds will be weakened. This was hardly an option open to premodern people. Quite apart from the laws and the more powerful force of social disapproval, the very material realities of life conspired against it. Moving away and reinventing one's life from scratch was not an option unless one was happy to submit to beggary.... For ordinary people, the necessities of life were best guaranteed by strong family ties. When the glue that holds the marriage together is no longer the self-interest of survival (for even moderate prosperity can be taken for granted nowadays) but the ability to enjoy the same entertainments together for half a century, then the edifice of the family is prone to come apart." (131)

"Premoderns knew who they were--and who other people were--by reference to their families. In modern society, the teenager must prove himself an adult by 'finding himself,' 'becoming his own person,' and he is to do this precisely by rejecting his family. The crisis of adolescence is a crisis of our own making..." (139)

"As our Western world intrudes ever more on non-Western space, we believe ourselves to be offering freedoms, prosperity and rising aspirations. And in a sense, we are. but we are also seen as egoists, rooted in no solid culture and no fixed network of family or relationships. The things we believe ourselves to be promoting do indeed appeal to non-Westerners. But quite understandably, not all of them are ready to throw themselves into the moral and social void in the process." (144)

Pearse proves that these things that separate Westerners from the rest of the world are not only offending them, but are negative for and will prove fatal to our culture and civilization. By the end, a call for a return to many pre-modern values, which are more sustainable and honorable, does seem in order.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

I don't believe in reincarnation or karma, and I actually don't even believe dogs have souls. But this book isn't really about that. It's about being human the things that go with it-- like generosity in love and discipline in perseverance. Some may say it is tied up all too neatly, but I do like happy endings.

A quote that made me laugh... especially because it is a dog that is writing it:)
“The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.” So true!

Christy Miller #4-8 by Robin Jones Gunn

Oh yes. "Who's your hero, Sarah?" "I have two: Christy Miller and Todd Spencer."