“Stonewall Hinkleman” is Coming

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned it, so I wanted to toss out a reminder that Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run by Sam Riddleburger and Michael Hemphill is coming out this week!

I reviewed an Advance Review Copy of the book back in August, and I heartily recommend that you check it out! It’s a great read if you’re remotely interested in kidlit, young adult lit, historical fiction, or any such genre.

You need to get it. Part of the reason why is that I have theories about what happens in the sequel, but the sequel won’t ever appear if the first doesn’t sell well enough.

So, do it for me, if nothing else!

Ahem … seriously, if you have any young adult readers, this is a great choice. My 10-year-old son is in the “reluctant reader” category, but he very much enjoyed it. My 12-year-old is in the “advanced reader” group, and he enjoyed it, too. It has a great story, interesting characters, and really looks at the history and personhood of the characters.

Enjoy!

Why I Believe

I have had several occasions lately to think about why, exactly, I’m a Christian. It’s not that simple a question, I guess, but I wanted to take some time to spell it out.

The most recent of those occasions is a post that was submitted for tomorrow’s Christian Carnival, but which I didn’t include because it isn’t written by a Christian or to promote Christian thought. It was written to promote thought by Christians, though, and it’s worth doing. GrrlScientist reviewed a book caled Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting On Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace by William Lobdel.

A few of the other things that have prompted this? Conversations about Bill Maher’s film “Religulous” in various places, a post on The Scrooge Report about signs deriding atheism, a couple posts by One Mom — one on evolution and one about her daughter, and many other posts, comments, conversations, etc..

My Church’s blogs

As I’ve mentioned before, members of my church are in the process of taking over WordPress.

Frankly, Jesusfreek doesn’t seem to be pulling his weight in this process, but I have to tread carefully, since he has more than enough material to blackmail me.

Jonathan, though, has interesting topics coming. Chris is always good.

Anyway … as of this past weekend, my church now has a series of Pastor’s Blogs.

We will take over the blogosphere.

Meanwhile, I’ve gone on to begin my exploration of YouTube.

If you’d like to see me, and I can’t imagine why you would, then click here. I’m sure that I’ll make use of that sooner or later.

Friday Top Five

Sure enough, I’m late …

In this case, it’s because I had too many choices. I actually saved posts all week, and came up with 14 that really deserved to be listed here.

I’m therefore using various standards, most of them pretty much arbitrary.

So, here we are:

1) The Unknown Contributor put forward a beautiful statement of love for her child with Down syndrome. Especially in light of conversations about what we can (and think we can) do with genetics now, this post is really a must-read: Would I, Would He?

2) Dr. D at Answers for the Faith takes a look at the abortion pride movement. This is another one of those times when I would dare someone to tell me that “there’s no such thing as being pro-abortion.” Abortion Pride?

3) Thundercatt99 has some thoughts about Bathsheba that had really never occurred to me, though it now seems so clear that I wish I’d seen it.

4) Diane L. Harris at Stepping Into the Light asks Does the Real Jesus Scare You? and looks at some of the ways that we try to cope with the reality of Jesus. Wow …

Hmmm … I’ve narrowed it down to two …

Maybe I’ll cheat.

5) Alexander at the Scrooge Report posted the story of Brittany McComb, a high school valedictorian whose microphone was turned off because she talked about God. He posted the video in a post called To Brittany McComb, We Are Your Microphone! Looks good to me!

(I’m sneaking this one in …)

Alfie at In2theFray described his perfectly-normal encounters with a few everyday people who just happened to be Muslim. The comments get a bit hairy on this one, and that’s even with me sitting it out after a while. Still, it was a good note. Dhimmi? Dummy? Thinker! My Muslim Day

Christian Carnival CCLXX is Coming

… and I’m hosting again.

The last time the Christian Carnival was here was Christmas Eve, so I’m following up with April Fools Day.

For those who don’t know, the Christian Carnival is a weekly collection of psots from around the blogosphere. There are no obligations to sign up, and relatively few rules.

Book Review: “Mad Church Disease” by Anne Jackson

Dan King at Bible Dude gave me a copy of this book, and I promised to review it. If you’re interested, it’s well worth checking out his interview with author Anne Jackson, as well.

I’m afraid it took me quite a bit longer than I thought it would to get around to it, but here goes.

Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic is really a great read, and it’s a good idea for anyone involved in ministry to check it out. The book addresses an aspect of serving in ministry that hadn’t occured to me at all until a few years ago — getting burned out.

How did I miss this? I suppose that it’s because, until about ten years ago, I never really got to know pastors well. Like most people on the outside of ministry, I took for granted that everyone was on the same team, working for God, and more or less selfless.

How does that shoe fit?

Debates over profiling — racial and otherwise — have entered a new phase in the past week or so. For my own part, I find it somewhat enlightening and, as are most issues, frustrating.

For years, members of ethnic minority groups — especially Hispanics and African-Americans — have complained about racial profiling, the policy of giving extra attention to certain groups based on the fact that they look like suspected criminals. In the post-9/11 era, Muslim groups have complained about reigious profiling, the idea that every Muslim was under suspicion and Arabs have been added to the groups being racially profiled.

Last month, a document was released by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that identified certain warning signs for militia activity. See it here.

A number of people have been all up in arms about it, complaining. Among the things being listed — supporting third party candidates, having Ron Paul bumper stickers on cars, etc.. Glenn Beck has had a field day with it on his radio show, doing his usual misrepresentation.

First of all, let’s look at what the document actually is — It indicates certain warning signs. Let’s be honest: A lot of militia psychos did support Ron Paul. It’s not necessarily his fault; I don’t think that he’s really of their camp. However, they got behind him in pretty large proportion.

Regarding Israel and Gaza

Polycarp has been doing a great job keeping information coming about the recent conflict in Gaza. Apparently, those of us who said that Israel was using excessive force are being vindicated. That is, if you trust the Israeli soldiers who now report killing civilians.

Three of his recent posts have some great information that are well worth the read:

Israeli soldiers admit civilian killings

The Religious War in Gaza: Rabbis tell Israeli soldiers to expel the Gentiles

The truth about Israel’s religious war against Gaza: Revelations and Revulsions continue

As I said before, I fully support Israel’s right to defend itself, and even to fight against and kill those who are attacking it. That doesn’t include schoolkids, UN offices, hospitals, or many of the other targets that Israel attacked in its recent offensive.

AIG & Congress: bailouts, bonuses, and evil

The more I look at the AIG bonus issue, I can only shake my head.

The arrogance of AIG executives who think that they deserve millions of dollars in bonuses after blackmailing the country is absolutely mind-blowing. I realize that they have contracts … that’s part of the problem.

Lessons from Literature II: Grace

Chichester, NH has been making a lot more news lately than usual, mostly because of Pastor David Pinkney, the pastor of Concord’s River of Grace non-denominational Christian church.

Pastor Pinkney has taken in Raymond Guay, a convicted murderer recently paroled after a little more than 30 years in jail. Now 60 years old, Mr. Guay is the target of efforts to run him out of town.

Pastor Pinkney was interviewed on NHPR today, and it’s well worth the listen.

This is a wonderful example of showing God’s grace. Pastor Pinkney is trying to help Mr. Guay re-enter society and have a life now that he’s been released from prison. More than that, listening to Pastor Pinkney, you can hear that he’s talking about the redemptive power of God’s love.