Goodnight, Football, by Michael Dahl, illustrated by Christina Forshay

I don't know about you, but I am ready for football season!  Goodnight, Football is a cute children's book that will get little kids (and their daddies and mommies) ready for the most wonderful time of the year.

The book follows a family attending a night football game.  As the family cheers for the home team, the artist captures the excitement of the game through the eyes of the kids.  The band, the cheerleaders, the exciting action on the field, all come alive.

When it's time to go home, they say goodnight to the team, the bleachers, the concession stand, the moon, and the little boy snuggles up in bed with his football, dreaming of the next time they get to go to a game.

Michael Dahl and illustrator Christina Forshay clearly love the game of football.  This book captures the best of the football game experience and will help parents pass along the love of the game to their children.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage, by Mark Achtemeier

DETROIT (June 20, 2014) - The top legislative body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted by large margins Thursday to recognize same-sex marriage as Christian in the church constitution, adding language that marriage can be the union of "two people," not just "a man and a woman." - See more at: c

This news is music to the ears of Mark Achtemeier.  Dr. Achtemeier, a PC(USA) pastor and seminary professor, led the way in his denomination's barring of gays and lesbians from ordination, but after years of reflection and study, led the denomination to reverse that stand.  Now, in The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage, he describes his journey and provides a biblical defense of same-sex marriage.

Unlike many who have a similar change of heart and mind, neither Dr. Achtemeier nor anyone in his family has come out as gay.  As he has met and counseled with gay Christians over the years, he was struck by the fact that many gay Christians feel constrained by the choices offered by most churches: live a life of celibacy, or attempt to change what they see as a basic part of their nature.  Some leave the church altogether, while others choose to accept their orientation and lead fruitful Christian lives.  Dr. Achtemeier sees fruit in the lives of many openly gay Christians, and misery in the lives of gay Christians who struggle with hiding or trying to change their nature.

His study of scripture led him to the conclusion that while homosexuality is condemned in several places in the Old and New Testaments, in every case it refers to violent, exploitative, idolatrous, or otherwise forbidden behaviors.  Homosexuality in the context of a loving relationship is not forbidden, he argues.  The purpose of marriage, he writes, is for two people to experience and share self-giving love, after the model of Christ, a purpose that can be accomplished in gay marriage as well as straight.  His bottom line: "God stands ready to graciously bless and affirm same-sex relationships in the same way the god bestows blessing on heterosexual ones."  

Dr. Achtemeier writes with a pastoral heart, a reasonable tone, a love of scripture, and a respect for the traditions of the church.  But I just can't buy his argument.  Marriage between a man and a woman, the model established in the first chapters of the Bible and demonstrated and affirmed throughout the Bible and human history, is God's ideal for marriage.  If God's ideal included same-sex marriage, it seems that God would have established it sometime before now, when our overly permissive culture has come to accept it.  Dr. Achtemeier argues that this lack is due to the fact that there has never been a cultural acceptance of same-sex marriage until recently.  Further, I don't like the logical extension of his argument.  Loving, self-giving relationships are possible between unmarried people who are committed to one another.  Given the increasing acceptance and practice of cohabitation, are we to find God's yes to shacking up in the Bible, too?

I will admit that his arguments are strong and difficult to contend with.  As his perspective continues to gain acceptance among more and more churches, those of us who would maintain that a marriage between one man and one woman is the historical and biblical ideal for Christians will need to study up and continue to provide a reasonable defense of traditional marriage.  More importantly, we need to face the reality of gay individuals in our congregations and communities.  What a tragedy that they feel condemnation and rejection, rather than finding a place of acceptance and healing in our churches.  Pastoral care for gay Christians has been clearly lacking.  That's my bottom line: it is possible to defend the primacy of heterosexual marriage while loving homosexuals.  

The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage is a well-written, well-argued book which gay Christians and defenders of same-sex marriage will find compelling, useful, and affirming.  Christians who reject same-sex marriage may not be convinced, but they will be forced to reflect on and carefully consider their views.  

a

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

T

When We Were on Fire, by Addie Zierman

I picked up Addie Zierman's book When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over with the anticipation that she would reflect on the simplistic, cliched faith of her childhood and tell the story of how she matured into an adult believer.  That is true, to a certain extent.  But rather than a light-hearted, nostalgic, humorous look at Christian life and culture of her youth, her story is a bitter, ungrateful rejection of her religious upbringing.

I get that many people have been hurt by churches and religious experiences.  Zierman writes about her horrible experiences with evangelical Christianity, which led her to cynicism, depression, alcohol abuse, and despair.  What was her horrible experience?  Molested by a youth pastor?  Church leaders bilked her family out of their life savings?  Beaten with a paddle by her Sunday School teacher?  Actually, none of the above.  Turns out her horrible experience was falling in love with a controlling, more-spiritual-than-thou, "Super Christian" boyfriend.

Now, I know bad relationships can have lasting effects, but it hardly seems fair to tie all of her bad feelings about conservative Christianity to this boy, who is certainly not representative of Christians.  Christians who grew up in the evangelical world of See You at the Pole, True Love Waits, TeenMania, Christian ska bands, and WWJD bracelets will get a chuckle out of her experiences.  Christians who attended a Christian college will nod in recognition with Addie as she recounts the visiting hours at the dorm, the residence hall Bible study leaders, and the student lifestyle covenants that are taken less-than-seriously by many.  It goes without saying that legalism and moralism permeate the church, especially in more conservative circles.  But is all that to be jettisoned, belittled, and pilloried because of a bad break-up?  I don't think so.

Zierman's journey is less theological than cultural.  Little is said about her actual faith or relationship with her savior, except how it is expressed in her culture and surroundings.  The interesting thing about her memoir is that it reflects a larger shift.  Young Christians today are more open to secular music, drinking alcohol, and cursing than the WWJD/SYATP crowd.  Does that make them less Christian?  Not necessarily.  I was bothered by Zierman's implication that the WWJD/SYATP crowd was less Christian.  She writes with a tone of superiority over the childish, immature, rules-following, unthinking people she and her co-believers were.  She is so glad she is above all that now.

Many readers will be able to relate to Zierman's story.  Every Christian has to reach the point at which his or her faith is not just her parents', her church's, her culture's, or her college's, but her own.  She found her faith, and as it turns out, it doesn't seem to look much different from what she grew up with, as little as she would like to admit it.

To the extent that you find your story in hers, you may enjoy When We Were on Fire.  I found it to be rather depressing and not very encouraging.  She has a gift with words, but I have to say one stylistic choice she made drove me nuts.  At times, she wrote all in second person about her own experiences: "You're a little bit weepy. . . . You have caused him to stumble. . . . You are lonely. . . . You inhale sharply and back away. . . . You should have let him kiss you. . . ." and on and on.  I know she is wanting to draw the reader into a shared experience, but I did not like the style.  But this stylistic quibble aside, I still didn't enjoy When We Were on Fire as much as I'd hoped to.


Thanks to Blogging for Books for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Confident Faith, by Mark Mittelberg

Christians come to faith through a variety of paths.  And once they become believers, many Christians don't have a good grasp of how they got there and why they believe.  Mark Mittelberg wants to remedy that.  In Confident Faith: Building a Firm Foundation for Your Belief, Mittelberg describes the paths to faith, and gives substantial reasons to believe in the claims of Christianity.

Mittelberg served for many years as evangelism director at Willow Creek Community Church, working with Bill Hybels, and works closely with Lee Stroble, of The Case for Christ fame.  These associations point to several characteristics of Mittelberg's writing: Confident Faith is solidly evangelical, evangelistic, accessible to the lay person, clearly written with logical reasoning, and sure to challenge and enrich new and old Christians alike.

It's really two books in one.  The first section describes six faith paths: relativistic, traditional, authoritarian, intuitive, mystical, and evidential.  Each has potential to bring someone to a knowledge of  Jesus, but the evidential faith path "best tests--and ultimately supports or undermines--all of the others." Whether tradition, a mystical experience, or an influential leader first introduced you to Christian faith, you must have a basis for the truth of what you believe.

Which leads to the second part, "Twenty Arrows of Truth," twenty ways that history, science, nature, and the Bible support the Christian message and point to the truth of the gospel.  Any one of these on their own makes a good case, but the twenty together provide a solid foundation for belief.  I picture several audiences for whom these chapters can be quite valuable: young people who have been raised going to church but who haven't spent much time considering the content of Christian claims; new Christians who have had a moving conversion experience but who have yet to grasp the historical and theological scope of the gospel; and skeptics who would say the Bible is full of fairy tales or who deny the existence of God.

Confident Faith is not a very original work.  Readers who have read a lot of books on apologetics or comparative theology might not find anything new here.  But I don't believe the market for this type of book can ever be to full.  Contrary to what modern skeptics might have us believe, it is not unreasonable to believe in the message of the Bible and to trust Jesus for salvation.  Confident Faith can be a huge help for Christians who can examine why they believe what they believe, and how they can "be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."





Thanks to the Tyndale Blog Network for the complimentary review copy!

The Megasaurus, by Thomas Weck and Peter Weck, illustrated by Len DiSalvo

Deep in the forest, Beandom is in trouble.  This peaceful kingdom of bears who look like beans is being threatened by a monster, the Megasaurus, whose favorite meal is beans.  King Limalot calls together the wisest minds of the kingdom--owls, of course--to figure out how to survive.  Sadly, their wise ideas are no match for the Megasaurus, but little L. Joe Bean has an idea that just might work . . . .

The father/son team of Thomas and Peter Weck tell the story of the potential doom and ultimate salvation of Beandom in The Megasaurus, one of a series of books from Lima Bear Press set in this kingdom of bears that look like beans.  The setting and characters come to life in the colorful illustrations of Len DiSalvo.  He captures the expressions of the owls and bears and the Megasaurus beautifully.  The fanciful kingdom is reminiscent of some combination of the Ewok village, Hobbiton, and a Pueblo Indian village.

Like all the Lima Bear Press books, The Megasaurus teaches valuable lessons.  L. Joe Bean teaches us that even the collective wisdom of society can be wrong, and that creative thinking and determination can demonstrate the power of an idea.  I was also reminded of Paul's admonition to Timothy: "Don't let anyone look down on you because of your youth."  Little children might be a bit scared of the big monster, and distressed by the fact that he eats so many owls and bears.  But ****spoiler alert!**** everyone's OK in the end.

The Megasaurus is a fun book with nice illustrations, a cute story, and a good lesson.  The authors even provide a reading and discussion guide, making it perfectly suited for group reading and discussion.  Teachers and parents will enjoy reading this to their children and will look forward to the next Lima Bear Press book.


Thanks to Lima Bear Press for the complimentary review copy, provided in exchange for an honest review!

The White Prisoner, by Ognian Georgiev

From 1999 to 2003, Galabin Boevski was one of the biggest stars in the sport of weightlifting.  His accolades included Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year, 3 European championships, 2 world championships, and a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics.  But drugs took him down, more than once.

Bulgarian sports writer Ognian Georgiev has written The White Prisoner: Galabin Boevski's Secret Story, which covers Galabin's childhood and entry into the sport of weightlifting, his impressive and rocky career, and his imprisonment for drug trafficking in Brazil.  There was plenty to work against him at every step of the way.  His family was not a part of the elite, and he lived in a small town, so he to find his place in the sports world by luck and a lot of hard work.

He found great success, but at two different times, he suffered a ban from the sport because of prohibited drugs.  Georgiev stays objective in his reporting, but I was curious: Did Boevski really use banned substances in his training?  Georgiev strongly implies that the samples has been tampered with, suggesting that there was a conspiracy against Boevski.  His trainers kept him on a regimen of drugs, the make up of which Boevski didn't know.  He did eventually refuse some of the drugs pushed on him by his trainers, but it wasn't clear whether these were banned substances.

The drug trafficking conviction is even more mysterious.  He bought brand new suitcases while on a trip to Brazil.  Drug dogs at the airport discovered 9 kilos of cocaine in the suitcase lining.  How did Boevski not notice nearly 20 pounds of extra weight in the brand new suitcases?  That question is what led to his conviction.  He plead his innocence, was convicted to serve 9 years, but was released in two.  I don't know what all went on there, but Boevski maintains (and Georgiev implies) his innocence.

The White Prisoner is an interesting look into the world competitive weightlifting, and an intimate picture of one man's strange journey in that world.  Based on this account, integrity is hard to come by in this sport.  Boevski's integrity seems to have been above the fray, but The White Prisoner doesn't give a final verdict.  In any case, Boevski was one of the greatest.  The White Prisoner has been translated from Bulgarian, and has the feel of a rough translation at times.  The narrative doesn't flow very well at times, which may be a problem of translation or editing or just style.  In any case, I enjoyed reading about Boevski and getting a glimpse of his world.



Thanks to the author for the complimentary electronic review copy, provided in exchange for an honest review!

The Atheist's Fatal Flaw, by Norman Geisler and Daniel McCoy

In recent years atheist writings have flourished.  Many intelligent and thoughtful writers have made the case for the non-existence of God. Christians with an evangelistic bent would do well to be prepared with some intellectual background when they talk with atheists about matters theological. Norman Geisler, long a leading apologist, and Daniel McCoy have teamed up to write The Atheist's Fatal Flaw: Exposing Conflicting Beliefs, in which they examine a central argument of atheists and propose that it falls apart as self-contradictory.

Quoting extensively from atheist writers both contemporary and historical, Geisler and McCoy lay out a central atheist argument against God: the problem of moral evil. Put simply, how could an infinitely powerful and infinitely benevolent God allow evil to occur?  The authors charge that atheists call for God to act to prevent moral evil, yet that would call for a curtailment of human freedom. And yet atheists also would object to divine limitations on human freedom. "The atheist says in essence, 'God is morally bound to go to such extremes to fix the problem of moral evil that he removes at least a good part of out autonomy. At the same time, it would be immoral of God to go to lesser extremes because to do so would infringe on our autonomy."  

Geisler and McCoy spend so much space setting up the atheist position that one might grow weary of reading the source quotes. I would estimate that more than half the book is actually quotes from atheist writers. In some chapters, that figure may be greater than 3/4. So they leave little question about what the atheists say. However, I wasn't as impressed with the response. I mean, they build an interesting argument, but it seemed more like a fanciful logical exercise than a serious challenge. It feels like a very narrow, limited project that I am not sure an atheist, even an intellectually honest one, would be persuaded by. I hope I'm wrong. 

The Atheist's Fatal Flaw is certainly not a waste of time for Christians interested in apologetics.  It is a great source book (with an extensive bibliography) for readers who want to understand the atheists' perspective on the moral argument. I'm just doubtful that this is the  apologetic silver bullet implied in the title.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!