Unfreedom of the Press, by Mark R. Levin

With Mark Levin, you can always count on a conservative perspective and an informed, passionate, and thorough treatment of the issues at hand.  This is certainly true of Unfreedom of the Press.  Levin is no knee-jerk defender of President Trump, but he certainly recognizes the coordinated schemes of the media to embarrass and, they wish, unseat Trump.

As you will expect with Levin, if you've read his books or listened to his radio show, he doesn't simply report on and react to the news of the day.  Unfreedom of the Press is wide-ranging, but a couple of themes stand out.  The biases of the press, while amplified during the age of Trump, are nothing new.  Levin recounts the failures of the New York Times specifically.  While Stalin was systematically oppressing and starving millions of people in the Ukraine in the 1930s, the Soviets tried to keep it under wraps.  Word did leak out, but somehow the NYT kept it off their pages.  Similarly, even though the nature and extent of the Holocaust were known, for many years Americans did not learn of it because a compliant press, led by the New York Times, kept it off the front pages, if it was reported at all.

The internet and social media have, of course, revolutionized the way people receive and disperse information.  But big media still dominates and they do what they can to shape the story line.  Months after the publication of Levin's book, we heard recordings of NYT editorial meetings in which editors expressly discussed their strategies to discredit Trump.  (The Russian collusion narrative fell apart, so now they were going to shift to the "Trump is a racist" narrative.)  Levin must have been thinking, "There's another chapter for the second edition!"

People on the left and in the mainstream stress will hate this book.  The rest of us will see that Levin is right: Trump not only has to work against the Democrats to accomplish anything in his agenda, he has to fight the misrepresentations and opposition coming at him from the newspapers and "news" networks.

Safe Enough Spaces, by Michael S. Roth

I read Michael S. Roth's Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses with some suspicion and trepidation.  I am thirty years past my college experiences, with a son in the midst of it.  In the decades that have passed, I have, as an outsider, seen the deepening of leftist culture's grip on college life, and have wondered and prayed for my son's generation to be free from the grip of destructive liberal indoctrination.

Roth is president of Wesleyan University and while he seems personally quite comfortable with liberalism, he does actually provide a perspective that leaves room for other points of view.  I admit that I have come to accept the common belief, which Roth says is mistaken, that "campuses have replaced teaching and learning with indoctrination and political posturing."  But Roth does concede that "there is a serious problem of political bias on college campuses, particularly in the humanities and interpretive social sciences."

Roth wants campuses to be "safe-enough," existing and teaching with "tensions between flourishing and criticizing."  He celebrates broad diversity, even seeming to embrace affirmative action type admissions policies.  But while providing "encounters with different diversities" universities can't be "too safe--they must not coddle."

Based on what I read here, Roth sounds too liberal, politically and socially, for my taste.  We would find plenty of points of disagreement, I'm sure, if we were to sit around a seminar table together at Wesleyan.  On the other hand, I think I could count on him to teach my son's generation and to create a campus environment where conservatives and liberals and religious and non-religious alike can be challenged and taught without the "growing danger of orthodoxy and authoritarianism." 

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

Savage Harvest, by Carl Hoffman

I don't think the current generation knows much about the Rockefeller family.  We don't hear much about them now, but when John D. Rockefeller became the richest person in the world via Standard Oil, starting in the late 19th century, and his grandson, Nelson Rockefeller, became governor of New York (1959-1973) and Vice President under Gerald Ford, everyone knew about the Rockefellers.  So in 1961 when Nelson's son Michael Rockefeller disappeared off New Guinea, it was big news around the world.

A generation later, Carl Hoffman investigated Michael's mysterious disappearance and tells the story in Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest.  Michael embraced his father's passion for native artifacts, and became an expert in Asmat art and culture, traveling through the jungles and seas of Dutch New Guinea.  When his boat became disabled within sight of shore, he began to swim to land to get help.  No one ever saw him again.

Some rumors pointed to his being murdered and eaten by natives.  Hoffman follows Michael's route in hopes of finding evidence of Michael's fate.  So it's a history, a memoir, a travelogue, and a mystery story.  Hoffman can't make any definitive statement--he didn't turn up remains that can be identified by DNA, for instance--but based on his findings, he leans hard toward accepting the cannibalism rumors.

Savage Harvest brings alive this period of history and brings back memories (for older Americans) of headlines from the early 1960s while introducing younger Americans to a rather odd chapter, or maybe footnote, of American history.  Hoffman brings it all together nicely in a readable, somewhat suspenseful, package.

Together for the City, by Neil Powell and John James

Neil Powell and John James are church planters in Birmingham, the second largest city in England.  In Together for the City: How Collaborative Church Planting Leads to Citywide Movements, they describe the work of 2020birmingham (https://2020birmingham.org/) which set out in 2010 to plant 20 churches in the Birmingham area by 2020, and now is on its way to planting 30 churches by 2030.

Powell and James bring a passion to Together for the City that is contagious and effective.  First of all, they remind us that church plants are on the cutting edge of the reaching people for the gospel.  Churches, they write, are the primary means for bringing people into the kingdom of God, and are the primary place where new believers are discipled.  Further, new churches are statistically much more likely to reach new believers.  So the message of Together for the City is, in part, to promote the vitality of church plants for the sake of the larger Church.

But more than that, they want to expand the vision for church planting well beyond the single church or single denomination model.  Most church planting I have been aware of is either one church planting a "daughter" church, or, better, a series of daughter churches.  If not a single church, then a regional denominational office will develop a plan to plant a church that is supported by that denomination.  In Powell and James's model, churches join across denominational lines to pursue a unified vision of reaching the city, through church plants, for the gospel.

Maybe I'm too cynical or insulated, but this, to me, sounds pretty radical.  They write that they "aren't seeking to plant churches together but to be together as we plant churches."  They still recognize denominational distinctives while sharing resources, strategies, and plans, with a greater vision of seeing people across their city come to walk with Jesus.  A church planting pastor in my area used to say, "We don't want to be the largest church in the area; we want to church the area."  This is the type of attitude that I see in Together for the City.

2020birmingham, as a group, grasped the conviction that "we are far too tribal, and tribalism is the consequence of failing to reflect deeply on the gospel."  As they look at the "fields white unto harvest," they embrace the attitude that "This field is far too big to farm without collaboration."  As unique and revolutionary as this sounded to me, I apparently am way behind the times.  The authors include interviews with church planters from similar networks in Chicago, Tokyo, Pretoria, and other cities around the world.  The type of collaboration that Powell and James write about is happening all over the world.  As one pastor in Chile said, "We began the first church plant funded by local churches of different denominations.  In this case, a Presbyterian church and an Anglican church are helping financially to support a Reformed Methodist Pentecostal church plant."  What a great vision of working together for the sake of the gospel.  We need more of this, in every city!  May it be, Lord!


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

Redshirts, by John Scalzi

Every casual fan of Star Trek will immediately recognize what John Scalzi's Redshirts is referring to.  Those crew members who show up on an episode wearing a red shirt and assigned an away mission are almost certain to meet their doom.  Sometimes they don't even get the dignity of having a name.  In Redshirts some of the new recruits on the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union, gather that they definitely don't want to be chosen for an away mission.  They see this pattern and are warned against becoming a part of the story line.

Thanks to a crazy crew member who has managed to stay hidden in the maintenance tunnels, they being to figure out that their parts, and the ship's missions, are being written into a TV show from centuries before.  They hijack an away mission shuttle to travel back in time through a wormhole to meet with the writers of the show.

This sounds absolutely ridiculous--and it is!  But Scalzi pulls this ridiculous story off.  The crew members even meet some of the cast members who play them on the show.  The crew members and the actors and writers get themselves in all kinds of pretzels figuring out the causation and reality of their lives and the writers' power over them.  It's like a time travel story, with a bizarre twist.

Star Trek fans with a sense of humor will love this story.  Comparisons to the Tim Allen movie Galaxy Quest are appropriate.  I found myself laughing out loud throughout.  As much fun as Redshirts is to read, however, the "codas" at the end seemed more contrived and out of place.  I liked how Scalzi finally put a bow on things, but the codas were a let down after the greatness that was the rest of the book.  That said, if you want a good laugh with a Star Trek-like theme, Redshirts is a must-read.

Coffee with Jesus, by David Wilkie

David Wilkie's Coffee with Jesus is hilarious, thought-provoking, and sometimes convicting, all at the same time.  Wilkie started Coffee with Jesus a few years ago as an online comic strip, which he has collected in this volume.  If you're looking for great comic art, well, you'll have to keep looking.  His characters are simply throwback clip art figures.  But man does the dialogue pack a punch!

In each strip, one or two of Wilkie's cast of characters has a short interaction with Jesus, as if they are having coffee together.  Wilkie has grouped the strips thematically, sort of, and some themes pop up throughout.  Wilkie's Jesus is very mellow, approachable, sometimes a little sarcastic, and always pushing his interlocutors to think a bit more deeply about their faith and actions.

The obvious theme of the book is that Jesus wants us to talk with him.  I think it's OK to think of prayer as sitting across the table from Jesus, having a cup of coffee; he desires intimacy and vulnerability from us.  My favorite strips have Jesus reminding us that "Sometimes it's good to not talk."

Sometimes we just need to be still and quiet in his presence. . . .

Jesus will sometimes remind us that we don't really need to hear from him, because we already know what he's going to say.  On the topic of marriage, we know the answers already . . . .

He especially likes "watching it sink in" when we realize the answers. . . .And he gently reminds us that sometimes when we think we know all the answers, we really don't.

Many of the strips poke fun at the foibles of the modern American church.  For instance, after Carl tells Jesus about the youth group mission trip that will include assisting a church in Florida, followed by a trip to Disneyworld, Jesus points out, "Amazing how many churches in tourist destinations need help, isn't it?"

One topic that I often need to hear from Jesus on is the nature of vocation.  Jesus points out to Carl that "some people will walk through life quietly, with dignity, doing my will without being noticed at all."  Carl, who has a landscape company, questions whether his call is "just" mowing lawns.  Jesus answers, "That's what you get to do."  What a great reminder to serve Jesus in everything, whatever vocation we are in.

There are so many great strips in Coffee with Jesus, and so many challenges and chuckles.  If you are a Christian who doesn't mind a bit of good-natured ribbing at Christian culture, and who enjoys a fresh approach to questions about the Christian life, I dare you to spend a few minutes having coffee with Jesus.  It just might change your life.

Hellhound on His Trail, by Hampton Sides

As the subtitle of Hampton Sides's book Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History indicates, the hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassin was, in fact, the largest manhunt in American history.  When James Earl Ray shot MLK, the shock waves reverberated around the world.  The memory is still fresh and raw in the minds and hearts of many Americans.

Sides tells the story of these two men's paths and destinies crossing on that fateful Memphis day.  Alternating between Ray's movements around the country as an escaped convict and King's movements around the country as a civil rights leader, Sides presents a thorough picture of race and culture in the 1960s.  Drawing on historical accounts and oral histories, Sides reconstructs the events in painstaking detail.

As gripping as the story is--and even though we know the outcome, it's pretty gripping--Sides does get bogged down in the details, while only tangentially examining the big picture.  We learn much about Ray's personal habits and personality quirks, but the question of motive is assumed and glossed over.  Sides mentions theories about Ray's being part of a larger conspiracy, but dismisses any inkling that Ray was just a guy who wanted to kill MLK.  For many, the thought that he had not one bit of financial or logistical support is simply outside the realm of possibility.  For Sides, it's ridiculous to imagine that Ray was anything other than a lone assassin. 

One thing remains unquestioned: King's death was tragic for the civil rights movement and our nation's history.  King's philosophy of nonviolence didn't die with him, but his death allowed many in the civil rights movement to move away from nonviolence.  On the bright side, King's death elevated and accelerated the concerns of the movement, perhaps leading to swifter acceptance of attitudes and policies King promoted. 

Sides doesn't whitewash King's lifestyle or legacy, but he clearly sees King as a tragic hero.  Similarly, he doesn't make Ray out to be an evil man, but a regular guy who pursued--and accomplished--a goal, and who was frankly shocked that his actions had such far-reaching repercussions.  Try as he might, even leaving the country and leaving the continent, Ray couldn't escape the consequences of his killing King.  With Sides, you will feel like you are with him every step of the way.