Review of Writing to Change the World, by Mary Pipher
May 5, 2009
Amazon: Writing to Change the World
3 year-old sex slave
November 3, 2008
A heart-breaking story about Michael Angelo, a toddler from the Philippines, posted at the blog of Marisa Banas (HT: Seth Barnes):
“On June 15, 2008 at 12:00am, mere hours before the child was scheduled to leave the country and fly to Japan, Michael Angelo was back in [his mother's] arms. I asked the social worker, do you think she will sell him again? She shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘We will notify the police to arrest her if she does. She is still thinking about that million dollars. …’”
Books reviewed …
October 29, 2008
At First Things, Franklin Freeman reflects on George Orwell’s strange agnostic righteousness, as described in David Lebedoff’s The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War:
“As I read David Lebedoff’s latest book … I began to think of George Orwell as a real-life Dr. Rieux, the hero of Camus’ The Plague, whose heroism suggests that it is possible to be a saint without believing in God.”
Michael Dewalt looks at a scholarly tome: James Dennison’s Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: 1523-1552:
“This book is the first of a 3-volume set that James T. Dennison will be working on for the next two years, which sets forth a translation of a number of the Reformed Confessions that have never been in English until today. Some may wonder how this project differs from that of what Phillip Schaff has done in his 3-volume Creeds of Christendom. The answer to that is …”
Trevin Wax reviews The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ:
“The blogosphere is changing the world. Am I exaggerating? Maybe. After all, there are plenty of people who have never seen a blog. Many people give you a blank stare if you ask them what a “blogger” is. But there is no doubt that the way we obtain information in this Internet age is changing, and the blogosphere is a big part of that information revolution.”
Two friends of Scot McKnight, Brittany Bennett and Nick Johnson, share their thoughts on Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals, by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove:
“Here’s the question: Does prayer imply action to work with God for the answer to that prayer? (As long as it is something we can do.) Put directly, does prayer for justice imply a commitment to work for justice?”
And the Irish Calvinist discusses Mark Driscoll’s Death by Love:
“My ears perk up when I hear that a fellow pastor is writing a book that is going to deal with various counseling scenarios that he has encountered over the years and how he dealt with them from the foot of the cross.”
Action, or just talk?
October 27, 2008
The author of the Remonstrans blog questions the benefit of the recent Blog Action Day on poverty (and several other things) at this post.
“‘Raising awareness’ of poverty is as productive as the CDC warning us that water is wet. This is nothing more than a pretense of outrage and an opportunity to excrete some ideology.”
Video: How did Christian slave owners justify slavery?
October 21, 2008
From the Acton Powerblog, number 8 in the Birth of Freedom Shorts series (’shorts’ is a fitting description — this one is just 1:45).
Susan Wise Bauer’s homepage.
Review: Jesus Wants to Save Christians, by Rob Bell and Don Golden
October 21, 2008
Posted by Nick Norelli at Rightly Divinding the Word of Truth:
“Bell and Golden do help the reader to see some patterns in Scripture that they otherwise might have missed. They do seem to express a genuine concern for the disenfranchised of the world. But I think that there are better ways of going about voicing such concerns and calling people to action.”
Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian, by Gary A. Haugen
October 11, 2008
Mr. Dawn Treader posts a short review:
“The Gist: God is calling Christians out of a life pursuing safety, comfort and triviality to a life of courage and adventure by joining in the struggle for justice in this world. What holds us back? Ignorance about the problems of injustice and aggressive human violence. Despair that we cannot make a difference. Fear of what could happen if we get involved. The exciting news is that God is mobilizing a generation of heroes to leave their spiritual cul-de-sacs and rescue those trapped in slavery and forced labor.”
Official book site.
Do something about human trafficking
October 3, 2008
From Southeast Asia, Seth Barnes discusses the problem and shares a video.
