5.27.2014

Vacation memories, part two: reading

I read most of Otto Scott’s biography of King James. Here's a review.
For out loud reading to the kids, it was Dandelion Fire by ND Wilson.

I tried to read a magazine per day from my large backlog. First Things is quite good as a tonic against the privatizing of religion. My hometown newspaper news and editorials are depressing. The place used to be a bastion of conservative piety – now professing Christians write religion editorials defending homosexual practice.  An eastern orthodox church has opened in the downtown district, led by a pastor who converted from my old denomination. Other culture war elements on the home-front are also disappointing.

Making the usual pilgrimage to the large bookstores and publishers nearby, I noticed something.  With the wealth of books and publishers in the area, there is a dearth of material on what the Bible says about homosexuality and how to interact with a homosexual. Or what the Bible says about abortion and how to interact with an abortion clinic or someone considering abortion. Not that those things are totally absent, but what’s big is either popular self-help, academic stuff trending mainline liberal, or very conservative material which is good, but doesn’t address too much where the church is being pressed right now. Kevin DeYoung’s book “Freedom and Boundaries” is lamentably a rarity, for instance.  I searched in vain for Robert Gagnon's excellent treatment of homosexuality.

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