5 comments about Watchman Nee: Man of Suffering (Heroes of the Faith).

1. Ever since I read this book, I cannot forget the way Mr. Nee denied himself to the very end, refusing to defend himself in court or at all. Out of all the books in the "Heroes of the Faith" series, this one probably remains my favorite.
   
   At the time that I read this book, I knew nothing about Watchan Nee, I had seen his books around my friends house, but thought of them as just another book on the list of endless spiritual books; that is, until I read this book. When Mr. Nee dedicated his life to Christ, he really dedicated it. He did not back down in the face of any sort of persecution, he would not even defend himself saying that "If Christ did not defend himself, then neither will I." Even as he wasted away in a prison cell, he remained faithful.
   
   This book was a reminder to me that I waste words and think more highly of myself than I should. A truly humble person does not need to defend himself because he knows that he is right with God, and that is why Jesus did not defend himself. Contunually, I have asked myself "Did Watchman Nee take it too far? Should have have defended himself?" I think not. Had he, he would probably still have died, but not such a death that glorified God and brought others into his glory.
   
   This book is a good intro into who Watchman Nee was, and what he stood for. It will bring tears to your eyes and inspire you to a deeper walk with Christ, or maybe inspire you to take that first step. If you were called to die for Christ, would you defend yourself to save your own flesh?
   
   God Bless & *enjoy* ~Amy



2. I must admit when I ordered this book it was for a friend. I received it and just thought I would glance through it to see what was there. I got so involved, so quickly, that I read it from cover to cover with great interest.

   Watchman Nee was a true man of God. He held onto his conviction and his faith through the very worst of circumstances. He was strong in his faith and God kept him strong and he did not faulter.

   This book is for ANYONE that wants to learn about true LOVE FOR GOD. Watchman like so many others was a martyr for his faith. He is one of few who have lived a life of faith and died for their devotion. Although he is considered now a man of history, there are people who suffer through this same fate and faith today for their love of God. **See Jesus Freaks Vol. 1 & 2 or Extreme Devotion**




3. Watchman Nee was a man of conviction that kept his focus on Christ above all things. He faithfully discharged his callings as an apostle, evangelist, and teacher while often being betrayed, reviled, and under threat from communist China. One can be moved greatly by reading this book.

   I started reading this book while I was in the process doing a research paper for school. Being familiar with some of Nee's writings, and being curious about his life in general, I put my research paper on hold in order to read this book. My paper might not end up being as good, but that's ok :)




4. I originally read this book because I didn't know much about Watchman Nee and only knew that he wrote a lot of hymns. However, when I started reading about his life, my respect and awe of him grew so much. His lifestyle is so real and so encouraging. This book was an easy read and I read it in one sitting because it is impossible to put down. While I read this book, I was reminded of Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." By reading about Watchman Nee, I was blessed by the radical lifestyle he lived. He ran the race and persevered in even the most difficult of times and now he is cheering us on in our race to the end! Go and get this book and be inspired and blessed!!



5. The folks I've noticed who command respect across the board are the ones who have a humility beyond what is natural. Mother Teresa, for example, was respected by the good, the bad, and the ugly. (I'm not sure which category I fall into.) Those who know of Watchman Nee, from a fistful of multi-hued denominations, have a deep respect for him as well. He was a man who lived and died for Jesus in China. Nothing fancy, he didn't even like to put a name on his church. He simply loved God and he loved people and they stuck him in a cell for it. This book is in a series of biographies of leaders in the Christian faith, and I was particularly delighted in how well the book was written; I am sometimes suspicious of what appear to be cranked-out, serial books. No fear on this one, the writing was so good I forgot about it and enjoyed the story. I remember one line quoted from a Chinese proverb, which seems to typify the life of Watchman Nee: He who puts his head above the crowd is in danger of decapitation. Watchman Nee was plain bread, the salt of the earth, the genuine article.

5 comments about Reasons to Believe: One Man's Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind.

1. I had completely inappropriate expectations when I found this book - thinking that it was an exploration of rational justifications for the existence of God. It's actually a very personalized examination/expose of Protestant Fundamentalism/Evangelism in the US.
   
   Despite that, I gave Mr Marks a chance and was soon drawn in to his story. Marks has a very good balance of fact and anecdote; and for the most part, the book is well-paced and well-structured. Some of the chapter transitions are awkward, but overall it's very readable. Marks writes with empathy about the folks who shared their faith with him, and it is easy for the reader to appreciate each person's personality and sincerity. Marks exposes his own story gradually, fairly effectively piecing together a picture of who he is and how he's come to this crossroads.
   
   As to the content... as an investigative piece, it's extremely interesting. Marks' background meant that folks opened up to him in a way that they probably would not do for an avowed atheist, hard core skeptic, or journalist. That he chose to collect this information while he was at a point of questioning the existence of his own faith gave him an uncommon opportunity to report from "the inside". He lets each of the faithful do their best to bring him back to the fold, and he presents their position so sympathetically that it's hard to tell which camp he's in for most of the book.
   
   That said, Marks seems to be operating from a problematic premise. He believes that he must make a conscious choice to "believe", and so is compiling worthwhile "reasons to believe." His approach is to explore why some of the most devout Christians in the U.S. believe. Of course, faith seems by definition to not be a rational choice, so what Marks actually has is more like a collection of how these uber-faithful practice their faith, and how it frames their lives. As a guidebook for someone questioning their own faith or lack thereof, I would not recommend this book.
   
   But if you want a non-judgmental, non-confrontational (and therefore, presumably more honest) presentation of how a lot of Protestant Evangelicals are viewing the world, and how they're likely to act on it, this book is totally worth the read.



2. John Marks is very fair, and does a great job in making human those who are religious. He lets them speak, and respects their views entirely. He simply does not buy the message.
   
   The Barna study, something I had not heard of, was very illuminating and thematic throughout. It illustrates the many schisms and types of Christians within Christianity. Most of my family, and my wife's family are Christian. But 20% or 9% of Christians, depending on how you define it, would only say they are nominally Christian. Most Christians in America are tolerant, and their belief in Christianity guides them. They are tolerant and do not wear it on their sleeve. They try to use Christian philosophy, but are not judgmental, and accept, say, homosexuality or do not seem so worried about hell and saving people. Then there are the Christians who condemn everyone, and do not seem to wonder how they are becoming more and more of a minority.
   
   I agree with Marks' conclusions, and thought especially powerful his passage where he compares two ways to value or give purpose to Nikki McDonall's life. She is the missionary who lost her husband and a hand in Iraq. While I think Christians, and religious people gain joy and comfort from their belief. Living for a mythical afterlife is a waste of time, and neutralizes the good a person can do, but also can make others better. It's not universal one way or the other.
   
   Marks' main reason for not believing, namely, the fact God allows atrocity, is something I disagree with. Some Christians defended this by saying God makes up for it in the afterlife, and this has logic. I think the best reason not to buy religion is because they have the imprint of man. This is the case with Zeus or the Sun God, and most people can agree, but it is rather strange why this is not so easy for the masses to see concerning the more widely believed religions.
   
   Marks asks in the opening pages a very good question that most Christians have, and I paraphrase: How can so many people not believe in Christ when the signs are unmistakably clear?
   
   Marks gives a very solid answer.



3. As a lapsed evangelical who has recently left the fold, I'm probably still too close to the subject to be objective about my experience. Indeed, some traumatized former evangelicals, like author Frank Schaeffer, may never be able to write dispassionately about the Church (as demonstrated in his recent book "Crazy for God"). However, John Marks has gotten to the point where he can rationally revisit the evangelical Christianity he abandoned long ago, and in this fine book he takes us along on his journey.
   
   In the introduction an evangelical married couple asks the author if he will be "left behind," an allusion to the popular Christian book series about the End Times. In other words, is Mr. Marks condemned to eternal separation from God? He teases out this question all though "Reasons to Believe," and finally answers it on the last page. But not before we follow him as he visits various churches (mega and otherwise), checks out the Christian music scene and homeschooling movement, considers the possible theological fate of his Jewish wife and gay friend, and reexamines his own past when he was a youthful true believer.
   
   One of the things I appreciated about "Reasons to Believe" was that it lived up to its title. If you read my review of "Crazy for God," you might discern that I'm still a bit sensitive about my former Christian walk, much like someone who has finally left a long-term abusive relationship. However, there had to be some goodness in the Church for me to have stuck around for over twenty years, and Mr. Marks reminded me of that truth. He encounters grieving families who lovingly stick together and retain faith in the face of unexplainable tragedy, mixes with intelligent believers who have a strong sense of community and purpose, discovers ministries that reach out to anyone in need regardless of their belief system, and experiences sublime moments of joyful worship. To this day, I miss these elements of Christianity.
   
   Of course, there had to be reasons to leave as well as reasons to believe, and the author digs into those as well. He uncovers the Church's obsession with sin management and avoiding the appearance of evil, ruminates over the problem of suffering, reveals the persecution of those who don't tow the doctrinal line, and highlights the hypocrisy of leaders who live double lives and can't measure up to their own fire and brimstone sermons. As with me, the doctrine of hell angers the author, especially when family members and close friends would be condemned to eternal suffering and separation from God for no other reason than failing to follow a particular theological bent. I'm with Mr. Marks in my distain for such an infernal idea and I had no problem walking away from this, and the other aforementioned negative aspects, of the Church.
   
   So...will Mr. Marks be "left behind?" At the conclusion of his journey he takes his stand, and it's one that I can empathize with. I recommend reading "Reasons to Believe" along with Frank Schaeffer's somewhat more polemic book "Crazy for God" and "God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer" by Bart D. Ehrman to gain fascinating and controversial insights on faith, doctrine, and Christianity from former evangelicals.



4. After a polite Jehovah's Witness came to our door recently and we politely declined his message, my wife wondered if he thought we'd be damned. John Marks asks himself the same question. The book's subtitle {"One Man's Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind"} indicates his investigation into his teenaged embrace of, his young adult rejection of, and his mature return to investigate those who practice a born-again Christian faith. He holds out, unable to reconcile the demands of submission with the caprices of a god who witnesses abundant evils committed in as well as in spite of a loving god's name.
   
   Powerful themes, and Marks as a veteran journalist takes them on boldly yet sensitively. The book, as he tells us early on, was one he's been waiting his whole life to write, and it shows. As he's only two years younger than me, I admit my own interest piqued as his own tastes in rock and his own pop culture connections often intersected with mine. And, any author who cringes at the thought of a heaven full of music in the key of Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears-- not to mention a preacher's promise of paradise full of ourselves acting like "five year olds"-- gains in credibility as far as I'm concerned. Like him, I favor the sounds and the example of Billy Zoom of X much more!
   
   While the publicity for the book pushes the saved-or-damned conundrum, most of Marks' study's far less dramatic. He's not criticizing the right of people to have a faith that condemns people to hell if they are not baptized and accepting of Jesus as their own savior (he finds such an element, according to the Barna polls he cites, if taken seriously at levels of committment to be only about 7-9% of the U.S.) but the right of such a bloc "to assert their belief as a national religion." (16) "Can a pluralist democracy absorb and support an exclusive, nonpluralistic belief at the heart of its system?" (16) Although the extension of such an argument falls outside the book's scope, the dangers of fundamentalist surety or evangelical righteousness certainly connect with movements far greater in numbers in the rest of the world.
   
   Marks wonders if he's betraying himself if he gives in and returns to the comforting "call" that moved him as a younger man. He weakens if barely, but determines as the narrative progresses to remain true to himself, as a committed secular student of a phenomenon he examines from a skeptical yet respectful distance. His dual identity as one who knows the insider's lingo yet stands apart from accepting it actually increases his ability to talk to believers, who understand that Marks will not distort or misunderstand or betray what they share with him about the challenges of their faith.
   
   His father, when his teen son became "saved," predicted "You just wait. It starts with this, and it'll end up with him not believing in God at all." (230) Marks makes much of his own very comfortable suburban Dallas roots, and shows how his family's roots lie in a mainstream Protestantism which has been eroding under the triple assaults of three disparate movements, the fundamentalists now under retreat, the evangelicals gaining, and the Pentecostals flourishing. His research reminds us that contrary to media stereotypes, fundamentalists and evangelicals remain distinct, and he explains why the latter's more emotional style fits better with the megachurches and outreaches of millennial American attitudes.
   
   His book, however, in following such trends does often bog down in interviews, recounting dutifully conversations with pastors and workers without much verve. Chapters on post-Katrina church efforts, homosexuality, his stint in Germany that led him as a college student away from his faith, the Christian music scene, or the Young Life youth movement are all informative, but rarely rise above that function. There's a lot of quotes that remind you more of an extended feature by a reporter in a newspaper series rather than a book that ties its threads together more tightly. Towards the end, a few of these strands turn up again and connect, but much of the pace slackens for long stretches, dulling interest and goading you as a reader to wait for Marks to recount his own story to perk up the cultural or personal relevance again. Too many of these pages kept me restless, and chapters often end suddenly or on the off-note of hesitation. He speaks often of his own doubts and uncertainties, past and present, and here's when he's strongest. The book combines reportage on the religious scene with some history, some sociology, and some theology, and ultimately, Marks uses the book to work out his own guilt at "losing" his faith and reclaiming his humanist creed, shaky a substitute it may be, as more honest for him.
   
   "I had 'lost' my faith, in that I had wanted to keep it, but couldn't sustain it. The world laid out by the Bible, the reality of it, just seemed to nullify with the years, taking one blow after another till I could no longer hold on. I had seen human cruelty that sank my ability to buy the idea of a sovereign ruler of the universe. The faith didn't help me to understand; it closed off avenues for knowledge." (252) In his interviews with such Christians as Niki missionizing in Iraq, Colonel Birdwell surviving 9/11 at the Pentagon, Daniel at Biola, or his guide Don, Marks takes great care to present these people as having earned our respect, as being tested greatly by the God they love, while Marks insists upon his own autonomy from their faith that impels them to draw him into their closed circle of the elect, according to their inerrant reading of chapter and verse and their strict standard of salvation.
   
   Finally, as when Marks places his own existentialist (he does admire Kafka's "The Castle") views against those of a believer who saw her husband and her fellow missionaries die in Iraq on a clandestine missionary foray, he arrives at a irrevocable truth both Christians and humanists may shrink from, even though it is the logical outcome. Honesty demands he says what he thinks. Niki's sacrifice of her husband and brethren in spreading news of God gains her a reward in heaven. As Marks does not believe in God, he will drop into everlasting torment. Or, she's deluded, having gone from her dream into reality-- a hostile land where her good news was despised and her friends and spouse were murdered. Her loss remains unredeemable, her sacrifice is based on a lie.
   
   Marks concludes: "These two interpretations are incompatible. They are mutually opposed translations of the same original text and cannot be squared. Their two hells cannot coexist. If one is true, the other must be false. Or both are false, and the truth of existence lies elsewhere. Theoretically, we are free to choose, But I suspect that Niki McDonnall will stick by her story. The question is whether I stick by mine." (197)
   
   Marks raises many such uncomfortable issues. Those on homosexuality, women who fear men, and roles of youth at camps all could have earned even more attention. Most of all, I would have liked more discussion about the ties between evangelicals and Jews. As Marks' wife and son are Jewish, Marks' own consideration of his eternal fate intersects intimately with his family. This poignant and disturbing relevance of the talk of dispensations and being "under heavy conviction" and being left behind at the Rapture before meriting, if one holds out, endless suffering certainly deepen the impact of Marks' study. He holds back somewhat, I sense, from fully delving into the complicity of some Christians with the cause of Zion as the manifestation of the End Times simply because the realities that such alliances mask prove too eerie.
   
   A few errors have been remarked upon by other Amazon reviewers. I add that Texas "Catholic" University's likely from the context of its graduate before and after college to be "Christian;" Meister Eckhardt does not have an "e" after the "k;" on an "October day" in Prague's Jewish cemetery it'd be impossible that a "Jewish holiday, Sukkoth or Purim, had shut the place down." (352) The former commemoration, yes; the latter feast that takes place in January or February, no!
   
   Marks rarely indulges in his own philosophizing, being at heart a direct writer for all his learning, but he hits the target: pulling at our loyalties are a pair of "great forces." Memory tugs us back "to our childhood, our roots, our homeland, our God. Desire flings us forward, to our future, our mate, our children, and, sometimes, to our death." He fights reductionism, but stays "certain that every human being lives on some kind of the line between these two poles and finds a balance, or doesn't, at one end of the other of a spectrum." (266)
   
   He wonders in the final pages-- looking ahead past the 2008 election and a shift away from the "politics of faith" at least in the White House-- if such a desire as many have for the apocalypse filters into a "death wish for the world." He ponders evangelical panic at the declining acceptance of "bible-true" faith collides with technologies alternately denigrated by many Christians and embraced by many "dispensationalists" who wish to use them to hasten annihilation by "spiritual warfare." The victims of such divinely-guided wrath (nothing personal as his "saved" neighbors assure him), would be the likes of Marks, his family, and the majority of the people left behind on earth.



5. John Marks is an entertaining, readable author. As an evangelical I truly enjoyed his fresh perspective on my faith. Reasons to Believe is an anecdotal story of Marks' personal journey as he re-investigates the beliefs of his youth. The stories he tells are at times nostalgic, horrifying, solemn or idiosyncratic, but they are consistently interesting. He has a much deeper, clearer insight into the evangelical mind and evangelicals' interaction with modern American culture than I expected to find. His stories about his youth and his extended family are fascinating. The sketches of the individuals in the book piqued my curiosity, and often made me wish that I knew them personally (I do know the McWhinneys personally).
   
   One of the most surprising facets of the book is what Marks' does not get right. I attend Denton Bible Church, one of the churches that Marks' highlights in his book. He recollects that on the Sunday he attended our church the pastor Tommy Nelson "stepped forward in a long maroon robe". I have attended Denton Bible since 1992 and I have not once seen Tommy wear a robe; including the Sunday that Marks' cites. I remember that Sunday clearly because of the announcement of the death of the McWhinneys son. Did Marks' simply remember this incorrectly? He does not seem to be the type of author to get his facts twisted so I am really at a loss to know what to make of it.
   
   Marks' also gets some of the scriptural details wrong. Most notably in his chapter "Submission" he writes, "King David's father Saul refused to submit, and he was utterly destroyed". This is not a minor detail to get wrong because major portions of several Old Testament books detail the life of David: that he was the youngest son of Jesse, that he was sent to serve in Saul's court, that he was best friends with Saul's son Jonathon, that he was given Saul's daughter, Michal, in marriage, that he spent years running from Saul as Saul sought to kill him, and finally that Saul and all of his son's were killed in battle against the Philistines. Apparently, neither Marks' nor his editors are familiar with any of these stories.
   
   Marks' reacts at a visceral level to the evangelical position on homosexuality. He has a very good friend that is gay so the issue is very personal to him. Still, I was surprised at the amount of space in the book devoted to the topic. Homosexuality is obviously a huge divider in our society. Both sides are too quick to use inflammatory rhetoric and too slow to understand the other. I wonder if Marks' ultimate rejection of Christianity doesn't stem as much from this issue as from his professed trouble with a God who allows bad things to happen.
   
   Of the people that Marks' profiles in his book, the one that seemed to make the biggest impression on him is David Barton. Barton and his organization, Wall Builders, preserve documentation showing the religious influence on the founding and early years of our nation. Barton apparently travels far and wide educating individuals and showing the physical documents that prove the presence of faith in early America. Marks' believes that Barton is influential in the evangelical community, and fears that influence. Marks' fears faith based politics, "not only because I know that enormous numbers of Americans will never, ever accept such a politics, just as I know that these conservative Christians have not and will not accept a fully secularized politics. And this realization brings me to the heart of my dread, that an incompatibility in the body politic of such grave proportions will only ever resolve itself through a massive act of violence that will make any talk of spiritual warfare seem quaint indeed." Wow! Of what kind of violence does he think evangelicals are capable? This just floors me.
   
   While Marks' journey examines many facets of modern evangelicalism, he fails to come to terms with the person of Jesus Christ. Did his search have any hope of success at all? Reasons to Believe brings to mind the medieval philosopher Anselm's formulation, "Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this, too, I believe, that, unless I first believe, I shall not understand." Ultimately, Marks' fails to believe and he fails to understand.

2 comments about St. Rose of Lima : Patroness of the Americas.

1. This is a beautiful and inspiring book! Read this book and you will change your life!! Saint Rose of Lima is a holy saint who will help us all in our daily lives in order that we may one day attain Heaven as she does now!! Please read!!!!!!



2. Read this book this saint is a very good saint

No comments about Looking Before and After: Testimony and the Christian Life (Stob Lectures 2006).

3 comments about Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons, and Feasts.

1. Not all saints were doers of miracles, or were martyrs,but simply believed and attempted to live as Christ would have us all do. Ordinary people living ordinary lives, unknown, unrecognized.
   
   Gives great hope to us all.



2. I'm happy with this book. I can find out about the Saints whose names adorn churches, etc. in my area. I also found a very hard to find Saint in this book. It is a great book to have as a reference if you are Catholic or just curious.



3. Fr. Foley's "Saint of the Day" is on the whole a faithful, well-written collection of brief essays concerning saints and feast days. Each entry is approximately two pages, and includes a "Comment" by the author and a "Quote" from a source like a document from Vatican II.
   
   It is only in the author's comments that things occasionally go awry, generally due to the author's somewhat progressive sensibilities. For instance, St. Thomas Aquinas is awkwardly described as a "towering example of ... inclusiveness." Likewise, the entry for Ss. Perpetua and Felicity compares their martyrdom to the murder of Anne Frank during the Holocaust. Yet young Anne wasn't killed for her beliefs, but for her "race"; Nazis were quite happy to kill Jewish converts to Christianity. That doesn't make Anne's death any less tragic, but it does make the comparison rather forced.
   
   To his credit, however, Fr. Foley also includes a reference to Vatican II's call for Gregorian Chant and polyphony in his entry for St. Cecilia. This martyr from the Roman era is the patron saint of musicians and a favorite of liturgically-orthodox Catholics. Similarly, he includes a generous quotation from G.K. Chesterton in the entry for St. John Bosco.
   
   That feast days like the Presentation, the Annunciation, and the Most Holy Name of Jesus are also included makes "Saint of the Day" even more useful for liturgical catechesis. Fr. Foley's prose is suitable for high school students and adults, and the book is a good choice for a Confirmation gift.

3 comments about Living Faith: How Faith Inspires Social Justice.

1. Therapist have an insatiable habit of attempting to bring the one being counseled to a point where they revisit the primary emotion behind the secondary emotion that tipped them into therapy. In this same vein Curtiss De Young points one on a path of discovering faith that inspires social justice by illuminating the deepest passion that drove three mystic-activist, in three different eras, on three different continents to be agents of reconciliation for social justice. De Young defines mystic-activist as the person who sees clearly the causes and implications of injustice and oppression, and combined with their compulsive quest for the divine, their activism makes its way into the world as a by-product of their deep faith.
   
   De Young uses the metaphor of spirit of revolution to weave the stories of Suu Kyi, Malcolm X, and Bonhoeffer together. Aung San Suu Kyi envisioned a "spirit of revolution" where human rights would be set free. Malcolm X claimed that the proper solution to world governments that abuses power by debilitating the spirit and soul of humanity is to give birth to governments guided by a "religion of the spirit." Also, Bonhoeffer, who dealt specifically with the plight of the Jew, based his "revolution" on a reconfigured view of God the Son, the second person of the trinity, saying, "An expulsion of the Jews from the west must necessarily bring with it the expulsion of Christ. For Jesus Christ was a Jew."
   
   With ample story and narrative interpretation De Young leaves the reader spellbound, awaiting the next compelling story of faith inspiring social justice. In the epilogue De Young challenges "those who seek to link the worlds of activism and contemplative faith to build more bridges of reconciliation across the chasm of religious division." Such an embodiment of reconciliation "may be our only hope for greater peace in the world."
   
   Ultimately the commonality in these three stories is the focus on the primary concern of any who seek to do social justice - human rights. May we have the resolve to be as pointed in our efforts at recognizing from the bottom up that every human being has inalienable rights, that the revolution required to unleash these rights is a revolution of the spirit, and the duty of all humanity is treating oneself as another.



2. Written by Christian ethicist Curtiss Paul DeYoung (Professor of Reconciliation Studies, Bethel University at St. Paul, Minnesota) Living Faith: How Faith Inspires Social Justice is a remarkable examination of how religious belief can fuel a lifelong passion dedicated to social justice, as exemplified by Mohandas Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., among other remarkable figures. Chapters discuss worldview and perception from the margins of society, how mystic faith can push an individual to transcend conventional boundaries, the ethics of stirring people up in a call to revolution, and much more. "The spirit of prophecy shapes the ethics of the revolution. The authenticity of any new society is built on the foundations of the ethics of that revolution." A welcome examination of motivating spiritual principles and moral values that push both leaders and followers to work for social change.



3. This is one of the very best books I have ever read on the relationship between faith and social justice. Through the lives of Bonhoeffer, Malcom X, Aung San Suu Kyi and many others, this book shows how a spirited belief in a better world for all can be a foundation for lives of justice. It is in plain english and very readable. It has short sections in each chapter, so it can be a great source for daily reflection.

3 comments about A Recipe for Hope: Stories of Transformation by People Struggling with Homelessness.

1. Reviewed By Shawn Remfrey
   
   This incredible book should be a staple in every American household. Karen Skalitzky is a volunteer at both Inspiration Cafe and Living Room Cafe in Chicago-the cornerstone of Chicago's ten-year plan to end homelessness.
   
   As she began to get to know the patrons, she began interviewing them, beginning with `What does it mean to tell your story?' and ending in wisdom. The book is from those interviews with every-day people who have lost their homes, and sometimes families, to bad decisions. You'll keep thinking: That could happen to me!
   
   You might first think this book is going to be really depressing-stories about drug addicts, alcoholics, and people who just don't care about their lives. Instead you find a treasury of wisdom and knowledge from people that learned things the hard way-or bad circumstance. A few were involved in drugs and/or alcohol, but that wasn't the beginning for them.
   
   People from all walks of life have become homeless. One successful man decided to open a business with a buddy, and with one wrong choice, he was on the fast track to homelessness. Another story is of a top executive for the Kraft. While employed, he directed the funds to help feed the hungry and homeless, but he never felt it was enough. At retirement he found humanity that was missing at the Inspiration Café.
   
   Every interview is a success story-but not on the first try. They have all learned incredible secrets of life that each and everyone needs to know. The most important thing that I learned, is that homelessness can happen to anyone at any time-even me! Though it is difficult to get past the prejudices that we were born with, a homeless person isn't necessarily lazy or drunk or stoned. Often they are just down on their luck and need a hand to get back on their feet.
   
   Ms. Skalitzky wrote this book to share this wealth of knowledge. Those interviewed wanted to share what they've learned in the hopes of helping others not make the same mistakes. For each book that is sold a percentage goes to Inspiration Corporation that encompasses Inspiration Cafe, Living Room Cafe, and Cafe Too.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: This book is insightful, well-constructed, truthful and eye-opening.



2. Like all the books I review, I consider this one to be well written and contain a message suitable for the intended audience. Beyond that, "A Recipe for Hope" seems so important I'd like to buy the world a copy. First, the oral histories really "put a face on" the homeless and those who serve them. Author Karen M. Skalitzky is a teacher with a master's degree in literacy education. She developed this project after volunteering at two programs sponsored by Inspiration Corporation, a Chicago non-profit that serves the homeless. She tape recorded many of the stories at the organization's Cafe Too, a public restaurant where menus, preparation, and service are handled by volunteers and members of the culinary training program. All of those who chose to be interviewed have connections to Inspiration Corp. programs, and most are current or former clients.
   
   The foreword and introduction contain some statistics on homelessness and background on the service providers mentioned. Lisa Nigro, the former Chicago police officer who got started 16 years ago, delivering sandwiches and coffee from a child's wagon, tells her story early in the book. Eventually she and her husband accepted an invitation to set up a "Cafe" in Russia. Jenny Urban is another staffer who spoke with Skalitzky. Urban graduated from culinary school, moved to Chicago in pursuit of a restaurant career, and ended up as food services manager at a center for women who are homeless before she became director of the internship program at Cafe Too. These staffers are united in the understanding that anyone can become homeless; everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity; and when properly designed and managed, services to the homeless can make a significant difference.
   
   Their philosophy is borne out in the words of those represented in "A Recipe for Hope"--grandparents, singles, children, couples, professionals, laborers, immigrants, educated, mentally and physically disabled, addicted, convicted, whatever stripe you want to apply. The sentiment that most represents my feeling after reading these stories is similar to that expressed by the four-year veteran staffer, Rian Wanstreet, just 25, whose interview closed with these words: "I'm going to talk about this place for the rest of my life."



3. If you ever passed a homeless person on the street and wondered what his story was, this is the book for you. The author draws back the curtain on several clients of Chicago's Inspiration Corporation, where she is a volunteer. Because the people trust her, they share their stories with startling frankness, which is very moving. It's amazing how filled with hope the people in this book are. After a while, you begin to see patterns, and draw some broader conclusions about homelessness.

5 comments about H.L. Mencken on Religion.

1. Even a cursory reading of this collection reveals interesting nuances to Mencken's views on religion that both fans and foes may have missed. It is soon evident that Mencken was more of a religious skeptic or agnostic than the atheist he was frequently taken to be. He certainly did not believe in a personal god, and believed that positive evidence for the existance of a god is unlikely to appear. Nontheless, he was willing to grant the bare possibility of a god. It would seem that like Sartre's grandmother, Mencken's scepticism kept him from being a thoroughgoing atheist.
   
   What really stirred Mencken's bile was the behavior of much of God's fan club here on Earth, many of whom he experenced as being at least intellectually dishonest (if not worse) and dishonorable. Mixed with this was a kind of bemused wonderment at the gullibility of the bulk of his fellow Americans, who seemed ever eager "to believe that Jonah swallowed the whale, or vice-versa." His early career as a Baltimore newspaper reporter observing the Christian nuisances pestering the skid-row bums (see his "Christmas Story"), 'working girls', saloon habitues, and all-around plain folk seems to have ground his rapier to a permanent sharp edge. Was he fair? I don't think he ever pretended he was. His mission, as he saw it, was to apply the lash of verifiable truth to the backs of pious frauds and their dupes. They were perfectly free to reply (and they did) using whatever sort of arguments or language they pleased.
   
   Still, he was not an "anthopophagous atheist of the sort who goes around scaring old ladies", as he once put it. In tones that curiously echo Santayana, he expresses fulsome admiration for the Catholic Church, finding the 'poetry' of the Mass to be enchantingly beautiful; and Church insistance that doctrine was for Rome to decide to be shrewd policy. More interestingly, for a man reputed to be a sour misanthrope, he formed real and lasting friendships with clergy such as Bishop James Cannon of the United Methodist Church--an ardent Prohibitionist! (Normally Mencken consigned Prohibitionists to the lowest circle of his Inferno.)
   
   If Mencken was neither terribly original nor especially profound on the subject of religion; still he--like Mark Twain--put the case for doubt in a frequently hilarious and unforgettable fashion that still serves to kick open otherwise seemingly-closed arguments and minds. This is probably a greater service to civilization than any number of tomes written by philosophers that fell dead-born from the press.



2. If we spoke of blacks and Jews like the other commentators speak of Christians, they would no doubt be blacklisted and widely renounced. As it is, Mencken offers nothing to the intellectual study of religion and philosophy except for an eloquent way to say he "doesn't like it." None the less, it would appear from the reviews of others that if you agree with Mencken's athiest world-view, you will indeed enjoy having him fuel you fire. For me, I like a little more philosophy and a little less rhetoric.



3. Considering most of the articles were written in the 1920s, one is shocked by how timely, fitting and appropriate many of his comments are. The rise of fundie thinking at the turn of last century lasted until the Scopes trial - which is brilliantly covered in this book. (Mencken attended the trial, and covered it with scathing wit) Then, it collapsed. it took the fundies until the late '80s, the 1980s that is, to return to their destructive power that they again hold in our society.
   
   This collection is entertaining, amusing and to some extent, it makes one angry. Why? because we are having to battle with half-wits, nit-wits, baptists, and other witless religions as they try to force their ideas onto others, just as they tried and failed before. Mencken provides an interesting slice of history, as well as a wonderful view of faith healing, the inability of the fundies to hold a rational thought and the dangers of religious leaders impacting political and social policy.
   
   I would strongly recommend this book for anyone thinking about home schooling or considering sending their poor offspring to a religious school. This book will help make up your mind.



4. An excellent read if you are looking for confirmation of the fact that all religious extremists are insane. This would, of course, include Muslim as well as Bible Belt loonies. Mr. Mencken was a long ways ahead of his time in recognising this and savages ALL religious dingbats, home grown or imported.



5. I've read numerous Mencken anthologies, and I think this one is the best. His commentaries on fundamentalist attacks on both evolution and the wall between church and state are as relevant now as they were when he wrote them in the 1920s and 1930s. Moreover, as anyone who's ever read Mencken can attest, the man was a brilliant stylist and frequently hysterically funny. Oh, how the man could write! In contrast to the intellectually lazy media hacks of today, Mencken is sound and fury signifying something.

1 comments about A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People.

1. This is not a complete story, not a complete documentary, not a complete analysis, not a complete history, not a complete anything. The author doesn't seem to have a purpose except to write a book about the Karen people. It includes brief excerpts from some of their history; it includes brief descriptions about some of their culture; it includes brief descriptions about some Karen people and some people who work with and for them.
   
   It's not even a summary of history or culture or their situation. It's merely brief snapshots of parts, and like the blindman who merely feels the elephant's trunk, one cannot get a complete grasp on what is the Karen people.
   
   Nevertheless, these snapshots are awesome and tremendously interesting. The author paints the Karen people as a very interesting minority culture in Burma. It leaves the reader with an admiration if not love of these people and a desire to know more but also a desire to visit this land.
   
   So many history books are written by the powerful and tell the story of the powerful. We know about Napolean, Washington, kings and queens. This book tells the story of regular old folks who live, love and unfortunately suffer in a beautiful land.

1 comments about Basho's Journey: The Literary Prose Of Matsuo Basho.

1. This is one of the latest books out on the travel journals of Matsuo Basho and this lovely book contains all five journals.The translator David Landis Barnhill has arranged the journals in chronological order to show how Basho's writing developed over the years.The journals included are 'Journey of Bleached Bones in a Field' [Nozarashi Kiko], 'Kashima Journal' [Kashima Kiko], 'Knapsack Notebook' [Oi No Kobumi], 'Sarashina Journal' [Sarashima Kiko], and 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' [Oku No Hosomichi]. Basho's 'Saga Diary' [Saga Nikki] is also included along with a massive 80 of Basho's haibun (short poetic prose pieces that include haiku) and over 320 of Basho's haiku are scattered throughout the book, which also includes maps of each of the five journeys and extensive notes and a glossary.