Recap (August 22-28)

Book Reviews:

• American Gospel by Jon Meacham
  

  Rating: ****
  Category:History of America’s Civil Religion
  Synopsis: Meacham explores America’s civil religion through the words and writings of the Founding Fathers and other American leaders
  Recommendation: If you like history or political topics, you’ll like this title. It’s quite well written.

  Read the rest of my review.

• The Myth of a Christian Nation by Greg Boyd
  

  Rating: **** stars
  Category: Religion and Politics
  Synopsis: Boyd argues that “the quest for political power is destroying the church.”
  Recommendation: Many may find this book offensive (I know I was definitely tempted to take offense)–but I think Boyd’s thesis is certainly worth grappling with. Christians (particularly those who are interested in politics) would do well to read this book and wrestle through the ideas found within.

  Read the rest of my review.

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  

  Rating: 5 stars
  Category: Juvenile Fiction
  Synopsis: Scout and Finch learn about life, justice, mercy, and racism when their father is appointed to defend an unjustly accused black man.
  Recommendation: An absolutely amazing treatment of the topics of human dignity, justice, and mercy–without ever being pedantic. This is a must read.

  Read the rest of my review.

Photo Albums:

• Baptisms (Kayla, Caleb, Gabrielle, Ben, Brandon, August 15)
  My photos were of pretty poor quality, but I figure something is better than nothing, right?
• Swim Party (Family and Friends, July)
  

Books for the TBR list:

• The Baseball Codes by Jason Turbow
  A history of baseball and the written and unwritten codes that govern it. Baseball is my favorite sport (although I’m still not a hard-core fan) and this book looks like an interesting intro to the stories behind baseball. (Recommended by Seth Heasley)

• Escape by Carolyn Jessop
  A memoir from a woman who escaped from the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints, a Mormon sect. This sounds like a hard read, but one that might be good. (Recommended by S. Krishna)

News to take note of:

• Cleveland goes fascist with “smart” trash cans (HT: Instapundit)
• Catholic Dinesh D’Souza appointed president of King’s College, New York
  Carl Trueman has some interesting reflections on what this says about King’s College’s real priorities. Ostensibly, this Protestant/evangelical school seeks to “[train] young people in terms of a Christian worldview and then [send] them out to be cultural leaders.” But D’Souza, as a Catholic, does not hold to many of the central doctrinal tenets of the Protestant/evangelical worldview. This suggests that the school’s true priorities have more to do with conservative politics than with Biblical worldview.
  HT: Tim Challies

Videos worth seeing:

• “Everything in the Bible is basically about Me.” (No, not me. Him!)
  
  HT: Justin Taylor

Related to previous posts:

On similar lines with my “Heresy Hunter” case study (Part 1 and Part 2)

• Kevin DeYoung continues talking about the “Ministry of Rebuke”
  • When to Rebuke
  • How to Rebuke
• Sandra Peoples talks about What “Judge Not” really means