Month: June 2015

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Marriage and the Constitution: What the Court Said and Why It Got It Wrong

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This is the best article-length critique of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision I have read. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges is a significant setback for all Americans who believe in the Constitution, the rule of law, democratic self-government, and marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The ruling is as clear an example of judicial activism as we’ve had in a generation. Nothing in the Constitution justified the redefinition of marriage by judges. The Court simply imposed its judgment about a policy matter that the Constitution left to the American people and their elected representatives. In doing so, … Continue reading Marriage and the Constitution: What the Court Said and Why It Got It Wrong

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Review of ‘The Emotionally Healthy Leader’ by Peter Scazzero

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Peter Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015). Hardcover | Kindle In 1993, I quit my job as an associate pastor before my senior pastor could fire me. I hadn’t begun teaching heterodox doctrine or engaged in a sexual affair or some other moral failure. No, I had vociferously challenged the “seeker-sensitive” direction he was taking the church. As a 24-year-old seminary student, I felt I knew a lot more about ministry than my pastor did, and I wasn’t hesitant to download my … Continue reading Review of ‘The Emotionally Healthy Leader’ by Peter Scazzero

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Review of ‘Sharpe’s Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803’ by Bernard Cornwell

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Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803 (New York: HarperCollins, 1998). Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle Midway through reading Sharpe’s Tiger, the first volume (chronologically) in Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series, I hurriedly ordered the second volume for two-day delivery from Amazon. I am a series reader, and this clearly is a series to be read. It follows the exploits of Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British Army, during the era of the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe’s Tiger was set in India in 1799 and focused on the siege of Seringapatam in the spring … Continue reading Review of ‘Sharpe’s Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803’ by Bernard Cornwell

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Review of ‘Sharpe’s Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799’ by Bernard Cornwell

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Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799 (New York: HarperCollins, 1997). Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle Nearly ten years ago, for reasons I don’t remember, I started reading Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels. Set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, the novels follow the exploits of Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, his ship’s surgeon and best friend. Hearing of my interest, a friend recommended I read Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe novels, which are set in the same era but tell the story of the conflict from the point of view … Continue reading Review of ‘Sharpe’s Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799’ by Bernard Cornwell

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Review of ‘W Is for Wasted’ by Sue Grafton

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Sue Grafton, W Is for Wasted (New York: Putnam, 2013). Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle To be honest, I don’t remember how I learned about Sue Grafton’s series of Kinsey Millhone mysteries or when I first read them. I do know this, however: I’ve read them all and loved every one. I typically start and finish a novel within a 24-hour period. For me, any mystery that keeps me turning pages is a good mystery. By that standard, the latest installment in Grafton’s long-running series is a good mystery. In W Is for Wasted, Kinsey learns about two murders: a … Continue reading Review of ‘W Is for Wasted’ by Sue Grafton

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Review of ‘Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias’ by George Yancey

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George Yancey, Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2015). Paperback | Kindle Christianophobia can be defined as “an irrational animosity towards or hatred of Christians, or Christianity in general.” Rupert Shortt used the term to describe the persecution of Christians around the world.[1] In his new book, George Yancey uses it to describe animus against Christians in the United States. Yancey is professor of sociology at the University of North Texas. In Hostile Environment, he draws on research about Christianophobia published in So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in America, … Continue reading Review of ‘Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias’ by George Yancey

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The Art of Dadliness: What my foster daughters taught me about being a father

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On Dec. 13, 2013, Greene County Children’s Division woke my wife and me out of our lazy, Saturday-morning slumber and asked if we would like to provide foster care for two children. For months, we had prepared for this very moment—attending intensive training, completing multipage questionnaires, getting fingerprinted and finally receiving our foster care license. Our 5-year-old son was excited too. As an only child, he could not wait to meet his live-in playmates. We had even purchased a bunk bed for his room, expecting that we would be providing care for a similarly aged boy. Greene County offered us … Continue reading The Art of Dadliness: What my foster daughters taught me about being a father

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You Will Be Assimilated | The Weekly Standard

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Here’s your controversial post of the day, courtesy of Jonathan V. Last: …the same-sex marriage movement is interested in a great deal more than just the freedom to form marital unions. It is also interested, quite keenly, in punishing dissenters. But the ambitions of the movement go further than that, even. It’s about revisiting legal notions of freedom of speech and association, constitutional protections for religious freedom, and cultural norms concerning the family. And most Americans are only just realizing that these are the societal compacts that have been pried open for negotiation. You Will Be Assimilated | The Weekly … Continue reading You Will Be Assimilated | The Weekly Standard

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Review of ‘America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation’ by Grant Wacker

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Grant Wacker, America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2014). Hardcover | Kindle [NOTE: This review originally appeared in the spring 2015 issue of Enrichment.] America’s Pastor is not a conventional biography of Billy Graham. … Continue reading Review of ‘America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation’ by Grant Wacker