J's Pages

An interesting little Perry Mason mystery. A businessman is murdered and the police suspect his wife, her sister, and her lover. Two of them are Perry's clients, so it can't be them. Is it the third suspect? Or is the case even more convoluted? It's an entertaining and quick read.

Check it out.
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Labels: CheckItOut, ErleStanleyGardner, PerryMason

// posted by John @ 9:09 PM 0 Comments

Labels: Discworld, OnMyShelf, TerryPratchett

// posted by John @ 7:45 PM 0 Comments

by the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Board for Communication Services

Back in the 1980s, there was a series of coffee table books called A Day in the Life of _____. I think they started with Australia, but the series ended up showcasing a number of countries. The concept was that a bunch of photographers would go out on a designated day and capture shots of what was going on in that particular country. Well, in 1996, The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod borrowed the idea to commemorate their 150th anniversary and put out this volume. (I figure they had to do a week instead of a day because if you only did a day, you'd either have to pick Sunday and have 212 pages of people attending church, or you'd pick another day and you'd instead have photos of pastors working in their offices.)

I didn't think much of the book at the time. Twenty-some years later, I read through the book again. Although I'm a bit less scornful of the book now, I still found it lacking. In theory, it could have been a more interesting book if the editors had assigned photographers to capture certain events or ministries. Instead, they put out the call to any and all photographers to send in photos from the week. Perusing the result is kind of like looking through a friend's photo album--a collection of family snapshots. You might recognize a face or two, but it's mostly a bunch of strangers. Of course, a family album would be more interesting, as you usually see a bit of historical progression. Unlike the books that inspire it, the LCMS doesn't have the same variety of people and places as a whole country. Lutheran school kids in Florida weren't that much different from the kids in Nebraska. A home Bible study in New York wasn't substantially different than one in Seattle. 

waiting room material
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Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial

// posted by John @ 6:04 PM 0 Comments

by Gibson Winter

When I was reading the section about white southern churches in the Civil Rights Era in When Heaven and Earth Collide, I was reminded of this book that was sitting on my shelf. Since it's from the same era--1962, to be exact--I figured I'd dust it off and read it again to get a first hand account of "white flight". The Suburban Captivity of the Churches is a look at the causes and consequences of the relocation of urban Protestant congregations to the suburbs. Reading it on the heels of reading When Heaven and Earth Collide, I was first struck by the differences. Dr. Winter writes for an educated audience, and the book first came across as a dry sociology study. But as the book progressed, Dr. Winter's pastoral concern for the people affected by this movement began to show through. Now, almost 60 years after it was written, this book has indeed become a book of history. But some institutions change slowly and I was able to recognize aspects of the book not only in the memory of the church I grew up in, but also my congregation today. I found the book still worth reading. 

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Labels: OnMyShelf

// posted by John @ 6:03 PM 0 Comments

by Alan Cross

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
--Matthew 23:29-31, ESV

I picked up this book to find out: "What the hell went wrong with them?" Pastor Cross looks at the history of racism in the American south and tries to answer that question. The "them" in this case is the protestant churches of the old South. How could a people professing that Jesus died for all--that he was gathering all people to himself--perpetuate and even promote a system of inequality, oppression, exploitation and violence? The short answer was that "they" were idolaters. "They" corrupted the church of Jesus Christ with the values of Greek philosophy, personal well-being, and plain ol' greed.

Good to know. That explained to me the "them" of the Old South and the "them" who seem to be carrying on that racist, or at least exploitative, legacy today. But then Pastor Cross goes on to ask if "we" are any better. The American Church is no stranger, alas, to self interest, the preservation of the status quo, or the desire to bless values that do not flow out of scripture. Any time we indulge those desires, we take a step off of the road Jesus trod. The road to Heaven.

In the end, Pastor Cross doesn't give a solution to finally putting racism behind us. We live in a broken world beyond our ability as mere human beings to repair. But by following Christ, we can be that place where Heaven and Earth collide and try to push back against the evils of this world.

It's now the latest book on my shelf.
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Labels: OnMyShelf

// posted by John @ 3:25 PM 0 Comments