Pam and I were out running some errands just before dinner. We stopped at a light behind a panel van for a firm that installs wood floors. But in addition to just putting down basic flooring they'll do "special designs and boarders."Is that because they put boards on the floor? Or do they come live with you?
Marijuana providers in California are unionizing. The Teamsters will represent them. Something about that seems sadly appropriate.
Between schedule issues and flat tires I only rode two days last week, Monday and Wednesday. So I decided to count it as one of my "fallback weeks." Today I did 30 and was pleasantly surprised at my pace. Finished with an average of 17.1 mph, and wasn't really paying attention to my speed. For distance rides I'm typically around 16.5 mph. So maybe there's something to this business of taking extra rest occasionally.
It was warm. Third day of record-setting highs. We're all ready for some cooler weather.
I felt like an idiot today. OK, not really, but I think I was supposed to.
Today I had a conversation with a Christian who asked me if I'd read Book X by Christian Author Y. Nope. "OK, how about his Book W?" Nope. "Well have you read Book A by Christian Author B?" Sorry, not that one either.
The truth is I don't read a lot of books compared to some. My last read was actually a re-read of To Kill a Mockingbird. The two reads before that were both sports books. Before that I read another couple of classics. But mostly I read TIME and WORLD, and online news sites. The "Christian" reading I do is in the Bible and in my commentaries.
Part of it is that I dislike much of what passes itself off as Christian writing these days. Perhaps I'm overly critical, but Christians are not immune to the cult of personality. Like others in the business, Christian publishers have a very tight bottom line. They simply can't afford to publish a book by someone nobody has heard of, no matter how good it is, when they have Famous Pastor/Author ____ under contract for one book per year, knowing that he's good for another best seller. That's why you see so many books by the same few authors on the shelves of Christian bookstores.
Hint #1: when the author's name is as prominent on the book's front cover as the title you can figure out where the publisher figures to cover his margin.
Hint #2: if the author's picture is on the front cover it's all about them.
I don't mean it to sound self-righteous but I've got all I can do to read and learn the Bible. I value the books I have in my library, but it's dominated by critical commentaries and language tools. I've read a lot of C.S. Lewis over the years and I've learned a lot from books I used as texts for teaching ministries studies classes. I think I've read almost everything in Multnomah's "Critical Concern Series" and "All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes" by Myers is really good. It'll make you think!
But right now, when it comes time to learn about God, what he's doing in the world and wants to be doing in me I'm going to focus on reading what he said in his book. In research they call it a "primary source."
IMHO
2 comments:
Those same two rules (Name and Picture on the cover) hold true for church advertisements. If the newspaper ad dedicates more space to the pastor(s)' picture and/or name - you know all you need to know about the focus of the church. I like our ads!
A few years ago, I went to a "revival" at the US Airways arena, and of course the "headliner" was a big-named Texas pastor. It was lovely music and a pretty watered-down message. I got one of his books at a big rummage sale for a buck or two, read the first few pages and was disgusted! Mike and I both decided his book sounded a lot like 'greediness' and put it down. This was before I'd heard of the "health and wealth" type of Christianity. Needless to say, I have a ton of 'those' books on my shelf, collecting dust.
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