There is an old maxim: Going to church won't make you Christian any more than going to the garage will make you car.

This book takes that one step further, showing that even those who go to Church with zeal, work with fervor, and strive to be good Christians, often put their works ahead of God. It's a good study of the effects of becoming more goal oriented than your spirituality can handle.

The writing is good, the chapter divisions are well placed, and it makes for thought-provoking reading for any serious disciple of the Living God. Give it a read!

I am ten years old, and I love "Selah of the Summit" because it creates a whole world that I can see in my mind. It is exciting. The mountains are beautiful, and Selah is brave to leave the hot valley and climb them. A great bedtime story!

Lloyd Preston Terrell and Karen Williams have drawn on the prayers and the prayer concerns of the African-American community to create a book that guides our prayers, offers us Scripture, quotations from African-Americans, photographs, and space to write our own prayers, prayer concerns, and answers to our prayers.

The book is based on monthly themes: January-Prayers for the Soul, February-Prayers for the Church, March-Prayers for the Nation, September-Prayers for the Educational System. (The prayer concern for March 3--as I compose this--is for Law- and policy-makers, a concern for all of us.)

The late Dr. Samuel D. Proctor wrote an introduction to this book, and it is good to have his wisdom.

The book opens flat for easy writing. Good to put on a table and not worry that your page is lost.

This is an excellent book! I hope that many people will use its suggestions and be guided to a deeper prayer life.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction

1. What Really Causes Homosexuality? I. The Storming of the APA II. Contemporary Explanations of Homosexuality A. Theories That View Homosexuality as Inherited 1. Genetic Theories 2. Hormonal Factors at Birth 3. Levels of Testosterone B. Theories That View Homosexuality as Acquired Behavior 1. Homosexuality as Illness

2. Homosexuality and the Law I. The "Hate Crimes" Bill II. AIDS Litigation

3. The Religious Issue I. What Orthodox People Are Being Asked to Give Up A. Biblical Authority B. The Authority of the Historical Church C. Free Will II. Homosexuals and the Established Churches Dignity Integrity Other Denominations III. The Homosexual Church IV. The Religious Dilemma V. What Can Religious People Do about Homosexuality?

4. The Politics of Homosexuality I. The Homosexual Movement: 1960 to the Present A. The Transformation of the Rhetoric 1. "Gay" 2. "Homophobe" and "Homophobic" 3. "Sexual Orientation", Formerly "Sexual Preference" 4. "Alternate Life-Style" 5. "Discovering or Exploring One's Sexuality" 6. "Family Partner" B. The Redefinition of Homosexuality C. Focusing on What They Are Rather Than What They Do D. The Organization of Public Demonstrations 1. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force 2. The Human Rights Campaign Fund E. Getting Uncle Sam to Help F. What Must Be Done to Stop the Homosexual Movement?

5. The New Sex Education: Homosexuality I. "About Your Sexuality" by Deryk Calderwood II. "Sexuality: A Divine Gift" III. "Mutual Caring, Mutual Sharing

6. AIDS and Public Policy I. Widespread Testing A. Persons Convicted of Intravenous Drug use, Prostitution, or Sexual Assault B. Persons Receiving Treatment or Services for Family Planning, Tuberculosis, Drug Abuse, or Sexually Transmitted Disease C. Premarital Applicants D. Hospital Admittees between the Ages of Fifteen and Forty-nine II. Reporting III. Contact Tracing IV. The Restoration of Laws against Sodomy V. The Rejection of Antidiscrimination Laws

Index

"The Storming of the APA" p. 24-39

"The story of how homosexuality was declared 'normal' by the American Psychiatric Association is one of the most depressing narratives in the annals of modern medicine. Indeed, it is difficult to contemplate the details without wondering if our society is not in a state of advanced deterioration. In brief, a group of homosexuals stormed the APA annual convention on successive years and with deliberately disruptive tactics actually forced the psychiatrists to accede to their demands and declare homosexuality a 'normal condition'. In effect the nature of medical opinion was altered by strong-arm tactics.

This is not an event you will see memorialized on '60 Minutes' or in the New York Times. The liberal press is silent on the subject, because, although they are embarrassed by what happened, they are pleased enough by the outcome. Thus have they condoned this politicalization of the medical profession, this defiance of the very idea of thoughtful deliberation and civilized discourse.

A few of the people who were victimized by this unprecedented activity have written on the subject, but perhaps the most detailed account of what happened is to be found in Ronal Bayer's remarkable book 'Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis' (pp. 101-54).

I say 'remarkable' because Bayer's study is a highly sympathetic narrative of these events, yet one that looks unblinkingly at the violence and irrationality that lie at the heart of the homosexual movement, its essentially anarchic impulse. If you doubt that homosexuality should have remained on the list of mental illnesses, you have only to read the account of how it was removed.

What follows is my own summary of the events, a summary derived in large part from Bayer's narrative." ...

IV. The Religious Dilemma p.105-107

Dannemeyer summarizes homosexual political message/aspirations:

"... 1. Henceforth homosexuality will be spoken of in your churches and synagogues as an 'honorable estate'.

2. You can either let us marry people of the same sex or better yet abolish marriage altogether, since it will give the lie to everything you have said and done in the past about sexuality.

3. You will also be expected to offer ceremonies that bless our sexual arrangements, whether or not you retain marriage as something to be celebrated in your churches.

4. You will also instruct your young people in homosexual as well as heterosexual behavior, and you will go out of your way to make certain that homosexual youths are allowed to date, attend religious functions together, openly display affection, and enjoy each other's sexuality without embarrassment or guilt.

5. If any of the older people in your midst object, you will deal with them sternly, making certain they renounce their ugly and ignorant homophobia or suffer public humiliation.

6. You will also make certain that all of the prestige and resources of your institutions are brought to bear on the community, so that laws are passed forbidding discrimination against homosexuals and heavy punishments are assessed. We expect and demand the same commitment to us that you made to Blacks and to women, though their suffering has not been as great as ours.

7. Finally, we will in all likelihood want to expunge a number of passages from your Scriptures and rewrite others, eliminating preferential treatment of marriage and using words that will allow for homosexual interpretations of passages describing biblical lovers such as Ruth and Boaz or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba."

"Warning: If all of these things do not come to pass quickly, we will subject orthodox Jews and Christians to the most sustained hatred and vilification in recent memory. We have captured the liberal establishment and the press. We have already beaten you on a number of battlefields. And we have the spirit of the age on our side. You have neither the faith nor the strength to fight us, so you might as well surrender now."

The authors of this anthology would answer that question with an emphatic "yes!" Battenhouse's anthology brings together writings from an important school of Shakespearean criticism which holds that the Bard's works exemplify traditional Christian teachings as mediated by such thinkers as Boethius and, especially, St. Augustine. It is sometimes called the Augustinian school. A critic's assumptions can greatly influence his or her interpretation of a work. For example, Romantic critics, such as Coleridge and Bradley, hold that the character Hamlet's main problem is his vacillation in carrying out his father's ghost's demand that Hamlet revenge his murder. The Augustinians disagree. They believe there are numerous signs in the play that the ghost is actually a demonic hallucination intent on deceiving Hamlet. Horatio and Marcellus suspect this and tell Hamlet not to follow the ghost. Hamlet's decision to follow the ghost anyway, say the Augustinians, is the first of many errors he makes which result in the "accidental judgments, casual slaughters" with which he ends so many lives, including his own. In fact, Hamlet's whole ethic of revenge is very dubious morally, as are the suicides of Romeo, Juliet, and Othello. Shakespeare's Christian Dimension challenges many widely-held assumptions about the meaning of the plays. These critics anchor their interpretations firmly in the moral and theological writing of Elizabethan and earlier times. Battenhouse has assembled a fine group of critics here. His book is well-organized and easy to use. One need not read the whole book to get the Augustinian view of a particular play. The book is a feast for lovers of Shakespeare.

Williams has done a superb job with this one. This volume follows in the tradition of and draws heavily upon concepts from Kierkegaard's "Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing" and Pascal's "Pensées." Williams is concerned here with the motives of the heart that underly our actions, and offers suggestions on how we can become aware of and honestly & openly confront these motives. In so doing, he suggests, we will have made significant progress towards the end of a fully redeemed life. Well structured and written, and recommended to those who are looking for more thoughtful dialogue on how much humanity and spirituality are connected.

O'Malley, a writer of textbooks in Religious Studies, and a long time teacher of adolescent males, provides a text which makes a connection between biblical characters such as Moses, Abraham and Jesus and the four male types. This book would be helpful for anyone developing a retreat program for young men or for those interested in helping them make the bridge from the textbook into the world. It would especially benefit anyone whose curriculum has already introduced the students to the characters of the Bible. Along with the text, O'Malley proves a good number of questions for refelction which can be used to challenge our young people to think about what truly makes them a "success" in life and whether the role models they take from today's society (athletes, actors, politicians, businessmen, etc.) are truly worth embracing as role models.

This book is a wonderful resourse for any minister or pastor.The author has a brilliant style of blending stories into the truths of the Gospel.After all Jesus was a storyteller.His parables are evidence of his masterful way with the truth.My own congregation have felt the benefit of "Story Telling The Word".

I like to contact mr. Milburn Price in relation to the composition he made called "Have You Not Known" Isaih 40:28,3

L.Uittenbogaard Akelei 19 7621AR BORNE THE NETHERLANDS

Written especially for college-age Christian young adults, The Survival Guide For Christians On Campus by Tony Campolo (Founder, Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education) and William Willimon (Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry, Duke University) deftly explains how to keep religious faith a central priority in spite of the strenuous demands of secular college studies. Individual chapters address such topics as close reading the bible, better understanding of sermons, evangelization as the simple and open spreading of God's good news, Pentecostalism ("Don't fear encounters with Christians who seem to be different from you"), and the hot-button issue of sex. The Survival Guide For Christians On Campus is recommended as a powerful message for modern, university based Christians seeking to better understand and exemplify their faith in an academic setting.