Thieves Break In

by One thumb up and one thumb down

I would have enjoyed this book more had I not read the quote on the back from The Santa Fe New Mexican, "For those who thrive on Jan Karon's Mitford novels."  The protagonist in both is an Episcopalian Priest.  The similarity stops about there.  Yes, I'd say that's about the only commonality.  But the comment would imply to me a hometown portrayal of American values and a rich depiction of the variety of personalities that makes life interesting.  Those features are what makes the Mitford books stand out in the literary marketplace.

Another quote on the back, this from Sarah Graves, author of the Home Repair is Homicide mysteries, with which I'm unfamiliar "...Two smart quirky sleuths with a heart--and soul."  The two quotes taken together gave the impression that the characters would be presenting some sort of morality.  As I found out, they were.  But the morality portrayed is not of the traditional Judeao-Christian bent.

For the one thumb up, the book is a pretty good murder mystery, nothing outstanding, but then, that's not usually the purpose in reading a murder mystery.  The characters are mostly well developed, the plot has appropriate twists and turns, the settings are interesting and richly described.

An interesting departure from the typical murder mystery, is the sleuthing the primary gumshoes, Katherine and Tom, do.  Although they are not primarily the ones who solve the mystery, they are instrumental in solving it, mostly through a series of coincidental incidents.  Katherine and Tom spend their time unravelling the mysteries of the family line of the landowners where the murder took place.  Everything of course falls together at the end, but I found this use of the sleuths an interesting twist.

The strong point is probably the author's use of time.  The story-line unfolds in a non-linear manner and skips from one decade to another in a fashion exactly to my liking.  I had to check back on people and places periodically, but not so much that it became frustrating.  At two points, just when I thought I had lost all the connections completely, the author gave me a family tree to which I could refer.  Some of the threads of story were only touched upon once early on and then left to the end.  This device left me curious throughout as to how these strings were going to be woven in.

My disappointment with the book is based on my personal morality and my preference for reading books that either avoid moralizing completely or portray traditional moral lifestyles.  This book seems to want to portray those things traditionally considered immoral, as sanctioned by those who are supposed to be the shepherds of the church. 

The protagonist, the Reverend Kathryn Koerney, is an Episcopalian priest.  Her cousin who has just died under mysterious circumstances was her best friend, and we find out was homosexual.  This in itself is not important, nor was the gentleman's sexuality important to the story line, but the way it is portrayed is somewhat preachy and moralizing.  I felt as though the whole reason for including it was as an opportunity to portray bigotry against the homosexual lifestyle.

Kathryn at one point in the book arranges to stay the night with a guy she's falling in love with, although because of the way the plot unravelled near the end, we're not told whether she kept that date. 

From the beginning, it is clear that Tom, Kathryn's fellow sleuth and one of her parishioners is in love with her, but is himself married to another.  At the end of the story, as a hooked line to the next book in the series, Tom is encouraged by a wise elder character to not give up on Kathryn.  His final words of exhortation, "I seriously doubt that any man who does not have the balls to get out of a loveless marriage deserves Kathryn Korney."

All these moral points would not bother me as much in a different setting.  But taken together and portrayed as they are, they seem designed to push the envelope.  The idea of a pastor who accepts non-traditional values seems a bit contrived.  At best, the effect does not make for pleasant diversionary reading.  At worst, it just makes me plum mad.  It seems deceitful and preachy.  Especially when coupled with the endorsements the publishers chose to put on the back cover of the book.

Putting Away Childish Things

by Marcus J. Borg

Thumbs Down

If you've ever had to sit in a college classroom and listen to a professor or lecturer speak patronizingly about your personal beliefs, and if you enjoyed it, you'll love this book.  Unless of course you are already not a Bible believing Christian, in the pre Enlightenment definition.  If that is the case, you will probably get a hoot out of the oh-so-witty conservative Christian stereotypes and smirk to yourself about how insightful Dr. Borg is.

Dr. Kate Riley is a professor of religious philosophy.  She lectures her students, she converses with her good friends (and an ex-lover), she writes in her journal, and she leads a Bible study at her Episcopal congregation.  We are privy to all of these lectures, conversations, thoughts and teachings. 

As Kate deals with a few life issues of her own and comes to a greater understanding of her connectedness to all things and of what it is to trust God, the reader is led through a survey course on post Enlightenment religious philosophy.  One almost feels proselytized toward these religious views.

Putting Away Childish Things is a fictional narrative intended, it would seem, to educate a less scholarly demographic in post Enlightenment religious philosophy.  The title refers to letting go of those "childish" notions like belief in an inerrant, inspired Scripture, creation, miracles and the resurrection story.  It shows those of us who are still clinging to these outdated ideas what true Christianity is and how Christianity can be reconciled with more enlightened views of Scripture.  It basically implies we need to just grow up.

Sorry, Dr. Borg, I'm not buying.

Please note, although it has a little Christian Fiction sticker from the library, I refuse to honor it with such label in my blog index.

Update 7/6/10 

Joe thought my sarcasm might have been confusing.  In the paragraph which starts, "Dr. Kate Riley is a professor of religious philosophy," I was trying to portray honestly the mindset of the character.  I was not espousing her personal views or acknowledging them as truth.

Just to be clear...

Saved by Her Enemy

by Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak

Thumbs up.

During one of Don Teague's visit to Iraq to report for NBC during the Iraq War, twenty-three year old Rafraf Barrak was a translator with whom he often worked.  Through this work as a translator, Ms Barrak was able to support her parents and nine siblings.  But because of this work for the enemy, her life was in danger.  The danger continued to grow as the insurgency gained strength.

Saved by Her Enemy tells the story of the friendship of Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak, a friendship which crossed age, gender, culture and religion. 

I found this a fascinating account.  Mr. Teague, although he does not engage in political discourse, served eleven years in the Army Reserve and the National Guard.  He is an evangelical Christian.  He is a correspondent for a main stream television news agency.  It is a mix that seems to suit him well and through which God obviously makes good use of him.

Ms Barrak is a brave young woman who engagingly shares the story of how she managed to come to peace with the choices she has had to make.

Cruel and Usual Punishment

by Nonie Darwish

Thumbs Up.

I really hate to give this book a thumbs up. Not because of the book itself however, but because the subject matter is so troubling.

Ms Darwish is an Egyptian born former Muslim. After 9/11 she decided to start a public stand against her former religion. This is her second book. She also is co founder of Former Muslims United and a public speaker and writer on issues of Islamic Sharia and jihad.

In the first part of the book, Ms Darwish leads the reader to a clearer understanding of how Sharia law affects individual Muslims. She shows the extreme violence against and oppression of women and non-Muslims particularly. She also analyzes of how that attitude negatively affects various other demographics like the poor and the sons and grown men and family life in general. She shows the culture of fear that is a necessary part of Islamic society. She shows how Sharia naturally effects the violence that we in the West like to think of as associated only with extreme Islam. Most of us are familiar with the Q'uran as the Muslim holy book. Ms Darwish introduces Western readers to the idea of Hadith, which is the collection of sayings by Muhammad that were collected by followers who were close to him; and also to the origins of Sharia, which was codified in the first hundred years or so after the death of Muhammad.

The result is quite frightening. I cannot summarize well what I felt after reading the first half of this book. Ms Darwish documents not only the many passages from the Q'uran, but also some of the many statements of Hadith that not only support, but also demand violence against particularly Jews; but also those of any religion outside of Islam; those without a religion; and also even those Muslims who don't do Sharia properly. More troubling still, Ms Darwish clearly shows how subjective the idea of following Sharia properly really is. And follow this with the truth that any individual Muslim has permission, by their own religious precepts, to kill anyone within Islam who can be perceived as not following Sharia. Oh, and that same permission extends, of course, to those outside of Islam.

In the second part of the book, Ms Darwish analyzes how Sharia law and its demands on individuals translate into society as a whole and international relations. She teaches about Dar al Islam (society within Islam, or the Islamic state, wherever that may be, geographically) and Dar al Harb (literally the house of war, or society outside of Islam). She shows how this distinction has evolved into the various geographical and political troubles today between Islam and others. These would include the constant violence in SE Asia and Somalia between Muslims and non Muslims, and even among Muslims; the civil war in what was formerly Yugoslavia; the constant acts of individual terror in western countries and elsewhere; and even the demands within western countries for more and more Sharia. By narrating many specific situations and also a chapter tracing the history of Egypt as an example, Ms Darwish successfully argues that the West needs to view Islam less as a religion and more as a political system. She includes a quite scathing reprimand of our media and its failure to report accurately the atrocities inflicted by Muslims around the world.

Ms Darwish uses an example that worked well to highlight the political nature of Islam and how we need to address it. She compared our relationship to the USSR during the cold war, to our relationship with Islam today. If Communism would have successfully sold itself as a religion, would we have allowed Communist temples in our communities or Communist studies departments in our universities? Just so, argues Ms Darwish, Islam is a political system. More specifically, it is a political system that in its purest sense views the West, and those who do not choose to subject themselves to that particular political system, as political enemies. And yet we invite into our communities the mosques that teach hatred of our way of life and even violence toward it. We allow Arab and Middle Eastern studies departments to be promoted and paid for by those who want to obliterate our society from the face of the earth.

Ms Darwish shows very clearly that Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam does call for violence. Through her use of only some of the 35, 213 verses calling for such violence, she shows that any one outside of Islam is at risk. But more troubling still is the second method Islam has used throughout history to spread itself and its violent and oppressive culture. That is the seemingly peaceful migration of Muslims into other geographic areas. These pilgrims, one might call them, are forbidden to assimilate. They are exhorted regularly by their religious leaders to hate those outside of their religion. They are encouraged to find fellow Muslims who are not following Sharia closely enough. And finally they have both encouragement and also the demand from their religion to show violence toward and even kill those with whom they disagree. Even what we might call a moderate religious leader finished up prayers every Friday with the exhortation to kill the infidel. It is part of what we might call the prescribed liturgy.

Ms Darwish shows, these communities of Muslims are spreading and growing like wildfire in western countries. Several European countries are already facing tough decisions with regard to the Muslim community and because of the very nature of Islam. And although there are upright Muslims who we might like to think of as moderate, the religion itself produces such a culture of fear, that we must not expect these people to speak out against the violence promoted by some within Islam. Their life could be forfeit, because of their own religious precepts. Even if perhaps only 10% of Muslims choose to follow the prescribed violence, we can see how risky speaking out is for those who might choose to do so.

When Islam is seen in this light, we in the West, with our relativist attitudes and multi-culturalism are faced with a dilemma. And so far we have not within our culture or political structures clarified a way to deal with this. Ms Darwish gives her list of nine things she thinks could be successfully implemented in the West to stop what she describes as the Islamization of our society.

Finally, Ms Darwish gives her hopes that the religion of Islam itself could experience a reformation. Unfortunately, I can't figure how this would work. Within the Christian church, the Reformation called for the church to return to its origins, the Holy Scriptures. If what Ms Darwish taught us in the whole rest of her book is correct, Islam cannot be reformed without entirely leaving its foundational writings. The entire religion is poisoned from its inception with violence and oppression.

Ms Darwish makes clear that something must be done by those who wish to remain free. Whether we have the strength of will or the moral fortitude to accomplish this is not at all clear.

Waking

by Matthew Sanford

Thumbs Up.

Matthew Sanford became a paraplegic at the age of thirteen, in the same car accident that killed his father and sister. In Waking, he tells the story of that experience, how it changed his life, and how he changed his reaction to the new life.

The book is interesting and inspiring. Mr. Sanford is a good story teller. He pulls the reader along to find out what happens next, and he gently guides through some very painful spots.

Throughout the book, Mr. Sanford uses the metaphor of darkness, silence, and sleep, to describe both his paralyzed limbs and his life experience. This is combined with the parallel metaphors of light and waking to refer to the new outlook he gradually took on.

I do recommend the book because I think many of Mr. Sanford's insights are worthy of consideration. But I am saddened that so many of the struggles he addresses and subsequently solves via his intense pursuit of the yoga way of life, could just as readily be solved with Biblical insights.

Mr. Sanford is a yogi, motivational speaker, and sustainable investment advisor.

The Chosen

by Chaim Potok

In Progress. Thumbs up.

Mr. Potok uses the friendship between two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn during final years of WWII and following to teach the history of Judaism.

So far it's a heartwarming, compelling tale and I'm learning many things I did not know.

Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith

by William F. Buckley Jr.

Thumbs up. In Progress.

But I can already tell you it's a thumbs up. I was leary to request it, assuming Buckley to have a stiff writing style. But the narrative flows well. The story is compelling. Although the Buckley family was wealthy and grew up unlike anyone with whom I have have ever had immediate contact, the commonality of the human experience comes through. And by telling his own story, Buckley is able to address deeper philosophical and religious ideas in a thought-provoking way.