Review: God on the Streets of Gotham by Paul Asay

"I'm Batman." It's a phrase that I'm not ashamed to admit, I've uttered a time or two (each month). At two years and two months the The Little One is potty-training like a champ and I'm certain his new "big boy" Batman undies are a big part of it.

I look forward to the day that both he and his little brother (The Squeaky One) are old enough to watch Batman: The Animated Series with me. (And the movies, of course, but those would be later.)

The Twitter² Summary:
Batman has delighted and thrilled fans of all ages for more than seventy years. In God on the Streets of Gotham, Paul Asay traces the history of Batman in all his manifestations and how we may find something greater than we expect in the story of a Dark Knight protector.

The Low-down:
It was with great excitement that I opened God on the Streets of Gotham. I found myself looking forward to Asay's take on the connection of Batman and faith through the lens of culture. I was not disappointed.

Asay's take on the Caped Crusader is an interesting one. He sees parallels to the Christian faith in the mission Batman chooses, the armor he wears and the support he receives from those with whom he partners. Batman is not portrayed as a Christian by Asay or even as a symbol of the Christian faith. Instead, Asay shows that both we and Batman are facing a world darkened by the damaging effects of sin.

The book is an interesting and throughly enjoyable read. Asay's writing is insightful and quick-witted and the concepts are explored with acute understanding of the faith and cultural lenses we view them through

The Rating:
5 of 5 Stars (An awesome book that I will want to read again and again.)

The Author:
Paul Asay is the associate editor at Plugged In, a ministry that reaches more than 6 million people with movie reviews that help people understand popular cultural trends and how they intersect with spiritual issues. Paul is an award-winning journalist who covered religion at The (Colorado Springs) Gazette and whose work has been published by such outlets as The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Youth Worker Journal and Beliefnet.com. Paul has a special interest in the unexpected ways that faith and media intersect. He lives in Colorado with his wife, Wendy, and two children.

The Links:
The Intro and First Chapter

The Publisher’s Website

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Should One Ministry Control the Internet?

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers recently announced that they had received 1,930 applications from organizations and individuals wanting to own new specific web address extensions. (Similar to .com, .net and .biz) With nearly half of the applications originating in North America, most are exactly who you'd expect. Apple computer company is seeking to lock down .apple and protect their brand, ABC wants to ensure no one tries to stream their shows on a (perhaps convincing) address and geographic regions look to protect their images for Pr and tourism profits.

Amongst the sea of application is one stream that stands out in this collection of multi-national corporations, governments, and wealthy entrepreneurs: religious organizations. RNS reports that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints placed bids on .LDS and .Mormon and that the Vatican applied for .Catholic in four languages at a cost of $740,000.

Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications has said .Catholic will help his church deliver its message online.

But only entities, parishes and religious orders formally recognized under canon law would be allowed to use .Catholic, "so people online -- Catholics and non-Catholics -- will know a site is authentically Catholic," Tighe told Catholic News Service. 

At a time when the vatican is battling liberal theologians and American nuns over the definition of modern Catholicism, .Catholic would ... allow the church hierarchy to monitor and control its brand...

What I find most interesting about RNS's article, though, is that the LifeChurch.tv applied for the simple extension .church.  LifeChurch has said that they will most likely allow any organization of people who share "similar religious beliefs" to apply.

What do you think about ICANN ceding control over vast swathes of online real estate to organizations with enough cash? Should any one ministry be allowed to decide who has access to .church, .christian or any other religious web address extension?

Review: The Bartered Virgins by John David Merwin

I don't know about you, but I love watching those shows where people are picking a house or apartment from among a few different options. My favorites are when they're set in exotic locales like Hawaii, Fiji or the Virgin Isles. What I doubt I've ever thought, though, is "I wonder. What is the specific history (down to what time a certain meeting on a certain day occurred), of these locations?" If, unlike myself, you are the kind of person who wonders that sort of thing, then do I have a book for you!


The Twitter² Summary:
John David Marwin's The Bartered Virgins is a very brief historical tour of the history of the United States Virgin Islands. Its devotion to the specific history allows this slim volume to claim authority on the history of these small tracts of land.

The Low-down:
Though The Bartered Virgins is generally well-written, it comes across as rather dry in places. In spite of this, I found it to be an interesting read. It is not a long book, coming in at a meager 96 pages (35 of which is devoted to appendices). If you're the kind of person who is really interested in history for history's sake - you will probably like this book. If, however, you are the kind of person for whom history class was a dull slog through dates, names and places - this is probably not right for you.

Merwin's attention to detail is admirable, but occasionally breaks down the narrative approach for which he strives. For scholars of the history, Merwin's inclusion of the text of treaties and agreements in appendices are wonderful.

The Rating:
3 of 5 Stars (A book to check out from the library, but not to own)

The Link:
The Publisher’s Book Page

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Dorrance Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Praying With The Grain by Pablo Martinez

I've never been one to spend a vast amount of time in prayer. I put my time in, but don't often dally when it comes to speaking with the big guy. Is this sad? Yes. Yes, it is. But I've never really felt the loss. In many ways I've thought of it as similar to the "morning quiet time" that I've always been encouraged to have. I don't particularly enjoy it and I wonder if it is really all that honoring to God if I'm falling asleep while doing it.

For the quiet time, I started practicing a constant communication thing throughout the day in lieu of time spent in the morning, but I've never really gotten a handle on whether I'm comfortable with this kind of thing replacing time set aside specifically to pray.

The Twitter² Summary:
In Praying With the Grain, Dr. Pablo Martinez looks at the psychology of how our basic personality type affects our prayers. Martinez helps us to understand and develop our own spiritual path when it comes to prayer.

The Low-down:
Have you ever thought about how your personality might affect how you pray? No? Me either. Luckily, Dr. Pablo Martinez has thought enough about it for the both of us. Praying With the Grain, a repackaged edition of his well-regarded Prayer Life, walks the reader through the many ways that our personalities can hinder and help our prayers.

Let me say that though Martinez occasionally drops psych jargon here and there, he does an excellent job of explaining each term as it occurs. That said, I'm going to drop some of the same without explaining it nearly as well. Here goes.

Martinez examines our personalities through the classic Jungian model of thinking/feeling and sensing/intuiting. This allows for specific address of multiple personality types. Martinez also provides examples form history of individuals who are known or widely assumed to match these types.

What I find both interesting and helpful about Martinez's book is his advice that we accept our personality type and how it affects the way we pray instead of striving in vain after someone else's idea of how to pray. Martinez argues that because prayer should be important and vital to our relationship with God, it is important to understand ourselves in order to help make it so.

Unfortunately though, Martinez doesn't give us much help in this department. Unlike other texts of this type, Praying With the Grain doesn't give us a handy quiz to determine our type. Instead Martinez leaves it up to us to self-identify our type and apply his advice accordingly. If you can self-identify, then Praying With the Grain will help guide you through ways of praying that will likely be better for you than what you've tried before.

Of particular note is Martinez's Q & A section on the most frequently asked questions about prayer. I'd actually start there and then come back to the beginning.

Martinez's heart is obvious throughout the book, that he wants prayer to be an exciting, welcoming, central part of every believer's relationship with God.

The Rating:
3 of 5 Stars (A book to check out from the library, but not to own.)

The Link:
The Publisher’s Book Page

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Kregel Publications. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Plugged-In Parenting by Bob Waliszewski

As a child, I never understood why my parents cared so much about what music I listened to or the shows I was allowed to watch. Now that I’m a parent myself, I get it.

For me, Bob Waliszewski’s Plugged-In Parenting has particular resonance as my wife and I are in the process of creating a playlist of all the music on our computer that is “safe” for our kids’ ears. The boys are less than 3 years old, but we’ve already started to see the impact of media on them. As we’ve been putting it together, we talk about whether just music with cursing or graphic sexuality is out or if we should exclude any music that has lyrical content that we don’t agree with. What’s horrifying about it to me is how much of our music doesn’t make our cut.

The Twitter² Summary:

Bob Waliszewski’s Plugged-In Parenting asks parents if they are plugged-in to what your kids are reading, watching, listening to, viewing online, or playing these days? Or are they plugged-in all the time while you are tuned out? Waliszewski hopes it is the former.

The Low-down:

Bob Waliszewski is the director of Plugged In Online, a site that covers current media with reviews and other tools for parents. His book, Plugged In Parenting, attempts to help parents chart a course of media discernment. What I most appreciate about Waliszewski’s book is that it doesn’t present media as inherently evil. Sadly, this is rare in current discussions of media by many Christians.

Waliszewski divides Plugged In Parenting into three sections: 1-Deciding Where you Stand as a Parent, 2-Making Rules without Making Enemies, and 3-Keeping the Peace and Passing it On. The overarching principles that Waliszewski focuses on are easily applicable for parents to use in guiding their day-to-day decisions. This will allow Plugged In Parenting to hold up longer than other media guides that focus on specific examples. It also creates space for parents with a wide range of sensitivities to embrace the principles in the book.

Plugged In Parenting is a worthwhile read for parents of kids at any age. It can help you develop media discernment for yourself and encourage that development in your children.

The Rating:

4 of 5 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages.)

The Links:

The Author’s Website

The Publisher’s Website

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book free from Focus on the Family. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Reptile by Vincent T. Irving

I've been an avid reader of comics since I was a child. After getting married, I decided to replace them with collected editions. This led me to move toward an interest in graphic novels. As I've delved into the genre, I soon discovered that there were beautiful examples of the form and real stinkers as well. More on this in a moment.

The Twitter² Summary:

Thrown off course, the prince of a far-flung planet lands in the garden of an unsuspecting young woman, who chooses to care for what she believes is a burnt egg, not knowing that the day it hatches would be the day her whole life would change. Reptile is Vincent T. Irving’s first foray into the graphic novel genre.

The Low-down:

Okay, back to the beautiful examples and the stinkers. I'm just going to put it out there up front. This one's a stinker. There's nothing wrong with the concept, it's just everything about the execution that's lacking.

The language isn't realistic. The plot is entirely without direction. The pacing is uneven. The language includes curses for no apparent reason. The art does show some promise, but needs practice and time to refine.

The Rating:

1 of 5 Stars (A book I wouldn't inflict on others)

The Links:

The Publisher’s Book Page

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book free from Dorrance Publishing Company. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review and Giveaway: Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield

I've attended half-a-dozen churches in my three decades and I've been fortunate to leave each on good terms as the circumstances of life moved me on. This is clearly not the case for everyone. Many people have been hurt by the place that they expect to be the most safe. It is to these people that Stephen Mansfield has written Healing Your Church Hurt.

The Twitter² Summary:

If you’ve been part of a church, you have probably been hurt or know someone who has. Stephen Mansfield knows how it feels, but he also knows how to dig out of that hurt. If you’re ready to choose the tough path to healing, Mansfield will walk you through it.

The Low-down:

Mansfield immediately sets the stage for how he will address the topic with a story of a little guy named Timmy. Timmy gets his arm stuck in a vending machine. Crying and bleeding, the boy begs for help, when all along, the boy was clutching onto a Snickers that kept his arm pinned inside. Once he let go of the bar, his arm was set free. Mansfield compares Timmy’s story to the experience of people hurt by the church, but who hold on to the “Snickers” of hurt and anger. While Mansfield doesn’t go so far as to say that the reason for the hurt is irrelevant, but he does stress that our healing can’t begin until we choose to let go.

He stresses that we often have unrealistic expectations of the people we find in church. We expect people to be broken and flawed in the world around us, but for some reason, we expect the people we find in church to have everything all together. With this understanding, Mansfield encourages those wounded by the church to overcome their own hurt and come through their trial with stronger faith on the other side.

Healing Your Church Hurt has previously published as ReChurch. Although it's well written and its content is solid, it just didn't connect with me. I imagine if I'd been through a church hurt, it would be much more impactful.

The Rating:

3 of 5 Stars (A book to check out from the library, but not to own)

The Links:

The Author’s Website

The Publisher’s Website

The Contest:

I’m giving away a free copy of Healing Your Church Hurt.There are two ways to enter: either comment below with your thoughts on how to overcome a church hurt and email me at perplexedpastor@gmail.com or comment below, follow me on Twitter and included this link (http://bit.ly/H7RwzY) in a tweet.

Enter by 11:59 PM Central Time, Friday, April 13 for your chance to win! (Winner will be chosen from all entries by The Little One grabbing your name out of a hat or fishbowl or other suitable item.)

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

I've never been much of a fan of biographies. It's not that I haven't liked them when I've read them (John F. Love's book on McDonald's is one of the first I really liked - I know, it's not really a biography, but it's close enough for my purposes). The problem with the genre is that I never seem to be able to overcome my hesitancy at the heft of the biographical tomes that tweak my occasional interest. They just seem so incredibly long. 

Instead I head to the lighter end of the personal history shelf for the quips and anecdotes of the memoir. In addition to their comparative brevity, memoirs have always stuck me as more approachable. A biography must have as its subject a person of particular interest to me to overcome my natural inclination to avoid reading one.

If you know me well or, actually, if you now me even a little bit, you might have observed that I'm a Mac guy. I like to think that I'm not one of those "glassy-eyed stare while reciting all of the features" kind of a Mac guy, but a Mac guy none-the-less. The combination of a college roommate who was very into Macs, a ministry that used them exclusively and a college job that taught me the ins and outs of many Mac-only programs set me on the Mac-specific path I walk today. Frankly, I'd have a difficult time even operating a windows machine, as I haven't used one with regularity since Windows 98.

All that to say, Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs broke through my normal reticence.

The Twitter² Summary:

Walter Isaacson’s account of the whirlwind life of Steve Jobs captures the scope of a world-changing visionary, but doesn’t miss the intimate details of his personal life. At times exciting, tragic, frustrating and moving Isaacson’s riveting account is nothing short of epic.

The Low-down:

Isaacson’s detailed biography was written with Jobs' help. Jobs went so far as to encourage (and this being Jobs, cajole and bully) others to be interviewed for the project. In spite of his clearly close connection to the project, by all accounts Jobs didn't try to control what Isaacson discovered and used during the more than 150 interviews for the book. That in itself is remarkable and eases many worries that this "authorized" biography is the result of Jobs' personal "reality distortion field" or a PR puff piece. Of all the things this book is, a puff piece is certainly not one of them.

Isaacson’s narrative captures Jobs in four seasons of life, his youth, his years of exile at NeXT and Pixar, his return to Apple and his role in the post-pc revolution. Those searching for an in-depth history of Apple will get only those glimpses and pieces that are germane to Jobs’ story. This is not the story of Apple, but that of the life of Steve Jobs.

Isaacson details Jobs’ temperamental personality and binary view of the world (“a person was either a hero or a bozo, a product was either amazing or shit”) that could frustrate and infuriate those around him. Also found is Jobs’ tendency to be hindered by the fine distinctions in life, being “stymied by things that were more complex, shaded or nuanced: getting married, buying the right sofa, committing to run a company”.

All in all, this book is a captivating narrative of a disturbed, disconcerting and driven man who significantly influenced the intersection of technology and liberal arts and who left a lasting impact on the world. Whether you are an Apple fan or not, this is a book you’ll find to be a worthwhile read.

The Links:

The Publisher's Book Page

Amazon's Book Page

The Rating:

5 Stars (An awesome book that I will want to read again and again.)

Review: Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald

Since the day I came across the genre in college, I've been a sucker for fiction that gets across a nonfiction concept. Whether it's called narrative nonfiction, creative nonfiction or literary nonfiction, any time an author puts concept to paper and creates a factually accurate and convincing narrative, I'm in. It wasn't until years later that I would recognize that I'd encountered the genre far earlier in life in the parables of Jesus. (What can I say? I'm a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.)

The Twitter² Summary:
In Going Deep, Gordon MacDonald asks what kind of people a ministry should cultivate in order to thrive. He answer is narrated through the experiences of the fictional New England congregation he introduced in Who Stole My Church?

The Low-down:
MacDonald’s latest book relates the quest of a fictionalized Pastor Gordon MacDonald to find a way to develop regular people into people of great maturity and spiritual awareness. The first half of the book narrates the question of how to cultivate deep people, while the second half allows us to observe the process of attempting it. MacDonald chooses a few people from the congregation and over the course of two years, takes them through a program dubbed "CDP” or “Cultivating Deep People."

MacDonald makes great observations about the life of a church and details conversations between characters that both provide insight and move the narrative smoothly along. Though the narrative format might not connect with those looking for bullet points or chapter headings, it allows MacDonald to examine the process in greater detail. We see how MacDonald deals with grumblings and failures. Though the story slows while describing the process of the small groups progress, overall I found Going Deep to be an interesting and readable insight into developing disciples.

The Links:
The Publisher's Book Page

Amazon's Book Page

The Rating:
4 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages)

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Raised Right by Alisa Harris

I was raised in the country. Not the coastal country of large houses, servants and sailing. I was raised in the truck-driving, hunting and fishing, surrounded by fields and forest that John (sometimes Cougar) Mellencamp sings about kind of country. I was raised in a warm, loving, caring home by parents who loved their family, their friends and their God. That love rubbed off on their kids. I was raised just a short drive from the town where my father was raised and where my grandfather served as mayor for 12 years.

Though they never instructed us on how we should vote, we were clearly a Republican family (despite the fact that Gramps ran as a democrat every time). I knew what box I was expected to check once I was old enough to vote. It wasn’t until after my first four years of college (yes, I said first four years), that I even got to know a Democrat well enough to listen (actually listen) to the reasons why they believe as they do (Well, at least someone that I KNEW was a democrat.) As I continued in college these conversations occurred more and more often and I began to see the world differently.

I like the way that Ruth Arnell put it,

But then I … met people and lived through situations that forced apart my faith life and my political life, all the while speckling my black-and-white understanding of the world with flecks of moderate gray. Again and again I faced people I loved in situations that caused them pain, and there I was with a political map that didn’t feature the roads they were walking, let alone viable exits or much needed rest points to serve their needs along the way. [behnnie]

The Twitter² Summary:
Alisa Harris spent her home-schooled formative years picketing abortion clinics and volunteering for Republican campaigns. After spending time with people she respected who didn't share her beliefs she realized that faith and politics could interact in a different way.

The Low-down:
Harris describes an upbringing that is familiar to some and frightening to others. From being carted along by her parents to anti-abortion protests to rallying for conservative candidates, she grew up feeling that conservative republican politics and political figures were pretty much on the same level as scripture and prophets.

It took her graduating college and actually spending time with people who believed different than her before she found that they weren't all that bad, maybe that they might actually be good people (sounds familiar to me, minus the graduating part). Harris deftly relates her changing understanding of the relationship between faith and politics.

Harris points out that though today's Christians might say the Bible endorses capitalism; Christians two hundred years ago said it endorsed the divine right of kings. Her conclusion is that both missed the point, which is that the Bible is neither an eighteenth- nor a twenty-first-century policy textbook.

Ultimately, Raised Right was constructed well and not the bitter/angry rant I feared it might be.

The Rating:
4 of 5 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages)

The Links:
Download the first chapter free here.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah's Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Mummy, I Have To Go Potty by Wilma Shine

With the Little One showing a passing interest in learning how to use the restroom on his own, I thought maybe this might be a good choice to assist our efforts to encourage him in this new endeavor. I expected an informed history of the toilet with supporting facts, some evidence to support the author's conclusions or maybe a citation here and there. That is not what I found.

The Twitter² Summary:

In author Wilma Shine’s overview of toilets around the world, she informs the reader what

they’re called, what they look like and how to find them. She also discusses

the special language used for toilets and their contents across the globe and

through the ages.

The Low-down:

Shine's book could've been a cute coffee table book. It could've been the kind of book that would go great sticking out of this magazine rack in a guest restroom with these outhouse pictures on the wall.

You see where I'm going with this?

This could've been a book like that, but it just isn't. It falls short in a couple areas.

First, it falls a bit short in content. Though the majority of the book is on target, the occasional off-topic tangents disrupt the flow. (The one on cats is particularly unnecessary). In addition, the tone of the book is almost tongue-in-cheek in the right way, but off just a bit.

No matter whether you are poor or rich, sophisticated or illiterate - no difference between races - you are bound to this relationship for a lifetime. You simply cannot avoid it.
What goes in "upstairs" must come out "downstairs."
Every meal means a walk to a facility later. Whatever delicious, tasty thing goes in on top must come out in
a smelly substance at the bottom.

Other sections of the book ramble in such a way that the author's intent is unclear.

Public facilities may be a meeting place for homosexuals or homeless people. Graffiti may offer an insight to social behaviour.
Have you ever looked at restrooms in universities? You sometimes wonder how educated people express their feelings.

I'm not sure what my response should be to this. Is this observation? Is it critique? I honestly don't know. And finally, we have the seemingly ever-present stereotypical comment about men.

And why do men always have the lid of the commode up?
When you enter a toilet and the lid is up you immediately know the former customer was a man.

The other aspect that distracts from the reader's experience is the design and layout. The picture quality varies widely from sharp and focused on one page to blurry on the next. It could have also used a book-wide color balance to bring all the pictures in line with each other to look like they are each part of a whole.

I'll probably still stick it in the restroom, but it might be behind a magazine or two.

The Rating:

2 of 5 Stars (A book I had to force myself to finish)

The Link: 

The Publisher's Book Page

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Dorrance Publishing Company. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”