This is another Mind and Media review. This time, the book is Think Before You Look by Daniel Henderson. The book is intended to help those struggling with pornography addiction specifically, though it generally addresses the issue of lust.

I have reviewed a few other books on this topic, False Intimacy and Not Even a Hint. This book is more similar to Not Even a Hint than it is to False Intimacy, because it’s aimed more at people trying to overcome the sin themselves and less as an indepth study of sexual addiction from a counselor’s perspective. Think Before You Look is a book I’d be quicker to recommend for counselees, while False Intimacy is a great book for counselors.

TBYL is laid out in 40 short chapters, and each chapter is meant to be a stand-alone reading. I can’t help but think that this layout is cribbed to some degree from The Purpose Driven Life. Each chapter gives us a different positive reason to avoid pornography. The aim of the book very much feels to encourage and empower people to avoid pornography, rather than just lay on a lot of guilt about how wrong it is. It certainly does talk about how wrong it is, but I liked this approach. It felt a lot like the Biblical model of putting off / putting on. That is, the Biblical model is never just to stop sinning, but to replace sinful behavior and attitudes with God-glorifying, righteous behaviors and attitudes. So Paul says, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” The attitude and behavior of a parasite on society is replaced with the attitude and behavior of one who supports and gives back to society.

And so in TBYL, we are encouraged to think about everything we have to gain by avoiding pornography. A fuller experience of the grace of God, a guilt-free life, a healthy and tender conscience and better relationships, to name a few, are the kinds of things that are held out to the reader as benefits to encourage the reader to avoid the sin of pornography.

Henderson is a perceptive writer. He has a way of using images and comparisons to drive his point home effectively. One of the comparisons he returns to several times is to describe pornography as social and moral terrorism, and I found this to be an extremely apt way of describing it. The purpose of terrorism is to either provoke a nation into counterproductive behaviors, or to raise the cost of acting in productive ways so high that the nation forgoes its otherwise legitimate interests. And so, the terrorists in Iraq attempt to either provoke us into unrestrained acts of violence in order to turn the civilian population against us, or to weary us into abandoning the effort.

I believe pornography has the same effect on our nation, multiplied a million times over. I believe that Christian men in this society are very often afraid to take on their obligation to Christian leadership, because they are afraid of what secrets might come out. And there’s no doubt that pornography has driven many to greater acts of criminality and violence. Henderson claims that virtually all serial killers began with pornography. And he quotes Ted Bundy, the serial killer, as saying that virtually everyone he met in prison with a penchant for violence was also involved in pornography. I did not research these claims of Hendersons’ myself, but I believe them to be true.

This is not a deeply theological book, but it’s a Biblically sound book. He focuses frequently on the truth of sex as a gift from God, and on the fact that man and woman were created the way they were not as accidents but as a major part of God’s plan for humanity. He shows how lust and pornography sabotage and undermine the true purpose of our sexuality.

One story he tells is of a poor young European man who is making the long journey to America on a ship. He has little money, and little food, and carefully hoards his food to himself, rationing it out so that it will last, and never eating in the dining hall since he is sure he can’t afford it and wants to save his money. At the end of the trip, after nearly starving, he finds out that the food in the dining hall does not cost anything extra, but is included in the fare. Henderson applies this by saying that sex is part of God’s plan for us, and its benefits are free, when we use them the way God intended. But the user of pornography is like that poor young man, eking out his miserable pleasures alone because he thinks he can’t afford the larger blessings.

Another point he makes is to remind us how quickly many years of effort can be undone. He uses the example of the Titanic, or the Twin Towers, to show how years of effort and labor can be undone in just minutes. Years of labor in the ministry, years of work on a marriage, years of raising children, can all be undone in the blink of an eye, if we do not put the time in early to cultivate a disciplined life.

I thought this book was excellent, and would recommend it to anyone struggling with the problem or dealing with those who are. One minor gripe I have is the 40 chapters- it seems kind of an artificial way to capitalize on the popularity of the Purpose Driven Life frankly. And it results in some forcing of the topics- there are many chapters that seemed artificially broken out into separate chapters, just to get the total of forty. But this is really a minor gripe.

Another complaint I have is the use of Scripture, which is pretty typical of Christian books today. He uses a lot of different translations, whichever seems to suit his purpose best in any given place. I find this annoying, and it’s a pretty poor doctrine of Scripture, I think. It views the Scripture as a way to support the points we want to make. It would be one thing if the use of different translations was driven by the belief that one translation in one plase was more accurate than another which might be better in other places. But when many of the translations are paraphrases, accuracy seems unlikely to be the motivating factor and it’s obviously just about which translation suits the author’s purpose better in any given place. But I did not find this tendency to be nearly as egregious as it was in Purpose Driven Life, and does not detract from the content.

The book doesn’t do as good a job of going into the root natures of the problem as False Intimacy does, but this is not the purpose of the book. I thought it was a better book for dealing with the problem on a personal, day-to-day basis than Not Even a Hint was. Henderson seems to bring a level of insight and experience which Harris lacks, but then Henderson is a much older man than Josh Harris, so that makes sense.

Good job, Rev. Henderson. And thanks, Mind and Media, for the opportunity to review this book.

Two new sermons are posted, from Acts 18 and 19. The most recent sermon is on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and also addresses the issue of the so-called “rebaptism” of Acts 19. The link is on the sidebar, or click here

Grace for the Race is a book intended for busy mothers. Andrea just so happens to be a busy mother, whereas I fail quite badly in one part of that qualification. So I had her review this one.

Grace for the Race: Meditations for Busy Moms
by Dena Dyer
(Barbour)

Grace for the Race, by Dena Dyer is first-person accounts of life stories as seen through her faith. She draws from her childhood experiences, friendships, courtship, marriage, and motherhood. As stated in her subtitle, she wrote this intending to minister to busy moms. I am a busy mom, so my husband gave this book to me to read and review. Certainly, this does not tax the brain or require long stretches of time for devoted reading. Each reading is two pages long with one page of verses, cutely titled “Notes from the Coach”.

My immediate reaction upon seeing the cover of this book was irritation. The cover is a pretty pink color with a cutsie drawing of a mom jumping a hurdle–baby, cell phone, and brief case in her arms. The cover implied to me that the target market was to moms, you know those women who aren’t concerned with big ideas and serious thinking. A cartoon character implies to me frivolity. I tried to set my first impression aside and began reading. Mrs. Dyer’s stated goals in her introduction were promising. Yes, I do want to be encouraged to view my childhood, “even the unsavory parts–through the lens of God’s grace.” I want to accept my weaknesses and my children’s weaknesses as gifts from God. These are among the lofty goals she has for this book.

I admire Mrs. Dyer’s bravery in examining very personal events about herself. Her stories are humorous and it is apparent she is drawing from rich relationships with family and friends. While I enjoyed her writing style, I was disappointed at her poor theology. For example, in an essay titled “Sowing in Tears,” she quotes writer Ken Gire: “In each tear is distilled something of eternity, something of love and compassion and tenderness, all things that originate in heaven and come to earth as a sacrament to my soul, if only I am willing to take and eat.” She then applies it to her own life thus, “So whether I weep at a wedding, sob during a funeral, or tear up with joy while listening to a friend’s good fortune, I’m no longer ashamed. In fact, during this pregnancy, I’m crying with abandon–content in the knowledge that I’m touching both heaven and earth at the same time.” Gire has a very appealing way of stating this view of tears, but to refer to them as a sacrament is extra-biblical. There is so much more real instruction in the actual texts of the Bible on tears than the gnostic statement by Gire. One of my favorite passages on tears is Ecclesiastes 7:2&3, “ Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better.” I know what to do with this, but what does it really mean to “touch heaven and earth at the same time”?

My biggest irritation with the book, however, is the use of Scripture. Mrs. Dyer tells a story and then gives verses that are supposed to apply. In “Journaling for the Soul,” she writes of how valuable journaling has been in her own experience, which I can see. There’s nothing wrong with journaling, but then she tacks on Ex 34:27, Jeremiah 30:1-2, etc, quoting verses where God commands specific people to write a specific message to a specific audience. . When the Ruler of the universe says something, it should hold authority with the intended audience. Further, God inspired the content of the writing He commanded. This is not something we could apply to our human journaling. To use this in the context of journaling either elevates journaling to a place of importance where it doesn’t rightfully belong, or it cheapens God’s word. In addition to this, she uses multiple translations. It grieves my soul to read “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are–no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.” Matthew 5:5 (MSG). Compare that to “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 (New King James). I did not recognize the voice of my dear heavenly Father in some of the passages attributed to Him. It’s ironic to me that a writer would be so cavalier with the translations she chooses to use. Certainly, she would be angered if I quoted her, taking out carefully chosen words, and represented her writing as flat and uninteresting. How much more important are the words of God, in which we find our life?

If I were reading Grace for the Race as merely a collection of stories, I would have enjoyed it. She is a good story teller. When looking for “grace for the race,” however, I think I will look elsewhere.

–Andrea Powell

For Mind and Media

I’ve been getting a lot of comment spam lately. I’ve been trying to delete it, but I may have missed some, and some of it’s pornographic. I apologize if you’ve been sullied by it.

I’ve turned on some verification requirements for comments, so this should reduce this problem. Yet another example of the tragedy of the commons, I’m afraid.

Rare Jewel Magazine is a magazine aimed at Christians and is a magazine with a mission- specifically, “Empowering Christians to exercise a Biblical worldview.” It comes out every two months, and each issue focuses on a different broad subject, so that all of the articles in a given issue examine the same subject from various different perspectives. It is therefore definitely an advocacy magazine, or an issues magazine, rather than just a general knowledge kind of magazine. Less National Geographic, more National Review.

Some of the topics that RJ has focused on in the five issues I have thus far received are “Christophobia: The Growing Hatred of Christians… and Its Implications for America”; “The Sanctity of Life”; and “The Shame of a Culture: America’s War on the Family”. A variety of writers (some of which are staff writers for RJ and some of which are better-known figures such as Tony Perkins or Senator Tom Coburn). There will usually be some staff interviews with representatives of different (usually Christian) organizations such as Focus on the Family. Some of the articles will be general essays, some will address events of the day and some will be more of a historical nature. But all will address whatever broad topic that issue is meant to address.

RJ‘s perspective is unapologetically Christian, but non-sectarian. Generically evangelical would probably describe it well. The magazine has little focus on doctrinal issues at all, instead focusing on problems and threats in our society from the perspective of what it calls a “Christian worldview”. It frequently refers to Christian Patriots (another tagline is “The Christian Patriots’ Guide to Restoring our Culture”), and probably this term best describes the worldview it’s coming from. A Christian Patriot is someone who is some kind of Christian (no particular doctrinal focus seems to be required) who believes that a return to this nation’s roots at its founding is what’s necessary to cure our problems. It is a sort of Kuyperian worldview focus, with a heavy emphasis on the Christian perspective on politics and none of Kuyper’s Calvinism. And so, when the magazine advocates a course of action to solve particular problems, the actions suggested are virtually always social or political actions. Call your senator, start a petition, become knowledgeable, educate your kids. There might be a suggestion to pray for a particular problem, but prayer to RJ seems usually an objective utilitarian device, just another tool to effect the desired political or social outcome. The focus in RJ is all on our Christian heritage and Christian morals.

And so there is very little focus on the gospel or on doctrine in general in RJ. Perhaps it is trying to reach as broad a selection of American Christians as possible, but when there’s a list of the ten things we can do to redeem our culture and the gospel isn’t one of them, that stands out like a sore thumb to me. This feature stands out more in the context of some of its topics than others. When addressing the issue of creationism vs. evolution, the topic is presented well within the range of what the magazine wants to do, but when RJ is advocating methods and approaches for broad cultural change, the lack of doctrinal or evangelical approaches hurts it a good deal, at least by my expectations.

But within the range of what it’s trying to do, it does it very well. I found it to be generally well-written and substantial. There is a great range of approaches to their problems, some personal, some objective, some historical. Often with other magazines I find myself drawn to an article and become interested in that subject, but feel that one article doesn’t fully explore the topic like I’d like. But with RJ, I get to read a whole magazine on the topic, from lots of different angles and perspectives, which more thoroughly satisfies my interest in the topic.

It is also a well-produced magazine. There’s a lot of color; a lot of sidebars and asides which provide interesting side details to the article at hand. There are photos, but not so many and so large that there’s little room for text left sometimes, one of my few criticisms of World Magazine. But then, it’s not a news magazine, as World is. I found it a very easy and enjoyable magazine to read, from a purely mechanical point of view.

My favorite issues were issues that were narrowly focused on a topic with much potential for informing the reader, such as their issue on creationism or on the sanctity of life (especially abortion). I found these issues to be excellent, and spurred me on to a great deal of thinking about the topics.

The problems I had with the magazine’s approach really only affected my view of some issues, where there were broader societal or political trends being addressed. And even in these issues, I found RJ to be very informative and provocative. But it was the constant focus on political and social efforts as the solution to all of our problems, with little or no mention of the gospel and the true knowledge of God that I most objected to. So I would recommend RJ, especially if you are aware of what you’re getting and what you’re not.

This is a Mind and Media – sponsored review.

Sunday’s sermon is posted, from the link on the sidebar.

It’s on Acts 18, and is on the subject of election. From the text it’s clear that God knows His own and ensures the salvation of His own.

I have added another site to my blogroll- FocalElement. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen there so far, so check it out if you’re so inclined.

It is clear that the public discourse in this country simply does not allow for reality. I cite the Bill Bennett controversy as an example.

He is absolutely right- his comments were distorted. The only thing necessary to determine the rightness or wrongness of the statement that aborting all black babies would lower the crime rate, is simply to determine whether or not blacks have a higher crime rate than whites. This is objectively true, and therefore Bennett’s statement is objectively true. The statement of itself says nothing about whether other costs incurred by doing such a thing would be greater or less than the benefits, and in fact, in the context the statement was made, he made it clear that it would be a terrible thing to do. He was using a hypothetical argument, a reducto ad absurdum, in order to refute another statement.

But none of the public comments on Bennett’s statement have at all dealt with the factual truth of his statement. They simply call him a racist, and that’s the end of it.

“Truth has fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter” (Isa. 59:14). If we do not deal in truth, then the hard-fought battle for equity will be lost. Blacks will never have equity in this country, and neither will anyone else, as long as we ignore truth. The postmodernist idea is that a statement is true if it has the desired effects. But the Bible passage quoted above says that it’s the truth that causes the right outcomes, not the other way around. If minorities in this country want to be treated with equity, then they should be fighting for the truth, both about themselves and about others.

Last night Katie and I went to see the movie Valiant [fun movie for kids, by the way.] A lot of the movie is about these carrier pigeons trying to get away from the evil Nazi falcons, and to get back to base with their message.

As soon as the movie started to end, as the closing theme started to play, Katie jumped up from her chair and started running. I chased after her, but she was too fast. She ran all the way around the back of the theater on her little legs and then out into the lobby, and when I got out to the lobby, she was gone. A group of people was there laughing, and said “she went that way.” So I ran outside.

She was standing by the van, and when I got there, she said, “I made it!”

The last two Sunday sermons are posted. One is on the subject of Paul’s sermon at the Areopagus, about the “Unknown God.” The other addresses the spirit of rebellion which animated the Greeks in Athens and the Jews in Corinth. The link is on the sidebar.