Non-fiction, Religion, Reviews

‘Confessions of a Charismatic Christian,’ by Rick Dewhurst

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In spite of the fact that I’ve never given any of his novels a rave review, Rick Dewhurst keeps alerting me to his new books. This argues a level of spiritual humility which I can only admire. I like his writing style, but I don’t think he’s ever found his real vehicle.

He has a new book out now, in a different genre entirely. It’s a spiritual memoir called Confessions of a Charismatic Christian.

It wasn’t, frankly, what I expected. I was anticipating something along the lines of C. S. Lewis’s Surprised By Joy. The plan here is somewhat different. These Confessions are a series of spiritual lessons, each headed by an experience (not related chronologically) from the author’s own life. Sometimes a miraculous one.

I don’t mean to disparage the book’s plan, but I would have enjoyed reading more about the life that produced such an intriguing writer. But it’s a capital mistake to judge a book by what you think it should be, rather than what the author chose to create.

I had some difficulty with the early chapters, which are the heaviest on the charismatic lessons. Rick is the pastor of a charismatic congregation in British Columbia. Although I myself spent time on the periphery of the charismatic movement back in the ‘70s, I have since joined a church that takes a skeptical attitude toward signs and wonders (though not denying their possibility). So I wasn’t entirely in sympathy with a lot of that part. But as I read on, I found more and more material that was profound and edifying for everyone.

I thought the writing a little discursive – the text could have been tightened up some. And the tone is sometimes unnecessarily apologetic. But Confessions of a Charismatic Christian was an edifying book from a seasoned pastor. Worth reading.

Writing

Egregious Examples of Less than Excellent Exercises

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If you come across the word egregious this week, it is likely in a story about the New York governor’s exemplary leadership during the pandemic in which he scuttled seniors by sending the coronavirus into their nursing homes while reportedly making the medical officials in charge of them immune to liability charges. He has reportedly threatened state congressmen of his own party in order to silence their calls for accountability. By all accounts, this is excellent gubernatorial work.

But you see the irony I’m using here. I’ve said egregious as if it means excellent, because that’s exactly the usage the word once had. Egregious comes from Latin, originally meaning “distinguished or extraordinary.” The Online Etymology Dictionary says it came into English in the 1530s.

An old educational journal gives some examples of its use in this meaning. From Samuel Johnson’s The Life of Pope: “This Essay affords an egregious instance of the predominance of genius, the dazzling splendour of imagery, and the seductive powers of eloquence.” Here Johnson is saying Pope has outdone himself in this essay on man. “The reader feels his mind full, though he learns nothing; and when he meets it in its new array no longer knows the talk of his mother and his nurse.”

In a poem for a newborn prince in 1705:

One, to Empire Born,
Egregious Prince, whose Manly Childhood shew’d
His mingled Parents, and portended Joy
Unspeakable;

Johnson’s use leans into the extraordinary side of the original meaning of egregious, not so much the excellent side. Perhaps it shows the path for the change of meaning, which the dictionary has occurring in the late 16th century.

First, we used it ironically: Should’ve seen the street preacher I just passed, an egregious communicator that, preaching the gospel of sausages in buns.

Then, we pushed the meaning into outrageous or extremely bad, like only a governor can do.

Isn’t it interesting that words can flip meaning like this?

Religion

I sing of Capitalism

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No book to review tonight. And that’s tragic, because it leaves me no alternative but to write down my thoughts. You’ve been warned.

The question is perpetual. People ask, “If you’re a Christian, why aren’t you a socialist? Didn’t Jesus tell us to share what we owned with the poor? Didn’t the Jerusalem church in Acts practice common ownership of property? Doesn’t it make you a hypocrite to promote capitalism, which is based on greed?”

A natural question. And one that’s been addressed numerous times. So what I’m about to say is far from original.

I support capitalism because I’m a Christian, with a Christian world view.

Capitalism recognizes the biblical view of Man, which is that Man is fallen and sinful by nature. Greedy, among his other faults. Capitalism recognizes that this is true of everyone – rich and poor, male and female, regardless of race.

Capitalism restrains (or tries to restrain) one greedy man who has achieved wealth from dominating everyone around him. It forces him to compete with other greedy men in order to achieve further wealth. This gives a certain amount of power to the consumer, who is likely much poorer than the rich guys.

It’s a system for controlling greed through the distribution of power.

Socialism is based on a non-Christian view of Man, that Man is basically innocent, just corrupted by a perverted society that has somehow evolved (it’s never explained how that happened if Man is innocent). The classic expression of this view is Rousseau’s “Man was born free, but is everywhere in chains.”

Socialism assumes that if those societal chains (chains of wealth, power, class, gender, race, etc.) are removed, innocent Man will blossom into his natural virtue, and the world will become an Eden.

This plan has never worked. And when it fails, Socialist True Believers have no alternative but to look for scapegoats. “The plan was perfect! Based on science! So if it fails, it must be the fault of wreckers! Find these wreckers, and eliminate them!”

Thus the inevitable re-education camps and gulags.

That’s what happens when you try to enforce Christian love without the change of heart wrought by the gospel. Also when you try to perfect the human heart through force of law.

Ever read the epistles of Paul? A fair proportion of their text involves appeals for funds, to help feed the socialist church in Jerusalem, which is now starving.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Fool Moon,’ by Jim Butcher

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Many of my reading friends seem to be fans of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, a fusion of hard-boiled detective and fantasy stories. Harry is a working wizard operating in Chicago. At the beginning of Fool Moon, he is roused from a dry period in his career when his cop friend, Karrin Murphy, calls him in to look at the scene of a horrific murder – lots of blood, and gigantic wolf prints on the floor to boot. Harry isn’t an expert on lycanthropy, but he studies up on it quick, learning that there are several kinds of werewolf, and what he’s dealing with here is the baddest of them all.

Which leads us into a very complex story involving hostile police, hostile FBI agents, hostile werewolves, and hostile mobsters, all at odds with each other, but mostly agreed in not liking Harry. Much blood will be spilled before we get to the big final showdown.

I read one Harry Dresden book already (the first), and wasn’t greatly taken with it. My Butcher Brigade friends said I should try it again – the books get better. I have to say, I still don’t get it. The writing wasn’t bad, but it didn’t grab me. My main problem, I think, was that I just have a visceral reaction to the mechanics of Magic. Gandalf’s okay, because he’s a supernatural being (essentially an angel). But potions and magic incantations and pentagrams and all that stuff – it repels me.

Also, I sometimes had trouble following the story. In particular, the penultimate climactic scene involves a pit trap below some kind of wooden superstructure, and for the life of me I couldn’t picture the thing in my mind.

So I guess I’m not going to add the Harry Dresden books to my reading rotation. But lots of people like them, so you may react differently. The story, I must admit, was exciting, and sometimes stirring. And by the way, I should note that there’s lots of violence and gore.

Authors, Publishing

Baen Books under attack

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As you may be aware, I have been and am one of Baen Books’ authors (in electronic form in recent years). Going back to the time of the late Jim Baen himself, Baen Books has always honored the classic view of First Amendment freedom — they publish authors who run the political gamut from me (a Christian conservative) to Eric Flint, who is a Communist. All Jim ever cared about was telling a good story, and his successor Toni Weisskopf has carried on that tradition, in a way every American should approve.

Today we learned, via bestselling author Larry Correia, that Baen has come under attack as a threat to national security. (Cautions for language.) The precise target of the attack was Baen’s Bar, a free-wheeling online forum in which readers and authors interact. The Bar has always been an unrestrained sort of place, where people felt free to engage in hyperbole and “hold my beer and watch this.” Today, of course, you’re only allowed to hyperbolize if you have a government-issued Hyperbole Permit, so an effort is being made to close it down.

Because nothing is more offensive to a Leftist than any talk of revolution.

Anyway, if you’d like to stand up for free speech, you might want to buy a book from Baen. One of my e-books, even.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Murder Unseen,’ by bruce Beckham

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Bruce Beckham’s Inspector Skelgill series, set in Cumbria, continues with Murder Unseen, though Skelgill himself takes a somewhat reduced role this time out. He’s off on a different assignment (and on holiday) much of the time, so the focus is on DS Emma Jones, his subordinate, mentee and secret admirer. DS Leyton, the other main member of the team, has a smaller case of his own to look into.

Lisa Jackson, an attractive young employee at a Carlisle design firm, walks into the office one morning and disappears from the face of the earth. The office is in a blind alley, and there is no back exit from the building.

A suspect quickly appears. Ray Piper, a married man and co-worker who recently ended an affair with Lisa, is seen with his car backed up to the office door shortly after her disappearance. But he has an explanation for every suspicious act and piece of evidence in the case, and it’s notoriously difficult to prosecute a murder without a corpus delicti. As time passes, the team will begin to despair of a conviction – until Skelgill himself returns to apply his intuitive investigative approach, and his close familiarity with the local terrain.

The Skelgill books aren’t highly charged thrillers, and that suits me just fine. They’re slower, quieter, and more character-driven than most mysteries, and the author loves to pause to describe the Lake District scenery. I enjoyed Murder Unseen, and recommend it.

I do wish Skelgill and Jones would get together, though. If she waits for him to make a move, she’ll probably wait forever.

Non-fiction, Religion

If We Win the Leaders, Will We Win the Nation?

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I gather family devotions is a challenge for everyone. I remember my parents pulling us together a couple times for what resembled the semblance of something like a worship service. It was awkward. I didn’t like it. My father-in-law regularly read from the Bible after supper, so that’s the pattern that drew me in.

Since we have homeschooled our kids from the beginning, my wife read through the Bible with them during the morning routine. That and my desire to read something that applied the Word, if not strictly devotional, is what steered me toward reading through Christian books instead of the Bible. We read a few of Jared C. Wilson’s books, at least a couple of Jerry Bridges’s. After using the Advent readings from our church, I was at a loss for what to start next. My wife suggested a few of the small books from our shelf, and that’s what got us into Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ.

This ain’t light reading. Wurmbrand is a Romanian minister from Bucharest who grew up atheist and came to faith through reading the Bible. He became an leader of the Underground Church after Communism began to strangle all of its citizens. What he and other believers suffered was demonic.

He writes like a missionary, as you would expect, and one of his principles provoked us to push back. He advocates winning people of influence first.

How was Norway won for Christ? By winning King Olaf. Russia first had the Gospel when its king, Vladimir, was won. Hungary was won by winning St. Stephen, its king. The same with Poland. In Africa, wehre the chief of the tribe has been won, the tribe follows. We setup missions to rank-and-life men who may become very fine Christians, but who have little influence and cannot change the state of things.

We must win rulers: political, economic, scientific, artistic personalities. They are the engineers of souls. They mold the souls of men. Winning them, you win the people they lead and influence.

Wurmbrand might have looked to the book of Daniel and asked whether Nebuchadnezzar’s repent and apparent faith did anything to turn Babylon around or the sympathy King Darius had for Daniel bore any fruit. Who was saved when Jonah preached to Ninevah? That nation was blessed by avoiding God’s wrath for a few generations, but when Nahum returned 150 years later, he said, “And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, ‘Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?'”

Certainly a people are blessed by Christian leaders. A society organized on biblical values is better overall than any other society, but it would not usher in faith for anyone by mere leadership. When civil leaders turn a country to Christ, it isn’t often by Christian means. The faithless see opportunity and take it by declaring themselves faithful.

God uses society and influence in ways we don’t often foresee. Remember how he has told us to care for widows and orphans. They aren’t the influential ones today, but they could be tomorrow. A common result would be that they seek Christ wherever they go and repeat the truth to a family or congregation, thereby keeping a few more people on the straight and narrow. Who can say this is an unambitious plan?

Music

Hutch-town

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The Hutchinson Family Singers in 1845

A little historical vignette for you today, because I’m doing other things and don’t have a book to review tonight.

My maternal grandfather was born in the town of Hutchinson, Minnesota. Nice town, west of the Twin Cities. I’ve been there a few times.

I find the town’s history intriguing. It’s named after its founders, who as far as I know never lived there. They were the Hutchinson Family Singers. The HFS hold a unique place in American history, but are largely forgotten today.

In the 1830s, European singing groups began to tour in the United States, and became very popular. The Hutchinsons, New Englanders, originally brothers John, Asa, Jesse, and Judson, emulated them, and began giving public concerts in 1840. In time they would be the most popular musical group in the country. They were the first to popularize four-part harmony in the United States, so if you like gospel quartettes, thank the Hutchinsons. After brother Jesse dropped out to write songs and manage the group, he was replaced by sister Abby, and as the family grew, the act expanded (occasionally splitting up).

The times were like ours in many ways. Political causes were in the air, and the Hutchinsons were highly “woke” by the standards of their time. They were avid Abolitionists, Prohibitionists, and Women’s Suffragists (modern people find it hard to believe, but those causes were closely tied back then. It was always about ushering in the Kingdom of God through legislation). The Hutchinsons’ songs, whether performed by the group in concert or sung off sheet music in American parlors, helped to move public opinion toward Abolition. At one point they toured Europe with Frederick Douglass.

Hutchinson, Minnesota, was (as I understand it; I can’t find it plainly stated in an online search) founded as a model town, one in which vice would be prohibited, and women would have equal rights. I’m sure it would sadden them today to know that alcohol is available for purchase in Hutchnson. But I’m pretty sure slavery is still illegal, and I imagine women run the place, like everywhere else in America.

One of the drawbacks of political relevance is that it doesn’t tend to lead to enduring art. None of the Hutchinsons’ songs is remembered today, except by music scholars. But if you’d like to hear one of them, here’s a recreation of their number, “Get Off the Track.” The tune is almost familiar.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tyoC-JccYcc
Uncategorized

New Tolkien Biography will Emphasize Author’s Faith

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Jeremy W. Johnston, author of All Things New: Essays on Christianity, culture & the arts and Undiminished Returns: Poems of a Christian Life, is working on “a short, accessible, spiritual biography of the Maker of Middle Earth.”

He talks about his experience with reading The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and how he came to start writing this biography on his blog.

Authors

Ravi Zacharias Stained His Name Forever

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I hate this so much.

After news broke of women accusing the late apologist Ravi Zacharias of sexual and spiritual abuse, the ministry he founded, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, hired an team to investigate the claims. They released the report this week. It has details I don’t want to think about or repeat here.

But people have been able to talk about this for a few months now with some humble, biblical reflection. Artist and author Jackie Hill Perry notes that “orthodox teaching” is not “proof of righteous living.” Demons could teach us the Bible accurately and King David understood the prophet Nathan’s parable before recognizing himself in it.

https://twitter.com/JackieHillPerry/status/1360217209872785410

This is true. Anyone who was inspired by the Bible they heard in Zacharias’s messages or was brought to faith in connection to them suffers no loss in the life they now have. But when you’re able to hear how a man spiritually abused his victims, how they prayed beforehand, how some didn’t come forward because who would believe them, then you can easily start to wonder if the truth you hear from such a man is, in fact, true. Maybe it’s off somehow. Maybe the conviction you should doubt is not your own, but his.

Joe Carter, who summarized the details I linked to above, draws it down to this. “I believe it was because of a dangerous mix of inflated entitlement, unwarranted secrecy, and cheap grace.”

On entitlement, he says, “They begin to think the sacrifices they make for the job should be offset by making allowances for their behavior—including sinful behavior—because they are ‘Great Men.’ They begin to develop a sense that their great achievements for the kingdom entitles them to the spoils that are due all such Great Men.

“It is this Great Man mentality, not celebrity (which many disgraced leaders don’t have), that tends to lead to their downfall.”

Let me add more to this by bringing in Rachael Denhollander’s tweets. You should remember her name as one of many victims in large abuse scandal in U.S. gymnastics. She has become a voice against the abuses of powerful people in the subsequent years.

Speaking to Christian leaders who are decrying Zacharias this week, she says their voices were needed in 2017 when the first accusation came forward. That’s when it would have cost something to call for accountability.