Will Sarah Palin be the worlds’s most powerful woman? She could be one heart beat away.
With either ticket, barriers are coming down, and that’s good to see.
The glass is breaking in the ceiling.
Here is an interesting link mp3 from PBS from Alaskans on the unknown and interesting woman who could be VP. Pros and cons.
So, McCain throws a big curve ball.
Politics just got more interesting.
Women in Nigeria who the Red Cross had identified as sex workers (to help stop the spread of AIDS) are being rounded up under Sharia law (story here).
Obviously if there are women sex workers there are men involved as well, but it is the women being punished. Same thing happened at my Christian college – if a girl got pregnant she (not the guy) got kicked out. How do you react to stories like these? Where should morality lines be drawn?
Well, the best of intentions seem to have lead me down a path of glorious defeat. Still on vacation and I’ve lost track of my days. Whoops. So I’ll post this on the other “T” day in the week, apologize, and give you a beautiful photograph in compensation.
This was taken by my husband at the lake we’re staying at. But we’re going home soon, so next week I’ll be back in the regular swing of things again.
Now we’ve gotten the matter of criticism out of our systems. We can get down to what we like about this book. There’s so much to talk about, but let’s start with the global ideas and work our way back to the little bits and pieces.
Three questions up for discussion this week:
First, Eugene Peterson has described “The Shack” as ” a book that “has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!” Do you agree or disagree with that statement and why? It’s been a pretty controversial statement in the blogosphere and elsewhere, so it would be fun to talk about it here. A corollary question, what do you think Peterson was getting at when he made such a sweeping overstatement?
Second, what do you think is the most important contribution that “The Shack” has to make to Christians? To our culture at large? Is the contribution the same or different? and (of course) why or why not?
Third, (for fun) what was your favorite part of the book? Do you find yourself speaking it out or carefully saving it away in the safe places of your mind?
Whoops! I’m on vacation and the fact that it’s Tuesday and I want to post something almost slipped right by me.
So … this month we’re talking about The Shack. Everybody’s talking about The Shack … good, bad and indifferent it’s the latest craze. Ten weeks on the NYTimes best seller list. TEN. It’s crazy making that a book published by some little no-name publisher, written by who? is at the top of the New York Times Best. Seller. List. This is a book that started life as a bed time story. As some photo-copies. So … in the words of Brian Eno, “How did we get here?”
How did this happen? That’s where I’d like to start this discussion. There’s a lot of people who want to say God did it. It’s all God.
Some people say it’s a really interesting viral marketing scheme (thanks, Drew).
What do you think? How did a little book that started life with such humble origins, get to such a place that Oprah is plugging it? That’s my first question.
Second question for today/tonight … Here are the links to two pretty balanced reviews of The Shack, written by people I respect. One by Bob Hyatt, who had the opportunity to be interviewed on Oregon Public Radio with (William) Paul Young last week. The other by Ben Witherington. Both reviews are very respectful and both men obviously read the book (unlike some other reviews we won’t mention). What do you think of the reviews? How do you think these men handled the book overall? Specifics?
