Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand

With the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (which fellow blogger Sharon Autenrieth wrote about here) coming up on November 9th, I thought it would be a good time to let people know about an amazingly moving book that you can receive absolutely free from The Voice of the Martyrs, a non-profit organization founded by Richard Wurmbrand that aids the persecuted church around the world.

The book is Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ. It is a personal account of the persecution he faced as a result of preaching the gospel of Christ in Communist Romania.

(Not too long ago I wrote about Wurmbrand and the book on my blog, echad. Rather than reprinting that here, If you’re so inclined you can read that post here.)

For more about Wurmbrand, or to sign up online to receive your free copy of Tortured for Christ, you can visit www.TorturedforChrist.com.

(For what…

Leftover Halloween candy languishes in its plastic pumpkin on top of the refrigerator; for the moment, the kids are satiated and I’m being good.  All the sugar brings to mind a favorite hymn, “Jesus, the very thought of thee,” a few stanzas of which are here:

Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find
A sweeter sound than Thy blest Name,
O Savior of mankind!

O Jesus, King most wonderful
Thou Conqueror renowned,
Thou sweetness most ineffable
In Whom all joys are found!

Celestial Sweetness unalloyed,
Who eat Thee hunger still;
Who drink of Thee still feel a void
Which only Thou canst fill.

O most sweet Jesus, hear the sighs
Which unto Thee we send;
To Thee our inmost spirit cries;
To Thee our prayers ascend.

The original Latin text is by Bernard of Clairvaux,  the great religious writer and reformer of…

I’ve recently discovered a book by Dag Hammarskjold called Markings.  I’ve not read his work before but was so moved by Markings, that I look forward to reading other works by him.

Dag Hammarskjold was Secretary General of the United Nations from April 1953- Sept. 1961. Mr. Hammarskjold died in a plane crash while on a UN mission to Congo.

Markings is written in diary form, though the many entries have the appearance of an aphorism. The entry dates extend from 1925 to 1961.  The entries trace the development of his spiritual thought throughout this period of his life.  Dag Hammarskjold was not afraid to look deep inside himself (psyche, soul?) and ask tough questions.  The book shows his progression toward a deep spirituality.

I love the title.  The word markings evokes connotations of a touchstone.  Those places on our spiritual journey that mark great insights and revelations.  Dag Hammarskjold is sharing his own insights, written…

Book burning scheduled for Halloween at N.C. baptist church to include copies of the Bible

Update: Since the original posting of this article, The Amazing Grace Baptist Church’s website - which I cite throughout - has become unavailable. In the meantime, I have added new links to other resources when possible.

I thought that the days of churches burning books were long gone, but the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in North Carolina is proving me wrong by hosting an annual event that they call a “Halloween Book Burning.” (see also this story from KWTX.com.)

(As an aside, it’s purely coincidental that both this post and my last had to do with events occurring in North Carolina, lest anyone think I have it in for that particular state.)

If I were to venture a guess as to what might be included on the list of barbecued books, I would probably list the usual suspects - Harry…

An artist's rendering of Joseph Smith's first vision

Karen Armstrong, a popular historian of religion whose bestselling A History of God brought her to national prominence in 1993, is back in the news. Her new book, The Case for God, revisits some familiar  territory in a stimulating survey of Western religious history, but this time Armstrong packages her message in an admonition to both conservative Christians and bellicose atheists, mutual antagonists in the cultural skirmishes over religion.  The Wall Street Journal recently commissioned Armstrong and Richard Dawkins, the most outspoken of the new atheists, to respond to the question, “Where does evolution leave God?” (one wonders why they did not also include an informed representative of conservative religion in their symposium).  The two answers were published together, and they make a most interesting study in contrast. Armstrong uses the platform to reprise the argument of her new book:

In the past, many of the most…

I know there are big, exciting, controversial topics out there that I ought to be writing about.  The voices insisting that the end of the world is nigh are loud and nettlesome.  My own beloved denomination, the Episcopal Church, is groaning with labor pains, although some believe they are death rattles.  (I borrowed that metaphor from someone, I don’t remember whom.)  Maybe they’re right.  I don’t know. But I do know that most of the stories about church that make the news are probably not the ones that best reflect what faith is about for the majority of people who show up in places of worship week after week.

I have had the incredible privilege of spending three weeks this summer in Sewanee, Tennessee, beginning work on a Doctor of Ministry degree.  I can explain what all that means another time, but for now the point is that I’ve been away…

That’s the title of a summer workshop I will be leading later this month (July 27-29) at Concordia Seminary. It’s a topic I’ve studied, talked, and thought about for a long time. Peter Mead, senior editor at Creative Communications for the Parish, will lead some of the presentations too. Even if you’re not interested in the workshop, it will feature a public reading at 4:00PM on Tuesday, July 28.

Here’s the blurb I wrote for the brochure:

This workshop will delve into various kinds of creative writing—poetry, storytelling (for “page” and “stage”), and creative nonfiction—and what it means to write in these genres as a person of faith. What role does faith play in the creative process? What makes a piece of writing religious? How is faith expressed through creativity? Questions like these will be explored through presentations, close readings, conversation and creative exercises. Although not required, participants are encouraged to bring…

Concordia Seminary will honor faculty members who have recently published books next Tuesday, May 19, 4:00-6:00PM, in the Seminary’s Koburg Hall (map and directions).

The celebration will include the requisite fine wine, hors d’oeuvres, and lively conversation. And the writers will be present to sign books. We’re not elitist at Concordia, so we want to celebrate with anyone who’d like to raise a glass to good writing and/or good theology. Everything is free but the books.

The following writers and their books will be feted:

• Charles Arand and Robert Kolb: The Genius of Luther’s Theology (Baker)

• Charles Arand, Robert Kolb and Robert Rosin: essays in The Pastoral Luther (Eerdmans)

• Kent Burreson: editor for He Was Crucified (Concordia)

• Robert Kolb: Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith (Oxford)

• Reed Lessing: Concordia Commentary: Amos (Concordia)

• David Maxwell: an essay in In the Shadow of the Incarnation (Notre Dame)

• Francis Rossow: Gospel Patterns in Literature (Kirk House)

• Quentin Wesselschmidt: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Psalms 51-150 (InterVarsity)

We plan to make this an annual…

A bagpipe in Jewish culture credit: www.hotpipes.com

Tyree is a Scottish name, one I married into, and also Scottish is the maiden name of my paternal grandmother, MacLean.

The windy Isle of Tiree, the outermost of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, is mighty close to the Isle of Mull, the seat of the MacLean Clan.

I questioned MacLean Clan historian Detta MacLean when I took on the Tyree name and she said my new husband was probably a MacLean. “I grew up on Mull and knew everyone on Tiree. They are all MacLeans!”

Detta MacLean’s point might be a stretch, but it’s very Scottish thinking. Very clannish.

As it happens, the Scots have a good deal in common with the Jews, according to Duncan A. Bruce, author of the 1996 history, The Mark of the Scots. And the parallels, taken together, have landed these two groups a good deal of trouble throughout the ages. Take a look at…

Reinhold Niebuhr

This week NPR’s Morning Edition has run back-to-back interviews with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham discussing the memoirs of Barack Obama and John McCain. The idea is to get beyond sound bites and offer an analysis of the major people and events that have shaped the two men, at least according to their own published work.

The fascinating conclusion is that this country’s two major-party presidential candidates have both been strongly influenced by the same theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr.

My initial question is about the way it seems that Niebuhr was seized upon as a hidden, explanatory link between the characters of Obama and McCain. Is this just another example of an almost obsessive fascination with the interplay of politics and religion during this election cycle? Or is something else going on here?

In one sense, there’s nothing surprising about finding references to Reinhold Niebuhr in the writings of both candidates. Niebuhr is generally regarded as one…

My friend, a former St. Louisan,  owned a successful cooking store in Asheville, North Carolina. “I can always tell when homeschooled children come in the shop,” she said, “They have better manners than other children.”

Twenty years have passed since that statement was made and homeschooling in the U.S. has taken off amidst similar praise — and much criticism and fear.

I first became aware of homeschoolers 25 years ago when a few young, local devout Catholic couples decided to opt out of the Catholic school system. The religious catechesis was insipid at best, they said, and some of it actually undermined church teaching.

These couples didn’t need to convince me: I had been one of those Catholic teachers. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the religion books I taught from were of the insipid sort, leaving the children with little in the way of knowledge or history of their religion.  And…

(1) The Olympics:The Wall Street Journal reports on China and religious repression:

Religious repression rears its ugly head again:

President Bush attended church in Beijing on Sunday, worshipping with Chinese Christians and singing “Amazing Grace.”

But what happened outside the church says more about the state of religion in China.

Earlier that morning, Hua Huiqi, the pastor of an illegal underground Christian church, was detained by police as he was biking to the service that Mr. Bush was to attend. His whereabouts are still unknown. Mr. Hua’s brother, who was briefly detained, said Mr. Hua only wanted to worship at the church where he was baptized.

China’s constitution allows freedom of religion, but in practice religion is tolerated only insofar as it is controlled by the state.

The only legal churches are those run by the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

Those who choose to attend “house” churches — roughly half of China’s Christians — face harassment or…

Tuesday afternoon I walked into a small business establishment that employees a handful of Russian-American women. When I entered and asked if everyone were talking about Solzhenitsyn, I was told bemusedly, “No, the Russians are too busy working and the young don’t know who he is.”

And then back to work they went.

For the rest of us — and for those women and the young most especially — here is a list of recent remembrances, Solzhenitsyn links from the last three days:

Moscow Times: Solzhenitsyn, chronicler of  labor camps dies at 89

New York Times/Michael Kaufman: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Russians Mourn Dissident Writer Solzhenitsyn:

A funeral service will take place at the medieval Donskoi monastery in Moscow on Wednesday and Solzhenitsyn will be buried there later that day in accordance with his will, said a Russian Orthodox church spokesman……

Solzhenitsyn was a great and important man: National Review

Remembering Aleksander Solzhenitsyn: Len Grossman, TIME

Alexander…

Calling all Civil Religion readers:

Self-described atheist Jack Orchard, St. Louis author of Extra Hands, has written an engrossing account of his battle against Lou Gehrig’s disease — formally amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

I’d first heard about Extra Hands while listening to KFUO-FM last autumn when Jack’s dad, Bob Orchard, introduced the book to the radio audience and described his son’s life and his recent medical travails. (Click onto the Bob Orchard link above and scroll down to Dec. 13, ‘07 to hear the interview.)

As engrossing as Bob’s description was, I did nothing then beyond checking to see if Amazon sold the book and promising myself to look into it.

Then a few weeks ago, a neighbor who knew of my interest gave me a copy. Once I began I couldn’t put the book down.

So I e-mailed Jack to tell him how much I enjoyed his writing — so fluid, insightful, funny and poignant.

Not bad for someone with ALS.…

Killing the Buddha, a great web magazine that was dormant for awhile, is back.

The magazine, which was founded by two talented religion reporters, Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau, has been resurrected, and is already offering some thought-provoking essays about belief.

Jeff is a friend, and the author of the recently published “The Family.” He also runs a great religion blog based at NYU called The Revealer.

KTB was notable in its heyday for being a place where writers could question belief - theirs and others’. Wrestling with one’s faith is a time-honored tradition and KTB is, as it says on its newly revamped site, “a place for brazen stories of belief — lost and found and lost again.”

Check it out. And make sure to check out the mag’s archives section.

My Muslim friend: A young Catholic learns about Islam

As a father I know I can never be sure if my children are going to adopt my religious beliefs or not. I am praying that they would see the beauty in my religion, Islam, as much as I see it. But in the end they will have to find their own path. This is the way I want them to be anyway. Being part of a religion just because you were brought up within that religion does not make you a believer. Making your own informed, free-will decision to actively subscribe to a belief system is what you will be rewarded for, as least to my simple mind.

The one thing that I definitely believe that parents succeed in ‘indoctrinating’ their children in — mostly subconsciously — is the concept of coexistence, tolerance and respect for ‘the others’. The early-age teaching of,…

I’m always way behind in my New Yorker reading, so I just got around to reading a great essay by Jill Lepore - a history professor at Harvard - in the April 14 issue of the magazine.

The essay surveys some recent books about religious liberty and the founding of America. Here’s a long-ish excerpt that gives the reader a glimpse of where Lepore is going in the essay:

History is after all only a pack of tricks we play on the dead,” Voltaire once quipped. The Founding Fathers had their own pack of tricks: they turned their backs on the past. If they had meekly inherited the faith of their fathers, they would have written a constitution establishing Christianity as the national religion. They did not.Nearly every American colony was settled with an established religion; Connecticut’s 1639 founding document explained that the whole purpose of government was “to mayntayne and presearve the liberty and…

So let me first start by saying, I’m not one of those people who is hanging on every word Oprah says, reading every book Oprah recommends, or lusting after “Oprah’s favorite things”. Although I’ve been watching Oprah before it was the Oprah show (it used to be called A.M. Chicago, only airing in Chicago), lately I’ve been a little turned off. But last week she finally caught my attention again.

Last Tuesday, Oprah had a show about past lives featuring renowned psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss. Weiss is a well published, sought after speaker who uses hypnosis to facilitate past life regression. My interest is twofold: I am definitely a little (ok, very) fascinated by the topic of reincarnation and, I personally attended lectures given by Dr. Weiss at the University of Miami as a psychology major.

Weiss’ first book, Many Lives, Many Masters is nothing short of mind blowing – even if you’re a total…

Thinking ahead to what is on the calender in the next week, here are some excellent books I’ve discovered in recent months.

May 11: Mother’s Day

The Christian Grandma’s Idea Book: Hundreds of Ideas, Tips, and Activities to Help You be a Good Grandma by Ellen Banks Elwell.

The Christian Mom’s Idea Book: Hundreds of Ideas, Tips, and Activities to Help You be a Great Mom by Ellen Banks Elwell.

* In both of these books, Elwell puts her own encouragement and insight into the mixture along with the words of hundreds of other mothers and grandmothers. These books are short on ivory-tower theory, and long in practical advice, sensible living, and Christian encouragement.

May 14 : The 60th Anniversary of the state of Israel

On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend by Timothy P. Weber.

Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged by Barry E. Horner.

* Sixty years. Given the furor Israel faced in even…