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God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life
by Paul KengorRonald Reagan is hailed today for a presidency that restored optimism to America, engendered years of economic prosperity, and helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Yet until now little attention has been paid to the role Reagan's personal spirituality played in his political career, shaping his ideas, bolstering his resolve, and ultimately compelling him to confront the brutal -- and, not coincidentally, atheistic -- Soviet empire.In this groundbreaking book, political historian Paul Kengor draws upon Reagan's legacy of speeches and correspondence, and the memories of those who knew him well, to reveal a man whose Christian faith remained deep and consistent throughout his more than six decades in public life. Raised in the Disciples of Christ Church by a devout mother with a passionate missionary streak, Reagan embraced the church after reading a Christian novel at the age of eleven. A devoted Sunday-school teacher, he absorbed the church's model of "practical Christianity" and strived to achieve it in every stage of his life.But it was in his lifelong battle against communism -- first in Hollywood, then on the political stage -- that Reagan's Christian beliefs had their most profound effect. Appalled by the religious repression and state-mandated atheism of Bolshevik Marxism, Reagan felt called by a sense of personal mission to confront the USSR. Inspired by influences as diverse as C.S. Lewis, Whittaker Chambers, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, he waged an openly spiritual campaign against communism, insisting that religious freedom was the bedrock of personal liberty. "The source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual," he said in his Evil Empire address. "And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man."From a church classroom in 1920s Dixon, Illinois, to his triumphant mission to Moscow in 1988, Ronald Reagan was both political leader and spiritual crusader. God and Ronald Reagan deepens immeasurably our understanding of how these twin missions shaped his presidency -- and changed the world.
God and Starbucks: An NBA Superstar's Journey Through Addiction and Recovery
by Joe Layden Vin BakerVin Baker, an NBA all-star, Olympic gold medalist, and clean-cut preacher’s son, harbored a dark secret: a dependence on drugs and alcohol that began shortly after he turned pro. Eventually becoming a full-blown yet functional alcoholic, Vin convinced himself that he played better under the influence—until his addiction cost him his basketball career, his fortune, and his health. But Vin’s story isn’t a tragic fall from grace. It is an enthralling testimony of salvation. For Vin, hitting rock bottom was a difficult yet transformative experience that led him to renew his relationship with God and to embrace life. Howard Schultz of Starbucks and Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church offered Vin a helping hand and led him to find more security and happiness in his ordinary working life than he did in all of his years in the glamorous world of professional basketball.God and Starbucks is a wise, unflinching look at addiction and at the necessity of taking charge and claiming one’s blessings. It is a powerful memoir about reaching the top and beginning again from the bottom—an inspiring personal tale of humility and grace that reminds us of what is truly important.
God in the Foxhole: Inspiring True Stories of Miracles on the Battlefield
by Charles W. SasserFrom veteran military writer Charles Sasser comes a collection of inspiring personal accounts of American soldiers whose faith has guided them through the hardships of war.From the battlefields of the American Civil War through World Wars I and II, from Korea and Vietnam to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers of all faiths have struggled for understanding and called on a higher power when faced with the realities of combat. God in the Foxhole is a stunning collection of true personal accounts from generations of American soldiers whose faith, in the words of author Charles W. Sasser, "has been born, reborn, tested, sustained, verified, or transformed under fire." A renowned master of combat journalism and a former Green Beret, Sasser has gathered an immensely moving collection of war stories like no other—stories of spirituality, conversion, and miracles from the battlefield. Be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or atheist, churched since childhood or touched by the divine for the first time, here are the riveting experiences of army privates, bomber pilots, navy lieutenants, marines, prisoners of war, medics, nurses, chaplains, and others who, under desperate circumstances and with every reason to fear for their lives, found unknown strength, courage, and heroism through their remarkable faith. These inspiring accounts transcend the explainable to become stunning portraits of survival and belief: the angelic vision that brought inner peace to an exhausted helicopter door gunner in Vietnam; the makeshift full-immersion baptisms of eleven soldiers on Palm Sunday in Iraq, 2004; two enemies—a Nazi priest and an American G.I.—who served Communion Mass in a Belgian sanctuary in 1944; the prescient letter from a Civil War army major to his beloved wife, one week before his death at Bull Run; the 21st-century toddler with a jaw-dropping spiritual connection to a war hero of Iwo Jima, and dozens more. A war chronicle like no other, God in the Foxhole affirms, for military buffs and readers from all walks of life, the power of faith in the face of adversity.
God in the Rainforest: A Tale of Martyrdom and Redemption in Amazonian Ecuador
by Kathryn T. LongIn January of 1956, five young evangelical missionaries were speared to death by a band of the Waorani people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Two years later, two missionary women--the widow of one of the slain men and the sister of another--with the help of a Wao woman were able to establish peaceful relations with the same people who had killed their loved ones. The highly publicized deaths of the five men and the subsequent efforts to Christianize the Waorani quickly became the defining missionary narrative for American evangelicals during the second half of the twentieth century. God in the Rainforest traces the formation of this story and shows how Protestant missionary work among the Waorani came to be one of the missions most celebrated by Evangelicals and most severely criticized by anthropologists and others who accused missionaries of destroying the indigenous culture. Kathryn T. Long offers a study of the complexities of world Christianity at the ground level for indigenous peoples and for missionaries, anthropologists, environmentalists, and other outsiders. For the first time, Long brings together these competing actors and agendas to reveal one example of an indigenous people caught in the cross-hairs of globalization.
God is Dead: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022
by Andy McGrath•SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022••A SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES AND THE GUARDIAN•The remarkable untold story of the mercurial cycling prodigy Frank Vandenbroucke, written by William Hill award-winning author Andy McGrath.They called him God. For his grace on a bicycle, for his divine talent, for his heavenly looks. Frank Vandenbroucke had it all, and in the late Nineties he raced with dazzling speed and lived even faster.The Belgian won several of cycling's most illustrious races, including Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and Ghent-Wevelgem. He was a mix of poise and panache who enthralled a generation of cycling fans. Off the bike, he only had one enemy - himself. Vandenbroucke dabbled in nocturnal party sessions mixing sleeping pills and alcohol and regularly fell out with team managers. By 1999 his team had suspended him and this proved to be the start of a long, eventful fall from grace. Depression, a drug ban, addiction, car crashes, divorce and countless court appearances subsumed his life. He threatened his wife with a gun. He tried to commit suicide twice. And when police found performance-enhancing drugs at his house, Vandenbroucke said they were for his dog.It seemed he had finally learned from his mistakes. Then, on 12 October 2009, aged just 34, Vandenbroucke was found dead in a hotel room in Senegal.Guided by exclusive contributions from his family, friends and team-mates, William Hill award-winning author Andy McGrath lays bare Vandenbroucke's chaotic, complicated life and times. God is Dead is the remarkable biography of this mercurial cycling prodigy.
God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War
by Thomas Ricks Bill Nash Lieutenant Colonel Edmonds George LoberGod Is Not Here is a powerful and intimate look into torture and its effect on both the tortured and the torturer. In May of 2005, the U.S. government finally acknowledged that the invasion of Iraq had spawned an insurgency. With that admission, training the Iraqi Forces suddenly became a strategic priority. Lt. Col. Bill Edmonds, then a Special Forces captain, was in the first group of "official" military advisors. He arrived in Mosul in the wake of Abu Ghraib, at the height of the insurgency, and in the midst of America's rapidly failing war strategy. Edmonds' job was to advise an Iraqi intelligence officer--to assist and temper his interrogations--but not give orders. But he wanted to be more than a wallflower, so he immersed himself in the experience, even learning Arabic. In a makeshift basement prison, over countless nights and predawn hours, Edmonds came to empathize with Iraqi rules: do what's necessary, do what works. After all, Americans and Iraqis were dying. Edmonds wanted to make a difference. Yet the longer he submerged himself in the worst of humanity, the more conflicted and disillusioned he became, slowly losing faith in everything and everyone. In the end, he lost himself. He returned home with no visible wounds, but on the inside he was different. He tried to forget--to soldier on--but memories from war never just fade away... In God Is Not Here, the weight of history is everywhere, but the focus is on a young man struggling to learn what is right when fighting wrong. Edmonds provides a disturbing and thought-provoking account of the morally ambiguous choices faced when living with and fighting within a foreign religion and culture, as well as the resulting psychological and spiritual impacts on a soldier. Transcending the genre of the traditional war memoir, Edmonds' eloquent recounting makes for one of the most insightful and moving books to emerge from America's long war against terrorism.
God of Speed
by Luke DaviesI will fly at last. I will unfold my wings. I will unpack my head. I will step back outside. One day I may even make love again. But one thing at a time. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Film mogul, aviator, addict, inventor, visionary, recluse, serial womanizer, and political meddler: Howard Hughes was one of the strangest and most significant figures of the 20th century. His obsessive-compulsive disorder would end up crippling and isolating him; in the end he self-medicated his way into oblivion. It's a summer night in 1973, and holed up in his hotel penthouse in London, Hughes can't sleep. Tomorrow he takes control of an airplane for the first time in more than 15 years. As the reclusive, drug-addled billionaire waits for dawn, the shape and preoccupations of the times emerge from his ruined psyche; a world of oil, flight, money, movies, drugs, sex, power, greed, fear, yearning America. Transcendent and debauched, God of Speed is a fever dream, a giant and extraordinary leap of the imagination into the fractured mind of a man who was both great and greatly fallen.
God on Your Own: Finding A Spiritual Path Outside Religion
by Joseph DispenzaIn this spiritual self-help memoir, a former Roman Catholic monk recounts his journey away from religion toward his own personal spirituality. After spending eight years in a monastery, Joseph Dispenza walked away from his life as a monk—and the religion of his youth—in search of a different kind of spiritual path. Outside the confines of organized religion, Dispenza was able to create a spiritual life that gives direction and meaning to all he does and all he is. God on Your Own is a book for anyone who has left (or is thinking of leaving) organized religion but wants to continue on a spiritual path. Dispenza, a noted author and retreat leader, provides a spiritual road map for those who want to make the transition from conventional religion toward a richer and more satisfying direct relationship with the Source, without rules, dogmas, or doctrines. Throughout the book, Dispenza offers wise, compassionate guidance, speaking as one seeker to another. He has made this journey himself, gleaning spiritual truth from across traditions and practices.
God the Creator Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: Our Beginning, Our Rebellion, and Our Way Back (The Story Bible Study Series)
by Randy FrazeeHeaven and earth are woven more closely together than we might think. In this 8-session video Bible study (streaming included), enter the creation of the world and the first movements of God's perfect plan to deliver his people.Throughout the Bible—from its very first pages to the culmination of Christ's return—there are two parallel dramas unfolding:The lower story, which describes the events from our human perspective.The upper story, which reveals how the events unfold from God's perspective.The objective of God the Creator—the first in a series of three small-group studies in The Story series—is to introduce you to these lower and upper stories as told in the Old Testament books of Genesis through Ruth. As you read these narratives—featuring characters such as Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and Ruth—you will see how God has been weaving our lower story into the greater upper story that he has been writing.This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:The study guide itself—with discussion and reflection questions, video notes, and Scripture readings.An individual access code to stream all eight video sessions online (you don't need to buy a DVD!).Sessions include:The Beginning of Life as We Know It (Genesis 1–11)God Builds a Nation (Genesis 12–36)From Slave to Deputy Pharaoh (Genesis 37–50)Deliverance (Exodus 1–17)Wanderings (Exodus 18–Numbers 27)The Battle Begins (Joshua 1–24)A Few Good Men . . . and Women (Judges 1–21)The Faith of a Foreign Woman (Ruth 1–4)The God the Creator Study Guide is part of The Story Bible Study Series: a three-part Bible study drawn from Randy Frazee's bestselling The Story, which reveals the Bible as a single, continuous narrative of God and his people.Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2027. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
God the Deliverer Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: Our Search for Identity and Our Hope for Renewal (The Story Bible Study Series)
by Randy FrazeeGod goes to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. In this 8-session video Bible study (streaming included), enter the unfolding progression of the Old Testament and the advancement of God's complex plan to deliver his people. Deliverance is what the story of the Bible is all about. But throughout the Bible, there are two parallel dramas unfolding:The lower story, which describes the events from our human perspective.The upper story, which reveals how the events unfold from God's perspective.The goal of the God the Deliverer Bible study is to introduce you to these lower and upper stories as told in the Old Testament books of 1 Samuel through Malachi and the thread of deliverance that weaves through them both.As you read these narratives—featuring characters such as Samuel, Saul, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah—you will see how God has been weaving our lower story into the greater upper story that he has been writing.This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:The study guide itself—with discussion and reflection questions, video notes, and Scripture readings.An individual access code to stream all eight video sessions online (you don't need to buy a DVD!).Sessions include:Standing Tall, Falling Hard (1 Samuel 1–15)From Shepherd to King (1 Samuel 16–2 Samuel 24)The King Who Had It All (1 Kings 1–11)A Kingdom Torn in Two (1 Kings 12–2 Kings 16)The Kingdom Fall (2 Kings 17–25)Daniel in Exile (Daniel)The Queen of Beauty and Courage (Esther)The Return Home (Ezra–Nehemiah)The God the Deliverer Study Guide is part of The Story Bible Study Series: a three-part Bible study drawn from Randy Frazee's bestselling The Story, which reveals the Bible as a single, continuous narrative of God and his people.Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2027. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
God the Savior Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: Our Freedom in Christ and Our Role in the Restoration of All Things (The Story Bible Study Series)
by Randy FrazeeGod goes to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. In this 8-session video Bible study (streaming included), enter the culmination of God's complex plan to deliver his people in the person of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Salvation is what the story of the Bible is all about: the final goal of God's narrative. But throughout the Bible, there are two parallel dramas unfolding:The lower story, which describes the events from our human perspective.The upper story, which reveals how the events unfold from God's perspective.The goal of the God the Savior Bible study is to introduce you to these lower and upper stories as told in the New Testament. As you read these stories—featuring characters such as Mary and Joseph, the Twelve Disciples, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, and the central figure, Jesus Christ—you will see how God has been weaving our lower story into the greater upper story that he has been writing.This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:The study guide itself—with discussion and reflection questions, video notes, and Scripture readings.An individual access code to stream all eight video sessions online (you don't need to buy a DVD!).Sessions include:Jesus' Birth and Ministry (Matthew–John)Jesus, the Son of God (Matthew–John)The Hour of Darkness (Matthew–John)The Resurrection (Matthew–John)New Beginnings (Acts 1–12)Paul's Mission (Acts 13–18)Paul's Final Days (Acts 19–28)The End of Time (Revelation)The God the Savior Study Guide is part of The Story Bible Study Series: a three-part Bible study drawn from Randy Frazee's bestselling The Story, which reveals the Bible as a single, continuous narrative of God and his people.Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2027. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
God'll Cut You Down
by John SafranAn unlikely journalist, a murder case in Mississippi, and a fascinating literary true crime story in the style of Jon Ronson.A notorious white supremacist named Richard Barrett was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 2010 by a young black man named Vincent McGee. At first the murder seemed a twist on old Deep South race crimes. But then new revelations and complications came to light. Maybe it was a dispute over money rather than race--or, maybe and intriguingly, over sex.John Safran, a young white Jewish Australian documentarian, had been in Mississippi and interviewed Barrett for a film on race. When he learned of Barrett's murder, he returned to find out what happened and became caught up in the twists and turns of the case. During his time in Mississippi, Safran got deeper and deeper into this gothic southern world, becoming entwined in the lives of those connected with the murder--white separatist frenemies, black lawyers, police investigators, oddball neighbors, the stunned families, even the killer himself. And the more he talked with them, the less simple the crime--and the people involved--seemed to be. In the end, he discovered how profoundly and indelibly complex the truth about someone's life--and death--can be.This is a brilliant, haunting, hilarious, unsettling story about race, money, sex, and power in the modern American South from an outsider's point of view.
God's Adventurer
by Phyllis ThompsonHuson Taylor was still a teenager when God told him to go to China. Alone, broke and even critically ill, he hung on to that goal, and to God who was sending him. But would God be enough? In inland China, Hudson had lots of chances to find out! There is plenty of danger, adventure and action in this true story of a man who dared to risk all on God.
God's Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible—A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal
by Brian MoynahanThe English Bible--the most familiar book in our language--is the product of a man who was exiled, vilified, betrayed, then strangled, then burnt.William Tyndale left England in 1524 to translate the word of God into English. This was heresy, punishable by death. Sir Thomas More, hailed as a saint and a man for all seasons, considered it his divine duty to pursue Tyndale. He did so with an obsessive ferocity that, in all probability, led to Tyndale's capture and death.The words that Tyndale wrote during his desperate exile have a beauty and familiarity that still resonate across the English-speaking world: "Death, where is thy sting?...eat, drink, and be merry...our Father which art in heaven."His New Testament, which he translated, edited, financed, printed, and smuggled into England in 1526, passed with few changes into subsequent versions of the Bible. So did those books of the Old Testament that he lived to finish.Brian Moynahan's lucid and meticulously researched biography illuminates Tyndale's life, from his childhood in England, to his death outside Brussels. It chronicles the birth pangs of the Reformation, the wrath of Henry VIII, the sympathy of Anne Boleyn, and the consuming malice of Thomas More. Above all, it reveals the English Bible as a labor of love, for which a man in an age more spiritual than our own willingly gave his life.
God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church
by George WeigelWeigel introduces us to Pope Benedict XVI. What was this man thinking when he knew that he might be elected? How did the process work? What is the historical significance for the Catholic Church? What is John Paul II's legacy? Although rich with detail, this book is a lucid and fascinating consideration of the monumental events of 2005.
God's Cold Warrior: The Life and Faith of John Foster Dulles (Library of Religious Biography (LRB))
by John D. WilseyWhen John Foster Dulles died in 1959, he was given the largest American state funeral since Franklin Delano Roosevelt&’s in 1945. President Eisenhower called Dulles—his longtime secretary of state—&“one of the truly great men of our time,&” and a few years later the new commercial airport outside Washington, DC, was christened the Dulles International Airport in his honor. His star has fallen significantly since that time, but his influence remains indelible—most especially regarding his role in bringing the worldview of American exceptionalism to the forefront of US foreign policy during the Cold War era, a worldview that has long outlived him. God&’s Cold Warrior recounts how Dulles&’s faith commitments from his Presbyterian upbringing found fertile soil in the anti-communist crusades of the mid-twentieth century. After attending the Oxford Ecumenical Church Conference in 1937, he wrote about his realization that &“the spirit of Christianity, of which I learned as a boy, was really that of which the world now stood in very great need, not merely to save souls, but to solve the practical problems of international affairs.&” Dulles believed that America was chosen by God to defend the freedom of all those vulnerable to the godless tyranny of communism, and he carried out this religious vision in every aspect of his diplomatic and political work. He was conspicuous among those US officials in the twentieth century that prominently combined their religious convictions and public service, making his life and faith key to understanding the interconnectedness of God and country in US foreign affairs.
God's Fool: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries Ser.)
by Mark Slouka"If you can read [God’s Fool] without being astonished and touched, then you’d better check to see if your heart is made of stone…simply brilliant. A book of the year." —Dallas Morning NewsBorn attached at the chest, Chang and Eng were considered a marvel, an act of God. By any standard, theirs is a history of epic variety and drama. Mark Slouka recounts their tumultuous story, from the docks of Vietnam to American fame, with intimacy and compassion.A Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Dallas Morning News Best Book of the Year.
God's Fool: The Life of Francis of Assisi
by Julien Green Peter HeineggThis warm, richly detailed biography brings the beloved saint alive in all his human and profoundly spiritual dimensions.
God's Hotel
by Victoria SweetA medical "page-turner" that traces one doctor's "remarkable journey to the essence of medicine" (The San Francisco Chronicle). San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital is the last almshouse in the country, a descendant of the Hôtel-Dieu (God's hotel) that cared for the sick in the Middle Ages. Ballet dancers and rock musicians, professors and thieves--"anyone who had fallen, or, often, leapt, onto hard times" and needed extended medical care--ended up here. So did Victoria Sweet, who came for two months and stayed for twenty years. Laguna Honda, relatively low-tech but human-paced, gave Sweet the opportunity to practice a kind of attentive medicine that has almost vanished. Gradually, the place transformed the way she understood her work. Alongside the modern view of the body as a machine to be fixed, her extraordinary patients evoked an older idea, of the body as a garden to be tended. God's Hotel tells their story and the story of the hospital itself, which, as efficiency experts, politicians, and architects descended, determined to turn it into a modern "health care facility," revealed its own surprising truths about the essence, cost, and value of caring for the body and the soul.
God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved
by Sue Monk KiddThe New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees shares an inspiring account of her spiritual journey to discovering the love of God.In this insightful and inspiring memoir, Sue Monk Kidd remembers the beginnings of her spiritual journey, and explores what it means to be called on an adventure of faith—one in which we finally experience how deeply and wholly loved we are by God. God’s Joyful Surprise offers powerful insights about why devotion to God is more important than good works. Steeped in wisdom and written with poise and grace, Kidd’s words will encourage others along their own spiritual paths. Strands of humor and warmth woven throughout make it a joy to read from beginning to end.“Beautifully written . . . the message and challenge of the book is profound. . . . This book will awaken your longing and set you off on your own spiritual journey.” —Today’s Christian Woman“A joy to read from beginning to end.” —Virtue Magazine
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre
by Richard GrantFrom the acclaimed author of Dispatches From Pluto and Deepest South of All, a harrowing travelogue into Mexico&’s lawless Sierra Madre mountains.Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the rugged, beautiful Sierra Madre mountains begin their dramatic ascent. Almost 900 miles long, the range climbs to nearly 11,000 feet and boasts several canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon. The rules of law and society have never taken hold in the Sierra Madre, which is home to bandits, drug smugglers, Mormons, cave-dwelling Tarahumara Indians, opium farmers, cowboys, and other assorted outcasts. Outsiders are not welcome; drugs are the primary source of income; murder is all but a regional pastime. The Mexican army occasionally goes in to burn marijuana and opium crops—the modern treasure of the Sierra Madre—but otherwise the government stays away. In its stead are the drug lords, who have made it one of the biggest drug-producing areas in the world. Fifteen years ago, journalist Richard Grant developed what he calls "an unfortunate fascination" with this lawless place. Locals warned that he would meet his death there, but he didn't believe them—until his last trip. During his travels Grant visited a folk healer for his insomnia and was prescribed rattlesnake pills, attended bizarre religious rituals, consorted with cocaine-snorting policemen, taught English to Guarijio Indians, and dug for buried treasure. On his last visit, his reckless adventure spiraled into his own personal heart of darkness when cocaine-fueled Mexican hillbillies hunted him through the woods all night, bent on killing him for sport. With gorgeous detail, fascinating insight, and an undercurrent of dark humor, God's Middle Finger brings to vivid life a truly unique and uncharted world.
God's Most Precious Jewels are Crystallized Tears: True Stories of Women Who Turned Their Misery into Ministry
by Barbara JohnsonThe Queen of Encouragement has brought a dozen amazing friends to inspire and encourage you!Barbara Johnson's heart-touching, laughter-laced story has given hope to millions of readers worldwide. Now she brings together twelve courageous women who have triumphed over challenges and endured heart-rending losses. With Christlike serventhood, they have reached beyond their own anguish to extend a helping hand to others in need, turning their tears of heartache into jewels of blessing. In their awe-inspiring stories, you will meet women who have faced:a husband's brutal murderthe death of a young childpoverty and bigotryeating disordersan adult child's homosexualitythe death of two sons due to AIDSabusive marriagesheartbreaking divorcefamily members' estrangementclinical depressionphysical disabilitya husband's struggle with homosexualityToday these women, like Barbara, spread hope and joy wherever they go. To celebrate their ministry of encouragement, each of their stories concludes with Barbara's trademark collection of wit and laughter. Open this book and find a pathway out of sorrow and into the sunlight of a life warmed by love and filled with meaning. Read these stories and learn how to turn misery into ministry.
God's Other Children: Personal Encounters with Love, Holiness, and Faith in Sacred India
by Bradley Malkovsky“A classic for our time, a testimony matching our best efforts to keep the faith and celebrate the diversity around us.” —Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Parkman Professor of Divinity and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard UniversityGod’s Other Children by Bradley Malkovsky is a charming spiritual travelogue that tells the tale of a Catholic religious scholar who goes to India to study Hinduism and winds up falling in love with and marrying a Muslim.Malkvosky, who holds a degree in Catholic theology, shares how his spiritual journey grew his faith, while raising questions about it that he had never considered, and how it changed his life in ways he could never have imagined.Inspiring and profound, God’s Other Children: Personal Encounters with Faith, Love, and Holiness in Sacred India offers a fascinating perspective on how people of all faiths encounter God.Winner of the Huston Smith Publishing Prize from HarperOne.“The most interesting and inspiring book that I have read in a very long time.” —Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions“A candid memoir about [an] unusual spiritual journey and a plea for ecumenical tolerance.” —Kirkus Reviews“A spiritual adventure story that illustrates the freedom and fulfillment that can be discovered in encounters with other religions and their practices.” —Spirituality and Practice “An important work that I hope will have wide reception among scholars and ordinary readers alike.” —Seyyed Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, author of Islam in the Modern World“Malkovsky’s sensitive, personal and gripping account raises important questions and offers thought-provoking insights to Christians in general and Catholics in particular.” —Swami Tyagananda, Hindu Chaplain, Harvard University and co-author of Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali’s Child Revisited
God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church
by Caroline FraserFrom Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former Christian Scientist Caroline Fraser comes the first unvarnished account of one of America's most controversial and little-understood religious movements.Millions of Americans – from Lady Astor to Ginger Rogers to Watergate conspirator H. R. Haldeman – have been touched by the Church of Christ, Scientist. Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, Christian Science was based on a belief that intense contemplation of the perfection of God can heal all ills – an extreme expression of the American faith in self-reliance. In this unflinching investigation, Caroline Fraser, herself raised in a Scientist household, shows how the Church transformed itself from a small, eccentric sect into a politically powerful and socially respectable religion, and explores the human cost of Christian Science's remarkable rise.Fraser examines the strange life and psychology of Mary Baker Eddy, who lived in dread of a kind of witchcraft she called Malicious Animal Magnetism. She takes us into the closed world of Eddy's followers, who refuse to acknowledge the existence of illness and death and reject modern medicine, even at the cost of their children's lives. She reveals just how Christian Science managed to gain extraordinary legal and Congressional sanction for its dubious practices and tracks its enormous influence on new-age beliefs and other modern healing cults.A passionate exposé of zealotry, God's Perfect Child tells one of the most dramatic and little-known stories in American religious history.
God's Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Made God a Republican and Baptized the American Right
by Michael Sean WintersAn acclaimed reporter presents the first major biography of the legendary, and divisive, conservative pastor who reshaped the landscape of American politics—Jerry Falwell. At a time when the Tea Party movement is dominating much of America's social and political discourse, the story of Falwell's Moral Majority will resonate strongly. Indeed, Falwell’s language may sound familiar to anyone who has heard recent speeches by figures like Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, or Michelle Bachmann.