Books
Finished reading: The Permanent Problem by Brink Lindsey 📚Food for thought though I am not entirely sure of the solutions proposed.
I have created the list of the books that I read in 2025. Unfortunately, I did not reach my goal for the number of books that I read but I am expecting to be able to exceed this number this year as I have more time to read. I have also updated my large outline of the books that I have read since 2020.
Currently reading: Naming the Powers by Walter Wink 📚
I think this is a good book (series of books actually) for those who desire to follow Jesus to read at this time. The quote below is just one example:
The Weather Underground correctly criticized the U.S. government for its barbaric violence in Vietnam and then mirrored the very barbarism it condemned by adopting violence as its means. Whenever we let the terms of struggle be dictated by the Power that we oppose, we are certain to become as evil. Nothing about this insight is new. It is written for anyone to read in Rev. 17:15-18. There the Beast on whom the Harlot (Roma) sits turns against her and shifts his allegiance to the ten enemy kings. These will hate the harlot and burn her up with fire. The Beast can shift loyalties precisely because he knows that the means employed to overthrow the Harlot will make the kings every bit as much the children of hell as she. (Emphasis added)
I assume that in the above Wink is referring to the Weather Underground as known as The Weathermen. The Weathermen emerged from the campus-based opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War and from the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Wikipedia
The Debate Never Resolved.
Currently reading: Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean 📚
Yesterday I read an article about James Buchanan that is inspired by this book, which I remembered I had in my Amazon library but not yet started reading. Consequently, I started reading and once again reminded of how the United States was founded.
The narrative taught when I was in school is that most people who immigrated to the new world did so to escape persecution, which was true for many people who came to the continent AFTER it was discovered. The motives behind the discovery of the continent was driven by wealth, whether through a shorter trade route to the east or the appropriation of land or gold.
Common folks who left Europe for a better life where not too much involved with the government or the decision to declare independence from England. The people who formed the United States did so to preserve their wealth, much of which starting to be generated from the plantations of the south.
Once the revolutionary war was over the people who sought independence had to decide how the new world was to be governed. Eventually what we know as the U.S. Constitution was drafted, but there was strong debate over whether there should be a single entity and a strong federal government or a federation of sovereign states. Advocates of a federation, who became known as anti-federalists, were fearful of a central government impinging upon individual rights, which honestly had much to do with the right to become as wealthy was one wishes in whatever manner one wishes, including enslaving others.
History says a compromise was reached with the Bill of Rights and the Federalists won the day, but the Federalists/Anti-Federalist debate, which was about power, continues. It lead to the Civil War and it is the root of the Dobbs Decision, and as this book chronicles, the Anti-Federalist cause has been systemically been carried out over the last five decades. I am convinced their success is in large part due to the profound lack of knowledge about history.
Finished reading: Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News by Brian Zahnd 📚
The title is intended to be a direct counter to Jonathan Edward’s sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. For me the best chapters of this book are the ones that put Revelation in proper context as revealing a loving God.
Micro.blog Bookshelves Issue
Update: The issue below has been resolved.
Today I tried to move a book listed in micro.blog bookshelves that I was currently reading to finished, but when I clicked “Move To Finished” the book was removed from the currently reading list and not added to finished. I do notice that the book title still appears in the rendered version of the reading list on my blog. I then tried to manually add the book to Finished and it doesn’t appear. I also tried re-adding to Current Reading and it is not adding their either. Something appears to fundamentally not be working for the moment. Reported to help@micro.blog.
Finished reading: In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World by Pádraig Ó Tuama 📚
I really enjoyed this book because it contains so much wisdom scavenged during life lived. Chapter 8, Hello To Change, is particularly good with the following standing out:
“For many, the possibility of being wrong is a threat to the foundations of thought, morality, or empire. And without a doubt, those who advocate scientific thought are as prone as other schools of thought to being superior. But written into the heart of science is the embrace of the gift of being wrong.” page 197 (I would add, due to my current political mindset, that in a similar way written into the heart of democracy is the embrace of the possibility of losing an election. I see a common denominator between the emergent anti-science and anti-democracy ideaologies.)
“The Greek word translated into English as “repentance” is metanoia. The prefix meta means “beyond,” hence metaphysics being the study of—or speculation about—what is beyond the natural. The word noia means “thought” or “mind.” Together, however, metanoia means to change your thoughts, to change your mind, to turn in a new direction, to reverse a direction and go a different way” page 198
“Technically, then, this should mean that the Christian faith is a faith that is adapted to change, a faith that is not undone by realizing that its precepts or propositions are incorrect.” page 198, empahsis mine.
Currently reading: The Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution by Gregory A. Boyd 📚
Currently reading: A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal by Sarah Bessey, Amena Brown, Barbara Brown Taylor, Lisa Sharon Harper 📚
Finished reading: Genesis for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Controversial, Misunderstood, and Abused Book of the Bible by Peter Enns, Jared Byas 📚