Books that have caught my eye.

Sex, Dating, and Relationships: A Fresh Approach

By Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas

Considering the pervasive immorality and high divorce rate of our contemporary Christian culture, we evidently need a biblically based, theologically compelling, practical understanding of sex, dating, and relationships. Pastors Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas counteract this problem with their paradigm-shifting view of purity and relationships—a view that challenges even the basic assumptions of evangelical subculture.

Unlike most books on dating, this one cuts straight to the heart of dating relationships, asserting with confidence that the line must be drawn at “no sexual activity” whatever. Few have dared to define and apply the Bible’s understanding of purity in premarital relationships to this degree, but Heistand and Thomas have done it. Furthermore, both authors are vocational pastors who communicate regularly with the target audience and have a proven ability to express biblical truth in a winsome and compelling manner. Sex, Dating, and Relationships adds a new, almost provocative voice to the conversation that, with straightforward theological insight, pleads with Christians to get serious about honoring Christ with their sexuality.

While sometimes it seems as if there is nothing left for Christians to say about sex, I’m looking forward to this book. When Jay Thomas was the college pastor at College Church, I found his teaching to be biblical and powerful. Jay is wise beyond his years.

By Mollie Ziegler Hemingway

Small comforts (and other sizes) emerge from Planned Parenthood’s bullying tactics.

Nicely said! Other organizations will now think twice before supporting Planned Parenthood, whose veneer of respectability has been torn away.

Review by Amy Julia Becker

People with disabilities are central to the mission of the church.

By Stan Guthrie

Secular stereotypes about religion die hard. On February 1, 1993, Washington Post reporter Michael Weisskopf wrote that politically conservative Christians are “poor, uneducated, and easy to command.” Reinforcing the stereotype, during the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama said that working-class voters “cling to guns or religion.”

By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra

Pro-life groups target $487 million in taxpayer funding for the nation’s largest abortion provider.

By Kristina Robb-Dover

Apparently Rob Bell’s best-selling Love Wins and its ambivalent stance towards an “eternal” hell (as “eternal” has historically been interpreted by evangelicals at least) continue to send ripples. Two authors, author of Crazy Love Francis Chan and senior managing editor of Christianity Today Mark Galli have now responded with their own books, both of which seem at the outset (from a reading of Stan Guthrie’s review in Books and Culture) like a sniffing out of any potentially dangerous “universalism” (the idea that all people at some point in the scheme of eternity will be saved) in both Bell’s book and the Bible.

See the review here.

Here is my interview with John Blok of Moody Radio Florida about my article, “We Are Not Alone.”

By Jonah Goldberg

Congratulations to Mitt Romney for his big win last night. It was a win that, Romney supporters hoped, would help bury concerns about his ability to seal the deal to do what it takes. But I’m not so sure. If you’re a straight-laced grown-up with money to burn, burying Newt Gingrich shouldn’t be that hard. Romney talked about the economy, Newt about lunar statehood (which I favor!). Romney drowned Gingrich in negative ads and Gingrich supplied endless fodder for the accurate ones and plausibility for the inaccurate ones. Was that really the test of his political chops everyone is saying?

Romney’s comment was not only dumb politically, it was un-conservative. Conservatives care about the poor and don’t simply relegate them to the joys of the “social safety net,” as Romney proposes. We want to give them the opportunity to turn around their lives, not depend on dehumanizing government handouts. I don’t think Romney gets this. As hard as he tries to make me believe he is a real conservative, I just don’t see it.