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A friend shared this story with me yesterday.
He said the mental health hotline that was included in his health insurance had been outsourced to Pakistan. He called the number and told the counselor that he was depressed and going to kill himself. After a slight pause, the representative asked him if he knew how to drive a truck!
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I recently was contacted by author Daniel J. Mount asking me if I would be interested in reviewing his book THE FAITH OF AMERICA’S PRESIDENTS (Chattanooga, TN: Living Ink Books, 2007). At 481 pages in length, it isn’t a quick read but it was a book that I’m glad to have read.
THE FAITH OF AMERICA’S PRESIDENTS summarizes the religious beliefs of all 43 President of the United States. Since religion is one of the bigger components of worldview, knowing a President’s faith gives us a better understanding of their lives, their worldviews, and ultimately their presidencies.
In this intolerant, divisive, and red/blue state mentality in which we now live, the fact that Mount is a Christian and approaches this book from a Christian perspective will undoubtedly upset those who don’t share his same worldview and therefore will attempt to cloud the validity of his research. I think it would be a mistake for anyone to do this: His scholarship is top-notch and the book is well written.
The author’s basic conclusion is that all the Presidents have been Christians. Although that notion runs contrary to the traditional academic view on presidential faith, it shouldn’t surprise anyone since up until the last few decades, America has been a Christian nation. It is therefore logical to assume that her leaders were Christian as well.
The bigger question, and one that Mount wisely doesn’t answer, is: “What is a Christian?” With the Presidential election only 39 days a way, we can be certain that #44 will be a Christian too (at least by the candidates’ own self-descriptions).
I recommend this book highly!
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Check out THE WHALE HUNT. It is an online story about subsistence whaling by the Inupiats of Alaska. It is very well done!
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We’ve all heard the old saying: “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
Author Christopher Buckley blurs that distinction in his new book SUPREME COURTSHIP(Boston, MA: Twelve, 2008). This book is political satire at its best!
It is the story of unpopular President Donald Vanderdamp who can’t get his Supreme Court nominees approved by the cosmetically enhanced Senate Judiciary Chairman Dexter Mitchell, a fictional Joe Biden character. One nominee is rejected because they have an insufficient appreciation of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
The President chooses someone so beloved by voters that the Senate won’t have the nerve to reject her: Judge Pepper Cartwright. Judge Cartwright, a vivacious Texan is the star of America’s most popular reality show. Even though the manuscript was turned in seven months before Sarah Palin’s nomination as VP, it is hard to miss the similarities between her and Pepper!
In the book, Pepper finds herself in the middle of a constitutional crisis, a presidential reelection campaign that the President is determined to lose, and oral arguments of a romantic nature.
They say that horror movies are so popular because they allow the viewer to process their fear in a controlled environment. The same is true of this book! In an election cycle that seems like it will never end, where it is hard to tell who the heros are, and when truth really is stranger than fiction, SUPREME COURTSHIP is a hilarious and satirical look at fictional characters not that far removed from the real ones we hear about daily.
I recommend this book highly!
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re you old enough to remember the 1992 Presidential election where candidate Bill Clinton went on MTV and answered questions about whether he wore boxers or briefs?
At the time, mainstream sorts of folk were outraged about how un-Presidential that election had become. Well jump ahead 16 years and see how Clinton and MTV seem like the “good old days” compared to this election.
We now have Sarah Palin sexy school girl dolls. Can you imagine if she gets elected? How many American men will be having erotic fantasies about the Vice-President as a school librarian.
And we also have Obama Waffles (which supposedly don’t taste good) and definitely seem to have an Aunt Jemima thing going on.
What’s next? I’m not going to even speculate!
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This is a great job of visual storytelling and animation. I obviously don’t think the theology behind the story is good. In fact it is twisted, but I won’t spoil the video with my commentary. Enjoy it for the beauty of the visual story, not the message!
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This is from the McCain campaign. Obviously it is biased, although no more so than ads from the Obama campaign.
I’m sharing this because it a great ad, not because I want to slam Obama (so no more hate mail please). It tells a simple story, whether true or not I don’t know, and is memorable. It is very well done and is something people will think about on Election Day (particularly the closing line about sex)!
What do you think?
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A new take on an old saying:
If I had a penny for every time I was asked, “Is Barack Obama a Christian?” I’d be a millionaire by now.
Truthfully, if I had ten dollars for every time I’ve been asked this, I’d have just enough to buy a new MacBook Air (with the speed bump and better battery life that is rumored to be coming out next month).
Early in the 2008 Presidential campaign the far-right made sure everybody knew Obama’s full name was Barack Hussein Obama and that he attended an Islamic school while living in Indonesia. The implication was, if America’s top enemies of recent years were Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, then surely this man who’s name is similar must be a Muslim and evil as well!
Obama’s campaign reacted and said, No, Barack is a believing Christian and used be known as Barry up until he graduated law school.
Then came the whole Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright and Trinity United Church bruhaha.
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For the last week and a half I have been sharing with you some of my summer reading. I have to wonder, though, if any of this matters. Do people read anymore?
The “Old Gray Lady,” the historical nickname for THE NEW YORK TIMES, recently did a piece entitled “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” In true journalistic form. the writer see-sawed back and forth on the question, not wanting to alienate anyone by being too opinionated.
The “take-away” of this piece is that their answer is “no,” although their “no” is as qualified as President Clinton’s “is.”
Whatever the answer to their question is, it is less important than how the question itself is defined.
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The second book I read while on vacation was THE PRESIDENT, THE POPE, AND THE PRIME MINISTER: THREE WHO CHANGED THE WORLD by John O’Sullivan (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006).
I came of age in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan was the first president I met and is still the epitome of what an American President should be. (I later became member of his church.) Pope John Paul II seemed like he always was and always would be the face of Catholicism. Margaret Thatcher epitomized the United Kingdom by her Churchill-like strength under pressure, strong
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