Middletree

Conan O'Brien recently remarked that it's a shame that our nation is divided along line lines of where you buy your fried chicken sandwiches. Of course, when he said it, it was funnier. But I'm having a hard time finding this episode funny any more. As you no doubt are aware, Mike Huckabee appears to have gotten a lot of support for his declaration of August 1 as Support Chick-Fil-A Day. Clicking http://www.isupportchickfila.com/ will take you to the Facebook page he has set up, inviting people who agree with CFA CEO Dan Cathy regarding same-sex marriage to show their support by spending money at Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1.   Over half a million have agreed, by "Liking" the page, and have pledged to go. I won't be one of them. For the record: I love Chick-Fil-A. I also hold a biblical view of same-sex relationships. Just a guess, but I'll bet Cathy and I vote very similarly. Additionally, I am very disturbed at the reaction from pro-gay in...

Reviewing this particular book may seem a little strange for me. However, I have a young daughter, now entering that age of transition from little girl to ....well, that next stage should be interesting. One of the key elements of this next stage is that girls tend to pay more attention to how they look. It's no surprise that our culture has skewed this just a bit. It's my job as dad to help my girl understand what's important and what's not when it comes to outward appearances. Nancy Rue's "The Beauty Book" is a great way to help keep things in perspective. Rue has written some fiction books featuring a character named Lily. This book, while non-fiction, uses Lily and her friends to help the reader focus on God’s idea of inner and outer beauty. It's not a preachy book. It's appropriately fun, full of quizzes and other activities. And as I said, it keeps a focus on the right thing: how God created beauty, and how if we keep His perspective on the t...

With the buzz related to the exciting finish to a championship soccer game in England last week, we get to be treated once more to accusations that Americans need to get on board and appreciate soccer, to be point of elevating it to a major sport. This is a good time to address a few common misconceptions regarding Americans and soccer: 1.  If Americans would just give soccer a chance, they'd enjoy it more than baseball, football, or basketball. Look, it's not like Americans haven't tried. First, we played it in both organized (league) and unorganized formats as a kid (Exhibit A: note all the youth soccer leagues throughout the nation). I played it for 3 or so seasons myself. In fact, I played it as young adult in a league for one season. I've attended games by local professional teams (I live in the 4th-most populated area in the US, and we have a couple to choose from). I've had my kids play in leagues. I have watched it on TV. And yet, with all that,...

Lots of folks are being clever with today's date, and associating it with Star Wars. (May the 4th = May the fourth be with you: get it?) When Star Wars made it to theaters in 1977, I was 12. I went, got so bored I barely made it to the end of the movie. A few weeks before or after, a movie called "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" came out, and I loved it. It was a powerful story, far superior to Star Wars.   To this day, I don't get why, of those two movies, one became iconic and the other is barely remembered. I have never seen another Star Wars movie since, although I may sit down and watch them since my boys are about old enough to get into them. Hopefully, I'll find them more interesting than I did the first time. I'm sure that Star Wars is more popular because of the effects, the use of music, the bad guy you love to hate, the light sabers, and the talking robots who seem human.  Sadly, the thing that is missing from Star Wars is the huma...

Nancy Rue's " Here's Lily " is not the type of book I'd normally read or review, but I have a 10-year-old daughter who fits right into the target demographic for this and Rue's 100+ other books. The title character is a 6th-grade redhead who, like most other girls her age, faces concerns about her body image, popularity, and friendships. Rue takes her through these challenges in a warm, caring way, without falling into melodrama.  Compounding the normal tween/teen issues is a near-tragedy which affects Lily in many ways. Throughout, the love of Christ and the stabilizing presence of good parents promise comfort, wisdom, and guidance, and that alone makes this book worth the price. That said, "Here's Lily" isn't just a book with a good message. It's funny, entertaining, and never boring.  Disclaimer: Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program enabled me to have a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Readers of Donald Miller's excellent book " A Million Miles in a Thousand Years " were introduced to Bob Goff, a man who I'd swear is a fictional hero if Miller didn't insist he was a real person. Goff sounds like he's too good to be true. The Good The stories in Miller's book are pretty amazing: his kids invited themselves to meet with the leader of every nation in the world, and 29 presidents, kings,  and princes took them up on it. Goff started a New Year's day parade in which several blocks of neighbors participate. He managed to push through several judicial reforms in Uganda which resulted in kids being freed and witch doctors being put out of business. And that's just the start. Bob Goff is a real person, and he's the real deal; he loves Jesus and has a desire to use what he has to show the love of Jesus in tangible, life-changing ways to as many people as he can. One cannot help but be inspired by reading these stories, and the l...

Me on the left, Don Miller on right, at the BLJ screening This is a rewrite of last week's review, as it appears on Burnside Writers Collective : By making a small contribution to last year's effort to fund the making of "Blue Like Jazz" via Kickstarter , I put myself in line to receive an invitation to the Fort Worth premiere on March 21. This showing was part of a 30-city tour in which Donald Miller, the author of the book by the same name, appeared in person, accompanied by director Steve Taylor and lead actor Marshall Allman. I went in guessing that the movie would likely stray far from the "Safe for the Whole Family" boundaries that many Christian-themed films seem bound to. And as it turned out, I was right: the PG-13 rating was earned. The story in the movie (which bears little resemblance to the book) is about a young man who renounces his faith before rediscovering it in a fresh way. This necessitated the depic...