Book Description
Fr. John McCloskey has become a famous "convert maker" in the power corridors close to the White House and various government agencies. Having run the well-known Catholic Information Center in the heart of Washington, DC since 1998 and ending in the beginning of 2004, brought McCloskey in direct contact with numerous well-known and lesser known Washington figures who have been directly instructed, encouraged and assisted into the Catholic Church by this priest-evangelist.
This work is a joint effort of McCloskey and Russell Shaw, a well-known Catholic author and speaker who also works in the DC area. Based on the great success and influence that Father McCloskey has had in helping instruct many converts to Catholicism, especially numerous high profile DC figures, this book is a powerful combination of the methods, theology, and theories that McCloskey uses in his evangelization efforts.
In addition to his compelling insights on how to teach or share the faith in a winning, inspiring way, this work includes the contributions of several dozen converts of Fr. McCloskey who give their own moving testimonies of why they converted to Catholicism, and how that life-changing journey happened for each of them. Many of their writings reveal extraordinary perception regarding the workings of grace and the dynamics of the spiritual life.
Customer Reviews:
The call of the laity.......2007-06-18
Drawing on his vast pastoral experience, including his time as Director of the Catholic Information Center in downtown DC from 1998 to 2004, Father McCloskey has distilled in this book (written together with Russell Shaw) some pointed reflections on how best to serve as God's instruments in the conversion of others.
The book starts from a twofold premise. Firstly, in our "age of the laity", the specific call of lay people is to be apostles to the world rather than crowd the sanctuary. (Father McCloskey's "Sermon for Our Times", on page 58 of the book, is a forceful invitation to avoid the risk of "clericalizing" the lay person, a danger against which para. 45 of the 2004 Instruction "Redemptionis sacramentum" by the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship called to a sane relationship of complementarity between the cleric and the lay person, each one with his complementary gifts.) Secondly, effective apostolate is not a light endeavor but (as Father McCloskey writes on page 91) an investment into spiritual growth by the evangelizer himself/herself: it "must flow from prayer and mortification and participation in the sacraments - from one's own ongoing ascetical struggle to put on Jesus Christ."
On the basis of these premises, Father McCloskey shares his insights, with the help of actual stories by converts, into how best we can help others to have a personal encounter with Christ.
The book is enriched by an appendix containing the "Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan", a list of solid works for Christian formation compiled by Father McCloskey while a Director of the Catholic Information Center.
Book Description
Bad Faith tells the story of one of history’s most despicable villains and con men—Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, Nazi collaborator and “Commissioner for Jewish Affairs,” who managed the Vichy government’s dirty work, “controlling” its Jewish population.
Though he is one of the less remembered figures of the Vichy government, Darquier (the aristocratic “de Pellepoix” was appropriated) was one of its most hideously effective officials. Already a notorious Nazi-supported rabble-rouser when he was appointed commissioner, he set about to eliminate the Jews with particularly brutal efficiency. Darquier was in charge of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ round-up in Paris in which nearly 13,000 Jews were dispatched to death camps. Most of the French who died in Auschwitz were sent there during his tenure. Almost all of the 11,400 French children sent to Auschwitz—the majority of whom did not survive—were deported in his time. In all, he delivered 75,000 French to the Nazis and, at the same time, accelerated the confiscation of Jewish property, which he then used for his own financial gain. Never brought to justice, he lived out his life comfortably in Spain, denying his involvement in the Holocaust until his last days.
Where did Louis Darquier come from? How did this man—a chronic fantasist and hypocrite, gambler and cheat—come to control the fates of thousands? What made him what he was? These are the questions at the center of this extraordinary book. In answering them, Carmen Callil gives us a superlatively detailed and revealing tapestry of individuals and ideologies, of small lives and great events, the forces of government and of personalities—in France and across the European continent—that made Vichy possible, and turned Darquier into its “dark essence.”
A tour de force of memory, accountability, and acknowledgment, Bad Faith is a brilliant meld of grand inquisitive sweep and delicate psychological insight, a story of how past choices and actions echo down to the present day, and an invaluable addition to the literature and history of the Holocaust.
Customer Reviews:
Eye Opening but Lacking Depth.......2007-09-22
After reading 400+ pages I don't feel that I truly know the full extent of Louis Darquier as an individual. I have no doubt that this book was expertly researched but it left me feeling that I understood Vichy, Louis Darquier, collaboration, etc. on the surface but without the insight I would expect from a book of this length. The exploration of French anti-Semitism and Catholicism before the war is the only aspect of the book that comes across as truly 3 dimensional. I learned a lot from this book but it leaves me looking for other sources that will take me deeper into these people, institutions and times.
Unbelieveably interesting.......2007-09-18
This is very scholarly book but never boring. It is a fascinating look at an evil man. I was sad to come to the end of it, I enjoyed it so much.
Excellent, but with a caveat.......2006-11-27
Fascinating as a history of anti-Semitism in France. The author, however, is off-putting in the first section of the book. So much time and space is evoted to the family background in Australia, and the detail is so involved, that there is a temptation to put the book down and forget about it. But skip through this intial section and it becomes more and more revealing and exciling and gruesome as we learn of this wretched bunch of French fascists fighting among themselves to rid their country of a tiny minority on whom they blame all their social ills. Stanly B. Dickes
Brilliant read.......2006-11-17
In this eye-opening account of the Holocaust and the Second World War in France and the interwar years in that country we are given a great insight into the life of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, who himself is partly a symbol of France itself or perhaps the underbelly of Franc. Louise Darquier was a minor Frenchman from a small town south of Paris and had served in World War One. He had a plethora of family members and contacts but he chose to marry a strange and slightly insane English woman and spend the post-war years wandering the world to Australia and the U.K.
Having evnetually settled in France in the 1930s he became a rabid anti-semite and befriended the various right wing veterans movements fighting in the streets agains the government of Leon Blum. When Vichy fell in 1940 the Nazis plucked him out of obscurity to head up the department of Jewish affairs. He set to work extorting Jews and eventually deporting them to their deaths. At the end of the war he fled to Spain where he lived out the rest of his years into the 1970s. He never gave up his anti-Semitism, eventually turning it into anti-Israel rhetoric.
This is a brilliant popular book, an investigation of family and life, a true picture of an age and a tragedy. This book reads like fiction, and could have been such if it were not a true story based one exhaustive research. THe Footnotes are veritable encyclopedia of inter-war french anti-semitism.
Seth J. Frantzman
BOOK REVIEW: `Bad Faith' Reminds Us How Anti-Semitic Many French Were in 1930s, WW II; Catholic Hierarchy Force Behind Jew Hatr.......2006-10-16
By David M. Kinchen
Huntington News Network Book Critic
I don't envy the John Le Carres, Frederick Forsyths, Robert Harrises and Len Deightons of the literary world, trying to come up with characters for their political thrillers that even come close to matching the real thing. Carmen Callil has crafted a nonfiction thriller in "Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France" (Knopf, 640 pages, illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, appendixes, index) that reminds us that the Germans weren't alone in their efforts to wipe out the Jews of what British historian Mark Mazower has aptly called "The Dark Continent" - Europe.
Vichy France - named for the spa city which served as its capital - was more like Franco's Spain than Hitler's Germany, in Callil's assessment. It is necessary to remember that although he was anti-Semitic in the conservative Roman Catholic tradition, Francisco Franco never participated in the Holocaust. Franco did provide sanctuary for many French war criminals, including Louis Darquier (1897-1980), a rabid anti-Semite and "Commissioner for Jewish Affairs" for the Vichy collaborationist regime from 1942 to 1944.
Movie fans will remember the regime from "Casablanca" (1943) set in a French Morocco ruled by Vichy before the Allied Invasion of North Africa. Real movie buffs will recall a marvelous documentary by filmmaker Marcel Ophuls called "Le Chagrin et la pitie" ("The Sorrow and the Pity") depicting life in the Vichy French town of Clermont-Ferrand, focusing on French participation in the Holocaust. Clermont-Ferrand is the hometown of Blaise Pascal and the founders of the Michelin tire firm and is the headquarters of Michelin.
The 1970, 270-minute film (it's the best documentary ever made in the view of many critics - and in my opinion) was how Callil, born in Australia in 1938 and living in London when she met Dr. Anne Darquier, made the connection between her therapist - Anne Darquier -- who was only eight years older than Callil and the Holocaust. In a true tale that sounds stranger than fiction, Carmen Callil, founder in 1972 of the Virago Press and later managing director of Chatto & Windus, an English publisher, learned of Anne Darquier's connection with Vichy France from watching "The Sorrow and the Pity" in London.
In the film, Darquier meets Reinhard Heydrich, whom many consider the Nazi behind the "Final Solution" that led to the extermination of 6 million human beings of the Jewish faith and millions more who were gypsies, Communists, Jehovah's Witnesses and - yes--Masons. The French, driven by Catholic hatred of a competing cult, were fiercely against Freemasonry and Darquier shared this prejudice. The meeting took place in May 1942; Heydrich was assassinated in Prague on June 4, 1942. The Germans massacred the entire town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in reprisal for the assassination of Heydrich, born in 1904 and rumored to have had a Jewish grandparent. Heydrich was dubbed the "Blond Beast" and "The Hangman" by his fellow Nazis.
In many ways, Vichy France, led by World War I military hero Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain, was what Catholics considered payback time for the turn of the 20th Century Dreyfus affair, which led to anticlericalism and the separation of Church (the Catholic variety) and the French state in 1905.
Those who defend the Catholic Church - an extreme branch of which claims Mel Gibson's dad Hutton Gibson - for its actions and inactions in the 1930s and 1940s do not include author Callil. She blames the hierarchy of the Church, including Pope Pius XII, and the entire top rank of French Catholic bishops and cardinals. She says that many parish priests and ordinary French gave sanctuary to Jews - many as a way of protesting the hated Vichy Regime and the many French who collaborated with the Germans. It was probably more a case of hatred of Germans and collaborators than any love of Jews in a France where anti-Semitism persists to this day, despite the murder of at least 75,000 French Jews - including many young children - in the death camps of Germany and Poland or the French concentration camps like Drancy.
Ironically, Callil points out, it was Charles de Gaulle - whom the Vichy government had sentenced to deathm - who helped create the myth of widespread French participation in resistance to the German occupiers. The reality, portrayed beginning with Ophuls' film and other works, is that many more French collaborated than resisted. Collaborators included the families behind the Coty and L'Oreal cosmetics firms, Coco Chanel, and the Taittinger champagne family, as well as many French authors including Celine, Callil points out. Many French actors and authors, including Jean-Paul Sartre, born in 1905, continued to work during the German occupation. This couldn't have occurred without some form of collaboration.
Anne Darquier was born in London in 1930, from the union of two phonies, Louis Darquier, from the southwestern French city of Cahors, and Myrtle Marian Jones, a native of the Australian state of Tasmania, who had married the ne'er do-well Frenchman a few years before. Myrtle Jones had been married before to an actor and was a minor actress and singer herself. Only after her death in the 1970s did Louis Darquier learn that she was four years older than Darquier. Like Darquier, who appropriated the aristocratic name de Pellepoix without any claim to it, Myrtle was a poseur and a snob.
The couple placed their young daughter in the care of an English nanny, who raised Anne more or less as her own child. Basically, they abandoned the young girl. Thanks to her persistence and moral support from her extended English "family," Anne Darquier went on to graduate from Oxford University and qualify as a physician at London's famed St. Bartholomew's Hospital. She was a popular and successful therapist who attracted a worshipful following among her patients - including author Carmen Callil.
"Bad Faith," which owes its title to a passage from "The Drowned and the Saved" by Italian holocaust survivor Primo Levi ("To keep good and bad faith distinct costs a lot; it requires a decent sincerity and truthfulness with oneself, it demands a continuous intellectual and moral effort. How can such an effort be expected from men like Darquier?") is a multi-layered biography of the entire Darquier family, including the conflicted and tormented Anne. Callil had been seeing Anne for several years when, in 1970, she learned of the death of a woman she credits with saving her life and giving it focus. The death of the 40-year-old physician was ruled accidental, but it was probably a "slow suicide" for the tormented woman, Callil surmises.
Louis Darquier served in the French army in both World Wars and was briefly a POW in 1940, after the French signed an armistice with the Germans. (France was the only nation defeated by Germany in WWII that signed an armistice - mirroring the Nov. 11, 1918 one with the Germans). He was released, largely because the Germans saw him a useful player in their extermination of the Jews of Europe. He had been in the pay of the Germans before the war and was active in the many anti-Jewish organizations of the Third Republic - many of them - like Action Francaise and Croix-de-feu - funded and favored by the Catholic Church of France.
In her description of the looting of French Jewish art collections and other institutions by both Vichy and Nazi Germany, Callil relies heavily on "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn H. Nicholas, a seminal 1995 work. Earlier this year I reviewed a moving book by Lynn Nicholas called "Cruel World" (Knopf, 2006) dealing with the fate of children "caught in the Nazi web." Callil's description of French Jewish families torn apart by the Germans and their French collaborators is moving in the extreme. More and more, I think that if there is a God, he has turned the planet Earth into his own private insane asylum. Reading books like Callil's and the two Nicholas works and Jan Gross's "Fear" (Knopf, 2006) - also reviewed on this site this past summer - certainly reinforces that feeling in me.
Darquier was everything he falsely accused Jews of being: Corrupt, greedy, sexually promiscuous and exploitive, grasping for power and money. He owed his survival in 1944 to his resemblance with another monocle-wearing Frenchman, who was assassinated during the brief French civil war following Liberation in the summer of 1944, after D-Day. Thousands of Frenchmen and Frenchwomen were killed after Liberation and many - like Darquier - managed to escape to Franco's Spain. Louis and Myrtle Darquier lived in Madrid, where he survived by working as a translator, helping promote tourism in Spain. He had limited contact with Anne Darquier after the war and Anne refused to meet with her half sister Teresa, born of a liaison between the womanizing Darquier and a much younger Frenchwoman.
Carmen Callil's "Bad Faith," published last year in England by Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Random House, is a magnificent, moving, well-documented book that deserves wide readership. I've recommended it to all my friends. It would form the basis for a wonderful follow-up documentary to "The Sorrow and the Pity." If this book is optioned for a movie, Australian actress Nicole Kidman could be a wonderful Anne Darquier, who after all, was half-Australian.
Publisher's web site: www.aaknopf.com
Book Description
- "Right now, terrorists are plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate, my wife and daughter are in trouble, and people that I work with may be involved in both. I'm Federal Agent Jack Bauer -- this is the longest day of my life."
-Jack Bauer (actor Keifer Sutherland), from the hit TV show 24
The popular TV show 24 follows counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer in a real-time drama in which each episode is an hour out of a twenty-four-hour day. In this groundbreaking series, the entire twenty-four-episode season equals one day in real-time. Each chapter in Jack Bauer's Having a Bad Day presents an episode from the first season along with an unexpected faith truth. Using the vivid, powerful drama of a specific scene from each episode the book engages the reader to explore the truth of God relative to core spiritual concepts of faith and apply their findings to events in the very real time of our days.
Features and Benefits
- The fan base of 24 is staggering -- 10 million people worldwide watch this show.
- Readers re-live highlights from the first season while exploring faith truths that will energize spiritual life.
- Christ's life-changing message is presented in a creative, compelling way, and backed by in-depth explorations of specific Scriptures that deal with the life of faith.
Customer Reviews:
Bad Day.......2007-03-17
This book along with the others is a great book to read about Jack Bauer before and durring seasons of 24.
Great for Small Groups.......2007-03-11
I got this book for my small group Bible Study. We watch the episode, then go through the chapter and answer the discussion questions at the end of the book. It is a fun way to find God's truth in the world around us. The discussion questions are well written, and provide the basis for some great discussion. We very rarely end group on time becuase we are so involved discussing this book.
I highly recomend this book and watching more 24.......2007-03-09
This book not only gives a great overview of 24 season one but gives life values that are related to each episode and gives ways to which you can apply those princeples to your own life.
Jack Bauer could learn somethings from this book..........2007-02-12
One might say that in season one of the television series 24, Jack Bauer was having a bad day. His wife and daughter were kidnapped by terrorists who wished to manipulate Jack into assassinating Senator David Palmer. His ex-girlfriend and trusted co-worker turned out to be a mole and killed his pregnant wife. In the midst of the story line revolving around Jack Bauer, author Tim Wesemann believes there are spiritual truths waiting to be explored.
Jack Bauer's Having a Bad Day is an "investigation" into those spiritual truths to be found in season one. The chapters are divided into 24 "faith truths" ranging from issues of trust, dependence, and integrity. Most chapters begin with a snippet from the 24 plot line before exploring the spiritual implications. At the back of the book is a reader's guide with 5 study questions per chapter for personal or group use.
While not every "faith truth" discussed in the book is obviously present in the plot line, each one bears important insight for Christian living. Tim Wesemann mixes personal stories and skillful writing with a keen perception for spiritual wisdom. Jack Bauer's Having a Bad Day is a witty, fun, and meaningful book that helps to make one of America's favorite shows more edifying.
Disappointing from a 24 fan point of view.......2006-11-23
As a fan of the show and a person raised without religion, I was interested in what kind of points and parallels the author would try to make. The author's tone was amusing and informal. Unfortunately, I found the format to be confusing and the logic hard to follow. Perhaps that's because I'm not that familiar with the religion, but it did seem to be more of a Christian faith book with a few lines from the show rather than a true investigation of the show with regard to faith.
Book Description
Joan Hangarter bought a disability policy in 1990 to protect her in case of serious illness. When she did become disabled a decade later, she ended up homeless and on welfare when the company refused to pay. With the help of her attorney, Ray Bourhis, she fought back, winning a $7.7 million verdict against the company.
In "Insult to Injury, Bourhis walks readers through this case study in bad faith double-dealing by insurance providers. Bourhis, a national champion of policy-holder rights, uses an engaging narrative style to reveal the back-room strategic mind-set that drives these illegal practices, how low-level employees are duped into unethical conduct, and how insurers manipulate data and witnesses in the few cases that do go to trial. He also explains the key regulatory oversights that encourage such corruption, and how the American legal system actually facilitates insurer fraud. "Insult to Injury closes with a roadmap to reform -- advice no one who holds a policy can afford to ignore.
Customer Reviews:
A family tradegy!.......2007-05-13
The author gives us an inside look at what happens when someone goes through the process of filing a disability claim and being denied benefits. This book does an excellent job of preparing you to handle a very difficult process that could lead you to personal and financial
disaster.
Insurance Company Practices Exposed--But What to Do?.......2006-07-30
Ray Bourhis has done a masterful job of telling the story of his client, Joan Hangartner, (and several others) in their battle with the Unum-Provident disability giant. This book is an easy read that will terrify anyone who is thinking about making a claim against a disability insurance policy. As Bourhis points out, Unum is no worse than any of the others--the disability insurance companies have "done the math" and figure out that denying valid claims and forcing people to litigate for years if very profitable for the companies.
The disability insurance companies don't care about getting hit every once in a while like the massive verdict he got on behalf of Dr. Hangartner... their profits are still enormous. Bourhis also does a great job (discouraging as it is) of showing how most states lack any real "bad faith" laws that can be used to discourage the disability insurance companies from continuing to look after themselves before their insureds. Finally, Bourhis accurately shows that there is no effective meaningful oversite of the insurance industry by the federal government.
Simply, it takes lawsuits like his to break down the veil of secrecy that the insurance companies hide behind.
In short, if you like to read legal non-fiction, (and you like, for example the Gerry Spence books about his trials) then you will enjoy this book
Don't quit your day job..........2006-03-14
When you read this book it is very clear that Mr. Bourhis is writing it from a plaintiff's attorney point-of-view. Which is fine, just accept that fact when you read the book and know that the book is very one-sided and filled with only partial truths.
In his book he slays insurance companies, UnumProvident in particular, for not being fair, objective, or reasonable in their claim handling practices. Mr. Bourhis is neither fair, objective, nor reasonable in his depiction of insurance claims.
Mr. Bourhis clearly thinks a lot more of himself and his legal prowess. His writing skills, however, leave a lot to be desired. I had to laugh at some of his descriptions of UnumProvident employees. Example - "I don't know where insurance companies find these people but Ryan seemed like yet another excessively clean-cut looking guy - the kind of fellow you might expect to see wearing a white uniform and selling ice cream cones at Disneyland."
What did you think, Mr. Bourhis, that insurance companies only hire the "wolves in sheep's' clothing"? Did you expect all claim examiners to look like witches and ogres out to terrorize the villagers and eat their children? This is, after all, another vicious attempt by insurance companies to charm and disarm the claimant so they can swoop in for the kill, you know.
You will also notice how he refers to the employees primarily by their last names in an attempt to de-humanize those individuals. If they seem less human - less like your brother, sister, neighbor, or friend - it is a lot easier to hate them and vilify them as he has done in his book.
Very Informative!.......2005-12-26
Insult to Injury" focuses on a disabled chiropractor driven to the brink by an insurance company (UnumProvident) that unjustly denied her claim for benefits; the "good news" is that Bourhis and his associates were eventually able to right the wrong after a long legal battle made incredibly difficult by the company's calculated mendacity and the industry's success in prior lobbying of Congress and state legislatures.
When Dr. Hangarter first purchased her disability policy from Paul Revere Insurance, companies made their profits primarily on double-digit investment profits. However, the market changed and the companies found themselves under increasing pressure. In the meantime, Dr. Hangarter was injured providing treatment to a patient, and despite significant efforts at treatment, had to give up her practice and rely on disability payments from Paul Revere. Eventually Revere was sold and then became part of UnumProvident, and Dr. Hangarter's world was turned upside down.
New corporate leadership was brought in and began a deliberate policy of searching for ways to deny benefits - goals were set, customers were lied to regarding whether they could appeal and what was covered, expert testimony was slanted through incomplete information, documents destroyed, and the disabled often forced to go through lengthy, risky, and expensive litigation to collect. Possibly most frustrating of all (to me) was the fact that even when the company lost, it simply continued the same practices with other customers, and made it as difficult as possible for those victims to learn of the firm's already uncovered pattern of deceit.
Eventually because of all the resulting bad publicity UnumProvident's CEO was "forced out," given a $17 million payment, and all his cronies were left behind. Not much of a victory for truth and virtue. Meanwhile, President Bush touts his efforts and legislative victory to make righting such wrongs more difficult, and most state insurance commissioners and laws remain toothless. (California was a fortunate exception.)
"Insult to Injury" also goes a long way towards explaining why large punitive damages are sometimes necessary in the absence of innate corporate honesty and laws that mandate such.
And now we're reading about insurance companies and how they are managing to not pay Hurricane Katrina victims.
Offers a new Perspective..........2005-10-05
It shows the worse of the worse in the insurance industry. I came away wondering if the all the money I spend on medical, auto, home and life is actually buying me something. Maybe I need reinsurance for my insurance. What a mess?
I always assumed they charged an appropriate rate for the risk and numbers. If they made a mistake like they made foreseeing interest rates, the new policies holders just paid more in premiums.
In the end, the case was made for higher punitive damages. I still struggle with this. It seems to me companies who are doing this much wrong by the numbers need to be deterred. But I still have trouble seeing dollars that large going to a few plaintiffs. I am not sure if this is where the class action suits come into play. I don't what the fix is but my gut says there must be a better way to punish them. One thing for sure is it needs to be stopped.
Book Description
Once she was Professor Mary Naughton, investigative reporter, teacher, and free spirit. Now she is Sister Agatha of Our Lady of Hope, a cloistered, financially-struggling monastery in New Mexico. As an extern-a nun who handles her order's dealings with the outside world-she is used to having her faith and newly-acquired patience tested. But when popular chaplain Father Anselm is poisoned to death in the middle of Mass, Sister Agatha has to bring all her worldly skepticism and savvy instincts to uncover the truth before scandal and unjust suspicion destroy Our Lady of Hope's future. She's up against a hostile local sheriff, an ex-lover who's never forgiven her for 'abandoning' their life together. She's got no shortage of suspects-with-secrets outside-and inside-the monastery. And she'll have to race the clock to stop one remorseless murderer before there's more hell to pay....
Customer Reviews:
A new detective figure.......2007-09-03
Here is another good new detective figure in a genre which currently stresses the interesting character of a non-conventional detective. Good story well told by two good authors, who I hope will write a lot more about Sister Agatha and her New Mexico world.
A great new series!.......2007-08-25
These two authors have written a number of series, most of which I find very strange, but one of the most recent features Sister Agatha, an extern nun for a cloistered order. These are cozy murder mysteries and I found the first one, Bad Faith, highly enjoyable (haven't gotten around to reading the rest yet). Sister Agatha was a journalism professor before becoming a nun and when a murder brings suspicion to their monastery, the Reverend Mother asks Sister to work with the police to try to keep as much as possible away from the cloister. Sister Agatha and the other nuns of her order (including a novice and a postulant) are all wonderful characters with interesting depths. The story line keeps you interested - both the murder investigation and Sister's own spiritual journey. This is just the kind of book I love - suspense and Christian spirituality teamed with great characters.
Bad Faith - really rates a "Good Faith" rating.......2005-09-15
I enjoyed this book - a new heroine to enjoy. The book arrived in good time, and was exactly as listed. Thank you for prompt attention to my order.
Bad Faith.......2005-07-21
I really enjoyed this book and Sister Agatha was so human and with a sense of humor. I could just visualize her in her habit driving the Harley with Pax in the side car.
I can't wait!.......2003-03-21
At first,I didn't like this book at all. Then I couldn't put it down.After I finished it I wanted more of Sister Agatha
Amazon.com
The author of Radical Son returns with a vigorous polemic against the American Left. Showing that liberals and conservatives have sharply contrasting views on the ideas of freedom and equality--and defining these differences in forceful prose--Horowitz goes on to blame the Left for many of what he believes to be America's ills, including multiculturalism, feminism, and economic socialism. "We speak reflexively of leftists as 'progressives,' even though their doctrines are rooted in nineteenth-century prejudice and have been refuted by a historical record of unprecedented bloodshed and oppression," writes Horowitz, an ex-Marxist who is now a staunch right-winger. In an especially controversial chapter, he charges gay-rights activists with creating a political environment that made it almost impossible for the public health community to react effectively to the AIDS crisis. Like the man himself, this book will attract lovers and loathers, depending on their political creed. For conservative readers, he performs the helpful task of clarifying their own convictions; for left-of-center ones, he provides a penetrating glimpse into the conservative mindset. --John J. Miller
Book Description
In this intellectual companion piece to his acclaimed autobiography, Radical Son, David Horowitz argues that, even in this supposedly post-ideological, post-Cold War era, the historic themes of that conflict still drive our politics and animate our cultural debates. With keen political insight and a masterly grasp of history, he examines how the political Left, including those who describe themselves as liberals, has refused to learn from the past -- particularly from the checkered records of progressive movements for social justice.
This important work is a cohesive and searing document for all who refuse to bury their heads in the sand while American institutions and beliefs are corrupted by the politics of bad faith masquerading under the guise of social justice.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent review of why the "Left's" not "right".......2007-05-29
Excellent read. I recommend it to conservatives who need a review of how and why the Left's Socialist ideas repeatedly fail. I especially enjoyed the last chapter.
The Left and Historical Astigmatism.......2007-05-27
In POLITICS AND BAD FAITH, David Horowitz considers the current plight of the liberal Left of the United States and concludes that it has failed to learn the inevitable lesson that socialism is a defunct system that has never worked at any time or in any place in recorded history. The "Bad Faith" of his title suggests that for the current crop of socialists to insist that the failure of socialism was due more to a betrayal of its guiding principles than to its inner value clearly posits a misplaced historical astigmatism that is bad faith personified.
In Chapter One ("The Left After Communism"), Horowitz identifies Eric Hobsbawm's AGE OF EXTREMES as typical of the left's turning a blind eye toward the source of the suffering and deaths of millions of those who endured the failings of a political theory in each country that chose to live under its red banner. When Horowitz sums up Hobsbawm's central thesis that even when socialist leaders were wrong, they were still right, he zeroes in on the Left's inner blind spot, namely that "the response of the Left to the disasters that its political ideas have produced is the response of nihilism and bad faith." (Page 31) Horowitz then shifts to the pervasiveness of Marxist ideology in America's colleges and universities. It was with no small sorrow that he lists the required readings for Columbia's Contemporary Civilization course that include only Marxist or socialist writers (with Max Weber and Charles Darwin as the only exceptions). Where, asks Horowitz, are the leading non-socialist thinkers of the last two centuries? The answer is that they have been relegated to the unwanted dustbins of history and in their place are legions of second-raters, has-beens, and never-wases.
In Chapter Two ("The Fate of the Marxist Idea"), Horowitz directly addresses what ought to have been adroit foresight in 1872 when he quotes Mikhail Bakunin, Marx's rival in the First International, who sets forth what to him was the inevitable future of Russia under socialism: "the world will be divided into a minority ruling in the name of knowledge and an immense ignorant majority. And then, woe unto the mass of ignorant ones." (Page 109) One might think that this eloquent warning coupled with the ubiquitous failures of every socialist state since 1872 might give the lie to the claims of Hobsbawm and others of his ilk. The tragedy, of course, is that it does not and this is why David Horowitz has written THE POLITICS OF BAD FAITH.
A Shift In Political Thought.......2006-02-08
Immediately when i began this book, I realized that my thoughts about communism, liberalism, and honesty in life were at a crossroads and I was never to look back. This book reads like a provocative, telling, convincing memoir that should be appreciated. Horowitz bears his soul about his family life, his past, and where it has led him today. I was addicted. I'm enthralled that there was such an expose on the roots of radicalism, and it has convincing power to state boldly that, yes, the theory and practice of "social justice" is indeed a religion. It is an unholy religion and unworthy of the potential of humankind. This book was the beginning for me in my self-education with subjects that i know I will not be taught in school. Now that I have gone back, I feel more empowered, confident, and humbled in the knowlegde that the great Horowitz pours out to anybody who will carefully look at it. Remember, the TEXT, along with the subject matter should be critiqued, not devalued BECAUSE of the subject matter. David makes his case clear and powerful, challenging all his readers to rethink matters and causes that have stormed through our history and prevail today. If the bath house portion of the book was "homophobia" as one reviewer put it, why did those who resisted shutting them down acknowledge the pandemic and epidemic which would kill many of them and laugh and spit in the face of it? Therin lies the carelessness and the apathy towards them. Therein lies true homophobia, which has killed tens of thousands more than any homophobic lynching, unless we're talking about the Muslim extremists. But we're not. We're talking about America. I would urge anybody to carefully examine this book!
Confessions of a Marxist turned Madisonian.......2005-05-30
"The tearing down of the Berlin wall marked the end of the modern epoch as surely as the fall of the Bastille marked its beginning two centuries ago." Adherents of ideologies of the left, however, are not as sure as the author herein; and that's the problem as Mr. Horowitz sees it. How many "progressives" in good faith, he waxes, could bring themselves to sign the American Constitution today? The competing claims of the autonomy of the individual and human nature vs. collectivist ends and the inclination to try to remake human beings, unfortunately still exists; notwithstanding the utter failure of the Marxist experiment in dozens of attempts. Mr. Horowitz is not totally surprised, however, defining---as he does---Marxism as a secular faith; a matter not of politics, but of self. One chooses the "left". It's a matter of temperment and, as such, adherents are not easily swayed by factual evidence, however damning. Besides, radicals attitudes do not derive from pragmatic considerations based on experience and/or extrapolation from the past anyway, but on expectations of the future. Leftists thus, by inclination, ensconce themselves in ideological cul-de-sacs; as partisans of a cause that confirms their self-annointed humanity even as it denies humanity to those that oppose them. Such people, the author concludes, are not seeking a new reality, but rather an old illusion; and comfort for their lives, self-exaltation above the fray of a society with which they themselves do not identify. Mr. Horowitz admits that he himself was a victim of this inclinaton, taking on the cause of all the communities of the dispossessed in his youth; inculcated, as he was, into the radical Communist faith by his father. "It was only much later," he adds,"that I came to realize that in becoming part of the Left I had really taken on the cause of no community at all." "This is the socialist delusion," in his view, "the intoxicating fantasy that makes the socially alienated into political saviors." Pertinent herein and what makes this short treatise especially interesting is the author's highly personal (mammoth-lenth) pair of letters explaining to former comrades how he came to accept all of the above. Many books are available which take issue with the "progressive left" in political society, but how many can offer you the insight from the inside, so to speak, of a one-time stalwart believer. That's the benefit of this work and I recommend it (along with "Anti-Americanism" by Jean-Francois Revel and "Of paradise and Power" by Robert Kagan). Cheers!
Poorly written, thought out and proofread........2005-02-17
It is amazing that a book with so many typos could be published. It is also amazing that so many people actually believe this junk.
Conservatives - Look in the mirror.
Conservatives occupy the White House, control the Senate, Congress and Supreme Court along with many Governor seats and State Houses.
If any thing in 'wrong' in America perhaps it is because of who is leading!
Book Description
Enjoy the expanded and updated editions of the best-selling "Lord" Bible Study Series from Kay Arthur. The "Lord" study series is an insightful, warm-hearted Bible study series designed to meet readers where they are--and help them discover God's answers to their deepest needs.
Chaos. Tragedy. Brokenness. Where Is God?
You never dreamed it would happen to you. You cry for help...but God doesn't seem to hear. Why?
Chaos, tragedies, broken relationships -- how could a God who is all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving allow these things?
And what about the wars, disasters, and plagues tearing the world apart? If God really is who He says He is, how can He let these things happen? Why doesn't He do something?
In Lord, Where Are You When Bad Things Happen? Kay Arthur will guide you to
the answers through the book of Habakkuk, helping you know God, understand Him, and love Him more fully. This daily study will minister to you and help you walk by faith. These are invaluable truths you can share easily with others, individually or in small groups.
Customer Reviews:
Great Service.......2007-09-02
I received the 24 books of "Lord, Where Are You When Bad Things Happen?" in a very timely manner. They were in excellent condition! This was my first time to use Amazon but not my last! Thanks.
Linda Hall
Lord, Where Are You When Bad Things Happen?.......2006-07-11
This is a great book for a bible study!
This doesn't need to be a quesiton for you........2002-04-22
Can the Almighty really control everything or do some things slip through His grasp? Of course, there is the devil, and he is just as powerful as God, isn't he? Perhaps, he gets the upper hand on God, catching Him off-guard. Aren't they fighting constantly for control of the world?
Maybe God doesn't want to do anything about evil the world. Perhaps, He has a dark side that doesn't care about human suffering, or even enjoys it. Can He be trusted to do what's best for the world?
In this book, Kay Arthur answers your questions concerning evil in the world. She leads you through Habakkuk and many related texts to show you who God is and why we should trust Him. Learn the truth about the God of the Bible from the Bible itself. Discover how God will deal with evil and injustice, and what He's already done to curtail it.
Establish yourself in the truth of God's Word. Christianity's #1 problem needn't be a problem for you.
This Book Will Renew Your Faith in God.......2000-06-20
This book is awesome! It definitely answers the question of "Lord, where are You when bad things happen?" Unfortunately, sometimes God is using the bad to judge sin. This book is very thorough, though, and reminds us of the character of God. If we are obedient to Him, if we love Him, then He will turn the bad into our ultimate good. By looking at the words of Habakkuk the prophet, you will be challenged to say, "Lord, things look bad, but I trust You. As long as I have You, I will stand, no matter what." If you're only willing to read one book in the "Lord" series, choose this one! It will expose you to God's Word and renew your faith in God.
Book Description
What would you do with $1 million?
That's a question Darcy Nightengale never thought she'd need to answer. But a sudden inheritance of just over $1 million begs a more immediate response. And when Darcy learns of her father's last request that she "give it all away," she discovers just how quickly big money makes big problems.
Her husband believes that charity begins at home. His home. And her children are sure it's only a matter of time before the presents start rolling in. Right? Darcy wants to do the right thing--as soon as she can figure out what it is. Can the path of righteousness be paved with gold? Darcy's surprising answer turns her world on end.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable story.......2006-02-19
Darcy Nightengale is exhausted after caring many months for her dying father, putting all other areas of her life, including her family, on hold. While she grieves her father's death she is also thankful that once again she will be able to have a "normal" life caring for her husband and kids. When Darcy finds out her father has left her over 1.6 million dollars she is torn between amazement and anger. She cannot believe that he hid this from her for so many years. But when she reads the letter her father left explaining where the money came from and how he would like her to "give it all away" she is left even more angry and confused. She has given up so much to care for him, including her part-time job that had helped to pay household expenses. Now, after 9/11, the economy is bad and her husband Jack's job is barely enough to keep them going. How can her father ask her to give it all away?
One day Darcy wakes up and, after long denying herself both necessities & luxuries during her care for her father, decides to have a day at the salon with her best friend Kate. She is so greatly refreshed, not only physically but mentally, that the seeds of an idea are planted in her mind. Some of the money her father left her could be used to give a "day of restoration" to other women who are caring for very ill & dying loved ones. She & Kate dub it the Restoration Project. However, she faces obstacles in getting her husband to understand and support the idea. While Jack and Darcy love each other very much, her father's illness and their financial situation have put a tremendous strain on their marriage. It is hard for him to understand how she can even consider following her father's request to give all the money away.
While Darcy's father had a strong faith in God, Jack & Darcy have not had much desire to include God in their lives. As Darcy and Jack seek out knowledgeable people to help them handle their newfound wealth, it is those same people who share the knowledge about wealth that is even greater than material, knowing God and His plan for their lives.
I found Darcy & Jack's story through conflict to faith told very authentically.
Okay.......2006-01-15
This book was okay, not great, not wonderful, just OK!
Definitely not on the same realm as some other Christian Chick Lit books that I have loved (Lisa Samson's, Laura Jensen Walker, Rene Gutteridge, Robert Elmer, Kristin Billerbeck, Meredith Efken, Neta Jackson, Judy Baer, etc.)
It just doesn't have the quality of writting that I look for. The editing is also very poor. Many typos and errors.
I don't think too much of Steeple Hill Cafe books so far. This is a huge disappointment to me, I had so looked forward to this new line....but they just aren't delivering!
At least this one is not as big a flop as "Mother of Prevention."
This is another book going straight to paperbackswap.com!
Not Gripping, Tries to Cover Too Many Bases.......2006-01-15
I'm learning not to buy books by first-time Christian authors because they haven't learned how to write yet. Evidently there are no qualified editors employed at the publishing companies, so we can't depend on them to provide worthwhile literature.
This book has three big plots: 1) the death of the main character's father on Sep 12 (the day after the terrorist attacks). 2) the fact that she has been sort of absent from home for one or two years while she nursed her dying father. 3) her father left her 1.6 million dollars that she didn't know he had and he asked her to give it away.
The third plot is the main plot, but the author tries to cover the other two subjects too while ignoring her duties toward the events she should be depicting (like the friction between the husband and wife arising from the fact that they have different opinions about what to do with the money; she talks about it, but doesn't show it). I think she could have written three different books and done a better job (unless she tried to cram other plots into those stories). As it is, she doesn't do justice to any of the plots.
The book is boring. I can't force myself to continue reading it. I'm over 100 pages into it and it's taken me days to get that far. I should be totally immersed in the story, but I'm not because there is nothing happening.
I think this writer should spend some (more) time learning to write good fiction. She should also get a better editor because her writing style is tired and needs a Restoration Project of its own.
Understanding God's plan for you, and having the guts to go along with it........2005-07-02
One of the best in its genre. Allie Pleiter's characters are so accessible, fun, and colorful, that I actually missed them when I had finished the book. The female friendships Pleiter has created are hilarious, yet touching. Another enjoyable relationship is the one Darcy shares with her husband. You can see them falling in love with each other again, as they look at each other with new eyes, and discover new things about themselves and each other.
Darcy struggles with being the best mother, daughter, wife, and friend she can be, while trying not to lose herself in the process. Her daily fight with the grief of losing her father shows how difficult it is to lose a parent, no matter how old you are. Without preaching, Pleiter teaches us that trusting in God can point us toward what is really important in life.
A Feel Good Book.......2005-04-05
This is a definite must read. Darcy has a big choice to make with keeping a million dollars or giving it to charity. I love the message the author gives about trusting God and finding our way when the world turns upside down. You will laugh out loud and cry with Darcy . I cant wait for her next book!!!!
Average customer rating:
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Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism
Neil J. Kressel
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Violence in Society
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Terrorism
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Fundamentalism
| Theology
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Church & State
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Sociology
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1591025036 |
Product Description
What separates constructive religious impulses from destructive ones? How does someone who begins by contemplating his relationship with God end by committing an act of murder? Some argue that religiously motivated evil always represents a corruption of true religion. Others are quick to suggest that religion itself all religion is the root of extremist violence.
This is the first book to journey to the heart of religious militancy. Dr. Neil J. Kressel, who has spent decades researching genocide, terrorism, and anti-Semitism, brings to bear the insights of psychology and social science on this significant and critical problem. For those tired of simplistic bromides and obfuscating talk about the causes of religious terrorism, Kressel offers a clear and enlightening analysis of when and how religions become capable of inspiring evil. Specifically, he addresses the following key issues:
· Are some religions, religious doctrines, and religious practices more apt to inspire hatred and extremism than others?
· Are people who commit evil acts in the name of their faith always corrupting the true message of religion and, if so, what is that message?
· Do other members of the same faith bear any responsibility for misdeeds carried out in the name of their religion?
· Which sorts of people are most prone to extremism?
· Which types of societies are most likely to become breeding grounds for extremists?
· Can (or should) anything be done to combat the various forms of religious extremism? What limits, if any, can (or should) be placed on religious practice in America and elsewhere?
Beyond analyzing the nature of religious militancy, Kressel offers sensible recommendations for addressing what is to date the 21st century s most serious challenge.
Books:
- Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: Mysticism in Music from Antiquity to the Avant-Garde
- Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy With God in the Busyness of Life (Revised Edition with New Bible Study)
- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (Baby Board Books)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- Honor Under Siege
- How to Burn Down the House: The Infamous Waiter and Bartender's Scam Bible by Two Bourbon Street Waiters
- I'll Be Watching You: Inside the Police, 1980-83 (Taschen Artists Edition)
- I Love A Mystery: Old Time Radio Shows
Books Index
Books Home
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- Am I Blue
- The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby
- Fly Fishing Canada: From Coast to Coast to Coast
- Liquid Crystalline Polymers
- How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day
- Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects
- The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible
- Learning From The Bilbao Guggenheim
- Groundscrapers + Subscrapers of Hamzah & Yeang
- Henna's Secret History: The History Mystery and Folklore of Henna
Jesus of Nazareth
Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith
Honey from the Rock: Sixteen Jews Find the Sweetness of Christ
The Apostles
Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality
