July Reading Log

2 weeks at Sabine Creek Ranch for youth camp and preteen camp meant that I had less time for reading than usual. Here's what I managed to finish in my shortened month!

4 Articles I Like This Month

"A Crime By Any Name" by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic. 15 minutes.

The immigrant detention centers at the southwest border have been labeled by some as concentration camps. Unfortunately, that label has engendered almost as much controversy as the conditions of the centers. But as this article makes clear, whatever you want to call these detention facilities, this much is clear: while the problem is complex, there are ways to stem the tide, and those ways are not being pursued because "the cruelty is the point." A hard, necessary read.

"Sixteen and Evangelical" by Laura Turner, Slate. 18 minutes.

A loving, reflective essay about growing up in an evangelical youth group. Especially relevant to me this month given that I spent two weeks at camp with our preteens and youth.

"Poetry and Prophecy, Dust and Ashes" by Phil Christman, Plough. 13 minutes.

Ostensibly a review of Robert Alter's The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, this winds up being a reverent and poetic meditation on how and why to read what Christians call the Old Testament.

"Trump's Apostle" by Maria Recio, Texas Monthly. 32 minutes.

Robert Jeffress is a warm, sharp, charismatic pastor who preaches the name of Jesus to thousands of people every week and is undoubtedly the most prominent evangelical leader in Texas. He's also a partisan hack who never met a camera he didn't like and whose full-throated embrace of Donald Trump has made even ardent defenders of the president squeamish. In this remarkably even-handed profile, Maria Recio seeks to understand what drives the pastor of First Baptist Dallas—and determine whether anything would cause Jeffress to abandon the president to whom he's pledged his allegiance.

THE RED LETTER REVOLUTION: WHAT IF JESUS REALLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID? by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo

In evangelical life, there is a simple question that we often encourage people to use as a guide to morality: what would Jesus do? Whether dealing with what to say, how to behave, or even what to think in a given situation, that question has a way of distilling complex ethical questions down to the essence of what it means to follow Christ: to do what he does.

But, as Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo point out in this 2012 book, there has been a widespread refusal to apply this question to politics. While evangelicals are quick to find prooftexts to support views on every issue from abortion to the death penalty, we rarely seem to start with the words and example of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount, it seems, stops at the ballot box.

So in Red Letter Revolution, the authors conduct a conversation about what it would look like to examine various issues from the perspective of the "red letters," i.e. the words of Jesus. Campolo, a sociology professor, preacher, and longtime voice on the evangelical left, represents an older generation and Claiborne, a prominent author and activist for the poor and marginalized, represent the next generation of leaders. This difference in perspectives prompts them to see politics differently even as they agree on issues: where Campolo, who was there for the rise of the Religious Right, seeks to combat that viewpoint, Claiborne, who has never known a world without it, seems to almost want to transcend it.

But despite this interesting difference in viewpoints, the book is limited by the simple fact that the two authors are eminently predictable in their outlooks on different issues. While the book's stated goal is admirable, the result is essentially a manifesto—albeit an engaging one—for the evangelical left. If you come in as a political liberal, you'll probably think it's excellent; if you're a conservative, you'll probably think it's propaganda. In our intensely partisan age, the book fails in my estimation to cut through the partisanship that divides us. Seeing politics through the lens of the Bible's red letters is a worthy goal, but I can't help wonder how a different pair of authors would do so.

A MONTH OF SUNDAYS: THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF WRESTLING WITH MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, AND JOHN by Eugene H. Peterson

*I wrote a brief review of this book for the Baptist Standard. So as to neither plagiarize nor repeat myself, allow me to simply link to that review here.*

WHITE HOUSE DIARY by Jimmy Carter

Historical diaries make for a fascinating—if sometimes plodding—read, and this one is no different in that respect. During his time as president, Jimmy Carter kept both copious notes and brief daily diary entries on the issues he was facing, his activities as president, and his ideas for the future. White House Diary is a collection of excerpts from that daily diary with occasional annotations for the sake of explanation or follow-up. The result is a book that, even more than his presidential memoir Keeping Faith, shows much of the conventional wisdom about Carter's presidency to appear spot-on.

On the positive side, the diary shows Carter to be sincere in his goals as president and committed to doing what was right whether it was politically beneficial or not. Readers never get any indication that there are sinister or deceptive motivations behind Carter's decisions—in fact, it is almost surprising whenever Carter so much as acknowledges the reality of political expediency. Just as he promised in his 1976 campaign, Carter was committed to human rights, world peace, and the environment, and these are largely the issues that consumed his days.

But on the negative side, it's easy to see why Carter was soundly defeated in the 1980 election by Ronald Reagan. First, Carter was an extreme micromanager, something he even admits in the diary's afterword—his staff and cabinet are not mentioned often in the diary, and when they are it is often derogatorily. Second, Carter was far more concerned about foreign policy than domestic issues, something which while constitutionally sound is generally unpopular with the voting public. Only when the economy sours in the late 1970s does Carter seem to turn his attention to it, and even then reluctantly and defensively. Finally (and most noticeably for a reader of his diary), Carter is just kind of a bummer: sensitive to criticism, resentful of his opponents and allies alike, and dour in his attitude toward the office and the nation. The famous smile that promised an end to the politics of Watergate is hard to remember when you read Carter's diary.

No one, friend and foe alike, has ever seriously questioned Carter's honesty, and indeed this diary is a warts-and-all look at the presidency of Jimmy Carter. But after reading it, it's not hard to see why that presidency ended after one term. White House Diary is a helpful historical record of the successes and failures of a good man who never seemed well-suited for his office.

ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA VOL. 3 by Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, et al.

You'd think these Dracula stories would get old after fifty issues. After all, the stories don't change much. Dracula, an undead creature of the night, feeds upon the blood of innocent victims and is always seeking out new prey. A team of vampire hunters is constantly in pursuit of him. Each time, Dracula's would-be killers come thiiiiis close to ending his reign of terror, only to be somehow thwarted. The stories just don't change much. But in Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 3, which collects the titular comic's final twenty issues as well as four issues of a more adult black-and-white Dracula magazine, the stories not only continue to enthrall, they're arguably improving even as the book draws to a close.

As was the case for the first 50 issues, these twenty are the work of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, who appear to be having the time of their lives. This volume leans heavily into the serialized nature of comics, with the story of Dracula and those hunting him down now a never-ending soap opera. New characters, such as hack writer Harold H. Harold, a thinly disguised Woody Allen stand-in, step into the fray even as older and less interesting characters exit stage left. Dracula dies, then rises from the dead, then dies again, and it somehow never feels stale. Like any good soap opera (or, one might say, any comic book series), the key to Tomb of Dracula was the appearance of change without things ever really changing in a significant way.

The highlight of this volume is a saga in which Dracula becomes a father for the second time, bearing a son with the priestess of a Satanic cult the vampire intends to use to take over the world. However, unbeknownst to him, his new wife has pledged her son to God, so when the child is born he rapidly ages to manhood and defies his father, emerging not as an heir to Dracula's vampiric kingdom, but as an angelic figure who wages war on his evil father. Comics!

The final four issues shift from the traditional format of Bronze Age comics to the black-and-white magazines Marvel was producing for adults in those days. Longer and drawn in a sketchier style, these stories are well told but fit more traditionally in the horror genre than the action/adventure stories Tomb of Dracula told. Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 4, which I'll read next month, is comprised entirely of these magazine stories. Tune in at the beginning of next month to see what I think of those.