Babylon Rising
Tim LaHaye, Greg Dinallo


Well, sorry Jerry, but thanks to Greg, Tim's got a better book here. Richer vocabulary, and better descriptions, narration, action... People are described, not characterized vaguely. Theologically... well it is aimed at a very specific pre-trib dispensationalistic reading of the Bible, i.e. not the historic teaching of the Church in general, nor the faith of most Christians currently. But popular enough to sell books.

Much more realistic Christians, who don't bad mouth the UN wholesale, who do good works and seem pretty normal.

Very Indiana Jones - nice action scenes and all. Egyptian digs, and a colorful Salah-esque sidekick, Jassim.

But I'm happy to go back to space opera... now back to The Mote in God's Eye.

The Embarrassed Believer
Hugh Hewitt


"A latter-day Colson, without the jail time" is my description of Hewitt, who I was curious about, because he regularly hosts James Lileks on his (Hewitt's) radio show. So I wanted to know more about him.

Good book - nothing earth-shattering, but a fair assessment, only a little dated, of current culture and the problems that serious Christians face in testifying to their faith. I'll be looking to read his latest next. And listening to his show. From my observations he is much more irenic than most of the louts on talk radio, who seem to think that nasty belittling humor and catch phrases constitute debate.