Tag Books

The Death of Chairman Mao – History for September 9

Todd R 2 Comments
Photo by manos koutras on Unsplash

On this date in 1976, Mao Zedong, or Chairman Mao, founder of the communist People’s Republic of China, died at the age of 82.  Some look at Mao’s death as a positive turning point for Christianity in China, since under Mao China had expelled all Western Christian missionaries between 1949 and 1953.  However, while it is impossible to come up with precise numbers across a 3.7 million square mile country, Christians probably were about 1 percent of China’s population when Western missionaries were kicked out, but by the 1980s about 5 percent of the population went by Christ’s name.  The Christian population grew by ten times, while the overall population doubled.  How did this happen?

Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom, authors of the book “Clouds of Witnesses” say the key to this growth was “the resilience of the Chinese believers themselves…securely rooted in Chinese life before Mao.” [1]  In expelling missionaries, Mao was in part responding to “treaty ports” created at the end of the 1839-42 Opium War.  Through these ports foreign powers had extra territorial rights, allowing influences including missionaries to come in, but these ports also allowed opium to flow freely into China from Western countries.  Therefore, in the mind of many Chinese, Christianity became linked with both Western imperialism and opium addiction.  When Karl Marx said “religion is the opiate of the masses” he may have been thinking of this connection.  But native Chinese believers, sometimes planted by Europe-based evangelizing organizations like China Inland Mission, remained behind and spread resilient forms of Christianity that were attractive to the Chinese population.

John Sung
Several of these Chinese Christians are profiled by Noll and Nystrom, including John Sung who lived from 1901 to 1944, before Mao’s communist revolution.  Around Christmas 1926, Sung heard child evangelist Uldine Utley preach a sermon at Calvary Baptist Church in New York, near where he was attending Union Theological Seminary.  This sermon, along with other influences, countered the liberal Christianity he was being taught where the Bible was just “a collection of myths.”  He returned to China, determined to spread the gospel in the land of his birth with frenetic energy.  In a one-year period in 1931-2, Sung and a small group of missionaries “traveled over 50,000 miles, held 1,200 meetings, preached to more than 400,000 people in thirteen provinces, registered more than 18,000 ‘decisions’” for Christ.  Many of these new Christians formed traveling bands themselves.  Sung is considered the last great evangelist in China and Southeast Asia before Mao’s reign. 

Dora Yu
Even earlier, another driver of this resilient, Chinese Christianity was Dora Yu (1873-1931).  Dora’s ministry benefitted tremendously from a 1905 decision by Dowager Empress Cixi to replace China’s traditional Confucian civil service examinations with general public schools.  Under this system, mission-run schools became a valued option, and one of Dora’s early ministries was to train “Bible women” to not only educate women generally, but also to teach them the Bible, pray with them, and teach them to live by faith.  Mostly traveling by foot, in “1903, Dora Yu visited with 925 women and 211 children.”  Later, her ministry grew and she became famous for itinerant preaching, reaching many others who would carry on the Lord’s work.

Because of our proneness to look at
the bucket and forget the fountain,
God has frequently to change His
means of supply to keep
our eyes fixed on the source

Watchman Nee

Watchman Nee
In 1920, Nee Shu-Tsu would hear Dora Yu preach.  Later known as Watchman Nee, he “planted at least four hundred Christian churches over a thirty-year period of active ministry.”  He died in 1972 in a Communist prison after spending 20 years there.  Watchman Nee wrote that “Because of our proneness to look at the bucket and forget the fountain, God has frequently to change His means of supply to keep our eyes fixed on the source.”

Whether it is a European missionary, a child preacher in New York City, a Chinese man temporarily studying in New York City, or a Chinese woman walking miles through the countryside:

“How beautiful upon the mountains
            are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
            who publishes salvation,
            who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” – Isaiah 52:7

As Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 – “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  This rock is the gospel of the kingdom of God, and not even a brutal regime like that of Chairman Mao could prevail against it.

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] Noll, Mark A.; Nystrom, Carolyn.  Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia (2011).  This post is drawn from chapters 12 and 14.

Driving Toward Morning’s 2024 in Books

Todd R 2 Comments

Dear fellow travelers,

It’s become a tradition here to post what books I read during the year.  This year’s total was 16, down from over 20 each of the last 3 years.  A big part of the lower total was my struggle to get through The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim (1883).  At over 900 dense pages, I still haven’t finished it even though I started in late 2023.  It’s a fascinating biography of Jesus by one of the preeminent scholars of Jewish culture and literature of his time, but not an easy read sometimes.  Maybe in 2025 I can “close the book” on that one.

So, what books did I finish reading this year?

Fiction books:
Eight Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

I re-read Tolkien’s books every few years and they were as good as ever.  The only problem is that Fellowship of the Ring is my favorite of the trilogy, especially the part from Weathertop to the bridge of Khazad-Dum, so the story peaks too soon for me, but the rest is great as well.

Poe I read because I was looking for something easy to read and found it on our bookshelves.  It has some familiar and unfamiliar stories.

A few history books:
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson
A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood by James P. Byrd
The Pirate Coast by Richard Zachs

I’ll read anything by Erik Larson, and since he released a new one, I had to read it.  The Demon of Unrest details the events before, during and after, the Battle of Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War.  I knew very little about it so I learned a lot.

Last year I read Byrd’s book about how the Bible was used during the American Revolutionary War.  This one is the same idea, but during the American Civil War (sensing a bit of theme here?).  Both books are very interesting and full of examples of misuse of the Bible, particularly individual verses taken out of context and turned into slogans.

A couple non-fiction:
Beyond Measure by James Vincent
Rescuing Socrates by Roosevelt Montas

Vincent’s book is an interesting history of measurement, including how many of our units were started.  One part I liked was why some countries use metric and others don’t.  Montas’ book is a defense of the use of the “Great Books” for education, for all students regardless of race or background.  He cycles through 4 authors – Plato, Augustine, Freud, and Gandhi – making a different case for each.

And one biography:
Darwin: Portrait of a Genius by Paul Johnson

The late Paul Johnson was one of my favorite historians and this one had been on my shelves for a few years.  Like with Larson, I’ll read anything by Johnson.  This was a brief and well-done biography covering Charles Darwin’s achievements, strengths and weaknesses (the part we don’t hear as much about).  Johnson is always opinionated and shares where he thinks Darwin’s theories are helpful and where they aren’t.

Plus several religious books:
In addition to regular Bible and study Bible reading, in 2024 I read:

The Reason for God by Tim Keller
3 books by Warren Wiersbe covering the “minor” prophets: Be Heroic (Haggai – Ezra), Be Amazed (Hosea – Malachi), and Be Concerned (Amos – Zephaniah).

I picked up Wiersbe’s entire “Be” series in 2021 as part of a digital subscription and am working through it over time.  A long time.  I like his overall approach, and the books are a great source of thoughtful stories and quotes.  I’ve covered 22 of the Bible’s 66 books so far!

In sum, 16 was less than usual for me in a year, but how many will I read in 2025?  Will I finally finish Edersheim, which I’m reading chunks of between other books?  Who knows…in the meantime, have you read any of these?  What books did you enjoy in 2024?

And speaking of reading, I want to thank all of you who take the time to read my blog. I set a new high in views in 2024, passing 2022 (2023 was slightly down).

Words of Life and Death

Todd R 5 Comments

Rummaging in the basement for a book recently, I found a book I wasn’t looking for: Encouragement: The Key to Caring by Dr. Larry Crabb and Dr. Dan Allender.  It was a good find.  The authors define encouragement as “the kind of expression that helps someone want to be a better Christian, even when life is rough.”[1]  This is the kind of expression recommended in Hebrews 10:23-25 – “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  (emphasis mine)

However, if we don’t believe our words matter – that they have real power – we might think such encouragement is pointless.  Making a case for the power of our words, the authors cite these Proverbs:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” – Prov. 18:21
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” – Prov. 12:25
“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” – Prov. 15:4
“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” – Prov. 16:24
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” – Prov. 25:11[2]

In these Proverbs, words have the power of life and death.  Power to lift or break a spirit.  They have real power to influence others for good, or for bad.  They can influence our health, bodily and spiritually.  Our words are one of the hardest things for us to control – especially online – and unless we realize their power, we’re too likely to take them lightly.  James wrote that taming our tongues may be our biggest challenge, and if we can tame it, we can tame our whole body.  (James 3:2-3)

Therefore, pray for more encouraging, more powerful words today, and that God would cleanse our hearts, the spring from which our words come[3], so we may praise Him and provide “sweetness to the soul and health to the body” of those around us.

It won’t happen all at once, and all will stumble, but as the saying goes:

Yard by yard, life is hard!
Inch by inch, life’s a cinch!

Photo by Kevin Luke on Unsplash

[1] Crabb, Larry and Dan Allender.  Encouragement: The Key to Caring (1984).  P. 10.
[2] Ibid.  P. 19.  See also Proverbs 25:20 and James 3:5-6.
[3] James 3:11

What Was the ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ Really About? – History for July 21

Todd R 2 Comments

Some events in history bring a faint glimmer of memory to many people, but what they remember may not be the most relevant point. One such event was the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” decided on July 21 in 1925. What actually was this trial? Wikipedia’s summary[1] is that “a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held.” The trial descended into theatrics and was covered by national news organizations. Time magazine called the trial a “fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war.” Each side had a famous lawyer seeking publicity: the Presbyterian William Jennings Bryan, who ran for president three times, was the prosecuting attorney, and the agnostic Clarence Darrow defended Scopes.

The immediate result of the trial was that Scopes was found guilty and ordered to pay a small fine, but years later, that’s not what people remember.  For some, the lesson of the Scopes trial is simple: “science good; religious fundamentalism bad.”  Another group of people might think the lesson was: “religious fundamentalism good; science bad.”  But did the case conclude either of these things?  It didn’t, so what’s the real issue?

The Culture Behind the Scopes Trial
In the background issues were simmering which still linger today – whether religion should have a voice in how science is used and taught.  Tim Keller notes that “Few people remember…that the textbook Scopes used, Civic Biology by George Hunter, taught not only evolution but also argued that science dictated we should sterilize or even kill those classes of people who weakened the human gene pool by spreading ‘disease, immorality, and crime to all parts of this country.’ This was typical of scientific textbooks of the time.”[2]  Wikipedia notes that “Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant.”  So, the trial did not hinge on Scopes’ teaching, this textbook, or even eugenics, but the subject of eugenics sheds some light on how over-simplified the take-away of “science good; religious fundamentalism bad” really is.

Geneticist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, popularized the term “eugenics” from the Greek, meaning “good birth,” to describe ways humans could use evolutionary science to improve their condition.  He usually left unspoken that he meant not specific humans, but some abstract sense of humans in aggregate, and also that he meant to improve the condition of those humans in charge, or those humans with a voice among the humans in charge.   These beliefs were not rare, but quite mainstream.  Joseph Loconte, writing of the culture J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis lived in[3], notes: “In Britain, the Eugenics Education Society was founded in 1907 to take up the cause.  By 1913, the American Genetic Association was established in the United States to promote the doctrines of racial purity.”  The United States was actually the first country where compulsory sterilization was legalized, and some practices implemented by Nazi Germany were lifted right out of laws used by U.S. States.  U.S. Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote “Three generations of imbeciles is enough” in defense of Virginia’s sterilization law.

The church was not entirely immune from the eugenics movement either.  According to Loconte, “Ministers in the Church of England held a Church Congress in 1910 in Cambridge, inviting several members of the Royal Commission on the Feeble-Minded to participate.”  Also, “By the 1920s, hundreds of American churches participated in a national eugenics sermon contest.  As the Rev. Kenneth McArthur, a winner from Sterling, Massachusetts, put it in his sermon: ‘If we take seriously the Christian purpose of realizing on earth the ideal divine society, we shall welcome every help which science affords.’”

This background to the Scopes Trial, often simplified to a “science” vs “fundamentalism” debate, makes us ask: which science and which fundamentalism?  Was eugenics, for a moment, part of “religious fundamentalism” for some of the church?  And is perfecting society on earth truly a fundamental Christian belief?  With a rule of thumb of “science good; religious fundamentalism bad,” or the opposite, what do you do if a scientific idea becomes also central to religious belief?

Also, if you take away science and religion from the equation altogether, which is better: “all humans have dignity and are worthy of care and love” or “some people deserve to be neutered like an ordinary animal”?  If science is the only source of our “fundamentalism,” where do we turn when it insists on destruction for the less favored?  Tim Keller argues that “Secular, scientific reason is a great good, but if taken as the sole basis for human life, it will be discovered that there are too many things we need that it is missing.”  What is missing is a meaningful reason to love your neighbor, regardless of their scientific knowledge, religious belief, disability, economic impact, level of intelligence, or any other characteristic.

It’s Not (Entirely) a Fantasy
Loconte says that although Tolkien and Lewis wrote of fantasy worlds populated not only by men, but also by elves, dwarves, orcs, and many other races, the topics of eugenics and other Progressive Era ideas served as background.  In Tolkien’s epic The Lord of The Rings, the solution to conflict between the races was not for one race to rule the others, or (even worse) to eliminate them.  Instead, the answer is to utterly destroy the Ring of Power, representing the desire of any tribe to use power to rule others “for their own good,” as some say.  While Tolkien insists his story is not a direct allegory, he may have been thinking of the centuries of tribal conflict between the English, Irish, Scots, and Welsh.  Or the conflict between any group of conquerors and the conquered.  By using fictional races, Tolkien was arguing that this lesson applies to everyone, in all places and at all times.

Therefore, when scientific fundamentalism says it’s OK not to love some people, Christians need to respond without exception that every person is a creation of God with innate dignity and should be loved as Christ loved us.  However, as shown on the cross, power is not the answer.  As Jesus told his disciples in Mark 10:42-45 – “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

God does not expect us to understand every issue of history, or even in our daily news feed, which is increasingly a “fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war,” but when we all meet our Lord in heaven, He will say “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” – Matthew 25:40

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
[2] Keller, Timothy.  Making Sense of God (2016).  This post draws from pages 12-13.
[3] Loconte, Joseph.  A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 (2015).  This post draws on pages 15-19.

Driving Toward Morning’s 2023 in Books

Todd R 2 Comments

Dear fellow travelers,

As 2023 ends, many are posting reflections on the year, including book lists.  Figured I’d jump in again!  In 2022, I managed to read 22 books, but topped that in 2023 with 26.

What books did I read this year?

Let’s start with the fun ones.

Fiction books:

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Mostly Harmless is the last of 5 books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.  The Silmarillion I tried to read way back in high school but couldn’t finish.  I finally got it in this year.

Classics:

Each year I try to fit in a couple of “classics,” although what books belong in that category is debatable.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Chosen was my favorite of these.  It’s a story of two Jewish teenagers in Brooklyn in and around the time of World War II.  One of them was a strict Hasidic Jew, while the other was not, and the book follows their friendship over time.

A few history books:

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Christianity Through the Centuries by Earle Cairns
Sacred Scripture, Sacred War by James P. Byrd

Erik Larson is one of my favorite authors, and this book covers the rise of Hitler, including why there wasn’t more opposition to him earlier, mostly through the eyes of the U.S. ambassador to Germany.

Byrd’s book is based on a study of hundreds of sermons delivered and/or published during the American Revolutionary War and covers the Bible verses and ideas that were used to motivate American soldiers.  Most interesting were verses whose interpretations changed to fit the preacher’s objectives, not objectives changed to fit Scripture.  For example, there were verses used to justify rebellion from England that were later used to justify submission to the new American government.

More non-fiction than usual:

Success Through Failure by Henry Petroski
Force by Henry Petroski
Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

I read two by Petroski by accident.  One was recommended by a relative and the other by a book review I read.  Only when I started the second one did I realize it was the same author.  Both were interesting descriptions of engineering ideas for laymen like myself.

I hope to not break any of Strunk & White’s rules in my blog in 2024.  I initially read it during college, and finally came back to it for some light airplane reading.

Also more biography than usual:

Faithful Presence by Bill Haslam
Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
Pulitzer by W.A. Swanberg

Reading about Tolkien and Lewis back-to-back was very interesting, and not just because they mention each other.  I didn’t know much about Tolkien’s background and faith, and how those influenced his fiction, or much of Lewis’ journey of faith.

The Pulitzer biography was fascinating as background for why much of the media are the way they are today.  Pulitzer as publisher was driven by a political agenda and used sensationalist methods to bring in readership.  Pulitzer as man was a genius with an amazing memory, but also abusive of his staff and sometimes his family.

Plus a bunch of religious books and devotionals:

In addition to regular Bible and study Bible reading, in 2023 I read:

Is Europe Christian? By Olivier Roy
Rediscovering Holiness by J.I. Packer
2 books by my former pastor Glenn Parkinson: A Larger Faith: the Book of Daniel and Peter’s Principles: Learning to Follow Jesus
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
3 books by Warren Wiersbe: Be Committed (Ruth/Esther), Be Determined (Nehemiah), and Be Patient (Job).
Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

Roy’s book discusses different ideas of how a country or region can be considered Christian, then whether Europe meets his criteria. I found the parts about “what is a Christian country?” more interesting that the question asked in the title.

I read the Four Loves for the first time because someone recently compared one of my posts to the book.  Much of the book isn’t theology, but more practical observations about human relationships.

I picked up Wiersbe’s entire “Be” series in 2021 as part of a digital subscription and am working through it over time.  A long time.  I like his overall approach and the books are a great source of thoughtful stories and quotes.

26 is lot for me, and how many will I read in 2024?  Who knows…in the meantime, have you read any of these 26?  What books did you enjoy in 2023?