Andy Osenga has been listening to some Christian radio and reflecting.

He writes:
What’s been really interesting is how the buzz word in all of these advertisements is “safe”. This is a “safe” station, watch our “safe” TV channel or use our “safe” web browser. It even gets into things like “a ’safe’ place to buy a car” or a “’safe’ online singles community” you know, to meet that “safe” significant other when the Saturday night service has dried up. Read more

     The story of Elijah, the great prophet of God, is extraordinary.  Like all prophets, he was eccentric, moody and passionate—passionate for the glory of God.

     I love the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18-19.  It goes like this:

     One day, in the midst of a great drought, one that Elijah had prophesied would happen because of the disobedience of Israel, Elijah confronts King Ahab, the apostate king of Israel.  Ahab hates Elijah and wants to smite him but before he can, Elijah throws down a gauntlet and challenges Ahab to assemble the prophets and priests of Baal, the god whom Ahab serves, to once and for all decide who is the real God with real power.

     And so in an elaborate ceremony made-for-silver screen-drama, Elijah challenges the Baal prophets to slaughter a bull on an altar and call upon Baal to send down fire from heaven and consume the sacrifice.  All day long the prophets—all 450 of them to be exact—call upon Baal to eat his meal and Elijah spends half the day taunting them, saying things like, “He must be asleep!” or “Maybe he’s in the bathroom relieving himself!” (I kid you not, it’s the euphemism used in 18:27…I told you this is good stuff).Read more

Sobering stats for those who would write.
According to an article by Chris Anderson in the July 17 issue of Publishers Weekly, in 2004:

-950,000 titles out of 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies
-Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies
-Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copiesRead more

The New York Times has a video that features Cornelia Dean, a science writer at the Times, who recently reviewed a spate of books about religion and science.  She not only quickly recaps a number of such books in this video, but also she discusses letters from readers in reply.  Read more