Day Off Week 28 2022

I've done a lot of reading this week. I devoted my day off to two books - How to argue with a racist by Adam Rutherford (not quite finished) which I picked up after reading his more recent Control. The themes overlap slightly in that the more recent one deals with eugenics and this one with attempts to establish racial distinctions on the basis of genetics. Despite the evolutionary assumptions the book sounds an expected alarm against jumping to conclusions (Jamaicans can sprint, Jews are clever, etc) on the basis of race.

Very helpful. I don't know Phil or Angela Hill at all well but I have been aware of Phil's ministry since I was a student. On Facebook he expressed some sadness at the appearance of his atheist son's book Original Sins. Being a nosy parker I downloaded it and read it. Matt Hill clearly loves his parents on some level but caricatures them mercilessly and with some humour as part of his rejection of most of what they (and I) believe. As the publicity suggests it is an extraordinary memoir, a story of faith, family, loss, shame and addiction. It is recklessly honest, funny but grave, courageous and compulsive (I could not out it down). Because of its subject matter I would not recommend it to most people but if you want to read the story of someone from a good (but imperfect) evangelical family and how he went miles adrift then this is worth a read. Not that it explains anything. The author claims to have been convinced by intellectual arguments against Christianity but I think it is clear that is not why he has rejected this precious faith which could be such a blessing to him as it has been to me. The book certainly makes me more Calvinistic. There's a lot more I could say but this is probably not the place.

O how the grace of God amazes me!
It loosed me from my bonds and set me free!
What made it happen so?
His own will, this much I know,
Set me, as now I show, at liberty.

My God has chosen me, Though one of nought,
To sit beside my King in heaven's court.
Hear what my Lord has done,
O, the love that made Him run
To meet His erring son! This has God wrought.

Not for my righteousness, for I have none,
But for His mercy's sake, Jesus, God's Son,
Suffered on Calvary's tree;
Crucified with thieves was He;
Great was His grace to me, His wayward one....