BOOK REVIEW - WHEN FAITH IS FORBIDDEN BY TODD NETTLETON

 

This is a MUST read book for Christians. Todd Nettleton leads you on a forty day journey interviewing Christians who live in countries where their government and/or community are not happy with them being Christians.

In the West, we view religious persecution as something that happens over there in other parts of the world, but will not happen here, and if it does, we have no one to blame but ourselves for those negative, unwanted circumstances. The believers we meet in this book, on the other hand, see persecution as a natural consequence for faith and view suffering for Jesus Christ as an honor. One lady in the book referred to her time in prison, for example, as "A wonderful time." What causes people to have this mindset?

Todd's stories are nice and short, and this book is great for a devotional. After the story, he challenges the reader to examine where their faith is on certain topics.

I've read over 20 non-fiction books and more than two dozen novels this year (2021), and if you asked me to recommend one book, this would be the one.

When One Of My Heroes Changes Jobs

  

 

Maybe I should make a list of living heroes of the faith. Of course, that would include me taking the time to rank them. And with living heroes, I might debate giving an alphabetic list so if one of those heroes reads it, he (or she) may not be disappointed they weren't higher. If I did a list like that and ranked them numerically, I would be shocked if Russell Moore is not towards the top of the list.

Yesterday, Dr. Moore announced he would be resigning as President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), effective June 1. He has been hired by the magazine Christianity Today as full time Public Theologian and in charge of their new Public Theology Project.

I have had the honor of hearing Dr. Moore on three different occasions while he was dean at The Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, and even had a chance to ask him a question in person. (The third time was when he was a guest on a live performance of Southern's President Al Mohler's radio program, and they took questions; they answered both my question and Becky's.

I enjoy Dr. Moore's sense of humor. At a Q&A session at an apologetics conference he was part of, someone asked if Mohammed was mentioned in the Bible. Dr. Moore said, "Yes. It says false prophets will come."

In 2013, Dr. Moore succeeded Richard Land as head of the ERLC. In 2015, he authored Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel, which was my favorite non-fiction book that year. 

Another thing I like about Dr. Moore: he's not afraid to be controversial. There was talk about the Southern Baptist Convention defunding the ERLC because Moore committed what was considered the unpardonable sin by many evangelicals - he criticized then candidate and later President Trump. Actually, I had concerns about Trump that matched Moore's concerns. After the DC Riot, Moore dared to say the President should have resigned because of it.

One other controversy occurred when Moore and the ERLC filed a friend-of-the-court brief when a city was requiring a new mosque to have more parking spaces than they asked churches to have (and didn't always enforce it with churches). True religious liberty is not only for my religion, but for all others as well.

Moore has appeared on national programs as well, such as Face The Nation.

I will admit - I'm not a Christianity Today fan. Some consider the magazine too centrist theologically. But I'm still praying for my hero in his new endeavor.

Sources for my story on his new job:

 Russell Moore announces departure from ERLC helm by George Schroeder, Baptist Press

Russell Moore, head of Southern Baptist public policy arm, leaving ERLC for Christianity Today by Holly Meyer, Nashville Tennessean, Wed. May 19, 2021