Resource Wednesday

 Despite the fact that most my readers are probably female, this one is for the guys! It's from The Resurgence website that was a Resource Wednesday a couple of months back. But, before you accuse me of playing old records, it's an  ebook that is available for download from there.

Porn-Again Christian is exactly what it says it is: "a frank discussion on pornography and masturbation". Mark Driscoll, who isn't known for holding back punches, really tells it as it is. This is really refreshing in a church society that try and avoid the subject and where my generation's only enduring memory of sex education is putting condoms on plastic phalluses.

He covers some of the untouchable areas of the Bible (pardon the pun), including Song of Songs and the famous Ezekiel 23:20 passage. What is also brilliant is the way it encourages and celebrates sex. It is a fantastic thing, as Song of Songs shows: but within the context of marriage. Christian sexual education can cause a sense of guilt and sexual repression that causes more harm than good.

My only problem with the book was chapter 8, which used an interview from serial killer, rapist and necrophile, Ted Bundy. This was an obvious scare tactic; if you watch porn you'll go on to kill woman. There are few problems with this argument. Ted Bundy showed abnormal and sadistic behaviour from a young age (as young as three, and some believed he killed his first victim at 14). The pornography was probably more symptomatic that causal. Also, Bundy was a prolific liar. Most of the content of that interview was probably untrue.

Apart from the prattle of a psychopath, this book is good. And it's free. So go read it!

Resource Wednesday

This could be seen as a sort of book review, but I'm going to put it in Resource Wednesday anyway. It's not one of those linear, read-from-front-to-back books, it's more of a reference book. So that's how I'm justifying it.

Whilst at New Wine I hit the bookshop, and I came away with some new reads and my bank account quite a bit lighter.

 

One of the books I picked up was TouchPoints for Men. It's a book that collates verses by subject, from Goals to Temptation. It's already proved itself helpful, and I used it extensively when writing my next post (which is scheduled for Friday).

It's also a part of a series and there are TouchPoints for women, students, leaders, new believers and more.

Quick Questions

1. What do you use when looking up verses on a particular topic?
2. What resources can you recommend?