Mary DeMuth could have called her new novel Long Day's Journey into Night, if that title hadn't already been taken.
A Slow Burn, the sequel to Mary's novel Daisy Chain, picks up more or less where the previous book left off, but it shifts perspective. Now, instead of young Jed Pepper, we're concentrating on Emory Chance, mother of Jed's kidnapped and murdered friend Daisy. One of the things Mary does best is to probe beneath the surface of the unlovable, and help us come to understand them. Those who loathed Emory in the first book for her callous neglect of her daughter won't suddenly discover that she has a heart of gold under her sullen exterior. What they will find is a broken, lonely, hurting woman.
Her head bombarded her with words . . . as if to fill in the blanks the silent church wouldn't say.
If you hadn't been stoned, this wouldn't have happened.
Neglectful mothers have their kids taken from them.
You are your mother, Emory.
You deserve every terrible thing that's happened to you.
You don't deserve Hixon.
Why not rid the world of you? No one would care.
She didn't fight the thoughts, the theives bent on stealing from her. She welcomed them like long-lost friends bringing a picnic, letting each morsel settle in, poisoning her mind because she deserved that.
There are no easy or quick solutions here. Emory's story is dark and grim and messy. Incredibly messy. Thank God, another of the things Mary does best is to portray God's grace and hope in subtle but strong ways -- even for a woman who can think of nothing she's ever done to deserve them.
On second thought, maybe a better alternate title would be Long Night's Journey into Day.
(Click here for Chuck Colson's BreakPoint commentary on A Slow Burn.)
The Washington Post is getting a lot of buzz from its story "Transgender at five," about a little girl who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a form of gender identity disorder. For now, her parents are letting her live as a boy. In the future, they have some deeply disturbing options, such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments that, among other things, would render their child sterile.
It seems to me, from my reading of the article, that the medical community has put more time and effort into encouraging families to embrace and encourage the symptoms of this disorder than into trying to find genuine treatments for it. Is there any other disorder on earth that we treat this way? The very word disorder suggests that something has gone wrong, that something is, literally, out of order. Wouldn't you think that the patients would be better off if their doctors were genuinely interested in finding ways to restore that order? READ FULL ARTICLE »
Grammatical giveaway
By: Gina Dalfonzo|Published: May 21, 2012 10:32 AM
Bill Maher went after Liberty University late last week (language alert). Among other things, he said: "When you confuse a church with a school, it mixes up the things you believe -- religion -- with the things we know -- education."
As Nancy Pearcey pointed out on Facebook: "The fact/value split in action: belief pitted against knowledge. Notice the shift in pronouns: You believe, but we know." READ FULL ARTICLE »
We need to speak out against the latest attempt to muzzle free speech. While Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has good intentions, his proposal would spell the end of freedom.
If you missed Chuck's memorial service, you can still see it here, at least for now. (I'm not certain how long it will be available online.) Also, you can read WORLD magazine's writeup here. READ FULL ARTICLE »
The Obama website has a page about "The Life of Julia," supposedly a representative American woman. Over at Her.meneutics, I have a piece about why Julia is a remarkably poor representative for many of us. READ FULL ARTICLE »
When writing, I try to keep exclamation points to a minimum, however, for this blog I might use more than one. You will forgive me the excitement when you find out that we've just celebrated Gina's 10th anniversary with the ministry.
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I heard about the new TIME magazine cover on my way to work this morning. It's a startling picture, really: A three-year-old boy is standing on a chair suckling at his mother's breast.
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He’s supposed be against bullying, but that’s exactly what he did. From the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, I’m John Stonestreet with the Point.
