My book is now available on Amazon.com (as well as at Lulu.com).

Search for MANY ROOMS, MANY WINDOWS... or Wayne McLaughlin.

Buy it...read it...It may bless you or it may not.
But it will bless my bank account.

Audacity to Believe

It must have been three decades ago that I read a book that moved me and influenced the way I think. Audacity to Believe by Sheila Cassidy, an English physician, who was working in Chile in the early 1970s. During a military coup she was arrested with thousands of others and put in a prison camp. She underwent excruciating physical and mental torture.

 

She almost gave up on life. But one day a new thought came to her. Instead of battering on the bars of her prison she decided to hold out her "empty hands to God, not in supplication but in offering." She said:

 

I would say, not 'Please let me out' but, 'Here I am lord, take me. I trust you. Do with me what you will.' In my powerlessness and captivity there remained to me one freedom: I could abandon myself into the hands of God.

 

Cassidy said that from that moment on a gradual change took place in her attitude and she felt strengthened and full of courage.

 

She used this analogy: Like a bird in a cage we can choose to exhaust ourselves by battering our wings against the bars—or we can learn to live within the confines of our 'prison' and find, to our surprise, that we have strength to sing.

 

After Sheila Cassidy was finally released, she went on to help many people find healing.

 

Faith does not keep us from suffering. Sometimes for no reason we get 'locked up' in trying circumstances. Like the bird in the cage we decide either to batter against the cage or to accept the reality of the situation and learn to sing in spite of it.

 

Battering our wings—or sing? Which will it be?

Baby God

Let's remember that the Christmas season is about a baby God in a diaper.
And let's not be confused.
He/She doesn't need changing--it's me and you that need changing.

Jay-Z and King David

I've never like rap music (if it can be called music). It irks me. In fact, I hate it. But I've tried, and I'm still trying, to appreciate it. An English professor has written a book called Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop. The professor, Adam Bradley, sees his book as a manifesto to his fellow academics, urging them to see Hip Hop as genuine poetry and to study it and critique it as any other poetry.

Bradley, along with Andrew DuBois (another English professor), has also published a 900 page compendium of lyrics entitled The Anthology of Rap. It includes 30 years worth of rap lyrics. But a more popular book has just come out, written by the rapper Jay-Z, called Decoded. It's part biography, part commentary of rap lyrics, and part philosophizing on rap—and of course a collection of lyrics.

I've not read any of these books; I've just read about them in The New Yorker in an article by Kelefa Sanneh entitled, "Word" (December 6, 2010). I learned a lot about the history of hip hop from her article. I don't think I can ever really appreciate rap because I can't place myself in the shoes of those who create it and love it. I'm a middle class white guy. I can no more understand hip hop than an affluent American can really understand the Book of Revelation (which is written for people undergoing persecution).

But one insight did come to me while reading the article. Jay-Z says that his own stories of hustling drugs that show up in his lyrics are not violent in any literal sense. He says, "I don't think any listeners think I'm threatening them. I think they're singing along with me, threatening someone else. They're thinking, Yeah, I'm coming for you. And they might apply it to anything, to taking their next math test or straightening out that chick talking outta pocket in the next cubicle."

I can relate a little to that. It's like reading the Psalms. The Psalms are full of talk about striking down their enemies, or asking God to do the favor. Extremely violent. But one strategy for reading those kinds of Psalms is to hear them as Jay-Z suggests his rap can be heard. When the Psalmist says, "Lord, break my enemies teeth out," we can pray along with him by imagining the 'enemy' of cancer or bigotry or depression or even militarism. By performing a literalistectomy on the Psalmist's lyrics we can turn the violent passion into a positive, healing direction.

If you listen to the lyrics of rappers you can hear some amazing word play and beautiful rhythmic artistry. There is talent and creativity involved. But try as I may, I can't enjoy it. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the pain and alienation from which it comes. People who have been disenfranchised or exiled will naturally sing some violent feelings. Just look at the ending to Psalm 137.

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My New Book

My new book is now available for purchase. You can find it at Lulu.com.


Search either by my name or the title:


    Many Rooms, Many Windows: An Inclusive Perspective on Faith


It's a 230 page paperback. It is being processed now for Amazon's site also. So, probably before the end of December it will be available at Amazon.com.


I think it's a pretty good book. It will make you ponder your beliefs; it may be an encouragement to you; it will certainly make you laugh at various points; it may make you cry; (well, probably not—unless you want your money back).


You can help this old minister's retirement fund by buying more than one. Give one to a friend—or an enemy.

In this book I reflect on many subjects, such as: nuns, waffles, jazz, politics, Lincoln, depression, bugs, salvation, Book of Revelation, football, Oral Roberts, Tim Tebow, Tiger Woods, Jews, forgiveness, etc.

I probably got something wrong—I don't claim infallibility. But I urge the reader to become less dogmatic and more open to the movement of the Spirit.


After you read it, I welcome your comments or ideas. Right now I'm collecting and editing stories from my relatives about my grandfather and grandmother. It will become a small book to be published early next year. I'm also working on a kind of 'daily devotional' book that I began a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how long it will take to finish.


May God's peace slap you in the face every morning and wake you up to the wonders of life.

New Yorker Bible

You know it must be getting near some sentimental baby-faced holiday when The New Yorker magazine has an ad for Bibles. Yes, you can buy the King James Version with imported European leather covers. From $175 to $200. Rock of Ages press! This is obviously an ad aimed at well-to-do, culturally sophisticated people who don't know one end of a Bible from the other.

Here is what the Rock of Ages website says:

Rock of Ages Press was conceived from the notion that contemporary gifts can be spiritual, classic, clever and chic. ROA flaunts a sacred, stylish and sassy line of products that promises to delight even the most fashionably discriminating individuals.

I'm having trouble seeing how 'clever and chic' relate to 'spiritual.' I'm having even more difficulty seeing the relationship between the 'stylish and sassy' and the sacred.

I'm trying really hard to remember where it is in the gospels that Jesus tells his followers to be chic or stylish or sassy. In my humble opinion, when it becomes chic and stylish to follow Jesus, I'm pretty sure the actual message of Jesus has been lost. If wealthy people buy a $175 imported leather Bible and actually read what Jesus had to say so often about the spiritual danger of wealth, I think they will either get rid of their expensive Bible or get rid of their wealth.

Now, now—I know we need wealthy people in order to create capital and run businesses that give people jobs. I'm aware that the economic environment of Jesus' day is not like ours. Between his time and ours capitalism has been invented, an economic system that didn't exist in his day. Capitalism depends on some people being wealthy—having capital. But Jesus places great responsibility on the shoulders of those who have the capital. And he warns the rich that they are always on the cusp of the abyss of hell.

One more thing: Jesus would not recommend the King James Version of the Bible. He would go with the New Revised Standard Version, the Contemporary English Version, the new Common English Bible, or the Inclusive Language Bible. They are much more sassy.