I recently

discovered a book that every Christian, as well as

everyone who has ever denounced Christianity, should have

on their book shelf.

A book for

all seasons. The kind you want to keep near your bedside

on those nights when you go to bed screaming

"Why?" from the depths of your soul.

It makes

you feel like it's okay to ask all the questions we

- Christian and non-Christian alike - ask from

time to time about the practice of religion. How many of

us have hung our heads in shame, despair or anger at all

that has been done in the name of Christianity throughout

the centuries? Finally, someone offers a perspective that

I can swallow.

Please

check out "Window to the World" by J. Keith

Goodlett at your earliest opportunity. I think it is a

self-published book. It was printed by Quill Publications

in Columbus. The ISBN number is 0-932281-16-8. If your

book store has trouble finding it you can call Quill for

more information. The number there is 800-332-6657.

When

something grabs me like this book does, I immediately

want to know about the author. I remember when I first

read "This Present Darkness" and spent a whole

afternoon trying to find out who could have penned such a

story.

I'll make

it easy for you if you want to read "Window to the

World." The author, J. Keith Goodlett, is a

Methodist minister and pastor of Cuthbert United

Methodist Church in southwest Georgia. His dad was raised

Presbyterian, his mom a Baptist. Today, both parents

belong to an Assembly of God fellowship. I suspect the

author of "Window to the World" hails from a

family that helped him to know it was okay to wonder, and

to search for truth and understanding.

I have

always maintained that God is not the least bit

threatened by all the questions I ask. Now, I have opened

a book that actually makes me feel good about asking

questions and not just blindly accepting what I am taught

or told. Trust me on this one, every high school or

college graduate should have a copy. And maybe you

should, too. We are never too old to ask the right

questions.

From the

book:

"I

once asked an atheist what would happen when he died.

`When I die I return to fertilize the earth - that

is all.'

"I

pressed him. `Well, why not go ahead and die? It doesn't

really matter.'

"'But

it matters to me!' he said firmly. `I like the comforts

of life - an air-conditioned house, fishing and

walking in the woods.'

"'Well,

those things may matter to you,' I said, `but with your

logic, there is no reason they should matter to me, or

anyone else.'

"Elisha

Shapiro, a performance artist who ran for president in

1988 on the Nihilist ticket makes clear where atheism

ultimately leads: `There is no God and I don't feel like

replacing him with anything, and I like it that way. To

me there really isn't any significance to life, none

whatsoever. No significance. And I find that's a

comforting thing. You're let off the hook that way. I'm a

product of... if I were trying to figure out what I was a

product of, the best thing would be billions of years of

coincidences, dumb luck.'

"This

way of thinking not only affects our opinion of

ourselves, but also calls into question the value of

human life. `They that deny God destroy man's nobility,'

wrote Francis Bacon. Without God giving significance to

human life, one would feel no more compunction in

shooting a person than in squashing a bug or spreading

fertilizer. If we are only a mistake, aborting and

experimenting on babies, as well as killing the weak,

elderly and `non-productive,' is just as logical a means

to an end as it was in Nazi Germany. How can a mere

`accident' have an interest in right and wrong?

"Atheism

will always lead to a society where ethics and morals are

dictated by individual choice - where values are

placed upon preference, not principle - and where

`might makes right.' This explains the following UPI

report on communist China's state-run Sheuzhen Health

Center for Women and Children. According to the report,

the center has been handing out bottles of thumb-sized

aborted fetuses to be made into meat cakes or soup with

pork and ginger. Zou Qin, a doctor at the Luo Hu Clinic

in Sheuzhen, claims fetuses are nutritious and would be

`wasted if not eaten.' This is the repugnant and

abominable picture of atheism taken to its logical end.

"We

are all like foolish puppets/Who, desiring to be

kings,/Now lie pitiful and crippled/After cutting our own

strings. By Randy Stonehill

"God

alone is the source of human dignity. God alone

determines our value and enables us to have a healthy,

accurate self-esteem."

This

lengthy excerpt from "Window to the World" is

reprinted with permission. Now, do you see why this book

has grabbed my attention? It will help to build or

restore a "healthy, accurate self-esteem" in

all who read it.