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Andy Unedited

Exploring Books, Life, and Writing

Category: Culture

Reading While Black

November 17, 2020 by Andy Le Peau

We all read the Bible from our own viewpoint, from within our own culture and background. Our circumstances make us ask certain questions we wouldn’t ask otherwise. We could consider this a disadvantage. How could we know what the Bible really said when we are inevitably limited? But what if this were a blessing? What …

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An American Ideal, An American Myth

June 2, 2020 by Andy Le Peau

Books are better sources of information and insight than tweets or headlines. Two years ago I reviewed here The Myth of Equality, a book that gives more help and understanding than anything you will hear or read in the news today. Ken Wytsma was talking with a young man running his own landscaping firm who …

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When Persuasion Dies

January 14, 2020 by Andy Le Peau

Eighty years ago, as World War II was erupting, the president of the University of Chicago, Robert Maynard Hutchins, made a speech which sounds like it could have been given today. He leads with a strong assertion. “Democracy is not merely a good form of government; it is the best.” His reason for this is …

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Disrupting Distraction

November 19, 2019 by Andy Le Peau

When we talk about our faith, we may be thinking of beliefs, ethics, and worship. But what others hear, says Alan Noble, is our preferences. They see these as lifestyle choices we use to craft an identity—like jerseys of our favorite sports team, our vegetarian diet, or volunteering to tutor. What makes engaging others about …

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The Popularity of Teen Dystopias

October 9, 2018 by Andy Le Peau

How many times can bestselling dystopias have plots about a dictatorial, caste-like society in which a group of teens are forced into a contained area where they must fight and kill each other as a prelude to overthrowing the harsh regime? Apparently a lot. Most similar to The Hunger Games, Pierce Brown’s Red Rising also …

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An American Ideal, An American Myth

September 11, 2018 by Andy Le Peau

Ken Wytsma was talking with a young man running his own landscaping firm who was proud of how he’d started from zero and succeeded by virtue of hard work, with no benefit from privilege. So Ken asked where he got most of his business (the suburbs) and where they worked on jobs (in backyards) and …

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Cultivating a Lost Art

May 2, 2018 by Andy Le Peau

Civil conversation is sadly a lost art. In Winsome Persuasion, however, Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer contend that the more civil we are, the more persuasive we become.

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The Social Animal

December 27, 2017 by Andy Le Peau

“We are not who we think we are.” In The Social Animal, David Brooks tells the story of a composite American couple Erica and Harold, from their first moments of life to their last. Weaving in and out of this tale of their early childhood, high school years, career highs and lows, and the opportunities …

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The Man in the High Castle

April 6, 2017 by Andy Le Peau

What would it be like for white Americans to be second-class citizens in their own country? What if we had to accommodate ourselves to a dominant culture that wasn’t native to us? What if we had to negotiate different values, different customs, different ways of speaking, and a lower economic status than we are used …

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Feeling Bad a Whole New Way

December 15, 2016 by Andy Le Peau

Good news for all of us racked by guilt as a result of being raised Jewish, Catholic or Protestant! There is a whole different way to feel bad about ourselves, and it is called honor-shame.

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