In one case after another, Charles L. Bosk reveals the process by which parents, physicians and other health professionals come to guide decisions about pregnancies. A story of both extraordinary drama and ordinary routine, this is a pioneering case study of authority and control in a pediatric hospital, showing how genetic counselors work with colleagues and with parents to be, and how they deal with their powerlessness to control life-and-death decisions that they must address.

In this book Phillip E. Johnson and John Mark Reynolds welcome the debate the New Atheists are stirring up and castigates our universities for squashing public debate about the place of faith in all knowing in the name of a false science. They argue for the reasonableness of Christian claims to take a place at the table of public debate and evaluate the strengths of arguments for atheism or naturalism. Ultimately they encourage us to ask the right questions and follow the evidence where it leads.

What if the annoying person you try to avoid is actually an accidental saint in your life? What if, even in our failings, holy moments are waiting to happen? Nadia Bolz-Weber demonstrates what happens when ordinary people meet to explore the Christian faith. Their faltering steps towards wholeness will ring true for believer and sceptic alike.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe sweeps readers back to the streets, porches, and parlors of civil rights-era Ohio to bring to life the first steps of an enduring friendship between two girls from opposite sides of the track. . . Annette Goode is a shy, awkward, overweight child with a terrible secret. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. But the summer Annette turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not--gorgeous, slim, and worldly--welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father;her lovely, fragile "Muh'Dear;" her brooding, dangerous brother Jock;and her colorful white relatives--half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose. With Rhoda's help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette's world will never be the same. "A coming-of-age journey depicted with wit, poignancy and bite." --Publishers Weekly

In the new mega-anthology from best-selling editor Russ Kick, more than fifty writers, reporters, and researchers invade the inner sanctum for an unrestrained look at the wild and wooly world of organized belief. Richard Dawkins shows us the strange, scary properties of religion; Neil Gaiman turns a biblical atrocity story into a comic (that almost sent a publisher to prison); Erik Davis looks at what happens when religion and California collide; Mike Dash eyes stigmatics; Douglas Rushkoff exposes the trouble with Judaism; Paul Krassner reveals his “Confessions of an Atheist”; and best-selling lexicographer Jonathon Green interprets the language of religious prejudice. Among the dozens of other articles and essays, you’ll find: a sweeping look at classical composers and Great American Songbook writers who were unbelievers, such as Irving Berlin, creator of “God Bless America”; the definitive explanation of why America is not a Christian nation; the bizarre, Catholic-fundamentalist books by Mel Gibson’s father; eye-popping photos of bizarre religious objects and ceremonies, including snake-handlers and pot-smoking children; the thinly veiled anti-Semitism in the Left Behind novels; an extract from the rare, suppressed book The Sex Life of Brigham Young; and rarely seen anti-religious writings from Mark Twain and H.G. Wells. Further topics include exorcisms, religious curses, Wicca, the Church of John Coltrane, crimes by clergy, death without God, Christian sex manuals, the “ex-gay” movement, failed prophecies, bizarre theology, religious bowling, atheist rock and roll, “how to be a good Christian,” an entertaining look at the best (and worst) books on religion, and much more.

A call to action to address people's psychological and social motives for a belief in God, rather than debate the existence of God With every argument for theism long since discredited, the result is that atheism has become little more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. Thus, engaging in interminable debate with religious believers about the existence of God has become exactly the wrong way for nonbelievers to try to deal with misguided—and often dangerous—belief in a higher power. The key, author James Lindsay argues, is to stop that particular conversation. He demonstrates that whenever people say they believe in "God," they are really telling us that they have certain psychological and social needs that they do not know how to meet. Lindsay then provides more productive avenues of discussion and action. Once nonbelievers understand this simple point, and drop the very label of atheist, will they be able to change the way we all think about, talk about, and act upon the troublesome notion called "God."

What do you do if you are an evangelical Christian, politically conservative AND transgender? Evangelical Christians are often attacked by the Left. People who are transgender are often attacked by the Right. It's human nature to align with those who share our world view, and dismiss those who don't. There is a struggle going on in our culture that produces more victims than champions--we all seem to agree on that. The growing divide between the political, ideological Left vs Right and Religious vs Secularist is so sharp that even attempting to bridge the gap is a perilous endeavor. But what happens to the people who are scorned by both sides? Shut out by the Left for their conservative views. Rejected by Christians for being transgender. Meet Laurie Suzanne Scott. She is, indeed, both an evangelical Christian and transgender. Raised in a devoutly Christian home, she endured the unbelievably difficult and complicated odyssey of finding her identity as a woman ...without losing her identity in Christ. A journey she barely survived. In "God Doesn't Make Mistakes: Confessions of a Transgender Christian" Laurie tells her story of growing up playing a role as unnatural to her as the body she was born with. She was a living, breathing dichotomy... and there was no one who could understand. She had no choice but to keep up the pretense and keep it a secret. She became a good son. A good Christian. And eventually even a good husband. She knew if her true identity became known, she would lose everything. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. So, she kept her secret from everyone. But she knew there was no keeping it from God. Raised with a doctrine she believed condemned her, she decided the only way out of her constant misery was to end her life. "Who would even want to stop me?" "Wouldn't it be easier for everyone this way?" It was at that desperate crossroad she heard the voice of God simply say, "You're okay." Since that day, God has led her on a path to heal her deep wounds of rejection by family as well as other Christians, and make peace with the way she was created. "I thought God would be the first to reject me. But, in fact, He was the first to accept me." Now Laurie reaches out to Christians who are transgender, who are still struggling to believe God loves them for who they are... just as they are. It's a difficult and often emotionally exhausting ministry. Equally important are the efforts to help the Church see their Christian brothers and sisters who are transgender as simply, their Christian brothers and sisters. Nothing more, and nothing less. And finally, she shares the much needed message that God doesn't make mistakes, and it IS possible to be a conservative, a Christian, and transgender.

The astonishing, Job-like story of how an existence filled with loss, suffering, questioning, and anger became a life filled with shocking and incomprehensible peace and joy. Vaneetha Risner contracted polio as an infant, was misdiagnosed, and lived with widespread paralysis. She lived in and out of the hospital for ten years and, after each stay, would return to a life filled with bullying. When she became a Christian, though, she thought things would get easier, and they did: carefree college days, a dream job in Boston, and an MBA from Stanford where she met and married a classmate. But life unraveled. Again. She had four miscarriages. Her son died because of a doctor's mistake. And Vaneetha was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, meaning she would likely become a quadriplegic. And then her husband betrayed her and moved out, leaving her to raise two adolescent daughters alone. This was not the abundant life she thought God had promised her. But, as Vaneetha discovered, everything she experienced was designed to draw her closer to Christ as she discovered "that intimacy with God in suffering can be breathtakingly beautiful."

With every passing year, more and more people learn that they or their young or unborn child carries a genetic mutation. But what does this mean for the way we understand a person? Today, genetic mutations are being used to diagnose novel conditions like the XYY, Fragile X, NGLY1 mutation, and 22q11.2 Deletion syndromes, carving out rich new categories of human disease and difference. Daniel Navon calls this form of categorization “genomic designation,” and in Mobilizing Mutations he shows how mutations, and the social factors that surround them, are reshaping human classification. Drawing on a wealth of fieldwork and historical material, Navon presents a sociological account of the ways genetic mutations have been mobilized and transformed in the sixty years since it became possible to see abnormal human genomes, providing a new vista onto the myriad ways contemporary genetic testing can transform people’s lives. Taking us inside these shifting worlds of research and advocacy over the last half century, Navon reveals the ways in which knowledge about genetic mutations can redefine what it means to be ill, different, and ultimately, human.

When I believed God chose the wrong person, I was thinking about me, not Him. I saw my brokenness as a handicap, not an asset. How could He use my insecurity, low self-esteem, financial struggle, bluntness, perfectionism, awkwardness, and failure for good? The wrong person is always the right person to God. Think about it? he used a prostitute, a murderer, a widow, a criminal, fishermen, a tax collector, a boy with some bread and fish, all the seemingly wrong people, to change the world. He chooses all the wrong people, because in His perfect plan, He sent Jesus, to transform us into all the right people. My heart is full realizing the treasure of being the wrong person. When God chooses 'the wrong person' you have a front row seat to the miracles of what only He can do. He knows you cannot do it. He knows you know you cannot do it. Your life is fully His and He chooses to do with your life what will be for His glory and not yours. God chose me, who I can prove is the wrong person, because He wants the glory of making me the right person. The moment people think of us and immediately think of Jesus, we will be on our way to leaving a legacy.