Many Christians accept that 'homosexual acts are wrong' on the authority of the Church. For many others such teaching contradicts what they know to be the obvious truth. In this book Gareth Moore closely and dispassionately examines the bases of Christian 'anti-gay' arguments. Moore critically explores the language that we use to describe and define human sexuality and what this means for what we think we know about sex, identity and morality.At the centre of this work is a thorough and revolutionary analysis of the Bible on homosexuality posing such questions as: Is there a unified biblical teaching on sex or homosexuality? Are we misreading the Bible by applying modern thinking and terms? Must Christians accept Paul's supposed rejection of homosexuality when they do not follow all of his teaching (for example his low estimation of marriage - 1, Cor, 7)?For Moore the criticism that gay practice is remote from Christian values is just as true of straight life. Gay Christians are often responsible and thoughtful moral agents and to propose otherwise is both unreasonable and deeply disrespectful. It is a precondition of being heard that we listen and in the end the gospel can only be preached effectively by those who listen.

Think your problems are too small to matter to God? Think again! God's got plenty to say about the real problems you face every day. Problems like... "My best friend is being mean to me, and I don't know what I did wrong." "I know I'm supposed to obey, but I want things my way...now!" "All my friends are doing something I know is wrong, and it would be easier to just go along with them." Kids ages 8 to 12 will be encouraged to dive into God's Word to seek help for the daily problems they face. Each devotion includes Scripture, a prayer, and questions for further reflection.

Strangled by fits of madness, Marjaneh fell from royalty to the depths of society. Becoming a slave to the king of Arubara, she lost all hope due to her uncontrolled outrages. No chance for happiness came her way until the one-eyed stranger, Sleuth Tau, arrived. Sleuth and his one-legged brother, Alexander Tau joined the navy to fight off the pirates that killed their father and brother, enslaving their sisters. Among their tactics, they began a massive slave uprising, hoping to defeat the slavers that raided the coasts. Their fame as warriors spread along the pirate coast as they sought to end piracy, but Alexander disagreed with the methods used by his brother in bringing about this end. Do the ends really justify the means, or can the method corrupt the ideal? Argument over this issue eventually destroyed what remained of their family. In exile, Sleuth is recruited by Marjanehs owner to defend his besieged and corrupted city against certain doom. Can Sleuth Tau find redemption in Arubara, or is he lost to the violence of the sea forever?

Spark the interest of 5th grade readers with poetry presented in a whole new light! Coauthored by well-known fluency expert, Timothy Rasinski, this incredible book for Grade 5 encourages students to read and perform playful, original content written in student voices that will engage both reluctant and skilled readers. The easy-to-use, standards-based lessons and purposeful activity pages help readers build fluency, comprehension, and poetry skills. Each book also includes an Audio CD that can be used to support fluency and comprehension, as well as an interactive whiteboard-compatible Teacher Resource CD that can be used to support literacy skills. 144pp. plus 2 CDs

Sleuthing the Truth in the Media was written for all media consumers who thirst for honest and factual information in mass communications. Straight forward, accessible, relevant for all who are interested in accuracy, Sleuthing the Truth in the Media supports the quest of responsible citizens for informative and truthful media. Peppered with clear examples, Sleuthing the Truth in the Media offers tools to help readers decode the complexities of news reports and advertisements. Readers build skills necessary for becoming proficient truth-seekers as they interact with a variety of traditional and newer forms of news media streams. Readers of Sleuthing the Truth in the Media will gain insights into the newsgathering and publication process, including how a story or advertisement is constructed and produced. Determine whether a report is fully transparent, biased, or false. Sleuthing the Truth in the Media places the vast global world of communication in perspective. Author Bio: enjoyed a wonderful career as an international singer, music educator and songwriter. She was ordained as a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2003 and has served several Indiana congregations. She began researching the subject of the media for her doctoral thesis and her first book, Preaching When the News Disturbs; Interpreting the Media, which was published in 2009. Sleuthing the Truth in Media is her second book. Currently Audrey serves as an Associate Minister for DisciplesNet Church, found on the Internet at www.disciplesnet.org, which has a weekly congregation of participants from over 100 countries. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from The University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. Audrey's website and blog are found at www.audreyborschel.com. keywords: Media, Truth, Journalism, Writing, Newspapers, Journalists, News, Reporting, Facts, Ethics

This is the biography of a contested memory, how it was born, grew, changed the world, and was changed by it. It's the story of the story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began. Joseph Smith, the church's founder, remembered that his first audible prayer, uttered in spring of 1820 when he was about fourteen, was answered with a vision of heavenly beings. Appearing to the boy in the woods near his parents' home in western New York State, they told Smith that he was forgiven and warned him that Christianity had gone astray. Smith created a rich and controversial historical record by narrating and documenting this event repeatedly. In First Vision, Steven C. Harper shows how Latter-day Saints (beginning with Joseph Smith) and others have remembered this experience and rendered it meaningful. When and why and how did Joseph Smith's first vision, as saints know the event, become their seminal story? What challenges did it face along the way? What changes did it undergo as a result? Can it possibly hold its privileged position against the tides of doubt and disbelief, memory studies, and source criticism-all in the information age? Steven C. Harper tells the story of how Latter-day Saints forgot and then remembered accounts of Smith's experience and how Smith's 1838 account was redacted and canonized. He explores the dissonance many saints experienced after discovering multiple accounts of Smith's experience. He describes how, for many, the dissonance has been resolved by a reshaped collective memory.

A cornucopia of the best new whodunits, collected by one of the mystery scene’s eminent editors, “a giant of the genre” (Lee Childs). One of the best mystery books of the 21st century, this volume features outstanding new stories of crime, derring-do, fast-paced adventures, and puzzles, featuring hardy amateur detectives ranging from young to old and grizzled private eyes whose patches cover the city streets, all in the hallowed tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Philip Marlowe. Jakubowski’s many anthologies, like The Book of Extraordinary Historical Mystery Stories, have attracted plenty of attention and awards. His newest collection, The Book of Extraordinary Amateur Sleuths and Private Eye Stories, features never-before-seen short fiction by some of the most renowned American and British crime and thriller authors of today. Whether the victim was done in at the party uptown or discovered in the other room of a particularly difficult woman or man, these mysteries will have you reading at the edge of your seat. Praise for Maxim Jakubowski and His Books “I have been a fan of Maxim Jakubowski for years. There just is no finer mystery writer and editor anywhere. Find a comfortable chair and a strong drink and prepare to be enthralled.” —Alexander Algren, author of Out in a Flash: Murder Mystery Flash Fiction “Maxim Jakubowski is deeply experienced in the field . . . Sometimes a brief zap of great writing is just what you’re in the mood for or have time for. That’s when anthologies like his are ideal . . . intellectually outstanding.” —New York Journal of Books

In this fast-paced, contemporary mystery novel, librarian Kim Reynolds is in for major shocks when her normally sedate life takes some surprisingly dangerous twists and turns. Kim finds the body of high school student Sammy Granger and becomes involved in a complex murder investigation that includes police detective Mike Gardner.

In The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film (2005), scholar Drewey Wayne Gunn examined the history of gay detectives beginning with the first recognized gay novel, The Heart in Exile, which appeared in 1953. In the years since the original edition's publication, hundreds of novels and short stories in this sub-genre have been produced, and Gunn has unearthed many additional representations previously unrecorded. In this new edition, Gunn provides an overview of milestones in the development of gay detectives over the last several decades. Also included in this volume is an annotated list of novels, short stories, plays, graphic novels, comic strips, films, and television series with gay detectives, gay sleuths of secondary importance, and non-sleuthing gay policemen. The most complete listing available--including the only listing of early gay pulp novels, present-day male-to-male romances, and erotic films--this new edition brings the work up to date with publications missed in the first edition, particularly cross-genre mysteries, early pulps, and some hard-to-find volumes. The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography lists all printed works in English (including translations) presently known to include gay detectives (such as amateur sleuths, police detectives, private investigators, and investigative reporters), from the 1929 play Rope until the present day. It includes all films in English, subtitled or dubbed, from the screen version of Rope in 1948 and the launch of the independent film Spy on the Fly in 1966 through the end of 2011. Complete with two appendices--a bibliography of sources and a list of Lambda Literary Awards--and indexes of titles, detectives, and actors, this extensively revised and updated reference will prove invaluable to mystery collectors, researchers, aficionados of the subgenre, and those devoted to GLBTQ studies.

Schoolio: pets, projects and pandemonium is pure edutainment for intermediate readers and parents who enjoy reading to their children. In this three part story, Katie, Islay and Gauge learn from, engage in, and are impacted by their surroundings. Come along and share in their adventures in school and out of school. You will be thoroughly entertained. Islay's pet lizards cause chaos and hilarity in her classroom during Show and Tell. Katie is challenged by a science project and becomes intrigued with the idea of flowering up her neighbourhood in order to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds. Pandemonium ensues at Echo Lake during the summer holidays when Gauge sets out to prove that his sister hadn't lied when she said she saw a minnow that was thirty centimetres long. Schoolio will make you smile, instill you with interesting information and help you grow in love with life. You will be moved to get out there and explore the fascinating world around you with your eyes wide open and your ear to the ground.