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.

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