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Walk A Straight Path In A Crooked World

by Isaac Stewart and Rebecca Stewart

355 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0175; ISBN 1-55212-510-6; US$32.50, C$37.50, EUR27.00, £19.00

A personal journey in living, this book contrasts the two ways of thinking, shows the way out of the human dilemmas common today, and encourages us to take up the challenge to Walk a Straight Path in a Crooked World, the path leading to happiness and a hope that lasts longer than a lifetime.

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book The Western World is divided between two opposing worldviews: that of the relativistic M'n-M culture (the culture of materialism and meaningless) and that deriving from the divine narrative preserved by the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. A personal journey in living, this book contrasts these two ways of thinking, shows the way out of the human dilemmas common today, and encourages us to take up the challenge to Walk a Straight Path in a Crooked World, the path leading to happiness and a hope that lasts longer than a lifetime.

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About the Authors The authors are a husband and wife writing team with four school-age children living in Victoria, British Columbia. If you want to find out more about them, their lives, and experiences, well, read the book. That's what it's about.

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Excerpts

From Chapter 1--The Real Nature of Things

How was it that on our way to revisiting Walden Pond, love, and peace we ended up taking our magic bus off at some surprising, initially unintended exits. One of these took us on a wide, smoothly paved, four-lane highway that led right to the consumer's love-in - shopping and hanging out at the mall. Another was the junkie's pot-holed detour, which gave us a rocky horror show at the inner cities' shooting galleries. Yes, Atlas must have shrugged when we were looking through the glove compartment for the atheist's road map to life.... Disliking any hint of the self-discipline required by ethical absolutes, we sought the freedom of openness and ambiguity. We gave up the old, hard concept of searching for "truth" for the easy, slouching stance of relativism.

From Chapter 2--The Day of the Gypsy

Humanity does not make the laws of the natural world.... So why is it after a century of some of the deadliest human conflicts in history do we, Homo sapiens, commonly think, "I'm my own authority," or, "Nobody is going to tell me how to think. I'm going to do my own thing!" .... To his credit, even the pragmatic Edward O. Wilson is not wholly insensitive to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's point that man without God is capable of infinite miseries. Wilson himself can see the danger of an arrogant secular society taking too much upon its shoulders: "Science given too much authority risks conversion into a self-destroying impiety."

From Chapter 6--The Good Marriage

Hopes and dreams of love ought to impassion a married couple's ardent desire to give and receive sexual tenderness - exclusively to each other.... Human sexuality operates on a very different plane from that of the animals for other important reasons. A couple's sex life is the most easily hurt part of a human relationship. After all, as one marital counselor put it: "Sexual intercourse combined with love demands trust. It's a risky business to come so close to another person emotionally and physically."

Because of the fragile nature of human sexuality, God warned people to avoid premarital sex since it can cause emotional scarring (not to mention the physical pains of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, or fetal defects). Promiscuous sex, failed affairs, and adultery rob those who indulge in such behaviors of the happiness that comes from loving intimacy. Such intimacy thrives on trust and wholehearted giving of oneself. The romantic component of long-lasting marriage does indeed have at its core a passionate, sexual relationship. Even after 20, 30, or even 40 years of marriage many couples still "do it right." They talk of mutual love, passion, excitement, and ecstasy.

From Chapter 7--Tame that Cheatin' Heart

"Beautiful" people have run in parts of my family. Yet those people had relationships that were icy cold, full of arguing, drinking, murderous threats, extramarital partners - a life of lies, secrecy, adultery, hate, tears, and broken hearts - a thousand agonies.

Such remembrances were evoked by those smiling faces. The thunderhead was right overhead now. It spit a few drops that poorly camouflaged the moist pain I felt in my eyes, running down my cheeks. The thunderhead promised, but didn't deliver. So slowly I continued sifting through the piles of mixed-up photos. These were family archives, abandoned during a flight from the law, gathered up by strangers who forwarded them to us - the surviving, bleeding wreckage of infidelity towards godly ideals.

From Chapter 8--Someone to Share your Dreams

Groping and lost is right. What most people want is to share a lifelong happiness with a true love. Instead, what many are settling for is a temporizing "living together" that can dissolve at a moment's notice. Or, they pursue a series of casual sexual encounters. Among the sexually active the average person during his or her lifetime has sexual relations with 17 people! No wonder the public health officials who are contemplating the declining usefulness of antibiotics and the proliferating incidence of sexually transmitted diseases are having nightmares.

From Chapter 9--Bring Back Daddy

"Dad" was with the Canadian 75th Stretcher Bearers. He was killed while dressing the wounds of a fellow soldier November 18, 1916, at the Battle of the Somme. He must have been hit by a large shell because he was never buried in any identifiable grave even though "Mother" went abroad after the war and spent time looking for one.

But the curse of death in battle was not the most bitter of the blows against the family. Rather, it was the cultural loosening of the nation's moral fabric and a lessening of family ties during the wars that presented the gravest threat to the culture of fatherhood.

From Chapter 11--The Girls Are in Pain

The reason so many girls are miserable, unhappy, and in therapy is they are living by values that can only bring them pain - values of a consumer culture, of materialism and meaninglessness that will chew them up and spit them out like so much tasteless bubble gum. Have the courage to walk a straight path in this crooked world. Dare to be different! Live by the spiritual values that will bring you joy, happiness, love, and life!

From Chapter 12--Childhood Denied!

Is our modern m'n-m culture [the culture of materialism and meaninglessness] in any way morally superior to that of the bloodthirsty, ancient Romans? Of course, you say. But wait a minute. Didn't those pagans also enjoy violent entertainment, getting a sadistic kick at the Coliseum when the Christians were thrown to the lions, or when a losing gladiator was given the thumbs-down by the emperor?

But, you object, the ancient Romans had real-time violent entertainment. Our modern stuff is just simulated, vicarious thrills. True, the formats and justifications given out by our modern violent entertainment establishment are more sophisticated. The immediate result of a film shooting or a videotaping of a violent message may not be a pool of real blood at the end of the day, which needs to be mopped up by the custodial staff. The real blood that's spilled by our modern violent entertainment occurs later, in unpredictable ways by an unpaid cast of victims and felons.

From Chapter 13--Beginnings and Endings

Everyone has faith in something. For many today that faith is in themselves, what they can achieve or what their money can buy. They feel they have "the right to define their own concept of existence and meaning." This they hold as a major tenet of their secular faith. Yet our beginnings and endings have a way of revealing to us that we have no power in the ultimate, real sense over the mystery of life and the purpose of human existence. The moral logic of the universe can teach us much through our beginnings and endings - if we are willing to listen.

Chapter 14--Righting the Wrongs

Now ignorance and assumptions can be extremely hazardous to your health. Going next door, I could hardly believe my eyes. My mouth went dry. The adrenaline kicked in. Her problem had indeed become mine as well! I realized with dismay that the "old dear" didn't have a clue about the seriousness of the situation. All this neighbor could perceive was the fact that the rented chain saw was stuck and she'd soon be losing another twenty dollar bill if that saw wasn't back on time.

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Catalogue Information

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