Showing posts with label social issues book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social issues book. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Book Spotlight: The World to Love and Not to Love by Horace Allen
Understanding the true nature of the world's system, contrasted with God's creation, will bring clarity to readers and help Christians make right choices to live God's way. God's standard of righteousness is contrasted with politically-correct responses and declining ethical and moral standards.
There are two worlds--God's creation and the present world system. God loves His creation and has a restoration plan for it. But the world's system organized under the direct influence of the devil is in direct opposition to God. Horace E. Allen reveals the true nature of the world we should not love.
Social and political correctness have replaced God's standard of righteousness. The result is a world system in constant moral, social, and ethical decline. This declining moral system is constantly being redesigned by man's imagination to accommodate his unrestrained sinful desires. What was once immoral is now accepted as normal. Christians who determine to maintain a biblical standard are put on the defensive and labeled intolerant.
Understanding the true nature of the world God created and this world's system will help us make right choices to live God's way.
There is a clear line between what is godly and what is ungodly. Likewise, there should be a difference between the standards of believers and nonbelievers. The World to Love and Not to Love will give readers clarity about the dividing line between the secular and spiritual worlds.
Read an excerpt here!
Publisher: Redemption Press (June 28, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1683142144
ISBN-13: 978-1683142140
Purchase from:
Redemption Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Horace Allen is licensed in New York State as a professional marriage and family therapist with a B.S. degree in psychology from New York Institute of Technology; M.S. degree in counseling from St. John’s University of Queens, and a D. Min from Andersonville Baptist Seminary. He served as senior pastor at the East End Baptist Church, Brooklyn, New York for thirty-four years. Now semi-retired in Florida, he conducts seminars, speaks at conferences and maintains his therapy practice through video and telephone sessions. He and his wife of fifty- two years have two children and two grandchildren. Dr. Allen is also the author of Thinking with the Heart: Principle, Practice and Purpose for Spiritual Wellness.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Evolution of the American Family by Dr. John E. Bell, Author of Invasion of the Baby Daddy
Today's guest blogger is Dr. John E. Bell, author of Invasion of the Baby Daddy
Every unwed mother's nightmare comes to life in the pages of this book, a compelling and moving debut novel that echoes the emotional and cerebral frustrations of unwed mothers throughout the ages. Its unforgettable characters and authentic storyline are interwoven with current and real facts about the volume of unwed mothers in our society today. In the story, Dr. Sands believes he has found his perfect mate only to discover that she is pregnant from a previous relationship. Not fully aware of the ramifications of this colossal news, Dr. Sands and Rachel date via long distance during her pregnancy and ultimately decide to get married. In order to make a life together, Rachel must move to Tennessee to start a new life with her husband. But the Baby Daddy has other plans for them. Determined to make this marriage work, Dr. Sands goes to extraordinary lengths to try and negotiate with the Baby Daddy. Brimming with honesty from the author's own experiences, Invasion of the Baby Daddy comes alive with unique freshness, candor and rich detail.
"Evolution of the American Family" by Dr. John E. Bell
I wrote this book based on many devastating challenges that I have seen and experienced in the American family evolution over the last 18 years. I also wrote the book in hopes that it helps men and women make better decisions in their lives as it relates to responsibility and family obligations that affect the next generation. I hope my thoughts today will reflect that dedication and pursuit of successful family planning in the future.
I feel the American family structure is currently changing and has been changing over the last 20 years. For example 6.4 million children are born out of wedlock today. Over 50% of marriages end in divorce and most families today never have evening dinner together any more. We are now in the hurry up and going nowhere society. The facts alone are alarming, but also very true of our society.
Another example of the decay of the American family is specifically African-American families having a 72% single-parent household. Latino families have a 40% single-parent household. Caucasian European families have a 36% single-parent household in America, according to the 2007 Census report. It shows how the American family is ever-changing and also what challenges American families will be confronted with in in the future. It seems to me, the root of many of the problems of unwed mothers has been the acceptance of the decay in the American family. A lack of education and the instant generation is what society and our family life have evolved into.
Most of the women and men who have unplanned children early in life, have a low education and no goals that prevent the detour of the mistakes of unplanned pregnancies. Furthermore, a greater issue is when most of the American families repeat the mistakes of the previous generations before them because the societal conditions that existed for the previous generation have not improved for their children. Unfortunately, this now becomes a generational issue for the next parents of the children of today.
The problem that can interfere with a blended family having a great life could be the Baby Mother or Baby Daddy, who is attached to the child itself, that attempts to separate a family when the biological Mom or Dad wants to move on. The Baby Mother cannot leave a state with the child to live out of state, even if she has married someone else. This is a court order called joint legal status that gives a Baby Daddy as much custody over the child as the Baby Mother, even without a marriage. As one can see, this can leave a blended family with severe hardships and ultimately cause a devastating divorce. Joint legal status court orders are a state-by-state issue. You must check your state to make sure that this law does not affect your relationship if you are planning on moving on from a Baby Daddy or Baby Mother.
I urge every unwed mother to actually never go to court without an attorney against a Baby Daddy. If a woman represents herself in court without legal representation , she is a fool. Women must use an attorney to voice and present their issues to the court against the Baby Daddy in order to preserve the right to keep the freedom of having her life to move on with the child. Rachel, a character in the book, "Invasion of the Baby Daddy" did not have an attorney trying to play the system that the woman gets the child. Unfortunately this strategy proved most devastating to her life. Most importantly, be honest about your life and your choices in life and the challenges that a woman has to consider when she has a child in an unplanned parental situation.

Author Dr. John Bell has a Masters degree in Health Services from Strayer University and currently serves as a professor at Strayer University at Shelby Oaks campus in Memphis, TN. Dr. Bell has a Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine from Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Bell is currently a practicing Surgical Podiatrist at 4 locations throughout the Memphis and Greater West TN community. He is a Veteran of the Gulf War serving 10 years in the U.S. Navy. Bell is also a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Dr. Bell has one daughter.
You can visit Dr. Bell online at www.drjohnbell.com, where you can see videos, podcasts and read more about his medical career and accomplishments.
Follow Dr. Bell's virtual book tour all month long at http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Author Spotlight: The Flesh Statue by U.L. Harper

Tired of watching his ailing grandfather wither away from Alzheimer’s, 19-year-old Langley Jackson moves from his middle class home and subsequently struggles to survive in downtown Long Beach. Here he finds himself part of a social movement bent on destruction and retribution. Through all of this, Langley must decide on trying to subsist in a complicated and unlawful new world of graffiti and poetry or endure in a disheartening old one outlined by the death of his mother and his sick grandfather.
Read an Excerpt!
“Your grandfather left us a while ago, when the disease took over his mind. Then again… If he was here this whole time, did he want to be here? He’d move-on, on his own time. He’d leave us when he wanted. Couldn’t keep him against his will, if I knew him any.”
To Langley, how this situation summed itself up seemed all too close to what he remembered from some class discussion he had on the sacred cow. The cow was sacred mostly because of all it could offer society—dairy products and such. The bull on the other hand, which was basically only good for mating, well, they let it die because they didn’t need so many of them. To his Grandma, Grandpa had served his use with the world or maybe just served his use to her, and because she couldn’t watch his useless carcass wither in an expensive hospital, she let what was no longer useful just die. She didn’t kill it. She let him starve and become weak so he’d “move on” a little faster, at his own choice, perhaps.
“You know what I feel?” she said, finally taking a glance at Langley. “I feel free.” She took a deep breath. “That’s why you should go to college. You’ll find some teacher that’ll ask you good questions, like what freedom is. My philosophy teacher asked me that. What is freedom, he asked. That whole class was over my head. fifty some odd years later, I can answer that question out of experience.”
This caught his ear. He could save himself about fifty years of thinking if he just listened now. Langley tried to yawn as to clear his ears as much as possible.
“Everything certain already happened to me,” she said. “You know what I think freedom is? Having no expectations. I don’t have a goal in front of me, and it’s scary. I have a lot of life in me.” She was ready to cry again. “Too much life.”
“You’re young for your age. That’s what I think.”
“Too much time to do too much by myself.”
“I’m about twenty and I feel like I’m almost out of time. Here you are at, how old are you?”
“Freedom is having nothing to grasp on to,” she said. “Having no basis for anything, having no point and no reason. No reason at all. None,” she waved her hand at him. “None.”
“In the end, we’ll all be free, then?”
“Who’s we?”
“Everybody.”
“Everybody will be free if they live long enough to have nothing to look forward to. I hope that’s not what all this really is, come to find out.” Then she stood and casually stepped towards the door. She said, “Are you fine to make your own meal tonight?”
“Grandma,” he said. “Grandpa’s not dead is he?”
“Make some for Latrail. We’re expecting her. I’m going to ride the bus somewhere.”
“What do you mean ride the bus?”
“I need to be away from here for a little while. I’ll be back.” She left the room, not looking back. “And Langley,” she said from the dining room, “don’t walk Grandpa.”
For quite some time Langley sat there peeling his eyes at Grandpa, indecisive on whether this man was dead or not. Surely no one could stay in one place for that long, alive. Then again, he didn’t check for a pulse. Grandpa’s chest wasn’t going up and down like it would if he were breathing, something people did when they were alive. Langley couldn’t gather the motivation to leave the room. Something, he couldn’t tell what, kept him there. In this time, he didn’t think too much about the outside world. He wondered how Grandpa’s skin felt. How he slouched in the wheelchair—was he weighted differently?
Gravity pulled Grandpa towards the floor, the grave, as he inched lower in his wheelchair, kind of sinking per minute. Grandma had cleaned the dead man before sitting him there, like a flesh statue. When it finally settled in that his Grandpa was dead, Langley’s back went stiff. He remembered tiny pieces of memory. Not whole moments.
There was the time having the flu and Grandpa telling him that people used to die of the flu. Its full name was Influenza. Learning to drive a car. Being made fun of because of his car. He and Latrail playing with each other when they were young enough for him to push her on her chest and there not being any breasts there. Langley being bashful at Grandpa saying Langley had a crush on Latrail.
A car pulling up in the driveway shook him from his memories. He didn’t bother to see who it was. A moment later, the door rattled with a knock. If Latrail had been dropped off by her mom she could let herself in.
Sometimes Grandpa pretended he was on the air at the radio station and acted like Langley was a guest on his show. As a guest on the show, a young Langley confessed to wanting to be a professional basketball player. In reality, he didn’t like the sport all that much. Then again, he couldn’t think of another job he might want to do. That, and Grandpa, back when he had a healthy pot belly and not a sagging one, loved sports, and Langley didn’t want to let him down. Besides, Langley loved going to the Dodger games, especially when Grandpa would suddenly decide that they had to go, “pronto”. Grandpa might not have wanted to go if he knew he didn’t like sports too much to begin with. The fact was that Langley had been so well pampered his whole life—now he knew this—that he thought his grandparents would always be there to take care of him. Not true. Not true at all.
Grandpa was a starved bull.
To Langley, how this situation summed itself up seemed all too close to what he remembered from some class discussion he had on the sacred cow. The cow was sacred mostly because of all it could offer society—dairy products and such. The bull on the other hand, which was basically only good for mating, well, they let it die because they didn’t need so many of them. To his Grandma, Grandpa had served his use with the world or maybe just served his use to her, and because she couldn’t watch his useless carcass wither in an expensive hospital, she let what was no longer useful just die. She didn’t kill it. She let him starve and become weak so he’d “move on” a little faster, at his own choice, perhaps.
“You know what I feel?” she said, finally taking a glance at Langley. “I feel free.” She took a deep breath. “That’s why you should go to college. You’ll find some teacher that’ll ask you good questions, like what freedom is. My philosophy teacher asked me that. What is freedom, he asked. That whole class was over my head. fifty some odd years later, I can answer that question out of experience.”
This caught his ear. He could save himself about fifty years of thinking if he just listened now. Langley tried to yawn as to clear his ears as much as possible.
“Everything certain already happened to me,” she said. “You know what I think freedom is? Having no expectations. I don’t have a goal in front of me, and it’s scary. I have a lot of life in me.” She was ready to cry again. “Too much life.”
“You’re young for your age. That’s what I think.”
“Too much time to do too much by myself.”
“I’m about twenty and I feel like I’m almost out of time. Here you are at, how old are you?”
“Freedom is having nothing to grasp on to,” she said. “Having no basis for anything, having no point and no reason. No reason at all. None,” she waved her hand at him. “None.”
“In the end, we’ll all be free, then?”
“Who’s we?”
“Everybody.”
“Everybody will be free if they live long enough to have nothing to look forward to. I hope that’s not what all this really is, come to find out.” Then she stood and casually stepped towards the door. She said, “Are you fine to make your own meal tonight?”
“Grandma,” he said. “Grandpa’s not dead is he?”
“Make some for Latrail. We’re expecting her. I’m going to ride the bus somewhere.”
“What do you mean ride the bus?”
“I need to be away from here for a little while. I’ll be back.” She left the room, not looking back. “And Langley,” she said from the dining room, “don’t walk Grandpa.”
For quite some time Langley sat there peeling his eyes at Grandpa, indecisive on whether this man was dead or not. Surely no one could stay in one place for that long, alive. Then again, he didn’t check for a pulse. Grandpa’s chest wasn’t going up and down like it would if he were breathing, something people did when they were alive. Langley couldn’t gather the motivation to leave the room. Something, he couldn’t tell what, kept him there. In this time, he didn’t think too much about the outside world. He wondered how Grandpa’s skin felt. How he slouched in the wheelchair—was he weighted differently?
Gravity pulled Grandpa towards the floor, the grave, as he inched lower in his wheelchair, kind of sinking per minute. Grandma had cleaned the dead man before sitting him there, like a flesh statue. When it finally settled in that his Grandpa was dead, Langley’s back went stiff. He remembered tiny pieces of memory. Not whole moments.
There was the time having the flu and Grandpa telling him that people used to die of the flu. Its full name was Influenza. Learning to drive a car. Being made fun of because of his car. He and Latrail playing with each other when they were young enough for him to push her on her chest and there not being any breasts there. Langley being bashful at Grandpa saying Langley had a crush on Latrail.
A car pulling up in the driveway shook him from his memories. He didn’t bother to see who it was. A moment later, the door rattled with a knock. If Latrail had been dropped off by her mom she could let herself in.
Sometimes Grandpa pretended he was on the air at the radio station and acted like Langley was a guest on his show. As a guest on the show, a young Langley confessed to wanting to be a professional basketball player. In reality, he didn’t like the sport all that much. Then again, he couldn’t think of another job he might want to do. That, and Grandpa, back when he had a healthy pot belly and not a sagging one, loved sports, and Langley didn’t want to let him down. Besides, Langley loved going to the Dodger games, especially when Grandpa would suddenly decide that they had to go, “pronto”. Grandpa might not have wanted to go if he knew he didn’t like sports too much to begin with. The fact was that Langley had been so well pampered his whole life—now he knew this—that he thought his grandparents would always be there to take care of him. Not true. Not true at all.
Grandpa was a starved bull.
View the Trailer!
Read the Reviews!
"The Flesh Statue is an intriguing look at a side of society many of us are blessed not to be a part of ...U.L. Harper has a unique writing style and it works for this novel."
-Rundpinne
"The novel is quite confronting, the issues raised are not watered down into pleasant phrases and it has a very ‘real’ factor about it; in your face but very real...there are very few stones unturned and Mr Harper has adequately produced an interesting story as well as promoting certain issues, morals and beliefs."
-ManydyTheBookWorm's Blog
Follow U.L. Harper's tour all month long by visiting http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/
Read an interview with the author at As the Pages Turn.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Why Men Cheat by Greg Middleton, Author of Real Men: What's Happening to Our Males?
Today's guest blogger is author Greg Middleton. From his first book, In Search of the Soul(Dorrance Publishing Company, 2002) Greg continued to read and record his thoughts and opinions as they were developing. Ever since that first book he has been writing feverishly. His second book Pearls of Wisdom, was published in 2003 by GEM Publications. Cold Tree Press published his third book, Food for the Soul in early 2005. His goal is to get as many of his completed works as possible into the hands of the readers whom they were intended to inspire.
In addition to being a writer, Greg is also a professional musician, Realtor, and a Professional Seminar Speaker. He and his wife Cynthia make their “Empty Nest” home in Altadena, California, and are ready to start on Phase Two, enjoying the grandchildren. Be on the lookout for more works from this prolific writer in the years to come.
You can find Greg online at www.gregemiddleton.com. For more information about Real Men and Real Men Seminars, please visit http://realmenseminars.com/.
"Why Men Cheat" by Greg Middleton
Let’s be clear, you can’t cage all men in the same “pigpen.” What is good for one man isn’t always good for another. What one man may wear as a badge of honor, another avoids with every fiber of his willpower. To say all men cheat on their mates would be grossly incorrect. Since there is no official record of cheaters we can only guess the percentage of men that actually cheat on their mates. If there were such a poll, how many men would be willing to admit to being a cheater?
In order to address this subject perhaps we should start with understanding “ordinary male nature.” What force of nature compels men to operate naturally as they do? For whatever reasons the majority of healthy, heterosexual males are strongly, sexually attracted to females. From the time their hormones become active most things that males do are geared toward finding a way to experience the sex act with a live female. From the imagination, to masturbating, to actually having sexual intercourse with a female, men are compelled to deal with this very compelling natural attraction. This is partly by something they are born with and partly because of the constant bombardment of sexual erotic marketing geared directly toward males. Advertising agencies aggressively use sexual innuendo to advertise most common product to males.
Even before males are sophisticated enough to pay attention to marketing ads they have to deal with hormones that causes erotic imaginations, unwanted erections, wet dreams or otherwise, “sex on the brain.” There is something about a healthy male that causes his hormones to erupt from within. This inward drive requires self-control. Once the lure of sexual intercourse enters a male’s brain it seems to stay there until he actually “scores.” Males who are unable to score are forced to do other things to relieve themselves such as masturbation, pornography, or by other means such as involuntary releasing through wet dreams. Some even choose to acts out this drive in immorally.
The simple answer to the question of why men cheat is because they do not gain the upper hand (pun intended) on controlling their sexual desires. Even though the attraction is very strong, that alone is not a reason to have sex with any female that opens her legs in order to the satisfy his sexual appetite. Human males are expected to rise above their raw animal instincts.
Males who are unsuccessful at controlling this sexual urge shouldn’t commit to marriage until they are able to control their sex drive. Sex addicts are people who don’t have control over their sexual desires. Some individuals actually need psychological or other means of medical attention to help them deal with this problem. Others simply need to learn the art of self-control and/or will power. Just because you love something doesn’t mean that you must always have it. You may like sweets, but you realize that you can’t have them all the time. You may love your car, but you can’t be in it all the time. Just because you love something very much doesn’t mean that you must have it all the time. Self-control must be learned, will power must be learned, and morality must be learned.

For younger males there must be a willingness to be taught before they will open themselves to accept teaching. In dealing with sexual desires men need to examine themselves and find ways of controlling their nature. They cannot allow their nature to be in charge. I suppose that is why some men have been accused of being “dogs.”
Many men cheat just because they can. If the opportunity is there and they feel they can get away with it, many will cross the line. It is not a simply matter of knowing whether or not it is wrong. Resisting what you perceived to be wrong requires perfecting an inner power from within that compels an individual to make the best choices. If you do not have will power or self-control there are many things that you may allow yourself to do. Only those with high moral character and integrity seem to have what it takes to abstain from the temptation of doing things they know to be wrong.
It would be safe to assume that no man cheats on his mate hoping to get caught. Even though some may actually enjoy living dangerously, that usually implies that they think they are either smart enough, or savvy enough to get away with their devilish deeds. If their mate condoned such actions it would not be cheating. Very few relationships fall into that category. Cheaters are not people of high moral character. They do not have integrity, nor can they be trusted.
Men who cheat should take a very close look at themselves and see if they are the man that they intended to become. If cheating is something that he feels is fine then he should also acknowledge the fact that he is not a nice person. In our opinion he is far from being a “real man.” If you compare a cheater with murderers, thieves, child molesters, rapist and other warped minded individuals, are they that much different? Anyone that cannot control their actions knowing them to be wrong has a problem. They are a threat to themselves as well as to the people who are forced to deal with them. Cheaters fall into the class of lowly human beings. “Real men don’t cheat! That is not a part of their character. If you are a cheater I suggest that you get help.
Real Men is a book about the plight of males over the last century, how they have become displaced by the changes in our society and lost of a distinct role.
You can purchase Real Men: What's Hapenning to Our Males? at Amazon.com.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Real Men by Greg Middleton -- Book Review

Are you a "real man"? Real Men: What is Happening with Our Males? was written for males dealing with specific male issues. Addressing the serious shift in dynamics between males and females brought about by changes in laws and customs, changes in technology, and changes in the roles females now play in society, Real Men takes a look into our past, the present, and looks into the future to help men adjust their lives to today's reality.
I approached Real Men with a bit of trepidation because the synopsis I saw mentioned how men are no longer the "king of the hill" and I immediately began to wonder if this book would be sexist drivel about how men can reclaim what they've lost.
Thankfully, I was way off base, which is just another reason I feel you need to open the pages of a book and read some of it first before passing judgment.
What Real Men is truly about is how certain changes in our society have led to males playing different roles than their fathers and grandfathers, leaving many men to learn as they go, such as author Greg Middleton had to do. As Middleton points out, this cost him a great deal of wasted time until he had gained the experience he needed to be the father and husband he should be, the "real man" he always wanted to be.
In an attempt to instruct and guide men along this journey, Middleton has written an excellent book based upon his own experiences, which also includes some tables discussing statistics that back up what he has to say.
I found Real Men to be an informative, engaging read that I was able to polish off in one evening, but whose words will stick with me for some time to come. I'm considering passing this book along to my son, who at the age of 23, could benefit greatly from its contents. And now that I have read Middleton's Real Men, I'm eager to dive into more of his work.
Title: Real Men
Author: Greg Middleton
Publisher: Lulu
ISBN: 978-0-557-12071-0
SRP: $14.19
For more information about Greg Middleton, please visit www.gregemiddleton.com. You will find Real Men Seminars at http://realmenseminars.com/.
Greg Middleton will be on a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion from January 4th - 29th. You may follow his tour by visiting http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/ weekdays during January.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
