||Pastoral Passage|| Church life in New Zealand – like that of tourism and hospitality – has been disrupted and constricted these past two years, and it seems now that the times of lockdowns and gathering restrictions have come to an end. The Lord’s response to the despondent Jews at their return from exile also speaks today to church communities who are rebuilding.

||Extended Book Summary|| An intellectual history of the sexual revolution that still embroils western societies. It helps to answer questions such as, “Why do we celebrate the tearing down of traditional moral codes?” and “Why has sex education for ever-younger children become so important for social progressives?” and “how is it that the idea of ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ has come to make sense so suddenly to so many and ordinary people?”

||Book Summary|| I am not fan of Brian Tamaki. As an educated Reformed Evangelical it is unsurprising that I would be at odds with a fundamentalist Pentecostal, as many others are for many different reasons. But I think a man with such a high profile and public loathing deserves the dignity of being understood. Having read Peter Lineham’s “Destiny: The Life and Times of a Self-Made Apostle”, I came away disagreeing no less with Tamaki’s teaching and practice than I did before, but with significantly more respect for the man. For that reason, I commend the book to fans and critics of Brian Tamaki alike. It need not change your own final assessment, but it allows you to think more intelligently about him.