Kevin Shen is first-generation American. His father is a doctor who returned to Taiwan with his wife, to head a clinic there. We met Kevin in St. Louis, about 20 years ago. We took him to church each week.
www.amazon.com
Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure : The Poisoning of American Christianity and the Antidote
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GJ - Kevin thought it was quite funny that I had to buy a copy of my own book to produce a new edition. Most of my books still float around the used market.
Everything is available as a free PDF download here. The print copies can be ordered there too.
A friend from my family's Disciples of Christ church asked for doctrinal books, so I am sending two copies of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant.
Brett Meyer gave away 50 copies of Luther versus the UOJ Pietists: Justification by Faith at the Emmaus conference.
Kevin wondered if the free PDF could be shared with others. I said, "If I tried to get money for the PDF download, some people would not pay, for many reasons, from lack of money to not have a plastic card to pay for it. This way, someone in India or Ghana can have all the books they want to download. The difference between getting all I can and giving a lot away is not that much anyway."
Kevin was impressed that a 20 year-old book, which he dug out recently, was so accurate in predicting what would happen today in the mainline churches. I have found that being 20-25 years ahead of church leaders is no guarantee for popularity in the visible church.
Mrs. Ichabod talked to him too. They discussed laying up treasures in heaven. He was given no hope for living after a horrific traffic accident four years ago. Now he realizes how fleeting are the treasures on earth. Kevin knows cars. He said I would need to spend $100,000 to get as roomy a car as my ancient Lincoln, if I bought a new Mercedes limo. Needless to say, we are both Going Galt.
Most of the time, publishing means getting plenty of negative feedback. In fact, the day I got my first copies of Liberalism, the Shrinker faction pounced at the council meeting. That book really made the leadership of WELS angry. The final chapter threw Kovaciny, Oelhafen, and Adrian into loud tantrums, when it was delivered as conference paper. The Cure chapter is about the Holy Spirit working through the Word and contains actual criticism of Fuller Seminary and Church Growth. The conference refused to "approve" the paper, which says a lot about WELS and the Means of Grace. If I had questioned clergy adultery, they would have executed me on the spot.
Worst of all, the book became an immediate best-seller for NPH when they expected little interest in doctrinal books.
Liberalism was also the only book not reprinted in the latest version. But they gave me the rights to it, and they have been generous in sending me books to review. NPH was great about promoting Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant.
