The Wine of Red Forgiveness, July 30th, 2025.

Introduction.

So it has been a while since I blogged my way through a book, and I have now decided to rectify that situation.

I was recently browsing in one of my favorite bookstores, Antis in Spokane,

and judging from the staff favorite shelf there, bears mentioning it is the kind of bookstore

that would be dismayed to find out that it was one of my favorite bookstores. Where was I?

And I came across this book. The idea of blogging my way through it occurred to me almost instantly.

The book is Disarming Leviathan, Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor by Caleb Campbell.

It is published naturally by Interversity Press, which back in the days when it used to be

staffed by gray-eyed men from Numerur used to publish some really good books.

Some of those books are still in the back catalog, I bet.

That way, they can bring

out quinquennial editions of doctrinally sound books that remind us all of what ones was. This

particular book was in the Christianity section in Antis, but it was the kind of Christianity

section that had books by Pope Francis, Peter Anz, Tim Keller, Karen Armstrong, and the obligatory

hat tip to C.S. Lewis. So one browses in places like that

with a gambler's hope, and one's pistol loosened the holster. You know, a dark parable first.

Suppose there was a guy in town who, based on the behavior of my evil twin, came to believe that I had

stolen his truck. He seethed the bitterness over this for years, and then one day at church, a message on resentment really got through to him, and he repented, really repented of the malice he had borne toward me. After that, he made a point of befriending me, reaching out to me in various ways, and would take me out for a beer periodically. One day the full story came out. In his repentance, he was seeking my best spiritual interest

and wanted to lead me to repentance as well for having stolen his truck. The only hitch in this

program was the fact that I hadn't stolen his truck. Other than that, I did appreciate the sweetness

of his attitude, although I did have some difficulty in getting what I considered to be a pretty

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