title: 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You: (But Can't, Because He Needs the Job)
author: Oliver Thomas
description: Christianity, "like Islam, is in danger of being hijacked by a militant minority of fundamentalists," writes Thomas, a Southern Baptist minister and constitutional lawyer active in public debates about religion, science and education. In this short book, he takes on today's big religious questions: homosexuality, the place of women, evolution vs. creationism, the plausibility of miracles, religious pluralism, life after death and others. Thomas's writing is clear and engaging, if occasionally flip ("This book is written for all the people who want to live lives of purpose... without having to put their brains in their pockets"). Taking on popular religious writers like Tim LaHaye and Rick Warren, Thomas argues against many conservative interpretations of biblical texts and sides with those who understand them as written by humans in a particular time and context far removed from the 21st century. Little in the book will be new to readers of contemporary religious newspapers or magazines, who may find its brevity disproportional to its price tag. But for those who have not yet been exposed to the religious debates taking place in the public forum, this concise book serves as a good introduction. <I>(Mar. 22)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  1 
   
  Chapter One 
  'The Managing Director of Tutuntu and Company is here, sir.' 
  'Why?' enquired Dr Buka, the Acting Registrar of the National Examinations Board, lifting his 
  jaded face from the frightening pile of files which took up every available millimetre of his giant, 
  mahogany, super-executive desk. 
  'Mr Mora from Tutu...' 
  'Oh gosh!' he exclaimed, smiting the file he had been studying with his right hand before Nelly, 
  his secretary, could complete the sentence. 'Is he here already? Why the haste?' 
  'We gave him an appointment for eleven, sir,' Nelly reminded him in a soft, sympathetic voice. 
  'Is it eleven already?' Buka looked irritably at his digital watch without seeing the time. 'I guess 
  there's no way of cancelling or postponing the appointment? Does he know I'm in? 
  'I told him you're in, but if you've changed your mind about the appointment I could make up an 
  excuse. Like you've just been summoned to the Federal Ministry of E