I may be a day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to share with you my short list of must read books related to American Independence and the Fourth of July:

The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood. Dr. Wood is Alva O. Way Professor of History at Brown University.  The book traces the move of the early American colonies from Monarchy through Republicanism to Democracy. Wood offers a response to the perspective held by most Americans than the American Revolution was not a radical one in the sense of other political and social revolutions.

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, also by Gordon S. Wood, analyzes the character of the Founding Fathers, revealing what made them unique in history, with the startling claim that their genuis will never be replicated.

1776 by David McCullough is the most readable history of the American Revolution available. The book takes the reader into the story, making you feel as if you are one of the characters involved in the detail of the action.

John Adams by David McCullough will help you appreciate the contributions of the most underestimed of our Founding Fathers.

Read these two authors and you’ll develop a deeper appreciation of what it means to be an American.

You’ll have to go back 31 years to 1976 – the year America celebrated its Bicentenniel – to recall this moment when Chicago Cubs Centerfielder Rick Monday saved the American Flag from being burned by two protestors at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. April 25, 1976.  The legendary Vin Scully calls the play.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAbmXlZbrSM]

Derek Fisher, a point guard for the NBA’s Utah Jazz, has requested – and has been granted – a release from his contract. According to Sports Illustrated the Jazz acquired Fisher a year ago. Prior to that he had spent eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and was part of three NBA championship runs.

So what’s up? Did Fisher suddenly decide he doesn’t like Utah? Not enough money? Not enough prestige? None of the above. Fisher wants to relocate his family to a city that has the best combination of medical providers who can treat his 11-month old daughter who was recently diagnosed with cancer of the eye. He’s willing to give up his career to do that. “Life for me outweighs the game of basketball,” he recently told reporters.

While he hasn’t ruled out playing for another NBA team, he wonders aloud that because he is 33 years old, 6’1” tall, and only averaged 10 points per game for the Jazz whether any team would want him. A professional team in any sport would be foolish to pass on the opportunity to have a man with this kind of character and integrity in their clubhouse, influencing the other players, regardless of whether he ever scored another point.

It would appear that at least one feminist theologian believes male headship to be a demon.  Challenging the ‘gender imbalance’ in church leadership, Esther Mombo, academic dean at St. Paul’s Theological College in Limru, Kenya released a statement in which she said in part,

“The consultation on gender, power and leadership is timely because it reminds us that while more than half our nations and churches are women and while women contribute immensely to the socioeconomic development of any country, they are still largely decorations and tokens when it comes to leadership. This consultation is a challenge to the Church and to theological institutions that the macho approach should be exorcized from the Church, theology and theological institutions.”

Does Ms. Mombo also want the ‘macho approach’ exorcised from Scripture? (The question is rhetorical – of course she does).  The character and calling of the church is not shaped by the fact that ‘more than half our nations and churches are women;’ nor is it shaped by the fact that women contribute in significant ways to the ministry of the church.

The character and calling of the church is shaped by what God’s word requires. Scripture is clear that God’s design for the leadership of His church is a plurality of Godly men who exhibit the call of God on their lives for the task of leadership. The fact that this truth is contrary to cultural norms is unfortunate but also irrelevant.

The issue is not the ability or the intelligence of women or the availability of women. The issue is the clear teaching of Scripture on role distinctions between the genders. Such distinctions do not make men better than women or women less than men. They merely honor God’s original design for the role of man as head and the role of woman as worthy of man’s protection through her wilful submission to man’s headship.  These distinctions are not consequential to the Fall but were instituted prior to the Fall in the Garden. The fact that women desire to lead and men refuse to lead is the consequence of the Fall, producing divisive debates like this one.

I have attempted to locate the original source of these photos but it cannot be confirmed.  They are attributed to an AP photographer named Khalid Mohammed. If these are actual, untampered photos, they certainly speak volumes about the trust at least one Iraqi boy has in the American military.