This book is written from a personal coming of age perspective. It shares the many years and stages of a non-believer and the radical transformation to a believer. Though many of the stories can be quite embarrassing for the author at times, he feels it is imperative to share his memories, leaving nothing out, with a no holds barred approach revealing a lifestyle worth of much shame. The transformation is the key to the story, as he is led by the Holy Spirit. As his story develops, life then takes on new meaning and he admires how God works His providence, trusting in His will to be done. Lives can change, as you will see, but that does not mean there wont be opposition. As you will come to learn through Blue Collar Believer, sometimes the biggest obstacles come with the ones you love the most. It takes the reality of life, which is death, and this is the only tool to give the afterlife serious thought. Though we can appeal to the intellect, it is up to the Holy Spirt to convict the heart. As an ambassadors for Christ, we must always be ready for opportunities to defend the gospel, showing love and compassion. We live in a lost and dying world, and if only it were easy to share the Gospel and get a positive response 100% of the time, but as you will see, this just not is the case. Jesus said, He who has ears, let him hear. Unfortunately most ears who hear are deaf, but that does not mean we give up. Persistence and love for the lost can do wonders and all things are possible with God. Journey with Blue Collar Believer, from beginning to end and be guided on a tour with a testimony that will not soon be forgotten. It is an emotional roller coaster, filled with many ups and downs. You will laugh, you will cry, but more importantly, it will get you to think. If you have to see it to believe it, get ready to experience it for yourself through the words of a Blue Collar Believer.

Stupid is the new smart—but it wasn’t always so Popular culture has divorced itself from the life of the mind. Who has time for great books or deep thought when there is Jersey Shore to watch, a txt 2 respond 2, and World of Warcraft to play? At the same time, those who pursue the life of the mind have insulated themselves from popular culture. Speaking in insider jargon and writing unread books, intellectuals have locked themselves away in a ghetto of their own creation. It wasn’t always so. Blue Collar Intellectuals vividly captures a time in the twentieth century when the everyman aspired to high culture and when intellectuals descended from the ivory tower to speak to the everyman. Author Daniel J. Flynn profiles thinkers from working-class backgrounds who played a prominent role in American life by addressing their intellectual work to a mass audience. Blue Collar Intellectuals tells the fascinating story of the unschooled hobo who migrated from skid row anonymity to White House chats with the president and prime-time TV specials. Blue Collar Intellectuals tells the fascinating story of: •The scandalous teacher-student romance that spawned a half-century labor of love in writing the history of the world. •The Ivy League Ph.D. who held neither a high school nor college degree, and fittingly launched a renaissance in reading the great books outside of formal schools. •The scholarship student who experienced the free market firsthand waiting tables and peddling socks, and who became one of capitalism’s most influential exponents. •The impoverished outcast who became the poet of the pulps, elevating millions of readers along with heretofore marginal genres. Guiding us through a world now vanished, Flynn causes us to look anew at our own digital age and its nostrums: Video gaming is just a new form of literacy, Reality shows . . . Challenge our emotional intelligence, and Who cares if Johnny can’t read? The value of books is overstated. Blue Collar Intellectuals shows us how much everyone intellectual and everyman alike has suffered from mass culture’s crowding out of higher things and the elite’s failure to engage the masses.

This book not only tells about the hardships and tributes of the life of John Calvert but also gives an in-depth view of the educational system today from the eyes of a man who has been involved with it almost fifty years. It includes concerns and complaints from many people in several states in the country, who have seen issues in the system as well and voice their views and hope to be heard. It takes every position in the school--from student, parent, all the way to principal, teacher, and superintendent--and holds them accountable for what is happening in the schools today, giving them a new perspective of what the public really thinks and lets them know what is being said about them. One of the most important things that this book does is give a brilliant example of how schools should be run by providing the plans and activities that have actually worked for years! This includes copies of letters given to students and parents, the discipline policies that work, and the in-school suspension handbook that John and others have lived by to make their schools successful.

This book enables worship leaders to skillfully guide spiritual novices, skeptics, and Christian veterans to the grace embedded in the timeless liturgy. Offering winsome worship hospitality, these pages provide seasoned wisdom, often in the form of pithy introductions (Adams calls these “frames”) that alert worshipers to the character and purpose of various service elements. Readers get the tools to create their own frames, informed by the church of all ages, and customized to their congregation and neighborhood. This book will serve well anyone who wants to increase their missional worship IQ.

Too often people believe that they have to be perfect to be forgiven, but Christ came to save the lost. Just because an alcoholic accepts Christ though, or goes to AA, does not mean he will necessarily be able to stop his addictions. Learn about the poignant struggle of one believer and what the Bible really has to say about addiction, Heaven and Hell, and who Jesus really is.

Jim Morris was a country boy whose father was out of work for a time due to a union strike. The hardship his family experienced as a result left a lasting enmity against all unions. After school, Jim became restless and decided to hitchhike around the country and explore what he had studied while in school. It didn't take long to get into some interesting situations that would change his life forever. Cold, broke, and hungry, Jim tried to enlist in the Navy and Air Force only to be turned down because their quotas were full. He reluctantly jointed the Marines, a move he never regretted. While in the Marines he partnered up with a Jewish fellow who remained his lifelong friend right up to the White House. After the Marines he married a preacher's daughter, going against all odds. After several years and nearly losing his wife, he gave his heart to the Lord. He didn't like what the public schools were teaching his children which led him into minor politics, then to the state house and finally the White House. While campaigning, he discovered a sinister plot of the government which cemented his election as the Tea Party candidate.

Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003 From Tom Joad to Norma Rae to Spike Lee's Mookie in Do the Right Thing, Hollywood has regularly dramatized the lives and struggles of working people in America. Ranging from idealistic to hopeless, from sympathetic to condescending, these portrayals confronted audiences with the vital economic, social, and political issues of their times while providing a diversion—sometimes entertaining, sometimes provocative—from the realities of their own lives. In Blue-Collar Hollywood, John Bodnar examines the ways in which popular American films made between the 1930s and the 1980s depicted working-class characters, comparing these cinematic representations with the aspirations of ordinary Americans and the promises made to them by the country's political elites. Based on close and imaginative viewings of dozens of films from every genre—among them Public Enemy, Black Fury, Baby Face, The Grapes of Wrath, It's a Wonderful Life, I Married a Communist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Peyton Place, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Coal Miner's Daughter, and Boyz N the Hood—this book explores such topics as the role of censorship, attitudes toward labor unions and worker militancy, racism, the place of women in the workforce and society, communism and the Hollywood blacklist, and faith in liberal democracy. Whether made during the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, or the Vietnam era, the majority of films about ordinary working Americans, Bodnar finds, avoided endorsing specific political programs, radical economic reform, or overtly reactionary positions. Instead, these movies were infused with the same current of liberalism and popular notion of democracy that flow through the American imagination.

An accessible, entertaining guide that brings the infamous cryptid to life with legends, culture, and history from across the globe. Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Skunk Ape. He’s everywhere. The most well-known cryptid in American history, Bigfoot is as feared as he is loved. The subject of thousands of stories, this creature has been pegged as a monster terrorizing the woods, a supernatural entity stealthily living among us with an otherworldly agenda, or simply an animal trying to live a life of seclusion. With various theories and beliefs abounding, research and discussion have become a hobby for many, and even an occupation for some. In The Legend of Bigfoot: Leaving His Mark on the World, T. S. Mart and Mel Cabre reveal the myths, personal stories, and pop culture surrounding the legendary icon. Featuring more than 80 images recreating the Bigfoot’s appearance from firsthand accounts and folktales, The Legend of Bigfoot showcases the many faces of the creature. Included are the Boston Bahumagosh, which is said to weigh up to 400 pounds, stand up to 10 feet tall, and terrorize the Boston area; the Honey Island Swamp Monster?also known as the Louisiana Wookie?who roams the Louisiana swamps with yellow or red eyes; and the Wendigo, placed between 7 and 15 feet tall with long, yellow fangs and yellow-tinted skin. Half phantom, half beast, the Wendigo lives in the forest and dates back to the earliest Native American legends. “This book will keep the mystery and fun of Bigfoot alive and leave readers wondering, “Maybe?” —Laura Krantz, host of the Wild Thing podcast

“We built our Prison College Program with the information in this book” -Jamie Meade (232516) “Through Bruce’s program I have won a scholarship, attended three schools, and accumulated over 80 college credits” -Donald Bolton (231356) “As an incarcerated college student, I was able to secure a good job offer before I saw the parole board” -Robert Coleman (204768) “A copy of College in Prison should be in every prison library” -Ahmed Melson (198174)