Christ The Saviour Is Born

Joyeaux Noel to all . . .

Mary

I love Mary. When I say that among some of my Protestant friends I get odd looks. We have tried so hard to not be Catholic that we flee from anything that even looks like Catholicism. Sure, the Catholics go a little too far in their veneration of Mary, but the answer is not to swing the pendulum so far the other way that we relegate her to a status somewhere below Bartholomew and Thaddeus. She is a hero of the faith, an example to be followed, and a woman worthy of the same respoect we give the other major figures of both Testaments. She appears prominently throughout the Gospels. I am not ashamed to say it. I love Mary.

LaHaye vs. Jenkins

So is the Left Behind series finally over? Did it end up at 14 books? 15? I lost count, but I have read them all, that I know.

What interests me is the end-of-the-world series that LaHaye and Jenkins are working on apart from each other. To me, it is a no-brainer that Jenkins' are so much better than LaHaye's.

Jenkins' Underground Zealot series -- Soon, Silenced, and Shadowed -- was well-written, with characters that seemed realisitc and whom I cared a little bit about. I thought the "Bad Guy" was beleivable, as well, which is not as easy as it sounds in this type of fiction.

I find LaHaye's Babylon Rising so be less realisitc, the characters and situations over-the-top, and the shadow conspiracy to be less than compelling.