Very interesting. Joe Eszterhas has experienced a complete turnaround in his life.
Wrote dozens of works, including Basic Instinct, exploring the seamier side of life. Made a fortune.
Diagnosed with throat cancer and forced to give up drinking and smoking. Almost drove him crazy, literally.
Cried out to God in desperation. Did not even consider himself a believer. And things changed. Dramatically.
Even returned to the Catholic Church of all things.
Check it out here.
Very moving. We'll try to get him on the show to learn more.

A friend paid to have my book on Forgiveness translated into Russian last year. Trying to help equip churches and Christians in Russia as the faith emerges anew after the long Communist slumber.
Remarkably, it is selling well.
She sent me this note yesterday

I just got a call ...from Anna in Mioscow and she said the Book on Forgiveness is selling better than any book that we ever had translated. I am glad you wrote it and that I had it translated. The money that is received from sales are used to print more. Forgiveness is needed if you want any kind of peace!!

We are dealing with publishers right now regarding our new book on cultivating faith in your children and how to do that. Kind of fun to see that project emerging.
If you would like a copy of the book on Forgiveness, check it out here.

Great email regarding last night's discussion of sex in marriage and Relevant Church's 30 Day Sex Challenge in Tampa.

Last night I was listening to your show about the 30 day sex challenge for married couples. I could not find it on your website this morning and was hoping you could email the info.

My husband & I will be celebrating 30 years of marriage on Sept. 2 and I was going to give this to him as a gift.. Of course, he will probably have to be admitted to coronary care unit…..

You are so right about the church not addressing this issue. As Jesus followers and faithful church goers, I would also like to share this info with my Adult Fellowship Bible Class and with my pastor.

Since my Bible class as a group has been praying for our marriages, this might be a great idea for all of us to try….

Thanks again. I enjoy your show.
Kim

ANSWER:
Here is the web site with more info

By popular demand, here is my top 10 list I shared on air.
Michael Phelps has been touted by NBC, Sports Illustrated, and Time as the "greatest athlete ever." No way!
Greatness involves more than on-field or on-court accomplishments. That is part of greatness. But real Greatness would also include faith, generosity, intelligence, family and marriage, and citizenship contributions to the nation. THAT is greatness.
Phelps is just 23 years old. Other than Olympic achievement, we have little else to measure him with. It is too early to tell whether he will become truly great.
Here are my top 10 greatest athletes ever:
10)Andre Agassi – 8 Grand Slam titles and launched a $50MM foundation to serve kids in poverty
9)Roberto Clemente - 3000 hits, family man, great right-fielder, and sacrificed his life on a mission of mercy to assist earthquake victims in Nicaragua
8) Hank Aaron - 755 HR, Hall of Famer, successful businessman, strong character
7) Tiger Woods - What can you say about his golfing? Then he gives away $9.5MM in 2006
6) Dikembe Mutombo - Given and raised a total of $20MM for Congo hospital, NBA defensive player of the year on multiple occasions, strong marriage, speaks 9 languages, and a degree from Georgetown
5) Charlie Ward – Heisman Trophy winner, NBA player for 10+ years, MLB draftee. Quite a combo. Plus won a national champ in football, FCA giant, strong marriage, and the list goes on
4) Warrick Dunn – Homes for 74 single moms and their 197 dependents, Katrina relief, humility, national champ at FSU, and met on death row with murderer of his mother
3) Jackie Robinson – changed the face of America, endured persecution with grace, MVP, World Series champ, Hall of Famer, solid marriage, activist
2) Jesse Owens – Olympic success in Berlin, rebuke of Hitler, winner in charity and citizenship
1) David Robinson Get this:
Naval Academy degree in math
Healthy Marriage and family life
Faith giant
National player of year in college, NBA MVP, 2X NBA champ
2 Olympic Gold medals
2 years active military service
AND
$11MM gift to create Carver Academy for kids in poverty in San Antonio– perhaps largest gift ever by athlete at one time

Blogging from the "Teen Room" at Children's Hospital in Atlanta.
Helping with the WSB Care-a-Thon 2008 to assist the AFLAC Cancer center for children.
Sitting with a number of young men and women who are battling or have battled cancer. This is their home away from home.
Remarkably brave kids. Patient and enduring parents who love them and walk alongside them.
This is an impressive facility, one of the best in the nation. Perhaps THE best.
Two things strike me:
1) Parents with this kind of strength and faith inspire me. I have survived cancer (melanoma) but how do you walk alongside your child as they fight cancer? These parents are special.
2) Immense privilege in being a part of the station who uses its resources to help the people of Atlanta give more than $1,000,000 to help these kids. I am blessed to be a part of the WSB team here in Atlanta.
May God bless this hospital and its team of care-givers and healers.

Rick Warren did it. And he did it well.
He helped many Christians get out of the muck of being toadies for the Republican party.
He demonstrated that Christians can be intelligent, compassionate, and diverse.
Best of all, Rick showed America the best of the faith.
The Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday night was brilliant in its conception and its execution.
Rick gave both candidates time and space to answer as they wished. He asked incisive and insightful questions. He did not wade in with his own views on any given issue.
In short, he was brilliant. Amazingly, even the Washington Post saw that.
And he raised questions that Christians should be interested in, whether they are or not. E.g., the fact that there are more than 150MM orphans in the world today. How does the Church partner with the government to do something about that?
All in all, it was a great night. Both candidates seemed comfortable. Rick plainly stated that he is "friends" with both Obama and McCain while not agreeing with everything either of them espouses.
He re-introduced civility into the American political conversation. Here's wishing the rest of the media would follow suit.

At last! One pastor and church have the moral courage to reject blood money.
A man in Orange Park, FL, won $6MM in the Florida lottery and wanted to give 10% to his church.
The church turned down the gift of $600,000!
Well done! State lotteries are wrong. States set up a monopoly lottery, engaging in a business that is illegal for regular citizens. The state targets its poorest citizens. That is who buys lottery tickets - studies all show it. The very people whom the government should be helping protect and provide opportunity for - that is who the government exploits.
It is ill-gotten gain. just plain wrong to do.
The ends do not justify the means.
I would not rob you and then make myself feel better by giving part of it to charity. You do not blow up the barn to BBQ one pig.
State lotteries are wrong, immoral.
And finally, one church has backed it up with real backbone. Well done!

Turns out the National Enquirer was telling the truth, after all. One would think that the photos they produced and the eyewitness accounts of security officers would have been enough. But I guess there is still a "Boy who cries wolf" attachment to their brand name.
Nevertheless, I am trying to figure out this whole John Edwards disaster.
Here is the poster boy (in more ways than one) for fighting poverty and eliminating the "2 Americas." Turns out he lives in the most palatial and expansive home in his own county. More talk than walk?
Now he follows that up with a stunning admission that he had a fairly lengthy affair. The poster boy for "faithful husband of cancer-stricken woman who declares that she wants her husband to pursue his dreams rather than stay nearby to attend to her life-threatening illness" turns out to be a philanderer. May even have fathered a love child.
Is it not odd that he fails to live up to the two main images he sought to portray?
- Crusader against poverty
- Faithful, loving husband
His two greatest failures come in the exact areas he sought to promote or trumpet.
Odd? Yes
Hypocrisy? Yes
Thoroughly human? Yes
And this last one may be the key. We often find that our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses.
Sometimes, even, we mortals trumpet and emphasize our virtue in the very areas where we know we are most deficient. Odd psychology but I have seen it a lot. The man who is always talking about sex, and making sex jokes, is usually the one who is having the least intimacy in his own life. The moralist who is most vicious and vile toward homosexuals is often a person with deep-seated gay tendencies he is trying to repress.
And we also usually discover that areas where are most proud in our lives become the sources of our greatest temptations, and, often, failures.
Romans 7:15 comes to mind:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
The verse really sums up us humans.
All in all, in the end, my friend, Steve, has a phrase that sums it up nicely.
People are mostly human.

Hands down. Worst movie of the year.....
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

My wife and I took her uncle to see it. He and she had gone to the first three Indiana Jones movies when she was a teenager. So we thought it would be fun to have a "reunion" viewing.
Being with him was great. We had a marvelous time.
The movie, on the other hand, was anything but great. Predictable, lacking in plot, and overdone chase/fight scenes that bordered on the absurdly banal. Not a good cocktail.
For the first time ever on this blog, I give a movie an
F

This week's favorite email is one that holds us accountable for what we say and do. I like that.

Here it is

Dude, Sometimes I think you just don’t get it!

I understand you’re in the radio/web business now and you gotta get your advertisers. Your web page has a banner for “Youcastr” featuring a cheerleader with her mid drift exposed in a very sexual pose. You also have a banner about web filtering to protect families from online porn.

C’mon Allen, what do you stand for? Take responsibility for your site, it’s got YOUR name on it. As a man who has struggled with those issues it would be nice to know I could go to your website or allow kids to go there and not be faced with the same kinda junk you find everywhere else. Very disappointed!

By the way, Andy and I are checking out the ad he saw to see if it fits our standards. Google AdSense places ads on our site and we have the right to refuse any that we do not want to be associated with.
Thanks for holding us accountable.