Consider scenes of societal disintigration written by Dickens versus Vonnagut, and ponder whether the level of social decay has changed, or the level of what is acceptable to read has changed. Consider the “R” rating for “Ordinary People” and ponder whether that same rating would be given today. One can often watch movies from the 30′s and know which were “pre-code” simply by what is blatant versus allusion. If we are to measure descriptive power by what words we can and cannot write in order to be accepted, then we have already begun to lose the creative battle.

Allender does say to be judicious, but he doesn’t give guidelines. Nor does he give any insights into what to do if some can’t handle the honesty no matter how judicious one is. To me, that makes it nearly impossible to apply his book. When I thought about how I would even classify his book, I thought it might be more of a “meditation” on leadership than advice or self-help. That really muddies the water of how best to apply it in real life situations.

But as I’ve found in Christian education, everyone’s got a theory. Now show me the practice!