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Music

Jon Foreman

Spring and Summer EPs5 stars out of 5

The Fourth of July week is an appropriate time to to praise a great American songwriter. With his Spring and Summer EPs, Jon Foreman has cemented himself as just that. We should add that the Switchfoot frontman is a brave songwriter (as some of these songs will land him in Dutch with portions of the Christian music community that made him a star) and an exquisite craftsman.

As on the previous EPs Fall and Winter, Foreman is freed from the constraints of the band format, and he uses that space to perfectly augment songs with what they need. I do not know whether Foreman recorded these six-song sets sequentially, but the last two — which have just been released on one CD, the same as the first pair — show growth.

Foreman is a much more blunt songwriter on his own. The rap on Switchfoot's songs has often been that they are so couched in metaphor and cleverness that the listener could easily miss the point. There is no missing the point here, though some faith-community listeners might wish Foreman was murkier when they hear Instead of a Show. In the song, Foreman lambastes the church for putting on shows while ignoring the hurting world around it.

Some will be angry with Foreman for saying it. Some will say it needed to be said. Either way, Foreman grows as a challenging songwriter on the discs. These EPs also have some of his most spiritual writing to date, such as Spring's Your Love Is Strong and Summer's House of God, Forever, an interpretation of Psalm 23 that ranks with 24 as one of the loveliest things he's written.

As far as we know, things are good in the Switchfoot camp. But the solo voice that Foreman has started using is quite compelling.

RICH COPLEYrcopley@herald-leader.com

BOOKS

"Abraham's Children'

By Jon Entine.Grand Central Publishing. 420 pp. $27.99.

Just who is a Jew? Definitions have been many for a group variously identified — or misidentified — as a people, a religion, a culture, an ethnicity or some combination of these.

Entine uses advanced DNA technology to suggest an answer. ”Jews have unique advantages as candidates for genetic study,“ he says, citing their many tightly knit communities worldwide for generations after the expulsion from Palestine described in the Bible. ”Provocative answers to questions of ancestry and identity ... might be found in our DNA. It's the genetic equivalent of history's Dead Sea Scrolls.“

DNA testing, in fact, confirmed the author's personal Judaic connection by finding that he had a genetic marker common to people of Eastern European Jewish origin, a mutation known to raise the risk of breast cancer — which several people in his family had. Others also have been surprised to find connections, such as Bill Sanchez of Santa Fe, N.M., a Catholic priest who's a genetic relative of Aaron, the Jewish high priest at the time of the biblical Exodus.

This is a reader-friendly presentation of some high science sure to startle with its conclusion about Jewish DNA: ”The legacy of the ancient Israelites is also preserved in millions of unbelievers, Christians, and Muslims destined to carry their biblical inheritance forever in their genes.“

Harriet P. Gross, The Dallas Morning News

WEB

www.christianveg.org

The Christian Vegetarian Association promotes plant-based nutrition. According to this non-denominational group, good stewardship includes a diet that doesn't rely on animals. Support for members' beliefs is explained in the ”Honoring God's Creation“ section, with answers to common questions relying on interpretations of the Bible — passages from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, the Book of Matthew, First Corinthians and more. The site offers practical advice on how to adopt a meat-free diet, including suggestions for high-protein foods and vegetarian recipes. Be warned that the ”Vegetarianism's Benefits“ section includes some potentially upsetting photos and descriptions of animals raised and killed for consumption.

Tyra Damm, The Dallas Morning News