Joseph Bayly – författare

A blimp that saves souls. A college student who flies. A conflicted southern preacher in the wake of a local lynching. A mysterious stranger at a corporate Christmas party who turns water into wine.

Beginning in the late 1950s, Joe Bayly made it his business to expose the blind spots of American Christianity. How did he do it? He wrote parables—or, as Joe put it, stories on target. And, as it turns out, he did a pretty good job at it.

Here in one collection are Joe’s wisest and funniest stories. These are stories about sinners, bumblers, fools, and hypocrites. In other words, they are stories about normal, everyday people. The kind you might find on the other side of a mirror.

And, really, if you’re not looking in the mirror you’re missing the point. Not that Joe was mean. Satirists needn’t always be scoffers or cynics. Joe just saw people the way they were and loved them enough to say so. And he had a knack for saying so with wit, charm, and a healthy dose of good humor.

Three of Joseph Bayly's seven children died at young ages. He was intimately acquainted with the pain of death and was all too familiar with what he once called this enemy's "grim violence." But he was even more intimately acquainted with the One who conquered that enemy forever.

The View from a Hearse is Joe's simple, helpful meditation on death and grieving. He wrote it for those facing the death of a loved one, those still in the throes of grief, and for those preparing to die. Joe knew that peace with death doesn't come from understanding everything that happens to us, but in knowing the God who is in control of everything.

He wrote this little book to show that God has not promised His children an easy death or deathbed visions of glory. What He has promised is an open door beyond.