Books by Jack Barranger

Why do good people stay in bad situations? Too many of us, says Jack Barranger, remain in dead-end jobs and relationships too long, and for the wrong reasons. Knowing When to Quit is a refreshing look at "the staying syndrome" - and how to get over it. Knowing When to Quit will guide you through: • a systematic analysis of your own feelings about your job or relationship. • a hard look at your social environment, including the possibilities for hurting others if you quit. • an examination of the [often irrational] reasons people stay in bad situations. • a debunking of the myths - such as "Winners Never Quit" - which keep good people stuck in place. • a scoring system - the Knowing When to Quit Index - which can make your quit/stay decision much easier. If you've been dissatisfied with your job, or uncertain where your relationship is headed, you'll find Knowing When to Quit a helpful guide to decision-making. It may provide the help you need to get back on track.

A search for truth by a serious seminary graduate and Christian seeker at the time, Jack Barranger. Join him in the discovery of pitfalls, strengths, weaknesses and humor found in various followers and groups that try to keep him on the path. Jack's decisions made from these encounters repeatedly bring him back from the brink of a blind swan dive into the oblivion of fundamentalism. Despite his disappointments he maintains a sense of humor through it all, chronicling an interesting, outrageous adventure. After looking at fundamentalist zeal (The Horace Valley Prayer Contest), what Jesus would experience if he suddenly showed up in the San Fernando Valley (Jesus Encounters the Growth Freaks), materialism (Christianity on Five Dollars a Day), avarice (A Somewhat Modest Proposal), inter-religious competition (The Big Game), an imaginative news report of the fulfillment of The Great Commission (Television Relic 666), Barranger concludes with a look at what Christianity could be if it gave up some of its sacred cows, hitched up its collective pants, spit on its hands and got to work (From the Circus to the Arena). Notes From the Christian Circus is an intellectual and spiritual smorgasbord. It is neither anti-Christian nor anti-religion. It is anti-stupidity and anti-hypocrisy. His intention is not to attack Christianity but to show a side of it that many do not follow - but some wish you would. The author cares about our relationship with God and our relationship with one's truth much more than he cares about our relationship to authoritarian groups, social organizations or entrenched dogmas.

It seems humanity is in the process of being prepared, through the media and movies, for the day when we experience contact with alien beings. We have not been told of their existence because society could not handle such a drastic shift right now. In order to soften the blow, aliens have been shown as nice, and sometimes even cute and cuddly. We are being conditioned to accept them, which would make subservience more likely when they finally reveal themselves. This is the first book to warn us of this entire charade. The author, Jack Barranger, takes us back into early history when ancient man first made contact with these beings - beings that called themselves "gods" and demanded to be worshiped. The gods controlled their followers in these early religions and made us fight their wars. Our religions of today still maintain the original structure of servitude and have caused more bloodshed and warfare than any invention of man. Today, now that we are finally learning how to move past the confusion they caused, signs are appearing that these gods may once again appear openly. The author maps out these signs and insists if the gods do return, their purpose will again be to exploit us. Suggestions are made as to what we should do in the event of such a drastic scenario.

Have you ever wondered why religion can turn out to be as enslaving to people's minds as jails are to their bodies? Why is such enslavement not only welcomed, but why do the victims try so hard to enslave others? Why have more wars been fought over religion and more deaths of people caused by it than for any other reason? Why should we not want to break free from this terribly negative pattern? Jack Barranger addresses these problems and gives answers in this book. Being a trained theologian and former teacher of Critical Thinking, there is no better person to write this book. He believes that we have within us a "slave chip" that needs to be deprogrammed and brings us through the process, step by step. After presenting The Ten Commandments, he follows up with a powerful, parallel list called The Ten Realizations, which can be used as a blueprint for attaining our freedom and deprogramming us from negative behavior. It is often said that the most enslaved people are not even aware that they are in prison. With that in mind, this book will allow some of us to see the prison bars around us. As he states in the Introduction, "Beware: Reading this book could set you free."

Twenty years ago, Alvin Toffler coined the term "future shock" - a syndrome in which people are overwhelmed by the future. Past Shock suggests that events that happened thousands of years ago very strongly impact humanity today. Our advanced science of today has unraveled their secrets, and people like Barranger have the knowledge and courage to expose exactly how we were manipulated.