Our pastor's book of the month is "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House," by Newsweek editor and bestselling author Jon Meacham. You can now buy a brand new hardback copy at Amazon for $11.47!

Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson's election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics.

Jackson was the most contradictory of men. The architect of the removal of Indians from their native lands, he was warmly sentimental and risked everything to give more power to ordinary citizens. He was, in short, a lot like his country: alternately kind and vicious, brilliant and blind, and a man who fought a lifelong war to keep the republic safe -- no matter what