Book Review: The Fight of Our Lives:

The Fight of Our Lives: Knowing the Enemy, Speaking the Truth & Choosing to Win the War against Radical Islam.

William Bennet and Seth Leibsohn (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2011)

***** (2 out of 5)

Sometimes you read a book, and it rankles and annoys you, but causes you to grow through the process. Sometimes you read a book and it makes your heart leap as you discover some great new truth. Sometimes you read a book and you think, “That is exactly what I’ve always thought, but never knew how to say!” Sometimes you read a book and it makes an indelible mark on your consciousness and forever changes the way you look at yourself and the world you inhabit. Unfortunately, “The Fight of our Lives” by conservative talk-show host William Bennett and co-author Seth Leibsohn is not a book that will produce any of these results. Actually I take that back – it may annoy and rankle you, but it is doubtful if you will grow through the interaction. This is the sort of book that you finish reading and ask, “Why did the authors write this book?”

I’m not a flaming liberal or a Muslim apologist who simply disagrees with the concept of targeting Radical Islam. Just the opposite – I think this book attempts to address a serious issue facing western society. Unfortunately, it does so in a way that makes it a completely superfluous read for anyone, regardless of where they stand on the issue. This is because those who are inclined to disagree with the book’s premise, it is unnecessarily inflammatory and rhetorical, and for those inclined to agree with the premise, it provides nothing more than a lengthy “Rah Rah Rah”. There is very little in the way of any real discussion about the motives and theological beliefs of these men. Yes, there is plenty discussion of the fact that radical Muslims want to kill people (or Americans specifically, according to the book), but not a lot of discussion given to the historical, social, and theological threads that make Islam what it is. Understanding is the key to defeating radical Islam, not straw men and sensationalism.

The book also completely assumes the righteousness of the United States on the world stage, as though the United States has no questions to ask, or examinations to make – they simply need to stand up for themselves. Now, do not get me wrong – I’m not saying the Islamists are somehow justified in their actions. Unfortunately, in our current age, the major players cannot simply be divided into “good guys” and “bad guys” the way this book portrays it. It takes a laughably naive view of the world today and it's credibility suffers greatly as a result.

I usually give long, relatively detailed reviews. This book doesn’t warrant one, in my opinion. If you are a progressive or Muslim person, this book will only annoy you. If you are a conservative person, this book will only help you become a prejudiced, inflammatory person who can only talk to other conservatives. This book adds very little, if anything at all, to an understanding of the place of Islam in our world today. Skip this book, unless you would enjoy reading an extended talk show monologue.

LegalStuff: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Book Review: You Were Born For This

I was in my early teens when Bruce Wilkinson’s little book ‘The Prayer of Jabez’ swept through the land of evangelicalism. In fact, it spread beyond evangelicalism and was at the top of the New York Times bestseller list and sold 9 million copies. I actually read the book and attended a conference where Wilkinson was speaking, and for a while I dutifully prayed the Prayer of Jabez along with, it seemed, half the world. I fully admit I didn’t really understand the principle behind the book very well and treated it as somewhat of a magic spell. Not surprisingly, it didn’t really change my life and I moved on. The next year at the same conference Wilkinson was on to his next new revolutionary idea (the Power of the Vine, I believe), and I tried that for a while as well. Like the prayer of Jabez, my enthusiasm petered off again.

So ten years later, with a more mature theology and interest in spiritual matters, I was interested to review his book “You were Born for This: 7 Keys to a life of Predictable Miracles.” Wilkinson's basic premise in this book is that by being sensitive to God's promptings, one can become a regular miracle 'delivery person' for God.

So first, the good aspects of this book. One thing that I recall with the Prayer of Jabez is that many felt it encouraged a self-centered, introspective practice of Christianity. I was worried that this book would focus on creating 'miracles for yourself', but was pleased to find that the focus was squarely on serving others; not on creating self-serving miracles, but on being a minister for God for the benefit of others. This was an unexected surprise because I had expected something of a Prayer of Jabez redux.

Wilkinson also obviously has a heart for people and a developed skill of reading their life situations and of speaking wisdom in their lives. He seems quite genuine, and his concern for the cares and concerns of complete strangers convicted me at times, as I tend to be a reclusive introvert.

Now, for the bad. The first issue is that Wilkinson absolutely mangles the meaning of the word, 'miracle'. The miracles in the New Testament are supernatural occurrences that have no natural explanation. Miracles are very important in the Gospels and Acts, as they serve to vindicate the identity of Jesus and the message of the Apostles. What was humurous to me was that many of Wilkinson’s ‘miracles’ happened when he or someone else gave a tip to someone in the service industry and ‘miraculously’ that person had a pressing financial need. Walking on water is a miracle; the fact that a waiter has outstanding financial needs is a no-brainer. I’m not trying to deny that God meets these needs in amazing ways or that Wilkinson is wrong to seek to be the means by which God fulfils these needs. However, to call this provision ‘miraculous’ is to introduce confusion and to minimize truly supernatural workings of God.

While the biography on the back of this book refers to Wilkinson as "one of the world's best-known Bible teachers", this book is non-biblical at best. This is not to say it is entirely anti-biblical or 'heretical'. It has myriads of anecdotes and lists of principles, but very little Scripture. What Scripture is included is usually simply referenced rather than exegeted, and there were numerous examples of out-of-context quotations. I'm not one of those people who say that unless a book has 'X' amount of Scripture it can't be good; however, when a Christian leader claims to have life-changing information about the life-purpose of each Christian, we need to expect their teaching to be firmly rooted in Scripture.

The above point leads me to what I think is a more harmful aspect of Wilkinson’s book. Wilkinson expects Christians to operate on the basis of ‘prompts’ and ‘bumps’ in order to be effective ‘miracle bringers’. Scripture does not talk about ‘promptings’ as the precursor of good works of compassion – instead, Christians are to devote themselves to developing discernment and a compassionate attitude to those in need. (cf. Titus 3:8; 1 Tim 6:18; Heb 10:24). While the difference may at first seem small – in the end people in need are cared for - this is actually not necessarily the case. What about those for whom one does not feel a prompting? James does not say, “If one of you sees your brother without food and clothes, and you feel a prompting, meet their needs.” No, he says that it is the Christian’s obligation to meet the needs of his brother – end of story (Jas 2:14-16). What Wilkinson would like to describe as miraculous and supernatural, the Bible describes as normal and everyday. The Church needs to recover this ‘eagerness for good works’. Christians need to be taught to be sensitive and aware to the needs of those around them and respond, rather than relying on undefined and subjective ‘bumps’.

The other issue I have with this book is that Wilkinson’s discussion of ‘miracle’ working takes place in a theological vacuum. Wilkinson’s discussion in the book rarely touches on the wider purpose of God for his Church, or his plan of salvation through the ages. One gets the impression that what God is on about in the world is making sure people have their needs met. This is important, but without a theological basis for our compassion and care, the Church has been reduced to the Red Cross or Rotary Club. We are to be compassionate and caring as the result of the Gospel, and Wilkinson completely glosses over this.

This book is not a ‘dangerous’ book, I just do not think it is a very helpful book. Like many of Wilkinson’s other books, it is very faddish and marketed as the ‘secret’ to a successful Christian life. Unfortunately, it is not grounded in a deep understanding of the gospel, which must be the foundation for any type of ‘radical’ Christianity. A book which has all the good points of Wilkinson’s book, as well as the missing theological basis and none of the sketchy exegesis, is David Platt’s book, “Radical”. Your time would be much better spent reading that book than this one. In the end, “You Were Born for This” is too formulaic and theologically vacuous. The emphasis on helping others is good, but the methods that Wilkinson suggests are unbiblical and potentially harmful.

***** (2 out of 5)

LegalStuff: I received this book free from the Multnomah Press book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Book Review Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess.

***** (2 out of 5)

I quite enjoyed reading “Churched”, partly because it reminded me so much of my own childhood. In this auto-biographical book, Matthew Paul Turner recounts his experience growing up in an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church. It is a very quick read that is fairly well written, funny, and engaging. However, I do not think it is a particularly good or useful book.

Some of the experiences and emotions Turner had as a child exactly parallel my own. Particularly, the feelings of guilt for any infraction of standards I often didn’t understand which led to unhealthy introspection and multiple instances of asking Jesus “into my heart”. While I did attend an Independent Baptist Church in my teen years, I didn’t grow up in one as Turner did. But most of the same legalism, judgementelism, isolationism, and superstition was (and often still is) present among some homeschoolers. And being a homeschooler among homeschoolers, I was an expert at judging others based on their standards, or more properly, my perception of their lack of standards. Thankfully, I (and my family, I might add) am no longer *that* kind of conservative homeschooling Christian, though I do still see lingering effects of those years in my life.

So, I feel that I am a pretty competent judge of this book. And unfortunately, much of what Turner talks about is sadly true not only of Independent Baptist Churches, but in ultra-conservative Christian circles in general. Turner’s book, like so many newer books today, relies on narrative rather than direct commentary to bring his points across. So, for instance, he does not tell you that the attitude towards secular music among some Christians is absurd and superstitious; he describes it and expects the absurdity of the beliefs or actions to be self-evident. And Patch the Pirate giving a seminar on the evils of Rock and Roll is unfortunately very strange, self-evidently absurd, and superstitious to *most* people. I remember listening to Patch’s CD’s as a child and hearing songs describing the compromising potential of wearing… wait for it… a RED T-SHIRT! GASP! And that was but one example in the book where I found myself alternating between amusement and heavy-heartedness as Turner described things that reminded me of growing up.

I also found Turner’s writing style to be engaging and witty. There is bitter, caustic sarcasm, and then there is the type that recognizes absurdity and enjoys exploiting it in an ironically humorous way. For the most part, Turner employs the latter category, though he does sometimes stray into the former with some pointed remarks. I especially enjoyed Turner’s skewering of ‘Christian-speak’ like the phrase, “Asking Jesus into my heart.” It’s something we all have heard but it honestly does not make a whole lot of sense, even if you do have an idea of what is trying to be conveyed. For the un-churched, I imagine they can’t make heads or tails of what Christians mean when they say, “Just ask Jesus into your heart”.

So If I agree with Turner that a lot of weirdness exists among Christians, and that I enjoyed reading the book, why the two-star rating? Well, first, let me explain how I rate books. I don’t rate books or movies based simply on how much I enjoy them, because I know that is not a good gauge of their quality. For instance, I love the movie Napoleon Dynamite, but I’m not going to argue with anyone that it is a five- or four-star movie. So, for books, four stars means it is a really good book, and five stars means it is an incredible must-read. Three stars are decent books that are worth reading but are nothing special, two star books have serious issues that make them border on bad books, and one-star books are masterpieces of awfulness on all levels, like “The Shack.” So this book has its good points, but it has two serious flaws that render it an almost worthless book.

Serious Flaw #1: The reality factor.

In order to make his point, which seems to be that Fundamentalist Baptists are crazy, Turner expects his readers to understand the patently absurd elements of his anecdotes without him having to tell them. This works reasonably well with some elements, like music and movie theaters, but in other cases, there is no other way to say it but that Turner has to caricature, stereotype, and exaggerate in order to make things interesting. There are certainly strange people in the world, and it seems doubly so in Christianity, but Turner’s church seemed full to the brim with weirdos. One thing in particular that bothered me as I read the book is that the people in Turners church seemed 100% crazy. While everyone has their weird beliefs and quirks, the people in Turner’s church are completely weird and completely quirky with no ‘normality’ to balance them out. Many of the things that Turner described as strange and weird were not ‘Fundamentalist’ problems, they are general human problems.

Another issue is that Turner describes his experiences as a four-year in the church, and it is hard to believe that most of what he describes actually happened; it smacks much more as the embellishments of a cynical 30-something-year old living vicariously through the eyes of his four-year-old self. I wouldn’t expect 100% word-for-word accuracy, but there is no introduction or preface from Turner that indicates we should take this as anything less than a completely factual presentation of what actually happened to him. I find it hard to believe that anyone remembers exact quotes or even the topic of sermons from when he was four, especially when he talks about not paying attention and struggling to stay awake during said sermons.

Serious Flaw # 2: Journey? What Journey?

The subtitle of this book is “One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess.” Unfortunately, while the descriptions of the “Holy Mess” are abundant, there is little in the way of positive description of God. Turner makes very certain that we understand the fundamentalist God is all messed up, but it’s never clear what, in his opinion, the correct view is. I was expecting some sort of critique roughly following along the lines of “The Fundamentalists taught this falsehood about God, which kept me from understanding this truth about God.” Instead, all we get is “The Fundamentalists taught this about God – aren’t they silly?” This is why the book feels like such a letdown. One is not entirely sure where Turner is journeying – the only thing that is clear is that it is away from fundamentalism. This is not a how-to-recover-from-fundamentalism book, then, nor does it offer much in the way of helping us understand or move on from similar experiences. In this regard it is extraordinarily disappointing.

This book is not worthless. It is worthwhile as entertainment, especially if you come from what you consider a hyper-conservative background. It will make you laugh in some parts in the same way that stories of dysfunctional people in any group make you laugh. But as a truthful expose of fundamentalism it relies too heavily on stereotypes, exaggerations, and one-sided portrayals to be of any real benefit for anyone seeking to understand the ‘Ned Flanders’ in their lives. And for someone coming out of fundamentalism, this book doesn’t offer any helpful direction. All in all, it is hard to see the point of this book except as a collection of humorous, exaggerated anecdotes from the author’s childhood that may or may not be true. If you are looking for anything else, this isn’t the book for you.

LegalStuff: I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.