Irresistible book

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Not sure where to begin. I seem to be suffering from writer's block lately. I'll say what I told the friend who suggested this author to me- he is convicting and challenging yet warm, engaging and funny.

Claiborne really exposes what huge hypocrites most of us soft, complacent, selfish, American "Christians" are! We really have let the contemporary Pharisees tell us what Christianity is supposed to be instead of listening to what Jesus has really said Himself. This is a radically different interpretation of discipleship, stewardship, and fellowship than you will find in most Christian bookstores, between the Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck biographies.

I wish my head wasn't so full of DayQuill, so that I could do this book justice. All I can say is that I want my conservative Christian friends to open their eyes, ears, and hearts to recognize that the right wing may be right on some things, but they're certainly not right on ALL things.

I want my progressive and liberal friends to know that Jesus does not hate, condemn and dispossess them, indeed, His truth may be closer to the compassion and concern already in their hearts.

Most of all,  I want all of those who like me, have felt pulled by the presumably conflicting passions to love the Lord and also love they neighbor are not so paradoxical or mutually exclusive after all- AND, you are not alone! Not all followers of Jesus are purveyors of laissez-faire economics, anti-intellectualism, and right-wing demagoguery (even if it might seem that way sometimes).



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"Deep Christianity"

Hope on a Tightrope: Word and Wisdom by Cornel West by Cornel West

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'd seen Professor West's books on shelves in bookstores and was interested. Why Race Matters and why Democracy Matters seemed like important discussions that we still need to have in the United States. But I confess my own racism/prejudice- I saw his afro and I wondered if as a middle class, middle aged, Midwestern White male I could relate to him. I worried that his politics would be too liberal even for a left-leaning centrist Democrat like me.

Then I caught his appearance on a late night talk show and he wasn't talking with arrogance or anger about race or politics- he was speaking about Jesus. He was speaking about faith and love and forgiveness and suffering.

When I fount this book, with the word "hope" right in the title, I wondered if it would be about President Obama or about the civil rights movement. It's not. It is about us, all of us. And in it, West introduces us to Jesus.

Not the confident, indignant, powerful Jesus that Pat Robertson and James Dobson talk about- the strict, White American, Republican patriarchal Jesus who opposes government regulation, taxes, and gay marriage and supports the troops and the Tea Parties and the NRA.

Not the optimistic, affluent, sexy, successful Jesus that Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar talk about, waiting to solve all your problems and shower you with material blessings if you just believe enough.

West reveals the Jesus who is humble, genuine, unpretentious but more importantly the Jesus who is brutally honest, patient, kind, just, loving, and wise. The Jesus who turns the other cheek, walks the extra mile, offers the shirt off His back, loves his enemy and was willing to risk everything and sacrifice everything for the sake of others.

Yes, West talks about race and politics, history and economics in this book. He talks about institutions and empire, families, education, and culture. But mostly he talks about depth. Deep Learning, Deep Democracy, and Deep Love, deep enough to sacrifice everything for the sake of justice, equality, and hope.

West says that he's made it his mission to make the world safe for Martin Luther King Jr. That's awesome, because anyone who's read King's 'Strength to Love,' knows that King had made it his mission to make the world safe for Jesus.



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A Paradoxical Way of Thinking and Living

Jesus Did It Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments for Christians by Kent M. Keith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What an amazing story, he writes this poem as part of a student leadership booklet back in college in the 60's, and somehow it spreads world-wide. People use it in business and church groups and schools, in the U.S. and Asia and Europe. Eventually the poem winds up on the wall of Mother Theresa's mission in Calcutta.

Keith goes on about his life as a teacher, a lawyer, a state official and a college administrator. And people keep asking him to expound on the ideas in his little booklet and famous poem. So book is the result.

This is a positive message of how God can use you if you just do your best to do the right thing- not for any reward, but just because it's the right thing- even (maybe especially) when it's hard to do the right thing.



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We're all swine before God's pearls

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow. This obviously isn't Vonnegut's most famous novel. I'm not qualifies as a literary critic to say whether it's one of his best. And I've only just started reading it, so I'm not ready to say whether it's my favorite of his yet. But I will say this, it has to be the least subtle. What I mean by that is that is is a scathing satire of class and political and moral hypocrisy in America, and he doesn't hold any punches. Because of that, I am loving it!

Witness this exchange between Senator Lister Rosewater with his daughter-in-law Sylvia, discussing the mental health of his son, Eliot:

"I loved Eliot on sight."

"Isn't there some other word you could use?"

"Than what?"

"Than love."

"What better word is there?"

"It was a perfectly good word- until Eliot got hold of it. It's spoiled for me now. Eliot did to the word love what the Russians did to the word democracy. If Eliot is going to love everybody, no matter what they are, no matter what they do, then those of us who love particular people for particular reasons had better find ourselves a new word." He looked at an oil painting of his deceased wife. "For instance- I loved her more than I love our garbage collector, which makes me guilty of the most unspeakable of modern crimes: Dis-crim-i-nay-tion."

Yeah, if you read and believe anything Jesus said in the New Testament, we are all called to love our neighbor indiscriminately and unconditionally- and as Vonnegut shows through his vagabond billionaire protagonist, Eliot Rosewater, if you genuinely follow Christ's example, people with think you're certifiably insane.



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It's all in their world view. Law or Gospel?

Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fascinating. Lakoff is a "cognitive linguist," some of his observations remind me of the symbols and archetypes of Carl Jung. Enlightening.

If there's 3 things I like it's psychology, good writing, and politics. This book has all 3, but don' t let my comment about Carl Jung put you off- this is a breeze to read. Fun and easy.

Lakoff explores the perceptual "frames" or world-views of the left and the right and explains why language is so powerful. He thinks that it is important to be able to articulate your values clearly and speak in terms of positive assertions rather than negative criticisms or reactions.

His basic preface is that there seems to be two basic world-views in America right now, the "Strict-Father Family" model and the "Nurturant-Parents Family" model. At first I thought it correlated with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke- but now I realize that it is much more like the differences between the Puritans and the Quakers. On the right you have the punishing rugged individualism of James Dobson's "Focus on the Family," and on the left you have the empathetic, community-orientation of Jim Faye's "Love and Logic."

I really think that this book would be good for both liberals AND conservatives, and even independents. I don't think that he maligns or libels conservatives, if anything, I believe he just clarifies what most Republicans already know about themselves and in many cases already admit about themselves.

What I wish would happen is that other, "casual" conservatives and independents would read this book and have their eyes opened- so that they'd become aware of the broader strategy and the powerful propaganda that the far-right has been using to take advantage of them. But as soon as they find out that it was written by a Berkley professor- I'm sure that their "frame" would kick in and not let them even give it a chance.

I hope you'll give it a chance because, bottom line, he explains why & how they've been winning for the last thirty years and what we progressives need to do to compete more effectively in the marketplace of ideas.

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Great quotes from 'the Shack'

"Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself- to serve."
— Wm. Paul Young (The Shack)


"Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect."
— Wm. Paul Young (The Shack)


"Let me say for now that we knew once the Creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering. Don't misunderstand me, both are needed- but an emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence"
— Wm. Paul Young (The Shack)



"those who are afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in them. Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control"
— Wm. Paul Young (The Shack)


"It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainly out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse. "
— Wm. Paul Young (The Shack)


"The 'will to power and independence' has become so ubiquitous that it is now considered normal."
— Wm. Paul Young (The Shack)

This is a very challenging and thought provoking book. I'd really recommend it to anyone interested in reflecting on their faith and their relationship with God. Fascinating and fun, but not like anything you've ever read before.

The Shack

by William P. Young

published May 1st 2007 by Windblown Media

Paperback, 256 pages
http://www.theshackbook.com

isbn: 0964729237 (isbn13: 9780964729230)