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Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, by Bruce Bawer
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From the Inside Flap
From the author of the widely acclaimed A Place at the Table, this is a major work, passionately outspoken and cogently reasoned, that exposes the great danger posed to Christianity today by fundamentalism. The time is past, says Bruce Bawer, when denominational names and other traditional labels provided an accurate reflection of Christian America's religious beliefs and practices. The meaningful distinction today is not between Protestant and Catholic, or Baptist and Episcopalian, but rather between "legalistic" and "nonlegalistic" religion, between the Church of Law and the Church of Love. On one side is the fundamentalist right, which draws a sharp distinction between "saved" and "unsaved" and worships a God of wrath and judgment; on the other are more mainstream Christians who view all humankind as children of a loving God who calls them to break down barriers of hate, prejudice, and distrust. Pointing out that the supposedly "traditional" beliefs of American fundamentalism--about which most mainstream Christians, clergy included, know shockingly little--are in fact of relatively recent origin, are distinctively American in many ways, and are dramatically at odds with the values that Jesus actually spread, Bawer fascinatingly demonstrates the way in which these beliefs have increasingly come to supplant genuinely fundamental Christian tenets in the American church and to become synonymous with Christianity in the minds of many people. Stealing Jesus is the ringing testament of a man who is equally disturbed by the notion of an America without Christianity and the notion of an American Christianity without love and compassion.
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From the Back Cover
"Bawer's graceful prose and lucid insights make this a must-read book for anyone concerned with the relationship of Christianity to contemporary American culture."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Passionately outspoken, impeccably researched, and cogently reasoned, Stealing Jesus exposes the great danger posed to Christianity today by fundamentalism. A groundbreaking book."--Library Journal"So long, Bawer says, as the national media go on regarding fundamentalists as harmless or marginalso long, indeed, as they are allowed to get away with the preposterous assertion that they stand for Christian fundamentalstheir power and danger can only grow. We badly need a wake-up call, and [Bawer] intends to deliver it. . . . Stealing Jesus may prove of value simply for its clear exposition of what todays American fundamentalists believe and want to do. Bawers readers will no longer be able to greet that term with a condescending smile."--Walter Kendrick, New York Times Book Review"This book is an adventure in American religious thought, exciting and intelligent."--Booklist"Bawer lauds liberal Christianity as the essence of the Gospel, the kind of religion that Jesus would both recognize and practice because he preached it. This is a passionate, articulate, timely, and utterly useful book."--Peter J. Gomes, Wilson QuarterlyNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly and a Notable Book by the New York Times
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Product details
Paperback: 340 pages
Publisher: Broadway Books; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (October 20, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0609802224
ISBN-13: 978-0609802229
Product Dimensions:
5.1 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.6 out of 5 stars
99 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#653,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I have long considered myself a Christian with moderate theological views, standing between the extremes of both right wing fundamentalism and liberalism. So when I saw this book on the shelf I looked forward to reading it.Unfortunately Bawer's idea of a "fundamentalist" is anyone to the right of the notorious Bishop Spong. Time and again he employs the "either/or" fallacy: either one is an enlightened, left-wing, revisonist, touchy-feely, creed-hating "Christian" or a naive, dim-witted Bible thumper. Nowhere in Bawer's prejudice is there any sign of the tolerance he lambasts others for lacking. Nor is there any mention of believers such as Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, Luke Timothy Johnson or me, who stand in the center of many political and theological issues. According to Bawer such individuals simply don't exist.In addition he makes numerous false statments. A glaring example in on page 40, where he claims that the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement was invented by Augustine in the fifth century. He ignores Jesus' own statements throughout the four gospels on the meaning of his death.In fact he shamelessly employs a pick and choose approach to Christ which ignores anything the Lord said that doesn't fit his politically correct conception of the Saviour. The result is a Jesus that resembles Alan Alda far more than the character portrayed in Scripture.I could go into detail about these weaknesses, but to do so would simply be a repetition of prior reviewers. Suffice it to say that those looking for a balanced treatment of Christian fundamentalism should look elsewhere.
I consider myself a Christian and purchased "Stealing Jesus" with an open mind. I kept thinking the book would get better, but felt it did not. I agree with the author that Christ is all about love, but as much as it appalls him, I believe we have a God whose ways are just. I love the gay and do not believe in sorting them out as being any worse than others, and he's right - Jesus does love him. However, I feel that this is a sin along with other sins that must be repented of. I feel this author has the mindset of "if it feels good, do it" type thinking. I believe the Bible to be the truth, and I believe it with all my heart. I was not brought up in a Christian home, and I did not become one on a whim. I considered myself a sinner. I believe we all sin and fall short, but I do believe once you are saved, God's grace sets you free. I believe God forgives the homosexuals, but I also believe they need to repent. We reap what we sow. I'm sorry, but just being all about love isn't necessarily right in God's eyes. The Bible is not fiction. We will all stand before God, and we will all need to be accountable for our lives. I choose to believe and go to heaven over to be so unbelieving about the Bible and face the penalty.
Let me begin by laying my cards on the table. I'm a Christian apologist; my most recent book, The Truth Behind the New Atheism, is a response to the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens from an "orthodox" perspective. I see myself very much in the center of the Christian tradition -- my favorite writers having lived in 2nd Century Alexandria and Greece, 4th Century Hippo, 17th Century Beijing, 19th Century Russia, and 20th Century Oxford, and few from the American South. (Apart from Walker Percy.) But sociologically, I'm "evangelical." I grew up in these churches I've visited hundreds of "legalistic" (in Bawer's terminology) churches around the world, and have been welcomed as a speaker in dozens of denominations.So I know something about the subject. And like Bawer, I have my biases.In some ways, "Stealing Jesus" is an excellent book. The author is intelligent, reflective, and insightful. There's a lot of truth in his critique . . . though some of it may boomerang back on him. This book is miles ahead of a more recent best-seller by a New York Times journalist that attempts the same thing -- Chris Hedges' bathetic and hysterical "American Fascism." For one thing, Bawer is a much better writer. And the dangers he warns of are generally more realistic. I get the feeling he takes his "Church of love" rhetoric seriously, and is really trying to understand those he derides.Nevertheless, the book is ultimately fails badly. First, what Bawer says of Frank Perretti (though he should read Peretti's The Visitation, in some ways a stronger attack on legalism than his own!), ultimately comes back to haunt him:"It's a world in which everything and everyone divides up readily into two categories -- black and white, satanic and godly."Conservative Christians, according to Bawer, see foreigners as "very much the other." (Don't we all? But talk to a few foreign students, and chances are you'll find many have been befriended by evangelicals -- my wife was once one.) These folks have a "loathing of sex." Pastors treat church members like children, and teach them to put on a front. Believers are even taught not to love. Megachurches are "more of an entertainment than a spiritual excursion."Every serious observer knows these complaints are sometimes true. But we also know that often they aren't. One can find churches, and Christians, to justify all these complaints. But that's called "stacking the deck," and that's really what Bawer is doing in this book.Read Arthur Brooks' "Who Really Cares" for a more objective summary of Christian compassion in America. Brooks shows that believers both in the alleged "Church of Love" and the alleged "Church of Legalism" are in fact far more compassionate than those who don't go to church at all. (In terms of giving money, time, and even blood to charity, and every other measure of generosity.)Second, while more fair than Dawkins or Hedges, Bawer can be terribly unfair. He criticizes James Dobson for promoting a naive picture of 1950s America. There may be some truth to this criticism. But it is also true, according to government statistics, that violent crime skyrocketed in the 1960s and 70s, and that far fewer kids today have fathers. While of course institutionalized racism is rarer today, thank God, isn't Dobson reasonable to decry some of these other trends?Bawer talks about "spiritual warfare" as if he'd never heard of a metaphor, or assumes conservative Christians are too stupid to maintain the difference between metaphor and reality. He assumes that Waco or "Christian Identity" are the natural conclusion of conservative Christianity -- though neither is orthodox Christian. He lists several violent cults, none of them orthodox Christian, then adds, "If anything should amaze us, it is . . . that more legalistic Christians have not chosen to act out in conspicuous and sensational ways." Bawer sounds disappointed. Perhaps he should be amazed, and begin to question his assumption that orthodox Christianity belongs in the same category as, say, the Taliban or Heavens' Gate.It should be a clue to the failure of his hypothesis, when Bawer has to point to non-Christian extremism to buttress his argument. He says the Taliban is "a terrifying illustration of what can happen when legalistic religion moves from theory to practice." But might it not make a difference if the theory is different?What is the relationship between love and law? Jesus said he did not come to "abolish" the law, but to "fulfill" it. And is anti-nominalism really an option? Even "liberal" churches have implicit legalisms, after all. In some churches, driving a Hummer might be frowned on, or flying a Confederate flag, or failing to recycle. And for "conservative" Christians, laws like "thou shalt not commit adultery" are not merely tacked onto the "law of love," they are an expression of love -- of commitment, kindness, justice, responsibility -- in a certain sphere of life. It seems to me a more nuanced and cautious discussion of this complex issue is required that this Manichean "light and dark" image of two churches, one committed to righteous love, the other to evil law."Before you take the splinter out of your brothers' eye, first take the log out of your own eye." We can all still learn a lot from Jesus -- gay members of the "Church of love," straight members of the "Church of legalism," and those who are members of none. What is needed is that we come to Christ willing to die to ourselves, and recognizing that he is lord, and so we might all need to change in fundamental -- though not necessarily fundamentalist -- ways, as he calls us beyond ourselves.
This book is very well written and taught me about the true nature of fundamentalist Christianity and Jesus' actual views towards this subject. Most fundamentalist Christians are much more concerned about law and the narrow select few verses of the bible (such as salvation)that they tend to miss the whole point of who Jesus really was. I learned the real villian and the true founder of Christianity was the Aposotle Paul who preached the doctrine of substitionary atonement and twisted Jesus' words.All fundamentalist christians must read this book and see what their religion is really about. They will be very surprised and have their eyes open to what has happened in the past 200 years in this country as Christians grew more fundamental. Jeses himself would cheer for this book and give it 5 stars since it tells the reader what really happened...
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