LORD, SAVE US from YOUR FOLLOWERS: WHY IS the GOSPEL of LOVE DIVIDING AMERICA? by Dan Merchant

Published in 2008 by Thomas Nelson.

Dan Merchant went on a cross-country trip in an effort to discuss why it is that so many people have a negative view of Christians and Christianity. He often dons a set of coveralls covered in religious-themed bumper stickers (both for and against religion) and then engages random people on the street in a short conversation about religion. His goal is to find out why a religion that is supposed to be based on a message of love is dividing people? Isn't that oxymoronic?

Merchant's strength is his congenial nature. He takes criticism very well - he actually listens to the answers he gets to his questions and takes them to heart. The answers are pretty predictable. If Christians came even halfway close to their ideals, it would be a different story. But, the experience of too many people, especially in certain communities, is that Christians do nothing but condemn and maybe even rejoice at their misfortunes as punishments from God. 

Early on in the book (page 14), Merchant makes this point: "To me, the divisions of America, this separateness, isn't getting any of us anywhere. And both sides are making the same mistake: they think the culture war is a winnable war. Some think, eventually, one side will win out over the other."

Merchant talks a lot about being a "red letter" Bible Christian, meaning that he focuses on what Jesus said more than anything else (for those not in the know, many editions of the Bible highlight the spoken words of Jesus in red). I have to say, the older I get, the more I become a "red letter" Bible Christian. He emphasizes this point on page 26 by supposing that Jesus would say that the 10 Commandments are gifts to make the journey of life easier, but the new commandment is to show your love for God by loving His people. Who are His people? Everyone - even the ones you don't like. Especially the ones you don't like.

Merchant interviews several people for this book, including Al Franken (before he became a Senator, let alone before he had to stop being a Senator), Michael Reagan, Rick Santorum and even a few people you've never heard of, like Sister Mary Timothy, a transvestite who dresses like a nun in kabuki-style makeup. Some of those interviews are better than others, some are a bit dated. But, they do illustrate the "culture wars".

I was struck by the two last chapters in the book: "The Confessional Booth" and "Grace in Action". The Confessional Booth features an idea from the book Blue like Jazz, sort of a counterculture religious book. Merchant set up a a confessional booth at a Gay Pride celebration - not to hear the sins of the people at the celebration, but to confess the sins of both Christianity and Dan Merchant. Let's face it, if you actually want to talk to the other side of the culture war, you have to come in humility or you will not be heard. This was very powerful. It made tears come to my eyes. Very powerful.

Grace in Action featured stories of people doing simple, human things for "the least of these" that come off as amazing things because we simply don't do the thing that Merchant referred to way back towards the beginning of the book - show our love of God by loving His people.

This book is powerful and is really on inhibited by the fact that it is dated. I would love to see it re-worked with new interviews and takes on more current cultural trends. I'm going to keep it in my library.

Note: this book was written to be a companion piece for a documentary that I have not seen.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. Very powerful at times, but also dated. Also, there are some slow parts.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: LORD, SAVE US from YOUR FOLLOWERS: WHY IS the GOSPEL of LOVE DIVIDING AMERICA? by Dan Merchant.

NPR Driveway Moments: Cat Tales (audiobook)

Published by HighBridge Audio
Duration: about 2 hours.

Every installment of HighBridge Audio's NPR Driveway Moments series is composed of collections of stories that aired on NPR. In this case, the common theme is cats.  The stories aired from 1984 to 2011 and cover everything from lions to mock youtube videos of a cat running for the Senate (Hank the Cat - see the video below) to the origins of the domestic house cat to cats being used in the fight against AIDS.




But, the heart of the collection are the stories about the connection between every day house cats and the people they live with. There are travelling cats, vacationing cats, a cat that lives in a hotel and several stories memorializing cats who have passed on.

All of the stories in the collection have first-rate production values but, as always happens in any collection, some stories are better than others. The cover of the audiobook promises "Radio stories that won't let you go" and some do that, but a couple of the stories were so maudlin (brooding over cats that had recently died) that it was a relief when they ended.

But, if you are a cat person, this is a great collection for you.

I rate this collection 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: NPR Driveway Moments: Cat Tales.

Reviewed on October 17, 2012.

Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown by Tony Brown

This book is up and down with an absolutely bizarre middle.

Originally published in 1995.

As you may know, I have taught for multiple years in urban schools. The issue of race in America has come up daily, and some days it is an ever-present feature. I am forced to think about it all of the time in the classroom and all I know is that I don't know enough to solve the issues and no one ever will. 

Tony Brown is a Black man (he prefers that term) who has hosted a PBS discussion show called "Tony Brown's Journal" for years. He also hosts a Saturday talk show on WLS 890 AM out of Chicago that can be heard throughout the Midwest thanks to their high wattage broadcast strength.

He is an interesting man and a good discussion leader on his shows. His views were fairly consistent with my own, although I think that his perceptions of white america are a little off, just as he would undoubtedly think that my views of black America are off. The first 1/3 and the last 1/3 of Black Lies, White Lies are full of pretty good thoughts, observations and ideas, except for their repetitiveness.

The middle 1/3 is a bit bizarre. It concerns AIDS and his denial that it even exists. He claims that AIDS is not real because there are 30+ diseases that are associated with it. He wonders how certain types of cancers and certain types of fungal infections and viruses can all be from the same disease. He misunderstands that these diseases are presumed to be symptoms of AIDS since they are rare and usually are only present to people with depressed immune systems - which happens to people with AIDS (thus its name). He also touts a theory that claims that AIDS was started accidentally by using viruses from Monkeys to create a Smallpox vaccine that was used in Africa in the 1970s. After doing a Google search I can tell you that he is not alone with this belief, but most others who share it assume that it was a racist plot by the US government in an effort to control population.

I was disappointed by "Black Lies, White Lies" because I like Brown's TV and radio shows - they seem to be full of commonsense discussion and straight talk, not conspiracy theories. I give this book '2 stars' for its repetitive nature and the bizarre middle of the book.

As an addendum, I thought I would add these conclusions that were gleaned from a poll and interviews by the "Washington Post" of black students and their beliefs concerning education that Brown quoted in the book. I thought the poll pretty much encapsulated the attitudes of black students (as a whole) that I had in the Indianapolis Public Schools:

*Black students are poor and stay poor because they are dumber than Whites.
*Black kids who do their homework and behave must want to be white. White kids who do poorly or dress cool want to be Black.
*Black people don't want to work hard.
*Blacks don't need to work hard because it won't matter in the end.
*Blacks have to be bad so they can fight and defend themselves from other Blacks.
*Blacks see their badness as natural.
*Black men make women pregnant and leave.
*Black boys expect to die unnaturally.
*White people are smart and have money.

In my experience, the poll-takers nailed these attitudes from black students about black people dead on. Not all of my students have expressed these attitudes, but a significant percentage have.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Black Lies, White Lies

I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Reviewed on August 13, 2004.