"Enough" by Will Samson

Will Samson’s “Enough,” ironically, left me longing for more.

There were a variety of different things happening in this book which, if each idea had been catalogued in a single book, could have been much more developed, poignant and persuasive; however, as Samson himself noted in a number of spots in the book, he is somewhat tangential which I feel muffled some of his more potent ideas. I know that he was trying to make this book palatable to his probable audience (those who are concerned with the effects of consumption who, stereotypically, reside on a specific arc of the political spectrum) but his subtle commentary with sarcastic references to political ideologies also kept me from fully engaging in the book and seemed to detract from the gravity of American and Christian consumption. And I think that the most difficult component of this is that he recognizes the significance of Christian consumption and, yet, neglected to really spell out the potentially cataclysmic effects.

So, that being said, here is my response to the book.

To begin, (again, as he notes) the structure of the book is “a bit more wonky” (27). This is me being nit-picky but had he structured his book the way he detailed it on the previous page (26) it would have presented a much more cogent argument with a more fluid transition from idea to idea.

There could have been much more time spent on chapter 2. At the core, the issue of Christian consumption is derived from a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of certain biblical narratives, it has become exacerbated by the American civil religion which has wed American ideologies (in all of its facets: war, good and evil, consumption, morality, etc.) with Christianity. Rightly stated, he notes that it often leads American Christians to “see what God is doing in the world and what America is doing in the world as the same thing” (44). While this is disturbing and depressing that American Christians sometimes feel that way, the most important effect of this is that “the actions of our churches interpret for the world the message of the gospel” (37). This is enormous and, in my view, should have been the primary message of the book and should serve as the primary impetus for American Christians when they consume.

One message that the American Church (and, of course, I don’t mean all. I’m speaking in generalizations) is sending out to the world is that, “yes, we are aware that there is hunger, disease, strife, and death, all of which is in our financial purvey to alleviate; however, our homes and cars, our churches and stuff, come first. Charity is a secondary byproduct of our conversion/conviction. Not first.” Recent studies has noted that the American Church (both Protestants and Catholics) make over $3 trillion dollars a year. With global organizations noting that it would take mere tens of billions of dollars to eradicate extreme hunger, poverty, and preventable diseases, what message is the world hearing is the “message of the gospel?”

Samson makes references to some of these ideas but, as stated earlier, doesn’t spend enough time and doesn’t include enough statistics to make the issue powerful.

I appreciate his discussion of prophetic voices and visions and the reactions of the American church in Chapters 3 and 5. People both in and outside of the church are voicing their concerns about our consumption and we don’t appear to be listening. When eschatology is brought into the conversation, Samson, again, does an ok job of tying the two together but not “enough.” As the “prophecies” of modern apocalyptic visionaries converge with political ideologies regarding consumption, the voraciousness of Christian appetites becomes seemingly insatiable. The ideas of “America’s robustness is a result of faithfulness to God” and “the world will end soon” lead to words like Ann Coulter: “‘Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours. That’s our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars — that’s the Biblical view” (Ann Coulter, “If Democrats had brains, they’d be Republicans”).

I really felt like the latter half of the book, starting with Chapter 6, had a good deal of great ideas that were spelled out well (but still left me wishing for more). The correlation to the mind-body-spirit crises was great. In a world that is hungry and sick, it is not only irresponsible of Christians to consume the way that we do, it is indicative of a mental dichotomy between a God who is sufficient, who calls us to consume well (not a lot but responsibly and good), who calls us to care for and nurture both the world and the people in it and a religion that appears to selectively ignore those passages of the Bible. Christian consumption on a physical and spiritual level is far more of an issue and a reflection of a cancerous ideology than some of the other seemingly insignificant issue of homosexuality, for example. There are 12 passages that make some sort of reference to homosexuality in the Bible each of which, when contextualized, could yield very different ideas than the interpretation people outside of the church assume we all think. Yet there are thousands of verses about caring the poor and I believe the life of Jesus reflects that as well.

So, in this review, I’m not trying to berate Samson’s work. I enjoyed it. I really did. I do recommend this book. Read it. It’s relatable. It’s palatable. He does a fine job getting the conversation started. Start with him and then move towards books like “The Ethics of Consumption” or “Hot, Flat and Crowded” and read them as a concerned Christian.

I would give this book a three and a half. I just felt like I wanted more. Christian consumption (especially those of American Christians) affects our spiritual disposition, the global environment and the souls that God yearns to heal and draw close. If we as a church don’t recognize the gravity of the issue and realign our priorities to be like that of Christ, we will continue to tell the world that our God is not enough.

Monster by Walter Dean Meyers

A.S. 6th Grade

This month I read a book called Monster by Walter Dean Myers. This book has won three awards. Monster is about a sixteen years old boy named Steve Harmon. Steve is on trial for being involved in the robbing of a store and the murdering of its owner, Alguinaldo Nesbitt. At the same time another boy, James King, is also on trial with Steve for being involved in the same crime. This book is completely written in the form of a movie script because Steve is always thinking about how he could turn all of this into a movie because he likes to film movies. During the days when Steve is on trial he has to live in jail and while he is there, the guards give him a notebook in which he writes what jail really is like.

Steve’s part in the crime was said to be that he was supposed to be the lookout but, there is no way to prove that. With every question from the prosecutor, Sandra Petrocelli, and every answer from the witnesses only further more proves that someone is guilty, and that person is James King. After Steve’s lawyer, Kathy O’ Brian, asks him questions it shows even more that Steve is innocent, just because he knew King as a child, doesn’t mean he participated in this crime with him. Flashbacks from Steve’s normal childhood make you think that he isn’t really a bad person. The jury reaches a verdict of guilty for James King but a verdict of not guilty for Steve.

Would you tweak your past?

Guest Editor, Amanda Cole Author of I Hate Cinderella

If only you knew then what you know now.  For Charlotte Merryweather, there’s no need to imagine. She’s about to find out for real. With surprising consequences in Alexandra Potter’s new book, Who’s That Girl?

Ever wanted to go back and give your 21 year old self all the advice you wish you knew now? Yes please!!! Well through a series of random events our beloved PR agent Charlotte finds her 31 year old self confronted by seeing her 21 year old self driving around London in her old Beetle (that was sent to the scrap heap years ago!).  

Charlotte is currently a stress ball, with much on her plate, running her own successful company, putting up with sleazy offensive clients, dating a “beige safe guy” and ignoring her instincts. So when she has a chance encounter with her younger self known as “Lotte” back then, she gets to see all the differences, some subtle (no wrinkles, no sun damage, no eczema) and others larger than life (happy and relaxed, enjoying the small pleasures out of life – on a budget!).  Charlotte thinks she needs to change Lotte, warn her about life ahead and how to avoid some pot holes but as the story unfolds its not really the case.

Lotte has no need for a noise machine or humidifier when nodding off to sleep, rather she has many fun nights out, tonnes of dancing, followed by pot noodles and passing out! No allergies, no demanding schedule and no imminent stress related ulcer. And Lotte is happy bargaining in a flea market, perving on all the hot guys and not self diagnosing all that she feels, maybe she is the one to teach Charlotte how to get back to basics.

What follows is a magnetic and magical tale by Alexandra Potter who weaves a clever story throughout 1997 and current day as Charlotte runs into a man (who she met 10 yeas ago but blanked) who seems to know her better than she knows herself.

The book cris-crosses time, back and forth and the pace picks up as it threads throughout important girlie lessons such as:

• Wear sunscreen!
• Back away from those PVC trousers!
• DON’T give that idiot your phone number!
• Lemon juice won’t bleach your hair – it just attracts wasps.

With the lessons being beautifully laid out for us, we see Charlotte and Lotte helping each other (yes I am aware of the irony here!) to become a more rounded version and to embrace herself and her new direction. This is a great book to read on the way to and from work and seemed almost magical to me as my train raced through the tunnels taking me to my destination. Alexandra has created a great piece of escapism although she could have explored the intricacies of stepping back in time a little bit deeper, it’s definitely one for the Must Read list.

Previous books:  Me and Mr Darcy and Be Careful What you Wish For.

Available now:  H&S Fiction Paperback $32.95

Love,

Sassi

Your Pop Culture Gossip Girl

TFTNW: Io, Robot

Tides from the New Worlds: Io, Robot by Tobias Buckell

Installment 3

An obvious nod to Isaac Asimov (even says so in his introduction) with its references to the three laws of robotics, Io, Robot also strikes me in its similarities to WALL-E, which is funny considering this story precedes that movie. Sam (Semi Autonomous Machine) is a data collection unit on one of the moons of Jupiter, specifically Io. It has been stranded there for twenty years, compiling information and cannibalizing its fellow robots for spare parts.

When it encounters humans again for the first time since it came to Io, interesting questions start to arise. What makes someone human? Will our dependence and integration with technology one day make us more machine than man or woman? What will the machines under our control think of us (if they think) when we begin to look more like them and less like ourselves?

I admit, this story was actually a very creepy read for me. Sam is not WALL-E, whatever superficial similarities there are between them. This is not a cute and cuddly robot that has been anthropomorphized. This is very much a cold machine, with very calculating thoughts. The ending is surprising and chilling, and makes you think about all those hours you spend attached to your electronics. Would you make good spare parts for them?

Io, Robot is really where this anthology starts to take off.

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You can check out Tobias Buckell on his website, or follow him on Twitter @tobiasbuckell

The master post can be found here, Tides from the New Worlds

Book Review: The Leadership Lessons of Jesus

“Who is the greatest leader in history? Of all the names that might be given in response to that question, one name stands above all the rest:  Jesus Christ.”

- from the introduction of “The Leadership Lessons of Jesus:  A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders” by Bob Briner and Ray Pritchard.

From the Publisher:

This newly redesigned edition of The Leadership Lessons of Jesus is expanding to include more than seventy unique easy-length readings that explore and adapt the individual techniques that made Christ’s leadership so powerful.

Timeless, relevant, and practical applications of  the ministry of Jesus Christ taken from Gospel of Mark presented in 75 short but insightful chapters focusing on key areas all leaders should aquaint themselves.

A sampling of the lessons include instruction to leaders on:  The Call, Followers, Authority, Discipline, Teams, Plans, Attacks, Unity, Faithfulness, Vision, the Unexpected, Rebukes, Strategies, Loyalty, Gratitude, Public Relations, Flattery, Commitment and Management.  All areas are addressed with frankness and practicality.

This is a handbook for all those in leadership positions.

Bob Briner

A leading figure in professional sports management, an Emmy Award-winning television producer, and president of ProServ Television before his death in 1999,  Briner was the first Western sports executive to enter China after the Cultural Revolution and introduced National Basketball Association games to Chinese television . Briner was also a prolific writer, regularly contributing to the New York Times and Sports Illustrated. His books include Roaring Lambs, Lambs Among Wolves, and The Management Methods of Jesus. Briner finished his final book, The Final Roar, shortly before dying of abdominal cancer in 1999. Briner was a devout evangelical Christian and in 2003 was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Wesleyan University Society of World Changers as its first member.

Ray Pritchard

Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries. He has ministered extensively overseas and is a frequent conference speaker and guest on Christian radio and television talk shows. He is the author of 27 books, including Credo, The Healing Power of Forgiveness, An Anchor for the Soul and Why Did This Happen to Me? Ray and Marlene, his wife of 31 years, have three sons-Josh, Mark and Nick.

Hardcover: 240 pages

Publisher: B&H Books (May 1, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 080544520X

ISBN-13: 978-0805445206

Mara reviews Harley Jane Kozak's "Dating Dead Men"

I first encountered Harley Jane Kozak at a recent book event where we were both featured authors. As former Soap-actresses-turned-novelists we decided we must have been separated at birth. Further, we both had a thing for Mary Shelley. But while I wrote a historical play on ”Frankenstein’s” author, Harley created a modern-day heroine named Wolstonecraft Shelley. How could I resist? I had to read at least one of her books!

Los Angeles is always problematic for writers. So sprawling and multi-themed as to appear if not amorphous, at least Protean: one minute a collection of exquisitely manicured gardens providing lush embraces to Spanish mansions, the next a depressing array of billboards dwarfing cracker box housse baked to a crisp in relentless sunshine.

Harley tackles this conundrum by creating a world-within-a-world outlandish enough to be unique and grounded enough to be recognizable. “Wollie” Shelley is trying to run a greeting-card business, taking part in a reality-TV-show about dating,  keeping a weather-eye on an institutionalized brother, all while thrashing her way through sleuthing, investigating a dead body and avoiding the Mob.

With her gangly, kind-hearted “Wollie” she’s pressing toward mastery of a whole new genre of her own creating: literary heroine-turned-gumshoe.  I read book one for the sake of camaraderie and curiosity. But now I’m in it for the duration. I’ve put book two in the queue.

The New Shape of World Christianity - Part 1

I will be blogging through my reading of Mark Noll’s new book. This is part 1.

Mark A. Noll, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith (IVP Academic, 2009).

This book surveys American evangelicalism using the analytical mirror of global Christianity, or in the words of the subtitle, it looks at how the American experience of Christianity reflects global faith. Noll asks the question how we should understand the role of American Christianity and American history in shaping global Christianity. The central argument is that American Christianity is incredibly important for the world, not necessarily though, because of its direct influence on the multiplicity of indigenous Christian forms throughout the world, but because the development of American evangelical Christianity in the eighteenth century is the model for Christianity’s development throughout the majority world; in Noll’s own words, “American form rather than American influence has been the most important American contribution to the recent history of Christianity” (p. 15).

Noll begins in chapter 1 by laying out the magnitude of changes in global Christianity since 1900. His examples are no less than incredible: this past Sunday more Christian believers worshiped in China than all of “Christian Europe”, this past Sunday there were more Presbyterians at church in Ghana than in Scotland, etc. These changes have been documented in length also by Phillip Jenkins in his global Christianity trilogy. Noll also explains briefly how the multiplicity of new Christian expressions – most of them direct products of the singular task of Bible translation (!) – have tremendous implications for economics, policy formation, nation building, and international relations. New Christian expressions (”new” in their incredible predominance since 1900) have also revealed 3 main theological questions for Christianity: How close is the world of spirits to the everyday world? What is the unit of salvation? And how should believers read the Bible?

I fear that books on global Christianity are undervalued in Western evangelicalism – probably because of their academic style as well as their unfortunate classification as “missions” literature, rather than “theology” or “ecclesiology” literature. But books like this challenge the fundamental conscious and unconscious assumptions of every day Christians about their mundane religious thinking and practices.

It is good for us to evaluate our own American Christian expressions by the standard of Chinese ecclesiology, or by Ghanaian worship forms, or by Nigerian missiology, or by Indian theology. Indeed, this is one of the great, unique, aspects of the Kingdom of God – our diversity reflects the God who is, as Jonathan Edwards once described, the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies”. The multiplicity of Christian expressions arising out of the teaching of a single Book keeps us humble and constantly investigative in our own forms of the Christian life. In this way, global Christianity, in its diversity, is a tremendously sanctifying gift of grace to the local church.