The Heart of Addiction: A Biblical Perspective

Book Details

• Author: Mark E. Shaw

• Publisher: Focus Publishing (2008)

• Category: Biblical Counseling, Ministry, Church

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, and free resources at www.rpmministries.org.

Recommended: The Heart of Addiction is an increasingly rare book—one that addresses a specific life issue in a biblical, deep, practical, wise way. Mark Shaw combines the sufficiency of Scripture (theology for life) with the relevancy of Scripture (principles of progressive sanctification) in a way that offers hope and help to those experiencing habitual sin problems.

Review: God’s Way to Victory Over Habitual Sin

Dr. Mark Shaw brings an impressive résumé uniquely suited for a biblical approach to addictions. He holds biblical counseling certification with the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC), is a certified Master’s Level Addiction Professional (MLAP), as well as being a Sr. Pastor.

A Theology of Habitual Sin

Shaw eschews the terminology of “addiction” and seeks to get at the “heart of addiction” by conceptualizing it as a “life-dominating and life-devastating sin problem.” He sees “addiction” ultimately as a “worship disorder.” Further, Shaw takes issue with the common medical model approach that links “addictions” to the “disease model.”

That being said, Shaw is not simplistic in his approach. He recognizes that the body can respond to a sin problem so that over time actions associated with addiction become habitual and extremely difficult to overcome. This is a very useful “balance” missed by some.

In fact, he’s more than balanced. Shaw is comprehensive. He acknowledges that even after people have initially overcome the physical portion of addiction:

• Physically, they may still experience real cravings.

• Mentally, they may always battle to take their thoughts captive to Christ.

• Emotionally, they may struggle with feelings that will tempt them to want to return to the addiction for an escape.

• Spiritually, they may experience days when they wonder if God has forgotten them.

Rejecting the world’s definitions of addiction, Shaw then develops a concise biblical description. “Physical addiction occurs when you repeatedly satisfy a natural appetite and desire with a temporary pleasure until you become the servant of the temporary object of pleasure rather than its master” (p. 27). Addictions are not “compulsions” for Shaw, but rather “persistent habitual choices.”

Shaw wisely addresses habitual sin from the threefold biblical plotline of Creation, Fall, Redemption. Thus he embeds his theology of habitual sin in the context of God’s original design for the soul, sin’s depravity, and Christ’s final solution for and victory over all sin—including “addictive sins.”

Perhaps the most insightful and needful chapter is where Shaw addresses the physical components of addiction (Chapter 9). Unfortunately, many biblical counselors seem to skip or minimize this important area. Shaw not only tackles it, he nails it. He carefully traces what I might call a “theology of desire” (he calls it a theology of appetite). He assists readers to see the purpose for God-given desires, appetites, and affections, while also mapping where they can go sinfully wrong and how they can become habitually sinful.

There is much to appreciate in Shaw’s theological development. There were two areas, though, where Shaw could have engaged the theological issues a bit deeper. First, Shaw assumes that the “old nature” or “old man” still resides in the believer, which is a common enough belief. However, it would have been good in a book of this depth to address or acknowledge, at least briefly, the competing view. Namely, while the believer is not perfect this side of heaven, and while the believer does battle the world, the flesh, and the devil, the old nature or old man has truly been crucified with Christ. There are implicational differences that derive out of these two theological positions.

Second, while Shaw does develop a nuanced perspective on addiction, it might have been helpful for him to grapple with concepts such as “enslavement” and “mastery” (2 Peter 2:19). And the powerful imagery where Peter speaks of one who knows the Lord as Savior (2 Peter 2:20) as “a dog returns to its vomit” (2 Peter 2:22). Peter (and at times Paul) seems to use terms like these to indicate a depth of entanglement of sin akin to, but different from, “addiction.” I expected to read Shaw engaging passages like these, but did not. To his credit, he did address other complex issues such as lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and a seared conscience.

A Methodology of Victory Over Habitual Sin

Of course, great theology is truly great because it leads to relevant principles and practices for spiritual growth. Shaw so seamlessly blends “theology” and “methodology” that you can’t find where one ends and the other begins (which is very good). For instance, in Chapter 10, he discusses idolatry using the practical and pictorial imagery of the “go button” and the “stop button.” “Go button pushers” excessively satisfy their natural appetites, so they must guard their hearts when doing anything pleasurable. This is not radical abstention, but wise moderation always with the ultimate goal of glorifying God rather than loving pleasure.

A large part of Shaw’s “methodology” rightly focuses on renewed thinking leading to renewed emotions. Fortunately, in his skillful hands this is not some Christianized version of rational-emotive therapy. Rather, Shaw focuses his readers on renewing their thinking in the context of biblical reality as portrayed in Scripture.

He makes this very practical by addressing the common “motivating factor” for many addictive behaviors: escaping emotional pain. We don’t deny our emotional pain. Rather, for Shaw we take that emotional pain to Christ and to His Word. We find joy even when we can’t find relief.

This become even more practical in Chapter 12 where Shaw dissects specific emotions and prescribes biblical principles for addressing them in spiritually healthy ways. He describes how we can respond to bitterness, guilt, discontentment, loneliness, depression, and despair in ways that lead us toward God rather than toward god-substitutes.

The actual “methodology” portion of the book begins with Chapter 13 (but obviously starts sooner in Shaw’s skillful application of theology). Shaw uses the biblical motif of put off and put on. With some writers, this becomes rather “behavioralistic.” Not with Shaw. He talks about putting off the depths of sin, including sin’s denial and self-deception.

He then talks about putting on, again in a heart-centric way. Here (Chapter 17) Shaw again highlights renewing the mind. He avoids generic language, instead focusing on idiosyncratic renewal, the battle for the mind, how to fight cravings, and how to resist the devil’s temptation. He then moves toward putting on right actions—based upon renewed beliefs.

Thus Shaw includes specific chapters on putting off and putting on beliefs, actions, and emotions. He writes specifically about putting off sinful idols of the heart. However, this excellent work could have benefitted from specific sections about putting on a renewed, grace-oriented, love relationship with God in Christ. It certainly was implied. And it certainly is contained in the various “heart prayers” at the end of each chapter. However, specific chapters on returning to God “the Spring of Living Water” would seem central in a book on putting off sinful addictions and putting on ongoing spiritual affections. Since addiction is a “worship disorder,” I would have liked to have seen more on moving from the idolatry of addiction to the worship of God through putting on renewed relational/spiritual affections, passions, and desires. It’s there…it just could have been highlighted more.

Shaw concludes with Appendixes A to K which each provide very practical tools. Taken together, these seventeen chapters and eleven appendixes provide a wealth of authoritative, relevant wisdom. The Heart of Addiction: A Biblical Perspective will prove extremely helpful for pastors, counselors, and spiritual friends, and for the individual seeking ongoing victory over habituated sin.

A New Kind of Christianity

Brian McLaren’s latest book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith, is causing quite the stir on the Net. I’ve collated links to several reviews.

Tim Challies

Tim Challies has penned a strong (speaking the truth in love) general critique at his site. It’s well worth reading.

Mike Wittmer

For a much more detailed, point-by-point, loving, logical, and theological critique, I encourage you to visit Mike Wittmer’s site. Mike is blogging each day on each of the ten questions. Here’s what he’s blogged thus far:

*The Introduction

*Question 1: What Is the Overarching Story Line of the Bible?

*Question 2: How Should the Bible Be Understood?

*Interlude: The Defining Issue—The Creation/Fall/Redemption Narrative

*Question 3: Is God Violent?

*Question 4: Who Is Jesus and Why Is He Important?

*Question 5, Part 1: What Is the Gospel?

*Question 5, Part 2: What Is the Gospel?

*Question 6: What Do We Do about the Church?

*Question 7: Can We Find a Way to Address Human Sexuality?

*Questions 8-9: Can We Find a Better Way of Viewing the Future? and How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?

*Question 10: How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?

Kevin DeYoung

Kevin DeYoung, over at his Gospel Coalition blog, DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed has a two-part post, plus a PDF of his review.

*Christianity and McLarenism, Part 1

Christianity and McLarenism, Part 2

Christianity and McLarenism, The Entire Review in PDF

My Take

While I have yet to review this book, two years ago I did interact with some of these issues in my free document: Just Where Did the Emergent Idea of Salvation Emerge From? You can read it here.

Join the Conversation

What are your thoughts on McLaren’s book, Challies’ review, Wittmer’s reviews, and my article?

Soul Care Among the Slaves: A Treasure of African American Testimony

Trevin Wax, over at his excellent site, Kingdom People, posted a very encouraging and insightful review of Beyond the Suffering. You can read his full review here at Soul Care Among the Slaves: A Treasure of African American Testimony.

Here’s an appetizer to whet your appetite.

“Beyond the Suffering combines historical accounts and personal stories. By going back and forth between the history of the period and the specific stories of people caught in slavery, the authors are able to recommend practical modern-day applications for soul care.

The title describes the book well. This book is not just about suffering and sin. It’s about how grace moves us beyond both.

What do we learn from the testimony of these forefathers in the faith? For one, counseling is not merely an individualistic endeavor. We tend to think of care and counseling as one individual helping another. But the African American testimony shows us how families, churches, and communities can corporately provide soul care.

The authors provide a chilling example…”

To continue reading, please visit Trevin’s blog post.

Review of CrossTalk: Where Life & Scripture Meet

• Author: Michael R. Emlet

• Publisher: New Growth Press (2009)

• Category: Biblical Counseling, Christian Living, Spiritual Friendship

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, and free resources at RPM Ministries.

Recommended: Michael Emlet’s CrossTalk offers one of the most robust approaches yet to the biblical counseling process of relating the scriptural narrative to a person’s life story. Its Christ-centered, comprehensive, and compassionate approach powerfully and practically equips readers for the personal ministry of the Word.

Review: Relating Truth to Life

The publishers aptly promote CrossTalk with the phrase, “An antidote to ‘take two verses and call me in the morning.’” For far too long, some segments of current pastoral ministry and modern biblical counseling have practiced the idea that there is a simplistic one-verse, one-problem, one-solution method to every counseling and relationship issue.

Michael Emlet’s training as a family physician and as a seminary professor seamlessly equips him to teach a much more robust approach to changing lives with Christ’s changeless truth. In CrossTalk, he investigates the intersection of biblical truth and people’s lives by exploring how we understand people biblically and how we use the Bible in biblical counseling.

Speaking the Truth in Love

We have many books about how to interpret the Bible, but few address the topic of how to relate truth to life—how to connect Scripture to struggles. Or, if they do, they focus on the pulpit ministry of the Word—preaching and teaching, and not on the personal ministry of the Word—biblical counseling, one another spiritual friendship, and personal spiritual direction.

Emlet teaches us how to look at life experiences through biblical lenses. His focus is on the person and the passage, on how to read the Bible and how to “read” people biblically. You might say that he understands that hybrid Christians run on truth and love. CrossTalk promotes a gospel-centered, personally relevant use of Scripture in personal ministry. “It describes a way to use the Scriptures to help people to grow to love God and others more fully in the midst of their complex daily lives” (p. 4).

The Story of Suffering and Sin

CrossTalk also counters another all-too-frequent error in modern biblical ministry—dealing with sin but minimizing issues of suffering caused by sin. Historically, the church has always helped hardened (sinning) and hurting (suffering) people. Soul care through sustaining and healing has always related God’s hope to suffering people, while spiritual direction has always related Christ’s grace to people’s besetting sins. Emlet wisely continues this biblical, historical practice of Christ-centered, comprehensive, and compassionate biblical counseling.

Emlet connects the Bible to life—all of life in all its complexity. He does so by focusing on the “story”—the story of Scripture and the stories of people’s lives. CrossTalk equips readers to make meaningful connections between the two.

Connecting the Bible to Life

While emphasizing the connection between truth and life, Emlet refuses to make the process simplistic. He begins by explaining the nature of the Bible—what it is not and what it is. He correctly summarizes the Bible as a CFR Narrative—the story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption with a Christ-centered focused of helping people to become Christlike.

With this foundational understanding in place, Emlet begins to establish implications for reading and using the Bible. Rather than imagining that personal ministry involves finding the “right passage” for the “right problem” for the “right person,” truly biblical ministry thinks theologically about relationality.

 Creation: Who are we? What makes us tick? (People)

 Fall: What went wrong? Why is the world such a mess? (Problems)

 Redemption: What’s the remedy? How do people change? (Solutions)

Biblical counseling is more than looking for one verse for one problem. It is more than looking for theological categories to relate to life issues. It is exploring how a person’s dominant story (approach to life) intersects with God’s Christ-centered Creation, Fall, Redemption story so that people respond to suffering and sin in such a way that Christ is glorified as they become more Christlike.

Connecting the Stories

In simplistic biblical counseling, we connect the dots. We connect a problem to a passage or a principle.

In robust, rich, relational biblical counseling, we connect the stories. We connect a person and his/her dominant life story of suffering and sin to God’s redemptive meta-story of grace.

Emlet first offers some general principles for applying his approach to personal ministry. These seem a tad brief while at the same time being a tad technical—not as full of “real and raw life” as the preceding buildup. However, Emlet subsequently takes an in-depth look at this model, thus breathing life into the skeletal outline. He offers insightful questions for saints, sufferers, sinners, and Scripture which serve as foundations for relating truth to life.

Even more helpfully, CrossTalk introduces Tom’s story and Natalie’s story. He teaches readers how to read the person, how to connect the person to the Old Testament narrative, and how to connect the person to the New Testament narrative.

We “read” a saint’s story by looking for marks of grace. Where is the person living true to his identify as a child of God?

We read a sufferer’s story by pondering what circumstances impact his or her struggles. Here Emlet looks predominantly at “level one suffering”—what is happening to the sufferer, and less at “level two suffering”—what is happening in the sufferer. An in-depth look at such internal suffering could have added more richness to this overall valuable approach.

We also read the story of sinning by probing what desires (relational), thoughts (rational), emotions (emotional), and actions (volitional) are out of line with kingdom values and therefore compete with the biblical story. Here Emlet models a thoroughly comprehensive approach to spiritual direction through reconciling and guiding.

Perhaps the most powerful and practical chapters are the two (chapters 9 and 10) in which Emlet demonstrates how to use an Old Testament and a New Testament passage with Tom and with Natalie. Talk about rich! The dialogues of applying scriptural narratives to life narratives are worth the proverbial price of the book. And, quite importantly, Emlet emphasizes that once we understand the grand biblical narrative and the person’s dominant life narrative, there are a host of potentially applicable intersecting passages. He offers samplers to whet our appetite and to model what it looks like in “real life.”

While the purpose of CrossTalk was not to focus on the “relational element” in biblical counseling (no one book can cover everything), Emlet’s approach is clearly relational. He emphasizes that ongoing relationship is the context for personal ministry and that multiple conversations over time provide a natural framework to relate the biblical story to a person’s dominant life story. Growth happens in community.

A Watershed Book

CrossTalk is one of those watershed books. It has the potential to help move the modern biblical counseling movement into the next generation. Its dynamic incorporation of truth and life in the context of scriptural and life narratives is a rare blend. Everyone interesting in understanding where life and Scripture meet should read and apply CrossTalk.

CrossTalk

Reivew of Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything

Book Details

• Author: Adrian Warnock

• Publisher: Crossway Books (2010)

• Category: Christian Living, Theology, Christ

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, and free resources at www.rpmministries.org.

Recommended: Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ presents theological truth in a first-rate communication style. His compelling message is straightforward and profoundly life-changing. Jesus is alive. His resurrection changes everything for everyone.

Review: Resurrection Power

The Christian community knows Adrian Warnock as an avid Evangelical Christian blogger. With the release of Raised with Christ, Warnock will also be known as an accomplished theologian who understands how to relate truth to life. What Warnock shares in his Conclusion, aptly summarizes the power and point of his entire book.

“Christians have the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead living inside them. One day that power will complete the work of saving us, but in the meantime the normal Christian life can be one in which we are very aware of the change that the resurrection brings. We are citizens of the age to come, living in a world that is dead to God. But we are not dead to him. We live to him. May God help us live in the light of that fact more each day. One day we will all see that, thanks to the death and resurrection of Jesus, everything really has been changed. The whole creation will have been renewed, and we will be like him.”

In Christ

Warnock’s consistent message proclaims that because Christians are in Christ, Christ’s resurrection implies our resurrection. Raised with Christ unpacks the massive implications of this spiritual reality. His commensurate premise states that while the early Church and believers throughout Church history emphasized Christ’s death and resurrection, Christians today tend to highlight Christ’s death for our sin, while minimizing the importance of, or being ignorant about, the implications of Christ’s resurrection.

Of course, unless the tomb truly was empty, our claims of resurrection power today are equally empty. Thus, Warnock begins by exploring the biblical evidence for Christ’s resurrection. After this opening section, Raised with Christ addresses “two essential questions that will occupy us throughout the rest of the book: Can we believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ? And, what does it mean to live in light of the implications of that event?”

In laymen’s terms, Warnock addresses every common and uncommon argument against the resurrection of Christ. He concludes this impressive section with N. T. Wright’s conviction that, “The only possible reason why early Christianity began and took the shape that it did is that the tomb really was empty and that people really did meet Jesus, alive again.”

Sadly, those prone to disbelief will likely be left unconvinced by these two foundational chapters, no matter how well-written and researched. Nonetheless, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, Warnock builds the rest of Raised with Christ on this platform of biblical truth, reliable historical evidence, and logical rational suppositions.

Resurrection Accepted and Applied or Neglected and Ignored

Perhaps equally sad is the realization that motivated Warnock’s writing of this book. Even among those who accept the reality of Christ’s resurrection, our daily lives all-too-infrequently evidence a depth acceptance and application of that earth-shaking, heaven-invading actuality.

Warnock encapsulates his message beautifully and powerfully when he states:

“I am not concerned that there is too much emphasis on the cross. I am, however, anxious that as we “survey the wondrous cross” we also study the resur¬rection. We must remember that the cross is just as empty as the tomb, and Christ is now glorified, having completed his work. The truth is, we cannot be truly cross-centered without also being empty-grave-centered! Jesus was not just our prophet and priest—he is our reigning King.”

If you forget everything else, remember this about Raised with Christ. We must be empty-grave-centered!

After a brief summation of why we tend to neglect the resurrection, Warnock returns his readers to the first-century Church to expose their resurrection-centric theology and lives. Additionally, he traces the theme of resurrection throughout the Old Testament. Clearly, the Bible is resurrection-centric.

What Did the Resurrection Ever Do for Us?

To motivate believers today to become resurrection-centric, the rest of Raised with Christ emphasizes the with Christ aspect of the resurrection. Bravely, Warnock introduces this essential topic with an illustration from Monty Python’s Flying Circus (you’ll just have to buy and read Raised with Christ). He derives from this the principle that we can assume things without ever realizing their full impact on our lives.

So, for the next 150 pages, Warnock delineates the impact of Christ’s resurrection on our lives by answering the fundamental question, “What did the resurrection every do for us?” His answers comprehensively apply resurrection truth to our complete salvation. Unlike some Evangelicals who seemingly stop at justification (as vital as this spiritual truth is), Warnock addresses justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption. What has the resurrection ever done for us? It has given us new pardon, peace, personhood, and power.

It is impossible in a review to capture all the theological truth packed in these 150 pages. Plus, it is important to realize that with each theological truth, Warnock offers not only personal application, but realistic biblical principles for practically applying the resurrection to our daily lives, relationships, and ministries.

One “motif” or running theme Warnock conveys throughout Raised with Christ is “revival.” Christ’s resurrection results in a revived new creation and it ought to result in revived prayer, revived relationships to one another and to Christ, revived application of the Word, revived unity in the Body of Christ, revived assurance of eternal salvation, revived filling of the Spirit, revived fulfillment of our mission, and much more.

The Resurrection of All Things

The Bible tell us that, “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything” (Acts 3:21). Christ’s resurrection not only has individual and corporate implications; it has universal repercussions. Powerfully, Warnock tells the tale of those everlasting ramifications. Then, as he consistently does, he addresses the “So what?” question. How do we live today in light of our eternal resurrection living? In his own words:

“God himself is living inside us! We experience the power and pres¬ence of a Jesus who is living, active, and doing things today. In every cir¬cumstance of our life the resurrection can make the difference, bringing hope when things are hard and joyful deliverances when the power of the age to come breaks through. The kingdom really is now and not yet!”

Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ presents theological truth in a first-rate communication style. His compelling message is straightforward and profoundly life-changing. Jesus is alive. His resurrection changes everything for everyone.

Raised with Christ

Book Review of Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism), Author: Frank Schaeffer

Technocratic Claim Code: 6T6HCXV4SV3

Book Details

• Author: Frank Schaeffer

• Publisher: Da Capo Press (2009)

• Category: Faith, Christianity and Atheism

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, and free resources at www.rpmministries.org.

Recommendation: For insights into the fallacies of the “new atheism,” Frank Schaeffer’s Patience with God makes a valuable contribution. However, his views on Evangelicals, the Bible, God, and salvation are disturbing. And, there are better books critiquing the “new atheism” (find dozens of suggested titles here).

Review: God’s Patience with Us

Frank Schaeffer is the “prodigal son” of Francis and Edith Schaeffer—leading Evangelical thinkers of the 1970s and 80s. Among his earlier books, Frank’s Crazy for God is his tell-all, exposé of everything he thinks is wrong with the “Religious Right.” The sub-title of that memoir says it all: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take It All (Or Almost All) of It Back.

Having deemed the faith of his parents hypocritical and unreasonable, Frank now journeys to discover a faith of his own. Like all people, Frank sees his own faith as the happy medium between competing extremes. Thus, Patience with God unfolds in a three-fold way.

1. It deconstructs the “new atheism” declaring its logical and experiential fallacies.

2. It deconstructs “modern Fundamentalism/Evangelicalism” declaring its logical and experiential fallacies.

3. It constructs Schaeffer’s new faith system declaring the higher virtues of his way of believing.

Choosing His Extremes

For “new atheism,” Frank includes representative authors Sam Harris (The End of Faith), Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great). These new atheists have been called “fundamentalists” for their insulting attacks, their intolerance of anything spiritual, and their absolute certitude—“We’re right and you’re wrong!”

For “modern Fundamentalism/Evangelicalism,” Schaeffer chooses authors Rick Warren (A Purpose Driven Life) and Jerry Jenkins/Tim LaHaye (the Left Behind series). (I know, many would be hard-pressed to label these authors as “Fundamentalists,” but Franky does.) For him, Fundamentalists/Evangelicals practice intolerant, politicized, ugly religion with absolute certitude—“We’re right and you’re wrong!”

Faith as certainty—logically being able to prove your view and disprove the views of others—is the link Schaeffer makes between new atheism and Fundamentalism/Evangelicalism. Both, according to Schaeffer, are old fashion, modernist or pre-modernist, and thus literalist. They both seek to pronounce grand, final theories about life. They both follow:

“…the impulse to find The answer, a way to shut down the question-asking part of one’s brain. Fundamentalists don’t like question marks. Fundamentalists reject both Christian humility and postmodern paradox. In that sense an atheist too may be a fundamentalist. And a fundamentalist wants to convince others to convert to what fundamentalists are sure they know” (p. 9).

How Many Ways Are There to Say “There Is No God!”?

After introducing the two enemy combatants, Schaeffer spends chapters 2-6 exposing what he sees as the errors of new atheism. Many Evangelical believers will likely be right there with Schaeffer cheering him on.

Schaeffer exposes new atheism’s faith—faith in science. He exposes their tactic of taking the worst of religious history and bigotry, ignoring the best, and then building a caricature of faith in general and Christianity in particular. He exposes their dogmatic, demeaning, “my-way-or-the-highway” childish mentality. With great humor and tragic reality, Schaeffer also reveals the monetary motive behind much of the new atheism. “Huckster” is too kind a word for what Schaeffer describes in chapter 3.

While Evangelicals might applaud Schaeffer’s brief exposé, there are better, more detailed responses. I’ve outlined a few dozen of the best books that defend Christian faith against the new atheism—you can find my bibliography here.

What’s His Beef with Fundamentalist/Evangelicals?

To understand Schaeffer’s issues with Evangelicals, it would be best to read the aforementioned Crazy for God. There truly isn’t a lot of substance in Patience with God that explains Schaeffer’s beef with Evangelicals. Schaeffer spends less than half-a-page “engaging” Rick Warren and The Purpose-Driven Life before he launches his diatribe against him.

I’m no apologist for or against Warren or this particular book, but for someone (Schaeffer) who is so anti-judgmentalism, he sure makes a number of unsubstantiated judgments about the motives of Rich Warren’s heart. “His church is very much about him.” “He’s the star in a cult of personality that fits the celebrity-worshipping temper of our times.”

In the chapter (entitled Spaceship Jesus Will Come Back and Whisk Us Away) on Jenkins/LaHaye and the Left Behind series, one of Schaeffer’s primary gripes is the huge marketing thrust of the series. So Schaeffer rips the new atheists and the modern Evangelicals for their penchant for pushing their wares, yet, he mentions his previous books scores of times and makes it plain where you can purchase them…

His Personal Journey

In the second half of Patience with God, Schaeffer shifts from his two-fold deconstruction of the new atheism and modern Fundamentalism/Evangelicalism to his construction of his own faith. It is in this section that most Evangelicals will likely have the most problem with Schaeffer. He can pick apart our own failures and fallacies, but when he picks apart the Bible…that’s another matter. (I know, I’m a Fundamentalist/Evangelical for even saying that!)

Having said that, there are some things I appreciate about Schaeffer’s personal journey. He’s not afraid to talk about doubt. Honestly, his candor is refreshing. I agree with him—by definition faith is not certainty. So we have questions. We doubt. We wrestle with God. The Bible depicts this—in the Psalms, in Lamentations, in Ecclesiastes, in many places. I applaud Schaeffer for his honesty and I resonate with many of his struggles and questions.

However, Schaeffer’s answer to his doubt is to deny that any answer whatsoever is ever possible. In fact, he concludes that new atheists and Fundamentalist/Evangelicals alike are “dim.” Anyone who thinks there is a “truth” that we can count on to find answers within the midst and mist of our doubts lacks intelligence.

The really smart person, the really post-modern person, according to Schaeffer, eschews rational answers and instead pursues experiential meaning. Schaeffer’s basic message in Patience with God is, “I know there’s something more than me, something grandly spiritual, because I experience it when I hold my precious infant granddaughter.”

I neither decry nor deny experience. It is one of the ways of knowing that Frank’s father, Francis, taught about: revelation, rationalism, experience, and empiricism. But what makes Frank’s one way—experience—superior to any of the other ways of knowing? We’re never really told. Plus, isn’t the whole point of Patience with God to expose the evil of anyone who claims that his way is superior?

Knowing God

It is Frank’s views on revelation that will most irk, irritate, and infuriate most Evangelicals. He does not believe the Bible is inspired, inerrant, literal, accurate, dependable… He deconstructs the God of the Bible, including Jesus, until He becomes unrecognizable. He then attempts to legitimize this by “cherry picking” select quotes from select Church Fathers to attempt to link his views of the Bible and God to their views.

Yes, some of the Church Fathers talked about “mystery” and the paradoxes of faith. However, it’s a long road from the paradox of an infinitely holy God revealing Himself in the mystery and paradox of the Cross—of a suffering Savior—to the road that Frank Schaeffer suggests is the only valid route to knowing God.

Frank Schaeffer is welcome to wrestle with his beliefs about God. But once he’s done that outside of the context of Bible, it seems odd that he insists on retaining the label “Christian.” Once you strip away the Bible’s revelation of God in Christ, is what’s left “Christian”?

When the Apostle Peter struggled with many of the same struggles that Frank Schaeffer experiences, Peter’s response was, “To whom shall I go? You alone have the words of life?”

Either Jesus speaks authoritative, sufficient, inspired, inerrant words of life, or He doesn’t. Either we cling to faith in the One Who claimed in the Bible that He was the way, the truth, and the life, or we don’t. Either we believe that we cannot live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, or we don’t.

Why do we have to make knowing God truth or experience? Why can’t knowing God be truth and experience? I take my experience of doubts, struggles, questions, and concerns personally to God through His Spirit, by His Word, in the company of His people. If that makes me “dim,” so be it.

Believing the Bible to be true does not eliminate paradox, confusion, questions, thinking, mystery, or doubts…at least not for me. It does offer faith in the midst of my doubts. Nor does believing the Bible mean that I worship the Bible. It means that I worship the One Who has chosen to reveal Himself in the Bible. Nor does saying that I believe the Bible to be true imply that I’m claiming that my interpretation of the Bible is inerrant. It means that I recognize with humility my own finite, person-specific, culture-saturated interpretations of the inerrant Word of God.

Believing the Bible to be God’s revelation of Himself to humanity doesn’t eliminate my experiential relationship to God. It maximizes my experience of God Who says His Word is our bread of life which we are to feast upon by living the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), with our love abounding more and more in knowledge and depth of insight (Philippians 1:9-11), as we share together in the Body of Christ both Scripture and our own souls (1 Thessalonians 2:8). 

Patience with God

Review of Glory Road: The Journeys of 10 African-Americans into Reformed Christianity

Book Details

• Title: Glory Road: The Journey of 10 African-Americans into Reformed Christianity

• Author: Anthony J. Carter, Editor

• Publisher: Crossway Books (July, 2009)

• Category: African-American, Reformed Theology, Church History

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, books, and free resources at www.rpmministries.org.

Recommended: Life-changing accounts of God’s providential leading in bringing African American leaders to the truths of salvation.

Review: Personal Stories of African American Spiritual Journeys

Glory Road author and editor, Anthony J. Carter, is an organizing member of the Council of Reforming Churches, and has previously authored On Being Black and Reformed and Experiencing the Truth. Carter has assembled a team of ten leading African American pastors and professors and asked one poignant question. “How did you come to embrace Reformed theology?”

Glory Road uses their personal accounts to trace their conversion to Christianity, their introduction to and embrace of Reformed theology, and the effect of such theology on their lives and ministries. In addition to the book’s editor, Carter, Glory Road includes contributions from such notable African American Christian leaders as Reddit Andrews III, Thabiti Anyabwile, Anthony B. Bradley, Ken Jones, Michael Leach, Lance Lewis, Louis C. Love Jr., Eric C. Redmond, and Roger Skepple.

Glimpses of God’s Glory

It is fitting that this book should be published in the year we remember John Calvin’s five hundredth birthday. The authors are glad to consider themselves “the grateful beneficiaries of the Christ-centered, biblically-grounded theology he labored so diligently to teach and preach” (p. 12). In entitling the book as they did, their desire is that “when reading our stories, you will get a glimpse of God’s glory and would be moved to come and share the road” (p. 13).

In an era when many relish bragging that their faith is “not your father’s Protestantism,” Carter and his co-authors return to the faith practiced not only by Calvin, Luther, and Edwards, but also by African American forebears such as Lemeul Haynes, who was often known as “the Black Puritan.” Thus Glory Road is not just for African Americans, just as Reformation theology transcends ethnicity and race.

Liberating Theology

Readers may be anticipating a dull, dead, dry theology tome (which true theology never is anyway). The ten accounts in Glory Road are anything but lifeless. Each African American co-author tells his story without any sugar coating. We read of rebellion against God in their youth, of water-down, irrelevant theology in liberal churches during their upbringing, and of amazing conversion narratives. We also read the at-times conflicting battle to embrace a theology that some of their ancestors and peers found less-than-liberating.

So what led them to the rejection of other theologies and the embrace of Reformed theology? While the road was unique for each of these ten men, the path had some common markers. The most common was a lifelong pursuit of real answers for real problems. Reddit Andrews’ experience is representative. “Though I regularly read the Scriptures, I was drowning in questions for which I had no answers” (p. 28). It was their fervent search for changeless truth in changing times that attracted these deep thinkers and honest seekers to the Reformed faith. Their faith commitment resulted in what Anthony Bradley describes as “applying the Scriptures to our real, day-to-day encounters with the brokenness in this world” (p. 49).

Reading Glory Road I was repeatedly struck with each writer’s profound trust in and commitment to God’s Word. Whether it was popular or not in their church environment, each pastor, each professor, took risk after risk to teach the sound doctrines of grace. They clearly convey that truth—absolute truth—is not the exclusive domain of any one race.

Truth for Life

They also communicate that such truth results in life—real life. As Eric Redmond portrays it in his life: “I had learned the inherent truth of the gospel that united all of life, the cross, and the resurrection: God wants me to glorify him by enjoying him forever in every area of my life” (p. 147). “For me, Reformed theology is not about theories to be disputed in the blogosphere. It is about a theology to be lived out in the real world” (p. 154).

As a student of African American church history (see Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Kellemen and Edwards), my only disappointment with this otherwise powerful book is what seems to me to be an overemphasis on the “newness” of Reformed thinking among African Americans. The aforementioned Lemuel Haynes, along with Oluadah Equiano, Daniel Alexander Payne, and many other African Americans from Black Church history, professed and lived a similar faith. Linking more often to this historic legacy would, I believe, produce an even more influential argument. It would communicate that then and now Reformed theology is not just by and for “a bunch of dead white guys.”

Still, these ten authors consistently echo the passion of the aging John Newton. “I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior.” As Carter notes in his Afterword, all of his co-authors have at least three things in common: they are black, they are Reformed, but foremost they are Christians. Glory Road tells the riveting narrative of their heritage that transcends their ethnicity. As Carter puts it, “We understand that we have as much in common with Martin Luther as we do with Martin Luther King Jr.” (p. 174).

Glory Road shows the source of emancipation from the slavery of sin—Christ’s gospel of grace. It shares life-changing accounts of God’s providential leading in bringing African American leaders to the truths of salvation. And it encourages all who read its message to commit to the same foundation.

Glory Road

The Paul Tautges Biblical Counseling Trilogy: Counsel One Another, Comfort Those Who Grieve, Counsel Your Flock

Book Review Details

*Author: Paul Tautges

*Publisher: Day One (2009)

*Category: Biblical Counseling, Ministry, Church, Pastorate, Lay Counseling

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, and free resources at www.rpmministries.org.

Recommended: The Paul Tautges trilogy of books for local church counseling (Counsel One Another, Comfort Those Who Grieve, and Counsel Your Flock) offers readers a concise, comprehensive, and Christ-centered summary of authentic biblical counseling.

Review: Authentic Biblical Counseling

Since Pastor Paul Tautges’ biblical counseling trilogy seamlessly moves from lay counseling for sin, to lay comforting for suffering, to pastoral counseling and shepherding, one all-inclusive review is possible. Though all published in 2009, there seems to be a logical order to the writing (and the reading): Counsel One Another: A Theology of Personal Discipleship, Comfort Those Who Grieve: Ministering God’s Grace in Times of Loss, and Counsel Your Flock: Fulfilling Your Role as a Teaching Shepherd.

All three volumes share in common a staunch commitment to an expository, exegetical examination of counseling as presented in God’s Word. In fact, Counsel Your Flock and Comfort Those Who Grieve (to a lesser extent) are comprised of sermonic material (sermon manuscripts re-edited into book form). Fortunately, Pastor Tautges is a fine preacher, for in other hands sermons-into-books have not always resulted in readable literature.

Defining Biblical Counseling: What Makes Biblical Counseling Truly Biblical?

It is in Counsel One Another that Tautges lays the theological foundation for biblical counseling. He offers this definition:

Biblical counseling is an intensely focused and personal aspect of the discipleship process, whereby the more mature believer (counselor) comes alongside the less mature believer (counselee) for three main purposes: first, to help that person to consistently apply Scriptural theology to his or her life in order to experience victory over sin through obedience to Christ; second, by warning that person, in love, of the consequences of sinful actions; and third, by leading that person to make consistent progress in the ongoing process of biblical change in order that he or she too may become a spiritually reproductive disciple-maker (pp. 21-22).

There is much to affirm in Tautges’ definition. Unlike some stereotypes of “biblical counseling,” Tautges aptly emphasizes the relational nature: “intensely . . . personal,” “comes along side,” “in love.” He also rightly highlights that biblical counseling is discipleship, in fact, it is 2 Timothy 2:2 disciple-making. His three purposes for biblical counseling can’t be quibbled with. And his stress on progressive sanctification is richly biblical and relevant.

However—and there’s always a “however” since no single definition can capture everything about biblical counseling—this definition omits an important component of comprehensive and compassionate biblical counseling: dealing with suffering. Biblically and historically (church history) God’s people have always offered biblical counseling for the suffering via soul care through sustaining and healing (in addition to offering biblical counseling for sin by means of spiritual direction through reconciling and guiding).

Clearly Tautges values the comforting aspect of biblical counseling. The second book in his trilogy, Comfort Those Who Grieve, provides great motivation and equipping for just such encouragement counseling. So the trilogy is not in anyway lacking this comprehensive, compassionate emphasis. Still, one might wish that Tautges had overtly stressed this element in his opening definition and ongoing descriptions of biblical counseling.

Tautges’ definition follows another common conception of biblical counseling: it is from one more mature believer (counselor) to a less mature believer (counselee). While this form of counsel does indeed have biblical merit, the many “one another” passages in Scripture teach that much of biblical counseling involves a ministry of spiritual friendship among equally mature brothers and sisters in Christ.

Distinguishing Biblical Counseling from Secular Therapy

Tautges spends much time in Counsel One Another and Counsel Your Flock demonstrating from the Bible the sufficiency of Scripture. God’s Word, applied to one another’s lives from God’s people, through the ministry of God’s Spirit provides all we need for life and godliness. Graciously, yet firmly, Tautges takes to task those who would “integrate” secular theory and biblical theology.

Several times Tautges equates “Christian psychology” and “integration.” There is a growing movement of “Christian psychology” led by people such as Eric Johnson, Phil Monroe, and Brian Maier that would eschew the label “integration.” Instead, they seek to develop a thoroughly biblical, theological, and historical (church history) understanding of people (creation/anthropology), problems (sin/fall/hamartiology), and solutions (redemption/salvation/sanctification/soteriology). Making such distinctions and specifically (and with nuance) defining terms such as “Christian psychology” and “integration” could improve this vital discussion of the sufficiency of Scripture.

Expanding the Horizons

Through Comfort Those Who Grieve, Tautges expands the typical modern conception of “biblical counseling.” Indeed, it is biblical counseling to minister God’s grace in times of loss. With great tenderness learned from the Scriptures and through life experience (as a pastor and hospice caregiver), the author communicates the twin truths that “it’s normal to hurt” and “it’s possible to hope.”

Tautges includes many practical helps for caregivers. One often overlooked area of care for the grieving involves extended care…long after the loss itself. Tautges sketches a very beneficial sixteen-month grieving after-care plan. Any individual and any church congregation would be wise to follow his advice.

Through Counsel Your Flock, Tautges further expands our thinking regarding biblical counseling. He does an excellent job showing from Scripture how the pulpit ministry of the Word (preaching) and the personal ministry of the Word (shepherding) are both means of biblical counseling and discipleship.

With depth of scriptural exegesis and extensive quotes from great pastors of the past, Tautges confronts the modern conception of the pastor as a CEO or the pastor as the aloof preacher-in-the-pulpit-only. The biblical shepherd counsels in all he does—in his preaching, in his personal ministry, in his hospital visitation, in his equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.

A Trilogy Well Worth Devouring

These three books are well worth devouring. Any pastor or lay person wanting a starting point for understanding Christ-centered, comprehensive, and compassionate biblical counseling in the local church would be wise to read and reread Counsel One Another, Comfort Those Who Grieve, and Counsel Your Flock.

The Tautges Biblical Counseling Trilogy

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

Book Review by Bob Kellemen

Going Rogue: An American Life

Book Details

*Author: Sarah Palin (with Lynn Vincent)

*Publisher: HarperCollins(2009)

*Category: Autobiography, Politics

*ISBN and Length: 978-0061997877, 413 Pages

Reviewed By: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, Author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering, Sacred Friendships, and God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. Find all of Bob’s book reviews, blogs, books, and free resources at www.rpmministries.org.

Recommended: Going Rogue offers Sarah Palin’s fast-paced, well-written, personal account of her American life from her relative obscurity in Alaska to her meteoric rise as John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate.

Review: Living the American Dream

Reviewing Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue: An American Life must be an American pastime. Within three weeks of publication, Amazon.Com already lists 536 reviews. No surprise, given that as of December 6, 2009, it remains Amazon’s number one best seller, and perhaps the most talked about autobiography since Bill Clinton’s mammoth My Life.

What Others Are Saying

I find many of the reviews, along with the comments and criticisms of the “liberal pundits,” to be almost laughable. Many complain that Going Rogue is “self-serving.” Such a statement is not a book review; it’s a judgment of the motives of the heart. Ironic, isn’t it, that those who claim Sarah Palin is a “judgmental Evangelical” turn around and judge her motives?

Others grumble that Going Rogue is “self-focused” or overly “self-referential.” Pardon me for being a tad slangish, but “Duh!” “Hello!” It is, after all, an autobiography. Read Bill Clinton’s My Life (all 957 pages) and guess what, it’s self-referential. The same is true of Hillary Clinton’s Living History and of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father. Yes, by definition, an autobiography offers an individual’s personal slant on their life, perspective, beliefs, and impact.

The Foreshadowing: Living the American Dream

Being a political biography and autobiography “junkie,” I didn’t know what to expect when my copy of Going Rogue arrived. I’ve read autobiographies that creep along at a terminally slow pace. Not so, Going Rogue. Palin’s writing is fast-paced and captivating. (Yes, she has a collaborator, Lynn Vincent, which is common-place in such political autobiographies. However, the fact that Sarah Palin is a college-educated journalism major also likely has much to do with how well-written her autobiography is.)

Palin begins by foreshadowing the rest of the book.

She’s zig-zagging from booth to booth at the 2008 Alaskan state-fair, her four-month-old son, Trig, in her arms, Piper, her seven-year-old daughter her constant companion. Her phone rings and it’s John McCain asking if she “wanted to help him change history.”

From state fair to world politics. From babe-in-arms to fighting for the life of the unborn. From the obscurity of the Alaskan outback to the notoriety of vice-presidential candidate. Hers is “an American life”—where an individual can rise from a working-class home and work her way from city council, to major’s office, to governor of the largest state, to a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the land.

Her American Life

From there, Palin transports her readers back in time to February 11, 1964, the day she was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. Within three months, her family is moving to the remote frontier town of Skagway, Alaska.

Palin tells the revealing story of her first attempt to fly. Four-years-old, she leaps off the wooden plank sidewalk. Her description is metaphoric for her life.

“I got to thinking: I had seen eagles and dragonflies and ptarmigan fly, but I had never seen a person fly. That didn’t make any sense to me. Hadn’t anyone ever tried it before? Why couldn’t someone just propel herself up into the air and get it done? I stopped and looked up at the summer sky, then down at the dirt road below. Then I simply jumped. I didn’t care who might see me. I wanted to fly more than I worried about what I looked like. My knees took most of the impact, and I scraped them both. ‘Well, that didn’t work,’ I thought. So I got up, dusted myself off, and kept walking.”

That’s the story of Sarah Palin’s life in just over 100 words. Like her or hate her, agree with her or disagree vehemently, Sarah Palin is a flyer. A risk-taker. She’s resilient. As Yukon Cornelius would say, “She’s like a Bumble. Bumbles bounce.”

I enjoyed her first fifty pages perhaps most of all. Her readers learn not only of her upbringing, but of her ancestry, back several generations to well-educated, middle-class, hard-working Americans. We also learn of her husband, Todd’s, background and Yupik Eskimo ancestry. Additionally, we learn of her athletic accomplishments, her working her way through college, her childhood and young adulthood friends, and of her meeting and marrying Todd.

Why the Feminist Hatred?

Palin not only traces her early years, but also outlines her political rise: from city council, to major, to governor, to vice-presidential candidate. Reading these pages, I couldn’t help but ponder, “Why the feminist hatred?”

Let’s be honest. If her political and religious views were liberal, then her back story would be the darling of the feminist world. Born without any silver spoon. Not making it in life and politics because of the help of a well-connected father, or on the coattails of a politically-powerful husband. Working her own way through college. Raising a family and becoming a working mother. Getting involved in local causes. Fighting the old-boys’ network to be elected to the city council, to be elected mayor, and then governor. An athlete. A beautiful woman who never used her physical beauty to gain political clout.

I mean, what’s not to like about her radical womanhood?

No doubt, it’s her conservative values that prompt the feminist hatred.

Painful Reading

Reading about Palin’s rise within Alaskan politics was enjoyable reading. However, once she made the transition to the national scene, I cringed as I turned every page. Not because of poor writing, but because of the documentation of the constant attacks—attacks on her family, on her intellect, on her views and values.

I’m no Sarah Palin apologists. I don’t agree with all her views—whether religious or political. I’m not even claiming she was the most qualified vice-presidential candidate in American history (she certainly was not the least qualified and she had more political and executive experience than many presidential candidates).

It’s just the sheer unfairness of the attacks. Consider just one small, almost ancillary example: her college education. She was mocked by the media because it took her five years to graduate from college. That’s because she worked her way through college and had to take time off to earn enough money to pay her tuition. Sounds rather honorable.

Others mock the schools she attended and the degree she earned. True, she did not attend an elite, Ivy League, Eastern university. Then again, neither did arguably one of America’s most successful Presidents, Ronald Reagan (Eureka College). Perhaps most ironic, those complaining the most about her college education had the identical degree: a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Of course, that’s pretty trite stuff compared to the way Palin was savaged as a hick, an anti-intellectual, a religious extremist, dangerous, totally unqualified and unfit, etc., etc., etc.

Yes, it was painful to re-live those excruciating months of national “notoriety.”

Then again, it was instructive finally to hear “the rest of the story.” Sure, as an autobiography, you read Sarah Palin’s personal slant and biased perspective. At least her side of the story is finally told.

What About Christ?

Many may be surprised where I do find fault with Going Rouge.

Where is Christ in Going Rogue?

I’m not questioning Sarah Palin’s personal Christian faith in Christ. Nor am I questioning her religious values. Neither am I denigrating her Christian lifestyle. She prays. She depends upon God. She attends church. She loves her husband and family. She lives out her pro-life beliefs. Etc., etc., etc.

I also realize that Going Rogue is primarily a political autobiography, not a religious one. I understand that Palin’s purpose was not to make converts. Still, Sarah Palin is not afraid, throughout Going Rogue, to speak her mind and to share her heart. In fact, she’s not afraid to talk about her relationship to God.

All that said, I ask again, “Where is Christ in Going Rogue?”

My antennae first went up when I read Palin’s two explicit descriptions of what Evangelicals might call “conversion.” The first, on page 22, describes her personal conversion.

“I made the conscious decision that summer to put my life in my Creator’s hands and trust Him as I sought my life’s path.”

The second, on the last page of her book (page 413), involves what some might describe as an “altar call.”

“And I do know there is a God. My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over . . . then see what He will do and how He will get you through. Test Him on this. You’ll see there’s no such thing as coincidence. I’m thankful for His majestic creation called Alaska, which has given me my home, and for His touch on America, which has given us all so many opportunities. By His grace, an American life is an extraordinary life.”

What’s missing?

Christ is missing.

Sin is missing. Confession of guilt before a holy God is missing. Salvation is missing.

My antennae alerted, it then dawned on me that I didn’t remember hearing any Christian salvation concepts anywhere in Going Rogue. Perhaps my memory was bad, especially since I wasn’t consciously looking for these concepts in a political autobiography.

So I performed an Amazon “Search Inside” the book.

How many times in her 413 pages does Sarah Palin mention Christ? Zero.

Christian? Zero.

Christianity? Zero.

Salvation? Zero.

Sin? Twice. However, both are said sarcastically about journalistic sins of omission. So, sin? Zero.

Grace? A dozen times. However, not once in the context, or with the meaning of, “saving grace.” So, saving grace? Zero.

Evangelical? Twice. Once about her mother being invited to an Evangelical church, and once about Sarah being called a “book-burning Evangelical extremist.”

Lord? Eleven times. Several in Old Testament quotes. Several in prayers, such as “Dear Lord.” Several in slang, such as, “Dear lord, you call that a good interview?” Never in the Evangelical sense of Christ as Lord.

Church? Eleven times.

God? Forty-two times.

If Palin had never shared her conversion experience (page 22), or never broached the topic of encouraging her readers to do what she did many years ago (page 413), then I would have been a little less concerned. I could say, “It’s a political memoir, that’s why Christ is missing.”

However, having addressed the topic, plus having mentioned God 42 times, and then leaving Christ, sin, and salvation totally out of all 413 pages… I have to ask, “Where is Christ in Going Rogue?” “Why was Christ omitted from Going Rogue?”

What to make of this? Again, I’m not questioning Sarah Palin’s Christian faith or Christian life.

However, I am raising the important question of how she chose to describe her conversion and her Christian faith in her autobiography, where on so many other personal issues she’s so unafraid to speak her mind boldly.

Honestly, it’s scary. Scary because it’s illustrative of our post-modern conception of religious faith.

It’s religion lite. It’s conversion without Christ. It’s salvation without the cross. It’s redemption without sin and guilt.

It’s “AA Faith”: putting our hands in the hands of an anonymous, generic “Higher Power.”

If the “Religious Right” is behind Sarah Palin, it had better not be because of her depiction of salvation from sin by grace through faith in Christ alone. At least not on the basis of 413 pages of autobiographical narrative where she mentions Christ zero times, where she never once mentions sin and salvation from sin.

Yes, unfortunately, it is a typical American life. We pray to God in the hard times. We mention God. But we eschew explicit dependence upon Christ as our only Savior from sin by grace through faith.

A Political Autobiography

As a political autobiography, Going Rogue: An American Life is an excellent read. If you want Sarah Palin’s defense of Sarah Palin’s political life (which is what every political autobiography offers), and you want it in a tell-all, fast-paced, well-crafted book, then do what 2.5 million people have done already—buy Going Rogue.

However, if you want a personal autobiography (of someone who claims to be a spokesperson for the Evangelical Right) that at least provides a snippet of content about conversion to Christ from sin by faith—then Going Rogue will disappoint. Going Rogue, while it is a defense of Sarah Palin’s life and politics, is not a defense of Christ’s saving life, death, burial, and resurrection for our sin. Which, in my conviction, is not only America’s only hope, but the only hope of the world.

A Compelling Ride: A Review of Sacred Friendships

Reviewer: Aaron D. Taylor

Sacred Friendships is truly a unique book. On the one hand, the book serves as a celebration of little-known women heroes throughout church history. On the other hand, the book reads like an instruction manual for pastors, lay people, and Christian counselors.

The intersection of the two themes makes for an interesting read, although as an individual outside of the Christian counseling world, I found myself more interested in the lives of the women themselves than the lessons that they provide for counseling. Having said that . . . I think that the themes of soul care (which is comforting the suffering) and spiritual direction (which is confronting sin and leading people to a relationship with Christ) is applicable to all Christians—and the women profiled in this book are certainly instructive in this manner.

The authors did an excellent job of combating the notion that women should be silent and bury their talent. Amazingly, they did it without delving into the theological controversy surrounding the role of women in the Church. Rather, they chose to let the women’s stories speak for themselves.

Some of the women profiled in the book were wives of famous men (like Katherine Von Bora Luther, Idelette Calvin, Sarah Edwards, and Susannah Spurgeon) and fulfilled their ministries by being a strong support to their husbands. Other women were known for courageously speaking out against social evils (like Octavia Rogers and Laura Haviland). Still others had very strong evangelism and discipleship ministries in their own right—including teaching men. The examples of Susannah Wesley, Perpetua, and Argula Von Grumbrach come to mind.

This wasn’t a conscious theme of the book, but one of the things that struck me while reading the stories of the women profiled in Sacred Friendships was something that many of them had in common. Many of the women profiled were from prominent families and willfully renounced a lifestyle of privilege in order to identify with and serve the poor. I think that anyone reading Sacred Friendships should take some time to reflect on what these women might teach us today about living a Kingdom lifestyle.

Another positive aspect of Sacred Friendships is that the authors took great care not to just make it about celebrating the legacy of white Christian women. I was very pleased to see African American women, Hispanic women, and a Native American woman profiled. As a missionary, I was also delighted to see a profile on Ann Judson (a famous pioneer missionary to Burma).

The . . . book made for a compelling ride. I highly recommend this book to anybody and everybody.

To read a sample chapter please click here.