I have a feeling I'm going to be very long winded in this entry, so fasted your seatbelts, it's gonna be an exhilarating ride of your life!! Not really, but you might want to grab a Snickers or something.

There are a lot of things I'm very very firm on, such as clear biblical truths- God's view (as far as we can translate) of clear descriptions in the bible.

There are other things I'm not very firm on, and I feel easily swayed - things like the coolest city in the world, my favorite cereal, whether Christians should have tattoos and piercings, whether Matt Holliday is the best-looking baseball player of all time, etc. These are things I'm okay with being easily swayed about, probably cause they're really not that important in the big scheme of things.

Then there are some topics that I sure wish I could be more grounded in because my opinion is neutral. I want more discretion when I read or hear someone's opinion about things. Unless someone is truly obviously full of bullhocky, I'll listen to them and even consider adopting their ideas if I'm indifferent about it. Does that make me simply impressionable, or a free-spirited hippie? Pass the blunt maaaan, whatever, free love for all! (note sarcasm)

What I just said has something to do with my book review. I'll tie it in in just a second. Hold tight...

I just about finished with the book, "I'm Okay, You're Not - The Message We're Sending Unbelievers and Why We Should Stop". It immediately grabbed my attention, first of all, because of the cover design. The design and title is blunt and simple- loved it. First let me point out some good things about this book. You should read it! It has definitely made an impression on me about a very relevant topic, as I've noticed this problem for a while now. I was MORE than challenged in very big ways.

I'm going to use 2 of his nicknames while I explain this: Normies (Unbelievers) and Us/We (Believers). He uses Us/We to describe Christians in general- he makes a lot of generalizations about Christians, a lot of blanket statements, so I'm going to do the same. But please know that I know that there are millions of Christians out there who do not fall into this category I'm about to talk about, okay? So let it challenge you, but don't take offense to any of it if you search your heart and know it doesn't apply to you!

Before I go on to the point, I have to explain my 2 complaints just so if you decide to read it, you'll have a heads up. He's a funny author but there is a lot of unnecessary and unfunny fluff he puts in there. Beware of some stupid humor (though I must say, I did laugh out loud at many parts). Second, he overuses capitalization on random words. Sometimes It's Funny, But Not When You Use It All The Time. See What I Mean?

This is the point of the book: Jesus commanded us to fulfill The Great Commission (share the Gospel) and The Great Commandment (love the Lord 1st, love everyone else 2nd). Though we've been doing a decent job in spreading the Word around the world, we've been doing a terrible job at both The Commission and the Commandment in our own country, in our own families, jobsites, and cities. Like I mentioned a few days ago, Christianity, especially in the Western world (I even think many parts of Europe could be involved too), has decreased an incredible amount over the past few decades. We're losing people fast. One of the reasons he believes this is happening is because people are judging Christianity by Christians (imagine that!). He confronts a huge wall that is standing in between Us and the Normies. I can relate to this so very much as I have so many Normie friends (or at least, had a ton of them in high school). At the end of each chapter he quotes what Normies have to say about Us, and let me tell you, it's hard to hear but it's so relevant and I've heard the exact same thing from my own friends.

Here is the main wall he's referring to. Christians don't act like Jesus most of the time. By the way, when people say 'act like Jesus' or 'what would Jesus do', I'm not talking about acting happy all the time or being ridiculously and deceivingly (real word?) nice to people. I'm talking about the real love of Jesus that he showed. We don't respect Normies, we have hidden agendas as their "friend" in hopes of "saving them", we can sometimes force our beliefs on them too hard, we can be downright mean to people, if you're not one of Us - no matter how great of a person you are - we know you're going to Hell in a handbasket and it's obvious we know that, and the list can go on. We aren't loving people, we're just trying to save them. We aren't befriending people, we're just trying make them think we like them so that they'll get converted. We have an underlying reason for every nice thing we do and say to Normies- to get em' on our team.

What we don't understand is that Normies see right through us- they're not idiots. They know when we're faking it and it's rude. They know the basics of Christianity (most of them) and us thinking that cold street evangelism or tacky conversation starters is the affective way to communicate ourselves is asinine. We don't respect their beliefs, yet when they don't respect ours, we get offended. People are tired of Christians being hypocrites and not acting like we claim that we should. In other words, there are two teams and they're called *Let us believe what we want and leave us alone* and *You should believe what we believe or we won't respect you*. We feel sorry for each other. This is the great divide in spirituality.

The author's seemingly radical suggestion for our lives is to STOP. Stop looking at them like they're a hopeless rotting corpse you have to bring back to life. Start looking at people like God's creation, everyone in the world, not just Christians. Stop judging and start loving. Stop pushing and start listening. Give them some respect, give them space, let them believe what they want and respect it. Share the Gospel if they ask, and don't share it if they don't want to hear it yet. Stop being fake friendly to them only to think, "they're just my evangelism project". Start loving them like you'd love your own family or like any other Christian friend. Go out and get some Normie friends. We've lived at arms length from Normies and he's suggesting we start hugging them (metaphorically speaking).

SO! Everything I just mentioned in the past 4 paragraphs was basically a plot summary. Up till the end, I agree with everything this guy is saying. However, I see a red flag in his thoughts and I think it should be addressed. Here are some quotes that I am more specifically referring to:

"Let's not change them. Let's stop worrying about changing the minds of people who don't want to believe what we believe. Let's stop pushing our religion on people who are perfectly content doing whatever it is that they've chosen to do, who are happy to travel down whatever course they've chosen for themselves. Let's really respect people instead of saying we respect them....

"Let's let people be'....

"In our hearts minds and souls, it's got to be perfectly okay for non-Christians to be non Christian'.....

"It's not like I'm suggesting we give up on something that's just working so great for us it'd be a real shame to lose it. We've got to remember that trying to convert people doesn't work anyway.'.....

"It works practically (they're not listening anyway), it works emotionally (finally, we can quit stressing over this relentless pressure to convert others), it works theologically (it allows us to fulfill the Great Commandment.'....

"We've preached enough to people who don't want to hear it. It's time to give them, and us, a break.'....

"Trying to change the mind of someone who knows their own mind is like trying to get a fish to climb a tree. We're talking about Normies who have never expressed to us any interest in Jesus."

The big red flags there are the first 4 statements. In all of those quotes I am not necessarily taking a stand against it or for it. I am trying to figure out what I believe here. I really don't know how theologically sound this is. In general, I like it. I like his thinking just cause it seems so natural yet radical. But something about it doesn't feel right, and I don't want to only base it on my feelings. His suggestion sure would make people get along better, but I wonder if we're fulfilling the Great Commission, or even standing up for our faith (in some way) by respecting people who deny God. That's difficult for me.

How do I respect that? How do I respect people that live such an obvious lifestyle that denies God? This guy's saying (can't say something is true unless the extreme possibility is also true) that if a drunk pregnant drug addict bisexual female Antichrist cult leader who's having an abortion while bowing down to a cat statue and cursing God while beating a dog with a baseball bat were to come to me and want to be my friend, I should say, "Alright, cool, I respect that- wanna go get a latte and paint each other's nails?" Seriously! Where's the line here?

I can respect them as people- for their talents- their character- their demeanor- but respect them even if they fully believe something I (or the bible) am 100% against? Wow. That's a lot of shoe to fill if that's what I'm supposed to do. Loving Normies on the outside? That's easy! But he makes a good point- how can you really love them if you don't respect them? How can you respect them if you don't accept them?

I agree with most of what the author writes about in his book and I think his "social reformation" is long overdue for us Christians. But this part is a challenge.

So what do you think about this? I would love some more opinions- is he spot on? or way off?

To read more about this book, click here