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virice5's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
If you are in a place of questioning your faith or wondering what's next for it, I highly recommend this book as an alternative to the narratives that are being spewed by the right and the left.
solzhe_boy_nitsyn's review against another edition
5.0
This is an incredibly important book, and very timely. It hits the nail on the head for a lot of issues that I find myself thinking about often as close friends all around me fall away from the faith that we were raised in together. I also realized (half way through the book) that I used to listen to the authors band alllll the time back in the day.
jordandeanbaker's review
4.0
3.5/5 - man this one is realllly hard to rate. On one hand I highlighted like half of it and wanted to screenshot and share whole chapters. On the other hand I really don’t think this book is for everyone. Joshua Porter (AKA Josh Dies for those of us who grew up on Cornerstone Festival and Tooth & Nail samplers) writes in a very “in your face” way, that feels familiar and compelling for those of us who come from the same DIY punk rock background that the author emerged from. For many people though, I think some portions of the book will feel callous. Joshua Porter survived (both literally and spiritually) his own brush with deconstruction, yet his writing often lacks empathy for those who are currently struggling with doubts of their own. However, If you can get past the occasional brashness there is a lot of wisdom to be found in these pages.
rawrwar's review against another edition
3.0
Some of the highlights of this book are the stories from tour and from Josh's childhood. I love the homemade shirt story.
The part of the book really goes off the rails from my perspective is the problem of evil section. The general vibe I get is that the reason people are leaving Christianity is that they're believing in the wrong version of Christianity. But for me I think my theology was quite similar to Josh's before I left the faith. I read all Greg Boyd's book including his 1500 pager on old testament violence. I listened to hundreds of Woodland Hills sermons and also a few of Josh's sermons. But my problem was less with the bible and more with the body of Christ.
The band As Cities Burn said it well: if we are the body, how did Jesus get so ugly?
The author seems to blame a lot of the evil in the world on randomness, chaos and ghosts.
I don't know man, it feels a little bit too much like Ghostbusters or This Present Darkness. Josh is quick to talk about factory farms and sweatshops and environmental destruction without making the connection of these evils back to the profit motive and private property - the defining features of capitalism.
As far as individual acts of evil go, I wonder if the author has considered that the helplessness that most people experience on a daily basis could be driving them to commit a lot of these atrocities. People have a hard time thinking clearly with all the extra daily stress that the system attaches to their daily lives.
Why don't we hear of many school shootings in China? or Democratic People's Republic of Korea? or hutterite colonies? I'm sure bad things happen in these places, but it seems like for the most part they are pretty peaceful compared to USA. China hasn't invaded anyone in my lifetime.
What if there was a way to make the world a better place, but people are too scared of it because we've been programmed since we were little kids to hate communism?
It's my opinion as a Marxist that a lot of the evil in the world stems from capitalism. Obviously not all, but a lot. The people pulling the strings behind the scenes are throwing billions of people into misery in the name of profits. These people have names and addresses. They aren't ghosts or spirits or demons. they are humans.
The working class living in the USA are taught their whole lives that the US is the freest country in the world. Then they become adults and hardly have any free time. They have little or zero democratic say in their workplace. They're completely alienated from the product of their labor. Once every 4 years they get to vote between two of the shittiest people in the world. The winner becomes their next dictator, and nothing much changes, or if it does it changes for the worse.
Large percentages of the measley wages workers make get collected by the government and used by the Pentagon to blow up little kids of colour in some far off place. What if these atrocities are a symptom of capitalism?
What if people doing horrible things is some kind of last ditch effort to regain a fraction of the control that they feel they have lost in their lives?
What if mass shootings are related to the violence that the United States and its allies enact on the global South on a daily basis? What if much of this chaos is simply the chickens coming home to roost?
The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all evil. Capitalism is based on the profit motive - which is just 'love of money' with a corporate rebrand.
Christians love giving 10% of their income to the church. What if they gave that money directly to poor people instead?
Or maybe instead of charity, Christians should be attempting to undercut the Empire? I don't know, I'm just spitballing here. I know Josh is committed to non-violence, and as a Mennonite I am to, but... things are pretty bad. Is there a non-violent way to pull the rug out from under the war machine? I want to talk about that.
I want to talk about how the richest country in the world can't find a way to make sure their citizens can have their teeth fixed. Capitalism is built to keep poor people in poverty, while vacuuming up all the countries wealth into the offshore bank accounts of the ruling class. How is this great evil not even mentioned in Josh's discussion of evil?
Christians love to talk about the beauty of the revolution. But most churches have more in common with a corporation then they do with the early church. It's very difficult to find a church that doesn't try to sell you coffee or books or something.
Talk to me when you guys are ready to get serious about a revolution. Christianity is an unserious mess right now that I don't want anything to do with. That being said, I really enjoyed this read, as a got me thinking, and is likely of book I will return to at some point when I'm not feeling as a bitter as I do these days.
The reason I can't be a Christian has little to do with the Bible. It's got little to do with blaming God for the evil. For me, my problem with Christianity is that evil is out there and it's making itself obvious to everyone. and instead of fighting it, Christians (in the west at least) are contributing to it and even perpetuating it. My problem with Christianity isn't that Christian are sinners, it's at they are cowards.
But guess what? I'm a coward too.
Dan
P.S. josh if you see this, please don't give up on the cannibals trilogy
The part of the book really goes off the rails from my perspective is the problem of evil section. The general vibe I get is that the reason people are leaving Christianity is that they're believing in the wrong version of Christianity. But for me I think my theology was quite similar to Josh's before I left the faith. I read all Greg Boyd's book including his 1500 pager on old testament violence. I listened to hundreds of Woodland Hills sermons and also a few of Josh's sermons. But my problem was less with the bible and more with the body of Christ.
The band As Cities Burn said it well: if we are the body, how did Jesus get so ugly?
The author seems to blame a lot of the evil in the world on randomness, chaos and ghosts.
I don't know man, it feels a little bit too much like Ghostbusters or This Present Darkness. Josh is quick to talk about factory farms and sweatshops and environmental destruction without making the connection of these evils back to the profit motive and private property - the defining features of capitalism.
As far as individual acts of evil go, I wonder if the author has considered that the helplessness that most people experience on a daily basis could be driving them to commit a lot of these atrocities. People have a hard time thinking clearly with all the extra daily stress that the system attaches to their daily lives.
Why don't we hear of many school shootings in China? or Democratic People's Republic of Korea? or hutterite colonies? I'm sure bad things happen in these places, but it seems like for the most part they are pretty peaceful compared to USA. China hasn't invaded anyone in my lifetime.
What if there was a way to make the world a better place, but people are too scared of it because we've been programmed since we were little kids to hate communism?
It's my opinion as a Marxist that a lot of the evil in the world stems from capitalism. Obviously not all, but a lot. The people pulling the strings behind the scenes are throwing billions of people into misery in the name of profits. These people have names and addresses. They aren't ghosts or spirits or demons. they are humans.
The working class living in the USA are taught their whole lives that the US is the freest country in the world. Then they become adults and hardly have any free time. They have little or zero democratic say in their workplace. They're completely alienated from the product of their labor. Once every 4 years they get to vote between two of the shittiest people in the world. The winner becomes their next dictator, and nothing much changes, or if it does it changes for the worse.
Large percentages of the measley wages workers make get collected by the government and used by the Pentagon to blow up little kids of colour in some far off place. What if these atrocities are a symptom of capitalism?
What if people doing horrible things is some kind of last ditch effort to regain a fraction of the control that they feel they have lost in their lives?
What if mass shootings are related to the violence that the United States and its allies enact on the global South on a daily basis? What if much of this chaos is simply the chickens coming home to roost?
The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all evil. Capitalism is based on the profit motive - which is just 'love of money' with a corporate rebrand.
Christians love giving 10% of their income to the church. What if they gave that money directly to poor people instead?
Or maybe instead of charity, Christians should be attempting to undercut the Empire? I don't know, I'm just spitballing here. I know Josh is committed to non-violence, and as a Mennonite I am to, but... things are pretty bad. Is there a non-violent way to pull the rug out from under the war machine? I want to talk about that.
I want to talk about how the richest country in the world can't find a way to make sure their citizens can have their teeth fixed. Capitalism is built to keep poor people in poverty, while vacuuming up all the countries wealth into the offshore bank accounts of the ruling class. How is this great evil not even mentioned in Josh's discussion of evil?
Christians love to talk about the beauty of the revolution. But most churches have more in common with a corporation then they do with the early church. It's very difficult to find a church that doesn't try to sell you coffee or books or something.
Talk to me when you guys are ready to get serious about a revolution. Christianity is an unserious mess right now that I don't want anything to do with. That being said, I really enjoyed this read, as a got me thinking, and is likely of book I will return to at some point when I'm not feeling as a bitter as I do these days.
The reason I can't be a Christian has little to do with the Bible. It's got little to do with blaming God for the evil. For me, my problem with Christianity is that evil is out there and it's making itself obvious to everyone. and instead of fighting it, Christians (in the west at least) are contributing to it and even perpetuating it. My problem with Christianity isn't that Christian are sinners, it's at they are cowards.
But guess what? I'm a coward too.
Dan
P.S. josh if you see this, please don't give up on the cannibals trilogy
teddymackay's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Well written, complex yet approachable and deeply necessary for our time.
toddgrotenhuis's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced