Stealing
Jesus : How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity by Bruce
Bawer
In 300-odd pages, Bruce Bawer has opened a
floodgate of incisive religious criticism that will reverberate
across the American political scene. He has put into eloquent and
decisive language what many mainline Christians and non-Christians
have quietly suspected but been unable to verbalize--namely that
Fundamentalist Christianity is barely Christian at all. A Baptist
theologian says he is "not interested in who Jesus was."
Pat Robertson argues the Golden Rule as Jesus' justification that
"individual self-interest is being a very real part of the
human makeup, and something not necessarily bad or sinful."
In page after page, Bawer reveals a so-called Fundamentalist
movement that readily displays a blatant disregard for the most
salient message of the Gospels: selfless love and service to all.
As for the significance of this revelation in the face of the
ballooning presence of Fundamentalist Christians in American
politics, readers will have to decide for themselves.
Stealing Jesus may prove of value simply
for its clear exposition of what today's American
"fundamentalists" believe and want to do. Bawer's
readers will no longer be able to greet that term with a
condescending smile. The Church of Law, as he convincingly
demonstrates, does not debate, and it takes no prisoners. --
The New York Times Book Review, Walter Kendrick
From the author of the widely acclaimed A
Place at the Table, this is a major work, passionately
outspoken and cogently reasoned, that exposes the great danger
posed to Christianity today by fundamentalism.
The time is past, says Bruce Bawer, when
denominational names and other traditional labels provided an
accurate reflection of Christian America's religious beliefs and
practices. The meaningful distinction today is not between
Protestant and Catholic, or Baptist and Episcopalian, but rather
between "legalistic" and "nonlegalistic"
religion, between the Church of Law and the Church of Love. On one
side is the fundamentalist right, which draws a sharp distinction
between "saved" and "unsaved" and worships a
God of wrath and judgment; on the other are more mainstream
Christians who view all humankind as children of a loving God who
calls them to break down barriers of hate, prejudice, and
distrust.
Pointing out that supposedly
"traditional" beliefs of American fundamentalism --
about which most mainstream Christians, clergy included, know
shockingly little--are in fact of relatively recent origin, are
distinctively American in many ways, and are dramatically at odds
with the values that Jesus actually spread, Bawer fascinatingly
demonstrates the way in which these beliefs have increasingly come
to supplant genuinely fundamental Christian tenets in the American
church and to become synonymous with Christianity in the minds of
many people.
Stealing Jesus is the ringing testament
of a man who is equally disturbed by the notion of an America
without Christianity and the notion of an American Christianity
without love and compassion.
One of "Publishers Weekly's" Best
Books of the Year in 1997, this work presents a passionately
outspoken, cogently reasoned indictment of the fundamentalist
right's claim to be the only legitimate voice of Christianity
today.
"Bawer's graceful prose and lucid insights
make this a must-read book for anyone concerned with the
relationship of Christianity to contemporary American
culture." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Passionately outspoken, impeccably researched, and cogently
reasoned, Stealing Jesus exposes the great danger posed to
Christianity today by fundamentalism. A groundbreaking book."
-- Library Journal
"So long, Bawer says, as the national media go on regarding
fundamentalists as harmless or margin also long, indeed, as they
are allowed to get away with the preposterous assertion that they
stand for Christian fundamentals their power and danger can only
grow. We badly need a wake-up call, and [Bawer] intends to deliver
it. . . . Stealing Jesus may prove of value simply for its clear
exposition of what today's American fundamentalists believe and
want to do. Bawer's readers will no longer be able to greet that
term with a condescending smile." -- Walter Kendrick, New
York Times Book Review
"This book is an adventure in American religious thought,
exciting and intelligent." -- Booklist
"Bawer lauds liberal Christianity as the essence of the
Gospel, the kind of religion that Jesus would both recognize and
practice because he preached it. This is a passionate, articulate,
timely, and utterly useful book." -- Peter J. Gomes, Wilson
Quarterly
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly and a
Notable Book by the New York Times
About the Author
Bruce Bawer is the author of A Place at the Table, Diminishing
Fictions, and The Aspect of Eternity. A practicing
Episcopalian, he has delivered talks and sermons in churches
around the country and has published essays on religious subjects
in the New York Times and elsewhere.
