Breaking Out of Religious Christianity [Paperback]

Duane Harlow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2006

There is a place in every church for people who are on fire for the kingdom of God. If you feel as if your church is dead, then, as much as is possible, be a part of the solution. Bring a fresh breath

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers; 1 edition (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076842383X
• ISBN-13: 978-0768423839
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,782,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somebody Understands!, March 4, 2007

By 

Pastor-E "Pastor-E" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking Out of Religious Christianity (Paperback)

This is a great book, and says what my wife and I have been feeling, and hearing from many, many people in the body of Christ. When I first started feeling this way I felt as though I was betraying God! Many people over the lasy few years have spoke to me about this vary issue! As I sought the Lord and listened to these people, I realized that they were genuine concerns. The saints who fely like I did were the people I knew (or came to know) to be what I call, "The real thing"! I mean REAL Christians, not just church attenders, or followers of men! These were people who sought hard after God! After some time, God showed me that it was not betraying Him to question the Religious Church, and has freed us to serve Him instead of the idols of men.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but lacking, January 31, 2008

By 

Richard Osborne "Mister Rik" (Wenatchee, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking Out of Religious Christianity (Paperback)

While Reverend Harlow's book is good and contains much Scripture-backed truth with which I agree wholeheartedly, I found myself somewhat disappointed. Why? The title of the book is "Breaking Out of Religious Christianity" and it does a fine job of describing the process of doing just that. Unfortunately, I felt that Rev. Harlow failed to adequately define the term "religious Christianity". It was described in only the most general of terms, with few examples to illustrate the problem. The only specific example that really stands out in the book is a brief mention of the fact that drinking alcohol is not, in and of itself, a sin, despite what many churches teach. How, specifically, does "religious Christianity" manifest itself?

Before I go any further, I'll confess up front that I purchased this book hoping to find confirmation of my own belief that much of what I was taught growing up in the church was man-made rules, not Scriptural commands. The fact is that all I remember from my childhood and teen years in church is a bunch of restrictions about what kind of music I listen to, what kind of books I read, sex, and drugs/alcohol. (For example, during one such "lesson" a Sunday School classmate raised his hand and asked, "But didn't Jesus drink wine?" and the teacher answered, with a straight face, "The wine in Jesus time wasn't alcoholic." Which left me wondering to myself, "Then why does the Bible say "Be ye not drunk ..."?. I remember learning practically *nothing* about serving God and the needy, or being like Jesus.

The reason I bought this book for confirmation is related to my current situation. I'm in my 40s now, and for the last 10+ years I've been attending a church with a pastor whose preaching is very similar to what Rev. Harlow has written here. I share a house with another man who attends the same church. But this man is in his 60s - my father's age. Despite the fact that he has attended this same church and listened to this same pastor for 20+ years, he seems to be almost completely stuck in his Methodist upbringing (his own father was a Methodist minister). He has a major problem with my choice of reading material: I enjoy fantasy literature (Tolkien and similar authors), and I collect superhero comic books. He has gone so far as to "request" that I not read these things in his presence, and has even blamed recent flareups of his health problems on "demonic attacks" caused by my choice of reading material. He chooses to judge these things based on what he's been told in the past instead of investigating for himself, which I feel makes him a shining example of why so many non-Christians perceive us as willfully ignorant dupes who just go along with what we're told instead of learning for ourselves.

When I countered by asking him how my reading material was any different from the WWII movies he loves to watch, he answered, "To let you know: I watch war movies because they do help me to remember the spiritual warfare that I (and you) are part of daily... I.e. the devil shooting at both of us with REAL bullets...- i.e. sickness, discouragement, financial problems, death, violence, et cetera..." This (along with other things he's said) proved to me that he is deeply embedded in the "Conservative Christian Rah Rah Rah USA #1" = "True Christianity" thing. It tells me that he's more interested in worrying about his problems and building walls around himself to keep out any "evil" influences (the legendary Christian "fortress mentality"). In reality, what I see is a man completely ruled by fear. Isn't the phrase "fear not" (which is repeated many times in the Bible) just as much a commandment as anything in Exodus/Leviticus/Deuteronomy? It's my belief that his fear (and worry is just a form of fear) is far more to blame for his physical problems than any outside influence. Ultimately, I believe that all "religious Christians" are ruled by fear in one way or another, and that is perhaps more "demonic" than a fictional story about wizards and dragons.

I have great difficulty discussing these issues with him, because I'm not a skilled talker/conversationalist, and I'm not able to spontaneously counter his deeply ingrained, pat, "religious" answers. So when I found this book I was hoping to find such arguments, along with Biblically-based evidence that I could use when discussing these issues with him. But perhaps that was not the author's intent, so I don't mean my comments to be a harsh criticism. Nevertheless, I feel that any plan for solving a problem first needs to define the problem. A football coach comes up with a detailed analysis of the opposing team's strengths and weaknesses before devising his own game plan - he doesn't just invent a list of plays. A prisoner who wishes to escape first learns the layout of the prison and its defenses before attempting to break out. Likewise, a plan to break out of the prison of religious Christianity needs to analyze exactly how that prison is built.