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Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope

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While some of the lengthier reviews found below will perhaps do a more thorough job of summarizing the content of Brian McLaren's latest book "Everything Must Change," my intent is to offer a few of the insights and impressions of someone who has experienced both sides of the conservative/emergent debate and has the scars to prove it.

As a pastor and philosophy professor I have encountered my share of anti-Christian or heretical ideas. I have studied Nietzche, wrestled with Darwin, and most recently read and re-read the latest anti-theistic polemics from Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great), and Sam Harris (The End of Faith).

All of these writers and thinkers have elaborated on a host of ideas that call into question everything that even the most nominal Christian could hold dear. Their effectiveness is for another review, although I can say for myself that despite their prodigious gifts I am left unconvinced that God is dead, destructive, or a delusion.

I preface my comments with these references to truly anti-Christian thinkers as a ways of putting into context what Brian McLaren seems to mean when he says that "everything must change." Despite the hyperbole and swooning pyrotechnics of those who have branded McLaren to be a sort of postmodern Pied Piper who is leading the next generation off the cliff of heresy, the actual book and writer behind it say nothing of the sort. Not even close.

While all of Brian's theological conclusions might not jive with your own, my guess is that the majority of readers who take the text on its own merits will find that the a great number of the ideas espoused are not so strange or horrifying, but rather are practical and commonsense suggestions for a global church in an apocalyptic age (in the original sense of the term, not necessarily the "Left Behind" version).

In "Everything Must Change," McLaren has presented a clear and thoughtful summary of the thinking spurring much of the energy behind the newest movements of the church, broadly termed Emergent. While some of the voices are new and the language is often non-traditional, this emerging movement (of which McLaren is the undisputed Papa Bear) is reinvigorating the sincere, Christ-centered faith of many of the disenchanted and disillusioned wounded from the evangelical and fundamentalist movements.

It is uneccesary to critique those preceding articulations of the Gospel here; suffice to say, the language and focus of the modern church was insufficient in reaching many in the emerging generations. McLaren has created an elegantly detailed work that offers hope to many passionate people who desire to put their faith in a God with bigger plans for the world than simply providing their ticket to heaven.

For these passionate followers, both new and "experienced," the doors to the church must be thrown open to the world. This is the power of change that McLaren describes - a church that is a light and source hope for the masses in ways we might have been missing for far too long.

I hope you will consider reading it for yourself.

- S.

Passion and compassion. These are the two words that I would use to describe this book and its author. The passion is communicated in the main title-- everything must change. The compassion is communicated in the subtitle-- global crises, hope. McLaren continues building on his previous works, especially Secret Message of Jesus. Those looking for McLaren's theological underpinnings will find it there. This book is about exploring what such a theology will look like on the ground, in real life. With grace in his words, McLaren lets us in on his own journey of discovering that Christianity often does not do much, and the things it has done have often been very negative. Then exploring the theology discussed in Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren talks at length about his experiences with people and communities from around the globe-- his experiences of finding much pain, hurt, and suffering-- and the systems that exist in that world. In the spirit of Jesus himself, McLaren paints a way forward for the church (especially those of us who find ourselves in its northern and western expressions) to truly bring Jesus into the global crisis and challenge these global systems and their central narratives. McLaren challenges the church to have "glad tidings" gospel that rivals the "gospels" of our systems/empires. He implores Christians to address the problems in our day just as Jesus did in his. Christians today are often serving idols and emperors rather than Jesus Christ. Jesus inaugarated the kingdom of God on Earth, the will of God being done on Earth as it is in heaven. Truly McLaren is right-- everything must change. It is time for us to acknowledge Jesus as Lord rather than Caesar as Lord.

As I read through Everything Must Change, I'm struck by something impossible to avoid. No, it's not the epistemologic issues. And yes, the ecclectic, synchretistic theology does bother me (as it should). But what I find most striking is his desire to revive the positive of Christianity (and Islam, etc.). He wants the positive results, the positive message, everything that not only reinforces good feelings but also motivates us to good works for the benefit of others.

As I read it, I couldn't help but reflect on some 19th c. theology that I read recently in The Golden Dawn, or Light on the Great Future. What McLaren is asking for is not at all unlike the pre-WWI, pre-Moody, postmillennial wishes for a better world, a successful place for all, a Christianity where everything is done, if not right, as best we can possibly do it. But I think this is naive. The postivists of two centuries ago rode the wave of modernity. Today's postmodern wants to maintian the Positive without the Modern. I won't hold my breath. I see McLaren's outlook as the ultimate in post-postive positivism. You can't resurrect a dead horse.

One thing that McLaren implicitly requests is that Christianity become an initiator of positive change. Some of what he asks for is doable and practical. Some of it we already do, but could do more of and more often. But other matters would require a degree of political ascent, and that's what got us into 1500 years of problems as it was. So, while I appreciate some of his sentiments, I actually don't think he is going far enough with his framework. There is a degree of separation from modernity that will help us. I wish he would consider some additional steps and then evaluate them for more consistency.

Despite his dependence on that unstated theonomy necessary to implement this type of social change, he does confront the Christian with dependence on the current world system. The section on theocapitalism is especially worth the time to read. Nevertheless one cannot help but see that his views are tainted by an overly-optimistic outlook. The secularists, and many of us within evangelicalism, have had quite enough of misused politics. McLaren is proposing another politic, and I don't know that the world is ready for such an alternative. His (apparently) postmillennial outlook is consumed with social justice with a good deal of need for a mechanism to implement it.

I like some of his core principles but am disturbed by his responsiveness first to needs and complaints instead of first responding to Scripture.

Do I recommend this book? Yes. I find his arguments weak but his critique of the church, though it has errors, to be clearly-stated and useful. There is always something to learn from our critics. Brian McLaren's work makes a useful mirror for us to reflect upon, but not to gaze upon.

Those of us who have been keeping a wary eye on the Emerging Church know that to understand the movement we must understand Brian McLaren. Though it is not quite fair to label him the movement's leader, he certainly functions as its elder statesman and his writing seems to serve as a guide or compass for the movement. Where he leads, others follow. And so it is with interest that I turned to <em>Everything Must Change</em>. This book is shaped by two preoccupying questions: what are the biggest problems in the world and what does Jesus have to say about these global problems? They are valid questions and probably questions to which Christians should devote more attention. In this book McLaren address them head-on.

According to McLaren, we live in a societal system consisting of three subsystems: the prosperity, equity and security systems. These are all guided by a framing narrative. The world was made in such a way that these should function in perfect harmony as they are guided by God's framing story, but unfortunately they have become misaligned so they no longer function as they should. When the framing narrative is destructive, this system can go suicidal, ultimately self-destructing. This is society as we know it now--a society that is completely suicidal. And this is the problem Jesus came to address. Having thought long and hard about the world's problems, McLaren says this: "Our plethora of critical global problems can be traced to four deep dysfunctions, the fourth of which is the lynchpin or leverage point through which we can reverse the first three." These three crises are linked in a very tightly integrated system that functions as this "suicide machine."

Jesus, says McLaren, stepped into this dysfunctional system and proposed an alternative in both word and deed. Jesus' solution was to confront society's suicide machine, to redraw and reshape the framing narratives by proposing a radical alternative. He says Jesus' message, His good news, is this: "The time has come! Rethink everything! A radically new kind of empire is available--the empire of God has arrived! Believe this good news, and defect from all human imperial narratives, counternarratives, dual narratives, and withdrawal narratives. Open your minds and hearts like children to see things freshly in this new way, follow me and my words, and enter this new way of living." Jesus took that message to the cross, an instrument of torture and cruelty that He used "to expose the cruelty and injustice of those in power and instill hope and confidence in the oppressed."

McLaren's utter disdain for Protestant theology is evident throughout, but perhaps nowhere so clearly as in his rendition of Mary's Magnificat, rewritten in such a way, he says, that it can now be consistent with traditional theology.

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my personal Savior, for he has been mindful of the correct saving faith of his servant. My spirit will go to heaven when my body dies for the Mighty One has provided forgiveness, assurance, and eternal security for me--holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who have correct saving faith and orthodox articulations of belief, from generation to generation. He will overcome the damning effects of original sin with his mighty arm; he will damn to hell those who believe they can be saved through their own efforts or through any religion other than the new one He is about to form. He will condemn followers of other religions to hell but bring to heaven those with correct belief. He has filled correct believers with spiritual blessings but will send those who are not elect to hell forever. He has helped those with correct doctrinal understanding, remembering to be merciful to those who believe in the correct theories of atonement, just as our preferred theologians through history have articulated."

But the Bible, he says, teaches none of this. Rather, "Mary celebrates that God is going to upset the dominance hierarchies typical of empire so that the nation of Israel can experience the fulfillment of its original promise."

After reframing Jesus and His message, McLaren reintroduces Him through a new lens. This Jesus, as we might expect, is radically different from the one Protestants have known and honored and radically different from the Jesus of the Bible. McLaren continues to systematically dismantle Christian doctrine. "With no apologies to Martin Luther, John Calvin, or modern evangelicalism, Jesus (in Luke 16:9) does not prescribe hell to those who refuse to accept the message of justification by grace through faith, or to those who are predestined for perdition, or to those who don't express faith in a favored atonement theory by accepting Jesus as their `personal savior.' Rather, hell--literally or figurative--is for the rich and comfortable who proceed on their way without concern for their poor neighbor day after day." Jesus "calls them to grow their good deeds portfolios for the common good, especially the good of the poor and marginalized."

McLaren seems particular incensed with the biblical concepts of heaven, hell and atonement. Rather than being eternal realities, heaven and hell become states we create on this earth as we pursue or deny the kingdom of God. Because Jesus' message is not one of sinful men becoming reconciled to a holy God through an atoning sacrifice, those of any creed can seek and participate in the kingdom. People of other creeds may well be participating in it more fully and more purely than ones who claim to be Christians. Men and women of all creeds can be followers of Jesus living out the kingdom of God even if they have never heard His name.

With this book McLaren further draws a line in the sand between traditional Protestant beliefs and the Emerging Church. He declares, increasingly unequivocally, that this Emerging Church bears little resemblance to the church as we know it. This book is, in my opinion, McLaren's first real attempt to reconstruct the "Christian" theology that he has dismantled in his previous books. But what he has rebuilt bears little resemblance to the Christianity of the Bible.

I've read many of McLaren's books ... and he always seemed to ask questions without giving many answers, which I guess is what the "Emergent Conversation" is supposed to be. However, in this book, McLaren appears to begin answering some of his questions and I was finally and profoundly disappointed. While I agree that contemporary American Christianity is NOT what it is supposed to be ... the "hope" of a social Eutopia in the thoughts of Brian McLaren appears to be just a rehashed liberal worldview, with a the story of Jesus being "re-told" to inspire us towards Global Socialism (I know it is so non-emergent of me to categorize). McLaren's universe has relegated the truth of God's Creative act to little more than a mythical allegory ... and the triumph of the return of Christ as apparently something that isn't going to "really" happen. Our future is essentially up to our collective willingness to become better people ... inspired by the "good news" of Jesus (which is just a better "story" than the self-destructive "story" we have believed up until recently). While I do give credit to McClaren for bringing up some interesting questions about the pro-war pro-corporation mentality of the U.S. government (and some of our religious leaders) I'm left with an impression that whether or not the Bible is "true" is inconsequential, as long as we can extract the correct themes that make us want to be better people. His repetitive use of emergent post-modern jargon, also left me with the impression that he was trying too hard to convince the reader that he is brilliant ... instead of using language that normal people use. If you really want to buy a McClaren book, I would recommend "Generous Orthodoxy" which I felt was much more compelling and better written than either "Everything Mus Change" or "The Secret Message of Jesus" (which I also didn't like). If you would like to read a book that deals with Global Crisis from a biblical perspective ... you'll have to keep looking ... and let me know when you find one.

Just one other thing. I've read a lot of McLaren's responses to his critics ... and his defense is often "I didn't say that, they are misrepresenting what I said". Ironically, I think this might be what Jesus would say if He read this book. Several times, McLaren imagines Jesus making statements that surprisingly use the same post-modern deconstructionist jargon as McLaren ... and not-so-surprisingly, Jesus' words, in McLaren's paraphrase, verbalize the Emergent ideology. This book is an "Adventure in Missing the Point".

I've started to realize that I need to sit with a book before I can begin to reflect and review it. Books that are worth reviewing are typically engaging and charged, eloquent and moving and this book finds its place within that rubric.

Everything Must Change. Is that just an audacious title to sell a book as this author has been accused of before? No. This title has a story. Perhaps this title is a story? In Brain D. McLaren's most recent book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope we encounter the cumulative effect, the culmination of books that came before. As I worked my way through this audacious book Brian, in my mind, has now taken his place with those theologians of the academy. Except he isn't writing for research or to sell lectures (not that all or any professors do)--it's about capturing a vision. Perhaps being captured by a Vision? In this post, I will work my way through and review this fine book.

Let me say as further preface I am an acquaintance of Brian's, a friend of Emergent Village, and align myself within the emerging church conversation. I am part of a church which embodies the church emerging and I reflect on his book as someone who has already come to many of the same conclusions before encountering this book. Namely that Jesus' mission was and is fundamentally concerned about this world and it came as a direct confrontation of domination systems of this world.

Ironically, advent is the perfect time to review a book of this stock. In God's sending of Jesus into the world, through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God was saying in effect; everything must change, everything is changing, and everything will be changed. The preface sets out to inform the reader that four tasks are at hand. He is setting out to convince us that he is no another ranting author about how bad the world is and thus our guilt, and that we will traverse complex material with the promise of it to be engaging, and third by the end we will have a bigger understanding of the world and our place in it and how we can make a difference. Finally, perhaps most important, is that we are convinced making a difference matters and is not just another task--it's where real joy and happiness is found. At this point the book paints big promises with a big vision that coincides with its big title!

The overall arc of this book is that we are in desperate need of a new (or perhaps recovered) framing story. We learn of "four deep dysfunctions" of the current dominant framing story in the world. (1) environmental breakdown - prosperity crisis, (2) expanding gap between wealthy and poor - equity crisis, (3) danger of cataclysmic war - security crisis, (4) failure of world religions - spirituality crisis (p.5). And so the current framing story which is the force through which people find meaning and direction is currently framed, in Brian's purview, by these four crises. We are warned that this is an invitation to seeing the world in a new way and thus correspondingly encounter and hear Jesus in new ways. From the outset Brian is extremely clear that because we don't live in a black in white world and these issues are extremely complex more thinking and questioning and responding is needed and so several resources are included in the back to dig behind his writing.

The whole book is preoccupied with two guiding questions. (1) What are the biggest problems in the world? (2) What does Jesus have to say about these global problems? These questions are very telling. At the outset this book is imploring us to realize that Jesus' gospel must be good news for this world or its not good news. How do we go about approaching answers to these questions? Amahoro. Brian tells of a recent trip he took to Burundi with his daughter. On there way to be greeted by villagers he was told to kiss the village mother on each cheek until he heard the word amahoro whispered in his ear. What does it mean? It means peace. When its whispered by a welcoming party it is an acknowledgement that there is peace flowing through them!

In my own experiences in various African cultures I have encountered a similar experience. Africans don't see the world through the eyes of individualism but through communal struggle and identity. In South Africa the term ubuntu has deep roots. It was the very term that assisted in ushering peace and reconciliation. The term means my well being is bound up in your well being. This book begins by showing us that these two big questions need to be engaged by learning and hearing the gospel from global settings. Not just, or primarily from empirical American lenses.

The narrative continues and Brian tells of a powerful story about a meeting with pastors while in Burundi. This group of big leaders went back and forth discussing Jesus' primary message of the gospel of the Kingdom of God (euangellion, basileia tou theou). The African leaders arrived at the realization that what was primary to Jesus' message had been periphery at best in their understanding of what the Gospel is! And then the powerful story shifts. Brian left during a break and walked outside, only to see a young girl sitting at a table with her head in her hands. She had been overhearing the pastor's conversation and when Brian asked what's wrong she replied, "everything must change." That is if the church is to take Jesus seriously and truly believe the gospel of the Kingdom of God--everything must change!

The thrust of the book goes on to explore the four aspects of the framing story which dominates the globe, which Brian calls, shockingly and startlingly a--suicide machine. He visualizes this machine of destruction as three interlocking systems which form a suicidal system. Any American would readily recognize these three: prosperity, equity, and security. These are the gospel of the world around us. That if we don't keep these, we loose, or worse, they win. Briefly, the prosperity system is that which seeks dole out happiness through individuals being able to fulfill an insatiable desire for "good tastes, for pleasant and interesting sights and sounds, for enjoyable tactile, intellectual, and emotional experiences."(p.55) This results in a mentality of hoarding because more is better and happier. Those who hoard and need more then create a big need to secure it all. It's like the story of a friend of mine who is a fundraiser and walked into a billionaires home that had the most elaborate security system and he was cold and distant and non-conversant. The man lived his life in suspicion of everyone. We're not all billionaires, but the danger is that we are part of a system that keeps us moving on the illusion that we are all moving closer. Except that guy isn't happy, he's afraid and in need of security. Security is required in this system and is comprised of all sorts of subsystems which capture the imaginations of the society attempting to secure itself. Finally, equity is the aspect of the system which attempts to share the cost of security across the societal spectrum. But who gets to drive the BMW's and have a house in Beverly Hills? The guy who just fought in Iraq? Don't we see our Vietnam vets in homeless shelters and begging on street corners? So whom were they securing? These are the sorts of questions that result from seeing the suicide machine.

After chronicling the suicide machine, Brian reintroduces us to Jesus, who was born in a time and place in which the "known world" was ruled by a system called the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) amongst a people who were dominated by its "rule of peace." Essentially we are exposed to the ways in which the Kingdom of Rome has always been the dominant global story--the wallpaper just changes. But Jesus ushered in a counter-kingdom. He brought a new framing story. The Kingdom of God. The Peace of Christ. So in the midst of the Roman Empire where the chant was Caesar is Lord we find out Jesus is Lord. Which framing story will we trust? Pax Romana or Pax Christi? Brian's sections on Jesus are worth the price of the book. He does superb exegetical and exposition of just how scandalous, revolutionary, and hope-filled Jesus' teachings in the gospels actually are and that their purpose was aimed at calling a people to live into the Peace of Christ.

This book is a must read. You don't have to agree with Brian on everything, just that everything needs to change. In fact, he recognizes that it's going to take the collective and Spirit endowed creative imagination of God's people to take up Christ's call to be faithful to his peace in the midst of a global crisis.

A note to Brian's critics, like Jesus' teachings, this book demands that you have ears to hear and eyes to see--because everything must change.

This book has given my life and my work a new focus. It has sharpened my vision of how the world works, of how institutions, including religious ones, have misunderstood the message of Jesus and of how I can reclaim the hope which keeps me getting out of bed in the morning. It is the best synthesis of a "Gospel" which is truly Good News and still grounded in scientific and human reality which I have ever read. It has changed my way of spreading Good News through my work as a leader of retreats and made me bolder in connecting the message I have always believed in with the world as it really operates. Brian McLaren puts the vision which guides my life into words I can not only understand, but which I can pass on.

Brian D McLaren, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007)

Review by Rev Dr Darren Cronshaw

Originally published in Witness: The Voice of Victorian Baptists, Vol.90, No.10 (November 2010) 20, Extended online version accessible.

When Brian McLaren left pastoral ministry a few years ago to focus on speaking and writing, one of the first things he wanted to do was grapple with two questions: (1) What are the biggest problems in our world today? And (2) How do the life and teachings of Jesus address these problems.

His analysis of global environmental, poverty, security and spirituality crises is the most clear that I have read. The way we as a global system are consuming resources (the prosperity system), protecting our resources and borders (the security system) and sharing resources (the equity system) is a `suicide machine'. We are demanding more resources and producing more waste that the environment can absorb. Military systems sell more weapons than anyone needs, a fraction of the cost of which could care for the basic needs of the world's poor. In 1969, the incomes of the world's wealthiest 20% was 30 times higher than the poorest 20%; now the difference factor is 83 times. Developing countries are paying more in debt repayment than they receive in aid. Six million children under 5 starve each year - our annual 21st century holocaust! It is a dysfunctional and psychopathic system.

And the world's religions including Christianity are challenged to offer healing and answers for the systemic causes of these crises. We need a fresh story that is not just about accumulating, defending and competing: `If our framing story tells us that we are free and responsible creatures in a creation made by a good, wise, and loving God, and that our Creator wants us to pursue virtue, collaboration, peace, and mutual care for one another and all living creatures, and that our lives can have profound meaning if we align ourselves with God's wisdom, character, and dreams for us ... then our society will take a radically different direction, and our world will become a very different place' (p.67). McLaren calls us to grasp the breadth of the gospel, dealing with the mess of the world as well as our souls.

He helped me to imagine what it could be like if we as churches moved beyond polarisation about hot-button issues to grapple with globally serious issues. Why have Christians spent so much time debating the origin of species and not engaged enough with the conservation of the species? Why do churches have widespread commitment to the protection of the unborn but less conviction about helping poor people or not killing enemies who are already born? Why do we spend so much time thinking about our dreams for our churches and less about God's dream of transformation for the world? Instead of eschatologically guessing how close the end of the world is, how can we explore what world are we leaving for our children?

McLaren does not overly push guilt on his readers but points in the direction of practical responses. To address global security crisis, he urges a divine peace insurgency. To deal with the global equity crisis, he calls for God's unterror network. To answer the global prosperity crisis, he calls for a new global love economy. He urges new societal systems, living within creaturely limits and using the military not as much for war as alleviating human suffering. He shows how Jesus can and does address these big issues. McLaren paints a fresh picture of Jesus, who `inserted into human history a seed of grace, truth, and hope that can never be defeated' (p.79). Jesus is perhaps better news than we have imagined! And the Bible is perhaps a more powerful story modelling how God and humanity work together to transform society and avert self-destruction.

It paints a big vision - to move us from suicide to hope. But Jesus' message could potentially change everything, and the stark reality is that everything must change or the world is not sustainable.

This is an easy-to-read yet challenging book for small groups, social justice and mission groups, or anyone interested in the relevance of faith for global issues, and each of its 34 concise chapters concludes with group questions.

As we grapple as Baptist churches with being open to God and how to express hope and mission, this book offers a huge challenge to take this world seriously with its need for peace, justice and environmental preservation.

Darren is BUV's Coordinator of Leadership Training and co-pastor at Auburn Baptist.

Two underlying questions are the reason for this book by Brian McLaren.
1. What are the world's top problems today and 2. What do the life and message of Jesus have to say about these issues? This is a continuation of Brian's previous book, "The Secret Message of Jesus" about the Kingdom of God and what does it look like today.

Brian traveled around the world in the writing of this book, talking to church, community, business and government leaders, asking questions and listening to answers. Brian is a thinker and makes you consider your faith, the mission of God's people and its practical outworking to personal, community and global issues in light of the model and message of Jesus.

Like this book or not, you will have to think about the global issues that confront us and the relevance of faith and action to these issues. You may not agree with his ideas and his potential solutions but I have been impressed with his thinking and scope that will give us wisdom and keep us better informed in our response.

McLaren challenges us followers of Jesus about what it means to do God's will on earth. His writing on the context of the life of Jesus and his teaching on the Kingdom of God in regard to Rome and its authority as well as the religious leaders of Judaism and those who opposed Rome is so relevant to us today.

I think that Brian has something very important to say to us as people of faith. I believe that Jesus has some critical things to say to us. The question is are we listening and what will be our response?

Where would we be without people that actualy take the time to think and analyze the things we think and do. If you're able to put preconcieved ideas out of your head for a bit you'll find this book a very interesting exersize.
What I was dissappointed in:
There seems to be a broad acceptance of much of the liberal teaching in this book. While our earth care as a society does have a dismal record many of the things being preached (global warming in particular) simply have yet to be proved. Our ability to measure has outgrown our knowledge of history and we seem bent on using our recently aquired ability to measure to drum up support for most anything we can make the numbers infer. Second his acceptance that business is just after another customer and and forgets all about the customer they have is another statement without fact. So many take for granted that because 1% of the businesses do something bad that paints all business with the same brush. I find these types of broad generalizations dissappointing.
While Brian spends much time on the "Security" issue and quotes turn the other cheek passages he really doesn't even attempt to reconcile that view with the "I AM" of the old testament who ordered the Israelites to kill every man, woman and child. I would find it most helpful to have the justice of that placed in context of the New Testament. Taking portions of scripture to prove a point without a full discussion of those scriptures that might cloud the issue seems a bit counter productive.
What I liked:
In short this book has caused me to start a complete overhaul of the way I live my life. Politically I would call myself a conservative but now I'm pretty much ready to throw political labels aside and find a another title. Most of the things talked about in this book I really never thought about in terms of christian responsiblity. What happened outside my city, county, state, etc.. just happened and that was just reality. War is just a reality and there's really nothing I can do about it. Now however, I am forced to take a really hard look at my consuption, earth care, care for my neighbor, even if in another country or unborn, and what Jesus would have me do. Working through this will, over time, change my christian walk completely.