Rating: 
Summary: Only Interesting for Its Astounding Hypocrisy
Review: If you who hold to any semblance of historic Christianity, be you conservative Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterian, Episcopelian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Quaker, Coptic, et al., and not just "Fundamentalists", you had best be prepared to not only have your intelligence insulted, but your character assassinated.Bawer, in true postmodern form, avers to speak for "tolerance", "inclusion", "enlightened liberality", and above all "mutual love and understanding" and against "bigotry", "parochialism", "intolerance", and outright "hatefulness", and then spends the entire book decrying, mocking, and slandering all those who can say the Apostles' Creed with sincerity and without blushing, as small-minded, bigoted, ignorant, hate mongers with an inferiority complex. If you hold to the historic doctrines of Christianity, you will be surprised to read that you belong to "the church of hate", in fact, that you absolutely delight in the belief that everyone who doesn't share your commitment to Jesus Christ is going to Hell, and that you really need the ego-rush of thinking yourself morally and spiritually superior to all those outside the Faith Only a smug, postmodern, relativist bigot could enjoy this book, but then only because he will find in it what he already wants to hear.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly repulsive
Review: Bawer rebukes 'fundamentalists' for alternately welcoming or omitting certain verses of scripture to support their legalist views. In the next breath, he shamelessly does the exact same thing. Bawer's assertions are as mindnumbing as he is perverted.
Rating: 
Summary: Glad I Read It
Review: Bawer explores some difficult, and controversial, topics in a way that makes them understandable but not oversimplified. I appreciate his views on how Fundamentalism interacts with the American media and how America's mindset is changing towards our views of Christianity. It is certainly a factor by which many are influence everyday and yet may have not examined.
I do not agree with the way Bawer made all of his arguments, however. At times, he portrays things as too extreme. Several
times while reading I got the idea that Mr. Bawer thinks all Conservatives are bad and all Progressives are good. The ability to integrate practices and traditions of both into his arguments would gave been more helpful and have lessened the sometimes bitter tone of this work.
Rating:
Summary: To conservative critics
Review: I've read and re-read Bawer's "Stealing Jesus", and at the risk of boring even myself with an observation I often make in reviews of religious texts, let me once again state a fact that any Christian must deal with: We don't possess a single autographed original of any New or Old Testament Books, and even if we did it would not certify their veracity. Claims of inerrancy and infallibility are at the heart of the fundamentalist's perspective, but they must confront the reality that we only have copies to work with, and those are reckoned even by conservatives to be decades, or even centuries, after our best guesses as to when the originals might have been written---if in fact any authentic originals were indeed written at all by the named authors. The pastoral letters of Paul would fit nicely into this category as an example. Additionally, we need to remind ourselves that the entire new testament was canonized by a group of church leaders in a process that took hundreds of years, ending in 453 AD, and had as one of its primary guiding principles a requirement of orthodoxy based in large part on the authority needs of the church. To paraphrase what a noted Catholic theologian recently remarked; God didn't fax the bible to protestant fundamentalists in its final irrefutable form. Bawer, in what I would call a heartfelt attempt to soften rigid attitudes, certainly displays at times a vehemence against those who have deliberately used scripture to justify their personal biases and predispositions, but one can hardly blame him for pointing out that scripture can also be used to justify a more loving tolerance than that which is displayed by many fundamentalists. Such are the vagaries of a premodern text (the bible) whose authorship will forever be in question, and whose message is one that, in the end, will always fall prey to private interpretation---Peter's admonitions to the contrary notwithstanding..
Rating:
Summary: This Book helped reconnect my Spiritual life.
Review: Bruce meanders in this book, but his major theme, the fact that the Church and more importantly, CHRIST, has been hi-jacked but fundamentalists, really helped me proudly again call myself a CHRISTIAN. Not the best written, but a watershed in the battle for "whose" Jesus you hear about
Rating: 
Summary: Retrieving Jesus
Review: The incredible job of retrieving the life and teachings of Jesus has been enormously aided by this fascinating and often brilliant book.
For almost two thousand years the figure of Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, and his activities and teachings during his life, has been shrowded in a quagmire of paganism, theology, mythology, mysticism, folklore, fundamentalist Judaism,
Christianity, internicene wars, pseudo-science, materialism, new-age flim flam, and politics of the most egregious sort.
Mr. Bawer has done an extrordinarily objective and careful work in providing us with a short history of Christianity in America and contrasting the Fundementalists with the teachings of Jesus and mainstream Protestant Christianity. The implications are far reaching, even world-wide, as the missionary zeal of the New Fundementalist Right recruits in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.
Congratulations Bawer- it is heartening to hear a clear voice in the wilderness. I felt like my many years of leading seminars with people who wanted very much to understand the relevance of Jesus to their own lives was being reaffirmed.
Jesus has not been stolen. But he does have to be re-claimed, and that is hard work.
As for those of you who say that you don't know what Bawer talking about, I suggest that set aside your Jewish texts, set aside your books by Paul and the Book of Revelation, and read the four books that are about Jesus: the four Gospels.
Rating: 
Summary: Trite; Weak Ending; Not Very Helpful
Review: In her "Ask Betty" column on PlanetOut, Betty DeGeneres frequently advises her audience to read the book "Stealing Jesus." Once I started noticing that Betty tends to recommend this book almost every week, I knew I had to read it; I figured that it must be a really good book. With these high expectations, however, the book turned out to be a disappointment. Bawer starts the book in a very focused, straightforward manner. As the title suggests, he says that the book is intended to show how fundamentalism betrays Christianity. In the first few chapters, he offers some very good introductory remarks about how fundamentalism is a hostile religion to many people. His language is articulate and his criticism is trenchant. If he would've written the whole book in the same manner as the first chapter, this book would've been awesome. Unfortunately, Bawer didn't choose to do that. He loses the reader after the introductory chapters when he starts tracing the histories of Christian fundamentalism and liberalism. The rest of the book is spent showing how both sides grew more radical as the years progressed, and fundamentalism, Bawer states, ended up looking nothing like Christianity at all. It would have been nice if Bawer gave some examples illustrating his idea of "true Christianity" and how he feels that fundamentalism departs from it, but the reader is left to his own devices to determine exactly how fundamentalism is different from Bawer's religion. Therefore, I believe that Bawer's main point in the entire book -- showing that fundamentalism is a vicious breed of radicalism that did not originate in a tradition of love -- will be lost on readers that do not already align themselves with Bawer's viewpoint. And if indeed this is the case, the entire book is pointless because Bawer is simply preaching to the choir. Although Bawer does make some bold and accurate statements about the nature of fundamentalism in today's religious world, he fails to achieve the purpose that was set forth in the subtitle. I would not recommend "Stealing Jesus" unless you're already in line with Bawer and you simply want to be patted on the back for being a liberal. This book, as I see it, serves no other purpose.
Rating:
Summary: A bitter man writes an inaccurate book
Review: Sounds like a man trying to justify his sins. Guess we'll all know in the end, who was right. Do you want to take the chance, though? I am a Christian, a follower of Christ, the son of God. I know because I've seen the amazing miracles and transformation in my life. I know because I know God's word is true! It's been tried time and time again! But His word stands strong. If you are truly seeking a personal relationship with Christ, all the theology will not be as important as your personal relationship with Him. In answer to the Word being revealed by God..."The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw-that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev 1:1-2 "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." Rev 22:18-19
Rating:
Summary: Winning Jesus Back
Review: I was oohing and ah-ing in understanding and agreement through many parts of this book. Bruce Bawer describes the fundamental or legalistic Christianity that many Americans think we have to follow or we're not Christians at all. It is the Christianity that has stolen Jesus from the rest of us who, because we think that the only true requirement of God is to love God and humankind in thought as well as action, must give up on Jesus who is represented today as narrow and condemning. Bruce Bawyer makes us realize we can still call ourselves a Christian even if we don't go along with the harsh doctrines of the media-acknowledged Christian Coalition style of Christianity. There are times when Bawyer's bitterness towards legalistic Christianity is evident, yet his message is extremely important for making us think about what it really means to be a Christian, and for encouraging those of us who believe in a church of love to speak up and not be intimidated by aggressive and judgmental button-holers.
Rating:
Summary: IF YOU POINT OUT HATRED THEY CALL YOU A HATER
Review: he would include everyone unlike the fundamentalists but really do you think they would join him
|
