God has a name. Book review.

 John Mark Comer is the author of a book called "God has a Name." This is my review of it. I come to this conservative polemic written by a young Conservative pastor as a Progressive or Liberal Christian. Meaning of course that I'm Liberal not the author. So, fair warning his idea of a Christian while traditional isn't exactly my idea of who God or Christ is. So, if you are a fundamentalist I think you will like the book. However, if not or if you feel like I do about it then it's not likely to be your cup of tea. Still I wanted to be honest and I did read  the book on my Kindle Fire and took notes. However, I can't get my dang notes to come up so I had to wing this review.

4 stars for writing not for agreement. I come to this book as someone who was born and raised in the church as we say in the South. I'm now sixty three years old and no longer a biblical literalist. This author is writing to a generation of younger seekers and he does a good job of stating his case. The only problem is his case is not the profound mic drop that he thinks it is. It's that old time religion and I've been there and have the T-Shirt.

The major themes of the book are:
God is compassionate and gracious
God is slow to anger
God is abounding in love and faithfulness
Yet God does not let the guilty go unpunished

He also goes to great length (The author, not God.) to tell us that God has an exact name and then goes through mental and text gymnastics to say it's Yahweh. Now I'm not a biblical scholar so I'm not attacking or refuting his conclusion. I'm just not sure it's quite as cut and dried as he says it is. But, I do think he's right in that the Hebrews considered Yahweh to be the God that brought them out of the desert.  He goes to much trouble to let you know that It's Yahweh The Compassionate Lord, Yahweh the Gracious, Yahweh slow to anger, Yahweh Abounding in love and faithfulness, Yahweh who punishes (ever notice how the loving religious folks love the punishing?) Just saying. But, Yahweh who punishes the children for the sins of the father to the third and fourth generation. Address him by his name. Yahweh.

Now if the above sounds as if I'm being blasphemous I assure you I'm not. I'm not trying to mock or disparage faith. My own faith has brought me through and still see's me through this life. It's just that I've seen people manipulate others politically, emotionally and even sexually using Jesus and I'm kind of tired of it. But, I promise I am not an enemy of faith or of religion for that matter.

God is compassionate and gracious. I can understand that. But then the author tells of how God is jealous and doesn't let sin go unpunished. Then the writer starts talking about all the idols and false god's and how they are demonic or fake but Yahweh is the only true God. 

Then somehow he manages to bring the Hebrew Deity of Ancient Israel back to the Christians of the West and of course Jesus. He then glosses over the times when God is angry and commands genocide in his name and say's "we want God to punish us" our sense of justice demands it. Really? I don't think so.
Then of course he does the "God is like a father and your father punishes you if he loves you." 

Well, if you mean beating my ass if I tried to backtalk him then yeah. If you mean a parent grounding you for sneaking out of the house then yeah. But, if you mean allowing you to be obliterated or cast into a burning pit forever and ever then no. No I don't think that is what a loving parent would do.

I worked for a while finishing up my Social Work BSW by working at a fast food place on an Army base. I worked at Popeye's. I used to work over the fryer. We would batter the chicken and then carefully drop it into the hot grease. If you got a drop of that hot grease on you from the splatter you were in pain so we were really careful. I remember thinking as I worked over this hot and dangerous vat of grease. I wouldn't take the tip of the little finger of my most hated enemy and touch it into that grease. I mean it. I couldn't do it.

Yet some Christians want me to believe that a God of love could allow a living soul or being to be tormented for eternity in a hell fire or to be obliterated. I have to tell you that I don't consider that a God with a big G. I would consider that a god with a little g.

Finally, I thought long and hard about my faith in my youth. I finally came to a place where the atheistic idea of a meatbot in a meaningless universe seemed to me to be the insane ramblings of deluded people. I really don't think the universe is insane or meaningless.

 But, also the idea of a almighty being who creates a naked ape and then takes a powerful Angel with all power and knowledge and sends him down to earth. Then takes his own child in his anger and demands his murder and torture and by the way if this powerful fallen Angel called Satan can fool the puny little naked ape then the All mighty in his "love" will burn him for forever and ever. But, if the naked ape even after he's raped and murdered and hurt people will just say the sinners prayer before he dies then he gets a get out of jail card free. I somehow don't think God or Christ would be that random in wisdom.

I'm sorry to say the writer of this book while he's a very intelligent young man, Still didn't make religious dogma anymore sane or sensible by his mental gymnastics in this book.

So, bottom line if you are an evangelical then you will love this book. It will not challenge you at all. But, if you are seeking spiritual nourishment then this is a very light snack indeed.

This is Halloween

   Wax lips and wax whistles. Walking in the humid Alabama night with a bag full of candy and a scary mask that I sweated in and could barely see out of. Other times there would be a hint of Fall in the air. Getting home and letting the adults check the candy to make sure there were no razor blades or other things we heard some people might put in it to harm kids. 

Going to the drive in and watching the dusk till dawn horror movie festival with parents. I have a life long love of horror and ironically it was my conservative mother who fed that love of the weird since she loved them too. Everything Orange and Black. Which was weird because we were Alabama City kids and Emma Sanson was Purple and Gold and Etowah High was blue and white but it was the hated Gadsden High that wore Orange and Black. Still, Halloween in my Walnut Park neighborhood back in the sixties was a big deal. 

My elementary school had the best Halloween Carnival ever. I can remember peeled grapes in the haunted house. The person would take your hand and tell you that was eyeballs. A coffin and then other gruesome goodies. It was before we knew anything about political correctness and before the Southern Baptist were exploited by the Fallwell types for political gain and had to hate Halloween. Just good innocent scary fun. 

This time of year is always one that brings back childhood to me. As I grew older and things changed I never again had that kind of fun on Halloween. But, the smell of candy and the feel of my Halloween costume as I trudged through the neighborhood. The wax lips and Trick or Treat bags and even the feel of Autumn in the air has never left me. 

This year I'm reading "A Night in the Lonesome October" by Roger Zelazny. It has 31 short chapters. One for each day or night in October. It's an out of print classic but I got a copy reasonably on Amazon. It has Jack the Ripper, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes and other characters and so far so good. 

I always try even as an old guy to do something special on Halloween. One year I re-read Salem's Lot and one year I watched my favorite horror movie "The Haunting" by Shirley Jackson 1963 version not the mediocre remake. this year it's A night in the Lonesome October. 

So, as I search for horror movies and think of a long ago neighborhood and elementary school. Halloween carnivals and all night movie marathons at the neighborhood drive in I hope people can find some magic in the coming year. Lord knows we could all use some

Happy Halloween!

Guitars and the night sky.

 The past sure sounds better in the telling than the actual time I spent in it back in the day. But, I guess that's part of being older.   In an older person's memory their younger self is always cooler and faster and more together than the actual experience was. But that's part of the fun of remembering I guess. I happened to go outside on this late summer night in October. Now, if you're from anywhere North of the Southeast I imagine this early October is called Autumn. It is coming. I can feel it on the wind and in the way the sun shines a little softer and the shadows grow a little longer. But, it's Alabama and that means it might frost one night soon or it might just hit 90 in the shade. 

Anyway, I thought of a couple of old friends from my misspent youth. I went outside and looked at the moon and then came back in and picked up my guitar. I thought about a certain friend who was a rock star. If he had lived longer and things had gone his way a little more I have little doubt he may have been a rock star in his lifetime. As it is he was a free spirit. I thought about playing an old Southern Rock song. 

Tuesday's Gone. I was older and more into Southern Rock. He was more of the Motley Crue and Van Halen persuasion. But, he would humor me by playing Southern Rock. Another friend was an absolute genius at guitar. He passed away too soon also. I pulled up Tuesday's Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd on youtube and thought about how I would fumble through the chords with the two people I've been talking about. As I thought about how awkward I was on the guitar I could hear my friend snicker. He would have said (excuse my languare but he would have) "Fuck it." You sound fine.

Some nights that barrier between the worlds seems thinner than others. That's all I"m going to say about that. 

I'm just rambling since that's what blogs are for. I think music might be the only truly universal language there is. I don't always feel like hearing music. I have an old friend whio absolutely plays his downloaded music constantly. That's fine and I understand. But, honestly sometimes I just like it quiet. But, on the occasions that I do get in the mood I love to turn it up. I guess I look kind of funny driving around with classic rock blaring. But, like I say when I'm in the mood I'm in the mood.

I have a funny story about that. A few years ago I was in Target. I say a few years. God must have put time on fast forward because what seems like a few years now was in actuality around a decade now. I had found an old Foghat CD in the bargain section. It had one of the best and most fun classic rock songs from my misspent youth. "Slow Ride." So, anyway I drove out of the parking lot and put my CD in the player of my little 1998 Ford Ranger Pick up and pulled out. I came up on a youngster in a car beside me playing an annoying rap song. ( I know. but I'm an old fart) So, I pull up and roll down my window and crank up "Slow Ride." I don't know why but Ford put a really good sound system in the 98 pick up and I had it really loud. 

The kid starts to pull up a little when he realizes that the little old white dude is blasting an old rock tune that was written long before he was a gleam in this daddy's eye. 

So, I pull up a little waiting for the light to change. He then looks frustrated and actually hangs back. It was beautiful. For just a second it was 1975 and I was young and crazy and had my music cranked up. 

I wonder about life at times. It goes so fast and we take so much for granted. I am glad that the internet wasn't around in my youth. I mean I did some crazy stuff and I'd hate to be judged now by my 17 or 18 or 19 year old self. So, I try to give people room to be human. 

Anyway that's enough blabbing for one night. I like to think maybe my friend's are jamming somewhere. Maybe when I get there I'll figure out how to play lead guitar or at least keep up. But, I'm not in a big hurry. I'm just thinking and looking at the night sky and wondering about all the worlds there might be just waiting to be discovered. 

Peace.