by Tim Alberta
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A careful and clear writer, Tim Alberta pulls back the curtain on white Americanized evangelicalism’s true story of “a faith cheapened by ephemeral fear, a promise corrupted by partisan subterfuge, and a reputation stained by perpetual scandal.”
His well-sourced work is less about taking digs than constructively digging into the ways in which this prominent religious movement has often lost its way — the one once focused on the good news of Jesus’ love, grace and calling to discipleship.
Why this happened is a personal as well as professional question for the successful journalist.
“As a believer in Jesus Christ — and the son of an evangelical minister, raised in a conservative church in a conservative community — I had long struggled with how to answer this question,” he writes in the book’s prologue.
For those willing to hear a thoughtful yet critical word, Alberta walks readers through the detailed story of American evangelicalism’s shift to embrace secular power and its methods of coercion that Jesus rejected.
For 21 chapters Alberta unfolds the evolution of an odd embrace of darkness by those who claim the light. Seeing the errors of one’s way — or of a whole movement — is the first step on the road that leads back to faith as Jesus intended.
Christians have long called that — and called for — conversion. Hearing and heeding one’s on call is sometimes the hardest.
Especially if it requires hearing and heeding Jesus’ call once again to deny one’s self-interest and “Follow me.”
Alberta is not some caustic dart thrower, but a reflective Christian with deep personal commitments.
“For most of my life I have struggled to fathom the dimensions of God’s mercy,” he writes in conclusion. “How could the make of heaven and earth, the Alpha and the Omega, the ruler of the cosmos, thinks me significant enough to even pay attention — much less to lavish me with unconditional love?”
To that question he affirms: “The answer, I’ve come to appreciate more fully, is revealed not in the codes of religion but in the context of relationship.”
Alberta’s critical insights — though challenging — are needed for healthy individual faith and healthier congregations.
Review by John D. Pierce, Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative