'
Book and Movie Reviews
Author Bio: My name is Ed Frey and I'm a 41 year old bachelor in Edmonton, Alberta who drives a school bus for a living. I'm a naturalized western Canadian having grown up and lived in Sask. and Alberta all my life.
NOTE: the opinions expressions herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Writer's World.
FAREWELL TO GOD: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith by Charles Templeton. McClelland and Stewart, Toronto (1996).
a review by Ed Frey
Charles Templeton is a seventy something native torontonian who's had an
interesting life to say the least. In the early fifties he was well on his
way to becoming Canada's Billy Graham, with evangelistic crusades of that
scale in cities across North America and Europe. He resigned the ministry in
1957. Since then he has been executive managing editor of the Toronto Star,
editor in chief of MacLean's, director of news and public affairs for the
CTV network and the author of 12 books. He's also been the host of many
radio and TV programs in Canada and the U.S.
I'll strive to be impartial and review his book with the attitude of both
a Christian believer and non believer. I haven't been a christian for even
two years, but most of those thirty some secular years were not spent
unaware/uncurious of what makes many of them tick. If I offend some from
both camps, I'll take that as a good indicator my writings objective. This
book will grip the interest of many, because several of his reasons for
rejecting the Christian faith are common to the majority who ever do after
giving it serious thought. I found myself easily liking him. All he asks of
Christians is this very reasonable request...."come on now, have the honest
courage to articulate and confront the doubts regarding your faith, even if
doing so means rejecting it".
Here! Here!. It seems illogical to me that a God who designed our
wonderful minds with their capacity and desire to "prove" and "want to
understand" before "accepting as fact" would want those abilities shut down
before approaching him, OR ELSE!!! As a non believer I found that kind of
"belief" far too common, shallow, and even comical. I still do, maybe more
so considering I've become a believer partly due to finding Christianity not
lacking reasonable "pre faith" evidence. It demands some intellect to
notice(but no Einsteinian amount). My humble experience has been that going
further on the faith Jesus requests makes far more sense after that.
From my Christian point of view he does us a big favor by identifying and
constructively criticising bonehead stereotypes that too many christians
seem so damn determined to live up to(don't ask me why). Trust me, if this
book overly disgusts you or destroys your faith, I'm inclined to doubt it
was anything with more substance than some warm, fuzzy, feel good
"Disneyfied McChristianity" to begin with. I actually found "instruction" in
it to add more depth to some practices of my belief(unintended on his part I
suspect). Here's an example. While not agreeing with all of his observations
outlined on pages 144-147, the ones with which I do provide the wisest
"guidelines" I've read anywhere to insure prayer doesn't become just so much
unthought out mental pablum.
Besides having by far the "juiciest" parts, pages 159-174 are two
chapters where his experience and insight shines through in describing what
shapes a lot of clergymen. He's personally known some who rate as the finest
human beings you could imagine along with others who are "sleazemeisters
extraordinaire". I'd consider these two chapters a "must read/first read"
for any clergyman. Having been one of you, he knows whereof he speaks.
He's also justified to criticise us christians for a dismally low
average of being reasonably well read on the Bible many of us claim to
believe is the "word of God". Through this "sin" of ours we set ourselves up
to look like quite the beanbrains when an averagely literate non believer
asks some tough questions relating to scripture. An excellent example
Templeton highlights is how any churchgoer can delude himself into thinking
the God of the old testament is a "God of love", considering what he ordered
the Isrealites to do to the inhabitants of the cities they conquered(Joshua
6:21 and 8:2). As a non believer I used to ask such tough questions and
found Templeton right on with his dismal stats of how many Christians had
ever read "those parts" of the bible or could think on their feet to give
some kind of intelligent answer. In large part, I'm now a believer because
of meeting one guy who was quite the exception to that poor batting average.
Here's my own answer. These "civilizations" the Isrealites were replacing
were mentioned as having committed "all manner of abominations before God"
including that of "having their sons and daughters pass through the fire".
That phrase doesn't describe a circus trick. The ritual sacrifice of babies
thrown alive into a fire was "business as usual", part of "placating their
Gods". It's not unlikely that inbreeding was rampant with the destructive
results this causes in the overall physical/mental health of the general
population. These were "degenerate" city states. Is it possible for once
sensible societies/tribes to decay so much that it reaches the point where
no one is born with any chance of a "normal" life and the most merciful,
"loving" thing to happen would be for all of them to die? God only knows. I
don't doubt God did and acted accordingly.
With all his credentials you'd never imagine him writing as if he didn't
know or check his Bible. Believe me, he does. On page 99 he asserts that
Jesus is never mentioned in the old testament implying that people of the
day had every right to reject him. He is mentioned in the old testament, not
by name but absolutely in the form of powerful allusions to a coming Messiah
and even some prophetic descriptions of what he'll do. Chapters 53 and 42 in
the book of Isaiah are good examples. A common thread running through much
old testament prophecy is "someone is coming". There was every expectation
in Jesus' time of a coming messiah (John 1:45). He himself made no bones
about quoting the old testament writings to prove who he was. In Luke
4:18-19 he has the gall to be in the synagogue reading from the 42nd chapter
of Isaiah stating that it's speaking of him. In John 5:39 he challenges the
chief rulers and Pharisees to "search the scriptures" and see how they point
to him. Apparently some did and saw the truth in his claim if John 12:42-43
is to be believed. Templeton commits many such errors but I'll point out
only one more. On page 34 he mentions that Jesus had no intention to be the
"savior of the world". His message was only meant for the Jews. Obviously
he's never read Matthew 28:18-20. The gospels do seem to indicate however
that prior to his resurrection, that was the case.
He resorts to shallow reasoning in his attempts to discredit the
historical authenticity of the gospel record surrounding the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus. He's right, none of the secular historians of the
time mention the crucifixion earthquake and daytime darkness. There's also
no mention of the many who supposedly rose from the dead with Jesus, walking
into Jerusalem after his resurrection. So what? For anyone who really
understands how smoothly two faced human nature can be, such silence is not
unusual. It's perfectly explainable and even predictable. All through
history whole races or nations have been guilty of the willfull denial of
participating in horrible crimes. No culture from any time seems immune to
it. Fifty two years after the end of the war, A photo/letter display in
Germany proving that many members of the regular army were no less brutal
than the SS in executing innocent civilians, causes angry denials among many
Germans. Wouldn't the powerful Jewish and Roman religious/economic/military
establishments of Jesus' time have every incentive to "erase" his memory.
Absolutely, because if he was who he claimed to be, their murder of him was
a crime exceeding any in history. Isn't it logical that any attempts at
official denial would have been far more effective in Jesus' time with no
cameras to risk exposing the truth.
Let's face it, "official" histories of wartime are written by the
"winners" and those of peacetime by those with the power and money to make
sure their version of events dominates the public consciousness. Read some
history of the expanding British empire written by a Frenchman or German in
the 19th century and see if it's still believable that it was acquired
without violence as many of British descent still proudly claim.
Is it too far fetched to suspect that most "official" historians of that
time didn't enjoy what we'd call "academic freedom", any more than they have
under the few dictatorships in our time that have matched Rome for
brutality? Let's assume that enough members of Rome's military/government
elite were literate enough to read "official" history(I mean check it). I
don't think they'd be pleased to read glowing accounts of some miracle
working, charismatic Jew in faraway Palestine who claimed to be God in man,
representing a "kingdom" which renders all other other kingdoms and their
power elites(like Rome and themselves)meaningless. I'd have written more
carefully, wouldn't you?
I think I've given ample reasons for Christians to not be
disgusted/intimidated by this book. Templeton is one damn good writer, with
a way of providing justified pinpricks to deflate the sanctimonious smugness
of some Christians who never dare to ask themselves tough questions. I
suspect that if only they would, and acted accordingly, the dominant secular
society would give them more respect and their faith greater curiosity.
Thanks Charley, we needed that. Now, read your bible and quote it more
accurately in your next book.
ED FREY
Comments may be directed to the author at: efrey@compusmart.ab.ca.
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Last Updated by B.W.I. on Sunday, March 23, 1997
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