Very quickly am I finding myself breaking my first rule of this blog – don’t discuss beliefs, and don’t get controversial. However, one of my favorite authors, Rob Bell, has given me an overwhelming need to express a tiny piece of opinion.

I love this book. I love it for so many reasons. Like many of Rob Bell’s books, I find myself reading while an enormous weight continues to lift off of my shoulders. “I am not the only one that feels this way, and I’m not losing my mind!” See, the American Christian life is a frustrating one, especially for relatively free-thinkers. My general view of Christianity has been, for some time, that I do believe in a God, but whatever the American church has turned Him into, is so far from what makes sense to me. In many cases, “Christian” is just an extension of what our society has deemed acceptable and admirable. Jesus, in the way that I understand him, would not be welcomed into the majority of America’s churches. He’s nothing like them.

So, the need to post about Rob Bell’s book, entitled Love Wins, is my simple offering to the numerous people who, like me, can understand “love”, but cannot understand the American church. To many Christians across the country, this book was called “controversial.” To me, this book simply echoes the feelings of myself, and so many others that I know. I honestly feel that if you are among the people horribly offended by Rob Bell’s book, then you simply do not have your finger on the pulse of the opinions of our people. There are so many of us that feel this way, and we’ve been overlooked. Finally there is a popular book that echoes the same sentiment that we’ve had for so long.

I care about loving people. I don’t care about being part of the club.

If you’re interested, check out Love Wins.