A few years ago you may have read a news story about an atheist who “sold his soul on eBay.” The deal was that whoever won the auction would be able to give him a list of churches to visit, which he would then write about. Well, that atheist’s name is Hemant Mehta, a high-school teacher from Chicago, and the winner of the auction, a former pastor named Jim Henderson who now works with a group called Off the Map, gave him a list of churches to visit. Some of the most well-known churches on the list included Second Baptist of Houston (pastored by the father of a member of popular Christian group Caedmon’s Call), Lakewood Church (pastored by Joel Osteen), Willow Creek in Chicago, New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and Rob Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI.
Hemant then went on to write an excellent book called I Sold My Soul on Ebay which I was able to read earlier this week. The book is absolutely fascinating reading and Hemant has a very winsome, endearing tone that many Christians would do well to emulate. In fact, there were many times throughout my reading of this book where I found myself thinking that Hemant may actually be closer to living in a Christ-like way than some of the Christians I’ve met. In any event, I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious at how outsiders perceive the church. I’m going to be posting a full review in a few days and I’ve contacted Hemant about stopping by to post in the comment section. I’m hoping he’ll be able to swing by, but he’s got a full-time job as a teacher on top of maintaining his blog, the Friendly Atheist, so if he doesn’t have time that’s probably why.
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This entry was posted 2 years, 1 month ago on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 11:10 pm and is filed under weighty tomes and word-filled treasures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Quick question - what does this mean: “…may actually be closer to living in a Christ-like way than some of the Christians I’ve met.”?
It’s a phrase that I’ve heard recently that kind of bothers me and I am wondering if you could elaborate on what you are thinking.
David - I was kinda nervous writing that line but I thought it was the best, most honest way to put it. Hopefully it will make more sense once the review is up.
For now, suffice it to say that Hemant shows a graciousness to those he disagrees with that is often lacking amongst Christians. I’ve read a number of Christians who have a hard enough time being gracious to other Christians, much less non-Christians. Hemant, on the other hand, generally gives people the benefit of the doubt (I’ll share a few quotes in the review) and goes into everything with a desire to understand the people around him. I appreciate that and it’s consistent with the teachings of Jesus.
I’ll also post an excerpt from the foreward by Rob Bell (which was outstanding) that explains a little of what I’m trying to get at.
Does that help? I appreciate you asking about that, I know it’s an awkward phrase, but it’s the best I can think of in expressing the idea. Is there something that’d be more helpful?