Author Brant Hansen makes the case that as followers of Jesus Christ we have no right to get angry. In part because of this, we can and should be unoffenable people. This, in turn, makes life better and less complicated. Hansen's argument has more depth than what I've described here, but this is the gist of it. He even tackles the ubiquitous Christian idea of "righteous anger." The best part of this book is that Hansen supports his thesis with a good amount of scripture from various parts of the Bible.
I appreciate the author's belief that we, as Christians, should be humble people. Since God has saved us, people who don't deserve saving, we have no reason to be prideful. On page 192 of Unoffendable Hansen writes, "At the beginning of this book, we talked about the crazy idea that we are not entitled to anger, and how taking this idea seriously actually opens up new dimensions of rest, grace, and simplicity in our lives. We are, above all, embracing a radical humility."
As for negatives, my only real criticism is that the author stresses the grace of God almost to the complete exclusion of sanctification. While God saves us and sustains us through His grace, He also has an expectation that we will grow in holiness. Hansen basically ignores this topic. I find this fascinating because it seems to me that growing in unoffendability (is that a word?) is part of growing in sanctification.
Two other aspects of this book annoyed me a bit, but this has to do with personal preference more than anything substantial. First, the author writes in a very casual, conversational style. This is fine, but takes some getting used to. Second, although Hansen quotes various versions of the Bible, he leans heavily on the New Century Version (NCV). This version has a low reading level, and thus reads in a choppy manner.
If you can deal with a casual writing style and don't mind the NCV, then I recommend this book to you. The author address a topic that we all need to ponder.
I believe there currently exists a spiritual carcinogen of moral superiority, often acted out in what we call righteous anger, within institutional churches. I believe many Christians fallaciously believe that being a Christian means no longer committing sins. A few years ago at a church I earnestly attempted to attend, during the men’s group I tried to explain that becoming a Christian does not mean we discontinue sins, but we are forgiven for our past, current, and future sins. I furthermore indicated that we outta be sinning less with our faith, but we sin nonetheless. I guess at least a couple of them were so darn caught up in their self-absorbed morally superior bliss that I was not able to reach them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I’m on a rant about “church”, I’ll also convey the reality that most of the men who attend go for the sake of their families. Hardly any single men attend, which brings me to invite you Erik, to write a post about why you think many believing men won’t attend church. I believe women are more apt to attend church due to women being much more socially orientated; whereas men are much more content orientated. When men hear all the jive from church leadership the men either attempt to debate back for the purpose of correcting the pastor jivor, or the men just leave. Women will either not as readily recognize the jive for jive, or just ignore the jive for the purpose of the social benefits that church affords.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteGod sanctifies the believer in Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23). The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of our sanctification. We cooperate with Him in our progressive sanctification, but we do not sanctify ourselves (Rom. 15:16; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11).