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Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'
The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation by Keith Meyer, Bruce McNicol, Dallas Willard
1 review
housedesignerking's review
informative
slow-paced
1.0
2022: Spiritual formation, huh?
2018: As stated in previous reviews, my fiancé is studying to be a pastor, so as the future spouse of a pastor, I figured I should be reading some, if not all, of his required books. Unfortunately, this one is a heck of a miss. For example, on page 8 in the forward by Dr. Rich Warren of Saddleback Church, he talks about Christ-like maturity. He says going to a church should make you grow from "come and see" to "come and die as Jesus did." I do NOT want to ever go to this man's church! I understand that he was talking about churches and pastors not doing enough, but there should've been a rephrasing of that sentence before this book ever came to print.
The introduction was the driest thing I have ever read in my entire life. It took (according to my updates) from the end of February until the 24th of April to finish reading it because I felt no joy at the thought of continuing with this book. Hence, <i>finally</i> finishing it two months later.
There were questions throughout this book that were clearly aimed for a minister or faith formator. One that stuck out to me as rather odd was at the end of the intro. “What barriers have you experienced in your desire to see spiritual formation communities coming into existence?” This question is included so early on in the book that I found myself wondering the following: How could I possibly have a desire to see spiritual formation communities springing up left and right when I hadn’t even started chapter one yet? When I don’t even know what the book all says? What barriers could I possibly face when I don’t even have that desire to make this happen?? This question was incredibly premature and should have been placed after the epilogue as a “if you do feel it” type question.
Christianity seems to be searching for ways to make itself “new” nowadays. I'm not wanting to bash another religion, but I walk away from this book feeling insulted, actually. I've read some Christian books with an open mind before. The epilogue listed numerous groups of people, but conveniently left out the lgbt, so I conclude that the Kingdom Life and this form of Spiritual Formation is only for those whom are capable of being attracted to the opposite sex and not being attracted to the same sex. I give this one star and suggest that every copy be used to start a campfire on your next camping trip. Any religious movement that excludes or makes lgbt people feel unwelcome is not of G-d.
2022:
In a way, I don't know why I bothered picking this up again. I saw that I still had this in my 'never finished' shelf (since deleted) and since I finished a ghost quartet this year that I started in 2012, making the book say it took 10 years to read it, I thought, "why not?!" It'll say it took a little over 3-1/2 years to finish this one. Sometimes..., I wonder why I decide to torture myself, LoL. Both of these books are not being placed in my 'favorites' shelf. Even though in 2018, I'd read till pg 232 before skim-reading the rest, I just started chapter 8 over.
It is one thing to support proper discipleship and worship of God, but to speak positively about a Christian movement that condemns/hates/excludes the lgbt community would be morally, spiritually, religiously, and scripturally reprehensible.
My notes:
May 14th, 2018:
Pg 231, 69.58%: "Unfortunately, this book is not going to get a good review from me."
EDIT (7/30/2020): I have added this book to my created-folder "never finished" because I skim-read the last bit of this book and I only count books I've actually completely read on my read folder.
EDIT (3/5/2022): Date started was February 25th, 2018 and the original date "finished" was May 14th, 2018.
March 8, 2022 – page 233
70.18% "This, once again, is quickly becoming dull."
March 12, 2022 – Finished Reading
EDIT (8/4/2022) I have purposely shortened this review because of many reasons. Idk if it makes more or less sense, but I felt it was for the best.
2018: As stated in previous reviews, my fiancé is studying to be a pastor, so as the future spouse of a pastor, I figured I should be reading some, if not all, of his required books. Unfortunately, this one is a heck of a miss. For example, on page 8 in the forward by Dr. Rich Warren of Saddleback Church, he talks about Christ-like maturity. He says going to a church should make you grow from "come and see" to "come and die as Jesus did." I do NOT want to ever go to this man's church! I understand that he was talking about churches and pastors not doing enough, but there should've been a rephrasing of that sentence before this book ever came to print.
The introduction was the driest thing I have ever read in my entire life. It took (according to my updates) from the end of February until the 24th of April to finish reading it because I felt no joy at the thought of continuing with this book. Hence, <i>finally</i> finishing it two months later.
There were questions throughout this book that were clearly aimed for a minister or faith formator. One that stuck out to me as rather odd was at the end of the intro. “What barriers have you experienced in your desire to see spiritual formation communities coming into existence?” This question is included so early on in the book that I found myself wondering the following: How could I possibly have a desire to see spiritual formation communities springing up left and right when I hadn’t even started chapter one yet? When I don’t even know what the book all says? What barriers could I possibly face when I don’t even have that desire to make this happen?? This question was incredibly premature and should have been placed after the epilogue as a “if you do feel it” type question.
Christianity seems to be searching for ways to make itself “new” nowadays. I'm not wanting to bash another religion, but I walk away from this book feeling insulted, actually. I've read some Christian books with an open mind before. The epilogue listed numerous groups of people, but conveniently left out the lgbt, so I conclude that the Kingdom Life and this form of Spiritual Formation is only for those whom are capable of being attracted to the opposite sex and not being attracted to the same sex. I give this one star and suggest that every copy be used to start a campfire on your next camping trip. Any religious movement that excludes or makes lgbt people feel unwelcome is not of G-d.
2022:
In a way, I don't know why I bothered picking this up again. I saw that I still had this in my 'never finished' shelf (since deleted) and since I finished a ghost quartet this year that I started in 2012, making the book say it took 10 years to read it, I thought, "why not?!" It'll say it took a little over 3-1/2 years to finish this one. Sometimes..., I wonder why I decide to torture myself, LoL. Both of these books are not being placed in my 'favorites' shelf. Even though in 2018, I'd read till pg 232 before skim-reading the rest, I just started chapter 8 over.
It is one thing to support proper discipleship and worship of God, but to speak positively about a Christian movement that condemns/hates/excludes the lgbt community would be morally, spiritually, religiously, and scripturally reprehensible.
My notes:
May 14th, 2018:
Pg 231, 69.58%: "Unfortunately, this book is not going to get a good review from me."
EDIT (7/30/2020): I have added this book to my created-folder "never finished" because I skim-read the last bit of this book and I only count books I've actually completely read on my read folder.
EDIT (3/5/2022): Date started was February 25th, 2018 and the original date "finished" was May 14th, 2018.
March 8, 2022 – page 233
70.18% "This, once again, is quickly becoming dull."
March 12, 2022 – Finished Reading
EDIT (8/4/2022) I have purposely shortened this review because of many reasons. Idk if it makes more or less sense, but I felt it was for the best.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
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